Luther At Wartburg Castle

Don't forget to check out these other related titles: Luther at Coberg by J. G. Morris, ISBN: 978-1530281541 Luther at Home by T. Stork ISBN: 978-1530254934 Many of the facts recorded in this little book are familiar to readers of Reformation history, but they have never before been brought together in a continuous narrative in the English language. They have been collected from numerous books concerning Luther, and the well-authenticated facts alone have been incorporated in this volume. THE capture of Luther by order of the elector Frederick, after the departure of the Reformer from Worms, where he had been summoned to answer for his alleged heresies, and his detention in the castle of Wartburg from May 4, 1521, to March 2, 1522, have imparted an unspeakably great historical interest to this mediaeval fortress. It is situated on a hill nearly fourteen hundred feet high, a few miles distant from the town of Eisenach, in the territory of Saxe-Weimar. It was erected in the year 1070 by Lewis the Leaper, and was for two hundred years the residence of the landgraves of Thuringia. In 1264 that country came into the possession of Henry the Illustrious, who made the Wartburg his residence until his death, and his successors continued to occupy it until 1406. After this time the castle underwent many changes. It was inhabited by various noble families, of whom history gives very unsatisfactory and unreliable information; but this much is certain - that it has been the scene of some events of great historical importance. It was the theatre of the poetic contests of the Minnesingers in the year 1200 under Herman I., and was also rendered memorable in those early days as the residence of the holy Elizabeth, the wife of Herman, who, for her distinguished virtues, was canonized shortly after death. Various miracles are ascribed to her, and the steps leading to her tomb, in Marburg, are worn hollow by the knees of thousands of pilgrims who for nearly seven hundred years have visited her final resting-place to be healed of their various maladies by touching her magnificently-jewelled coffin.