PIRCKHEIMER, CHARITAS

(1467-1532)

Abbess of the convent of St. Clare at Nuremberg, which she entered in 1479 and of which she was elected abbess in 1503. She was a member of the wealthy patrician Pirckheimer family, which made education available to its daughters, and her brotherWillibald Pirckheimer, a notedhumanistand leading political figure, encouraged her intellectual interests and dedicated edi-tions ofclassicaland patristic authors to her. He also introduced her to the artistAlbrecht Dürerand the humanistConrad Celtis. Celtis ded-icated to her his edition of the learned medieval nun Hroswitha of Gan-dersheim.Erasmus, the leading humanist of that generation, praised her educational attainments. Unlike her brother, she opposedMartin Luther'sideas from the very first. She used her family and political connections to preserve her convent when theReformationtriumphed in Nuremberg, but she could do nothing to reverse the laws that out-lawed the celebration of mass and forbade the convent to accept new members. She wrote an account of her struggle (1524-1528) to main-tain the convent,Denkwürdigkeiten/Things Worth Remembering.