As the Reformation aimed at the restitution of the purity and simplicity
of the first Christian communities, the position of woman in the Church
as well as in private life was of course also considered.
As has been shown in former chapters, the authorities of the mediæval
Christian Church regarded the daughters of Eve not only as creatures
inferior to man, but also as the medium preferred by Satan above all
others to lead man astray. Seeing in woman nothing but a necessary evil,
they claimed also that a nun is purer than a mother, just as a celibate
monk is holier than a father. This prejudice of benighted theologians
against woman had influenced the conduct of the State toward the woman
and made her everywhere the victim of unjust laws. For a long time in
certain countries to ask rights for women exposed one to the suspicion
of infidelity.
Therefore it must be regarded as an event of greatest importance in the
history of woman, when Martin Luther, the most prominent figure in the
Reformation, decided to take a wife. He married =Catherine von Bora=, a
lady twenty-four years of age, of a noble Saxon family.
She had left the convent of Nimbschen together with eight other nuns in
order to worship Christ without being compelled to observe endless
ceremonies, which gave neither light to the mind nor peace to the soul.
Protected by pious citizens of Torgau, the former nuns had lived
together in retirement. Luther married his betrothed on June 11, 1525,
with Lucas Cranach and another friend as witnesses. The ceremony was
performed by Melanchton.
The marriage, blessed with six children, was a very happy one. Catherine
proved to be a congenial mate, of whom Luther always spoke as “his
heartily beloved house-frau.” The great reformer himself was a tender
husband, and the most loving of fathers. Nothing he liked better than to
sit amidst his dear ones, enjoying a glass of wine and those beautiful
folk-songs, in which German literature is so rich.
Many of these little poems breathe the sincere respect and high
appreciation, in which woman was held by the Germans since time
immemorial. There is for instance Simon Dach’s well known poem “Anne of
Tharau.” Written in 1637, it reads:
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