1. In which case one might ask oneself if Hell is not, everything considered, a thousand times to be preferred.

2. Max Weber, “Die protestantische Ethik und der `Geist' des kapitalismus, 1905”, in: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie, Bd. I, Tübingen, Mohr, 1947. We cite here the French translation of J. Chavy: L'éthique protestante et l'esprit du capitalisme, Paris, Plon, 1967.

3. Ernst Troeltsch, “Die Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen”, in Gesammelte Schriften, Bd. I, Tübingen, Mohr, 1912.

4. Thus writes Georges Casalis, in the article “Luther” in the Encyclopedia Universalis: “He is at once more medieval and more modern that other greats among his contemporaries, whether it be a question of Erasmus, of Paracelsus, of Thomas Müntzer, of Theresa of Avila or of Calvin”.

5. Cf. Max Weber, “Die `Objektivität' sozialwissenschaftlicher und sozialpolitischer Erkenntnis”, 1904, in Gesammelte Augsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre, Tübingen, Mohr, 1951. [French translation by J. Freund: “L'objectivité de la connaissance dans les sciences et la politique sociale”, in: Essais sur la théorie de la science, Paris, Plon, 1965, pp. 170 seqq. (pp. 152 seqq.), on the theme of the “Wirklichkeitswissenschaft”, and pp. 190 seqq. (180 seqq.), on the notion of the “Idealtypus”.]

6. It is to Nietzsche that credit must go for this distinction, and notably when he treats the historic passage from the ancient religious world of Christianity. For him, Saint Paul is the first Christian, the inventor of (Erfinder) Christianity. Until then, there had been a few Jewish sectarians (cf. Friedrich Nietzsche, Morgenröte, Gedanken über die moralischen Vorurteile, 1, Buch §68). Otherwise put, Saint Paul retroactively places then Incarnation as event and as rupture. Without this foundation which appeals to all the symbolic resources of the ancient world, and essentially of Greece, one cannot even consider (cf. Nietzsche) that the event took place. But that does not happen without a certain loss of its singular essence: “[Saint Paul] understood the grand aspirations of the pagan world and he made a perfectly arbitrary choice from among the events of the life and death of Christ; to all, he lent a new accent, and everywhere displaced the center of gravity... in its beginning, he annulled the original Christianity” (id., in: Aus des Nachlass der Achtzigerjahre, Werke IV, Ullstein, Frankfurt/M.,-Berlin-Wien, 1979, p. 655). On the theme of the dual origin, see also Jacques Lacan, Encore (Séminaire XX, 1972-73, Paris, Seuil, 1975, pp. 89 seqq.; as well as Alain Badiou, Théorie du sujet, Paris, Seuil, 1982, pp. 143 seqq.

7. L'éthique protestante, pp. 4-48.

8. Ibid. p. 46.

9. Ibid. p. 49.

10. Nicomachean Ethics, II(1): 1103a.

11. Ibid. II(2): 1103a.

12. J. Lacan, L'éthique de la psychanalyse (Séminaire VII, 1959-60), Paris, Seuil, 1986, pp. 30-1.

13. Cf., for example, Les Fondements de la métaphysique des moeurs, 2nd section.

14. L'éthique protestante... pp. 83-6.

15. This reads (v. 20): “Bleibe in Gottes wort/und ube dich drinnen/und beharre in deinem Beruff ('εντ^ω 'έργωσονπaλaΙώθητΙ)”; (v. 21) “Vertrawe du Gott/vnd bleibe in deinem Beruff (κa`Ι 'έμμενετ^επόνωσον)”. We take as a basis the Wittenberg text (1545): D.M. Luther, Biblia: Das ist: die gantze Heilige Schrifft/Deutsch/auffs new zugericht (Hrsgb, von Hans Volz), Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München, Bd. 2, p. 2768.

16. Cf., for example, ibid., Deut., 2:7 and 5:13; Ps. (89)90: 17 for the doublet Werk and 'έργον and Ps. 90:10 for “Mühe and Arbeit” (κόποςκόνος).

17. Cf. ibid.:1 Cor. 1:26; 7:17-24; Eph. 1:18; 4:1-4; 1, Thess. 11; Heb. 3:1;2 Pet. 1:10.

18. Max Weber, op. cit.note 2, p. 89: “Luther has translated κλ^ησΙς by Beruf; but when, later, he translated the apocrypha, he utilized Beruf to render πόννος in the traditionalist and anti-chrematistic commandment of Jesus ben Sira according to which each one must remain in the same occupation, this no doubt because of the objective similarity of the two exhortations (compare in effect 1 Cor. 7:20; and Eccles. 11:21). This is what is important here, the characteristic point.

19. Ibid. p. 91: There is no longer any question of transcending the morale of secular life by monastic ascesis, but of accomplishing in the world the duties corresponding to the place that existence assigns to the individual in society, duties which thus become one's “vocation” (Beruf).

20. Ibid. p. 94.

21. Ibid. p. 98.

22. Ibid. p. 99.

23. Ibid. p. 101.

24. Ibid. p. 102.

25. Ibid. p. 93 seq. (and note 9).

26. Made pastor in 1890, Troeltsch taught theology until 1914. One may thus suppose that it is as a theologian that he approaches sociology, this approach having been prepared, before the encounter with Weber in 1897, by his desire to understand the historicity of the religious. On Troeltsch's intellectual itinerary, and as an introduction to Soziallehren, consult the work of Jean Séguy, Christianisme et société. Introduction à la sociologie de Ernst Troeltsch, Paris, Cerf, 1980.

27. Soziallehren (see note 3) p. 432.

28. In exposing “the fundamental religious idea of Luther”, Troeltsch does not hesitate to utilize as well the substantive “protestantism”, ibid. pp. 434 seqq.

29. Ibid. p. 436.

30. Ibid. p. 437. seq.

31. Ibid. pp. 439 seqq.

32. Ibid. pp. 447 seqq.

33. Die Beteutung des Protestantismus für die Entstehung der modern Welt, München u. Berlin, R. Oldenbourg, 1911. This work offers the most researched and most systematic exposé. For the distinction between Fides quae and Fides qua, see p. 99.

34. The modern history of sciences underlines and specifies very precisely this process of “disenchantment with the world”; cf. Alexander Koyré, Du monde clos à l'univers infini, Paris, Gallimard, pp. 330 seqq. “The infinite universe of the New Cosmology... had inherited all the ontological attributes of the Divinity. But from among those only: as to the others, God, in departing this World, carried them off with him.”

35. Soziallehren, p. 440.

36. Purity, there is nothing more equivocal, if one considers it to be the already extremely refined product of the dialectic of Saint Paul — which one does not encounter in the first stable: millstones and sieves of all sizes for grinding; traps for heretics great and small, simple or fine; sinuous demonstrations and candour in the bad faith which confers upon the ensemble an air of fixity under the most diverse circumstances; without forgetting, finally, bad mood, the polemical spirit which goes to make up the party man... Luther will add nothing to these instruments of genius but the national touch of his age: a bottomless vulgarity.

37. Ibid. p. 438.

38. It would be way off the mark to wish to reduce it, in turn, to its sole aspect of ancient dogma, underlining the only negative dimension of its approach, to find it forever dependant on what it denies: this would be to forget that this very aspect, in fact, involves indisputably modern traits. In effect, the negativity of the faith process, the complete mistrust towards the positive articles of the fides quae creditur, the crisis induced by the collapse of ancient certitudes, anticipate here the modern philosophical and scientific itineraries of the 17th century. Who does not see, in the neurosis of the early Luther, this dual function of doubt at its height, revoking every reasonable assertion to the point of founding subjective certitude upon itself, only to reinvest subsequently, through the guarantee of a good God, the domain of transmissible statement? Who does not hear him moan to follow through the trying thread of extreme anguish which will inspire in another the vision of an infinite world from which science has expelled God — only to then reconstruct his existence within the terms of a pure apologetic bet?

39. Ibid. p. 452.

40. The distinctions between the “model-Church”, the “model-sect” and the “model-mystic” from the comprehensive plan of Soziallehren. We only approach them here indirectly, cf. Jean Séguy, op. cit., pp. 100 seqq. for a systematic exposé of this aspect.

41. Cf. Henri Strohl, Luther jusqu'en 1520, Paris, 1962, pp. 352 seqq.

42. Ibid. p. 521.

43. L'éthique protestante, pp. 98 seqq.

44. Soziallehren, p. 453, note 208.

45. An eyewitness to events in Franconia Lorenz Fries would rather have known “the deluge of waters” than this “deluge of blood” (sindflus des bluts) (Die Geschichte des Bauern-Krieges in Ostfranken, Hg.A.Schäffler u. Th. Henner, Würzburg, 1883, Vol. I, pp. 3 seqq.), Leopold von Ranke, the austere precursor of the “historico-critical” sciences, will see in this episode the unchaining of the elementary forces of German, “the greatest natural event (das grösste Naturereignis)” of its history (Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation, Vol. II 1839, Leipzig, 1908, p. 147). But nothing reveals more clearly the capital importance of the event than the conflict of interpretation for which it continues to be the focus among historians of the two Germanies.

46. In like fashion, from this side of the Rhine, all “jacqueries” are distinguished from the Jacquerie of 1358.

47. Within the domain of the old Reich and the Swiss Cantons, may be counted sixty local or regional uprisings attested to by the sources, for the period running from 1330 to 1525. Cf. Peter Bierbrauer, “Bäuerliche Revolten im Alten Reich: Ein Forschungsbericht”, in Aufruhr und Empörung? Studien zum bäuerlichen Widerstand im Alten Reich (Hg. Peter Blickle), München, Beck, 1980, p. 62 seq.

48. Günther Franz, Der deutsche Bauernkrieg, 1933, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1977. This book has certainly transformed the historiography of our century on the subject.

49. Friedrich Winterhager, Bauernkriegsforschung, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1981, sketches the general state of divergences of interpretation.

50. What is of most interest in the work of Franz (op. cit., cf note 48) and that of Peter Blicke, Die Revolution von 1525, München-Wien, Oldenbourg, 1977.

51. Dye Gruntlichen Vnd rechten haupt/Artickel/aller Baurnschafft unndl Hyndersessen der Gaistichen vnndl Weltlichen oberkayten/vonl wölchen sy sich beschwertl vernainen, cf. Gunther Franz, Quellen zur Geschichte des Bauernkrieges, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1963, pp. 174 seqq.

52. On its origin and its conception, consult Günther Franz, “Die Entstehung der Zwölf Artikel des deutschen Bauernschaft”, in Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 36, 1939, pp. 212 seqq; and Martin Brecht, “Der theologische Hintergrund der Zwölf Artikel der Bauerschaft in Schwaben von 1525. Christoph Schappelers und Sebastian Lotzers Beitrag zum Bauernkrieg,” in: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 85, 1974, pp. 174 seqq.

53. Rodney Hilton, Les mouvements paysans du Moyen-Age, Paris, Flammarion, 1979, pp. 289 seqq.

54. “It is firstly our humble prayer and request, as well as our will and unanimous opinion, that the entire community should have the authority and power to elect and choose itself its pastor, and also to dismiss him if he acts improperly. The pastor so chosen must preach the Gospel to us purely and clearly, without any addition of doctrine or of human precepts. For it is the continuous announcing of the true faith which gives us the occasion of praying for the Grace of God, in order to form and confirm in us this same faith. Now... as Scripture clearly attests, we cannot reach God except by the true faith nor accede to beatitude except through His pity.”

55. Martin Luther, “Ermahnung zum Frieden auf die zwölf Artikel der Bauernschaft”, in Schwaben, 1525, Weimarer Ausgabe XVIII, pp. 291 seqq.

56. The peasant bands assembled with the citizens often took the name Christliche Vereinigungen.

57. One will be easily convinced in reading of Dass eine christliche Versammlung oder Gemeinde Recht oder Macht habe, alle Lehre zu urteilen und Lehrer zu berufen, ein- und abzusetzen, Grund and Ursache aus der Schrift, 153, WA XI, pp. 408 seqq. The point of view which would have it that there was a “misunderstanding”, an “abuse” on the part of the insurgents, masks by its triviality, the whole problem raised by the historical convergence of the Reformation and the Peasants' War.

58. To jog the memory, one may read, Wider die räuberischen und mörderischen Rotten der Bauern, 1525, WA XVIII, pp. 357 seqq.; and Ein Sendbrief von den harten Büchlein wider die Bauern, 1525, WA XVIII, pp. 384 seqq.

59. Ein Brief an die Fürsten zu Sachsen von dem aufruhrischen Geist, 1524, WA XV, pp. 203 seqq.

60. Letter to Johann Ruhl, 30 May 1525, WA Br. III, no. 377.

61. We cite here letters no. 13 (to Luther, 13 July 1520) and no. 40 (also to him, 9 July 1923). The present edition makes further reference, despite its deplorable defects. To avoid fastidious back-referencing of notes, we often make reference in the body of the text, between brackets, thus (GF, no. of page: if necessary no. of line).

62. Martin Luther, Adversus execrabilem Antichristi bullam, WA VI, p. 604.

63. In 1528, he maintains “that, in the papacy, there are many Christian things, that even all is Christian (!) and has been transmitted to us” (WA XXVI, p. 147). In 1542, he still maintains that the Church of Rome is invested with all the signs of the true Church (WA XXXIX 2, p. 167).

64. Thomas Müntzer, Der Bemen sache betreffende protestation, GF, p. 495 seq.

65. Eusèbe de Césarée, Histoire de l'Eglise, IV:22.

66. On the doublet sacramentum and mysterium, one may consult Henri de Lubac Exégèse Médiévale, Vol.II, Aubier, Paris, 1959, pp. 396 seqq.

67. De civ. Dei, XXI, 26: 2-4.

68. Martin Luther, Disputatio pro declaratione indulgentiarum, 1517, WA I, p. 243.

69. As has been pointed out by Henri Strohl (op.cit. note 41), p. 256.

70. Hayo Gerdes, “Der Weg des Glaubens bei Müntzer und Luther”, 1955, in: Thomas Müntzer (Hg. Abraham Friesen und Hans-Jürgen Goertz, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1978, p. 21).

71. Ibid. p. 21.

72. Ibid.

73. Ibid.p. 23.

74. See note 42.

74. Ernst Troeltsch, Soziallehren, p. 501.

76. Karl Marx, “Contribution à la critique de la philosophie du droit de Hegel”, 1844, in: Critique de droit politique hégélien, Editions Sociales, Paris, 1972, p. 206.

77. Martin Luther (op. cit. note 55), p. 325.

78. Blaise Pascal, Pensées, Brun, 298; Laf., 103.

79. Etienne de La Boétie, Discours de la servitude volontaire, 1574, Garnier-Flammarion, Paris, 1983, p. 184.

Martin Luther,Thomas Müntzer and the Birth of the Modern State: Reflections on the Status of Lutheran Reform in the Historical Sociology of Protestantism

Abstract