Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Metallic Records of Martin Luther: A Paper Read at the Celebration of the Four Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Luther, Held at Toronto, November 10, 1883
On the medals presented to us in J uncker's book the image and superscription of Luther, of course, continually appear. The beads of the Reformer, however, as seen on the. Medals do not, with any closeness, agree with one another. Artists and engravers seem to have allowed themselves to form their own ideals of the man. Most of us, I suppose, have a Luther pictured in our minds, just as we have _a Shakespeare. In both cases the variations in the current portraits are quite' considerable. Nevertheless there are characteris tics enough common to all of them to enable us to recognize almost immediately any portrait or bust or statue intended for either Shakespeare or Luther. Differences to the contrary not withstanding, we know Luther on these medals by his blufi', good tempered, powerful, honest face 5 his leonine eye; his taurine neck and massive shoulders his heavy scholastic gown. Occasionally the head is extensively tonsured, and the monk's cowl appears thrown back. Sometimes the countenance is seen in profile and sometimes as turned towards the spectator. In the later medals the features are more emaciated, and furrowed over with lines of thought and patient endurance of suffering.
The first medal in which I shall endeavor to raise an interest, under the disadvantage of not being able, unfortunately, to exhibit the object itself, is one shewing on the obverse a head of Luther with face turned towards the beholder. The aspect is youthful. The epigraph or superscription at the margin is: Dr. Martin Luther of Eisleben. Doctor Martinus Lutherus Eislebensis. Having greatly distinguished himself as a Professor and Lecturer on Phil osophy and Divinity at, the University of Wittenberg, and having succeeded also well in a mission to Rome on business of great importance to the Augustinian monastic community, of which he was a member, he was required by his superiors, quite against his own inclination, to receive the degree of Doctor, on St. Luke's Day, Oct. 19th, 1512. A portion of the oath taken on the occasion was to the effect that he would study and proclaim the' Holy Scriptures all his life, and also defend the holy Christian faith in writing and preaching, against all heresies. These Words in the assumption of a Doctor's degree had become somewhat of a dead formula. But Luther took them as real words, and conscientiously acted upon them.
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