Martin Luther: His Life And Work by Hartmann Grisar SJ

Paperback: Martin Luther: His Life and Work (1930) is adapted from the Second German Edition by Frank J Eble and edited by Arthur Preuss.

The present volume is chiefly concerned with a lucid presentation of the development of Luther, of his mental constitution and the interior impulses which moved him throughout his life. His many frank communications concerning himself as well as his unbridled language about and against others, almost spontaneously lead to a true characterization of him. May the present volume be perused by unprejudiced readers. - The Author, Innsbruck, 3 December 1925

About the author: Hartmann Grisar SJ (1845-1932) was a German-Austrian Jesuit and church historian. Grisar was the son of a court baker. He studied from 1862 to 1863 at the Royal Theological and Philosophical Academy in Münster and from 1863 to 1868 at the theological faculty of the University of Innsbruck. In 1868, he was ordained a priest and entered the Jesuit order in Rome.

In 1870, he escaped from occupied Rome to St Andrae in Carinthia. In 1871, he was appointed professor for church history at the University of Innsbruck and from 1873, he was full professor. He became an Austrian citizen and lived in Thaur. In 1876, he was one of the co-founders of the magazine for Catholic theology in Innsbruck, which had been published since 1877, and of which he was editor from 1883 to 1886.

From 1895 Hartmann Grisar worked mainly in Rome, but remained associated with the University of Innsbruck as an honorary professor. In Rome he found unique reliquaries and relics from the early days of Christianity in the Papal Chapel Sancta Sanctorum in the former Lateran Palace. In 1900, Hartmann Grisar became a member of the advisory board of the Görres Society .

From 1902 to 1911, Hartmann Grisar was engaged in church history studies in Germany, especially Luther research. From 1911 to 1925, he was a private scholar in Munich. At the age of 80, he retired to the Jesuit College in Innsbruck in 1925. He died there in 1932.

P/S In 1883, on the anniversary of Martin Luther's birthday, there were denominational attacks on the papacy and the Catholic Church, including by Protestant theologians and historians. In order to defend Catholicism, Grisar wrote the text Reformatorenbilder. In it, he judged Luther as follows: “Luther was not a herald of truth. Our Catholic reformers have a completely different character. "

The preoccupation with Luther never let go of him. At first, Grisar took a radical Catholic stand that betrayed the influence of Johannes Janssen. His Luther biography, which is considered to be his main work, was also harshly criticized. Later on, Grisar's anti-Lutheran standpoint remained largely unchanged, but the radicalism of his judgment declined significantly. The later writings of Grisar on Luther that appeared after the First World War are therefore the most valuable.

Grisar also researched the Christian archeology of the city of Rome and early papal history. The Analecta Romana offer a collection of material on the early history of the Pope.