he savage vigor of his nature struck out in all directions.
He was deeply shocked at the misery which arose about him from burned
villages and murdered men. If he had been a fanatic in his ideas, he
would probably have perished now in despair; but above the stormy
restlessness which could be perceived in him up to his marriage, there
shone now, like a clear light, the conviction that he was the guardian
of divine right among the Germans, and that to protect civil order and
morality, he must lead public opinion, not follow it. However violent
his utterances are in particular cases, he appears just at this time
preeminently conservative, and more self-possessed than ever. He also
believed, it is true, that he was not destined to live much longer,
and often and with longing awaited his martyrdom. He entered wedlock,
perfectly at peace with himself on this point, for he had fully
convinced himself of the necessity and the scriptural sanction of the
married state. In recent years he had urged all his acquaintances to
marry--finally even his old adversary, the Archbishop of Mainz. He
himself gave two reasons for his decision. For many years he had
deprived his father of his son; and it would be like an atonement if
he should leave to old Hans a grandson in case of his own death. There
was also some defiance in it. His adversaries were saying in triumph
that Luther was humiliated, and since all the world now took offense
at him, he proposed to give them still greater offense in his good
cause. He was of vigorous nature, but there was no trace of coarse
sensuality in him, and we may assume that the best reason, which he
confessed to no friend, was, after all, the decisive one: Gossip had
known for a long time more than he did, but now he also knew that
Catherine was dear to him. "I am no passionate lover, but I am fond of
her," he wrote to one of his closest friends.

And this marriage, performed in opposition to the judgment of his
contemporaries, and amid the shouts of scorn of his adversaries,
became the bond to which we Germans owe as much as to the years in
which he, a priest of the ancient Church, bore arms in behalf of his
theology. For henceforth the husband, the father, and the citizen,
became the reformer also of the domestic life of his nation; and the
very blessing of their earthly life which Protestants and Catholics
share alike today is due to the marriage of an excommunicated monk
with a runaway nun.

For twent