Coffee with a new female Reformation figure, Caritas Pirckheimer ☕️ Vegas to Wittenberg - Episode 10

When I need a place to focus and work, a reliable favorite is Vesta Coffee Shop. I love the vibe-it’s cool and buzzing with energy. The employees are very friendly and make delicious and beautiful drinks. A macadamia nut almond latte and my current book hit the right aesthetics and inspired me to research.
Today, I didn’t do a timed Pomodoro practice; instead, I just sat through each task until it was complete. I did take a side quest: Caritas Pirckheimer.
In my Zoom session with Dr. Kolb last week, we discussed women of the Reformation and their choices. Some suggest that the Reformation offered fewer opportunities for women because of the closing of the monasteries. My question for Dr. Kolb was whether monasteries were closed in German lands like in England. Or were people abandoning them? Dr. Kolb said that it was both. Many women fled from monastic life, and many women in the 16th century had more opportunities than later in the 17th century.
Then, he introduced me to Caritas. She was an abbess in Nuremberg, an important city for me to understand. It was at Nuremberg that Thomas Cranmer met Andreas Osiander and witnessed a Protestant Imperial city. Dr. Kolb told me she was a very educated woman who fought to keep her Abbey open. She corresponded and met with Melanchthon, and Melanchthon supported her goal to keep her Abbey open and continue educating girls.
I wanted to learn more about her, so I downloaded an article contrasting her and Martin Luther. I listened to the article “Taking a Stand for Reformation: Martin Luther and Caritas Pirckheimer.” (Appold, Kenneth G. 2018. Lutheran Quarterly) on my walk to the coffee shop using Speechify. Appold strongly argued that both Caritas and Luther were fighting for Scripture. A favorite quote:
“Both Caritas Pirckheimer and Martin Luther find within that grace a freedom from societal discourse and conventions that have previously defined them-in Luther's case an achievement-based doctrine of salvation, and for Caritas, the traditional constraints of gender. Both find themselves liberated from such exterior realities and led to the discovery of something more true.”
I’m not sure if I’ll make it to Nuremberg on my trip to Wittenberg, but I hope to understand this city better.
Music by Naomi - Aurora - thmatc.co/?l=5...

[@michellporisch4731]

You amaze me!

[@quarantina3999]

I'm really excited for this journey you are on. I also enjoy learning about how other people learn and get work done. It is work and takes time. I bet it feels overwhelming being surrounded by books and a body of knowledge waiting to be opened, but it can be so creative and rewarding in the process if you just let it unfold and not overwhelm.