Else to the black letter

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Else to the black letter (* Strasbourg ; † after 1401 in exile) was a Waldensian in the environment of the Strasbourg Waldensian trial , which took place in 1400/1401. She is one of the twenty-seven Strasbourgers who were banished from the diocese for punishment. This trial was one of the last against the Waldensians. Else was the owner of the house at the Black Letter . At that time there were two buildings with this name in Strasbourg, one in Predigergasse, later called Rue des Orfèvres, and that of Else on Weinmarkt, in the far west of the city.

Else was the daughter of Ulrich von Bopfingen, a Strasbourg citizen of the Diocese of Augsburg , who died in 1391 and was a wool beater. Ulrich is probably the same person who, together with fellow craftsmen, had inherited a house in Blindengasse since 1345. This contract was extended in 1356. As the trial showed, the house on Weinmarkt had been a heretic school, that is, the spiritual center of the small Waldensian community. On July 11, 1391 Else signed over her house to her maid Grede, with whom she had very trusting relationships. In return, Grede granted her lifelong right of residence for a symbolic annual rent of a chicken. Grede, who was also accused but acquitted, could have followed her mistress into exile.

First there was a preliminary investigation, later the prosecution against the Waldensians, including Else, because the old priest of St. Peter Klaus von Brumath (1383–1398) lived with a high “ density of heretics ” and thus became aware of their dissent . Especially at Christmas time there were more believers in the Waldensian centers than in Saint Peter.

On the file swore Else though already eight or ten years before the trial the Waldensian faith off the familiar in the matter Dominican Friedrich von Eichstätt and had this to repentance into unterelsassische Marienthal from south Hagenau pilgrimage, the long-term accommodation of the Waldensian church in their house weighed, however, difficult enough to uphold the banishment charge. A second penance that was pronounced during the trial was on three pilgrimages to Einsiedeln , which she did not go on herself - probably for reasons of age - but was represented by her maid, her brother Johannes and her sister Dyna. Dyna, in turn, did not go on the pilgrimage either, but instead decreed that after her death Else would be bequeathed her best dress.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sources on the history of the Waldensians of Strasbourg, p. 163.
  2. ^ Georg Modestin: Heretic in the city. The trial of the Strasbourg Waldensians from 1400. Hanover 2007, ISBN 978-3-7752-5701-5 , p. 114.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Black letters, Else zum
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Black letters, For
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Waldensian woman in the context of the Strasbourg Waldensian trial 1400/1401
DATE OF BIRTH 14th Century
DATE OF DEATH after 1401