Life of Luther by Julius Koestlin

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The young couple possessed at first a very slender maintenance.
Neither of them had any private means. When, in 1527, Luther was
lying apparently on his deathbed, he had nothing to leave his wife
but the cups which had been given him as presents, and it happened
that he was obliged to pawn even these to find money for their
immediate wants.

By degrees, however, his income and property increased. His salary
as professor at the University (he received no honorarium for his
lectures) was raised on his marriage by the Elector John from 100 to
200 gulden, and John Frederick added 100 gulden more--the value of a
gulden at that time being equal to about 16 marks of the present
German money. He received, also, regular payments in kind. Now and
then he had a special present from the Elector, such as a fine piece
of cloth, a cask of wine, or some venison, with greetings from his
Highness. In 1536 John Frederick sent him two casks of wine, saying
that it was that year's growth of his vineyards, and that Luther
would find how good it was when he tasted it. Luther's share of his
father's property was 250 gulden, which he was to be paid later in
small instalments by his brother James, who was heir to the real
estate. In 1539 Bugenhagen brought him from Denmark an offering of
100 gulden, and two years afterwards the Danish king gave him and
his children an allowance of 50 gulden a year. Luther never troubled
himself much about his expenses, and gave with generous liberality
what he earned. His wife kept things together for the household,
managed it with business-like energy and talent, and tried to add to
their income.

They enlarged their garden by buying some more strips adjoining it,
as well as a field. In 1540 Luther purchased for 610 gulden from a
brother of his wife, who was in needy circumstances, the small farm
of Zulsdorf or Zulsdorf, between Leipzig and Borna--it must not be
confounded with another village of the same name. The market at
Wittenberg being usually very poorly furnished, his wife sought to
supply their domestic wants by her own economy. She planted the
garden with all sorts of trees, among these even mulberry-trees and
fig-trees, and she cultivated also hops; and there was a small
fish-pond. This little property she loved to manage and superintend
in person. At Wittenberg she brewed, as was then the custom, their
own beer, the Convent being privileged in that respect. We hear of
her keeping a number of pigs, and arranging for their sale. Luther
incidentally makes mention of a coachman among his other servants.
Finally, in 1541, Luther purchased a small house near his residence
at the Convent, fearing that he would have to give up the latter
entirely for the work of fortification, and thus be prevented from
leaving it to his wife. He was only obliged in ten years to pay off
a portion of the purchase money.

In this happy married life and home the great Reformer found his
peace and refreshment; in it he found his vocation as a man, a
husband, and a father. Speaking from his own experience he said:
'Next to God's Word, the world has no more precious treasure than
holy matrimony. God's best gift is a pious, cheerful, God-fearing,
home-keeping wife, with whom you may live peacefully, to whom you
can entrust your goods, and body, and life.' He speaks of the
married state, moreover, as a life which, if rightly led, is full to
overflowing of good works. He knows, on the other hand, of many
'stubborn and strange couples, who neither care for their children,
nor love each other from their hearts.' Such people, he said, were
not human beings; they made their homes a hell.

In his language about this life and his own conduct in it, there is
no trace of sentimentality, exaggerated emotion, or artificial
idealism. It is a strong, sturdy, and, as many have thought, a
somewhat rough genuineness of nature, but at the same time full of
tenderness, purity, and fervour; and with it is combined that
heartfelt and loyal devotion to his Heavenly Creator and Lord, and
to His Will and His commands, which marked the character of Luther
to the last.

With regard to his children, Luther had resolved from the moment of
their birth to consecrate them to God, and wean them from a wicked,
corrupt, and accursed world. In several of his letters he entreats
his friends with great earnestness to stand godfather to one of his
children, and to help the poor little heathen to become a Christian,
and pass from the death of sin to a holy and blessed regeneration.
In making this request of a young Bohemian nobleman, then staying in
his house, on behalf of his son Martin, he grew so earnest that, to
the surprise of all present, his voice trembled; this, he said, was
caused by the Holy Spirit of God, for the cause he was pleading was
God's, and it demanded reverence. And yet, in the simple, natural,
innocent, and happy ways of children he recognised the precious
handiwork of God and His protecting Hand. He loved to watch the
games and pleasures of his little ones; all they did was so
spontaneous and so natural. Children, he said, believe so simply and
undoubtedly that God is in Heaven and is their God and their dear
Father, and that there is everlasting life. On hearing one day one
of his children prattling about this life and of the great joy in
Heaven with eating, and dancing, and so forth, he said, 'Their life
is the most blessed and the best; they have none but pure thoughts
and happy imaginations.' At the sight of his little children seated
round the table, he called to mind the exhortation of Jesus, that we
must 'become as little children;' and added, 'Ah! dear God! Thou
hast done clumsily in exalting children--such poor little
simpletons--so high. Is it just and right that Thou shouldst reject
the wise, and receive the foolish? But God our Lord has purer
thoughts than we have; He must, therefore, refine us, as said the
fanatics; He must hew great boughs and chips from us, before He
makes such children and little simpletons of us.'

In what a childlike spirit Luther understood to talk to his children
is shown by his letter from Coburg to his little Hans, then fourteen
years old. He himself taught them to pray, to sing, and to repeat
the Catechism. Of his little daughter Margaret he could tell one of
her godfathers how she had learnt to sing hymns when only four years
old. His hymn 'From the highest Heaven I come,' the freshest, most
joyful, most childlike song that has ever been heard from children's
lips at Christmas, he composed as a father who celebrated that
joyous festival with his own children. It appeared first in the year
1535. He might well, after the manner of old Festival plays, have
let an angel step in among them, who in the opening verses should
bring them the good tidings in the Gospel, to which they should
answer with 'Therefore let us all be joyful.' The words 'Therefore I
am always joyful, Free to dance and free to sing,' call to mind an
old custom of accompanying the Christmas Hymn with a dance.

Luther warned against all outbursts of passion and undue severity
towards children, and carefully guarded himself against such errors,
remembering the bitter experiences of his own childhood in that
respect. But he could be angry and strict enough when occasion
required; he used to say he would rather have a dead son than a bad
one.

There was no really good school at Wittenberg for his boys, and
Luther himself could not devote as much time to them as they
required. He took a resident tutor for them, a young theologian. His
boy John nevertheless gave some trouble with his teaching and
bringing up. His father, contrary to his own wishes, seems to have
been too weak, and his mother's fondness for her first-born seems to
have somewhat spoilt him. Luther gave the boy over afterwards to his
friend Mark Crodel, the Rector of the school at Torgau, whom he held
in high respect as a grammarian, and as a pedagogue of grave and
strict morals.

[Illustration: Fig. 51.--LUTHER'S DAUGHTER 'LENE.' (From Cranach's
portrait.)]

His favourite child was little Lena, a pious, gentle, affectionate
little girl, and devoted to him with her whole heart. A charming
picture of her remains, by Cranach, a friend of the family. But she
died in the bloom of early youth, on September 20, 1542, after a
long and severe illness. The grief he had felt at the loss of his
daughter Elizabeth was now renewed and intensified. When she was
lying on her sick-bed, he said, 'I love her very much indeed; but,
dear God, if it is Thy will to take her hence, I would gladly she
were with Thee.' To Magdalene herself he said, 'Lena, dear, my
little daughter, thou wouldst love to remain here with thy father;
art thou willing to go to that other Father?' 'Yes, dear father,'
she answered; 'just as God wills.' And when she was dying, he fell
on his knees beside her bed, wept bitterly, and prayed for her
redemption, and she fell asleep in his arms. As she lay in her
coffin, he looked at her and exclaimed, 'Ah! my darling Lena, thou
wilt rise again and shine like a star--yea, as the sun;' and added,
'I am happy in the spirit, but in the flesh I am very sorrowful. The
flesh will not be subdued: parting troubles one above measure; it is
a wonderful thing to think that she is assuredly in peace, and that
all is well with her, and yet to be so sad.' To the mourners he
said, 'I have sent a saint to Heaven: could mine be such a death as
hers, I would welcome such a death this moment.' He expressed the
same sorrow, and the same exultation in his letters to his friends.
To Jonas he wrote: 'You will have heard that my dearest daughter
Magdalene is born again in the everlasting kingdom of Christ.
Although I and my wife ought only to thank God with joy for her
happy departure, whereby she has escaped the power of the world, the
flesh, the Turks and the devil, yet so strong is natural love that
we cannot bear it without sobs and sighs from the heart, without a
bitter sense of death in ourselves. So deeply printed on our hearts
are her ways, her words, her gestures, whether alive or dying, that
even Christ's death cannot drive away this agony.' His little Hans,
whom his sick sister longed to see once more, he had sent for from
Torgau a fortnight before she died: he wrote for that purpose to
Crodel, saying 'I would not have my conscience reproach me
afterwards for having neglected anything.' But when several weeks
later, about Christmas-time, under the influence of grief and the
tender words which his mother had spoken to him, a desire came over
the boy to leave Torgau and live at home, his father exhorted him to
conquer his sorrow like a man, not to increase by his own the grief
of his mother, and to obey God, who had appointed him, through his
parents' direction, to live at Torgau.

The care of the children and of the whole household fell to the
share of Frau Luther, and her husband could trust her with it in
perfect confidence. She was a woman of strong, ruling, practical
nature, who enjoyed hard work and plenty of it. She served her
husband at all times, after her own manner, with faithful and
affectionate devotion. He must often have felt grateful, amidst his
physical and mental sufferings, and the violent storms and
temptations that vexed his soul, that a helpmate of such a sound
constitution, such strong nerves, and such a clever, sensible mind
should have fallen to his share.

Luther lived with her in thankful love and harmony; nor have even the
calumnies of malicious enemies been able to cast a shadow of doubt
upon the perfect concord of his married life. In his 'Table Talk' he
says of her: 'I am, thank God, very well, for I have a pious, faithful
wife, on whom a man may safely rest his heart.' And again he said once
to her, 'Katie, you have a pious husband, who loves you; you are an
empress.' In words now grave, now humorous, he told her of his tender
love for her; and how trustful and open-hearted were their relations
to each other we gather from the way in which he mocks and occasionally
teases her for her little weaknesses. In later life and in his last
letters he calls her his 'heartily beloved housewife' and his 'darling,'
and he often signs himself 'your love' and 'your old love,' and again
'your dear lord.' Still he said frankly and quietly that his original
suspicion that Catharine was proud was well-founded. In some of his
letters he speaks of her as his 'lord Katie' and his 'gracious wife,'
and of himself as her 'willing servant.' Once he declared that if he
had to marry again, he would carve an obedient wife out of stone, as he
despaired of finding obedience in wives. He spoke also of the
talkativeness of his Katie. Referring to her loving but over-anxious
care for him on his last journey, he called her a holy, careful
woman. From her thrift and energy she gained from him the nicknames
of Lady Zulsdorf, and Lady of the Pigmarket; thus one of his last
letters is addressed to 'my heartily beloved housewife, Catharine,
Lady Luther, Lady Doctor, Lady Zulsdorf, Lady of the Pigmarket, and
whatever else she may be.'

The 'careful' Catharine was not permitted to check the kind
liberality of her husband. His friend Mathesius tells us, of their
early married life, 'A poor man made him a pitiful tale of distress,
and having no cash with him, Luther came to his wife--she being then
confined--for the god-parents' money, and brought it to the poor
man, saying, 'God is rich, He will supply what is wanted.'
Afterwards, however, he grew more careful, seeing how often he was
imposed upon. 'Rogues,' he said, 'have sharpened my wits.' An
example of how particular, nay anxious, he was never even to let it
seem that he sought for presents or other profit for himself, was
given in his letter to Amsdorf, declining a gift of venison. He
wrote once to the Elector John, who had sent him an offering: 'I
have unfortunately more, especially from your Highness, than I can
conscientiously keep. As a preacher, it is not fitting for me to
enjoy a superfluity, nor do I covet it; ... therefore I beseech your
Highness to wait until I ask of you.' In 1539, when Bugenhagen
brought to him the hundred gulden from the King of Denmark, he
wished to give him half of it, for the service Bugenhagen had
rendered him during his absence. For his office of preacher in the
town church he never received any payment; the town from time to
time made him a present of wine from the council-cellar, and lime
and stones for building his house. For his writings he received
nothing from the publishers. Against over-anxious cares and
troubles, and setting her heart too much on worldly possessions, he
earnestly cautioned his wife, and insisted that amid the numerous
household matters she should not neglect to read the Bible. Once in
1535 he promised her fifty gulden if she would read the Bible
through, whereupon, as he told a friend, it became a 'very serious
matter to her.'

Luther frequently assisted his wife in her household. He was very
fond of gardening and agriculture, and we have seen how he sent
commissions to friends for stocking his garden at Wittenberg. On one
occasion, when going to fish with his wife in their little pond, he
noticed with joy how she took more pleasure in her few fish than
many a nobleman did in his great lakes with many hundred draughts of
fishes. In 1539 he had to order a chest at Torgau for his 'lord
Katie,' for their store of house-linen. Of the handsome and
elaborate way in which Catharine thought of ornamenting the exterior
of their house--the home of her illustrious husband--a fine specimen
remains in the door of the Luther-haus at Wittenberg. Luther wrote,
by her wish, to a friend at Pirna in 1539, pastor Lauterbach, about
a 'carved house-door,' for the width of which she sent the
measurement. The door, carved in sandstone, and bearing the date
1540, has on one side Luther's bust and on the other his crest, and
below are two small seats, built there according to the custom of
the times.

[Illustration: Fig. 52.--Door of Luther's House at Wittenberg.]

In view of his approaching death, Luther wished, in 1542, to provide
for his devoted wife by a will. He left her for her lifetime and
absolute property the little farm of Zulsdorf, the small house at
Wittenberg (already mentioned), and his goblets and other treasures,
such as rings, chains, &c, which he valued at about 1,000 gulden. In
doing so, he thanked her for having been to him a 'pious, true wife
at all times, full of loving, tender care towards him, and for
having borne to him and trained, by God's blessing, five children
surviving.' And he wished to provide therewith that she 'must not
receive from the children, but the children from her; that they must
honour and obey her, as God hath commanded.' He further bade her pay
off the debt which was still owing (probably for the house),
amounting to about 450 gulden, because, with the exception of his
few treasures, he had no money to leave her. In making this
provision he no doubt considered that, according to the law, the
inheritance of a married woman who had formerly been a nun might be
disputed, together with the legitimacy of her marriage. Luther did
not wish to bind himself in his will to legal forms. He besought the
Elector graciously to protect his bequest, and concluded his will
with these proud words:

'Finally, seeing I do not use legal forms, for which I have my own
reasons, I desire all men to take these words as mine--a man known
openly in heaven, on earth, and in hell also, who has enough
reputation or authority to be trusted and believed better than any
notary. To me, a poor, unworthy, miserable sinner, God, the Father
of all mercy, has entrusted the Gospel of His dear Son, and has made
me true and faithful therein, and has so preserved and found me
hitherto, that through me many in this world have received the
Gospel, and hold me as a teacher of the truth, despite of the Pope's
ban, of emperor, king, princes, priests, and all the wrath of the
devil. Let them believe me also in this small matter, especially as
this is my hand, not altogether unknown. In hope that it will be
enough for men to say and prove that this is the earnest, deliberate
meaning of Dr. Martin Luther, God's notary and witness in his
Gospel, confirmed by his own hand and seal.'

The will is dated the day of the Epiphany, January 6, 1542, and was
witnessed by Melancthon, Cruciger, and Bugenhagen, whose
attestations and signatures appear below. After Luther's death, John
Frederick immediately ratified it.

As regards his servants, Luther was particularly careful that they
should have nothing to complain of against him, for the devil, he
said, had a sharp eye upon him, to be able to cast a slur upon his
teaching. To those who served him faithfully, he was ever gentle,
grateful, and even indulgent. There was a certain Wolfgang, or Wolf
Sieberger, whom he had taken as early as 1517 into his service at
the convent--an honest but weak man, who knew of no other means of
livelihood. Him Luther retained in his service throughout his life,
and tried to make some provision for his future. He once sought, as
we have seen, to practise turning with him, but of this nothing
further is related. He loved, too, to joke with him in his own
hearty manner. When, in 1534, Wolf built a fowling-floor or place
for catching birds, he reprimanded him for it in a written
indictment, making the 'good, honourable' birds themselves lodge a
complaint against him. They pray Luther to prevent his servant, or
at least to insist upon Wolf (who was a sleepy fellow), strewing
grain for them in the evening, and then not rising before eight
o'clock in the morning; else, they would pray to God to make him
catch in the day-time frogs and snails in their stead, and let fleas
and other insects crawl over him at night; for why should not Wolf
rather employ his wrath and vindictiveness against the sparrows,
daws, mice, and such like? When a servant named Rischmann parted
from him, in 1532, after several years of hard work, Luther sent
word to his wife from Torgau, where he was then staying with the
Elector, to dismiss him 'honourably,' and with a suitable present.
'Think,' he wrote, 'how often we have given to bad men, when all has
been lost; so be liberal, and do not let such a good, fellow
want..... Do not fail; for a goblet is there. Think from whom you
got it. God will give us another, I know.'

His guests valued highly his company and conversation, especially
those men who came from far and near to visit him. Several of them
have recorded sayings from his lips on these occasions. Luther's
'Table Talk,' which we possess now in print, is founded for the most
part on records given by Viet Dietrich and Lauterbach just
mentioned, who before his call to Pirna in 1539, when deacon at
Wittenberg, was one of Luther's closest friends and his daily guest.
These memorials, however, have been elaborated and recast many
times, by a strange hand, in an arbitrary and unfortunate manner. A
publication of the original text, from which recently a diary of
Lauterbach, of the year 1538, has already appeared, may now be
looked for. Last, but not least, we have to mention John Mathesius,
who, after having been a student at Wittenberg in 1529, and then
rector of the school at Joachimsthal, returned to study at
Wittenberg from 1540 to 1542, and obtained the honour which he
sought for, of being a guest at Luther's table. Deeply impressed as
he was by his intercourse with the Reformer, he described his
impressions to his congregation at Joachimsthal, when afterwards
their pastor, in addresses from the pulpit, which were printed, and
gave them a sketch of Luther's life, with numerous anecdotes about
him. He thus became Luther's first biographer, and, from his
personal intimacy with his friend, and his own true-heartedness,
fervour, and genuineness of nature, he must ever remain endeared to
the followers and admirers of the great Reformer.

[Illustration: Fig.53.--Mathesius. (From an old woodcut.)]

Mathesius tells us, indeed, how Luther used often to sit at table
wrapt in deep and anxious thought, and would sometimes keep a
cloister-like silence throughout the meal. At times even he would
work between the courses, or at meals or immediately after, dictate
sermons to friends who had to preach, but who wanted practice in the
art. But when once conversation was opened, it flowed with ease and
freedom, and, as Mathesius says, even merrily. The friends used to
call Luther's speeches their 'table-spice.' His topics varied
according to circumstances and the occasion--things spiritual and
temporal; questions of faith and conduct; the works of God and the
deeds of man; events past and present; hints and short practical
suggestions for ecclesiastical life and office; and apophthegms of
worldly wisdom; all enriched with proverbs of every kind and German
rhymes, which Luther had a great aptitude in composing. Jocular
moods were mingled with deep gravity and even indignation. But in
all he said, as in all he did, he was guided constantly by the
loftiest principles, by the highest considerations of morality and
religious truth, and that in the simple and straightforward manner
which was his nature, utterly free from affectation or artificial
effort.

In these his discourses, it is true, as in his writings and letters,
nay, sometimes in his addresses from the pulpit, expressions and
remarks fell occasionally from his lips which sound to modern ears
extremely coarse. His was a frank, rugged nature, with nothing
slippery, nothing secretly impure about it. His friends and guests
spoke of the 'chaste lips' of Luther: 'He was,' says Mathesius, 'a
foe to unchastity and loose talk. As long as I have been with him I
have never heard a shameful word fall from his lips.' It was a great
contrast to the coarse indecencies which he denounced with such
fierce indignation in the monks, his former brethren, as also to the
more subtle indelicacies which were practised in those days by so
many elegant Humanists of modern culture, both ecclesiastics and
laymen.

Luther's conversation was also remarkable for its freedom from any
spiteful or frivolous gossip, of which even at Wittenberg there was
then no lack. Of such scandal-mongers, who sought to pry out evil in
their neighbours, Luther used frequently to say, 'They are regular
pigs, who care nothing about the roses and violets in the garden,
but only stick their snouts into the dirt.'

After dinner there was usually music with the guests and children;
sacred and secular songs were sung, together with German and
sometimes old Latin hymns.

Luther also had a bowling-alley made for his young friends, where
they would disport themselves with running and jumping. He liked to
throw the first ball himself, and was heartily laughed at when he
missed the mark. He would turn then to the young folk, and remind
them in his pleasant way that many a one who thought he would do
better, and knock down all the pins at once, would very likely miss
them all, as they would often have to find in future their life and
calling.