Do you see the doorway in the lower right corner of the picture above? This is called the Katherine Portal. Luther's wife Katherine was so busy running this large house, and Martin Luther so busy with his huge load of responsibilities, that she felt that they didn't have enough time to talk. So for Luther's 57th birthday in 1540 Katy had this doorway built as a birthday gift for her husband. It has two seats in it, and she wanted them to be able to sit there on either side at the end of the day to talk.
Here's me sitting at the Katherine Portal, although I think I sat on Katy's side.
Martin Luther discovered the meaning of "the righteousness of God" in Romans 1:17 as a monk studying in this monastery before it ever belonged to him. Because Luther said that this happened to him while he was studying in the tower, some have called this his "tower experience." However the tower is not the one you see in the picture at the top of this blog entry. The monastery originally had two towers, but one was demolished during Luther's lifetime to make room for improvements to the town ramparts, and this was the one he had been studying in when he made this discovery. Here's what left of a doorway to the demolished tower where you might say the Reformation began.
No comments:
Post a Comment