“Dear sisters, even though sometimes your faith may be discouraged, and the flesh may fight against the spirit (I Peter 2:11), do not therefore be frightened away. It is a holy struggle, it must be thus: faith that is not tempted is not faith….Therefore you should constantly pray to the Father….” Katharina Schutz Zell
These words of advice and comfort are timeless, but they were written in 1524 by one of the most uncompromising women of the Reformation. Katharina Zell lived her whole life with only one desire: to
follow God and to follow Him in truth and righteousness. She also had a call to teach others and this she did with perseverance and in spite of the criticism she received because she was a woman.
For more biographical data on Katharina please refer to an earlier posting on this blog, dated November 26, 2010 (Katharina Schutz Zell – Church Mother and Publisher). By way of summary, Katharina Schutz was born in 1497(8) and lived most of her life in Strasbourg. She married one of the foremost Protestant ministers in Strasbourg, Matthew Zell. They had two children who died very young. This saddened her, but she found consolation in ministering to others.
Katharina was excited about education. She lived during a time when the Reformation was in its infancy. She would live through these early years and then through the “second generation” of Reformers. Before her life was ended she would see the beginning of the sectarianism that she deplored. Throughout it all she would maintain the cause of the Gospel and the original Reformation ideals.
In this posting I would like to focus on her truly gifted writing.
Her first publication to appear in print was, “Letter to the Suffering Women of the Community of Kentzingen”, from which came the quote that appears at the top of this page. At this time, the Protestant men from Kentzingen were in exile with their pastor. They were persecuted as heretics by the local bishop. Their wives and children stayed behind in Kentzingen to face the hostility of the dictators. Katharina wanted to write a letter of praise for their courage and encouragement to continue in their suffering with faithful dependence on God.
Katharina was only 26 at the time, but she had been zealously following the Lord since she was a child. “Ever since I was ten years old I have been a student and sort of church mother, much given to attending sermons. I have loved and frequented the company of learned men, and I conversed much with them, not about dancing, masquerades, and worldly pleasures but about the kingdom of God.” Her concentration on only one thing – the Lord – would be evident in her writing.
One of the truly amazing things about this publication is the number of Scripture references in it. The whole letter practically reads like a summary of the Scriptures on consoling those who are being persecuted for their faith. As in the excerpt above, she included the references within the writing. This was important to her, because she believed that the Scriptures were the highest authority on any subject. Later, when she would be criticized for writing as a woman, she would say that the Word of God is its own authority. All saints of God, men and women, are expected to study and use the Scriptures. Her facility with the Bible shows just how much she had studied it.
Woven throughout her writing is her firm grasp of the Protestant religion. Remember, this is only 1524. Luther had posted his 95 Theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg only seven years before this. He had also only recently (around 1522-3) completed his German translation of the Bible. That Katharina could read and understand the major theological doctrines in the Bible and even be able to express them clearly at such a young age, and so early on in the Reformation, shows what a truly gifted woman she was. Besides her grasp of the Bible, she also must have absorbed the words of the Protestant sermons that she had been listening to.
Katharina gave the Holy Spirit the credit for her wisdom and her calling. She believed that there was much work to be done in educating the people in the new Protestant religion. She worked by the side of her husband, Pastor Zell, to accomplish this. In fact, the next major work that was published was, “Katharina Schutz’s Apologia for Master Matthew Zell, Her Husband”.
Matthew Zell, as one of the first Roman Catholic priests to get married was under verbal attack by many critics. It was believed at the time that for priests to marry was immoral. At this time, the priests were allowed to have mistresses, and that was not seen as immoral, but as necessary because after all, “men are men”. How twisted and far from God’s holy ordinances is that!?! This was totally backward from the truth and Katharina wanted a chance to show that.
Katharina’s husband was not inclined to defend himself, but as the slanders grew nastier and nastier, Katharina took it on herself to write this defense of clerical marriage. She believed that it was her task, not only because she was the first respectable woman in Strasbourg to marry a priest, and wanted other women to understand the rightness of it, but because it also gave her a chance to show what the Scriptures have to say about marriage. Again, she is putting forth what would later be called one of the five “solas” of the Reformation – “Sola Scriptura”.
Her publication was outrageous and daring. The city councilors wanted it banned. It was not only because she was a woman, but because she dared to say publicly that the Roman Catholic bishops were knaves who profited financially in harlotry. The priests were allowed to pay a tax to keep their mistresses. Another fallout from this sinful practice was the fact that priests were not able to preach against adultery since they were all guilty of it. By recognizing the holiness of clerical marriage, the leaders could put an end to the wicked sinfulness of the system they currently had. In addition to this, of course, her husband would be vindicated in the eyes of others and God would be glorified.
Though she was very forthright and uncompromising in her presentation, Katharina ended her treatise with the plea for forgiveness from any whom she might have offended. Her desire was nothing other than that, “we may be saved together with each other. May God help us to do that, through Christ His beloved Son. Amen.”
Katharina also wrote many other things, including letters of consolation, devotional writings, biblical meditations, catechetical instructions, a sermon, the introduction to a hymnal, and lengthy polemical exchanges with male theologians.
An excellent book containing translations of some of her works is: “Katharina Schutz Zell: Church Mother – The Writings of a Protestant Reformer in Sixteenth-Century Germany”, edited and translated by Elsie McKee (The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2006).
I highly recommend this book. It is a marvel how far ahead of her time Katharina was. At a time when many women did not feel brave enough to speak out, Katharina used her voice, her influence, and her sense of calling to speak as a Christian and as a woman.
