Katharina Schutz Zell (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought, V. 69)

This is the first of a two-volume set providing access to the literary corpus of Katharina Schutz Zell, a lay leader of the early Protestant Reformation, and one of the most articulate women authors of her age. Her works, some published in her lifetime, others preserved only in manuscript, are remarkable for their time span (1524-1558) and range of genres - from devotional, educational and pastoral texts, to sermonic literature and theological polemic. Her practically unknown autograph letter to Caspar Schwenckfeld is particularly important for the new light it sheds on confessionalization in the 1550s and Zell's intellectual independence.