Before he thought of marrying her himself he recommended her to Jerome S. Baumgartner, a Nurnberg Patrician, and a student of theology, who had a very tender regard for Catharine, and to whom she was not altogether indifferent. Luther wrote to him (Oct. 12, 1524,): “If you have made up your mind to marry Catharine, you had better be in a hurry before another takes her who is near at hand. She has not ceased to love you, and I should be much gratified to see you marry her.” But his recommendation was of no avail, probably because Baumgartner, after his return home, was captivated by some other lady. The other suitor to whom Luther alludes was Dr. Caspar Glacius, vicar of the Archdeaconate of the Castle Church at Wittenberg. Luther favored his pretensions to her hand, and this led her to complain to Amsdorff, Luther’s friend. She requested him to induce Luther to cease his importunity in behalf of Glacius, for whom she had no inclination whatever. She, however, honestly acknowledged to Amsdorff she would not refuse an offer either from himself or Luther. She was not mistaken in her estimate of Glacius, for he was an ill-tempered man, who never was at peace with his congregation, and was dismissed from his office in 1537. The marriage of a nun was, until that time, unheard of, and hence we need not wonder that Luther’s enemies took every opportunity to calumniate him as well as his intended wife. As Erasmus says, “It was at that time an almost universal sentiment that the Antichrist would be the son of a monk and a nun;” and he remarks in relation to this old saying, “If this were true, the world has had thousands of Antichrists!” His enemies knew too well how to make the most of this popular belief, but they went still further, and charged him with all the misfortunes that befel the country; the demolition of the convents in the Peasants’ War, and other similar calamities, for they said that he inflamed the hatred of the peasants against monastic life and the possessions of the clergy, “And all this he did,” they affirmed, “that he might marry.” But many of his friends also disapproved of such an alliance. “Our wise men are fiercely excited on the subject,” wrote Luther, after his marriage, to Stiefel. “They must confess it is the work of God, but my professional character, as well as that of the lady, blinds them and makes them think and speak unkindly. But the Lord lives, who is greater in us than he who is in the world, and there are more on my side than on theirs.”