(22 July 1552)
At issue is a request from a pious woman who, because of her desire to follow the truth and pure religion, as been treated badly by her husband and subjected to cruel and harsh servitude. Thus she wishes to know if it is permissible to leave her husband and to come here or withdraw to another church where she might rest her conscience in peace. Accordingly, we offer the following advice. First of all, with respect to her perplexity and agony, we are filled with pity and compassion for her and are drawn to pray that it will please God to give her such a sense of relief that she will be able to find the where withal to rejoice in him. Nevertheless, since she has asked for our counsel regarding what is permissible, our duty is to respond, purely and simply, on the basis of what God reveals to us in his Word, closing our eyes to all else. For this reason, we beg her not to take offense if our advice does not correspond with her hope. For it is necessary that she and we follow what the Master has ordained, without mingling our desires with it.
Now, with regard to the bond of marriage, one must remember thar a believing party cannot, of his or her free will, divorce the unbeliever, as St. Paul makes clear in 1 Cor. 7: 13. Without a doubt, St. Paul emphasizes this, fully knowing the suffering each party may be experiencing. For at thar time the pagans and the Jews were no less poisoned against the Christian religion than the papists are today. But St. Paul commands the believing partner, who continues to persevere in the truth of God, not to leave the partner who resists God.
In brief, we ought so to prefer God and Jesus Christ to the whole world that fathers, children, husbands, and wives cease to constitute something we value. So much is this so, that if we cannot adhere to him and renounce all else, we ought to make ourselves do so. This does not mean that Christianity ought to abrogate the order of nature. Where the two parties consent, it is especially fitting for the Christian wife to double her efforts to be submissive to her husband-here regarded as an enemy of the truth-in order to win him if at all possible, as St. Peter advises in 1 Pet. 3:1.
Nevertheless, as matters stand today in the papal church, a believing wife ought not to relinquish her hope without striving and trying to direct her husband toward the road of salvation. No matter how great his obstinacy might be, she must not let herself be diverted from the faith; rather she must affirm it with constancy and steadfastness whatever the dangers might be However, if the above party should be persecuted to the extent that she is in danger of denying her hope, then she is justified in fleeing. When a wife (or husband, as the case may be) has made her confession of faith and demonstrated how necessary it is not to consent to the abominations of the papacy, and if persecution arises against her for having done so and she is in grave peril, she may justly flee when God grants her an occasion to escape. For that does not constitute a willful divorce but occurs because of persecution Hence it is appropriate that the good lady who has sought our counsel endure until the above occurs. For according to her letters, she currently only holds her peace and quietly goes along; being required to talnt herself before idols, she bows before them in condescension. For this reason she may not justify leaving her husband until she has amply declared her faith and resisted greater pressures than presently encountered. Therefore she needs to pray for God to strengthen her, then she needs to fight more valiantly than she has, drawing upon the power of the Holy Spirit, to show her husband her faith, doing so in gentleness and humility, explaining to him that she must not offend God for the sake of pleasing him.
We have also taken into consideration her husband's rudeness and cruelty, of which she has advised us. But that ought not to prevent her from taking heart to commend the matter to God. For whenever we are so preoccupied with fear that we are afraid to do what we ought, then we are guilty of infidelity. That is the foundation on which we should build.
If, after having attempted what we have advised, she should come into imminent peril, or her husband should persecute her to the point ofdeath, then she is free to exercise that liberty which our Lord grants to all his own, i.e., to flee ravenous wolves.