So here, annalex, bb's excellent commentary on your comments about Luther and his wife not being free to marry. You can't pick and choose when vows are allowed to be broken or not allowed to be broken based on who the people involved are. It's either OK for all or not OK for all.
The Roman Catholic Church allows "annulments", do they not? For just such vows entered into, your church has frequently "declare(d) the nullity of a marriage, i.e., that the marriage never existed. In this case the contracting parties are free to marry, provided the natural obligations of a previous union are discharged.". Not really life-long is it? In fact, if a person takes a vow to be a priest, his ordination CAN be annulled.
In the case of Martin Luther as well as his wife, they BOTH chose to annul their ordination vows and they have every right to do so - they are not slaves. They legally married in the eyes of God after leaving the Roman church and committed their lives to the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Regardless if some people think they can't do that, apparently they CAN - even today Catholic priests do.
Rather than play judge and jury of a man who died five hundred years ago, why not just be honest and say what you really want to prove by your condemnation of him. Let God judge Martin Luther. Take care of your own soul.
If someone is going to condemn Luther and his wife for fornication because they weren't allowed to break their vows and they got married anyway, they will find themselves condemning a vast number of people over the centuries.
Exactly. So Luther and his consort were not free to marry. They could, perhaps, seek dispensations and do it legally; they just didn't because they preferred fornication to propriety. This is your teacher: a jerk and a crook.
The Roman Catholic Church allows "annulments", do they not?
Yes -- if the marriage was imporperly conceived, but not in other cases. The Church allows proper dispensation from the monastic vows as well.
In the case of Martin Luther as well as his wife, they BOTH chose to annul their ordination vows and they have every right to do so - they are not slaves.
Luther may have gotten a dispensation from priestly duties but not from celibacy (as Danie11212 explained). His lover have not gotten any "annulment" -- this is why they snuck out in a fish barrel. Liars and crooks.
play judge and jury of a man who died five hundred years ago
He is an historical figure and his life is well researched. I do not judge his eternal damnation, but I can judge his acts. You should do the same.