The Life of Luther Author:Barnas Sears Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: relating to the affairs of Germany in that period, important additions have been made to our knowledge of the life and times of Luther. About three years ago,... more » the Committee of Publication of the American Sunday-School Union applied to the writer, to prepare a life of Luther, to be published under the auspices of that society. Having, from the time of my temporary residence in Germany, in the years 1834-5, when my historical studies, under the guidance of Neander, commenced, contracted some familiarity with the writings of Luther, and with the history of his age, I was induced by my historical tastes, and my interest in the Reformer, some of whose minor works I had edited, no less than by the hope of doing a service to the young, to engage in the undertaking. During this interval of three years, nearly all the works, amounting to some hundreds of volumes, which cast new light on the subject in hand, have been carefully examined. Many new facts have been brought together, and many obscurities removed, while not a few apocryphal accounts have been discarded. Persons who are conversant with the sources of information, will not complain that the admirable work of Jurgeus on the youth of Luther should be followed, so far as it extends. No other single work, except Luther's letters, has been used so much as this. But from the year 1517, to Luther's death in 1546, no such explorer and guide could be found. Fortunately, from that date, chapter{Section 4Luther is his own best biographer. The five large volumes of his published letters, with the supplementary collections, embrace the history of this period of his life with remarkable fulness of detail. The fact that no life of the Keformer had been written, in which was incorporated the body of materials contained in his corresponde...« less