Home Life

Luther lived for 20 years after his marriage, and these last 20 years of his life are often neglected by biographers. There are several reasons for the relative neglect of Luther's later years. In part it has to do with the fact that, while Luther's life was exciting in the 1520s, the 1530s were a less eventful time. The excitement of the years in which he broke with the church, married, reprimanded the peasants and quarreled with friends and foes over doctrine gave way to a slower, more stable life for Luther. It is also challenging, especially for admirers of Luther, to tell the story of his later years because Luther grew increasingly quarrelsome as he got older. In the 1530s and 1540s he produced a number of increasingly violent treatises against those whom he saw as the enemies of the gospel. Despite this, the last 20 years of his life are important to give us a full picture of who Luther was.

Unlike the relative obscurity of his early years, Luther was a major public figure in the 1530s and was well known throughout Europe. As such, he often received visitors in Wittenberg from throughout Europe. One of these travelers has left us a remarkable firsthand description of a visit with Luther in 1523. This text gives a strong sense of Luther's personality and lifestyle, and is worth quoting at length: