Wider das Bapstum zu Rom vom Teuffel gestifft
Summary: Luther's last great reckoning with the pope, issued in the year before his death, is a particularly biting satire. In the tract, Luther attacks both Divine and ecclesiastical legitimacy for the papacy.Signatures: A-2C⁴, last page blank.Illustrative and decorative content: Satirical wood-engraving from the workshop of Lucas Cranach, depicting the pope, with ears of an ass, sitting on a wooden throne at the mouth of hell, on the title page. On the flyleaf verso facing the title page is a sketch of Martin Luther, based on a 1546 woodcut portrait of Luther by Lucas Cranach. On the verso of the second blank page at the end of the book is a sketch of Pope Sixtus V (pope 1585-1590) below a polemical inscription. Initials.Binding: Bound in blind stamped contemporary pigskin with a front panel depicting Elector John Frederick of Saxony and a back panel depicting John Frederick's coat of arms. Above the front panel is the blind tooled inscription: D.M. LVTHERVS I. Ionae I. D[onum] D[edit].Additional details: Inscribed on title page verso by Martin Luther "D[onum] d[edit]: Magistro Justo Jonae Juniori filio meo in fide Christi Chariss[imo]: . . .Ad odiendum papam, Monstrum Horrendum, Informe, ingens ‘cui Lumen ademptum.’ 1545 Martinus LutheR D[octor]." A second inscription by Luther on the front inside cover reads “Apoc 18. Gehet von yhr aus, mein Volck, das yhr nicht teilhafftig werdet yhrer sunden. Auff das yhr nicht empfahet ettwas von yhrer plagen Denn yhre sünde reichen bis ynn denhimel vnd der HERR denckt an yhren freuel. 1545 Mart[in] LutheR d[octor].” Formerly owned by Justus Jonas, 1525-1567. On permanent loan from New Hanover Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania.
