Luther had six children : 1. John, born June 7, 1526, was a jurist in Konigsberg, and died there Octobf r 28, 1575. Some of his descendants were found in Bohemia m 1830 in a state of poverty. 2. Elizabeth, born Dec. 10,1527; died Aug. 3, 1528. ^3. Madeleine (Magdalene), born May 4, 1529 ; died Oct. 20, 1542. 4. Martin, bom Nov. 7, 1531, studied theology, but had not the intel- lectual gifts necessary for the ministry; laid down his office, and died as a private citizen, March 3, 1565. ,5. Paid, born Jan. 28. 1533. was physician in ordinarj' at va- rious courts, and died March 8, 1 593. G. ]\Iargaret, born in 1534, was married to George von Kunhcim, Prussian counsellor, and died in 1570. See Nobbe, Stnmmhaum der Familie des Dr. Luther (Grimma, 1846); Wofman, Cath- arine von Bora, oder LAither als Gatte n. Valer (Leipzig, 1845) ; C. Becker, Luther's Familienlehen (Kiinigsb. 1858),
The direct line of male descent from Luther termi- nated with Martin Gottlob L., who was an advocate in Dresden, and died in 1759. The family of Luther's brother, and of Catharine von Bora, have living repre- sentatives.
The great coworkers with Luther were also liis dear- est personal friends. First among them were Melanc- thon, Amsdorf, Justus Jonas, and Bugenhagen. The Tisch-reden (Table-talk), which appeared twenty years after Luther's death, professes to be a record of his con- versations, made immediately after them. It is not strictly authentic, and where it conflicts with well known and carefully avowed opinions of Luther, is of no value as testimony. It often presents the prosiest construction of the poetry of Luther's mind, and the dullest matter-of-fiict perversion of his most brilliant thoughts. It confounds Luther himself with the char- acter he dramatizes, in order to vivify his aversion to it, and the liveliest sallies of his wit and humor are given with the air of the most solid and painful judgments. Luther's annalist had the idolatry of a Boswell, but lit- tle of his skill. Nevertheless, the Table-talk is a record,
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though a clumsy one, of many of Luther's best say- ings.
X. Luther and Erasmus. — In their negations Luther and Erasmus had many points of contact and sympathy. Luther admired the polished scholarship of Erasmus ; Erasmus acknowledged the power of Luther, the purity of his motives, and the necessity for his earlier work. He wrote to Luther and of him as a friend (1519). When the diversity of their positions, the difl'erence of their characters, and tlie pressure of circumstances made a conflict between them growingly probable, eacli dread- ed tlic other as an antagonist as he dreaded no other man. (Compare here Luther's letter to Erasmus, cited in the article Erasmus.) Erasmus was forced into the controversy. Had Erasmus had his own way, he woidd perhaps have never entered the lists against Luther, and he would never have written his Defence of free- will. The will of Erasmus was under bondage to the will of Henry YIIL Luther, with more solicitude than the presence of princes and prelates had ever given him, was obliged to take up the gage of battle. To the years 1524, 1525 belongs this controversy. It be- gan with an attack on the part of Erasmus in his book De libera Arhitrio. Luther wrote De servo Arhitrio. Erasmus wrote in reply his I/i/j)eraspistes. Luther felt that Erasmus had made no new points, and that his own had been sufficiently put, and the controversy ceased. As regards the vital point in this discussion, the mass of earnest Christian thinkers from Luther's time to this have been a unit in their estimate. Eras- mus simply made a development of a refined pagan nat- uralism (for Pelagianism is no more) under tlie phrases of Christianity. Luther's main point is the common ground of evangelical Christianity, though many of his particular phrases might not meet with universal ap- proval. "Erasmus makes man at first richer than Lu- ther does, but j^et how far is Luther's conception of free- dom ultimately superior to that of Erasmus, who views the highest and best element of freedom as reached in freedom of choice, and who accordingly must logically teach an everlasting possibility of falling, and make perfection eternally insecure ! Luther's conception of freedom leads to godlike, real freedom by grace ; for this it could seem to be no advantage, but only a defect, to be involved in choice and hesitation" (Dorner, Hist, of Prof. Theol. [transl.],i,217). In justifying the class- ing of this controversy with Luther's war against Rome, Kostlin saj's : " Not only did Erasmus write under the pressure brought to bear on him by the papal opponents of Luther, but Luther, in his reply, shows tliat he rec- ognises the same interest as involved here, as that which had so far conditioned his whole struggle with Rome. He writes under the consciousness that in Erasmus he has again to do battle with the old principle of the Pe- lagianism of Rome" (ii, 36). (Comp. here a review of M. Durand du Laur's Erasine in The Academy, Septem- ber 15,1872.)
XI. The character of Luther lies so open in his life that it is hardly necessary to trace its lines. He was so ingenuous that if all the world had conspired to cov- er up his faults, his own hand would have uncovered them. His violence was that of a mighty nature, strong in conviction, waging the battle of truth against impla- cable foes. The expressions which jar upon the refined ear of tlic modern world were natural in a rough xra, and from the lips of one who was too jiure to Ije pru- flish. The coarsenesses of the mendicant life can liard- ly fail to leave their traces on any man who has been subjected to them— the taint of a system in which filthi- ness is next to godliness, or, rather, is a part of it. The inconsistencies charged upon Luther's thinking are those of a man of great intuitions, wlio grows perpetually, and wh(j will not stop for the hopeless and useless task of harmonizing with the crudities of yesterday the ripe- ness of to-day. His widest diversities, after the sap of Reformation began to swell in his veins, are like those of the tree which bends with the mellow fruit of au-