Luther’s claim to be the saviour of woman and matrimony; what he says of the Pope’s treatment of marriage; marriage “a state of sin”; witnesses to the contrary: Devotional and Liturgical books; Luther’s own attachment in his younger days to St. Anne. Various statements of Luther’s to the advantage or otherwise of woman and the married life; his alteration of outlook during the controversy on the vow of Chastity; the natural impulse, and the honour of marriage; expressions ill-befitting one who aspired to deliver womankind; practical consequences of the new view of woman: Matrimonial impediments and divorce; Duke George on the saying “If the wife refuse then let the maid come.” Respect for the female sex in Luther’s conversations. The new matrimonial conditions and the slandered opponents; the actual state of things in Late Mediæval times as vouched for in the records. Two concluding pictures towards the history of woman: A preacher’s matrimonial trials; the letters of Hasenberg and von der Heyden and the “New-Zeittung” and “Newe Fabel” which they called forth _pages_ 131-178 CHAPTER XXIII. FRESH CONTROVERSIES WITH ERASMUS (1534, 1536) AND DUKE GEORGE († 1539) _pages_ 179-193 1. LUTHER AND ERASMUS AGAIN. Their relations since 1525; the “_Hyperaspistes_”; Luther’s attack in 1534 and Erasmus’s “_Purgatio_”; Luther on the end of Erasmus _pages_ 179-186 2. LUTHER ON GEORGE OF SAXONY AND GEORGE ON LUTHER. Luther exhorts the Duke to turn Protestant; the Duke’s answer; how George had to suffer at Luther’s hands; his true character utterly at variance with Luther’s picture; the Duke repays Luther in his own coin _pages_ 187-193 CHAPTER XXIV. MORAL CONDITIONS ACCOMPANYING THE REFORMATION. PRINCELY PATRONS _pages_ 194-227 1. REPORTS FROM VARIOUS LUTHERAN DISTRICTS. The Duchy of Saxony; the Electorate of Brandenburg; the Duchy of Prussia; Würtemberg; Duke Ulrich and Luther; Blaurer and Schnepf; the sad state of things revealed; the Landgraviate of Hesse; results of Landgrave Philip’s bad example _pages_ 194-202 2. AT THE CENTRE OF THE NEW FAITH. The Electorate of Saxony; the morals of Elector Johann Frederick; the character of his predecessors; Luther’s relations with them; the records of the Visitations; Luther compares himself to Lot dwelling in Sodom _pages_ 202-210 3. LUTHER’S ATTEMPTS TO EXPLAIN THE DECLINE IN MORALS. His candid admissions; his varied explanations of the state of things: The malice of Satan; the apparent increase of evil due to the bright light of the Evangel; his seeming lack of success the best proof of the truth of his mission; Luther on Wittenberg and its doings _pages_ 210-218 4. A MALADY OF THE AGE: DOUBTS AND MELANCHOLY.