Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther, and the 'Passional Christi und Antichristi': Propaganda and prayer in an early Lutheran Flugschrift.

摘要

The 1521 Lutheran work of Flugschrift (pamphlet) propaganda entitled Passional Christi and Antichristi, with woodcuts by Lucas Cranach the Elder, strategically combines text and image to appeal to a wide spectrum of literacy. Utilizing techniques of both polemic and prayer, as well as sources from both scripture and papal decretals, Passional makes a powerful case for the German laity that the office of the papacy was under the control of the Devil and had effectively become Antichrist.;Analysis and interpretation are based on a reading of text and image together. Historical biblical scholarship will be utilized in the discussion of texts which include scriptural quotations; historical scholarship will be used to contextualize quotations from canon law. Chapter One consists of a close but primarily descriptive account of each text and image pairing in Passional, followed by translation of the text into English. Chapter Two explores the roots of Passional, discussing how the image-text pairings of Christ in particular in Passional function as devotional art. Its influences include fifteenth-century German devotional prints, the poem Das Passional, and medieval biblical scholarship.;Chapter Three explores Passional in its intended function as a work of propaganda, focusing in particular on the relationship between Passional Christi and Antichristi and Luther's two-kingdoms theology. Passional communicates a similar case against the Pope as To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation. It also employs similar arguments and source texts as the Hussite treatise The Old Color and the New . As a work of propaganda. Passional Christi and Antichristi makes its case primarily through a work of propaganda, Passional Christi und Antichristi makes its case primarily through an appeal to emotion rather than intellect by arousing in turn devotion, outrage, and a complex combination of fear and hope associated with the end times. Chapter Four analyzes the pamphlet's eschatological message and themes. Late medieval periodizations of history and a recurrent use of Antichrist rhetoric helped to delineate the identities of the true and false Church and give the emerging Lutheran community a strong sense of purpose and cosmic significance.