This prince was utterly spoiled by his accession to the governing power at the age of fifteen.

Though he lived in flagrant immorality, his religion, which, soon after he met Luther at Worms, became the Evangelical, was real enough to make his sins a burden to conscience.

Much attracted {120} by the teachings of some of the Anabaptists and Carlstadt that polygamy was lawful, and by Luther's assertion in the _Babylonian Captivity_ that it was preferable to divorce, [Sidenote: 1526] he begged to be allowed to take more wives, but was at first refused.

His conscience was quickened by an attack of the syphilis in 1539, and at that time he asked permission to take a second wife and received it on December 10, from Luther, Melanchthon, and Bucer.

His secret marriage to Margaret von der Saal [Sidenote: March 4, 1540] took place in the presence of Melanchthon, Bucer, and other divines.