By Rev. Dr. Ed &
Janice Hird
Martin Luther & his wife Katharina dearly loved
Christmas. Tradition even credits them
with having the first Christmas tree. On this 502nd anniversary of the
Reformation, it is worth remembering that Luther’s marriage revolution allowed
pastors to marry for the first time in over 500 years. Marriage and family went from being
second-best to something to be celebrated. Many priests’ housekeepers with children were
promoted to become legal clergy wives. Some suggest that allowing clergy
marriages was even more definitive than the doctrine of justification by grace
through faith.
Luther’s bride, Katharina von Bora, was sent at age 5 to a
nunnery by her widowed father when he remarried to a widow with her own
children. In 1524, the year after
Katharina escaped the convent, Luther published a pamphlet: A Story of how
God Rescued an Honorable Nun. This told the true story of a young woman
Florentina who was shipped off to a convent at age six and flogged and
imprisoned in a convent prison cell when she tried to leave. He also wrote about “children...pushed into
the nunneries’ by ‘unmerciful parents who treated their own so cruelly.”
When these nuns tried to leave, they would be arrested and even
beaten. Luther commented, “...no vow is
valid unless it has been made willingly and with love.”
Katharina and eleven other nuns escaped on Easter Eve, one
of the few nights they would be permitted to stay up late. Leonhard Köppe delivered herring in barrels to
the Nimbschen convent, in exchange for twelve nuns hidden in and among the
herring barrels. It has been described as one of the most stunning jail breaks
in history. A year later, a man
elsewhere in Germany was executed for aiding a similar escape.
Luther’s job was to find husbands for the nuns. Kate had romantically fallen for Jerome
Baumgartner who never returned back to Wittenberg for her as he had promised. Luther wrote Jerome on October 12th,
1524: “If you want to hold on to your Kate von Bora, you better hurry up before
she is given to some other suitor who is on hand. Until now she has not gotten
over her love for you. And I would be
very pleased if the two of you were united with one another (in marriage).”
Jerome’s parents married him off instead to a wealthy 14-year old heiress.
Luther then tried to marry Kate off to Dr Kaspar Glatz. Kate turned in desperation to Luther’s
colleague Nikolaus von Amsdorf, saying she would accept a marriage proposal
from Amsdorf or Luther, but not from Glatz. He met with Luther, saying: “What the devil
are you doing, trying to coax and force the good Kate to marry that old
cheapskate whom she neither desires nor considers with all her heart as
husband?” Luther responded: “What devil
would want her then? If she does not
like him, she may have to wait a good while for another one!”
After Luther asked Katharina what he was to do with her, she
said: “You could marry me yourself.” This
shocked Luther, as he saw himself over the hill at age 42, as well as likely to
be martyred. He decided to ask his dad
Hans Luther who recommended that he settle down and give him some
grandchildren.
Luther later commented: “I never loved Kate then for I
suspected her of being proud (as she is), but God willed me to take compassion
on the poor abandoned girl.” Upon
Katie’s finding out that she would marry Martin, she prayed: “Now I shall no
longer be Katharina, runaway nun; I shall be the wife of the great Doctor
Luther, and everything I do or say will reflect upon him...It is like an
assignment from God. God, keep me
humble. Help me to be a good wife to
your servant Doctor Luther. And perhaps,
dear Father, you can also manage to give me a little love and happiness.”
After marrying, the Luthers made the former Augustinian
Black Cloister their home. Luther, as a
former confirmed bachelor, commented: “There is a lot to get used to in the
first year of marriage. One wakes up in
the morning and finds a pair of pigtails on the pillow which were not there
before.” Katherina also shockingly put
up curtains and washed his bedsheets. Luther
commented: “Before I was married, the bed was not made for a whole year and
became foul with sweat.”
Katharina was a true biblical Martha, always working and
practically serving her family. Drawing
on her nunnery experience, she was up at 4 am each morning, causing Luther to
call her the Morning Star of Wittenberg. She provided a financial and emotional
stability in Martin’s life, that helped him be more grounded. Martin, being an ex-monk, refused to charge
his students for attending his lectures or be paid for his books. He also was radically generous, even
cosigning expensive loans on which others defaulted. Fortunately, Katharina was a gifted
businesswoman, who turned their home into a profit-making hotel for students
and others. Luther commented: “I am rich. God has given me my nun and three
children: what care I if I am in debt, Katie pays the bills.” With forty rooms
alone on the ground floor of her Black Cloister home, Kate functioned as a
Protestant abbess. She was busy with “a
motley crowd of boys, students, girls, widows, old women, and youngsters.”
Katharina, with her sheer energy, gave Martin the local base
for a global reformation. In a 1535 letter, Martin wrote that his Lord Katie was
busy planting crops, preparing pastures, and selling cattle. Kate became gardener, fisher, fruit grower,
cattle and horsebreeder, cook, beekeeper, provisioner, nurse, and vintner. Katharina also served as Luther’s publishing
agent. He entrusted to her the task of printing and distributing his prolific writings.
Over time, they developed a
very romantic marriage, as Luther commented: “Kiss and rekiss your wife....A
married life is a paradise, even when all else is wanting.” He began to write about Kate as ‘my true love’ and ‘my sweetheart’.
In Table Talk, Luther commented, “I
would not trade my Kate for France and Venice for three reasons:
(1)
Because God has given her to me and me to her.
(2)
I have seen time and again that other women have more faults than my Kate.
(3) She is a faithful marriage partner; she is
loyal and has integrity.”
“Kate”, Martin said, “you have a god-fearing
man who loves you. You are an empress; realize it and thank God for it.” This Christmas, may each husband thank God
for the empress in his life. Our
marriage and families are better today because of Kate and Martin Luther, a
global firestarter family.
Rev. Dr. Ed and Janice Hird
As I go ‘swanning’ out of this space I pray that you
will all be blessed with a joyous Christ-filled Christmas, and with a New Year
that, along with its challenges, will include much cheerful encouragement, with
grace and peace through Jesus our Lord.
