Argula von Grumbach
Encyclopedia
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n noblewoman who, starting in the early 1520s, became involved in the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
debates going on in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. She became the first Protestant woman writer, publishing letters and poems promoting and defending Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
as well as his co-worker Philipp Melanchthon
Philipp Melanchthon
Philipp Melanchthon , born Philipp Schwartzerdt, was a German reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and an influential designer of educational systems...
and other Protestant groups. She is most known for directly challenging the University of Ingolstadt’s
University of Ingolstadt
The University of Ingolstadt was founded in 1472 by Louis the Rich, the Duke of Bavaria at the time, and its first Chancellor was the Bishop of Eichstätt. It consisted of five faculties: humanities, sciences, theology, law and medicine, all of which were contained in the Hoheschule...
faculty when she wrote a letter to them speaking out against the arrest of a Lutheran student. As one of the few women at the time openly speaking out her views, her writings sparked controversy and often became bestsellers, with tens of thousands of copies of her letters and poems circulating within a few years of their publication.
Early life
Argula von Grumbach was born as Argula von Stauff in 1492, the year known for when Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
sailed for the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
. Her family lived in Ehrenfels castle, which was their baronial seat. The von Stauff family were Freiherren, who were lords with independent jurisdiction only accountable to the Emperor, and they were among the pre-eminent leaders of Bavarian nobility.
Argula’s upbringing was in a political and deeply religious household. Education and attendance at university was highly prized. Argula is thought to have learned to read fluently at a very young age. When she was ten her father gave her an expensive and beautifully crafted Koberger
Anton Koberger
Anton Koberger was the German goldsmith, printer and publisher who printed and published the Nuremberg Chronicle, a landmark of incunabula, and was a successful bookseller of works from other printers...
Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
in German, despite Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
preachers discouraging it, saying Scripture would “only confuse her.” She became an avid student of the Bible, memorizing the majority of its contents.
At the age of sixteen, Argula joined the court in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, where she became a lady-in-waiting
Lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...
to Queen Kunigunde
Kunigunde of Austria
Kunigunde of Austria was an Austrian Archduchess member of the House of Habsburg and by marriage Duchess of Bavaria-Munich and since 1503 over all Bavaria....
, daughter of the Emperor Frederick III
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick the Peaceful KG was Duke of Austria as Frederick V from 1424, the successor of Albert II as German King as Frederick IV from 1440, and Holy Roman Emperor as Frederick III from 1452...
. The Queen was said to have a strong personality herself, passionate about politics and religion. The court as a whole was interested in spiritual affairs, so it is there that Argula’s studies of the Bible could have become a serious endeavor.
Argula’s adolescent life was also marked by tragedy. Both her parents became ill from plague and died in 1509. Her father’s brother, Hieronymus, became her guardian. He was a leading figure at court but ended up disgraced in a political scandal that led to his execution in 1516. Her outrage at this incident is probably what prompted her persistent loathing for violence and coercion throughout her life.
Married Life
In the same year of her uncle’s execution, Argula married Friedrich von Grumbach. The von Grumbach family was not as prestigious as the von Stauffs, but they were still known in German history and Friedrich himself had been appointed to an honorary administrator post in DietfurtDietfurt
Dietfurt is a town in the district of Neumarkt in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Altmühl, 38 km west of Regensburg.It is known as the "Bavarian China" , Chinese is one of the town's official languages, and a "Chinese Culture Festival" is held in Dietfurt on a yearly basis...
. He also had several other landholdings throughout Bavaria. Little is known about Friedrich because he remained so much in the shadow of his wife. He is also thought to have had poor health, as he died in 1530.
With him Argula had four children, George, Hans Georg, Gottfried and Apollonia. The only child to survive his parents was Gottfried. It seemed that Argula was the one who made all the arrangements for her children’s Protestant educations. Records indicated that Argula took care of many of the financial and business matters of her family even before her husband’s death.
Little is known, also, about the relationship between Argula and her husband, although there have been hints through her writings. She refuted others’ suggestions that she was neglecting her duties as a wife in the poem she wrote in 1524, although she also said ‘May God teach me to understand/ How I should act towards my man’, indicating that it could have been a difficult marriage. Friedrich himself was not a Reformer
Protestant Reformers
Protestant Reformers were those theologians, churchmen, and statesmen whose careers, works, and actions brought about the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century...
, remaining in the Old Church. He was put under immense pressure to ‘bring her into line’ during the height of her challenging and letter writing. At one point he was even told he was allowed to disable her so as to prevent her from writing or even strangle her without legal repercussions.
Argula married again in 1533 to Count von Schlick, but he died within two years.
Engagement in the Reformation
Martin LutherMartin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
published his first treatises in 1520 and Philipp Melancthon laid out Luther’s teachings in a book. By 1522, Luther had finished his translation of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
in German. Argula von Grumbach read all these writings, and by that same year she had become a follower of Luther and had begun a correspondence with Luther and other similarly thinking Protestants. She would later meet Luther face to face in 1530.
Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n authorities had forbidden reception of Lutheran ideas at the time, and the city of Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...
enforced that mandate. In 1523, Arsacius Seehofer, the young teacher and former student at the University of Ingolstadt
University of Ingolstadt
The University of Ingolstadt was founded in 1472 by Louis the Rich, the Duke of Bavaria at the time, and its first Chancellor was the Bishop of Eichstätt. It consisted of five faculties: humanities, sciences, theology, law and medicine, all of which were contained in the Hoheschule...
, was arrested for Protestant views and forced to recant. The incident would have occurred quietly, but Argula, outraged over it, wrote what was to become her most successful writing, a letter to the faculty of the university objecting to Seehofer’s arrest and exile. The letter urged the university to follow Scripture, not Roman
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
traditions. It also said she had decided to speak out even though she was a woman because no one else would. An excerpt from her letter as follows:
In the long letter she cited over 80 Scriptures with which she made logical comparisons to the behaviour of the university theologians to argue her case that they were wrong.
Her letter, which was turned into a booklet, provoked a huge reaction, greatly angering the theologians and became nearly an overnight sensation. It went through fourteen editions in two months, and became a bestseller. Argula wrote more letters and copies of the first one to other significant figures like Duke Wilhelm to also argue her case.
Theologians wanted her punished, and her husband lost his position at Dietfurt over the controversy. Argula was also called by many offensive epithets by her critics, especially through the sermons of Professor Hauer who called her things like “shameless whore” and a “female desperado.”
Argula wrote poems in response to the slander of her, such as when a poem apparently written by an Ingoldstadt which attacked her and accused her of being a neglectful wife and mother. The poem was the last of her published works but she continued correspondence with Luther and other Reformers.
Argula was highly controversial and shunned by her family but she also had admirers for her writings. She was praised by a Lutheran preacher Balthasar Hubmaier
Balthasar Hubmaier
Balthasar Hubmaier was an influential German/Moravian Anabaptist leader. He was one of the most well-known and respected Anabaptist theologians of the Reformation.- Early life and education:...
in nearby Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
, who wrote that she "knows more of the divine Word than all of the red hats (canon lawyers and cardinals) ever saw or could conceive of" and compared her to heroic women in the Bible.
Even though her challenges to the university were largely ignored and her efforts to promote her Protestant beliefs unsuccessful, Argula was undeterred, and continued writing pamphlets. She did things like traveling alone to Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
, which was unheard of for women, to encourage German princes to accept Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
principles.