Women in the Protestant Reformation

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Women in the Reformation

Whenever one thinks of important people in the Reformation , the names that come into mind are Martin Luther , on top of it all , followed by the likes of John Calvin , John Knox and a host of others who dared challenge the teachings of the church and begin a movement that changed the face of Europe and western civilization overall . In her research , Nikki Shepardson looked into the accounts of Jean Crespin titled Histoire des vreys tesmoins . In this account , Shepardson focused

on the role of women in the Reformation and she discovered , through Crespin 's account , that their role in the Reformation was significant though not in the same level as the prominent leaders such as Luther . Based on Crespin 's accounts , one significant role women played during the Reformation was to become martyrs for the movement (Shepardson 155

Martyrdom was nothing new to Christians as they have been martyred since the Roman Empire for openly professing their faith . The fate of the Protestant women martyrs appear to follow a parallel course with those of the ancient times . What Shepardson discovered that women martyrs possessed a unique power ' that was overlooked by a then male-centered , chauvinistic society which tend to denigrate them to an inferior level and stereotype them as being housewives who were supposed to serve their husbands to become nuns to serve God . In one account which was written by Florimond de Raemond , he described the remarkable bravery shown by...