Read Luther's buddy Phil, not Luther and his works that were greatly cleaned up by Phil and others. The story of the ink well being thrown was, in original form, not an inkwell but a feces battle with Satan.
Luther was constantly constipated, feces was something he thought (and wrote) about a lot. It's much easier to find what Luther actually wrote without editing in the German language than in English, but it's out there if you find older books many of which are free somewhere on the web.
If you're honestly interested, look around, if not, the above comes up right away in any search engine.
Thanks for the link.
I noticed that is was written by:
William Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire, The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance (Boston, 1992), pp.139-140
I just ordered a copy of the book. However I was searching for his source for the quote.
Here is a discussion by Luther scholars on Manchester:
“William Manchester and Luther
I’ll keep a running list of what I learn about this work under this title. The first thing I notice is that Manchester is a historian of the twentieth century, writing mostly about WWII. Medieval Mind is his only work outside that subject.
A review of the work in Word and World 14 (1994) no. 2:225-228 quotes the author’s note from the work as saying: “Complete at last, this book is a source of pride, which is pleasant, though in this instance somewhat odd. It is, after all, a slight work, with no scholarly pretensions. All the sources are secondary, and few are new; I have not mastered recent scholarship on the early sixteenth century.” p. xiii.
The reviewer says the work “displays a breathtaking lack of scholarship.” and “obviously, the problems with this book are many. Events are sometimes related inaccurately. The conclusions drawn from particular events are often questionable. The presentation of facts is selective and biased. The method used is dubious. Someone interested in this period of history could find better books. It is hardly conceivable that one could find a worse book.”
If you want to get into Luther’s struggles, you need to find another work. read Obermann’s Luther : man between God and the Devil and Brecht’s three volume Martin Luther before adding material on this topic.
This book is not the first we hear about a preoccupation with what is called an “elimination theology”: Osborne popularized this thinking with his Luther (play). I appreciate the work the above poster has brought to bear on this. drboisclair 14:56, 8 November 2005 (UTC)
Allow me to say that the privy does have spiritual benefits as the elimination creates a purification process. Fasting also is a purification process.
As I mentioned earlier in this thread, lower extremities is generally where the demons enter. I have had them hide in the bowel area.
Having done much of this work and having read Luther’s words on this matter, I do not feel the quote of Luther throwing fecal matter is accurate. However, I keep an open mind as one is not born into spiritual perfection, it is a growth process. I’m a screw up and make big mistakes... But God’s Grace appears to be greater than my mistakes.. (rough learning experiences)
I thank you again for posting the original comment as I have a lot of admiration for Luther, but also an objective open mind.
Funny coincidence... a little over 5 years ago I got stung by a demon.. It hid in my lower body much the way the apostle Paul referred to his “personal demon.”
It was a constant battle for me.... One day the demon said to me... “I can’t stop what goes into you, but I can stop what comes out.”
Shortly thereafter I had a total blockage from colon cancer. I knew exactly where the cancer was at the first time I went to the DR. I even took his finger and put it on the tumor so he could feel it.
It was a tough battle for me as I felt rejected by God. Why am I not worthy of the healing that flows through me to other people? I knew the exact event in my life that was attached to/created the cancer. It happened when I was between 3 and 4 years old, but I couldn’t reach the event in my soul to heal it.
I had the surgery to remove the tumor, but refused chemo and radiation. I knew I was ok... That was over 5 years ago.
While the wound in my soul was created when I was a child victim, I needed to forgive the person who harmed me. That took much more time, but eventually healed the soul wound.