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Catharinus versus Luther, 1521
Author(s) -
Preston Patrick
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.12
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1468-229X
pISSN - 0018-2648
DOI - 10.1111/1468-229x.00267
Subject(s) - martin luther , comics , argument (complex analysis) , style (visual arts) , reading (process) , philosophy , literature , theology , art , linguistics , biochemistry , chemistry
In 1520 at the instigation of the influential Cardinals Giulio de’ Medici and Nicholas von Schönberg, Ambrosius Catharinus Politus was asked to undertake the defence of the Church against Luther. Catharinus wrote the Apologia of 1520 at great speed, but he did not betray the trust that had been placed in him. Indeed, the resulting work may with plausibility be considered the literary origin of the Counter‐Reformation. The main argument of this article is that the eleven ways of deceiving the people that Catharinus ascribed to Luther in Book I of the Apologia were tantamount to the claim that Luther was Antichrist. Luther was angered by the innuendo and responded in 1521 by applying the ‘Antichrist’ description not to any specific individual but to the entire papal church. In reading Daniel 23–5 as a prophecy of a Church that was the instrument of Satan, Luther revealed a remarkable comic gift, but he did not answer the case that Catharinus had made against him in a very different polemical style.