of Saxony, by whom eight children had been born to him, but finding it
impossible to observe his marriage obligations, and wishing to impart
to his own sinful conduct an air of decency, he demanded permission
from Luther to marry one of the maids of honour in attendance on his
sister. This request placed Luther and Melanchthon in a very delicate
position. On the one hand, if they acceded to it they would be
regarded as patrons and defenders of adultery and would expose
themselves to the ridicule of their opponents; on the other, were they
to refuse compliance with his wishes, Philip, forgetful of his former
zeal for the pure word of God, might carry out his threats to return
to the Catholic Church. After long and anxious deliberation they
determined to exercise a dispensing power such as had never been
exercised before by any Pope. "In order to provide for the welfare of
his soul and body and to bring greater glory to God," they allowed him
to take to himself a second wife, insisting, however, that the whole
affair should be kept a close secret. But hardly had the marriage
ceremony been gone through (1540) than the story of the dispensation
became public. Luther was at first inclined to deny it entirely as an
invention of his enemies, but he changed his mind when he found that
the proofs were irrefragable and determined to brazen out the
affair.[34]

Luther's last years were full of anxiety and sorrow. As he looked
round his own city of Wittenberg and the cities of Germany where his
doctrines had taken root he found little ground for self-
congratulation. Religious dissensions, bitterness, war-like
preparations, decline of learning, decay of the universities, and
immorality, had marked the progress of his gospel. In many districts
the power of the Pope had indeed been broken, but only to make way for
the authority of the civil rulers upon whom neither religious nor