6. Luther's Conception

In contrast with religious and secular contempt of marriage, Luther paid the institution due honor. He regards sexual appetite as a consequence of the fall of man which becomes defensible only through the order of God. Therefore for him also matrimony is an infirmary, and also a state necessary to all to whom has not been granted the rare gift of abstinence. From this point of view he praises the glory of matrimony. While the estimate of celibacy rests upon the illusion that God is pleased by self-chosen achievements, the state of matrimony is an institution of God. Consequently a wife is a gift of God. Thus a good conscience is secured for him who uses matrimony and becomes a protection against temptations to infidelity. The hardships which marriage entails become precious through the assurance that God is pleased with them. Finally matrimony fosters a chaster spirit than celibacy. By thus paying due regard to matrimony as a divine order of nature, Luther opposed arbitrary ecclesiastical restrictions of natural impulse. From such motives are to be explained the blunders which he committed to alleviate the distress of those to whom matrimony through the fault of either husband or wife offered no protection against temptation. But he conceded to nature only its right, not its dominion, in matrimony. He demanded moderation of the sexual instinct, and this he looked for from a deepening of physical fidelity to love and harmony, and not from casuistic guidance in the confessional. The real glory of matrimony Luther found in the ethical purpose for which God created man and woman, and upon the ethical gifts the development of which is their "nature." Children are not only to be born but are to be brought up in the fear of God and for his service. Upon this fact Luther based his judgment that no state is better before God than that of matrimony, and it especially takes precedence of virginity. His reasoning proceeded from the belief that nothing pleases God more than the saving of souls, particularly as it is done by parents, who are the apostles and bishops of children. "Particularly in the state of matrimony children are educated in the fear of God and in honor and virtue; for the natural love of parents makes the task of education a pleasure, and in parental love, which is similar to the love of God, children find an image of the divine heart." Here finally dawned that knowledge which Christianity should have acquired previously along with the conception of its task in universal history—the knowledge that the natural purpose

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of marriage, the birth and education of children, is a valuable ethical task, especially for Christians. God still has for humanity a plan and needs for its fulfilment faithful servants in Church and State and in all conditions of life; he is, therefore, interested not only in the conversion of men who are now living, but also in the birth of ever new generations. Furthermore, the divine sanction of the marriage state rests for Luther upon the fact that it is a school of faith and love inasmuch as it calls for the constant exercise of sympathy, sacrifice, and patience. It is indeed this state which offers the best opportunity to obtain in faith and love what the contemplative life strives after, a life above the world. This estimate of marriage expresses the spirit of Christianity inasmuch as it unites the conviction that man has to live for the eternal purpose of the kingdom of God with the faith that God as creator has ordained nature to be a means of achieving his eternal ethical purpose.