at the free imperial city of Augsburg. Can the reader suggest a reason?
Many of them are printed in abnormally small sizes, facilitating quick
concealment. Can the reader imagine a cause for this phenomenon? In
these old German Bibles particular texts are emphasized, for example,
Rom. 8, 18; 1 Cor. 4, 9; 2 Cor. 4, 8 ; 11, 23; 1 Pet. 2, 19; 4, 16; 5,
9; Acts 5, 18. 41; 8, 1; 12, 4; 14, 19. If the reader will take the
trouble to look up these texts, he will find that they warn Christians
to be prepared to be persecuted for their faith. Has the reader ever
heard of such an officer of the Roman Church as the inquisitor, one of
whose duties it was to hunt for Bibles among the people? In places these
old German Bibles contain significant marginal glosses, for example, at
1 Tim. 2, 5 one of them has this gloss: "_Ain_ mitler Christus, ach
merk!" that is: _One_ mediator, Christ--note this well!

In 1486, Archbishop Berchtold of Mainz, Primate of Germany, issued an
edict, full of impassioned malice against German translations of the
Bible, and against laymen who sought edification from them. He says that
"no prudent person will deny that there is need of many supplements and
explanations from other writings" than the Bible, to the end, namely,
that a person may construe from the German Bibles the true Catholic
faith. Fact is, that faith is not in the Bible. This happened three
years after the birth of Luther. (Kurtz, II, 2, 304.)

Instead of finding fault, then, with Luther's ignorance of the Bible
prior to 1505, we feel surprised that the young man knew as much of the
Bible as he did. He must in this respect have surpassed many in his age.

The Roman Church does not permit her laymen to read a Bible that she has
not published with annotations. "Believing herself to be the divinely
appointed custodian and interpreter of Holy Writ," says a writer in the