Crowded House: A Short History of a Reformation Parsonage

This sounds like the setup to a joke, but the punch line is true: What do you get when you combine an outlaw Bible professor, a runaway nun, and a dilapidated Augustinian monastery? The first Reformation parsonage. The Black Cloister, known today as Luther Haus, was built in 1504 with the support of the elector as a monastery to house forty monks in the village of Wittenberg. In 1511, Martin Luther arrived there to serve on the faculty of the newly established university and remained until his death in 1546.

As Luther's efforts at reform began to build, so did the vacancy rates in monasteries and convents across Europe as monks and nuns motivated by evangelical teaching left their orders for other vocations and opportunities, including marriage. By the time Luther returned to the Black Cloister from Wartburg in 1522, only one other monk remained. A treatise on The Estate of Marriage from that same year reflects Luther's maturing thought on the vocation of marriage and the rearing of children, with his typical biting humor:

Along comes the clever harlot, namely natural reason, looks at married life, turns up her nose, and says: Why must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, change its bed, smell its odor, heal its rash, take care of this and take care of that, do this and do that? It is better to remain single and live a quiet and carefree life. I will become a priest or a nun and tell my children to do the same. But what does the Christian faith say? The father opens his eyes, looks at these lowly, distasteful and despised things and knows that they are adorned with divine approval as with the most precious gold and silver. God, with his angels and creatures, will smile not because diapers are washed, but because it is done in faith. (1)

The very next year Luther found himself assisting in the clandestine rescue of twelve Cistercian nuns from the cloister at Nimbschen. One of these nuns, a fiercely independent and intelligent young woman, would become his wife’to the surprise of most. On June 13, 1525, Martin Luther and Katherine von Bora were married in a private ceremony at the Black Cloister, followed by a public ceremony two weeks later with friends and family in attendance. Historian Roland Bainton remarks, "The Luther who got married in order to testify to his faith actually founded a home and did more than any other person to determine the tone of German domestic relations for the next four centuries." (2)

On their wedding night, an unexpected knock on the door came late in the evening after guests had departed. It was Luther's former colleague-turned-adversary, Andreas Karlstadt, seeking refuge from the Peasant's War. Karlstadt was welcomed and remained for several weeks free of charge. When Johann Agricola arrived back in Wittenberg to teach, Luther invited him and his wife Elsa to stay with them until they settled in. The Agricola family had nine children and stayed for several months. It would take Katherine a while to get used to such interruptions and inconveniences, but it would become the norm rather than the exception in their home.

The Mistress of Wittenberg

While Luther receives most of the historical attention, it was his bride who bore the brunt of turning the old monastery into a home. Nestingen remarks, "The fact that Katherine Von Bora is remembered by her family name, not simply as Mrs. Martin Luther, solidly indicates the standing that she achieved, not only with her husband, but in the Lutheran Reformation." (3)

Katherine not only managed the home as a loving wife and mother to their six children, but she also became an entrepreneur who helped sustain and feed her ever-growing household. She managed a garden, orchard, pig farm, and fish pond and used the monastery's license to brew beer and make wine. She used milk from the cows she bred to churn butter and make cheese. Whatever was not used to support their home was taken to the market to sell or barter for other necessities. As her various industries grew, she hired additional staff that she personally supervised.

All of this was necessary, in part, because Luther's university salary was meager (and he received little to no royalties on his published writings). Additionally, he was generous to a fault, always giving away their property to others who had need. While their marriage and home life were generally happy, they were not without difficulties. Like many couples to this day, their quarreling often concerned money or the lack thereof. In a letter to a friend, Luther states that he had intended to send a vase to him as a wedding present, but Katie had hid it from him. Katherine's hard work earned several pet names from her husband: Katie, my rib, Selbander (better-half), and Lord Kate, Mistress of the Pigsty. When she was too domineering for Luther, he offered a play on words for her name by calling her Kette, which means "chain" in German.

Luther's periodic bouts with spiritual depression are well known. Katherine was forced to play the role of medieval psychotherapist at times by finding creative ways to draw her husband out. On one such occasion, she appeared before his study door wearing a black mourning dress.

"Who died?" asked Luther.

"God," she answered.

"You foolish thing!" Luther replied. "God cannot die."

"It is true," she continued. "God must have died, or Doctor Luther would not be so sorrowful."

Katherine became known throughout the region for her medicinal skills in treating common ailments. This proved essential, because Luther suffered at times from gout, insomnia, hemorrhoids, constipation, stones, dizziness, and ringing in the ears. Many came to the Black Cloister for treatment and recovery. Luther once addressed a letter to his wife, "Housewife, Katherine Luther, Doctress, and whatever else she may be at Wittenberg." (4) Their youngest son, Paul, who became a medical doctor, said his mother was half one.

The Home as Christian Classroom

Luther considered the home a Kirchlein ("little church"). He took the lead on catechizing his family, and evenings at the cloister were filled with musical merriment, as Luther was a fairly accomplished musician and composer. What he may have lacked in technical skill was compensated by sheer passion. Neighbors and students often joined the household for their nighttime sing-a-longs. We get an additional glimpse of the great pride Luther took as a father in the letters he sent to friends when calling on their presence for his children's baptisms. For example, his daughter Magdalen was born May 4, 1529. The very next day, in a letter to Nicholas von Amsdorf, he wrote:

Honorable, reverend sir: God, the Father of all grace, has graciously presented a baby daughter to me and my dear Katie. I am therefore asking your Honor for God's sake to assume a Christian office, to be the spiritual father of the said little heathen, and to help her to the holy Christian faith through the heavenly, precious sacrament of baptism. (5)

Commenting on the fourth commandment in his Large Catechism, Luther emphasized the importance of parents taking the lead in their children's catechesis and education:

For if we wish to have excellent and apt persons both for civil and ecclesiastical government, we must spare no diligence, time, or cost in teaching and educating our children, that they may serve God and the world, and we must not think only how we may amass money and possessions for them. For God can indeed without us support and make them rich, as He daily does. But for this purpose He has given us children, and issued this command that we should train and govern them according to His will, else He would have no need of father and mother. (6)

Sadly, of Luther's six children, only four lived to adulthood. Elizabeth did not make it through her first year, while Magdalen died in 1542 at the age of fourteen, casting their parents into a period of profound grief.

A Table for Talking

In 1532, Frederick the Wise gifted the Black Cloister to the Luther family. By this time, the home had been dubbed "God's Inn." Beyond their own children, they took in several orphaned children from family and friends. University students also regularly boarded with them. Some were able to pay their rent, but many lived off of Luther's generosity. It is estimated that at various times the cloister housed up to twenty-six people. It helped that the former monastery had plenty of small rooms.

For traveling visitors, the Black Cloister was viewed as a Saxon hotel, while relatives and neighbors dropped in regularly, often rather conveniently at mealtime. Many used such occasions to discuss church matters and theology with the Reformer. Katherine was frequently too busy to engage in such conversations, but when she did, she could hold her own as Luther encouraged her personal reading of the Bible.

"The world is forever grateful to the students who had the foresight to take up pen," Paul Maier writes, "as well as fork, to record the master's words as he presided at the table." (7) Luther's wry humor is known to anyone who has read his works, particularly the thousands of quips his students wrote down while dining with their beloved teacher. Eventually these quotations and stories were catalogued and published as Martin Luther's Table Talk, revealing the Reformer's vigor and humor, which to his credit withstands the passing of time. Maier believes it was Luther's capacity to see the funny side of life that helped support the man in the face of the enormous challenges in reforming an apparently unreformable church.

Conclusion

Hotel, hospital, orphanage, cafeteria, classroom, and Christian home’the Luthers' overflowing house and lives were the result of God's providence in bringing two extraordinary people together in holy matrimony under one unlikely roof at just the right time in history. James Nestingen concludes that Martin and Katherine Luther shared their family vocation, leaving a lasting witness to the power of the gospel even in the tumult of the household. (8)