Born in 1499, Katharina started her education at first the convent at Brehna, then continued it in Kloster Nimbschen where she took vows as a nun at the age of sixteen and expected to live the whole of her life.
God, however, had other plans. On Easter Eve 1523 she escaped with eleven other nuns to Wittenberg, a move meant to be temporary until a more permanent home could be found for her. What happened next changed the world in this family story filled with music in the original German.
Student-Teacher Edition features challenging study questions after each chapter. Extensive appendices include a detailed timeline, detailed bibliography, plus information on medieval time and lyrics to Martin Luther’s most popular hymns in both English and German.
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News of Martin and Katharina’s marriage spread across Christendom like wildfire. Technically speaking, the marriage of monk to a nun was incestuous as their vows made them brother and sister as far as the Church was concerned. Those still loyal to the Pope were outraged at the obvious insult to the holy orders and the authority of the church itself. Among the truly devout Catholics of Saxony only Prince Friedrich seemed unconcerned about the implications of the marriage. Incestuous or not, this marriage would likely make Luther a better person and a more appealing professor for his university.
Several weeks into the marriage Andreas Karlstadt left the Black Cloister in favour of other accommodations in Wittenberg. In 1529 he moved to Holstein, then Friesland, and finally Zürich before settling down and taking a job as professor of the Old Testament in Basel in 1534 where he lived to the end of his days. Finally free of the stress that Karlstadt’s presence brought to her home, Katharina was ready to make the Black Cloister her house, her domain even as Martin quickened her with the first of many pregnancies. The world would never be the same again.
Study Questions
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Italian
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Already translated.
Translated by Maria Vexille
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Author review: Perfection as usual. |
