CHAPTER VI.

Doctor Luther (1517 to 1546)--His importance to us--The tragic in his life--Distinct periods in it--His father--Mental struggle in the monastery, and how he delivered himself from it--His character in 1519--Three letters to the Pope--An inward struggle--Luther as a writer--At the Wartburg--Adherence to Scripture, and defects in his method--The marriage of priests--Return to Wittenberg--His political position--The crisis--How he married--Activity of his latter years--His spirit, his family, his God, his temptations, and ideas of the end of the world--From the funeral discourse of Melancthon--Letter of Luther to the Elector Friedrich the Wise, March, 1522