If she could make no pretensions to personal beauty, still she possessed not a little that was attractive. She was of medium size, had an oval face, a bright, sparkling eye, an expansive, serene forehead, a nose rather small, lips a little protruding, and cheek-bones somewhat prominent. Erasmus speaks of her as a woman of magnificent form and extraordinary beauty; but Seckendorf says this is an extravagant picture of her. The later opponents of Luther agree with Erasmus in representing her as very beautiful, and falsely charge the Reformer as being attracted only by her personal charms. Maimbourg says, “Among the nuns, there was one named Catharine von Bora, whom Luther found to be very beautiful, and whom, on that account, he loved.” Varillas and Bossuet report, “That he married a nun of high rank and uncommon beauty.” Chardon de la Rochette relates the following fact: “I have found the likeness of Luther and his wife in a lumber-room in Orleans, where they are in great danger of going to ruin. I will bet that there is no man who would not wish to have so beautiful a wife as Catharine von Bora. It is the first time that I have seen her picture, and it justifies the opinion which Bossuet has expressed of her appearance. She has a noble, expressive, and animated face.” But Luther himself says of her, “A wife is sufficiently adorned and beautiful when she pleases her husband, whom she ought to please.” Her likeness was frequently painted, and at various periods of her life, by the distinguished artists of that age, such as Cranach, senior, Cranach, junior, and Hans Holbein, junior. Cranach, senior, painted her likeness in oil colors _sixteen times_, and the other artists mentioned, several times each. Many of these original portraits are still to be seen in the various picture galleries of Europe. There are extant more than _forty_ different copper-plate and wood-engravings of her likeness. It has also been transferred to porcelain-ware and other articles of domestic use. A number of medals containing her likeness have been struck to commemorate her virtues, and plaster casts of the bust of full life size have also been made. All this shows the high esteem in which she has ever been held by those who can appreciate exalted virtue and genuine Christian character. As a proof of her artistic skill and her proficiency in ornamental needle-work, even in that distant age, there is, to this day, exhibited in the vestry-room of the cathedral at Merseburg, a blue satin surplice which she embroidered for her husband, and which he wore on the occasion of some great solemnity, and in the former University library at Wittenberg, they still show a likeness of Luther, neatly and elegantly worked in silk by Catharine. But these works will perish, whilst the results of her faith, hope, and charity, will endure forever. THE END. FOOTNOTES [1]1 Cor. 7; 7, 8, 26, 28.