On the way from Wittenberg to Eisenach, we stopped at Erfurt and toured the Augustine Monastery. This is where Luther became a monk. The life of a monk was very harsh. In the winter only the Chapter room and the Cafeteria was heated. In those places monks were not allowed to talk to each other. They also were not allowed to talk in their cells (where they studied), or in their dormitory, nor the walkways, or the Cathedral. They were not allowed to talk in the inner-courtyard where the dead were buried. However, they could talk in the kitchen and in the regular courtyard. Luther was not a bad monk he was the best monk. If required to wash the kitchen floor, he would also wash the cafateria floor. When fasting was required for a day or two, he would fast for three or four days or longer. They were not allowed to sleep in their cells. If they were caught sleeping in it, then they were forced to beg for forty days in the streets for the Monastery. The Augustine Monastery was a Begging Order. The punishments were harsh. In addition, their day started at two A.M. in the morning. Then they had to pray from two to three. Then from three to four A.M. they had to listen for an hour, to one chapter of the Augustine rules being read in the Chapter Room. Then they had a few hours to do what ever they wanted, they could nap or do other tasks needing done. Then they had to pray again at six A.M. and every three hours afterwards, until after the nine P.M. prayer. Then they could go to bed. The longest prayer was an hour long, first thing in the morning. The other prayers were shorter. They prayed together seven times a day. They were only fed two meager meals a day, and this was when they were not fasting (when fasting only one small meal a day). As Luther did more and more good works, he realized how much more and more there was to do, that he thought God Required him to do, and that it was unattainable to do all these good works required by God in order to go to Heaven. This made him hate God. He thought God was telling him to do the impossible, to get to Heaven. Then while studying theology at the University in Wittenberg, and reading the New Testament, he realized how wrong the Catholics were. He realized that you only get your Salvation from Faith alone, not from penance or other good works, but by Faith alone you received Salvation from God. He then loved God. Here are some pictures of the Monastery.
Martin Luther walked through this gate
The courtyard
The Chapter Room, now the Winter Church
A cell, but the beds were not in them, they were outside them, Luther may have wore this robe
It has been passed down that this was at one time Luther's Cell
The inner-courtyard where they buried monks
Inside the church, now Lutheran
A model of the Monastery and Church
Luther had a profound impact on this Monastery. Almost all the monks that were here when he was here converted to Lutheranism. The monastery was told by the City Council of Erfurt that it could not bring take on any new monks in about 1525. Around this same time almost all the monks had already left the Augustine Order and converted to Lutheranism. The most monks that were here was 72. There were about 57 here when Luther joined. The last Augustine Monk died in 1556. Later the Catholic Cathedral converted to a Lutheran Church.
Before a man could join the order he first had to stay in the Guest house for a while to see what it was like to be a monk. Then they were a novice monk for one year and one day. During this novice year they could leave the monastery with no consequences. After the novice year, it was very hard to leave the Augustine Order. I had never heard of first visiting a monastery and then the novice year before visiting the Augustine Monastery.
It is still a working Monastery. There are no more monks, but some nuns still live here and take care of things.
One quarter done
Starting the second edge
On my pillow
Entering Berlin
A Pegisis statue on the top of a building
An old church in Berlin
The Berlin Wall
