d acquired power in his
absence, and resumed with renewed energy his interrupted work. He strove
to arrest the excesses of the Zwickau fanatics, and counselled peace and
order to the inflamed peasants; while he warned the princes and nobles
of the unchristian cruelty of many of their doings, which had driven the
people to exasperation and frenzy. At no period of his life is he
greater than now, in the stand which he made against lawlessness on the
one hand and tyranny on the other. He vindicated his claim to be a
reformer in the highest sense by the wise and manly part which he acted
in this great social crisis in the history of Germany. In this year also
he published his acrimonious reply to Henry VIII. on the seven
sacraments. Although he had been at first united in a common cause with
Erasmus, estrangement had gradually sprung up between the scholar of
Rotterdam and the enthusiastic reformer of Wittenberg. This estrangement
came to an open breach in the year 1525, when Erasmus published his
treatise "De Libero Arbitrio." Luther immediately followed with his
counter-treatise "De Servo Arbitrio." The controversy raged loudly
between them; and in the vehemence of his hostility to the doctrine of
Erasmus, Luther was led into various assertions of a very questionable
kind, besides indulging in the wild abuse of his opponent's character.
The quarrel was an unhappy one on both sides; and it must be confessed
there is especially a want of generosity in the manner in which Luther
continued to cherish the dislike which sprang out of it.

In the course of the same year Luther married Katharina von Bora, one of
nine nuns who, under the influence of his teaching, had emancipated
themselves from their religious vows. The step rejoiced his enemies and
even alarmed some of his friends, like Melancthon. But it greatly
contributed to his happiness, while it served to enrich and strengthen
his character. All the most interesting and touching glimpses we get of
him henceforth are in connection with his wife and children.

Two years after his marriage he fell into a dangerous sickness and
depression of spirits, from which he was only aroused by the dangers
besetting Christendom from the advance of the Turks. Two years later, in
1529, he engaged in his famous conference at Marburg with Zwingli and
other Swiss divines. The following year finds him at Coburg, while the
diet sat at Augsburg. It was deemed prudent to intrust the interests of