that they should throng to
Wittenberg. Nine nuns came from the foundation for noble ladies at
Nimpschen, amongst them were a Staupitz, two Zeschau, and Catherine von
Bora; besides these there were sixteen other nuns to take care of, and
so forth. He was much grieved for these poor people, and hastened to
place them under the protection of worthy families. Sometimes, indeed,
it became too much of a good thing, and the crowd of runaway monks
especially annoyed him. He complains: "They desire immediately to
marry, and are unfit for every kind of work." He gave great scandal by
his bold solution of this difficult question; and there was much that
was very painful to his feelings; for amongst those who now returned in
tumult to social life, though there were some high-minded men, others
were coarse and dissolute. Yet all this did not for one moment make him
turn aside; he became, according to his nature, more decided from
opposition. When, in 1524, he published the history of the sufferings
of a nun, Florentina von Oberweimar, he repeated in the dedication what
he had so often preached: "God often testifies in the Scriptures that
He desires no compulsory service, and no one can become his, who is not
so in heart and soul. God help us! Is there nothing in this that speaks
to us? Have we not ears and understanding? I say it again, God will not
have compulsory service; I say it a third time, I say it a hundred
thousand times, God will have no compulsory service."[38]

Thus Luther entered the last period of his life. His disappearance in
the Thuringian forest had made an immense sensation. His opponents, who
were accused of his murder, trembled before the indignation which was
roused against them, both in city and country. The interruption,
however, of his public activity was pregnant with evil to him; as long
as he was at Wittenberg, the centre of the struggle, his word and his
pen could dominate the great spiritual movement both in the north and
south, but in his absence it worked arbitrarily in different
directions, and in many heads. One of Luther's oldest associates began
the confusion, and Wittenberg itself was the scene of action of a wild
commotion. Luther could no longer bear to remain at the Wartburg; he
had already been once secretly to Wittenberg; he now returned there
publicly, against the will of the Elector. Then began an heroic
struggle against old friends, and against conclusions drawn from his
own doctrines. H