Blaurer, Margaretha

BLAURER, MARGARETHA: Sister of Ambrosius Blaurer, one of the most intelligent and deeply religious women of the Reformation time; d. in Constance 1542. She became deeply interested in the person and work of Pilgram Marbeck during his residence in Strasburg (1528–1532) and, whether she sympathized with his antipedobaptist teaching or not, reproached Butzer for his intolerant proceedings against Marbeck and refused to be convinced by Butzer's arguments that Marbeck was a heretic or a hypocrite. She died while ministering to the plague-stricken poor of Constance, and has the honor of being one of the first Protestant women to engage in diaconal service.

A. H. Newman.

Bibliography: J. W. Baum, Capito und Butzer, passim, Elberfeld, 1860; C. Gerbert, Geschichte der Strassburger Sectenbewegung zur Zeit der Reformation, 1524–1534, pp. 97 sqq., Strasburg, 1889; and literature under Blaurer, Ambrosius.