The Landgrave, PHILIP of Hesse, had commissioned Bucer to solicit the opinions of the Wittenberg Theologians in a peculiar and very delicate matter. It did not refer to the general affairs of the Church, but a private, domestic affair of the Landgrave. For various reasons his affections had become alienated from his wife, and he believed that it would be better for him to form a new matrimonial connection than fall into sins of the flesh. Bucer brought an elaborate treatise with him, which justified this double marriage of the Landgrave, and now only wished that Luther and Melanchthon should also signify their approval of this step. The two Theologians delivered a "secret Confessor's advice," on the 10th of December, in which they show that God originally permitted man to have but one wife, and that this law, although God bore with its violation in the Old Covenant, was restored in the New Testament. But an exception should be made in the present case of necessity, in order to avoid greater evils; yet without making it public, so that the enemies of the Gospel could not cry out that the Protestants were like the Anabaptists, who took many wives at once.[19] With this wished-for advice, Bucer departed; and after the Landgrave had also obtained a formal consent from his wife to form a second marriage, he was secretly married to Lady Margaret von der Saale, on the 3d of March, 1540, at Rothenburg on the Fulda. Melanchthon, who was at the time in Smalkald attending a convention, was also invited, without being informed particularly of the character of the occasion. He was much offended because he was thus obliged to be present at the wedding, and never forgot this treatment of the Landgrave. But even upon the present occasion he exhorted him to take better care of pastors and the teachers of the schools, to avoid the vices of fornication and adultery, and to remember David's punishment; also, to keep this second marriage secret, and not permit it to be spoken of publicly.