Eisenach was a pleasant surprise, uninspiring, as elsewhere, as you step out of the station but, once you navigate your way into the town centre, a delight.
Luther stayed here for 4 years, from 1497, to finish his schooling. During that time he lived with foster families who made a real impression on him. Where his own family had been strict and austere, for the first time in his life he witnessed care and consideration that was both shared between family members and offered to him. It didn’t escape the young boys notice that the faith of these families made a real difference to their lives and revealed itself not in vengeful strictures, but in loving compassion. A real lesson in how seemingly minor players in anyones story can make a really significant impact, far beyond what they themselves were aware of I’m sure, simply be being themselves, showing kindness, expressing their faith in the everyday business of being at home.
20 years later Luther came through Eisenach again. On 4th May 1521 he was returning from his famous defence of himself before the Emperor at the Diet of Worms, when he was ‘ambushed’ by, as it turned out, supportive friends, determined to keep him safe from the threats that were increasingly prevalent.
He was taken in secret to the imposing Wartburg Castle, above the town, and remained there, disguised as the mysterious ‘Squire George’ for 10 months. He kept himself busy though, most famously over the 11 weeks either side of Christmas, translating the whole New Testament, into the common language of the region, creating in the process the basis of modern German and establishing a new standard for the Bible’s ability to reach into people’s lives in their own words.
A major town and academic centre, then and now, Erfurt was my base for the second half of my trip.
While Luther was a student here, studying first Liberal Arts and then Law, in accordance with his Father’s wishes, an event occurred that changed his life. In the summer of 1505, travelling back to the University after visiting his family, a thunderstorm hit and the young student was thrown to the ground by a bolt of lightning. Shocked and scared he cried out to the patron saint of miners from his home town, St. Anne, exclaiming ‘I want to be a monk!’ On July 17 he knocked on the door of the Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt and made good his promise. He was ordained in 1507 and began to study theology, much to his father’s displeasure. After a relatively brief period of initial study he was sent to Wittenberg and so the chain of events which was to transform Europe was begun.
No comments:
Post a Comment