Passional Christi und Antichristi

Martin Luther (1483–1546).
“Passional Christi und Antichristi.” [Extracted from:] Der [Erste] Theil der Bücher, Schrifften, und Predigten.
Eisleben: Urban Gaubisch, 1564.
(BRA0128)

This 1564 reprinting of Luther’s Passional Christi und Antichristi, first published in Wittenberg in 1521 and widely disseminated at that time, includes twenty-six woodcuts by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553). These polemical prints contrasted the ministry of Christ to the corruption of the Antichrist, identified throughout as the pope in Rome. Shown is Cranach’s pair of woodcuts illustrating Christ’s expulsion of the money changers from the temple and papal endorsement of the sale of indulgences. This monetary dimension of salvation was one of the major issues that led Luther and many of his German contemporaries away from the Church of Rome.