[Dr. Eckleburg]

His (Luther's) tomb has a prayer to her engraved on it

Luther's tomb in Wittenberg is sparsely adorned and bears no inscription nor prayer to Mary. I've been there and seen it.

The only inscription near Luther's tomb is his own writing...

"_Ein Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott._" -- A Mighty Fortress is Our God."

The tomb usually cited by Catholics as Luther's is actually the tomb of Henning Goeden, Jurist and last Catholic Provost of the Castle Church.

Here's a more honest statement from a Catholic website...

MOTHER MARY AND MARTIN LUTHER

"If one believes Peter Stravinskas, it would seem that this inscription on his heart is reflected in the inscription on his tomb. Stravinskas published a generally good article on "The Place of Mary in Classical Fundamentalism", at www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/fr94101.htm but I'm afraid he made one pious mistake: He maintains that the sculpture of the Coronation of the Virgin and inscription by Peter Vischer the Younger which is to be found in the Wittenberger Schlosskirche, where Luther is burried, goes with Luther's tomb. I wish it were so, but I'm afraid it belongs to one of the other tombs in the church. If you google for images of Luther's tomb (or Luthers' Grabmal), you'll see that it is the simplest little slab of stone rising a little out of the floor of the main church, a good distance away from the walls - no "burial chamber" at all."

[Quix]

Thanks.

[Campion]

Luther's tomb in Wittenberg is sparsely adorned and bears no inscription nor prayer to Mary. I've been there and seen it.

Thank you, I'll stand corrected on that.

The fact remains that, at least during part of his post-1517 career, he not only approved of the veneration of Mary, he practiced it himself. His 1521 exposition on the Magnificat both begins and ends with an invocation of Mary.