Summary
Home Life
Luther lived for 20 years after his marriage, and these last 20 years of his life are often neglected by biographers. There are several reasons for the relative neglect of Luther's later years. In part it has to do with the fact that, while Luther's life was exciting in the 1520s, the 1530s were a less eventful time. The excitement of the years in which he broke with the church, married, reprimanded the peasants and quarreled with friends and foes over doctrine gave way to a slower, more stable life for Luther. It is also challenging, especially for admirers of Luther, to tell the story of his later years because Luther grew increasingly quarrelsome as he got older. In the 1530s and 1540s he produced a number of increasingly violent treatises against those whom he saw as the enemies of the gospel. Despite this, the last 20 years of his life are important to give us a full picture of who Luther was.
Unlike the relative obscurity of his early years, Luther was a major public figure in the 1530s and was well known throughout Europe. As such, he often received visitors in Wittenberg from throughout Europe. One of these travelers has left us a remarkable firsthand description of a visit with Luther in 1523. This text gives a strong sense of Luther's personality and lifestyle, and is worth quoting at length:
Luther conveys the same impression in his countenance as in his books. His eyes are penetrating and they almost sparkle in a sinister fashion as one can observe it at times among the mentally ill […] His manner of speech is vehement, abounding in insinuations and ridicule. His apparel hardly distinguishes him from a courtier. When he leaves the house in which he lives—it was formerly the cloister—he wears, it is said, the robe of his order. Sitting together with him we did not merely talk but also drank beer and wine in a good mood, as is the custom there. In every respect he seems to be a “good fellow,” as they say in German. The integrity of his life, which is frequently praised among us here, does not distinguish him from the rest of us.
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- Martin Luther and the German Reformation , pp. 79 - 90Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2016