August 17: Erfurt Continued Again

UPDATE: Right story, but wrong place below. On his way to Worms in 1521, when Luther preached in Erfurt, I don't think he preached in Michael's Church as it says below. Rather, he preached in the Augustinian Church which is very close to Michael's Church. I think the Augustinian Church is what is pictured above. So the balcony-creaking story did happen in Erfurt, but not in the church that I said it did below.
-WBC

"Erfurt" means "muddy river ford."  That's how the town started. In medieval times the river was much higher. But it was muddy today because of the sporadic rains we've been having. Here is a long bridge over the river that is completely inhabited by houses.

If you walked over this bridge, how would you ever know that you were going over water?

There is one more event in Luther's life that happened in Erfurt that I will mentioned. Fast forward to year 1521. When Luther traveled from Wittenberg to Worms to appear before the Emperor at the Diet of Worms ("Here I stand"), expecting he would likely be put to death, he stopped along the way at Erfurt. The people of Erfurt received him with a hero's welcome and begged him to preach. With little time to prepare Luther agreed to preach at Michael's Church.

This afternoon at Michael's Church, Burk Parsons, who is Associate Pastor at RC Sproul's church read to us the sermon that Martin Luther preached here on his way to Worms. 

"I will tell the truth, I must tell the truth, even though it cost me my neck twenty times over, that the verdict may not be pronounced against me at the last judgment....I will tell the truth and must tell the truth; that is why here I stand, and not taking any money for it either."

Michael's Church in Erfurt was so packed to hear Luther preach this sermon that the balcony started creaking under the weight of the people. The people started to panic, and Luther had to stop preaching to help organize an orderly exit to relieve the weight on the balcony. 

I don't think this is the balcony that dates back to that time. But it makes sense that they would use whatever balcony was there. Michael's Church isn't really that big. Our group of a little more than 200 almost filled the floor.