fore they are able to judge, are persuaded, and
sometimes even compelled, to take the vow. Wherefore it is not fair to
insist so rigorously on the obligation, since it is granted by all that
it is against the nature of a vow to take it without spontaneous and
deliberate action. . . .

"But although it appears that God's command concerning marriage delivers
many from their vows, yet our teachers introduce also another argument
concerning vows to show that they are void. For every service of God
ordained and chosen of men without commandment of God to merit
justification and grace is wicked as Christ says (Matt. 15, 9): 'In vain
they worship Me with the commandments of men.' And Paul teaches
everywhere that righteousness is not to be sought by our own observances
and acts of worship devised by men, but that it comes by faith to those
who believe that they are received by God into grace for Christ's sake."

The confessors then proceed to show how spiritual pride was fostered by
the monkish teaching of perfection, and how by their rites and
ordinances and rules the true worship of God was obscured, and men were
withdrawn from useful pursuits in life to be buried in cloisters. They
conclude: "All these things, since they are false and empty, make vows
null and void." (p. 57 ff.)

Luther never had taken his own nor other monks' vows lightly. He spoke
and wrote to Melanchthon from the Wartburg against the mere throwing off
of the vows on the ground that they were not binding anyway. He argued
the sacredness of the oath, and held that first the consciences of those
bound by vows must be set free through the evangelical teaching; then,
when they are qualified to make an intelligent choice on spiritual
grounds, they may discard their vows. When he married Catherine, he had
long become a free man in his mind. So had Catherine.

Luther is charged with having entertained a purely secular view of the
essence of marriage. It is true that Luther repudiated the Catholic view
of the sacramental character of matrimony. By the teaching of the Roman
Church a legal marriage can be effected only by the ratification of the
marriage-promise and the blessing spoken over the couple by a
consecrated priest, who thus, by his official quality, imparts to the
marriage which he solemnizes a sacred character. In Luther's days it was
held that "the Church alone properly had jurisdiction over the question
of marriage, and the canonical laws (of the Ch