One of his most laborious and useful works was the translation of the Bible into German. It fixed the language of his country, and made stable its faith. Eight years after the publication of the ninety-five theses, in 1525, Luther espoused Catherine de Bora, being persuaded, with Æneas Sylvius, who became pope under the name of Pius II., that if there are many strong reasons for interdicting priests from marrying, there are some much stronger for permitting it. In the performance of this solemn act, the Reformer equally avoided a precipitation which might have compromised his character, and a delay which might have degenerated or weakened his maxims. He was then forty-two years of age, and on the avowal of his opponents themselves, “he had spent all his youth without reproach, in continence.”[4] In 1530, Melancthon, the fellow-labourer of Luther, presented to the diet of Augsburg, with his accord, the Confession of Faith, which, during ages, has served as a rallying-point to the Lutheran reformation. The Protestants showed in this way, that they had shaken off the yoke of Rome only to accept, without reservation, the injunctions of the Bible, such at least as they understood them according to the measure of the intelligence of their time. There were manifest and sore trials in the life of Luther: the excesses of the Anabaptists, the insurrection of the peasants, the passions of the princes, who mingled with religious questions political calculations; the over-zeal of some of his followers, the weakness and timidity of many others. He was often grieved, never cast down; for the same spirit of faith which had opened to him the road, led him along it with unswerving constancy. Luther died in 1546. Some hours before his end, he said: “Jonas, Cælius, and you who are present, pray for the cause of God and of his Gospel; for the council of Trent and the pope rage furiously.” And when the cold sweat seized him, he began to pray in these terms: “O my beloved Father in heaven, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, God of all comfort, I thank thee that thou hast revealed to me thy dear Son Jesus Christ, in whom I believe, whom I have preached and confessed, whom I have loved and glorified. I pray thee, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on my poor soul.” Then he repeated thrice in Latin: “Father, I return my spirit into thy hands. Thou hast redeemed me, O Eternal God of truth.” Then, without agony, without effort, he breathed his last. While the Reformation changed the face of Germany, it penetrated also into the mountains and the valleys of Switzerland. It had even appeared there before. Ulrich Zwinglius was encouraged and fortified by the words of Luther, but he had not waited for them. “I began to preach the Gospel in the year of grace 1516,” he wrote; “that is to say, when the name of Luther had not yet been pronounced in our country. It is not from Luther I have learned the doctrine of Christ; it is from the Word of God.”