In 1523, in one of the most daring and remarkable events in the history of the Reformation, a woman challenged the Catholic establishment to a public debate. The issue was the persecution of a young Lutheran student in Ingolstadt.Argula von Grumbach's writings on this and many other topics were widely circulated: her first publication alone went through sixteen editions. She addressed the Catholic theologians of Ingolstadt, the Dukes of Bavaria and the Councils of Ingolstadt and Regensburg. She also met with and conducted an extensive correspondence with Luther, Osiander and many of the leading reformers.Professor Peter Matheson here provides translations of all her published works together with introductions. He gives a full biographical account of von Grumbach, analyses her use of Scripture and discusses her role as a woman of the Reformation.The rediscovery of Protestanism's first female theologian and author affords a wealth of new insight into the history of the Reformation; the role of women in Church, state and society; and a woman's use of Scripture, which in many ways anticipates the flowering of feminist theology today.
