Lead Review
- Book: Katharina Luther: Nun, Rebel, Wife
- Location: Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Saxony Anhalt
- Author: Anne Boileau
It is interesting how a story set in the early part of the 16th Century can have echoes in Western politics of the 21st Century. There are many parallels to be drawn between the disaffected underclasses of 1520s Saxony who found a charismatic man, a rabble-rouser who fired up the Reformation and vilified the Catholic Church. In terms of today there are many who are seeking fundamental changes whether it is through the AFD in Germany, the issues around a different future in Brexit or the current American hustings around who will be President in November 2016, where a demagogue can intoxicate followers…
Kathe has left her family home as a young teenager to become a nun at the convent, Kloster Nimbschen, near Grimma, now a 4 star hotel. It is a silent community of nuns living hand to mouth, devout, yet generous to the needy. But soon the Protestant Reformation, driven under the astute leadership of Martin Luther penetrates their closed world and Kathe finds herself becoming unsettled. She escapes along with several other nuns in Herring Barrels and heads for Saxony, the heart of the Reformation and finds accommodation organised by the great preacher. He opposed many the teachings of the catholic church and brought his thoughts together in the 95 Theses of 1517 which he posted on the doors of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, and this led to his excommunication.
Having called for the closing down of convents and monasteries, the monks are soon hounded by the rabble who have found a cause to express their discontent. Their assets are stripped, books burned, icons desecrated.
Kathe, the former nun and Luther, the former monk (and amusingly also the local Official-Town-Carp-Pond and Production-Inspector), soon find a practical bond and forge a future together, an odd coupling but one that seemed to suit them both in troubled and uncertain times. The book is written in style that offers a feeling for the era and a glimpse of medieval life.
A very readable book that fills in many of the gaps of that period of history. It is well written, and thoughtfully put together.
This review originally appeared on our blog, where we also chat to the author
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