d in German. During the first two years five Latin
editions were printed, and up to 1525 seven German editions. A
translation was published in the Netherlands in 1521, and one in
England in 1578. Erasmus commended it to Bishop Christopher of
Basle, in 1523; "I am sending your Highness Luther's book of the
fourteen pictures, which has won great approbation even from
those who oppose his doctrine at every point." Mathesius,
Luther's pupil and biographer, judged that there had never before
been such words of comfort written in the German language. The
Franciscan Lemmens speaks of "the beautiful and Catholic
thoughts" in it.

4. Our translation is made from the Latin text, as found in the
Weimar edition of Luther's works, volume vi, with continual
reference to the German text, as given in the Berlin edition. We
regret our inability to obtain a copy of the old English
translation (A right comfortable Treatise conteining sundrye
pointes of consolation for them that labour and are
laden....Englished by W. Gace. T. Vautrollier, London, 1578, sec.
ed. 1580), although the form of the title would seem to indicate
that it was made from Spalatin's translation, and not from the
original.[6]

The many Scripture quotations, all naturally from the Latin
Vulgate, and most of them freely quoted from memory, and
sometimes "targumed" and woven into the texture of the treatise,
are rendered by us, unless the sense should thereby be affected,
in the words of the Authorised Version. Important or interesting
variations are indicated in the foot-notes.

5. The Tesseradecas deserves to be more widely known and used.
Its value is more than merely that of an historical document,
representing a transition stage in Luther's reformatory views. It
gives us, besides this, a deep insight into the living piety of
the man, his great heart so full of the peace of God that passeth
all understanding. When we remember that this little work was
composed in the midst of a very "tempest" of other writings,
chiefly polemical (e.g., the savage onslaughts on Emser), it will
appear akin to the little book of Ruth, lying so peacefully
between the war-like books of Judges and First Samuel. At the
Leipzig Disputation, earlier in the same year, Luther was seen to
hold a bouquet of flowers in his hand, and to smell of it when
the battle waxed hot. The Tessaradecas is such a bunch of
flowers. Its chief glory, however, that of a devotional classic,
has been somewhat