Evening star., 1933-09-17

The excitement was tremendous and the
true story of Luthers sudden disappearance
was not known until long afterward. Fred
rick, eector of Saxony, ordered two of his
trusted councillors to take Luther to place OF
safety, forbidding them even to tell him where
1t was, and these clever men concealed Luther
in the highest tower of Fredricks castle
of the Wartburg. prisoner in this strong.
hold, never daunted. Luther continued to write
and to translate the Bible. One hundred
thousand copies were secretly sold in one year
by his followers.
The spirit of sincerity, simple faith the fear
of God which drove him into the monastery as
a youth to save his own soul now drove him to
greater efforts to save the souls of his country
men. And it was in the Castle of Wartburg
that he hurled the ink stand at the devil. -
THE great bells in all the churches are calling
the faithful to hear the bill of excommuni-
cation from the Vatican, the anathema pro-
nouncng Martin Luther hereto His manu-
scripts and books have been burned in the
public square, price is again set upon his
head Silently the peasants enter the darken.
ing church. men with bowed heads, women in
tears. Priests gathering at the high altar
with flaming torches in their hands. The
words of awful doom are pronounced, and at
that moment the priests fling down their blaz-
ing torches, extinguishing them on the stone
floor, crying in unison: so is all hope extin.
guishsd by the anathema, for the soul Of the
hereto. the accursed Martin Luther Amen
and amen"
Luther's sympathizers were threatened with
extermination but the silent power of LutherS
opinions crept secretly over Germany and the
reformation spread. The year 1925 saw the
parting of the ways. The reformation ceased
to be national. It became ecclesiastical and
divided into three parts. One, led by Luther
a nyoI4 4a.4
emperor, became the Lutheran Reformation;
another true to the Medieval Church ended
in the Council Of Trent; the third. drawing
together revolutionary impulses, became the
movement known as Anabaptism
During the Peasants War of 1925, Luther
married Catharine Won Bora, daughter of
noble but impoverished family. She had been
a Cistercian nun in a convent near Grimma
a convent reserved for women Of noble birth
So widespread were the writings of Luther
that they penetrated even the closter walE
and Catharine became so impressed that she
with small following. fled the convent. The
world was a trackless desert to the escaped
nuns. Their own kin refused them shelter and
Catharne appealed to Luther whose writings
had revealed a new world to her. He found
homes for her followers in the cottages of the
peasants and married Catharne
John Of Saxony, who succeeded his brother
Frederick, Luther's friend of the Wartburg,
gave Luther the now abandoned buildings
which had served as the Augustenan Convent
where Luther became a monk This huge pile
opening on lovely garden with its back to the
River Elbe became the home of Luther and
his wife, Catharine Three sons and two
daughters were born to them
Martin had little to live on when he married
and his bride, portionless nun, had nothing
to bring but her splendid courage and devoted
love. She was an excellent housewife and she
made the long-neglected garden profitable. She
kept pigs and chickens, stocked the fish pond,
farmed in a small way and filled the cells of
the old convent with paying boarders
Martin Luther died in 1916 and was buried
In the castle church at Wittenberg. On the
walls of this church he had nailed the Theses
which kindled the great conhagration of the
Reformation. Henry c. Vedder wrote: Luther
bestrode Europe like q Colossus, dwarfing all
men Of his time, because of what he was. He
so stamped his personality on the men Of NJ
time and has so dominated the imagination Of
generatsoAs following that we still speak Of
him as spe creator of the Reformation"