Newly wed in Wittenberg 1523 - and committed to the Lutheran Reformation

Abstract

Protestant teaching questioned the redemptive value of Roman Catholic spirituality of the 16th century. Consequently many monks and nuns were led to leave their monasteries and convents. Elisabeth von Meseritz was a nun who found her way to Wittenberg. There she married and wrote the first protestant hymn as a woman clearly supportive of the Lutheran Reformation. The simplicity of Elisabeth's story is a projection from one major event of her life to another ignoring the complexity of contexts and influences upon her which continued to shape her life. Instead of only focusing on the obvious highpoints of her story this article allows for the development of a fuller story that enriches understanding of an early protestant of the 16th century, a woman of the Lutheran Reformation.