'Mönchkalb' and 'Ursache und Antwort'

1523 was a crucial year for the German Reformation. This volume presents two-lesser known short pamphlets which illustrate the local as well as global role of printing in the development. The first is the entertaining 'Deutung der greulichen Figur des Mönchkalbs' (Interpretation of the gruesome figure of the monk-calf), a polemical interpretation of the monstrous birth of calf with a cowl-like neck in Saxony, which entered into circulation across Europe via Latin into French and from there into English. The second, 'Ursache und Antwort, dass Jungfrauen Klöster göttlich verlassen mögen' (Reason and justification why it pleases God that nuns may leave their convents), provides a justification for the decision of Katharina von Bora, Martin Luther's future wife, and eleven other nuns to leave their convent in April 1523.

The historical introduction shows how Martin Luther's anti-monastic stance evolved in the run-up to these publications, followed by a survey of his pamphlets and sermons promoting marriage from 1519 onwards and an exploration of the afterlife of the debate on monastic vows and marriage. The chapter on printing history provides catalogue entries for the Oxford copies of the pamphlets edited in this volume - the 'Mönchkalb' in German (Taylor Institution Library), Latin (numerous College libraries), French (New College Library), and English (Bodleian Library), and for the 'Ursache und Antwort' in German (Taylorian and Bodleian Library). The last chapter gives advice on how to read the Early New High German texts.

The edition is part of the Reformation Pamphlet series of the Taylor Institution Library in Oxford which aims to make the treasures of the library accessible via open access editions on https://editions.mml.ox.ac.uk/ and to bring together interdisciplinary expertise on different aspects of these historic holdings. Previous volumes have traced the success of Martin Luther's writings since the publication of the 95 Theses throughout the early 1520s, particularly his 1520 treatise 'Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen' (On Christian Freedom) and the 1522 translation of the New Testament. , the practical consequences of his teaching were made manifest, not least in the growing numbers of monks and nuns leaving behind the monastic life.

This edition introduces these works, neither of which are available in modern English translations, to historians, theologians and linguists in richly annotated editions and translation. A particular feature is the quadrilingual edition of the interpretation of the 'monk-calf' which compares paragraph-for-paragraph the German, Latin, French, and English of the pamphlet which allows in-depth translation studies. The facsimiles at the end of the book give an insight into the material history of the Reformation rhetoric.