Luther and the German Reformation

Excerpt: … chapter xi the last years of luther’S life 1. Luther’s Political Influence The last years of Luther’s life were spent amid incessant labours, and amid continual ill-health. He had always spent himself when work for the “evangel” was to be done, and had it not been for the iron constitution he had inherited from his parents he could never have gone through the labours he thought himself forced to undertake. He was twice at death’s door. At Schmalkald, where he went in February 1537 to attend a meeting of theologians to discuss the propriety of accepting the proposal to convene a General Council, he had a terrible attack of “stone.” He preached nevertheless, and the malady increased He had a week of intense pain, his body swelled, he was constantly sick, everyone feared and he hoped for death. He was far from wife and children, and was anxious about them. The Elector promised to care for them “as his own.” To make matters worse the necessary medical appliances were not to be had at Schmalkald, and it was resolved, ill as he was, to remove him. The journey was a prolonged torture, but the jolting of the carriage seems to have effected what the doctors had been unable to do. As soon as the pain left him he wrote to his wife, to remove her anxieties. The journey was accomplished by slow stages. At Weimar, his niece Lena Kaufmann met him from Wittenberg; he got safely back to his Kaethe and his home, where good nursing brought him round again. In 1541 the terrible malady returned, and his life was again despaired of; but careful nursing restored him. These attacks occurred at times of very trying anxieties. His life was spared, but he was constantly an invalid, and the misused body revenged itself in continual pain. He told his friends…