ABSTRACT
Circulated in the mid-1520s, this anonymous song addressed itself to Catholic theologian Jerome Emser, one of the foremost Catholic polemicists of the day. The heated debate between Emser and Martin Luther addressed by the piece provides a unique opportunity to study the role of song as polemic in the Reformation, and in particular the way theologians perceived song as a path to the heart of the average Christian. While educated polemicists in the early 1520s peppered the cities with pamphlets expounding their views on the religious situation, with very few exceptions they shunned song as a medium. Luther and Emser, however, put song into service in their debate over canonization and sainthood, because popular song was the simplest and most successful way to reach average Germans, who lacked the education to read pamphlets but had ample opportunity to hear songs in public places. In the process, both men attempted to lay claim to the practices of popular devotion: Emser to reinforce those practices and the connections to Catholic belief they embodied, Luther to remap them and align them with Protestant theology.
