e Reformers thought polygamy less
wrong than divorce, on the biblical ground that whereas the former had
been practised in the Old Testament times and was not clearly forbidden
by the New Testament, divorce was prohibited save for adultery. Luther
advanced this thesis as early as 1520, when it was purely theoretical,
but he did not shrink from applying it on occasion. It is
extraordinary what a large body of reputable opinion was prepared to
tolerate polygamy, at least in exceptional cases. Popes, theologians,
humanists like Erasmus, and philosophers like Bruno, all thought a
plurality of wives a natural condition.

[Sidenote: Marriage]

But all the while the instincts of the masses were sounder in this
respect than the precepts of their guides. While polygamy remained a
freakish and exceptional practice, the passions of the age were
absorbed to a high degree by monogamous marriage. Matrimony having
been just restored to its proper dignity as the best estate for man,
its praises were {508} sounded highly. The church, indeed, remained
true to her preference for celibacy, but the Inquisition found much
business in suppressing the then common opinion that marriage was
better than virginity. To the Reformers marriage was not only the
necessary condition of happiness to mankind, but the typically holy
estate in which God's service could best be done. From all sides
paeans arose celebrating matrimony as the true remedy for sin and also
as the happiest estate. The delights of wedded love are celebrated
equally in Luther's table talk and letters and in the poems of the
Italian humanist Pontano. "I have always been of the opinion," writes
Ariosto, "that without a wife at his side no man can attain perfect
goodness or live without sin." "In marriage there is one mind in two
bodies," says Henry Cornelius Agrippa, "one harmony, the same sorrows,
the same joys, an identical will, common riches, poverty and honors,
the same bed and the same table. . . . Only a husband and wife can
love each other infinitely and serve each other as long as both do
live, for no love is either so vehement or so holy as theirs."

The passion for marriage in itself is witnessed by the practice of
widows and widowers of remarrying as soon and as often as possible.
[Sidenote: Remarriage common] Luther's friend, Justus Jonas, married
thrice, each time with a remark to the effect that it was better to
marry than to burn. The English Bishop Ri