Lyndal Roper, 'Luther and Psychology'

The German Reformation hero Martin Luther has been the subject of many psychoanalytically influenced biographies, most famously those by Erik Erikson and Erich Fromm. These tell us a good deal about the strengths and problems of psycho-biography as it developed after the second world war. But they were not the first to analyze Luther's psychology. In the sixteenth century, Luther's enemies also provided biographical portraits of the reformer which were psychological studies. Johannes Cochlaeus devoted his life to refuting Luther, writing a biography and even a play. In this talk I want to consider why Luther's personality elicited such an interest.