The cloistered life became a refuge for many women during the Middle Ages. In a society where women were denied of many rights, a convent became a place where they could develop their talents. Many of these women who joined a convent received an education there that otherwise would be impossible to have at the time. Some of them had the opportunity to become teachers and/or spiritual directors for other cloistered women. Along with being a place where they can devote their lives to God in the world, convents were a place of peace and protection for many women. Some were running away from husbands who were physically abusing them or from arranged marriages. Convents were a place where they could cultivate their potential as human beings and give back to society.
Convents and religious houses became targets for the reformers who were looking for followers. During this time these women had to face a challenge: they either had to leave the convent and join the reformers or remain in the convents. The most famous of the women who decided to leave the convent is Katherine von Bora, who left the convent and became the reformer, Martin Luther"s, wife. A prominent woman who decided to remain in the convent was Charitas Pirkheimer, abbess of the St. Clara convent in Nuremberg. In her writings she described how young women were being violently taken out of the convents by their parents. Both of these women and the courses they took were followed by many others. In this time of confusion Scripture became an important instrument at the moment of making the decision of leaving or staying in the convent. We have in their writings a rich use of Scripture quotations to justify their decision. Scripture served to argue both in favor of and against the reformers.
We will see how these women used Scripture to justify their positions in favor of and against the reformation, followed by the decision of leaving or remaining in the convent. In these letters we will see their theological interpretations of what the reformation means and how it affects their relationship with the church. We will see also, in those women who joined the reformation, how the movement and their leaders shaped their way of thinking.
Why study the writings of women who were part of a convent or religious house? As we read before, these women had the opportunity to receive an education that most laywomen did not have. "The institutions in which nuns lived were accustomed to women writing, so were less likely to discard their writings than were lay families or the people to whom women wrote letters."[1] Some of these women were also part of noble families, meaning that their words were taken seriously. Another reason is that the amount of women who joined convents was of considerable size in many countries in Europe. We will begin by reading a letter written by Katherine Rem, a woman who decided to stay in the convent, to her brother Bernhardt. In this letter she affirms a strong conviction to her call as a nun and her rejection of the reformers" teachings.
Katherine Rem belonged to the Convent of Augsburg when she wrote this letter to her brother Bernhardt Rem in September 11, 1523. This letter is in response to a letter that her brother had sent to her before. Bernhardt published these letters and apparently made some money out of it. She opens the letter by saying, "You have wished us the correct understanding of Jesus Christ… We hope we have the correct understanding of God."[2] With this opening statement we have a sense of the tension between the Catholic Church and the reformers. We see in Bernhardt the idea that the reformer"s had: The reformers are the ones with the right interpretation of Scripture and the right understanding of Jesus Christ. But Katherine Rem"s response is representative of the Catholic"s Church side: The Catholic Church is the one with the right interpretation of Scripture and the right understanding of Jesus Christ. Both the Catholic Church and the reformers were claiming the right understanding of Scripture, so they are in the middle of a battle: The Catholic Church was trying to keep their followers and the reformers were trying to gain new followers.
Katherine was being pressured by her brother to leave the convent and join the reformation movement. She responded to her brother that she was not leaving the convent and wrote to him, "We regard you as one of the false prophets that Jesus warned us against in the Holy Gospels when he said "Guard yourselves against prophets who come in the form of a sheep and are ravening wolves.""[3] This is a paraphrase from Matthew 7:15 where it says "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep"s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." In Katherine"s interpretation of this passage, Jesus" words are warning her against the reformers" teachings (in this case represented by her brother) who are using wrong interpretations of Scripture to lead people astray from the Catholic Church. She will not listen to the reformers and their ideas because Jesus already talked against them in Scripture.
Katherine rebuked her brother by saying that he is the one who has to take care of his soul and become a good Christian. She understands that the attitude that he has towards them is not a good testimony of what a good Christian is, so she says to him, "You will pull a splinter out of our eye, while you yourself have a large log in yours." This is a paraphrase from Luke 6:41 where it says "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother"s eyes and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" Katherine understands that her brother has come to her to teach her how to be something that she is not, a good Christian. For her it is impossible to have him clean her eyes when he is not able to see because of the log in his eyes. What we are seeing between Katherine and Bernhardt is a battle of who is right and who is wrong.
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