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Martha Elizabeth Zitter (Born in the 17th Century) was a nun in what is now known as Eastern Germany for eight years when she decided during the protestant reformation to leave her convent and join the Lutheran faith.

Early Life Martha was sent to the White-Ladies convent of the Ursuline Order in Erfurt by her mother Mrs. Maria Margaretha when she was 14 years old, she was sent to the convent under coercion to learn the French language, womanly virtues, and respectable work that was suited for women during this time. At 22 years old Martha decided that she was unhappy with the Catholic faith and made the decision to leave the church and follow the protestant reformation, and become a Lutheran. When her mother got word of her leaving the convent and the Catholic Church she made her announce her reasons of conversion publicly through a letter. During the protestant reformation which was very big in what is now known today as Germany the nuns of these catholic convents a little less than half of them put up a fight to stay in their religion and not be swayed by the reformation. The ones who did decide to leave were nuns that were younger and wanted the chance of getting married. But those who did decide to leave the convent have a high percent chance of returning to it later on in their life.

Leaving the Convent Martha wrote a letter to her mother describing all the reasons why she had decided to leave the Ursuline order in Erfurt and the decision she had chosen instead, which was to dedicate her life to professing the “true evangelical religion”, Lutheranism. In her letter she talked about how the nuns at the Erfurt convent self-harmed themselves, which was a practice known as mortification of the flesh Martha believed that this type of worshiping was a human adoption of worship that was not necessary or anywhere in the scriptures .She goes on to tell her mother that the practice of indulgences, praying to saints, and the notion of purgatory contradict what the bible says and are therefore all ideas adopted by men and not of the Lord. She backs up her claim with the protestant view of preferring Christian good works as well as keeping the Lords commandments to show faith. At the age of 22 Martha decides to leave the convent. Later on in her life however she decided that she was fed up with the protestant faith and disappointed in its actions and returns to Catholicism and a convent in Northern Bavaria, not much is known as to why she returned to the Catholic faith and when exactly she did.

Convents during the Reformation During the time of the Protestant Reformation a lot of convents in Europe mainly in France experienced a wide spread of mass “demonic possession”. Now this “demonic possession” is considered to be something made up by the nuns that were trying to practice the protestant religion and wanted to leave the convent, or were not in the correct mental state.But during the Middle Ages demonic possessions were something that was not only very much believed in, but were also something that was taken seriously. People during this time period believed that the ones who were most likely to get possessed, were women. It was thought that “…women in general and nuns in particular, due to their very nature and imbecility should always be regarded with suspicion” pg.236. The living conditions of nuns being in confinement, having a poor diet, and living in poor conditions in these convents lead to the ill mental state of these nuns minds, which in medieval times they believed lead to a greater chance of demonic possession. Today we would describe this behavior as strictly a disorder in the mind but in this time period that idea was rarely thought of. The demonic possessions accruing during the reformation in these convents was the start of the witch craze in Europe, however not all convents with claims “demonic possessions” were considered to be of witch craft.

Today To this day some Protestant religions use Martha Elizabeth Zitter’s letter to her mother as a document of detailed argumentation of the protestant faith and views compared to those of the catholic religion, and its persuasive points on converting to the reformed belief.