Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/329

 cessively disturbed by this unfortunate occurrence, for I know that you are concerned about Luther's reputation, which is imperiled. I exhort you to bear it meekly, since marriage is said in the Scriptures to be an honorable mode of life. It is likely that he was actually compelled to marry. God has shown us many falls of His saints of old because He wants us, pondering upon His Word, to be botmd neither by the reputation nor the face of man. That person, too, is most godless who, because of the errors of a teacher, condemns tile truth of the teaching.

j * The company of Michael * is a very great comfort to me \in the midst of this turmoil; I wonder that you allowed him to leave you. I am awaiting a letttr from you concerning things in Franconia. Farewell, The day after Corpus Christi,

The courier who delivers this letter is to return to us im-

CR., i, 754.

Greetings. Since dissimilar reports concerning the marriage of Luther will reach you, I have thought it well to apprise you of the truth, and of my opinion concerning the matter. On June 13 Luther tmexpectedly and without informing in advance any of his friends married Bora; but in the evening, after having invited to supper none but Pomeranus and Lucas the portrait painter and Apel the lawyer, he observed the customary marriage rites. One mig^t be amazed that, at this unfortunate time, when good and excellent men everywhere are in distress, he not only should be incapable of sympathizing with them, but should seem entirely careless concerning the evils every- where abounding, and of diminishing his reputation just when Germany has especial need of his sound judgment and good name.

These things have occurred, I tiiink, somewhat in this way: The man is anything but misanthropic and unsociable. You are not igno- rant of his customary mode of life. From these data it is better, I think, for you to draw your own conclusions, rather than that I should write them. No wonder, then, that what is noble and high- I spirited in the man should be somewhat enfeebled; especially since j the occurrence is neither disgraceful or culpable. For if there be gossip as to anything of a more unseemly nature, it is manifestly a lie and a slander; and I think, also, that he was compelled by nature to marry. The mode of life is, indeed, lowly, but it is as holy as saj


 * The italicised words are in I^tin.

In 15J6 he was appointed professor of Latin at Nurembeis.
 * Michael Roting, to whom Melanchthon often refers in his letters to Camerartas,

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