" '  I  nave  often  conversed  with  Melanchton,  and  related  to  him  the
minutest  details  of  my  life.  I  am  the  son  of  a  peasant ;  my  father,
grandfather,  and  great  grandfather,  were  mere  peasants.  My  father  had
removed  to  Mansfeld,  where  he  became  a  miner:  I  was  born  there.
That  I  should  in  after-life  graduate  as  a  bachelor,  a  doctor,  &c.,  was  not
in  my  destiny.  Have  I  not  surprised  many  people  by  becoming  a  monk?
and  afterwards  by  exchanging  the  brown  cowl  for  one  of  another  kind  ?
This  greatly  distressed  my  father,  who  fell  ill  in  consequence.  I  next
fell  to  loggerheads  with  the  pope — married  a  nun  who  had  run  away
from  a  convent,  and  have  had  many  children  by  her.  Who  could  ever
have  read  this  in  the  stars  ?  Who  could  have  foretold  that  such  things
were  to  happen?'

"  Bom  at  Eisleben.  on  the  10th  of  November,  1483 — sent,  at  the  early
age  of  six  years,  to  tne  school  at  Eisenach — Luther  earned  his  bread  by
singing  from  door  to  door.  '  I  also,'  said  he,  '  was  a  poor  beggar,  and
have  received  bread  at  the  doors  of  houses.'  Ursula  Schweickard,  a
charitable  lady,  took  pity  on  him,  and  paid  for  his  education ;  in  1501.
he  entered  the  university  of  Erfurt.  A  poor  and  obscure  boy,  he  openea
that  new  era  which  commences  with  him — an  era  which  so  many
changes  and  calamities  were  to  render  imperishable  in  the  memory  of
men."    Vol.  I.  pp.  149,  150.
