Nuns, Wives, and Mothers: Women and the Reformation in Germany - Germany Study Notes

Comparison Between the Italian Renaissance and the German Reformation

• The Italian Renaissance for Women: In a famous historical essay, it is argued that there was "no Italian Renaissance for women." The cultural blossoming of the $14^{th}$ and $15^{th}$ centuries arguably did not improve women's status in the home, workplace, or law, and may have even worsened their condition.
• The German Reformation Experience: Unlike the Italian Renaissance, Merry Wiesner finds that the $16^{th}$-century German Reformation made an "appreciable difference" to women, improving the lot of some while adversely affecting others.
• Methodology: These conclusions are based on the writings of Protestant reformers and women themselves, as well as period laws.

Political and Institutional Context of $16^{th}$-Century Germany

• Political Structure: "Germany" in the $16^{th}$ century was part of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE), a loose confederation of hundreds of states, including free imperial cities, knightships, and large territorial states.
• Weak Central Authority: States were theoretically obedient to an elected emperor but were largely independent. This lack of a strong central authority was vital to the early success of the Reformation; Wiesner notes that had Martin Luther ($1483-1546$) been French or Spanish, he would likely have been silenced by powerful monarchs.
• Gender and the "Public" Sphere:     * For men, the Reformation impact was determined by "public" factors: city councils, noble rule, or proximity to universities.     * For women, who had no formal political voice (no voting, no city councils), public factors were less significant. Even Abbesses were under male church official control.     * Women were barred from universities and formal theological training.

Personal vs. Private Status in the Reformation

• Determinative Factors for Women: Variation in the Reformation's impact on women was determined by "personal" factors:     * Status as a nun vs. laywoman.     * Marital status (single, married, widowed, mother).     * Social and economic class.     * Occupation.
• Reframing "Private": In the $16^{th}$ century, neither religion nor the family was considered "private" in the modern sense. Outward religious practices were a high concern for political authorities.
• The Family as Cornerstone: Both Protestants and Catholics viewed the family as the cornerstone of society. Political authorities meddled in domestic concerns (e.g., choosing to serve meat on a Friday or attending a friend's funeral of a different religion).

Impact on Female Religious Orders (Nuns and Sisters)

• Closing of Convents: Protestant reformers closed convents, forcing nuns and lay sisters to marry, return to families, or fend for themselves. Reformers often compared convent morality to brothels to justify these actions.
• Transition Paths:     * Some nuns accepted the message, renounced vows, and married.     * Others gave up holdings but tried to live together as unofficial communities.     * Former priests could become Protestant pastors; former nuns had no official role in the new church structure.
• Case Study: St. Clara Convent in Nuremberg:     * Leadership: Abbess Charitas Pirckheimer, a sister of humanist Willibald Pirckheimer and an accomplished Latinist.     * Resistance ($1525$): The Nuremberg city council ordered all cloisters closed. The two female houses refused.     * Intimidation Tactics: Nuns were denied Catholic communion and confessors, forced to hear Protestant sermons four times a week, and subjected to physical attacks (stones thrown over walls, profane songs). Families physically dragged daughters out of the convent.     * Outcome: The council eventually allowed the remaining nuns to stay but forbade new novices. The last nun died in $1590$.
• Other Defenses: Elizabeth Gottgabs, abbess of Oberwesel convent, published a tract against Lutherans in $1550$, calling their preachers an "abominable uproar."
• Surreptitious Exit: Katherine von Bora and eight other nuns were smuggled out of their convent on Easter night in a wagon of herring barrels after contacting Luther. Her marriage to Luther became a central Protestant narrative.

The Catholic Counter-Reformation Response to Women

• Valuing Celibacy: Jesuits and Catholic leaders encouraged young women to disobey parents and enter convents to escape arranged marriages.
• Strict Cloistering: The Counter-Reformation church demanded all female religious be strictly cloistered, providing no active apostolate for women (no female equivalent to the Jesuits).
• Pressuring Beguines: Groups like Beguines (Roman Catholic lay sisterhoods) and Franciscan tertiaries were pressured to adopt strict cloister rules under bishops.
• Münster Beguines: These women resisted cloistering by appealing to the city council for "traditional liberties." Though eventually cloistered, they retained some traditional practices through political negotiation.

Protestant Theology of Marriage and Gender

• Continuity with Tradition: Reformers did not break sharply with the past. They believed women were spiritually equal but socially subordinate, a subjection inherent in their being since Creation (Aristotelian view) and worsened by Eve's responsibility for the Fall.
• Marriage as Vocation: All Protestant denominations agreed that marriage was established by God for spiritual and moral discipline ($1522$ saw the first Protestant marriage manual in Augsburg).
• Luther's Stance: Martin Luther famously stated, "Let them bear children to death; they are created for that."
• Suspicion of Unmarried Women: Unmarried women were seen as upsetting the divine order. Margaretha Blarer (sister of reformer Ambrosius Blarer) was criticized by Martin Bucer ($1491-1551$) for being "masterless."
• Wifely Obedience: Wives were instructed to obey even non-Christian husbands. Calvin ($1509-1564$) stated a woman "should not desert the partner who is hostile."
• Radical Anabaptism: The Anabaptists at Münster briefly enforced polygamy, based on a reading of Revelations regarding the need for $144,000$ "saints."

Institutional and Social Changes for Laywomen

• Marriage Ordinances: Protestant territories established marriage courts to replace church courts, emphasizing wifely obedience.
• Sumptuary Laws: These laws regulated weddings and baptisms, limiting guests and prohibiting dancing/singing to make the events "purely Christian."
• Loss of Participation: Public religious processions (like Corpus Christi) were banned or restricted to male guilds. Female-only lay confraternities were forbidden.
• Elimination of the Female Sacred: The veneration of Mary and female saints (like St. Anne, patron of pregnant women) was abolished. Women were told to pray to Christ, a "celibate male," during labor.
• Education: Some girl's schools opened (e.g., Memmingen ordinance of $1587$), but they focused on memorizing the catechism, modesty, and sewing rather than deep intellectual training.

Women's Active Participation: Preaching and Prophecy

• Preaching: In the early years, some women took the "priesthood of all believers" literally. Frau Voglin ($1524$) preached in Nuremberg's hospital church. Zwickau women inspired by Thomas Müntzer also preached.
• Suppression: Authorities invoked the Pauline injunction (1 Corinthians $14:34$) that women remain silent in church. Public discussion of the Bible by women was souvent suppressed (e.g., Memmingen forbade maids to discuss religion at wells in $1529$).
• Female Prophets: Prophecy was more accepted than preaching because it had biblical parallels.     * Radical Prophets: Ursula Jost and Barbara Rebstock in Strasbourg. Melchior Hoffman published $72$ of Ursula's revelations.     * Political Prophets: Juliana von Duchnik warned Duke Wallenstein in $1628$ and $1634$. She predicted his fall from a heavenly ladder and his assassination in $1634$.

Martyrdom and Intellectual Identity

• Martyrdom: Many female martyrs were Anabaptists. They were often drowned rather than beheaded to avoid public scenes involving fainting at the sword.
• Case Study: Claesken: She was interrogated about the "Real Presence." Interrogators claimed her condemnation should be greater than her husband's because she was literate and "misled him."
• Writing:     * Justitia Sanger: A blind woman who published a commentary on $96$ Psalms in $1593$.     * Anna Oven Hoyer: Published "Spiritual Conversation between a Mother and Child about True Christianity," later burned as heretical for attacking Lutheran clergy greed.     * Argula von Grumbach ($1523$): Wrote to the University of Ingolstadt protesting the treatment of a Lutheran teacher. She cited Matthew $10$ and Luke $9$ to justify her speech. The university ignored her and punished her husband, depriving him of income.

Domestic and Economic Roles

• Domestic Missionaries: Husbands were sometimes converted by wives. In Bamberg ($1595$), $25\%$ of households were mixed marriages ($43\%$ among city council members).
• Pastors' Wives: Often former nuns, they had to create a new role. Katherine von Bora ("Professor Katie") managed an orchard, ran a large household for up to $80$ people, and participated in dinner theology discussions.
• Midwifery: Because Luther rejected conditional baptism in $1531$, midwives were strictly examined on their baptismal procedures. They were also used by the state to interrogate unmarried mothers during labor to identify fathers.
• Economic Shifts:     * Reduced demand for votive candles and fish (due to lack of fast days) impacted female traders.     * Municipal brothels were closed in both Protestant and Catholic cities due to concerns about public order.     * Women's work identity remained tied to marital status; a woman became a "baker" only by marrying one.

Questions & Discussion

• Q: To what extent did German women benefit from the Protestant Reformation?
• A: The Reformation provided a sense of spiritual equality and a religious vocation within marriage. However, it eliminated female-centric religious spaces (convents, confraternities) and restricted women's public ceremonial roles. Education for girls was encouraged but often limited to basic piety.
• Q: How does this compare to the experience of women during the Italian Renaissance?
• A: Wiesner argues the Reformation had a more "appreciable" (though mixed) impact on German women compared to the Italian Renaissance, which largely bypassed women's social and legal status.
• Q: Do you think Reformation families were stronger as a result of the split in western Christianity?
• A: The family was elevated to a "seminary for the church," and domesticity was idealized. However, religious conflicts often split families, leading to exile, confiscation of goods, and mixed-marriage tensions.
• Q: Which family members benefited most from the social changes?
• A: While husbands gained authority as "priests" of their households, children received more standardized religious instruction. Wives gained a recognized vocation in the home but lost external religious and social outlets common in the Catholic tradition.