466 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
of some medizval saying.’ He used beer? and common wine according to the general custom of his age and country; but he abhorred intemperance, and justly complained of the drink-devil (Saufteufel) of the Germans.? Melanchthon, his daily companion, often wondered (as he reports after Luther’s death) how a man with such a portly frame could live on so meager a diet; for he observed that Luther sometimes fasted for four days when in good health, and was often contented for a whole day with a herring and a piece of bread. He preferred “pure, good, common, homely fare.” Occasionally he received a present of game from the Elector, and enjoyed it with his friends.
He had a powerful constitution, but suffered much of the stone, of headache, and attacks of giddiness, and fainting ; especially in the fatal year 1527, which brought him to the brink of the grave. He did not despise physicians, indifferent as they were in those days, and called them “ God’s menders (flicker) of our bodies;” but he preferred simple remedies, and said, *“* My best medical prescription is written
1 The lines appeared first in the present form in the Wandsbecker Bote for 1775, No. 75, p. 300, and then in 1777 in the Musenalmanach of J. H. Voss (the poet, and translator of Homer), who was supposed to be the author, and to have foisted them upon Luther. Herder gave them a place among his Volkslieder, 1778, I. 12. Seidemann, in Schnorr’s ‘‘ Archiv,”’ vol. VIII. (1879), p. 440, has shown that the sentiment is substantially pre-Lutheran, and quotes from Luther’s Table Talk, Ser. IV., a sentence somewhat analogous, but involving a reproach to the Germans for drunkenness: ‘‘ Wie wollt ihr jetzt anders einen Deutschen vorthun denn EBRIETATE, presertim talem qui non diligit MUSICAM et MULIERES?’’ See Kostlin, 11. 678 sq. Another similar sentence has since been found by L. Schulze in the “‘ Reformatorium vie clericorum’”’ of 1494: ‘“Absque Venere et mero rite letabitur nemo.”’
2 He liked the beer of Eimbeck and Naumburg. In one of his last letters (Feb. 7, 1546) to his wife from Eisleben, where he was treated like a prince by the counts of Mansfeld, he gives her this piece of information: ‘‘ We live here very well, and the town-council gives me for each meal half a pint of ‘ Rheinfall’ (Rhine wine), which is very good. Sometimes I drink it with my friends. The wine of the country here is also good, and Naumburger beer is very good, though I fancy its pitch fills my chest with phlegm. The Devil has spoilt all the beer in the world with pitch, and the wine with brimstone. But here the wine is pure, such as the country gives.’’ De Wette, V. 788.
8 He preached some strong sermons against intemperance, and commends the Italians and Turks for sobriety. See Colloquia, ed. Bindseil, I. 195 sqq.
§ 78. LUTHER'S HOME-LIFE. 467
in John 3: ‘God so loved the world.’” He was too poor to keep horse and carriage, but he kept a bowling-alley for exercise. He liked to throw the first ball himself, and elicited a hearty laugh when he missed the mark; he then reminded the young friends that by aiming to knock down all the pins at once, they might miss them all, as they would find out in their future calling. He warned Melanchthon against excess of study, and reminded him that we must serve God _ by rest and recreation as well as by labor, for which reason He has given us the fourth commandment, and instituted the Sabbath.
Luther exercised a generous hospitality, and had always guests at his table. He was indiscriminately benevolent to beggars, until rogues sharpened his wits, and made him more careful.' There was an unbroken succession of visitors —theologians, students, princes, noblemen, and ladies, anxious to see the great man, to get his advice and comfort; and all were favorably impressed with his frank, manly, and pleasant bearing. At times he was wrapt in deep thought, and kept a monkish silence at table; but at other times he talked freely, seriously and merrily, always interestingly, about every thing under the sun. His guests called his speeches their “ table-spice,” and recorded them faithfully without discrimination, even his most trivial remarks. Once he offered a premium for the shortest blessing. Bugenhagen began in
Low German : — “Ἅ Dit und dat,
Trocken und nat Gesegne Gott.”’
Luther improved upon it in Latin: — * Dominus Jesus Sit potus et esus.’’ But Melanchthon carried the palm with
“ Benedictus benedicat.’’
1 He wrote to Justice Menius, Aug. 24, 1535 (De Wette, IV. 624), that he was often deceived, ‘‘ per fictas Nonnas et generosas meretrices.”’