Luther's Table Talk Author:Preserved Smith 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: CHAPTER II The Earlier Reporters Of The Table Talk Luther's life may naturally be divided into two periods by his marriage in June, 1525. Each period has its... more » own character, sharply marked off from the other, and each has much internal unity. Nine-tenths of his political activity fell within the first period; it was a constant and fierce struggle; and by the time it was over the victory had been won and the great revolt from Rome was well under way. The second period was one of comparative quiet, of domestic experience, hospitality, preaching, teaching and writing; not less interesting than the more active part of Luther's career, but interesting in a different way. It is not so much the operation of a great political force as the significance of a great man's private life which now engages our attention. With the exception of a doubtful note or two of Corda- tus, all the records we have of the Table Talk fall within the second period. During these twenty years no less than a dozen men followed the practice of reporting their hero's words as he spoke them at table.1 A list of these men at 1 We know who took notes partly from the extant records, partly from references, especially the lists of their sources given by two collectors of Table Talk, Mathesius (Luther Histories, xii, I31b, quoted by Kroker, op. cit., Einl., p. 13) and Aurifaber (preface to his printed edition, reprinted by Walch, op. cit., xxii, 40-55). These lists give the names of three men who did not take notes: Rorer (Forstemann-Bind- seil, Deutsche Tischreden, vol. iv, p. xvi; Losche, Analecta Lutherana, p. 10), Ferdinand a Maugis (Seidemann, op. cit., Einl., p. xii; Kostlin, op. cit., ii, 618), and Weber (Kroker, op. cit., Einl., p. 15). Besides the 141] IS this point will greatly clarify our subsequen...« less