ts, but, as the
text says, 'which they chose' (Gen. 6, 2). That is the way nowadays to
rise to the stars. In this way we have Moses and the fathers with their
examples as beautiful cloaks for carnal liberty; we say with our lips
that we are following the examples of the fathers, but in very deed we
act contrary to them. Lord, have mercy! If the world continues, what all
may we not expect to happen these times, if even now shameless fellows
may print what they please." (21b, 2691 f.)

One might go more exhaustively into the evidence, but the materials here
submitted will suffice to convince most men that, while Luther's advice
to Philip did create a bigamous relation, Luther was not a defender of
bigamy. Every one who has had to deal with questions relating to married
life knows that situations arise in the matrimonial relation which
simply cannot be threshed out in public, and in which the honest advice
of a pious person is invoked to find a way out of a complication. That
was the situation confronting Luther: what he advised was meant as an
emergency measure to prevent something that was worse. In the same
manner Luther had expressed the opinion that it would have been easier
to condone a bigamous relation in Henry VIII of England than the unjust
divorce which the king was seeking. As a matter of fact, however, Luther
and his Wittenberg colleagues were grossly hoodwinked in the matter,
both by the Landgrave himself and, what is worse, by the Landgrave's
court-preacher, Bucer. Had the true facts been known, the advice, as
Luther clearly states, would never have been given. But we can well
understand how Luther can declare that under the circumstances under
which he thought he was acting he could not have given any different
advice. Personally, we have always resented the veiled threat in the
Landgrave's request that he would apply to the Pope or the Emperor.
Perhaps the remark was not understood as a threat, but as an expression
of despair. At any rate, Philip was confident of getting from Rome what
he was not sure of obtaining from Luther.

Ought not this remark of the Landgrave caution Luther's Catholic critics
to be very careful in what they say about the heinousness of Luther's
offense in granting a dispensation from a moral precept? Have they
really no such thing as a "dispensation" at Rome? Has not the married
relationship come up for "dispensation" in the chancelleries of the
Vatican innumerable times? Has not o