Eisleben & Wittenberg

Well, the flu/food poisoning mystery has been solved. My not feeling well was neither of these things but was instead a series of gall bladder attacks. The gall bladder was removed on Monday, 3/15, and I am still recovering but overall feeling much, much better.

At least all of this happened a) before Easter and b) before leaving the States. It would have been AWFUL to have had to deal with this while on this trip to Germany!

So...after Erfurt we are on to Luther's birth and death place, as well as where he spent much of his childhood. Luther was born November 10, 1483 in Eisleben. The church where he was baptized still stands today, as well as the font in which he was baptized. It so happened that he was in town giving a sermon when he became quite ill and died in 1546. They think it was kidney stones, but no one really knows for sure. He was only 62, but considering he was living during the time of the Plague and without "modern medicine," this was a ripe old age.

Luther's father, Hans, was a copper miner, and his mother, Margarethe, was a homemaker. The Luthers moved to Mansfield and then to Wittenberg when Luther was quite young, and he spent most of his childhood in Wittenberg. After attending the Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt, Luther was sent to the University at Wittenberg to study and earn his Doctorate of Ministry. He of course graduated and went on to be a professor at this university as well. It is also here in Wittenberg where he was serving as a parish priest when he nailed the 95 Theses to the church door on October 31, 1517 in protest of the sale of indulgences (little slip of paper that guaranteed salvation). Luther's main argument came from St. Paul's letter to the Romans, namely that we are saved by grace through faith, and certainly not by anything we do or purchase. It is this singular event that historians pinpoint as the "official" start of the Protestant Reformation. Of course, there were several others along with Luther who were starting to question, if not rebel, against Rome, but it seems that Luther's actions that day in 1517 was the trigger. And, as they say, the rest is history.