Anna II of Stolberg

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Abbess Anna II of Quedlinburg

Countess Anna Stolberg (* 28 January 1504 in Stolberg (Harz) , † 4. March 1574 ) was as Anna II. The 28th abbess of the imperial pen from Quedlinburg .

Life

Anna was the eldest daughter of Count Botho zu Stolberg and his wife Anna von Eppstein-Königstein . She was the older sister of Juliana zu Stolberg . At the beginning of the 16th century, barely thirteen years old after her predecessor Magdalena renounced the Abbey of Quedlinburg and died in Gandersheim , she was elected by the Chapter on February 10, 1515 by Pope Leo X and on October 3, 1516 from Emperor Maximilian I confirmed and solemnly introduced on November 5th.

She was the first abbess in Quedlinburg to accept the Lutheran doctrine. The first attempts to spread the Reformation in the city and Abbey of Quedlinburg were vigorously opposed by the Catholic Duke George of Saxony as patron of the Abbey. Those monks of the Augustinian monastery and pastors at the city churches who preached in the spirit of Luther were persecuted and their posts were filled with determined Catholics. Anna, who had initially taken a wait-and-see attitude towards the Reformation, only decided after Duke George's death (1539), and when his successor Heinrich turned to the new faith himself, in favor of Lutheran teaching. The Catholic clergy were removed and Protestants installed. The superintendent Tilemann Plathner (1490–1551) from Stolberg , who was appointed by her to Quedlinburg for a time, helped her with the implementation of the Reformation work, but more detailed information is missing. To pay the clergy and teachers, a general chapel was built from the property of the city churches. The number of nuns and canonici was limited, and monastic service in the collegiate church was completely abolished.

During her reign, the first verifiable visitation of the churches in the city of Quedlinburg was held in 1540 , the protocol of which is one of the most important sources for the history of the Quedlinburg Reformation. On Luther's and Melanchthon's advice, the two schools in the old town and new town were merged into a single one, and Abbess Anna left the abandoned Franciscan monastery to the council for this new grammar school, in the rooms of which it has been located until recently.

Anna died on March 4, 1574 at the age of 70, after having been abbess in Quedlinburg Abbey for 58 years. Elisabeth , her niece, daughter of Count Ulrich von Regenstein, followed her as the 29th abbess . The grave of Anna II is in the collegiate church of St. Servatius . A staircase leads from the crypt into the so-called princely crypt, the room climate of which helps to mummify corpses. In addition to the coffin Aurora von Königsmarcks , the coffins of the abbesses Anna III are also located there. zu Stolberg -Wernigerode and Marie Elisabeth of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf .

literature

Web links

Commons : Anna II. Zu Stolberg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Lorenz: Sources for the municipal administrative, legal and economic history of Quedlinburg . Halle / Saaele 1916, pp. 39–51; the evaluation of the source by Max Lorenz: The church regulations of the monastery and the city of Quedlinburg , in: Journal of the Association for Church History in the Province of Saxony 4 (1907), pp. 32–93.
predecessor Office Successor
Magdalene of Anhalt-Koethen-Zerbst Abbess of Quedlinburg
1515–1544 		Elisabeth II of Regenstein-Blankenburg
personal data
SURNAME Stolberg, Anna II. To
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stolberg, Anna too
BRIEF DESCRIPTION 28. Abbess of the Imperial Monastery of Quedlinburg
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1504
PLACE OF BIRTH Stolberg (Harz)
DATE OF DEATH March 4, 1574