Martin Luther
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY<br />
PROF. M. M. NINAN<br />
was very successful in her business ventures, so much so that the family began to depend less and<br />
less on <strong>Martin</strong>’s salary and was largely supported by her efforts.<br />
She also contributed directly to the ministry at Wittenberg. She ran a hospital in the Black Cloister,<br />
working alongside the other nurses in caring for the sick. <strong>Martin</strong> sometimes even consulted her on<br />
church matters and allowed her to deal with his publishers. Mostly, though, she oversaw the<br />
household to allow <strong>Martin</strong> to devote his time to his work in the church and at the University.<br />
Response of the Catholic Church<br />
The Catholic establishment was scandalized by von Bora’s departure from her monastic vows. This<br />
publication by Joachim von der Heiden, a Leipzig University professor, urged her to repent and<br />
return to her monastic seclusion:<br />
“Woe unto you, poor misguided woman, not only that you have been led from light into darkness,<br />
from God’s grace into His disfavor, from holy monastic devotion into a damned and shameful life,<br />
but also because you left your convent dressed in lay clothes, like a dancing girl, and went to<br />
Wittenberg and cast your eyes on that rascal, <strong>Luther</strong>, and lived with him in flagrant immorality, and<br />
finally took him for your husband; by this breach of faith to your bridegroom Christ you became<br />
faithless and perjured. . . . Think of your eternal punishment, and speedily leave this devilish life . . .<br />
and repent your past sins, as did the fallen Mary Magdalene.”<br />
Johann Hasenberg, a professor at Leipzig, attacked Katharina von Bora in this publication, which<br />
he addressed directly to <strong>Martin</strong> <strong>Luther</strong>. The work concludes with two woodcut illustrations: at the<br />
left, Christ and the Virgin Mary lead pious nuns into a holy monastic house; this is contrasted at the<br />
right by <strong>Luther</strong>’s procession to the Gates of Hell with von Bora<br />
http://www.smu.edu/Bridwell/SpecialCollectionsandArchives/Exhibitions/<strong>Luther</strong>/Controversies/BRA012<br />
51