To the elector John Frederick letter 17 - Martin Luther

TO THE ELECTOR JOHN FREDERICK

The Wittenberg lawyers ratify Caspar Beier’s secret marriage engagement. January 22, 1544.

Grace and peace and my poor paternoster! I humbly desire to inform your Grace that secret engagements are again common here. Many young people are here from many lands, so that the maidens have become very bold, and pursue the students into their rooms, offering them their love; and I hear some parents are ordering their sons home, declaring that we hang women about their necks, depriving them of their sons, and thus give this fine school of learning a bad name. I fancied your Grace had ordered secret engagements to be done away with. So, as I sat securely here, I was shocked by a verdict of our Consistorium upon a private engagement. Therefore I was moved to preach a powerful sermon against them on the following Sabbath, saying we must adhere to the old paths, which from time immemorial have been inculcated in the Holy Scriptures and among the heathen, as well as among ourselves, viz. that parents shall dispose of their children without any previous engagement, which is an invention of the Pope, at the devil’s instigation, to undermine the God-given authority of the parents, robbing them of their children, to their deep grief, instead of said children honouring them according to God’s command. This would have happened to Philip and his wife had I not preached this sermon. They would have pined for their son, who had been led astray by evil companions till he secretly and solemnly engaged himself, and I had difficulty in setting him free. I

also recall the case of Herzog Philip with his son Ernest and Starstedel’s daughter, of which your Grace knows, and something similar nearly happened in my house. Now, as these secret vows are certainly the work of the devil and the Papacy to undermine God’s command to prevent them entering into a happy marriage, I shall not suffer this church of Christ, of which I am pastor, and of which I must render account to God, the Holy Ghost, to tolerate them. I have proclaimed from the pulpit that a child cannot become engaged himself; and that if he do, it is no engagement, and a father must not acquiesce therein, now that we know what is the origin of all this misery. Therefore I humbly request that your Grace would once more, for God’s sake, exercise your authority with the princely powers against Pope and devil, so that we may be in a better position to drive out of our church this devil, the secret oath, so that poor parents may be able to train and retain their children in security. Therefore I plead that Caspar Beier, who has appealed from the Consistorium to your Grace, should be set free before you leave for the Diet, for it has been a slow process. I could have arranged it in a day, but they have been at it since Whitsuntide, and have merely discovered a private vow and the weak will of the father, who declares that he never wished it should take place, but they seemed determined not to understand. Certainly the son in his four years’ engagement neither asked his parents’ consent nor

that of the maiden’s parents, which is unusual when young men are in love; but let the vow fall into abeyance till the maiden’s people appeal to the father. Still all this is nothing so long as the poisoned vow, the oath, remains un-refuted. Your Electoral Grace will act wisely, for in this insignificant work your Grace will be doing a glorious service to God and to many others, besides affording consolation to all parents and preventing numberless dangers to many souls. May the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to whom be praise to all eternity, help your Electoral Grace in all such matters. Amen. Your Electoral Grace’s humble servant, MARTIN LUTHER . (De Wette.)