His father, a curt, sturdy, vigorous man, firm in his resolves, and of
unusual, shrewd common sense, had worked his way, after hard
struggles, to considerable prosperity. He kept strict discipline in
his household. Even in later years Luther thought with sadness of the
severe punishments he had endured as a boy and the sorrow they had
caused his tender, childish heart. But Old Hans Luther, nevertheless,
up to his death in 1530, had some influence on the life of his son.
When at the age of twenty-two Martin secretly entered the monastery
the old man was violently angry; for he had already planned a good
match for him. Friends finally succeeded in bringing the angry father
to consent to a reconciliation; and as his imploring son confessed
that a terrible apparition had driven him to the secret vow to enter
the monastery, he replied with the sorrowful words, "God grant that it
was not a deception and trick of the devil;" and he still further
wrenched the heart of the monk by the angry question, "You thought you
were obeying the command of God when you went into the monastery; have
you not heard also that you shall obey your parents?" These words made
a deep impression on the son, and when, many years after, he sat in
the Wartburg, expelled from the Church and outlawed by the Emperor, he
wrote to his father the touching words: "Do you still wish to tear me
from the monastery? You are still my father and I your son. The law
and the power of God are on your side--on my side human weakness.
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