Vorreformatorische Laienbibel und reformatorisches Evangelium Vorreformatorische Laienbibel und reformatorisches Evangelium

Before the Reformation, the vernacular Bible was widely distributed, especially in Germany. Karlstadt was the first of the Wittenberg reformers to pick up Erasmus of Rotterdam's plea for a layman's Bible, a plea which he made in Latin and which had a great deal of influence among the public and among others who had similar thoughts. It also was crucial to the plausibility of the principle of the Scriptures during the Reformation. Luther's relationship to the Scriptures, which essentially was geared toward the concept of the gospel, was the sign of a new specific theological approach which differed from the motives of biblical humanism. The role of the layman's Bible in the late Middle Ages, humanism and the Reformation makes the perspectives of the epochal significance of Luther's theology and the process of the Reformation tangible.