The Bondage of the Will
De Servo Arbitrio, to the venerable Erasmus of Rotterdam (1525)
Martin Luther, answering Erasmus a year late and at four times the length
Four hundred pages arguing that the tasteful thing to do with a hard question is not to shrug at it.
- Catch rate
- 40 / 255
- Base research
- 358
- Stat total
- 358
Base stats
Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.
Why these numbers
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
Luther called it one of the two of his books worth keeping. It is long, and none of the length is padding.
The heaviest Contend in the era. He goes at the man’s method before he goes at a single one of his arguments, and the method is where the fight was.
Hard to get at because it has already conceded the ground worth conceding: Erasmus is learned, the question is difficult, and none of that licenses suspending judgement.
A treatise answering a treatise, in Latin, about the freedom of the will. It arrives when it arrives.
Cited for this book
Erasmus opened in 1524 with a book on free will that began by saying he took no pleasure in assertions and would sooner join the sceptics if the church allowed it. Luther answered in 1525 by refusing the posture before touching the argument: a Christianity that will not assert anything is not a modest Christianity, it is a different subject. The two men never spoke again. Luther later said that of everything he had written, only this and the catechism were worth keeping.
Moves learned
By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.
| Lv | Move | Type | Cat. | Pwr | Acc | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Constant Adhering | Faith | Argument | 80 | 100% | 15 |
| 1 | Random Verse | Bible | Argument | 10 | 100% | 30 |
| 38 | Chapter… | Bible | Scripture | — | — | 12 |
| 38 | The Spirit Is No Sceptic | Presupposition | Argument | 92 | 100% | 5 |
| 39 | Law and Gospel | Exegesis | Argument | 82 | 100% | 15 |
| 41 | Assertions Contemned | Presupposition | Argument | 86 | 100% | 10 |
| 43 | Take Away Assertions | Presupposition | Argument | 95 | 100% | 5 |
Read it: The Spirit Is No Sceptic
The passages the Scriptorium holds on screen, word for word from a public-domain translation. Written in Latin.
“…by assertion, I mean a constant adhering, affirming, confessing, defending, and invincibly persevering.”
Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525), trans. Henry Cole (London, 1823), public domain, elided.
“The Holy Spirit is not a Sceptic, nor are what he has written on our hearts doubts or opinions, but assertions more certain, and more firm, than life itself and all human experience.”
Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525), trans. Henry Cole (London, 1823), public domain.
“What Christian would bear that assertions should be contemned? This would be at once to deny all piety and religion together…”
Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525), trans. Henry Cole (London, 1823), public domain, elided.
“…nothing is more known and more general among Christians than assertions. Take away assertions, and you take away Christianity.”
Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525), trans. Henry Cole (London, 1823), public domain, elided.
Erasmus had opened in 1524 by saying he took no pleasure in assertions and would sooner join the sceptics if the church allowed it. Luther answered a year late and at four times the length.
He refuses the posture before he touches the argument. A Christianity that will not assert anything is not a modest Christianity; it is a different subject.
The two men never spoke again. Luther said later that of everything he had written, only this and the catechism were worth keeping.