Quidam copulatus publice in facie Ecclesiae cum Virgine, cum qua antea contraxerat sponsalia, praesente affinitate; antequam autem cognovit eam, certior factus a dignis fide personis, eam esse corruptam ab alio, antequam cum illa sponsalia contraxisset. Quaeritur igitur: Num eam dimittere debeat. (I.e.: Someone had been publicly married before the whole congregation to a virgin to whom he had previously betrothed himself in the presence of all his relatives; but before he recognized her, he was told, and this by trustworthy persons, that she had been slept with by another before her betrothal. The question now is: may he dismiss her?)
Respondet D. Martinus Lutherus (To which Dr. Martin Luther responds):
Grace and peace in Christ, dearest, best, dearest Lord and friend! I am sorry that the matter is still hanging. For I would have hoped that a public separation would have taken place long ago; because I did not understand it any other way, because the witnesses, who made the cry, would be freely and publicly known.
friendship and among each other. But since it will remain in darkness and not come to daylight, it will be difficult to advise.
(2) For there is, first, a public betrothal and marriage, which in turn must be publicly divorced, or the virgin is justified in asking the journeyman to marry her. Secondly, the journeyman would also be wronged, and is not guilty before God to keep the virgin, if this is true, as credible people testify of her; for he does not find what he has sought etc. Thirdly, they are all guilty before God and before the world, who have deterred the journeyman with this witness of theirs and have brought the virgin into the clamor, to confess this publicly and to bring it forth as is right. If not, they are unjust before God and not honorable before the world. For since they did not want it to be publicly known, they should have kept silent and not deterred the journeyman, nor deprived the virgin of her honor.
3 Therefore, if they wish to remain in darkness, they must restore the virgin to honor and keep the journeyman silent; or
can never stand before God, and it will not help them that it concerns great people. For God is greater in the commandment that they practice on the journeyman and the virgin.
4 Therefore, this is my final advice, if the journeyman knows the people so completely honestly and credibly that they are not lying, then he is not guilty of taking the virgin. But he would have to stay out of the country for a while, as if he did not want to come back, until the virgin takes someone else. Or he must step on this ground, which is the most certain, namely, that he considers such people to be entirely untruthful, as they certainly are, because they act against God and all his commandments by secretly taking a virgin's honor, not wanting to be known publicly, and yet giving the good fellow an insurmountable conscience and fright, in that they are not telling the truth.
secretly and do not want to be known publicly. So they secretly commit two real murders, namely, they put the virgin to shame and the journeyman to conscience; therefore they are not to be believed. And if they want to remain in darkness, the journeyman is guilty of not believing them, but is pleasing to God to consider them liars. For since they do not want to confess the truth in honor of God and remain silent for the sake of men, it is not to be believed that they tell the journeyman the truth. For he who does not want to do right by God does much less right by men. And whoever does not want to confess the truth, as required by God, is much less to be believed that he secretly brings the truth in angles; and indeed I have seen more such cases that one has slandered the virgin in order to scare off the journeymen. So much I know to advise on the matter, no more at this time. Anno 1528.