The Education of Women in the Reformation

THE IMPORTANCE of universal education to the emergence of today's world is obvious to anyone, but its history is often unknown. For example, the story of how large parts of modern society made the journey from widespread illiteracy to almost total literacy is tale yet to be told. In this article small beginning will be undertaken, based upon sources dealing with several small countries of Germany which espoused Luther's Reformation during the sixteenth century. (1) This will uncover an unsuspected concern for the education of girls as well as of boys, and, incidentally, evidence which reveals that German history is distorted when it is studied exclusively under the aspect of the evolution of the Prussian state. The Protestant reformers played role in the move toward universal education which has often been suspected but never adequately measured. In fact, some revisionist historians have claimed to the contrary that an excellent educational system existed at the end of the mediaeval period, only to be wrecked by the reformers. (2) These assertions have never been adequately judged by the facts, and many misunderstandings have consequently plagued historians. Only the dearth in knowledge of German history let Lawrence Stone, in an otherwise excellent study, speak mistakenly concerning Tudor and Stuart England: . .. It may well be that early seventeenth century England was at all levels the most literate society the world has ever known, citing a school for every 4,400 of the population. (3) To be sure, England had about 444 schools among 13,000 parishes in land of about 4,500,000 population, or one school per 10,000 persons. But the little duchy of Wiirttemberg in 1600 had 401 folk-schools among about 512 communities in land of approximately 450,000 population, which comes to one school per 1,100 persons. (4) (See Figure 2.) This example points to the need for intensive studies into the history of literacy and universal education. For Germany alone, dozens of