Luther robe
The Luther habit is a 16th century garment that is said to have been worn by Martin Luther . The robe is owned by the Luther Memorials Saxony-Anhalt and has the inventory number K 373. It is the habit of an Augustinian hermit , made of black wool ( twill ) and open at the front according to the rules of the order . The length is 138 cm, the width 62 cm.
The historical garment was first mentioned in the inventory of the Weimar Art Cabinet in 1818, albeit without reference to Luther. This connection was only established in the 20th century, and today the habit is one of the most famous exhibits in the Luther House in Wittenberg.
Luther's robes in the course of his monastic life
The statutes of the order stipulated that there should be no private possession of clothing among the monks. If a monk received back a different robe from the linen than he put in, he should humbly accept it. From Luther's writings we learn that the Wittenberg Augustinians wore white and black robes, which is interpreted differently. The white robe could be the undergarment ( camisia ) over which the actual black religious dress ( cuculla ) was then worn. Alternatively, it is believed that the monks in the monastery were dressed in white and the black robe was only worn in public.
As a university professor, Luther was a special case. Friedrich von Sachsen financed his work as a professor, and that included changing clothes every few years. In 1516 Luther asked Georg Spalatin to express his thanks to the elector for a robe that he had given him: "... that he has dressed me so generously, and with better cloth than it might be appropriate for a robe, if it weren't for the prince's gift. ”On the occasion of the Leipzig disputation in 1519, Luther asked the elector for two new robes, one white and one black. "I also ask, EFG wants to buy me this Leipzschen fair, it's a white and black cap ." The black one had been promised to him a long time ago, but he had not received it. Before the Diet of Worms in 1521, it became clear that Luther had to be dressed in new clothes in order to face the emperor.
On the way back from Worms, the elector had Luther apparently attacked and taken to the Wartburg , where he lived incognito as Junker Jörg and was therefore also dressed like a Junker. So the new robe he had worn in Worms had to go.
Returning to Wittenberg, Luther resumed his previous monastic life in March 1522, as far as the external forms were concerned. He had a tonsure sheared again and demonstratively wore his black medal. At the same time there is an entry in the expenditure book of the Wittenberg magistrate, according to which a new habit had been purchased for Luther at a price of more than eight guilders . This is likely to be the Luther habit shown today.
Symbolic meaning
In Luther's time a change of clothes was a striking signal for a change in inner conviction. It was an effective way of emphasizing what was said in the sermon or in writing. The many monks and nuns who left their monastery in the 1520s clearly made this move by wearing secular clothing. Andreas Karlstadt took off his professor's costume and with it his old identity and dressed like a peasant. Martin Bucer put it this way: “The fact that I don't wear a flat (= tonsure) nor chorus skirt makes that I'm not a papist.” Luther's style of clothing in the years 1522 to 1524 was conservative or slightly inconsistent: he mostly wore his habit, sometimes He was found privately in secular clothing.
Web links
literature
- Harald Meller (Hrsg.): Fundsache Luther. Archaeologists in the footsteps of the reformer , Halle (Saale) 2008, pp. 220–221.
- Martin Treu: Martin Luther in Wittenberg. A biographical tour , Wittenberg 2006, p. 49.
- Thomas Kaufmann: The beginning of the Reformation. Studies on the contextuality of theology, journalism and staging of Luther and the Reformation movement , Tübingen 2012, 483–484.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karina Blüthgen: It is probably not Luther's last robe after all. January 15, 2010, accessed January 17, 2018 .
- ↑ Martin Luther: Letter to Spalatin (No. 28). December 14, 1516, accessed January 17, 2018 .
- ↑ Martin Luther: To the Elector Friedrich of Saxony (No. 175). Retrieved January 17, 2018 .
- ↑ Harald Meller: Luther lost property . S. 220 .
- ↑ Thomas Kaufmann: The beginning of the Reformation . S. 484 .