Argula von Grumbach

Argula von Grumbach (née von Stauff) (1492-c. 1554) was a Bavarian noblewoman who, starting in the early 1520s, became involved in the Protestant Reformation debates going on in Germany. She became the first Protestant woman writer, publishing letters and poems promoting and defending Martin Luther as well as his co-worker Philipp Melanchthon and other Protestant groups. She is most known for directly challenging the University of Ingolstadt’s faculty when she wrote a letter to them speaking out against the arrest of a Lutheran student. As one of the few women at the time openly speaking out her views, her writings sparked controversy and often became bestsellers, with tens of thousands of copies of her letters and poems circulating within a few years of their publication.

Argula von Grumbach was born as Argula von Stauff near Regensburg, Bavaria, in 1492. Her family lived in Ehrenfels castle, which was their baronial seat. The von Stauff family were Freiherren, who were lords with independent jurisdiction only accountable to the Emperor, and they were among the pre-eminent leaders of Bavarian nobility.

Argula’s upbringing was in a political and deeply religious household. Education and attendance at university was highly valued. Argula is thought to have learned to read fluently at a very young age. When she was ten, her father gave her an expensive and beautifully crafted Koberger Bible in German, despite Franciscan preachers discouraging it, saying Scripture would “only confuse her.” She became an avid student of the Bible, memorizing much of its contents.

At the age of sixteen, Argula joined the court in Munich, where she became a lady-in-waiting to Queen Kunigunde, daughter of the Emperor Frederick III. The Queen was said to have a strong personality herself, passionate about politics and religion. The court as a whole was interested in spiritual affairs, so it is there that Argula’s studies of the Bible could have become a serious endeavor.

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