ABSTRACT
A resident of Strasbourg in the west of the Holy Roman Empire (now in France), Katharina Schütz Zell was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther and his supporters. Her husband, Matthew Zell, was a Protestant pastor and their marriage in 1523 was one of the first marriages to openly defy clerical celibacy, being celebrated by the Reformer Martin Bucer. She wrote pamphlets in vernacular German that were printed and disseminated across the Empire. The Letter to the suffering women of the community of Kentzingen who believe in Christ, sisters with me in Jesus Christ (1524) was the first of her public printed texts.
