Testing and Purity

A Word in Season: Messages by R.J. Rushdoony on the Faith for All of Life · May 27, 2026 · 3m

Olympia Fulvia Morata (1526–1555), the brilliant Italian scholar raised among nobility and intellectuals, lived a life far harsher than her privileged beginnings suggested. After a cultured youth, she and her husband, Andrew Grunthler, were trapped for nine horrific months in the siege of Schweinfurt, where plague killed half the population, Andrew nearly died, and the city was burned and plundered, leaving them destitute and fleeing for their lives. Even after reaching Heidelberg in 1554, their health broken by famine, fear, and disease collapsed; Olympia died within two years, and her…