| CHAPTER XXI. PRINCELY MARRIAGES | pages 3-79 |
| 1. Luther and Henry VIII of England. Bigamy instead of Divorce. |
| The case of Henry VIII; Robert Barnes is despatched to Wittenberg; Luther proposes bigamy as a safer expedient than divorce (1531); Melanchthon’s advice: Tutissimum est regi to take a second spouse. The conduct of Pope Clement VII. The Protestant Princes of Germany endeavour to secure the good-will of the King of England; final collapse of the negotiations; Luther’s later allusions to Henry VIII | pages 3-13 |
| 2. The Bigamy of Philip of Hesse. |
| The question put by Philip to Luther in 1526; Philip well informed as to Luther’s views. Bucer deputed by the Landgrave to secure the sanction of Wittenberg for his projected bigamy; Bucer’s mission crowned with success; Philip weds Margaret von der Sale; Luther’s kindly offices rewarded by a cask of wine; the bigamy becomes known at the Court of Dresden; the Landgrave is incensed by Bucer’s proposal that he should deny having committed bigamy. Luther endeavours to retire behind the plea that his permission was a “dispensation,” a piece of advice given “in confession,” and, accordingly, not to be alleged in public. Some interesting letters of Luther to his sovereign and to Hesse; his private utterances on the subject recorded in the Table-Talk. “Si queam mutare!” The Eisenach Conference; Luther counsels the Landgrave to tell a good, lusty lie; the Landgrave’s annoyance. Melanchthon’s worries; an expurgated letter of his on Landgrave Philip. Duke Henry of Brunswick enters the field against Luther and the Landgrave; Luther’s stinging reply: “Wider Hans Worst.” Johann Lening’s “Dialogue”; how it was regarded by Luther, Menius and the Swiss theologians. The Hessian bigamy is hushed up. The Bigamy judged by Protestant opinion; Luther’s consent to some extent extorted under pressure | pages 13-79 |
| CHAPTER XXII. LUTHER AND LYING | pages 80-178 |
| 1. A Battery of Assertions. |
| Luther’s conduct in the matter of the Bigamy an excuse for the present chapter. His dishonest assurances in his letters to Leo X, to Bishop Scultetus his Ordinary, and to the Emperor Charles V (1518-1520); his real feelings at that time as shown in a letter to Spalatin; Luther’s later parody of Tetzel’s teaching; his insinuation that it was the Emperor’s intention to violate the safe-conduct granted; he calls into question the authenticity of the Papal Bull against him, whilst all the time knowing it to be genuine; he advises ordinandi to promise celibacy with a mental reservation; his distortion of St. Bernard’s “perdite vixi”; his allusion to the case of Conradin, “slain by Pope Clement IV,” and to the spurious letter of St. Ulrich on the babies’ heads found in a convent pond at Rome. His allegation that his “Artickel” had been subscribed to at Schmalkalden; his unfairness to Erasmus and Duke George; his statement, that, for a monk to leave his cell without his scapular, was accounted a mortal sin, and that, in Catholicism, people expected to be saved simply by works; his advocacy of the “Gospel-proviso”; his advice to the Bishop of Samland to make a show of hesitation in forsaking Catholicism | pages 80-99 |
| 2. Opinions of Contemporaries in Either Camp. |
| Bucer, MÜnzer, J. Agricola, Erasmus, Duke George, etc., on Luther’s disregard for truth | pages 99-102 |
| 3. The Psychological Problem. Self-Suggestion and Scriptural Grounds of Excuse. |
| The palpable untruth of certain statements which Luther never tires of repeating. How to explain his putting forward as true what was so manifestly false: The large place occupied by the jocular element; his tendency to extravagance of language; he comes, by dint of repetition, to persuade himself of the truth of his charges. The new theology of mendacity: Luther’s earlier views consistent with the Church’s; study of the Old Testament leads him to the theory that only such untruths as injure our neighbour are real lies; influence of his teaching on the theologians of his circle: Melanchthon, Bucer, Bugenhagen, Capito, etc. | pages 102-116 |
| 4. Some Leading Slanders on the MediÆval Church Historically Considered. |
| Luther’s distortions of the actual state of things before his coming; admissions of modern scholars. The olden Catholics’ supposed “holiness-by-works”; on the relations between creature and Creator; the Lamb of God; the Eucharistic sacrifice; “personal religion”; Luther’s plea that he revived respect for the secular calling; the olden teaching concerning perfection | pages 116-131 |
| 5. Was Luther the Liberator of Womankind from “MediÆval Degradation”? |
| Luther’s claim to be the saviour of woman and matrimony; what he says of the Pope’s treatment of marriage; marriage “a state of sin”; witnesses to the contrary: Devotional and Liturgical books; Luther’s own attachment in his younger days to St. Anne. Various statements of Luther’s to the advantage or otherwise of woman and the married life; his alteration of outlook during the controversy on the vow of Chastity; the natural impulse, and the honour of marriage; expressions ill-befitting one who aspired to deliver womankind; practical consequences of the new view of woman: Matrimonial impediments and divorce; Duke George on the saying “If the wife refuse then let the maid come.” Respect for the female sex in Luther’s conversations. The new matrimonial conditions and the slandered opponents; the actual state of things in Late MediÆval times as vouched for in the records. Two concluding pictures towards the history of woman: A preacher’s matrimonial trials; the letters of Hasenberg and von der Heyden and the “New-Zeittung” and “Newe Fabel” which they called forth | pages 131-178 |
| CHAPTER XXIII. FRESH CONTROVERSIES WITH ERASMUS (1534, 1536) AND DUKE GEORGE († 1539) | pages 179-193 |
| 1. Luther and Erasmus again. |
| Their relations since 1525; the “Hyperaspistes”; Luther’s att
VOL. IV. THE REFORMER (II)
LUTHER
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