ill resort in order to make out a case
against him, we note that one of the most recent disparagers of Luther
informs the public that Luther's original name had been Luder. This name
conveys the idea of "carrion," "beast," "low scoundrel." When Luther
began to translate the Bible, we are told, he changed his name into
"Squire George." Once before this, at the time of his entering the
university, Catholics note that he changed his name from Luder to
Lueder. But these changes of his name, they say, did not improve his
character. We are told that, while Luther was engaged upon the work of
rendering the Bible into German, he was consumed with fleshly lust and
given to laziness. Luther's own statements in letters to friends are
cited to corroborate this assertion. The conclusion which we are to draw
from these "facts" is this: Such a corrupt person could not possibly be
a proper instrument for the Holy Spirit to employ in so pious an
undertaking as the translation of the Word of God.

Catholics should be reminded that they misquote the book of
matriculation in which the students at Erfurt signed their names on
entering the university. Luther's signature is not "Lueder" but
"Ludher." Other forms of the name "Luder" and "Lueder" occur elsewhere.
But in any form the name has a more honorable derivation and meaning
than Catholic writers are inclined to give it. It is derived from
"Luither," which means as much as "People's Man," (= der Leute Herr).
Another well-known form of the same name is Lothar, which some, tracing
the derivation still further, derive from the old German Chlotachar,
which means as much as "loudly hailed among the army" (= _hluit,_ loud,
and _chari,_ army). Respectable scholars to-day so explain the name
Luther.

At the Wartburg, where Luther was an exile for ten months, his name was
changed by the warden of the castle, Count von Berlepsch. This was done
the better to conceal his identity from the henchmen of Rome, who by the
imperial edict of outlawry had been given liberty to hunt Luther and
slay him where they found him.

The sexual condition of Luther during the years before his marriage was
the normal condition of any healthy young man at his age. Luther speaks
of this matter as a person nowadays would speak about it to his
physician or to a close friend. The matter to which he refers is in
itself perfectly pure: it is an appeal of nature. Do Luther's Catholic
critics mean to infer that Luther was the