Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history. A tale of two churches

and these two churches happen to be in Vittenberg and we happen to be in Vittenberg too. We are once again on location as we are making our way through Luther's life and thought and legacy

and very important to that life is the aspect of Luther as pastor and important to that are the two

churches that were key here in Vittenberg. We are standing right next to

St. Marion Kirka also known as the St. Kirca or the St. Marian Kirka, also known as the Stot Kirka, or the State Church or the Town Church.

This was the main church where Luther preached.

He preached his first sermon in here in 1512.

Now by the time Luther stepped into this church,

it had already been around for over 300 years.

And he was in here as a monk in 1512.

The first extant sermon manuscripts

that we have from Luther date to 1514.

In that same year, the town council appointed Luther the head of this church.

That was a title that Luther held right up until his death in 1546.

Luther was preaching sermons in this building for 34 years from 1512 until 1546. It was in this church, St.

Mary's Church, that Luther and Katie were married and it was also in this church that Luther baptized all six of his children.

This church, St Mary's Church, also has next to it a a nice little chapel, and that little chapel features well into the

95 Theses.

It was actually there after Luther posted the 95 Theses that he held his first debate with the monks from the Augustinian

monastery here and the faculty of the University of Vittenberg.

It was in that little chapel that the first debate of the 95 theses was held primarily for the scholars and the priests and the monks that were gathered here at Vittenberg.

So this is a very important place in the life of Luther, but it is only one of the churches in Vittenberg.

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