Issue 131 Women of the Reformation

What's inside

No simple story

How women’s roles changed in the sixteenth century

Jennifer Powell McNutt

Like mother, like daughter?

Marguerite de Navarre and Jeanne d’Albret shaped French religion for generations

S. Amanda Eurich

Our first woman reformer

Argula von Grumbach proclaimed “no woman’s chit-chat, but the Word of God”

Peter Matheson

Not a soap opera

The women of the English Reformation were active participants in a theological drama

Calvin Lane

“God my Lord is even stronger”

Exemplary women of the Reformation with confidence in their convictions

Rebecca Giselbrecht

Women of the Reformation: Did you know?

Nuns, prophets, queens, witches, wives

the editors

Letters, Christian History 131

Readers respond to Christian History

Christian History's readers

Editor's note: Women of the Reformation

Enter the fifth issue in our four-issue Reformation series.

Jennifer Woodruff Tait

“Honorable and holy”

Bullinger's book on Christian marriage was a best-seller

Heinrich Bullinger

“A very useful epistle”: Marie Dentière

In 2002 Dentière received belated recognition; her name was added to the Wall of the Reformers in Geneva.

Mary B. McKinley

Christian History Timeline: Women of the Reformation

The Reformation through women's eyes

the editors

She would follow only Christ

From pamphlet writing to pastoral counsel, Katharina Schütz Zell fought for her right to speak 

Elsie McKee

“Christ is the master”: Margaret Blaurer

Blaurer was of use to the church as a single woman.

Edwin Woodruff Tait

Dangerous pamphlets

Margarethe Prüss helped advance the radical Reformation through her publishing

Kirsi Stjerna

Women of the Reformation: recommended resources

Want to learn more about lesser-known women of the Reformation? Check out these recommendations from our editors and from this issue’s authors.

the editors

“The gates of Hell cannot prevail”

Von Grumbach’s letter to the University of Ingolstadt protesting the arrest and exile of Arsacius Seehofer for holding Lutheran views, excerpted here, became her most famous and best-selling piece of writing

Argula von Grumbach
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