Catharine de Bora: Social and Domestic Scenes in the Home of Luther

CATHARINE DE BORA, WIFE OF LUTHER .
OR,
Social and Domestic SCENES IN THE HOME OF LUTHER.
BY JOHN G. MORRIS, TRANSLATOR OF “THE BLIND GIRL OF WITTENBERG,” AND PASTOR OF THE FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH OF BALTIMORE.
PHILADELPHIA: LINDSAY & BLAKISTON. 1856.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by LINDSAY & BLAKISTON, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. STEREOTYPED BY J. FAGAN PRINTED BY C. SHERMAN & SON.
There are many interesting and characteristic incidents in the domestic life of Luther which are not found in biographies of the great Reformer. The character of his wife has not been portrayed in full, and who does not wish to become better acquainted with a woman who mingled many a drop of balsam in those numerous cups of sorrow which her celebrated husband was compelled to drink?
This little book is the result of extensive research, and exhibits facts attested by the most reliable authorities, many of which will be new to those of my readers who have not investigated this particular subject.
J. G. M.
Baltimore, June, 1856.
Clerical Celibacy—Luther-Bernhardi’s Marriage—Treatment of Catharine de Bora—the Convent—Wealthy Nuns—Convent Life—the Escape—Treatment of the Nuns—Florentine de Oberweimer—Leonard Koppe—Luther’s Defence.
The celibacy of the clergy was one of the strongest pillars on which the proud edifice of Romish power rested. It was a stupendous partition-wall which separated the clergy from all other interests, and thus consolidated the wide-spread authority of the Pope. It cut off the secular clergy, as well as the monks, from all domestic ties. They forgot father, mother, and friends. Political obligations to their sovereign and country were disregarded, but the cord which bound them to the interests of Rome was only the more tightly drawn.