478 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 τὸ 1580.
It may be expected that in the fervor and hurry of the first attempts in the transition from slavery to freedom, some indiscretions were committed ; but they are as nothing compared with the secret chronique scandaleuse of enforced celibacy. It was reserved for later times to cultivate a more refined style of family life; but the Reformers burst the chains of papal tyranny, and furnished the practical proof that it is possible to harmonize the highest and holiest calling with the duties of husband and father. Though falling short of modern Protestant ideas of the dignity and rights of woman, they made her the rightful companion of the Christian pastor; and among those companions may be found many of the purest, most refined, and most useful women on earth. The social standing of woman is a true test of — Christian civilization.
Melanchthon was the first among the Reformers who entered the state of matrimony; but being a layman, he violated no priestly or monastic vow. He married, at the urgent request of his friends, Katharina Krapp, the daughter of the burgomaster of Wittenberg, in November, 1520, and lived with his plain, pious, faithful, and benevolent wife, till her death in 1557. He was seen at times rocking the cradle while reading a book.}
Calvin was likewise free from the obligation of vows, but the severest and most abstemious among the Reformers. He married Idelette de Buren, the widow of an Anabaptist minister of Holland, whom he had converted to the Pedobaptist faith; he lived with her for nearly nine years, had three children who died in infancy, and remained a widower after her death. The only kind of female beauty which impressed him was, as he said, gentleness, purity, modesty, patience, and devotion to the wants of her husband; and these qualities he esteemed in his wife.?
1 Ὁ, Schmidt, Philipp Melanchthon, pp. 47 sqq., 617, 710 sqq. 2 Stahelin, Johannes Calvin, vol. I. 272 sqq.
§ 79. REFLECTIONS ON CLERICAL FAMILY LIFE. 479
Zwingli unfortunately broke his vow at Einsiedeln, while still a priest, and in receipt of a pension from the Pope. He afterwards married a worthy patrician widow with three children, Anna Reinhard yon Knonau, who bore him two sons and two daughters, and lived to lament his tragic death on the field of battle, finding, like him, her only comfort in the Lord Jesus and the word of God.!
Ludwig Cellarius (Keller), el iit (the Reformer of Basel), Wolfgang Capito (the Reformer of Strassburg), and his more distinguished friend Martin Bucer (a widower who was always ready for union) were successively married to Wilibrandis Rosenblatt, the daughter of a knight and colonel aid-de-camp of the Emperor Maximilian I. She accompanied Bucer to Cambridge in England, and after his death returned to Basel, the survivor of four husbands! She died Nov. 1, 1564.2. She must have had a remarkable attraction for Reformers. C&colampadius thought her almost too young for his age of forty-five, but found her a “good Christian ” and “ free from youthful frivolity.” She bore him three children, — Eusebius, Alitheia, and Irene.2 It was on the occasion of his marriage that Erasmus wrote to a friend (March 21, 1528) : ““ Gicolampadius has lately married. His bride is not a bad-looking girl” [she was a widow]. “1 suppose he wants to mortify his flesh. Some speak of the Lutheran cause as a tragedy, but to me it appears rather as a comedy, for it always ends in a wedding.” 4
1 R. Christoffel, Huldreich Zwingli, pp. 336-339, 418. The slanderous exaggerations of Janssen have been refuted by Ebrard, Usteri, and Schweizer.
2 Hagenbach (Ckolampad, p. 108, note) gives this date, and refers to the Reformations-Almanach, 1821.
8 Herzog, Leben Joh. Atkolampadius, vol. II. 70 sqq.; Hagenbach, Joh. Ckolampad und Oswald Myconius, p. 107. Hagenbach says that the names of his children were the pillars of his home: godliness, truth, and peace.
4 In a letter to Adrianus Arivulus: ‘‘ Nuper Gicolampadius duzxit uxorem, puellam non inelegantem. Vult opinor affligere carnem. Quidam appellant Lutheranam tragediam, mihi videtur esse comedia. Semper enim in nuptias
exeunt tumultus.’ He afterwards apologized to Ccolampadius, and disclaimed any intention to satirize him. See his letter to Gicolampadius in