Yes. Released from the order means released from the order, not released from vows of celibacy. Think of it like you joining the Lutherans, then becoming a pastor - if you resign you are no longer a pastor, that doesn’t mean you lose your designation as a Lutheran. Of course, Luther - believing as he did that the Pope is the anti-christ - I suppose, wouldn’t consider himself bound… btw, was that before his vows, before he was excommunicated, in the midst of his vows, when?
He saw the threefold priestly vows as simply human works, and the vow of celibacy he saw as unbiblical. Certainly his views on the issue emptied many monasteries and freed many from unbiblical vows. Even so, it’s silly to criticize Luther for “running away with a nun”. This issue was considerably controversial even in the sixteenth century and my hero addressed it:
But many still come with the old argument—and waste a lot of breath on it—that it is dishonorable to make a vow of celibacy to God and then not keep it, since even in the eyes of the world he who fails to keep his vow is branded as a faithless and dishonorable perjurer. Some of the nobility, in particular, work themselves blue in the face with such twaddle, most of all those who are supposed actually to have made many vows and who babble a lot about vows but have made little attempt to keep any, who have never in their lives thought seriously about trying to keep the least bit of what they so solemnly vowed to God in baptism, nor of acknowledging that they still owe it. The log in their own eye still blinds them so effectively, and they see so clearly the speck in other men’s eyes! [Luke 6:41–42].
They are rude, hardened hearts, which neither perceive themselves nor allow others to tell them, like the smiths’ anvils (as Job says); they will have their mad way! How often must I say that an unfulfillable vow, one that is contrary to God’s word, is no vow at all and should be forsaken? It is like the man who says, “My mother vowed that I should be a bishop.” Is a man who vowed to commit adultery or to kill an innocent man supposed to keep his vow? Must I keep my vow if I have vowed to cling to the sky and to ride on sunbeams or float on the clouds? If I were to ask them that, I should think they would have to say: No, the first vow is wrong and must not be kept, the second is foolish and will fail of itself.
So I say in this case too: We were all created to do as our parents have done, to beget and rear children. This is a duty which God has laid upon us, commanded, and implanted in us, as is proved by our bodily members, our daily emotions, and the example of all mankind. Now unless God himself performs a miracle, if you vow celibacy and remain unmarried you do exactly the same as he who vows adultery or something else which God has forbidden. Since your vow is an impossible and foolish one, we can see and understand why it remains unfulfilled of itself, and why unchastity only becomes so much the more rampant and shameless that it is unspeakable. And yet those stubborn fellows want to compel the emotions: a man should not feel his masculine nature, nor a woman her feminine nature.
Luther, M. (1999, c1962). Vol. 45: Luther’s works, vol. 45 : The Christian in Society II (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther’s Works (45:154). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
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