indulgence of a lively imagination, he ascribed the painful anxieties which he felt, agreeably to the notions of that day, to the temptations of the devil, who tried to hinder him in prosecuting his good work by assuming various forms and appearances. Attacks of sickness, which were in part the result of his severe fastings during his monastic life, were aggravated by his extraordinary mental labors, by his sedentary habits, and the numerous painful mortifications of spirit to which his unconquerable love of the truth exposed him. Above all, it was the unhappy sacramentarian controversy in 1525 which had the most injurious influence on his health. Hence these corporeal sufferings could never be entirely removed. Yet amid all his painful and melancholy hours Catharine was to him a ministering angel. By her affectionate sympathy, her tender nursing, and prudent accommodation to his whims, she greatly relieved his bodily and mental sufferings. She had frequent occasion to display these amiable qualities, for her husband had often recurring attacks of sickness. To notice but a few instances, we will state that as early as 1526 he suffered with hæmorrhoids, accompanied with severe oppression of the breast. But it was particularly in 1527 that he was attacked in a manner that brought him to the very borders of the grave. In July, he was so suddenly and dangerously seized that his wife and friends trembled for his life. But both of them displayed a greatness of soul and dignity of deportment which were truly admirable. Christian fortitude, perfect resignation to the will of God, and unshaken confidence in an all-controlling Providence, animated them both in the highest degree. They endured their present trials with pious submission, and with comfortable security they anticipated future dangers. Luther did not think that he would recover, but believed that he should have to part with the wife whose husband he had been but two years. Catharine was full of terrible apprehension of being left a poor widow and mother of one child, without being able to count much on human aid, and having no means of support. He was to leave the sacred work which he had begun, and for which he would have sacrificed his all, and she was to be dependent on the kindness of some real and many equivocal friends. Yet Luther prayed with a submissive heart, and commended his wife to God’s paternal care. “My loving and most benevolent Father! I thank thee from my heart that it was thy will I should be poor on the earth, and hence I can leave neither house, field, money, nor any other property, to my wife and son. As thou hast given her to me, so I restore her to thee,” &c. He also consoled his wife with these words; “My beloved Kate, I beseech you to submit to God’s gracious will, if it should please him to take me to Himself this time. You are my faithful wife, let the blind, ungodly world say what it may. Let your conduct be governed by the word