The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

Bishop of Merseburg, Prince Adolphus of Anhalt, and the Bishop of
Meissen, not satisfied with legal measures of suppression, called in Emser,
to use the more formidable weapon, the pen, the gigantic power of which
Luther was then exhibiting. About a year after the publication of the first
edition of Luther's New Testament, Emser came forth with his confutation
of it. Its title stated its object, which was, to show "On what ground, and
for what reason, Luther's translation should be prohibited to the common
people," and he claimed to have discovered in the unfortunate book about
four errors and a quarter, more or less, to each page, some "fourteen
hundred heresies and falsehoods," all told. Luther did not consider the
work worthy of a reply; but Dr. Regius took up its defence, and confuted
Emser in the robust manner which characterized that very hearty age. It
seemed, however, as if Emser were about to illustrate his honesty in the
very highest and rarest form in which a critic can commend himself to
human confidence; it seemed as if he were about to prepare a book of the
same general kind as that which he reviewed, in which he could be tested
by his own canons, and his right to be severe on others demonstrated by
the masterly hand with which he did the work himself. He prepared to
publish a counter-translation. He had the two qualities, in which many
translators have found the sole proofs of their vocation: he could not write
the language into which, and did not understand the language from which,
he was to translate. But his coolness stood him in better stead than all the
knowledge he might have had of Greek and German. With little trouble,
he produced a translation, equal, on the whole, as even Luther himself
admitted, to Luther's own, and literally free from every objection which he
had made to Luther's. We have had books on the Reformers, before the
Reformation; on Lutheranism, before Luther, and such-like; and another
might be written on the Yankees, before the sailing of the Mayflower.
Emser was one of them.
The way he did the masterly thing we have mentioned was this: He
adopted, not stole (he was above stealing) - he adopted Luther's translation
bodily, only altering him where he had