Note 131 — Chapter XXI · (continued 2)

Rockwell, ibid., p. 179. The Protestant theologian Th. Brieger says (“Luther und die Nebenehe,” etc., “Preuss. Jahrb.,” 135, 1909, p. 46): “As is known, in the summer of 1540, when the matter had already been notorious for months, Luther gave the Landgrave the advice, that he should give a flat denial of the step he had taken.... ‘A lie of necessity was not against God; He was ready to take that upon Himself.’—Just as in our own day men of the highest moral character hold similar views concerning certain forms of the lie of necessity.”