A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Bore, (Catherine von)
BORE, (CATHERINE VON) a Nun of Nimptochen, in Germany, afterwards Wife of Luther; married in 1525, died 1552, aged 53;
Was the daughter of a gentleman of fortune; and, at the commencement of the reformation, escaped from her convent, in 1723, with eight other nuns, convinced, by the writings of Luther, of the impropriety of monastic vows, and encouraged by Leonard Cope, senator of Torgaw. This proceeding was highly praised by Luther, who undertook their justification. She was then but twenty-six; and, the charms of youth, added to the extraordinary step she had taken, which made her many enemies, caused her to be censured, though without foundation, as having left her convent for a libertine life. Luther was hurt at this report, and thought of marrying her to Glacius, minister of Ortamunden; but she did not like Glacius, and Luther, though much older, married her himself.
Luther delighted in the heroism of his wife. He would not part with her, he afterwards observed, for all the riches of the Venetians. Catherine was tenderly attached to her husband; she was modest, gentle, plain in her attire, and economical in the house. She had all the hospitality of the German noblesse, without their pride. Luther died 1546. On his death, Catherine continued one year at Wittenberg, but left that town when it surrendered to the emperor Charles V. a great enemy to her husband. Before her departure, she received a present of fifty crowns from the king of Denmark; she received likewise presents from the elector of Saxony and the counts of Mansfeldt. With these additions to what Luther had left her, she had enough to maintain herself and her family, three sons, (some of whose descendants were living in a reputable manner, at the end of the seventeenth century) handsomely. She returned to Wittenberg, when the town was restored to the elector; where she lived, in a very pious manner, till the plague obliged her to leave it again, in 1552. She had a fall from a carriage, in her way to Torgau, in consequence of which she died at Torgau about a quarter of a year after. She was buried there in the great church, with many honours, where her tomb and epitaph are still to be seen.