History of the Christian Church, Volume VII. Modern Christianity. The German Reformation.

He had long before been convinced that vows of perpetual celibacy are unscriptural and unnatural. He held that God has created m ...

Bamberg, who had himself married a nun), to, his house, and in their presence was joined in matrimony to Catharina von Bora in t ...

obedient, compliant in all things, beyond my hopes. I would not exchange my poverty for the wealth of Croesus."^581 He often pre ...

In his will (1542), seventeen years after his marriage, he calls her a "pious, faithful, and devoted wife, full of loving, tende ...

Nothing can be more charming or creditable to his heart than the truly childlike letter he wrote to his oldest boy Hans, then fo ...

and prayed for her redemption. As she lay in her coffin, he exclaimed, "Ah! my darling Lena, thou wilt rise again, and shine lik ...

carriage, but he kept a bowling-alley for exercise. He liked to throw the first ball himself, and elicited a hearty laugh when h ...

of the Devil. "The heart," he said, "is satisfied, refreshed, and strengthened by music." He played the lute, sang melodiously, ...

best capital. All the Reformers were poor, and singularly free from avarice; they moved in a lofty sphere, and despised the vani ...

defies the world, the flesh, and the Devil. His feet are firmly planted on the ground, as if they could not be moved. "Here I st ...

Augustin, are the brightest examples of Christian women in the ancient Church. Nonna, Anthusa, and Monica were more useful in gi ...

Far be it from us to depreciate the value of voluntary celibacy which is inspired by the love of God. The mysterious word of our ...

lived with his plain, pious, faithful, and benevolent wife, till her death in 1557. He was seen at times rocking the cradle whil ...

of clerical marriage. He lent a willing hand to the divorces and re-marriages of his royal master. And yet with all his weakness ...

service than he who continued single, and only talked of population; from this motive I had scarcely taken orders a year, before ...

The stubborn spirit of rebellious man!" A Romish priest or a Russian pope depends for his influence chiefly upon his official ch ...

the laity, and the use of a dead language in public worship. They also reduced the excessive ceremonialism and ritualistic displ ...

Creed, the responses, the kneeling posture in communion, even the elevation of the host and chalice (which he afterwards abandon ...

in an abridged form. He also retained the public confession and absolution, and recommended private confession of sin to the min ...

by which he delighted and captivated his hearers." Luther observed no strict method. He usually followed the text, and combined ...