Praying on the Privy

Beginning in June 1531, Konrad Cordatus, having been recently expelled from his pastoral position in Zwickau due to disagreements with the city council, took up residence in the home of Martin Luther, his former professor, in Wittenberg. There he began taking down Luther’s table talk, and others soon followed his example. Cordatus not only preserved Luther’s theological observations, but also his casual remarks and jokes. Shortly before Christmas of that year, Cordatus recorded the following story told by his host, a piece of humorous lore that had probably been shared with Luther back when he was an Augustinian monk:

This monk was sitting on the latrine one time and was reading the canonical hours. The devil approached him and said, “A monk should not be reading prime¹ on the latrine!” The monk replied:

“I cleanse my gut of excrement
and worship God Omnipotent—
to you the filth that falls below,
to God the prayers that upward go.”²

Endnotes

¹ Prime was the third prayer service in the divine office, intended for the first hour of daylight. “To read prime [or any other service in the divine office]” meant to say or speak through (or even chant) the service in question, whether one was reading it or not.

² The original Latin rhyme that Luther cited goes as follows:

Purgo meum ventrem
et colo Deum omnipotentem.
Tibi, quod [cadit] infra;
Deo omnipotenti, quod supra.

Some versions do not include cadit.

Source

Kroker, Ernst, Oskar Brenner, and Karl Drescher, eds., D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Tischreden, vol. 2 (Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1913), 413, no. 2307b.

See also Brecht, Martin, Martin Luther: Shaping and Defining the Reformation (1521–1532), trans. James L. Schaaf (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), 432–33.

Luther on Beer: Collection of Authentic Quotes

ecently I was browsing an online retail store for a customizable mug to give as a gift to a fellow pastor. There was already a mug available for purchase called the “Martin Luther Beer Stein,” which contained two alleged Luther quotes. One of them sounded obviously apocryphal and the other sounded suspect. So I decided to dig a little and to compile and translate a relatively comprehensive list of authentic Luther quotes on beer and drinking. (It turned out to be a good project to work on during a terrible blizzard.) My compilation has a twofold bent:

1. It provides quotes that could be used on customized mugs, glasses, steins, or tankards (a Christmas gift to you from Red Brick Parsonage). Incidentally, the quotes you glean here for this purpose don’t necessarily have to be the ones that portray beer (or wine) favorably. Any of Luther’s warnings against drunkenness would also be appropriate for drinkware.
2. It provides rarely cited quotes about beer, wine, and drinking in general that are of historical interest and/or provide insight into Luther’s life, character, and views.

This isn’t the sort of project I would normally publish on this site. It’s liable to end up becoming one of my most popular posts, and I’d rather have people visiting this site to dine on hearty doctrinal meat that will nourish their souls than to satisfy their curiosity about a topic of worldly, everyday interest. The fact that some of these quotes also contain scriptural admonition and instruction helped to allay my concerns. But I would also ask any conscientious reader who appreciates this collection to do me the honor of reading at least one other post on my site, if you have not already. If you’re looking for suggestions, “Luther’s House Sermon on the Canaanite Woman” and “Martin Luther’s Favorite Christmas Hymn?” should prove to be enriching without unduly taxing your time.

In compiling this list, I verified that the apocryphal-sounding quote on the Martin Luther Beer Stein was in fact apocryphal. (Luther never said, “It is better to think of church in the ale-house than of the ale-house in church.”) The quote I was suspicious about, however, turned out to be an actual Luther quote (included in #4 below), though reading it out of context can give a mistaken impression about what Luther was saying. I do my best below to provide context for the quotes that require it.

I was somewhat surprised to discover that, as you will see, there are not many quotes where Luther praises beer outright. In fact, he commonly has three complaints about beer. The first will no doubt disappoint many Lutherans: Luther says more than once that he wishes beer had never been invented, primarily because of the waste of barley that would have been able to “keep all of Germany alive” in other forms. (A home-brewing friend of mine confirmed that brewing is indeed “a fairly inefficient use of grain.”)

His second complaint is much more gratifying to beer aficionados: Luther did not like light beer, and there was a lot of light beer to be had, even in his own cellar (by necessity). One of the most common beers in Luther’s day was kofent, which derives from the Latin word conventus, “convent,” because apparently monks were the first to brew it. Proper kofent was made by pouring water onto the draff (spent grain) from a previous batch of actual beer—akin to using a used tea bag to make a new pot of tea or the same coffee grounds to brew a new pot of coffee. But the term could also be used for any beer that was weaker or didn’t taste quite right, no matter how it was made. Kofent was also called thin or weak beer (Dünnbier), after-beer (Nachbier or Afterbier), table beer (Speisebier, Tafelbier, Tischbier), and other names. So basically, whenever Luther rails against kofent, just imagine him shredding Busch Light, Bud Light, Miller Lite, etc., or for that matter the regular flagship “beers” produced by those companies.

His third complaint pops up later in his life when brewers started lining their barrels with pitch to prevent them from absorbing the beer into their wood and admitting the atmospheric air through their pores. The pitch gave the beer a peculiar flavor, which apparently the peasants liked, but Luther claimed it caused chest congestion. Unfortunately, the table talk where Luther rails against “the new invention of pitch” (#24) is undated; if this quote could be confidently dated, it would be critical to beer brewing history. Since there is another quote about the peasants’ fondness for pitch dated February 1539 (#25), #24 probably dates to the late 1530s.

Luther was not a drunk, as many other historians have also noted. He in fact regularly rebuked and lamented drunkenness both in private conversation and from the pulpit, including one particularly memorable sermon (#28). He did not even shy away from admonishing princes and their courtiers against it. Not to mention that Luther simply could not have accomplished everything he did if he were a drunk. Luther did, however, regularly enjoy alcoholic beverages, and it is untrue that the historical record never documents Luther getting drunk, as some have maintained. The most obvious example dates to the end of May 1536, when a number of Protestant theologians gathered in Wittenberg to hold discussions and attempt to reach agreement on the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. Among those attending was Wolfgang Musculus, who wrote a daily report of the negotiations to bring back to Augsburg. Musculus reported the following events for May 29, the day the so-called Wittenberg Concord was signed (Theodor Kolde, ed., Analecta Lutherana [Gotha: Friedrich Andreas Perthes, 1883], 229):

At 1 o’clock our brothers [namely, the other southern German theologians] left to make it to [Bad] Düben, leaving me and [Martin] Frecht with [Justus] Menius and [Friedrich] Myconius in Wittenberg. After they departed, Philipp [Melanchthon] led me to the university and showed me the Greek Epiphanius, two books written very long ago. For dinner Dr. Luther and Philipp and Lucas [Cranach] the painter were at our lodging, where Dr. Luther told us about the deceits with which he had been repeatedly tested. After dinner we went over together to the abode of Master Lucas the painter and drank some more. After leaving the painter’s house, we brought Dr. Luther home, where we continued doing the Saxon thing and drank some more. He was in marvelously fine spirits and was making benevolent promises of every kind.

Luther was riding a high from the successfully concluded negotiations—negotiations concluded with an agreement that had sided with his position almost entirely—and if this isn’t a description of him getting drunk, I don’t know what is. I am sure that countless Christians still today could be identified who, like Luther, are otherwise known as sober people who, if they drink, drink in moderation and acknowledge drunkenness as a sin and are against it, and who nevertheless have drunk too much on occasion. This doesn’t excuse the drunkenness; those Christians themselves would not excuse it. (Remember that Luther continued practicing private confession with Pastor Johannes Bugenhagen until his death, and doubtless would have also confessed the times he got drunk as sins.) But Christians are sinful humans too; they, too, are known to abuse God’s good gifts now and then. Christians are not defined by perfection, but by repentance. In addition, Luther himself noted that he would rather live in the joy and freedom of the gospel and have one too many beers on occasion than live under the law and paralyze himself with scrupulous worry “about committing any little sin” (see #4). (If you think that means he took a soft stance on drunkenness and other sins, just read the quotes below.)

We also need to remember that alcoholic beverages were also viewed and used medicinally in Luther’s day (as they are to an extent still today, e.g. hot toddies); there was no Robitussin for sale. If someone is knocked out by prescription or over-the-counter medication today, we think nothing of it, if it gives the person relief or helps him or her to rest and recover. But when people did the same with beer or wine back then, we tend to shake our heads and call them drunks. Luther was often ill, especially toward the end of his life, and often drank to allay his illnesses and pain. This also helps to explain the large amount of alcohol he appears to have consumed during his final days in Eisleben (see #37).

All the translations below are my own, except for #2. WA stands for Weimarer Ausgabe (Weimar Edition of Luther’s works), Br for the Briefwechsel (Correspondence) volumes in that series, and TR for the Tischreden (Table Talk) volumes in that series. I have generally organized the following quotes chronologically. If any Luther scholar or aficionado thinks there are other quotes that should be included in this list, please comment below or use the information on the About page to submit them. I will be happy to give them my serious consideration.

With that, please enjoy these Luther quotes on beer and drinking. You don’t need to enjoy these quotes in moderation, but please do so enjoy the beverages they describe. “[It is false, deceiving teachers who] order people to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is consecrated through the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:3–5). “Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Cor. 6:12). “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

Luther on Beer and Drinking

#1

We must begin by correcting the modern marketing narrative created by the Einbecker Brewery. At some point relatively recently, one of their marketing agents came up with this rhyming jingle: “Der beste Trank den einer kennt, wird Ainpöckisch Bier genennt!” (“The best of drinks to all is clear: It bears the name Einbecker beer!”) Luther is supposed to have spoken this rhyme on the spot after Duke Erich of Brunswick had a servant send him a silver tankard of Einbecker beer after his famous stand at the Diet of Worms on April 18, 1521.

Luther said no such thing. However, the context in which Luther is supposed to have said those words is legitimate. Duke Erich did have a servant send Luther a silver tankard filled with Einbecker beer to refresh himself after his famous stand. But what Luther actually said in response was (source):

As Prince Erich has thought of me today, so may Christ think of him in his final battle [i.e. in his final hours].

According to Franz von Kramm, one of Duke Erich’s page boys who attended him, Duke Erich did in fact remember Luther’s words on his deathbed and had Franz “revive him with evangelical comfort.”

These circumstances not only automatically make Einbecker beer the official beer of the Reformation, but they also make this quote one of the best candidates for a custom drinkware printing or engraving for the diehard Lutheran in your life. Yes, the quote says nothing about beer. Yes, it requires explanation. But it is at the heart of one of the most pivotal events of church history, and it came from the heart of the Church’s greatest post-biblical reformer as he held a tankard of Germany’s finest.

#2

Immediately after returning from the Wartburg, Luther preached a famous series of daily sermons from March 9–16, 1522, in order to restore order in Wittenberg. In his sermon on Monday, March 10, he preached these well-known words (Luther’s Works 51:77):

In short, I will preach [the Word], teach it, write it, but I will constrain no man [to believe it] by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip [Melanchthon] and [Nikolaus von] Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.

#3

In a letter to Landgrave Philip of Hesse on or around May 20, 1530, about the Sacramentarian Controversy, Luther said that even his adversaries would prefer to take back some of their hastily-published and poorly-thought-out arguments at this point, if they could (WA Br 5:311, no. 1573):

If the beer were back in the barrel, they would just leave it in there at this point.

In a work written three years earlier, Luther similarly used the concept of wishing the beer were back in the barrel as a metaphor for wishing an ordeal had never been started (Luther’s Works 37:19).

#4

In July of 1530, while staying at the Coburg Fortress during the Diet of Augsburg, Luther penned a letter to Jerome Weller. Born in 1499, Weller matriculated at Wittenberg in 1525. From 1527 to 1536, Weller and his family lived in Luther’s house and ate at his table, in return for which he tutored Luther’s children. Weller struggled badly with depression, which Luther addressed in this letter (WA Br 5:519, no. 1670).

Therefore be of good cheer and stouthearted, and drive these terrible thoughts right out of your mind. And as often as the devil vexes you with these thoughts, right then and there seek out conversation with people, or drink a larger amount, or joke, jest, or do anything else more cheerful. Sometimes a person needs to drink a larger amount, play games, jest, and even commit some sin in hatred and contempt of the devil, so that we do not give him any opportunity to give us a bad conscience about extremely trivial matters. Otherwise we are conquered, if we end up too anxiously worrying about committing any little sin. Accordingly, if the devil should ever say, “Do not drink,” you should respond to him this way, “Instead, precisely because you prohibit it, I will drink, and I will drink an even larger amount.” Thus one must always do the opposite of whatever Satan forbids. Why else do you suppose it is that I drink wine so undiluted, converse so freely, and devour food so often like I do, other than to mock and vex the devil, who is determined to vex and mock me?

#5

On Saturday, July 29, 1531, Luther preached a sermon on John 7:32–35, during which he made this illustration (WA 33:417–18):

When a good beer is available, everyone makes a rush for it and does not dawdle, for they know that it will not last long; they won’t have it every day. Therefore people get it while it is available. If it were available for a long time, then our mouths would spoil us anyway, so that we didn’t appreciate it. But here people think that the Word will remain eternally, even though it remains and lasts a very short time.

#6

At his table in December of 1531, Luther, no doubt with a beer in hand, spoke these words recorded by Veit Dietrich (WA TR 1:60, no. 139):

If our Lord God can forgive me for crucifying and martyring him for some twenty years, he can certainly also make allowances for me when I take a drink to his glory now and then. God grant it! The world can interpret it however it wants and tends to do.

Luther is referring to his years as a priest performing the so-called sacrifice of the mass.

#7

Toward the end of that same month, Luther said these words at his table, recorded by Johannes Schlaginhaufen and Conrad Cordatus (WA TR 2:23, no. 1281; 2:425, no. 2344):

The man who invented beer brewing has been the bane of Germany. Rye can’t be anything but expensive in our territories. The horses eat the majority of our grain in oats, which are planted everywhere, for we cultivate more oats than rye. After that, the pious peasants and townspeople use up the vast majority of grain with their beer-swilling. In the splendid land of Thuringia, which is very fertile land, they have learned this piece of worthlessness: Wherever good, high-quality grain used to grow, dyer’s woad must now grow, which burns up and drains the soil to an extent beyond all measure.

#8

On February 27, 1532, Luther wrote home to his wife, Katharina or Käthe (Katie or Katy), while on a visit in Torgau (WA Br 6:270, no. 1908):

I am sleeping extremely well, some six or seven hours consecutively, and afterwards two or three hours more. It is due to the beer, I think. But I am sober, just like in Wittenberg.

#9

In the spring of 1532, Luther said these words at his table, recorded by Veit Dietrich (WA TR 1:107, no. 254):

Wine is blessed and is attested in Scripture, but beer is a human tradition.

#10

In the fall of 1532, Cordatus recorded Luther commenting at his table once again on the inventor of beer brewing (WA TR 2:613, no. 2716):

I have frequently cursed the first beer brewer. So much barley is ruined in brewing which could have been used to keep all of Germany alive. And it should be ruined like that if we are going to make such a shameful joke out of it which we then piss against the wall afterwards. There are three pecks in every quarter of beer, and for every one city that brews good beer, there are a hundred of them that brew table beer. The high cost and lack of beer will cause the university to move somewhere else. For the waters here are not healthy at all, but deadly. We will therefore be forced to leave.

According to the Grimm Brothers’ Deutsches Wörterbuch, in Saxony a quarter (Viertel) was equal to a ton (Tonne) or ninety quarts (Kannen; see entries “Tonne,” 2, a, α, and “Kanne,” 2), roughly twenty-two and a half gallons. (Kanne is also the word for “tankard.”) The capacity of a quarter varied by region; for instance, in Westphalia a quarter was synonymous with Stübchen (see #37) and roughly equivalent to a gallon.

#11

Around the same time, Luther made one of his most humorous, and nerdiest, criticisms of Wittenberg’s beer, also recorded by Cordatus (WA TR 2:638–39, no. 2757):

I have lived to see the end of the beer we cherish. It has all turned into kofent. And I ask God to destroy every cause of it—material, formal, efficient, and final—or if it still must be brewed, that a tenth of it would please turn out as beer. In ten years they have never been able to find the trick to it.

Material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, and final cause are all philosophical terms.

#12

Late that same fall, Cordatus recorded him saying the following at his table (WA TR 3:5, no. 2810b):

I believe that Adam was an extremely simple and extremely modest man. I also do not think that he lit candles; he didn’t know that the ox had tallow in his body, and he was not yet sacrificing cattle. I do wonder where he got the skins that he wore. This man Adam was, therefore, without a doubt extremely handsome—living to such an old age that he could see his eighth grandson—without a doubt the wisest man up until Noah, and well practiced in various trials, living in the utmost temperance, drinking neither wine nor beer. I wished that beer brewing had not been invented, for a whole lot of grain is spent in the process and nothing good is brewed.

#13

On November 24 that same year, Luther preached a sermon on 1 Timothy 1:5–7 in Wörlitz (WA 36:356).

If you can sit day and night in the tavern or elsewhere with good companions, chattering and gossiping, singing and shouting, and not grow tired or feel the work that goes into it, then you can certainly also sit in church for an hour and listen, to serve and gratify God.

#14

In the early part of 1533, Cordatus recorded these words of Luther (WA TR 3:113, no. 2948):

It is actually true that kofent is the strongest drink in my cellar, for even though many people drink it, one ton of kofent still outlasts three barrels of beer.

On the “ton,” see #10 above.

#15

While staying in Dessau to minister to Prince Joachim of Anhalt-Dessau, Luther wrote home to his wife on July 29, 1534 (WA Br 7:91, no. 2130):

Yesterday I drank some bad beer. Then I had to sing, “I don’t drink well, sorry to say, though I should like to dearly.” And I thought, what good wine and beer I have at home, besides a beautiful wife or, I should say, overlord. And you would do well to send over to me the entire cellarful of my wine and a bottle of your beer, as soon as you can, otherwise the new beer will prevent me from returning.

Luther’s little ditty appears to be an excerpt from a folk song or folk chant of some sort. I tried to retain his meter in my translation.

#16

In July of 1535, the University of Wittenberg had to be moved to Jena because of the plague. Luther stayed in Wittenberg and continued some of his teaching duties by letter. On August 18, 1535, he wrote to his colleague Justus Jonas (WA Br 7:232, no. 2223):

Here the loneliness of the city is strange, but we are alive and well, by God’s grace, living comfortably enough, except that there is absolutely no beer in the city. Blessed is my belly, which still has quite a bit in the cellar. Certainly the citizens are suffering from the shortage of drink. What would have happened if the school had stayed here? Anything new that’s brewed is drunk while it’s still quite warm right in front of the live coals, so that all those who could possibly brew are compelled to do so by thirsty force. [Alternate translation: so that all those who have drunk it are compelled to brew by thirsty force.]

#17

By September the plague was at an end, and plans were being made for doctorates to be conferred in Wittenberg on two students. Colleagues from the university were expected to return, including Justus Jonas, and Luther was excited at the prospect of having guests. He wrote to Jonas on September 4, 1535 (WA Br 7:249, no. 2234):

Then, if you are able to buy any hares or similar meats, or hunt them for free, send them, since we are planning on filling all of your bellies, if only that drink which they call zythum is successful. For my Katie has brewed seven quarters (as they are called), into which she has mixed thirty-two pecks of malt, wishing to satisfy my palate. She hopes it will turn out to be good beer. Whatever it turns out to be, you will taste it along with the others.

On “quarters,” see #10 above. Note also that Luther’s palate required about four and a half pecks of malt per quarter of beer, compared to the standard three pecks per quarter he mentions in #10. Zythum was a kind of malt liquor brewed by the Egyptians, but it is unlikely that Katie was attempting to brew an ancient recipe. Luther himself later refers to it as beer. In his excitement, he is simply using zythum in a playful way to refer to beer.

#18

In the fall of 1536, Anton Lauterbach and Jerome Weller recorded Luther musing on the following question (WA TR 3:350, no. 3483):

Why is it that the first drink from the tankard tastes the best? Perhaps on account of sin, since the flesh and the mouth are sinful.

#19

Around that same time, the following conversation took place at Luther’s table one evening (WA TR 3:344, no. 3476, anonymously recorded):

“Tomorrow I am supposed to lecture on the drunkenness of Noah [Genesis 9:20ff]. Therefore this evening I will drink enough so that I can then speak from experience about the wicked deed.”

Doctor Cordatus responded, “By no means! You should rather do the opposite.”

Then Luther said, “One does have to make allowances for the failings of every country. The Bohemians gorge, the Wends steal, the Germans have no qualms getting drunk. After all, dear Cordatus, how else could you outdo a German right now, except in drunkenness, especially one who does not love music and women?”

Tappert, in volume 54 of Luther’s Works, translates, “…except by making him drunk.” But that does not seem to be the sense. Luther’s point is that, if you want to best a German, there’s only one arena in which besting him will matter to him and others—drinking.

#20

On January 2, 1538, Luther spent the evening, together with Justus Jonas and apparently Anton Lauterbach (the recorder), in the house of Blasius Matthäus, a Wittenberg councilman. Lauterbach records:

Then absinthe beer was brought out. He responded, “Oh no! People are sending me absinthe beer from France, Prussia, and Russia in my own house! It’s becoming plenty bitter to me.”

Absinthe beer was beer to which absinthe was added to give it a bitter flavor. This must have been somewhat similar to the current IPA craze which, for the record, is dumb.

#21

About a week later, between January 8–10, Lauterbach recorded this conversation between Philipp Melanchthon and Luther (WA TR 3:537, no. 3693):

Then [Melanchthon] was talking a great deal about his love of wine, and that there is no good wine to be had anywhere. Luther responded, “That’s because we abuse its abundance for our own extravagance. This results in diseases—leprosy, kidney stones and gallstones, gout in the foot, and gout in the hand. Those who are always drinking wine very often have gout in the foot, but beer produces dropsy.”

#22

On February 12, 1538, Luther wrote to Justus Jonas, who was in Zerbst at the time (WA Br 8:197, no. 3216):

Your house is safe—thanks be to Christ—but your beer is ruined, if the same beer is in your cellar that you gave me as a gift. But let the beer be ruined and along with it the old man himself—the container, or rather skin, of this martyred water—provided that the incorruption of the inner man, who drinks living water and the fountain springing up to eternal life, increases from day to day. Amen.

“This martyred water” refers to Jonas’s ruined beer, with Jonas himself, or rather his old Adam, being the skin (leather flask) that held some of it. Luther is combining serious theology with goofiness.

#23

On June 13 that same year, Luther wrote to Anton Unruhe, a judge in Torgau, to thank him for honoring his request to give a certain poor woman justice, and to thank him for something else (WA Br 8:237–38, no. 3238):

But, dear Judge Anton, wasn’t it sufficient for you to hear my request and intercession and give me comforting news of your love and willingness? Did you also have to live in remembrance of my person with a gift, and even do so with an entire vat of Torgau beer of your own brewing? I am not worthy of the kindness, and although I know that you are not poor, but that God has blessed you with good things and abundance, I would have preferred to see you give the beer away to your poor people, who together have brought you more blessing with their prayers than poor Martin has by himself.

A vat (Kufe) was ordinarily a stationary wooden container, open on top and somewhat broader and wider at the bottom than at the top, in which beer was brewed. But the term was then also used for a large enclosed beer barrel with two bottoms, or for the equivalent capacity of beer—some 600 quarts or 150 gallons.

#24

An undated (though probably from the latter half of the 1530s), anonymously recorded comment from Luther’s table (WA TR 5:697, no. 6501):

“Beer is the best drink, especially in winter, whenever it has not evaporated. But it requires a tremendous amount of barley. One-third of the harvested grain is consumed in drink.” Then he began railing against the new invention of pitch, since it caused congestion of the chest. “May God make us all content! If only we wouldn’t pervert his gifts so badly through greediness!”

I am unsure what the “evaporation” refers to, and would appreciate any insights from those with more brewing knowledge than I. That phrase could also possibly be translated: “when it doesn’t evaporate.”

#25

In the middle of February 1539, Lauterbach recorded Luther commenting on Torgau beer at his table. However, in order to understand what he says, we have to go back in time to a story Luther told at his table in January 1537, recorded by Lauterbach and Weller (WA TR 3:384, no. 3539a):

There was a merchant who sold “prophet’s berries” with a lot of hype, saying that if you ate them, you would soon be prophesying. When the Jews heard about this, they were paying an extremely high price for them, and when they put them in their mouths, they were soon prophesying, “This is crap!”

Now back to the February 1539 remarks (WA TR 4:247–48, no. 4347):

Torgau beer was once the distinguished queen above all others. Now it has so degenerated that in Leipzig they call it “prophet’s beer,” since as soon as it hits your tongue, it tastes like kofent, just as the “prophet’s berries” that were sold to the Jews in Frankfurt betrayed that they were crap once they were on the tongue; they were unpleasant in appearance and smelled nice. There’s a nice play on words there—prophet’s berries and prophet’s beer. The peasants now desire and go after the kind of beer that is thinned out and roasted [macerata et assata], dried and roasted [gederret und gebrathen], has a bright, thick, red color, and is pitched. This is what the peasants call a lovely beer.

“Gederret und gebrathen” might simply be Lauterbach rewriting in German what he had already recorded in Latin, “macerata et assata.” (Luther doubtless spoke German most of the time in his house, but recorders often recorded his words in Latin, since Latin was more conducive to taking notes.) On “pitched,” see my introductory remarks at the head of this post.

#26

Probably that same night (in February 1539), Luther was once again talking about Torgau (WA TR 4:248, no. 4349):

[Luther] was lamenting the debauchery of the city of Torgau, the fuel of whose corruption was the tavern. That general assembly of drinking completely corrupted the townspeople. “There people learn to be idle, gamble, gorge, and guzzle; whoring follows afterwards. What harm does it do if they would make even more taverns there—one for the councilmen, another for the townspeople, a third for the women, and a fourth for the servants, so that it would at least be broken up into classes? Then the employees of the court would also have a really nice assembly that is very lively! They themselves would prefer that there were one church in Torgau and five taverns. We definitely saw that during the first visitation, how unpleasant it ended up being for them to have to accommodate us in the tavern for so long. In summary, the world—she is going to the dregs. God help her!”

“The first visitation” to which Luther refers began at the end of April 1529. It was part of an effort to visit the churches in Electoral Saxony in order to learn what condition they were in and what sort of pastors they had. A note on the translation of this table talk: The original has the potential to be misunderstood, because Trinkstube, “tavern,” is a feminine word, and Luther often uses the form Trinkstuben here, which is a plural form in modern German. (Feminine singular and all plural nominatives and accusatives use the same form of the definite article, die.) So the reader must note that Stube used to have a weak declension, that is, all forms except the nominative singular ended in -n. In other words, there was only one tavern in Torgau where everyone from all classes met, and Luther wishes, if the debauchery can’t be stopped, that it would at least be moderated by the existence of additional taverns, which would each be intended for specific classes.

#27

Between May 16 to 18, 1539, Lauterbach recorded Luther comparing German drunkenness to Turkish temperance (WA TR 4:401, no. 4607):

Then he was talking about the sobriety and temperance of the Muslim Turks, who lived in moderation and had a drink brewed from herbs and honey, like our mead, which they call maslach, which has three forms. [Alternate translation: maslach, that is, “threefold.”] One form of it, the strongest, they drank when they were about to go to war. The second form was for daily use, and the third form was for sex—their version of Torgau beer.

According to the second edition of Robley Dunglison’s Medical Lexion: A New Dictionary of Medical Science (Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1839), 379.2, maslach was a medicinal excitant, “much used by the Turks,” which contained opium. But I have no idea if this is the same product to which Luther is referring. 

#28

Luther also compared the Germans to the Muslim Turks in his famous sermon on 1 Peter 4:7–11 on Exaudi (Easter 7), May 18 (WA 47:763, 764–65, 766). There are a couple quotes from this sermon excerpt that could be printed or engraved on beer mugs and tankards and viewed as encouraging the enjoyment of a good drink, but as you can see, such quotes would be ironically used, considering the larger context of the sermon.

Eating and drinking are not forbidden, but every kind of food is permitted, and you are allowed to have a modest drink for pleasure. But if you wish to go beyond that and be a sow, as if you were born to gulp down beer and wine, then you should know that you are not going to be saved. It’s no wonder that everyone is a beggar! How much money people could save if they didn’t spend it on drink! … Do not think that you are going to be saved if you are a drunken sow day and night. Everyone should know that drunkenness is such a great sin that it is a hindrance to your baptism, faith, and eternal salvation. … If you are weary and dejected, have a drink. But do not think that you are a Christian if you wish to be a sow and do nothing but gorge and guzzle.

#29

After 1529, the children of one of Luther’s sisters, who had married Klaus Polner, lived with him. One of those children was Hans Polner, who was not only mentally slow, but was also given to drink. In the late spring of 1540, Johannes Mathesius recorded this confrontation between Luther and his nephew (WA TR 4:636, no. 5050):

The doctor was remonstrating with his drunken nephew [Hans] Polner: “On account of you and your friends,” he says, “I have a bad reputation among outsiders. For my adversaries scrutinize everything, and when I let out a fart, they smell it in Rome. What if you should ever injure someone? Don’t you stop to think about what a mark you could brand on me, on this house, on this city, on the church, and on the gospel of God? The other drunks are cheerful and pleasant, like my father. They sing and crack jokes. But you are turned completely into a rage. People like that should abstain from wine as if it were poison, and wine is an instant poison to natures of that sort. Cheerful people can drink a larger amount of wine now and then.”

Apparently at a later date, he referred to his nephew’s “feeble head” and said: “His father was as drunk as a sow when he made Polner. A shameful thing! Drunken people should sleep and leave their wives undisturbed, as even Plato writes that men should not marry and bring a wife home unless they are sober” (WA TR 5:332, no. 5725).

#30

Luther’s friend and colleague Philipp Melanchthon traveled to a colloquy in Hagenau after Philip of Hesse’s bigamy became known and was causing a scandal for the Lutherans. The sensitive Melanchthon was so troubled by the scandal that by the time he reached Weimar he had already become so sick that he could not continue the trip. He contracted a bad fever and was bedridden. Luther personally went to see him and arrived in Weimar on June 23, 1540. He found Melanchthon deathly ill, unrecognizable, and unable to hear or speak. Luther later said that Melanchthon’s eyes had already dimmed like a dead person’s. Luther prayed some of his most intense prayers and Melanchthon recovered. In good spirits, Luther wrote home to his wife on July 2, 1540 (WA Br 9:168, no. 3509):

I submissively tender to You and Your Grace the notice that things are going well for me here. I am gorging like a Bohemian and guzzling like a German—God be thanked for this. Amen.

Luther wrote something similar in another letter to his wife on July 16, this time from Eisenach, but in a more qualified and reserved way (WA Br 9:174, no. 3512):

Your grace should know that—God be praised—we are spry and healthy, gorging like the Bohemians (though not excessively), guzzling like the Germans (though not much). But we are happy, for our gracious lord from Magdeburg, Bishop [Nikolaus von] Amsdorf, is our table companion.

#31

On July 26, Luther wrote his wife again from Eisenach (WA Br 9:205, no. 3519):

We would be happy if Your Grace would arrange for us to find a good drink of beer at your place. For, God willing, we will head out for Wittenberg Tuesday morning.

#32

In the summer 1540, Luther composed a number of (spontaneous?) verses, including this set (WA TR 5:108, no. 5375r):

Trinck und iß, / Gott nicht vergiß.
Bewar dein ehr / Dir wirt nicht mehr
Von deiner hab / Den ein tuch zum grab.

Modern version:
Trink’ und iß, / Gott nicht vergiß.
Bewahr’ dein’ Ehr’ / Dir wird nicht mehr
Von deiner Hab’ / Denn ein Tuch zum Grab’.

Drink and dine / with God in mind.
Guard honor, for / there’s nothing more
you’ll have of worth / save a shroud ’neath earth.

#33

People were paid in beer back in Luther’s day too. On April 25, 1541, Luther penned a letter to Elector Johann Friedrich, in which he asked the elector for some recompense for Georg Kleinschmidt, a physician in Wittenberg.

I myself have still never given [Doctor Kleinschmidt] anything for many services, except a drink of beer.

Luther actually refers to him as Doctor Cubito, his frequent misspelling of Kleinschmidt’s alias, Curio.

#34

In lecturing on Genesis 41:45 in 1544 (WA 44:446):

The Germans have a proverb: “The beer tastes like the barrel. If the mother is a whore, the daughter is not pious either.”

#35

Luther’s sermon on June 14, 1545, made such an impression on Anton Lauterbach that he wrote about it later. Even though Georg Rörer’s transcript of that sermon doesn’t include this precise example, Lauterbach recalled that Luther cited offering kofent as actual beer as an example of theft or stealing (WA TR 5:646, no. 6406; cp. WA 49:790, 791). I suppose if you wanted to paraphrase this Luther quote and turn it into a dynamic equivalent for a drinkware (or even a T-shirt) printing or engraving, you could use:

Selling light beer as beer is theft.

#36

In his final visit to Eisleben toward the end of January and into February, 1546, Luther was attempting to resolve a dispute between counts. On February 1, 1546, he wrote home to his wife (WA Br 11:276, no. 4195):

I am drinking Naumburg beer that nearly tastes like the beer from Mansfeld that you recommended to me once. It suits me well, and in the morning it gives me about three bowel movements in three hours.

#37

On February 7, eleven days before his death, Luther wrote home to his wife again (WA Br 11:287):

We are living well here and the council gives me a half-gallon [halbstubigen] of Rebula [Reinfal] at each meal, which is very good. Sometimes I share it with my companions. The local wine here is likewise good, and the Naumburg beer is very good, except that I think that it causes congestion in my chest with its pitch. The devil has ruined the beer in the whole world for us with pitch, and by you he has ruined the wine with sulfur. But here the wine is pure, except what the local method [or the nature of the land] gives to it.

Reinfal was highly valued sweet wine from the Istrian peninsula and is today known as Ribolla Gialla in Italy and Rebula in Slovenia, though it is now principally a dry wine. Stubigen is not a form of Stübich (which was a shipping barrel roughly equivalent to a ton [see #10]), but an old form of its diminutive, Stübchen. According to the Grimm Brothers’ Deutsches Wörterbuch, a Stübchen was “at the most four quarts” or a gallon. Even though Luther was sometimes sharing it, he was still drinking relatively heavily if he was drinking a good portion of a half-gallon of wine (two and half bottles in today’s terms) at every meal and some Naumburg beer besides. But one must also remember that Luther was not doing well at the time, and he and his companions probably viewed his drinking as also serving medicinal purposes. See my comments in the introduction at the head of this post.

Dealing with Demons

In the same vein as my last post, I found the following section from Joannes Aurifaber’s (1519–1575) original edition of Martin Luther’s Table Talk interesting and instructive. Since Aurifaber dates this table talk and was with Luther in Eisleben when he related it, it is one of the more reliable accounts from his collection. (I have double-checked the German spellings in brackets, and they are all original, even though they are sometimes inconsistent and incorrect by modern standards.)

Poltergeists Harassing Dr. Luther at the Wartburg

The Martin Luther Room at the Wartburg in the early 20th century, printed in Carl Alexander, Die Wartburg (Berlin, 1907). Note the whale vertebra footstool on the floor by the chair—the only item in the room that was in the castle’s possession at Luther’s time. The bed-frame, which is not original and not present in the Luther Room today, is probably approximately where Luther’s bed was during his stay, though there was apparently a wall at the time separating that part of the room from the rest of the room. (The furnace was apparently located back then about where the desk is in the picture.) Note also the damage to the wall where there was once a blue ink spot—damage caused by the unverified legend of Luther throwing ink at the devil (or, as the “Wartburg” entry in Zedler’s 1747 Universal-Lexicon has it, the devil throwing ink at him).

In the year 1546, when Dr. Luther was in Eisleben, he related the following stories about how the devil had harassed him at Wartburg. He said, “When I departed from Worms in the year 1521 and was captured near Eisenach and was sitting in Patmos¹ at the Wartburg Castle, I was isolated from people in a room [Stuben], and no one could come to me except two pages, who brought me food and drink twice a day. Now they had bought me a sack with hazelnuts, which I would eat from time to time, and I had locked them up in a chest. When I was going to bed one night, I got undressed in the room [Stuben], put out the light, and went into the bedroom [Kamer] and lay down in bed.² I pass over the hazelnuts in the process, and it starts up and one nut after the other goes whizzing against the rafters really hard and knocks against my bed. But I didn’t do any investigating.

“Now when I had fallen asleep for a little bit, such a racket starts on the stairs, as if someone were throwing a bunch of barrels down the stairs. Even though I knew very well that the stairs were well secured with chains and irons so that no one could come up, so many barrels were falling down that I get up and go to the stairs to see what it was. The stairs were closed there. Then I said, ‘If it’s you, so be it,’ and I entrusted myself to the Lord Christ, about whom it stands written, ‘You have placed all things under his feet,’ as Psalm 8 says, and I went back to bed.

“Now Hans von Berlepsch’s³ wife came to Eisenach and had sniffed out that I was in the castle. She really wanted to see me, but that wasn’t possible. Then they brought me to a different room [Gemach] and put Mrs. von Berlepsch up in my room [kammer]. Throughout that night there was such a commotion in her room that she thought there were a thousand demons in it.

“But the best trick for driving him away is when a person calls upon Christ and despises the devil; he can’t stand that. You have to say to him, ‘If you are a lord over Christ, then go ahead!’ For that’s exactly what I would say in Eisenach.”

Source

Joannes Aurifaber, ed., Tischreden Oder Colloquia Doct. Mart: Luthers (Eisleben: Urban Gaubisch, 1566), fols. 289 verso—290 recto.

Endnotes

¹ Since Luther was not imprisoned at the Wartburg and not bound to the rules of any order there, and yet was confined at the castle itself (and always had to be accompanied if he left), he called the castle and his room there Patmos, after the island where the apostle John had been exiled (Revelation 1:9).

² This sentence has historical value for understanding the layout of Luther’s room at the time. There is a Kämmerchen or closet-sized room that adjoins the Luther Room today at the southwest corner, but this does not seem to have been large enough to serve as a bedroom. Plus, see Schwiebert’s discussion of this problem in Luther and His Times (St. Louis: Concordia, 1950), pp. 515–17. An 1817 floor plan printed there shows that there was once a narrow chamber running all along the north side of the room (the right side as you enter). The plan also shows that the furnace used to be more in the center of the room than it is today. The staircase leading down to the bailiff’s residence was to the right (south) immediately after exiting the room.

³ Hans von Berlepsch was the castellan or bailiff of the Wartburg for the duration of Luther’s stay. He was one of the knights who took Luther captive, but he treated Luther well during his confinement at the castle. His residence was directly beneath Luther’s room.

Luther at the Wartburg: Apprehension, Apparitions, and Expeditions

500 years ago, on Saturday, May 4, 1521, Martin Luther was apprehended and taken to the Wartburg Castle for safekeeping. The following is a compilation of accounts of his capture and his time at the Wartburg, as told by himself and his friends.

Martin Luther’s Accounts

Excerpt from Luther’s Letter to Georg Spalatin (Tues., May 14, 1521)

You would not believe the tremendous kindness with which the abbot of [Bad] Hersfeld received us. He sent the chancellor and the treasurer to meet us a good mile in advance. Then, once he had received us at his castle¹ with many horsemen, he himself accompanied us into the city. The city council received us once we entered the gates. In his abbey he fed us sumptuously, and he put me up in his own bedroom. At five in the morning² they compelled me to give a sermon, even though I pleaded in vain that I did not want the abbey to risk losing its imperial privileges, should the imperial officials set about to interpret this act as a breach of the safe conduct I had been given, since they were restraining me from preaching on the way home. I nevertheless told them that I had not agreed to the word of God being chained, which is also true. I also preached in Eisenach,³ but with the frightened clergyman protesting before me with both the clerk and witnesses present, yet humbly apologizing that this was necessary because he was afraid of his tyrants.

So then, you will perhaps hear in Worms that, in so doing, I nullified the safe conduct, but it was not nullified. For the stipulation that the word of God be chained was not in my power, nor did I agree to it. Even if I had agreed to it, I would not have been able to keep it, since it would have gone against God.

East side of the Altenstein Palace, 2018, photo. © 2021 Red Brick Parsonage.

So the next day⁴ he [the abbot] lastly accompanied us all the way to the forest and, after sending the chancellor with us, had all of us fed again in Berka [on the Werra River]. We finally entered Eisenach in the evening, after citizens of the city came out on foot to receive us in advance. In the morning,⁵ all my companions departed with Jerome [Schurff].⁶ I continued on through the woods to see my relatives (for they nearly occupy the whole region). After freeing myself from them,⁷ as we are heading toward Waltershausen, I was captured shortly after going right past the Altenstein Fortress. Amsdorf was necessarily aware that I was going to be captured by someone, but he does not know where I am being confined.

My brother friar⁸ saw the horsemen in time and snuck himself out of the wagon. They say that he arrived in Waltershausen on foot in the evening without receiving any welcome. I have accordingly been stripped of my own clothes here and have been dressed in horseman’s attire. I am growing out my hair and beard, so that you would hardly know me, since I haven’t even known myself for a long time now. Now I am living in Christian liberty, released from all the laws of that tyrant,⁹ although I would prefer that that swine of Dresden¹⁰ were worthy of murdering me for preaching publicly, if it should please God, in order that I might suffer for his word. May the Lord’s will be done. Farewell and pray for me.

Excerpt from Luther’s Letter to Nikolaus von Amsdorf (Sun., May 12, 1521)

My arse has gotten bad.¹¹ The Lord is visiting me.¹² But pray for me, since I am also always praying for you, that God would fortify your heart. Be confident, therefore, and when the occasion presents itself, speak the word of God with confidence. Also write and tell me how everything went for all of you¹³ on the rest of the journey and what you heard or saw in Erfurt. You will find what Spalatin wrote to me in Philipp [Melanchthon’s] possession.¹⁴

Drawbridge and entrance of the Wartburg Castle, 2018, photo. © 2021 Red Brick Parsonage.

On the day I was torn away from you, I arrived at my night-lodging in the dark, at nearly eleven o’clock, worn out from the long journey as a novice horseman. Now I am a man of leisure here, like a free man among captives.

Luther’s Table Talk (Summer of 1540)

Story of Luther’s Captivity

The elector consulted with his men about this matter and put his councilors in charge of hiding me away. But he himself did not know the location so that, if an oath had to be given, he could swear with perfect legitimacy that he did not know my location, though he did say to Georg Spalatin that if he wanted to know, he could find out.¹⁵ He was entrusting that detail of the affair to a nobleman. Amsdorf was also in the know, but nobody else. In a grove¹⁶ near Eisenach, [my brother monk] saw¹⁷ four horsemen up ahead, which prompted him to warn me as he snuck out of the wagon and stole away. Meanwhile the horsemen approach us in the hollowed-out road. They frighten the driver with an arrow; he immediately confesses.¹⁸ So they pull me down from the wagon and call me names. Amsdorf was faking it every which way. “Hey,” he says, “what kind of cruelty is this? Okay, okay, do with us as you wish!”¹⁹ in order to deceive the driver. In this way I am led away from the wagon and put on a horse. The horsemen seek out detours and various byways in order to trick anyone who might be pursuing, and they take up the whole day. At night I come into the Wartburg near Eisenach. There, as a squire, I often went down on hunts and to collect strawberries. I even conversed with the Franciscans.²⁰ But the affair was kept secret; the knights are great at keeping quiet! Two noblemen took me captive, Sterbach²¹ and Berlepsch, and I had two servants who were supposed to lead me around, but I would send them ahead of me to arrange dinner parties for me.²²

On Poltergeists

The furnace in the Luther Room at the Wartburg, 2018, photo. © 2021 Red Brick Parsonage.

[Luther is responding to the view of Andreas Osiander—who is not present—that poltergeists are not real. Luther holds that they are real based on his own experiences. After citing three such experiences, he continues:] Fourth, when I was at the Wartburg by Eisenach, one time some nuts start shooting at me from the hell,²³ which was also the devil’s work. I therefore scurried into bed. I experienced that myself. These are true stories.

Also, a dog was lying in my bed one time, so I took him and threw him out the window, and when he didn’t yelp and I asked in the morning if there were any dogs in the castle, the captain said, “No!”

“Then it was the devil,” I said.

Luther in Disguise

Doctor Martin Luther went to a monastery in Erfurt on horseback with a servant, after he was taken captive. Now as he is dismounting, a monk sees him and recognized him, and he says to another monk, “That is Doctor Martin!”

When his servant hears this, he quickly says to him, “Squire, you know that we promised a nobleman that we would be at his place tonight. Friend, get back on. We can still make it!” And he whispered in his ear what the monk had said. Once the doctor gets on and rides off, the servant leads him away again. He would otherwise have been strangled in the monastery during the night.

Soon thereafter, he comes to the Blackthorn Inn in Erfurt, where he shares a bed with a provost in his quarters. He had his canonical hours and pulled out his beads at the Lord’s Prayer. Then the doctor goes to him and says, “Sir, do you have anything else to do besides prattle with those beads?”

Then the provost had gotten mad and said, “I think that you are also one of those Lutheran scumbags, who despise all good Christian ritual!”

Luther’s Table Talk (April 5, 1538)

[Luther is responding to the pastor in Süptitz near Torgau, who has complained to him about apparitions and disturbances from Satan, who was pestering him by making loud noises at night, breaking all sorts of household utensils, hurling pots and dishes right past his head so that they broke into pieces, and laughing out loud at him while remaining invisible. After telling the pastor to be strong in the Lord and to pray to God and tell Satan off, Luther continues:] I was frequently harassed [by the devil] the same way in my captivity in Patmos, way up in the castle in the kingdom of the birds. I resisted him with faith and would confront him with that verse: “God is mine, the one who created man, and all things are under his²⁴ feet [cf. Ps. 8:7]. If you have any power over that, go ahead and try it!”

Friedrich Myconius’s Account

The papal legate and several bishops attempted to put pressure on the emperor not to keep any safe conduct for Luther, seeing as he was already a stubborn heretic and his errors had been long ago condemned in councils and by the popes. And that idea might truly have caught on, had they not been afraid of the common people and the nobility, who were extremely in favor of this cause at first, and if they did not have to worry about a revolt.

But when several intelligent and good-hearted men, especially Duke Frederick of Saxony, noticed these plots and saw that the papists were not going to relent, it was arranged for Luther to be disguised and to ride away. And when he came to Weissenburg, which lies in the Palatinate, Luther wrote a brief confession of his doctrine and protestation for the diet and soon sends it back to them.²⁵ He continued riding to Wittenberg and Saxony, etc.

The pious and praiseworthy elector, Duke Frederick, notices that the pope, legates, bishops, and clerics had decided that, since they could not beat Luther with writings, they would do away with him. But in order that he might get Luther out of their sight and notice, he arranged for Luther to be captured and carried away near Möhra, not far from Eisenach, in a valley alongside a wood, by several loyal, secret, and discreet people. It has never been heard of that a matter was able to be kept as secret as who had captured Luther and carried him away. Many people believed, including at the imperial diet, that it had been a serious capture—that’s how well the secret was kept. Doctor Jonas and several others were with him in the wagon,²⁶ yet they were unable to learn anything further than that they were benevolent enemies. But later, in 1538, Doctor Martin told us the whole story in Gotha, in the home of Johann Löben the tax collector,²⁷ so that Jonas, Pomeranus,²⁸ and all of us who were present were amazed.²⁹ A great many fine and engaging stories took place during this captivity, especially how the devil came to Luther twice at the Wartburg in the form of a large hound, intending to kill him, yet was overcome through Christ’s power. Also how he was in Reinhardsbrunn, in Gotha, and in Jena in disguise, did strange things there with the monks and others, and remained undiscovered. But there is too little paper in this book [to include all the stories he told].

Matthäus Ratzeberger’s Account

Now even after Luther withdrew [from the city of Worms] again, and the safe conduct reached its end in a few days, there was still reason to be concerned for him. But so that he would not be overtaken and that no complications would arise from Elector Frederick of Saxony protecting him beyond the safe conduct, Elector Frederick made arrangements in utmost secrecy for him to be captured and secretly carried away once he came to the border of his territory. But so that Luther would know how to understand this capture, it was confided to him in secret. Now he had Nikolaus von Amsdorf and Mr. Friedrich Myconius in his wagon with him, who were his traveling companions.³⁰ Of these two, Amsdorf was the only one he confides in about it, but Mr. Friedrich knew nothing at all about this affair.

Now when they come to the border right by the Schweina River not far from Eisenach, a horseman emerges from the woods in the style of a knight and pushes forward with his steed. Mr. Friedrich Myconius notices this and warns his companions that something wasn’t right; there was danger in the air. Meanwhile the squire³¹ also whisks forward out of the woods, along with a servant, and they all advance toward the wagon. The horseman starts a quarrel with the driver by asking, “What kind of people are you transporting there?”, and he knocks him down beneath the horse³² with his crossbow. The squire likewise jams his bolt³³ in front of the bowstring³⁴ and holds it up to Luther, saying that he should surrender himself as prisoner. The other two companions are alarmed and beg for mercy. But once they have interrogated Luther and he confesses that he was the one they were looking for, they quickly set him on a steed and lead him back and forth in the woods until nightfall when they reach the Wartburg Castle right above Eisenach.

The Bailiff’s Lodge where Luther was “imprisoned,” 2018, photo. © 2021 Red Brick Parsonage.

There they locked him away as if he were the most intractable prisoner, in a cell that was isolated from all people. Even the gatekeeper knew no better than that he was perhaps a criminal picked up on the street and brought there for imprisonment. Nevertheless, they did have a single page wait on him by carrying food and drink to him. Other than that, Luther was all alone and no one knew where he had gone. In this secret lodging (which he called Patmos), far removed from the people, Luther nevertheless tends to his writing so that he would not be idle. And since he was isolated, he had to deal with many apparitions and many disturbances by poltergeists, which caused him trouble. As one example, once when he was about to go to bed at night, a large, black English hound is lying on his bed and won’t let him get in. Luther entrusts himself to our Lord God, prays Psalm 8, and when he comes to the verse, “You have placed everything under his feet,” the hound suddenly vanished, and Luther remained calm and at ease that night. Many other apparitions likewise appeared to him during that time, all of which he drove away with prayer. He wouldn’t talk about them, though, for he said that he refused to tell anyone about all the many different apparitions that had plagued him.

Georg Spalatin’s Account

Now my Most Gracious Lord, already respectfully mentioned, Duke Frederick of Saxony, Elector etc., was still somewhat distressed. He definitely admired Doctor Martin, and it would have truly pained him deeply if any harm had come to him. He had no desire to act contrary to God’s word, but neither did he desire to incur the lord emperor’s displeasure. So he came up with a way to remove Mr. Doctor Martin from the scene for a while, to see if matters might be settled in the meantime. He thus had him notified the evening before he left Worms of how he was going to be removed from the scene, in the presence of Mr. Philipp von Feilitzsch, Mr. Friedrich von Thun (both knights), myself (Spalatin), and certainly not too many others. Out of respect for Duke Frederick, Doctor Martin submissively agreed to the plan, even though he certainly would have always much preferred just to get back at his usual business.

Doctor Martin departed with his companions. Now when they came to a place not far from Eisenach, people were arranged for who demanded that Mr. Doctor Martin get off the wagon alone, took him away, and led him to the Wartburg Castle above Eisenach. Hans von Berlepsch³⁵ was steward there at the time and conducted himself well and in a friendly manner towards Doctor Martin Luther.

A few days later, the rumor reached Worms that Doctor Martin had been captured. Some were saying he that had been killed. All sorts of strange reports were going around.

The companions returned home, and not everyone was happy with the affair. And there were many inquiries about how exactly it all went down and where Doctor Martin had gone to. Nevertheless, it was kept in such secrecy that there were certainly few persons, and only very few, who knew about it at court besides the two brother electors,³⁶ the persons already mentioned, Jerome Rudlanoff (the current secretary), and Hans Veihel,³⁷ so that my often-mentioned Most Gracious Lord, the elector of Saxony, Duke Frederick, was also very pleased about it.

Johannes Mathesius’s Account

But since Dr. Luther was nevertheless put under the emperor’s ban and under the pope’s excommunication as an arch-heretic, our God—from whom all good counsels, actions, and ideas come—prompted the very wise elector of Saxony to issue an order, through confidential and discreet people, to put the outlawed and excommunicated Dr. Luther away for a while, just as the pious servant of God, Obadiah, King Ahab’s palace steward, hid 200 priests in a cave for a while and fed them, when the godless Queen Jezebel was seeking to take them down life and limb.³⁸ But the just-mentioned elector himself did not want to know where they were going to take his prisoner, so that, if he was ever asked, he could excuse himself with reasonable validity. For it would have been difficult for him to withhold a man from great potentates and the entire empire, or to defend him before them, after an edict had been issued. In the meantime he was hoping that God would take up the cause of his Word and his confessor, which is what happened, and subsequent counsel and action speak further to this matter.

This plan to hide or put away our doctor didn’t sit right with him, for he would have gladly and willingly shed his blood as a testimony to the truth. But he went along with this wise counsel at the eager insistence of good people, since St. Paul, the holy apostle, had also let himself be lowered over the walls of Damascus by his brothers, and our faithful God had warned the wise men from the East through his holy angel, so that they wouldn’t trot right into the cunning snare of Herod, that royal fox.

Site of Luther’s capture (facing east), 2018, photo. © 2021 Red Brick Parsonage.

So then, Dr. Luther left the imperial herald behind at Oppenheim, traveled through Hesse on the landgrave’s safe conduct, and arrived safely at the Harz Mountains. From there he had to travel through a forest to Waltershausen. He dismissed several of the traveling companions who were accompanying him through the woods. The others he sent ahead to make the lodging arrangements. Meanwhile, not far from Altenstein, he comes to a hollow in the road. There two noblemen, von Steinburg³⁹ and Captain Prelops,⁴⁰ pounce on him, along with two servants. After one of them gets information from the driver, they tell them to halt and grab hold of Dr. Luther with feigned brutality and pull him out of his wagon. The one servant strikes the driver and forces him to drive away, thus carrying Mr. Amsdorf away, while they get a rider’s mantel on the prisoner and help him onto a horse. They then lead him through the woods along the ascending horseman’s path for several hours, until night overtakes them. They also tie a man to a horse so that they would be bringing a prisoner with them. In this way they arrive at the Wartburg Castle near Eisenach just before midnight, sometime around Rogation week.⁴¹ There they treat the prisoner⁴² decently and well, so that even the cellar keeper is surprised by it. There Dr. Luther stays in his cell, as St. Paul stayed in his room while imprisoned in Rome. He would have preferred to be in Wittenberg and to tend to his teaching duties and, as he writes soon afterwards to good friends, to lie upon glowing coals for the glory of God and the confirmation of his word.⁴³ Nevertheless, he endured in obedience for a time, in order that he might not bring any greater danger upon his dear elector’s land and people.

But because our doctor is tired and weary from the journey, as he complains in a letter,⁴⁴ since the horsemen were leading him around in the woods for so long until the dark night overtook them, we will let him rest for a bit and regain his strength.

Next time we will further hear in the name of God what he accomplished in his captivity…

[Mathesius continues in the next sermon:] Now since our doctor faithfully served us and all of Christendom in his Patmos and captivity with his blessed work and testimony, this time we want to hear about the good that this hermit accomplished in his wilderness…

Although Doctor Luther stayed very inconspicuous at the Wartburg Castle, he was not idle. Instead, he daily tends to his studies and prayers and applies himself to the Greek and Hebrew Bible. He also wrote many good and comforting letters to his good friends. On Sundays and festivals he preaches to his host and confidential people and earnestly admonishes them to prayer.

But since a person cannot know the power of God’s word without the holy cross, and cannot subdue and disable flesh and blood without the rod of God, God sends all kinds of crosses to our hermit, for which he sincerely and faithfully thanks his God in a letter to a good friend.⁴⁵ For he falls into a severe and dangerous physical infirmity that even caused him to renounce all claims on life. The devil likewise plagues him fiercely with depressing thoughts and tries to delude him with all kinds of phantoms and loud noises. In such trials and afflictions, God’s word, his own ardent sighs, and the heartfelt intercession of his brothers are the comforting staff and rod on which he leans, and he thereby patiently endures God’s testing. …

Now since our doctor continues his studies and writing in his hideout in this way and becomes frail as a result, good friends advise him to go on walks and get some fresh air and exercise for the sake of his health. He is therefore taken along on hunts, and sometimes he goes out to pick the strawberries on the castle hill. Eventually he is allowed to have an honorable servant, a discreet horseman, whose loyalty and gentlemanly objections and admonitions he often praised later, since he forbade him to set aside his sword in lodgings and told him not to go leafing through the books anymore, so that no one would take him for a writer. In this way Dr. Luther is able to visit several monasteries without being recognized.

He visits his friends in Martsal,⁴⁶ but they do not recognize Squire Georg (as the horseman calls him). In Reinhardsbrunn a lay brother recognized him.⁴⁷ When his steward notices this, he reminds his squire that he had to be at an appointed function that evening, so he quickly takes off again.⁴⁸

Translator’s Afterword

Friedrich Myconius (or Mecum; 1490–1546) was Luther’s friend and correspondent and the head pastor in Gotha. Matthäus Ratzeberger (1501–1559) was Luther’s friend and Elector Johann Friedrich of Saxony’s court physician from 1538 to 1546. Georg Spalatin (1484–1545) was Luther’s friend and correspondent and Elector Frederick the Wise’s court chaplain and secretary at the time when Luther was captured. Johannes Mathesius (1504–1565) studied under Luther and was a frequent guest at his table before becoming a pastor in Joachimsthal (today Jáchymov, Czech Republic), where he eventually preached a sermon series on Luther’s life. Anton Lauterbach (1502–1569), who recorded the April 5, 1538 Table Talk above, also studied under Luther and sat at his table. He served as a deacon in Leisnig from 1533 to 1536, as a deacon in Wittenberg from 1537 to 1539, and then as a pastor in Pirna from 1539 until his death.

When one compares the accounts above, one notices striking agreement on the whole, even if there are some noticeable discrepancies in the particulars. (Many of Luther’s friends had not traveled like he had, and none of them had access to Google Maps.) For instance, even though several of Luther’s friends were mistaken in the identity of his second traveling companion (the one besides Amsdorf), they are generally agreed that this companion was the first to notice Luther’s captors approaching. They also agree on the location of the capture, even though different reference points are used. (All of these descriptions support the current marker identifying the spot of Luther’s capture at the site of the former Luther Beech Tree.) Violence and threats were clearly used in extracting Luther from the wagon, and it appears that the anonymous driver bore the brunt of it. Luther clearly did take somewhat risky trips to cities and monasteries in the area after he had grown out his hair and beard, took enjoyment in conversing incognito about religious matters related to his reformation, and was once nearly recognized by a monk, though there is disagreement on the location. Between his stand at the Diet of Worms and his capture and confinement at the Wartburg all by themselves, one can readily understand why Luther’s life continues to fascinate historians—both Christian and non, both serious and casual.

As for Luther’s poltergeists and apparitions, while we would be foolish to discount the possibility that some of these phenomena had physical causes, we would be far more foolish to discount the possibility of real encounters with the devil and his demons. About two decades ago, Prof. (now Dr.) Mark Paustian wrote (More Prepared to Answer [Milwaukee: Northwestern, 2004], 87–88):

I once sat through a long night with a young woman who was literally paralyzed with fear of the the “man” that came to her every night, whispering, “Stay away from those Christians. You’re mine.” Unable to speak, trembling, barely able to move for the fright, she would jump and shriek as if she was being prodded and poked. I’ve heard similar accounts from people I know well… This from level-headed people who know what psychosis is, and what it isn’t.

More recently, Prof. E. Allen Sorum writes in 2000 Demons: No Match for My Savior (2016) about the all-too-real world of evil spirits and demon possession—today, not just back in so-called primitive times. When we consider how the devil has worked throughout history, and then remember in addition the spiritually and religiously critical time in which Luther lived, and the crucial role God had him play in it, the stories above should hardly surprise us.

A side note for history teachers, whether Lutheran or not: We need to stop calling the disguised Martin Luther “Knight George.” He was never disguised or treated as a knight. He was called “Junker Jörg or Georg.” A Junker is a squire, a young nobleman acting as an attendant to a knight before becoming a knight himself. The word for knight in German is Ritter, or sometimes Reuter or Reutersmann (though these latter terms are also used more generally for any horseman), but never Junker.

For more pictures related to this event in Luther’s life, see here.

As this Luther Capture anniversary year draws to a close and the celebration of the birth of our Savior approaches, may Christ keep all of us safe from the devil in the fortress of his manger, of his Word, of his cross, of his baptism, of his grace, of his daily presence and care.

Sources (Listed in Order of Appearance)

• Weimarer Ausgabe Briefwechsel 2:337–38.
• Ibid. 2:334–35.
• Weimarer Ausgabe Tischreden 5:82, no. 5353.
• Ibid. 5:87–88, no. 5358b.
• Ibid. 5:103–104, no. 5375d.
• Ibid. 3:634–35, no. 3814.
• Myconius, Friedrich. Historia Reformationis, vom Jahr Christi 1517. bis 1542. Aus des Autoris autographo mitgetheilet. Edited by Ernst Salomon Cyprian. Leipzig: Moritz George Weidmann, 1718. Pages 40–43.
• Ratzeberger, Matthäus. Die handschriftliche Geschichte Ratzeberger’s über Luther und seine Zeit. Edited by Christian Gotthold Neudecker. Jena: Friedrich Mauke, 1850. Pages 52–54.
• Spalatin, Georg. Annales Reformationis Oder Jahr-Bücher von der Reformation Lutheri, aus dessen Autographo ans Licht gestellt. Edited by Ernst Salomon Cyprian. Leipzig: Johann Ludwig Gleditsch and Moritz Georg Weidmann, 1718. Pages 50–51.
• Mathesius, Johannes. Historien / Von des Ehrwirdigen in Gott Seligen thewren Manns Gottes / Doctoris Martini Luthers / Anfang / lehr / leben und sterben. Nuremberg, 1566. Folios 29 recto–31 verso, 33 verso–34 recto.

Endnotes

¹ Eichhof Castle, about two miles southwest of the Bad Hersfeld city wall.

² Latin: mane quinta. Some scholars (including the American Edition translator) have taken this phrase to mean “on the fifth morning [after departing from Worms],” namely Wednesday, May 1, 1521. But when mane is used as a substantive with an adjective, it is treated as a neuter noun; “on the fifth morning” would therefore be mane quinto. Mane quinta is literally “in the morning at the fifth [hour].” (The German St. Louis Edition translates it correctly.) According to Martin Brecht, Luther actually preached this sermon on Thursday, May 2, which would be the sixth morning after his departure (Martin Luther: His Road to Reformation (1483–1521) [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993], 472).

³ On Friday morning, May 3, at St. George’s Church.

⁴ Luther resumes talking about his stay in Bad Hersfeld. He is picking up with what happened after he preached his early morning sermon on Thursday, May 2.

⁵ Friday morning, May 3, presumably after Luther preached.

⁶ In Eisenach, Justus Jonas, Peter Swawe (a Pomeranian nobleman), and Jerome Schurff left him.

⁷ According to a footnote in the St. Louis Edition and local tradition, Luther spent Friday night in Möhra, about twelve miles south of Eisenach, in the home of his uncle, Heinz Luther. There he preached in the town plaza on Saturday morning.

⁸ Latin: Frater meus. Luther is referring to Johannes Petzensteiner, his brother Augustinian, but throughout the years some have misinterpreted this to mean that Luther’s blood-brother Jacob was accompanying him.

⁹ Luther appears to be referring to the pope here.

¹⁰ Duke Georg of Saxony, one of Luther’s worst enemies.

¹¹ Luther suffered badly from constipation while at the Wartburg. He penned this sentence in German.

¹² Luther is using this phrase in the Hebrew and biblical sense of God bringing special blessing or discipline upon a person (here clearly the latter).

¹³ Presumably Luther is referring to Amsdorf, Johannes Petzensteiner, and the driver of the wagon.

¹⁴ Luther seems to be indicating here that he is already planning to write Spalatin a response letter around this same time (see the date of the preceding excerpt), and to send it with the letter from Spalatin to which he would be responding, so as to avoid the possibility of someone noticing any of his correspondence at the Wartburg, which would betray his identity.

¹⁵ The “he” appears to refer to the elector, since Spalatin himself says he was aware of the capture plans. (See his account later in this post.)

¹⁶ The Latin word nemus, borrowed from the Greek νέμος, denotes a wood with open glades, meadows, and pasture-land for cattle. According to the Grimm Brothers’ Deutsches Wörterbuch, the German equivalents are Hain, “grove,” and Lustwald, a wooded area that can be strolled through for pleasure (versus a thickly-wooded forest).

¹⁷ The Latin notes simply have Luther saying, “he saw,” but in the context, the “he” clearly has to be a traveling companion who is neither Amsdorf nor the driver, which only leaves Luther’s brother monk, Johannes Petzensteiner. One of the variants reads, “Pezenius saw,” which doubtless refers to Petzensteiner.

¹⁸ Namely, that Martin Luther is one of his passengers.

¹⁹ Latin: Tamen sumus in vestra potestate! Lit.: “Nevertheless, we are in your power!” The tamen here seems to indicate Amsdorf’s transition from pretending to complain and resist to pretending to give up in the face of threats and superior strength.

²⁰ See also “Luther in Disguise” and Mathesius’s account of Luther’s secret travels later in this post.

²¹ There are several variant spellings—Sternbach, Steinburg, and Sterpach. The Weimar Edition editor suggests that Hans von Sternberg might be meant, who later served as a guardian at the Coburg Fortress. But see also n. 38.

²² Between the variant readings here and the other accounts where only one servant of Luther is mentioned, it seems that there might be some confusion here between the two servants who assisted the noblemen in capturing Luther (thus adding up to four horsemen) and the servant or servants Luther was later assigned.

²³ “The hell” refers to the narrow space behind the stove between it and the wall, which could get very hot.

²⁴ This “his” seems to mean “man[kind]’s” rather than God’s or Christ’s feet. Even though Martin Luther did interpret Psalm 8 as a Messianic psalm, he also understood verse 6 as being equally valid for humans who believe in Christ, since they share in Christ’s power, rule, and blessings.

²⁵ Myconius either means Weisenau near Mainz, or he got his -burg/-berg wrong and is referring to Friedberg, where Luther did write a confession and protestation and send it back to the diet with the imperial herald. Either way, there was no Weißenburg along or near the route Luther took from Worms.

²⁶ Justus Jonas did accompany Luther as far as Eisenach, but he and two others parted ways with Luther there, since Luther went south from there to visit relatives in Möhra with Amsdorf and Petzensteiner. These two and the driver were the only ones in the wagon with Luther when he was taken captive. Amsdorf accompanied him as a friend who was in the know about the capture and could therefore help to deceive the driver into thinking it was a genuine capture. Petzensteiner, a fellow Augustinian, accompanied him unawares. Augustinian friars were required to travel in pairs, and even though Luther had been formally released from his vows in 1518, Luther was still voluntarily following this rule.

²⁷ Schosser could also mean “treasurer.”

²⁸ That is, Johannes Bugenhagen.

²⁹ Based on this information, it seems that Myconius was a year off in his recollection. We know that Martin Luther, Friedrich Myconius, Justus Jonas, and Johannes Bugenhagen were all present together in Gotha at the beginning of March 1537. Luther was recovering there after returning prematurely from Schmalkalden due to trouble with kidney stones (Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: The Preservation of the Church (1532–1546) [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999], 186–88).

³⁰ Ratzeberger is mistaken about Myconius. Augustinian friar Johannes Petzensteiner was Luther’s other traveling companion.

³¹ The context makes clear that this squire is separate from the horseman already mentioned. Perhaps Ratzeberger calls him the squire a) in the sense of “his squire,” that is, the already-mentioned horseman’s attendant, b) because the squire had been specifically arranged for, c) because Ratzeberger knew who he was, or d) because he was a familiar character due to the number of times Luther or his friends had told the story.

³² German: unter den gaul. Ratzeberger already used Gaul to describe the horseman’s steed, but Gaul can also be used for a cart horse. So the horseman may have knocked the driver down on the ground beneath his own (the horseman’s) steed, or he may have knocked him down beneath the horse that was pulling the wagon.

³³ Short, thick arrow used in a crossbow.

³⁴ I am reading die senne or die sehne for die seine.

³⁵ Spalatin misspells it Berlewisch.

³⁶ Spalatin is speaking anachronistically here. Duke Johann was not an elector at the time, but would become one after his brother Frederick’s death.

³⁷ I was unable to discover anything more about these two men.

³⁸ Obadiah actually hid a hundred prophets in two caves, fifty in each (1 Kings 18:3–4).

³⁹ Some scholars identify this as Burkhard Hund von Wenkheim, who occupied the Altenstein Palace as a fief. But see n. 21 above.

⁴⁰ Most likely a misspelled reference to Hans von Berlepsch, the captain and steward of the Wartburg Castle at the time.

⁴¹ German: in der Creutzwochen, that is, during the sixth week of Easter, the week in which Ascension fell. The German name alludes to the fact that special processions (led by a processional cross) were made during that week. The English name alludes to the fact that special prayers were said (Latin rogatio = “petition, request”). Luther arrived at the Wartburg on Saturday, May 4, around 11 p.m., which could be considered part of Rogation Sunday, and therefore also Rogation week, when you keep in mind that, from a liturgical standpoint, every holy day begins at sunset on the previous day.

⁴² Mathesius seems to be referring to Luther here, even though he has just given the impression that Luther entered the Wartburg disguised as a horseman and someone else was made out to be a prisoner.

⁴³ See Luther’s Works (hereafter LW) 48:232, part of a letter he wrote to Melanchthon on May 26, 1521.

⁴⁴ See the excerpt from Luther’s May 12, 1521 letter to Amsdorf above.

⁴⁵ Mathesius seems to be referring to LW 48:255, part of a letter Luther wrote to Spalatin on June 10, 1521. But see also 48:307, part of another letter he wrote to Spalatin on Sept. 9, 1521.

⁴⁶ Dr. Georg Loesche said this refers to Martschall, north of Eisenach, but I can neither locate nor find another reference to any such place. Dr. Georg Buchwald misprinted it (and misread it?) as Wartsal and said that the location could not be identified with certainty.

⁴⁷ Namely, at the Benedictine Abbey there. A lay brother was an unordained member of a monastic order.

⁴⁸ Compare this to the Table Talk “Luther in Disguise” above.

Luther Visualized 16 – Busyness and Health

Luther’s Busyness and Ill Health

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Predella of the Reformation Altar in Wittenberg, oil on panel, 1547.

The painting shows Luther preaching, of which he did plenty. From May 1528 to June 1529 and from October 1530 to April 1532, for example, the parish church’s regular pastor, Johannes Bugenhagen, was on leave introducing the Reformation in cities like Brunswick (Braunschweig), Hamburg, and Lübeck, and Luther had to take over his preaching duties in the meantime. Toward the end of 1531, Luther told his table companions, “I am extremely busy. Four people are relying on me, and each one of them was in need of someone all to him- or herself. I’m supposed to preach four times during the week, lecture twice, marriage cases need to be heard and letters need to be written, plus I’m supposed to work on books for publication.”

The pulpit from which Luther preached thousands of sermons in the Wittenberg parish church, today housed in the Lutherhaus museum in Wittenberg (© Red Brick Parsonage, 2013). The two reliefs are of the apostles and evangelists Matthew (left) and John (right).

Several details in the Cranach painting above merit further comment. The writing in Luther’s Bible is indistinct; regardless of his sermon text, he can and ought to point his audience to Jesus (John 5:39). The audience consists of people of every age; the gospel of Jesus is for all (Matthew 28:19,20; Mark 16:15; Luke 18:15-17). Cranach painted himself in the front of the male audience; he viewed the message of Christ crucified for sinners as one needed by him first (cf. 1 Timothy 1:15,16). Katy and little Hans Luther are in the front of the female audience; even the reformer’s son needed to be restrained and taught to stay still and listen. In spite of the fact that the great reformer himself is preaching, there are still some in the audience paying attention to the “picture-taker” and not to God’s Word. At his table in the evening of December 26, 1531, Luther told his companions, “My preaching is useless. It’s like a man who sings in a forest to the trees and hears only the glad-sounding echo in return.” And yet, as he went on to say, “although many people badmouth [gospel preaching], it is still good to preach Christ for the sake of the few who do not.”

In addition to the strain of his professional duties and callings as husband and father, Luther also suffered at various times from the following health issues:

• Periods of depression occasioned by personal doubts, disease and death in his circle of family and friends, disturbances in the church, and the other health problems in this list
• Constipation
• Hemorrhoids
• Ménière’s (pronounced mane-YAIRZ) disease
• Recurring dizzy and fainting spells (likely caused by the previous)
• Soreness in his teeth and throat
• Recurring kidney stones (the most famous instance in February 1537)
• Gallstones
• Abscess on the lower part of one of his legs
• Recurring colds
• Diarrhea
• Severe heart attack in December 1536
• Dysentery
• Abscess on his neck
• Recurring headaches toward the end of his life
• Gout
• Arthritis
• Loss of sight in one eye (cataract?)
• Exacerbation of health issues from ill-advised treatments

Luther had definitely abused his body earlier in his life with, for example, his excessive fasting in the monastery. His life then changed drastically when he got married and went from not taking good care of himself to eating regular homemade meals prepared by his wife—a change to which his body probably never completely adjusted. But ultimately, it was the Lord who used these recurring health issues to keep Luther from becoming conceited, to show him the all-sufficiency of his grace, and to demonstrate that his power is made perfect in weakness (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

Sources
E. G. Schwiebert, Luther and His Times (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950), pp. 580,581,748-750

Kurt K. Hendel, Johannes Bugenhagen: Selected Writings, vol. 1 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015), pp. 33-53

Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: Shaping and Defining the Reformation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990), pp. 204-211,429-433

Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: The Preservation of the Church (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), pp. 21-23,185-188,229-235

Weimarer Ausgabe, Tischreden 1:73, no. 154; 2:417-418, no. 2320

Luther Visualized 5 – The Tower Discovery

Luther Rediscovers the Gospel

Martin Luther, from his preface to Tomus Primus Omnium Operum Reverendi Domini Martini Lutheri, Doctoris Theologiae, etc. (Wittenberg: Hans Lufft, 1545)

This is the seventh and final page of Martin Luther’s preface to the first volume of the first attempted compilation of his works, published in 1545. The page begins:

At last, by the mercy of God, as I was earnestly meditating days and nights, I started paying attention to the context of the words [in Romans 1:17], namely, “The righteousness of God is revealed in it [viz., the gospel], just as it is written: ‘The righteous person lives by faith.’” There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous person lives by a gift of God, namely by faith…

Sources
Lewis W. Spitz and Helmut T. Lehmann, eds., Luther’s Works, trans. Lewis. W. Spitz, Sr. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1960), 34:323-338

Weimarer Ausgabe, Tischreden 2:177, no. 1681 (recorded by Schlaginhaufen in 1532); 3:228, no. 3232abc (recorded by Cordatus in 1532); 4:72-73, no. 4007 (recorded by Lauterbach in 1538); 5:26, no. 5247 (recorded by Mathesius in 1540); 5:210,234-235, nos. 5518,5553 (recorded by Heydenreich in the winter of 1542-1543)

Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: His Road to Reformation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985), pp. 221-227

Archeological excavation of the basement of “the tower,” © Red Brick Parsonage, 2013

The published preface mentioned above was the first time Luther made his gospel rediscovery public. From the Table Talk sources cited above, however, you can see that he had often talked about it privately with his friends before 1545. Most of Luther’s retellings focus exclusively on the content of his discovery. But the 1532 retelling, recorded by both Johannes Schlaginhaufen and Conrad Cordatus, is different. There Luther also makes a point of identifying the location (one gets the impression the group was near the site of the famous discovery at the time): “But when I was in this tower one time (in which there was a privy for the monks), I was speculating on those words [in Romans 1:17].” Another copy of Cordatus’s transcription has: “But when I was in this tower and sweating room…” And after describing his epiphany, he concludes, according to both of his transcribers, “The Holy Spirit introduced this art to me on this latrine” or “on this tower” or “on this latrine on the tower.”

Luther’s latrine in the excavation behind the Luther House Museum (© Red Brick Parsonage, 2018).

What are we to make of this? I cannot make anything of it except to take Luther at his words. Consider the following:

1. The plain language of Luther’s description (with several references varying in explicitness) recorded by two different transcribers
2. The effort at covering up the location in Johannes Aurifaber’s famous 1566 edition of Luther’s Table Talk, which has Luther concluding: “The Holy Spirit alone introduced this art to me” (emphasis mine). Such a cover-up would be unnecessary if Luther’s companions understood that he was referring to his study, where scholars will frequently try to locate his discovery.
3. We know that Luther’s study was on the third floor of the tower (Brecht, 227). The latrine, as you can see from the pictures, was clearly not. How could Luther and his conversational transcribers confuse the two, or use the basement latrine to refer to the entire tower, including Luther’s study?
4. We can only verify that Luther used the tower as his study from 1522 onwards (according to an info marker outside the excavation in 2013), but his epiphany most likely took place in early 1518. (Some scholars date it earlier, but if his epiphany was linked to the tower in any way, it could not have occurred earlier than 1516, the year the tower’s construction was completed [Martin Luther and the Reformation (Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2016), 165–66].)
5. In all of his descriptions of his epiphany, Luther never once says he was at his desk or reading; he always says he was speculating or meditating.
6. The ground floor of the tower had under-floor heating. The warm air from a small stove was led through the pictured conduit under the floor slabs (info marker). Considering that this conduit went right above the latrine, it would have indeed made it a “sweating room.”
7. According to Martin Luther and the Reformation (cited in no. 4), 166–67, the above-ground stories of the tower were demolished in 1850 and, according to a former on-site information marker (2013), earth was deposited over the top for a garden, preserving the ground floor and basement underneath. (Ironically, it was in an attempt to plant another garden there that the latrine was discovered in 2004.) This may help to explain a note added later to Georg Rörer’s copy of Schlaginhaufen’s transcript; someone wrote “in the garden” above “on this latrine.”
8. According to an info marker outside the excavation in 2013, the tower with the latrine “could only be reached from the monastery” (later Luther’s house after the monastery was gifted to him). This accords with its description in Cordatus’s transcription as “a privy [or private place] for the monks.”
9. Finally—and this is admittedly more speculative—the basement had another, larger room in addition to the latrine. Luther’s 1532 retelling took place in the summer between June 12 and July 12. Would it not make sense for Luther and his companions to be conversing in the basement to get away from the heat, thus enabling Luther to say in effect, “It happened right here” (without us having to imagine a more awkward setting)? To those who would think this unlikely due to some lingering smell down there, an info marker outside the latrine says, “A small drain served to take the sewage waste from the latrine out of the building. At the time it was in use, the land sloped down quite considerably from east to west and from north to south so that the majority of the sewage was washed away.”

Many, of course, who are convinced that Luther’s famous discovery happened on the toilet, and who are not sympathetic to his reforms and teachings, love to make crude jokes about “the 95 Feces” and Luther going to discharge his waste and having something even worse come out, namely Lutheranism. Never mind all that. The Bible consistently testifies that the triune God’s modus operandi is to bring order and glory out of disorder and shame (creation, Judah and Tamar, crossing of the Red Sea, the Messiah’s birth, etc.) and to hide the truth behind weakness, shame, offense/scandal, and foolishness (Jesus’s choice of apostles, crucifixion, the means of grace, the theology of the cross, etc.), so that only those who are earnestly and genuinely seeking the truth find and remain with the truth (Jeremiah 29:13; Matthew 5:6; 13:11-15). Luther’s tower discovery on the toilet, then, really isn’t all that surprising. If you want to find the truth, you often have to look in the least likely places, according to our natural human reason. And if you want to find the truth of the gospel in 1518, you have to look in the bathroom at a monk from an ordinary copper miner’s family performing one of life’s less attractive chores. If you care nothing for the truth, you will run away disgusted. But to those who love the truth, that bathroom is one of the most attractive places on earth.

Quote of the Week – Nurturing Hope

This week’s quote is excerpted from one of the table talks of Martin Luther recorded by his personal friend and secretary Veit Dietrich. The entire table talk, which treats of how a Christian deals with melancholy, is one of the more well known and worth a read (rf. no. 122, LW [AE] 54:16ff). At the time Luther spoke it, Johannes Bugenhagen was on a leave of absence and Luther himself was quite overwhelmed with all his additional duties.

Well then, that venomous spirit, he finds many ways to hurt us. I know I will see him one day, on the Last Day, along with his fiery darts. While we have pure doctrine, he cannot harm us, but if the doctrine gets ruined, then we are done for. But praise be to God, who has given us the Word, and on top of that has had his own Son die for us. He certainly did not do it for nothing. Let us therefore nurture the hope that we are saints, that we are saved, and that this will be clear when he is revealed. If he accepted the robber on the cross like he did, as well as Paul after so many blasphemies and persecutions, then we have no reason to doubt it, and in fact we all must then attain to salvation, like the robber and Paul did.

Source
Weimarer Ausgabe, Tischreden 1:48-49

Luther the Matchmaker?

The following Luther story is often quoted in Luther biographies when talking about how Luther not only tolerated the note- and quote-takers in his house, but sometimes even encouraged them. However, the only English translation I’ve seen polishes Luther up (definitely not the first time that’s happened).

In my opinion, being faithful to Luther’s original rawness not only shows historical and factual integrity, but it also helps people to be more circumspect analysts of Luther – admiring only the admirable (of which there is plenty) and rejecting the reprehensible (which is also not lacking). In other words, it helps to keep Lutherans from being Lutherans for the wrong reasons. Presenting the original, raw Luther does not mean that one approves of him that way.

However, in this particular case, I really don’t see why the original was cleaned up. The original bares Luther’s heart better and is more entertaining.

I translated this story from the Weimar edition (WA) of Luther’s Works (Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1913), TR 2:123, #1525. It was recorded by Johann Schlaginhaufen (his Latinized name is Turbicida – tur-bi-CHEE-dah) between May 7 and 13, 1532. Schlaginhaufen had been a student at the University of Wittenberg (enrolled in 1520) and was a regular guest in Luther’s home from late 1531 to 1532, when he became a pastor in the village of Zahna near Wittenberg.

After the doctor [Luther] had climbed into his bed, a man came to the door, sent by a widow of a pastor in Belgern to ask for a husband. Luther said to the messenger, “Give me a break! She is not seven years old any more! She’s the one who must look for a man she can take; I do not have any man to give her.” When the messenger had left, he laughed and said to me, “For God’s sake, Turbicida, I beg you, write that one down! Isn’t it a nuisance? Am I really their first option for getting husbands for the women too? I think that they must take me for a brothel keeper! Phooey on you, you dumb world! Friend, write it and note it!”