answer to this question. It was the
happiness of his home that made it possible for him to bear the trials
of his later years; by that the full blossom of his rich heart was
first unfolded. So graciously did Providence send to him, just in the
time of his loneliness, the message which was to bind him anew, and
more firmly than ever to his people. Again, the way in which Luther
treated this problem is quite characteristic; his pious spirit and the
conservative tendency of his character strove against the hasty and
superficial way in which Karlstadt reasoned. It may be assumed, that
his own feelings made him suspicious as to whether this critical
question was not made use of by the devil, to tempt the children of
God; and yet the constraint upon the poor monks in the monasteries
grieved him much. He examined the Scriptures, and easily made up his
mind as to the marriage of priests; but there was nothing in the Bible
about monks: "Where the Scripture is silent, man is unsafe." It
appeared to him, withal, a laughable idea that his friends could marry,
and he wrote to the cautious Spalatinus: "Good God, our Wittenbergers
wish also to give wives to the monks! now they shall not so encumber
me;" and he warns him ironically: "Have a care that you also do not get
married;" yet this problem occupied him incessantly. Men live fast in
great times. Gradually, by Melancthon's reasoning, and we may add by
fervent prayer, he arrived at certainty. What, almost unknown to
himself, brought about the decision, was the perception that it had
become wise and necessary for the moral foundation of social life, that
the monasteries should be opened. For nearly three months this question
had been struggling in his mind; on the 1st November, 1521, he wrote
the afore-mentioned letter to his father.

Unbounded was the effect of his words on the people; they produced a
general excitement: out of almost all the cloister doors monks and nuns
slipped away; it was at first singly and by stealth, but soon whole
monasteries and convents dissolved themselves. When Luther in the
following spring returned to Wittenberg, his heart full of anxious
cares, the fugitive monks and nuns caused him a great deal of trouble.
Secret letters were forwarded to him from all quarters, chiefly from
excited nuns who had been placed as children in convents by harsh
parents, and being now without money or protection, looked to the great
Reformer for help; it was not unnatural