FOOTNOTES
[1] Luther quotes from the Vulgate and frequently from memory, a fact which should always be remembered in comparing his quotations from the text of Scripture.
[2] Vulgate, Justus prior est accusator.
[3] The apocryphal Prayer of Manasseh was included by Luther as an appendix to this treatise.
[4] Augustine Conf., X, 29.
[5] i. e., Forced to confess hidden sins.
[6] The so-called "science of casuistry," by which the moral value of an act is determined and the exact degree of guilt attaching to a given sin is estinated.
[7] Cf. Small Catechism, "Of Confession," Ques. "What sins ought we to confess?"
[8] The decrees of the Popes collected in the Canon Law. The decretal here referred to is C. Omnis Utriusque, X. de poententiis et remissionibus.
[9] Anecdotes illustrating the doctrines of the Church were favorite contents of the sermons in Luther's day. Various collections of these edifying legends are still extant. Cf. p. 224, and note.
[10] i. e., By thinking of the nature of confession.
[11] The reader of this minute classification of sins, which could be duplicated out of almost any manual of casuistry, may judge for himself whether Luther was correct in calling it a "riot of distinctions."
[12] Luther steadily maintained that the Ten Commandments were a complete guide to holy living and that every possible sin his prohibited somewhere in the Decalogue. See, beside the various smaller treatises (Kurze Unterweisung wie man beichten soll (1518), Kurze Form des zehn Gobte (1520), etc.), the large Discourse on Good Works, below, pp. 184 ff.
[13] The writings mentioned are found in the Weimar Ed., Vol I, pp. 250 ff, 258 ff, 398 ff. See above, p. 75, note 1.
[14] The Sentences of Peter the Lombard was the standard text-book of Medieval theology.
[15] "On True and False Penitence," now universally admitted not to have been written by St. Augustine, but passing under his name till after the Reformation.
[16] That part of the liturgy of the Mass in which the miraculous transformation of the elements into the Body and Blood of Christ is believed to take place.
[17] i. e., Of the sacrament of confession.
[18] The fixed hours of daily prayer observed in the monasteries, afterward applied to the liturgy for these services, viz., the Breviary. The daily reading of this breviary at the appointed hours is required of all clergy.
[19] An Italian saint, d. 482, noted for the strictness and severity of his ascetic practices.
[20] Professor of the University of Paris; one of the most popular and famous of the later Scholastics. He died 1429.
[21] Vulgate, "Cor ejus paratus est."
[22] We would say, "the whole thing in a nutshell."
[23] i. e., Sins for which the confessor was not allowed to grant absolution without reference to some higher Church authority, to whose absolution they were "reserved." See Introduction, p. 79.
[24] The power to "bind and loose" (Matt. 16:19), i. e., to forgive and to retain sins (John 20:23).
[25] The Roman Church distinguished between the "guilt" and the "penalty" of sin. It was thought possible to forgive the former and retain the latter. Submission to the penalty is "satisfaction." See Introduction to XCV. Theses, p. 19.
[26] Votum satisfactionis. It was and is the teaching of the Roman Church that, where the actual reception of any sacrament is impossible, the earnest desire to receive it suffices for salvation. The desire is known as the votum sacramenti.
[27] In Spain. The shrine of St. James at that place was a famous resort for pilgrims. Cf. below, p. 191, and note.
[28] See the Treatise on the Sacrament of Baptism, above, pp. 68 ff.
[29] Luther doubtless refers to the decrees of the popes by which special rewards were attached to worship at certain shrines.
[30] The oath of office and the oath of allegiance.
[31] The story is repeated by Melanchthon in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Ch. XIII, Art. xxvii, 38 (Book of Concord, Eng. Trans., p. 288). The "Alexander Coriarius" of text is misleading.
