A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Erdmuthe, Sophia, Margravine
ERDMUTHE, SOPHIA, MARGRAVINE,
Of Baireuth, was born February 15th., 1644. True devotional feelings animated her mind already when quite a child, and these were guided by an intellect which belonged only to riper years. When she was in her tenth year she wrote a series of poetical and prose papers, and a volume, to which she gave the title of "Christian Closet for the Heart." Her teacher, the celebrated Dr. Weber, discovered them accidentally in her desk, and was so much struck with their beauty and pious tendency, that he prevailed upon her parents to have them published; and he accompanied them with a preface. Many of the hymns which she wrote at that age are still incorporated in the German books, though few know at the present time that they were composed by so young a child. In 1662, on the 19th. of October, she married the Margrave Christian Ernst of Baireuth, to whom she became a loving wife, and able coadjutor in deeds of charity and piety; but she would never consent to take part in his government affairs. She established the first Magdalene house of refuge in that part of Germany. Much of her time was devoted to writing. One of her best works was published in 1666, "A Treatise on the Age of the World, and a Consideration of the States of the Roman Empire, and their Condition." It is replete with theological, geographical, historical, and genealogical information. She died in the year 1670, on the 12th. of June, and was buried in the court chapel which she had just caused to be built.