CHAPTER XVII

. GLIMPSES OF A REFORMER’S MORALS

_pages_ 169-318

1. LUTHER’S VOCATION: HIS STANDARD OF LIFE.

What may rightly be looked for in a reformer of the Church. Luther’s contemporaries on his shortcomings: Joh. Findling, Erasmus, and Ferreri. The remedy proposed by Luther to drive away depression, viz. self-indulgence _pages_ 169-180

2. SOME OF LUTHER’S PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES OF LIFE.

His contradictory views on sin, and on penance; his ideas suited to meet his own case and to relieve his own conscience. His attitude towards human endeavour; predestination and unfreedom; the devil’s dominion; the failings of the Saints. “Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe more boldly still.” Protestant strictures on Luther’s doctrine of sin _pages_ 180-199

3. LUTHER’S ADMISSIONS CONCERNING HIS OWN PRACTICE AND VIRTUE.

Luther on the weakness of his own faith, his doubts, his utter misery, and the shortcomings of his life. His attitude towards prayer; prayer mingled with imprecation; his threatened prayer against dishonest brewers. Christian joy and peace. Preparation for the sacraments. Mortification and self-conquest. Mediocrity as the aim of ethics. Lack of zeal for the salvation of all men; disregard for missionary work. Luther in his home; minor disappointments _pages_ 200-217

4. THE TABLE-TALK AND THE FIRST NOTES OF THE SAME.

Luther’s evening conversations at Wittenberg recorded by his friends; utility of the notes they left; Walch, Kroker and others on the authority of these notes. Excerpts from the Table-Talk: The pith of the new religion, viz. confidence in Christ. Catholic practices and institutions described: The Mass, fasting, confession, the religious life. Praises heaped on the Table-Talk by Luther’s early disciples. Luther himself responsible for the foulness of the language. Pommer’s way of dealing with the devil. Filthy references to the Pope; unseemly comparisons; “_adorabunt nostra stercora_.” Such language by no means confined to the Table-Talk; a few quotations from Luther’s “Wider das Bapstum zu Rom.” An excuse alleged, viz. that such language was then quite usual. Sir Thomas More’s protest. A modern defender of Luther. The real explanation of Luther’s unrestraint _pages_ 217-241

5. ON MARRIAGE AND SEXUALITY.

On the imperative necessity of marriage; the irresistibility of the natural impulse; the world full of adulterers? The “miracle” of voluntary and chaste celibacy. Luther’s animus against Popish celibacy. His loosening of the marriage-bond. Cases in which marriage is annulled. Meaning of the words “If the wife refuse, then let the maid come.” A modern secularist’s appeal to Luther’s principles. Polygamy. Luther, after some hesitation, comes to tolerate polygamy, but makes it a matter of the _forum internum_. The opinions of Catholic theologians. “Secret marriages” and concubinage; what those have to do who are forbidden by law to contract marriage. Denial of the sacramental character of matrimony. Luther’s tone in speaking of things sexual; a letter to Spalatin; regret expressed for offensive manner of speech; odious comparisons contained in his “Vom Schem Hamphoras” (against the Jews) and “Wider Hans Worst” (against the Catholics); improper anecdotes; Luther, like Abraham, “the father of a great people,” viz. of the children of all the monks and nuns who discarded their vows _pages_ 241-273

6. CONTEMPORARY COMPLAINTS. LATER FALSE REPORTS.

Simon Lemnius; fanatics and Anabaptists; Catholics: Hieronymus Dungersheim, Duke George, Ambrosius Catharinus, Hoyer of Mansfeld; Protestants: Melanchthon, Leo Judae, Zwingli, Bullinger, Joh. Agricola. How far the complaints were grounded. Apocryphal legends to Luther’s discredit: Had Luther three children of his own apart from those born to him by Bora? His jesting letters to his wife not to be taken seriously. Did he indulge in the “worst orgies” with the escaped nuns in the Black Monastery of Wittenberg? The passages “which will not bear repetition.” Whether Luther as a young monk declared he would bring things to such a pass as to be able to marry a girl; Wolfgang Agricola’s authority for this statement and the information he gives concerning Spalatin. Luther’s stay as a boy in Cotta’s house at Eisenach no ground for a charge of immorality. Did Luther describe the lot of the hog as the most enviable goal of happiness? Did he allow the validity of marriage between brother and sister? Whether he counselled people to pray for many wives and few children; variants of an ancient rhyme. Did he include wives in the “daily bread” for which we pray in the Our Father? Was he the inventor of the proverb: “Who loves not woman, wine and song, remains a fool his whole life long”? _pages_ 273-294

7. THE “GOOD DRINK.”

Need of examining critically the charges made against Luther; the number of his literary productions scarcely compatible with his having been an habitual drunkard. Testimonies of Musculus, the “Dicta Melanchthoniana,” Ickelsamer, Lemnius, etc. Opinions of Catholics: Catharinus, Hoyer of Mansfeld, Joh. Landau and others. Luther’s own statements about his “Good Drink”; his reasons for such indulgence; his distinction between drinking and drunkenness; his reprobation of habitual drunkenness. Melanchthon and Mathesius, two witnesses to Luther’s temperance. From the cellar and the tap-room; gifts in kind made to Luther; his calls on the cellar of the Wittenberg council; the signature “_Doctor plenus_” appended to one of his letters to be read as “_Doctor Johannes_”; the “old wine” of the Coburg and Luther’s indisposition in 1530; beer _versus_ wine _pages_ 294-318

##