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Melanchthon, in a contemporaneous letter to John Hess, called it Luther's best book. John Mathesius, the well-known pastor at Joachimsthal and Luther's biographer, acknowledged that he had learned the "rudiments of Christianity" from it. Even to-day this book has its peculiar mission to the Church.
His friends and guests spoke of the 'chaste lips' of Luther: 'He was, says Mathesius, 'a foe to unchastity and loose talk.
Luther's guests would have laughed at him if he had claimed such a "discovery" of the Bible as Catholic writers and some of their Protestant authorities think that Mathesius has claimed for him and modern Protestants still credit him with. What Luther did relate we are prepared to show was not, and could not be, an unusual occurrence in those days.
His friend Mathesius tells us, of their early married life, 'A poor man made him a pitiful tale of distress, and having no cash with him, Luther came to his wife she being then confined for the god-parents' money, and brought it to the poor man, saying, 'God is rich, He will supply what is wanted. Afterwards, however, he grew more careful, seeing how often he was imposed upon.
Ursula Cotta, as her name was, belonged to the Eisenach family of Schalbe. She died in 1511. Mathesius tells us how the boy won her heart by his singing and his earnestness in prayer, and she welcomed him to her own table.
Lofty, nay proud as was the self-assurance he expressed in his mission, and though possessed, as Mathesius says, of all the heart and courage of a true man, yet he was personally of a very plain and unasserting manner: Mathesius calls him the most humble of men, always willing to follow good advice from others.
Last, but not least, we have to mention John Mathesius, who, after having been a student at Wittenberg in 1529, and then rector of the school at Joachimsthal, returned to study at Wittenberg from 1540 to 1542, and obtained the honour which he sought for, of being a guest at Luther's table.
After the year 1745, his disciples never saw him do a single thing from any human motive. One man alone, a Swedish priest, named Mathesius, set afloat a story that he went mad in London in 1744.
But when once conversation was opened, it flowed with ease and freedom, and, as Mathesius says, even merrily.
Did Luther say, and did Mathesius report, that up to the year 1505 he had not known of the Bible? Not at all. He merely stated that up to that time he had not seen a complete copy of the Bible.
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