ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the orientation and diffusion of the better-known biographies of Luther and comparison for the orientation and diffusion of the Genevan and Zurich Lives. The striking feature of Luther's Lives as written by his fellow Lutherans was their tendency not to view Luther as an individual, but as an instrument of God or embodiment of a set of doctrines incarnating the Reformation. Melanchthon knew that, excepting the fact that Luther used Erasmus' New Testament for his own German translation of the Bible, nothing could be less certain than the reformer's direct indebtedness to Erasmus. Luther emerges as the great unifying factor whose teaching was conveyed by all of his colleagues and spiritual descendants, while the Augsburg Confession is depicted as holding the whole church together after the fashion of the early Christian Creeds. Cochlaeus' Commentaria are an interesting mixture of a chronicle and a very successful attempt at creating a negative image of Luther.
