Felicitas von Selmenitz
Felicitas von Selmenitz (* 1488 ; † May 1, 1558 in Halle / Saale ) was the first woman of the Reformation in Halle an der Saale.
Known by other names
Felicitas von Münch (Mönch), Felicitas von Selbitz, Felicitas von Selmitz, Felicitas von Selmnitz, Felicitas von Selvitz, Felicitas von Selwitz
Life
Origin, youth and years of marriage
Felicitas von Münch came from the Thuringian noble family Münch . She was born in 1488. Her father, Hans von Münch, sat in Würchhausen an der Saale and was Vogt of Bürgel , Jena , Gleisberg and Eisenberg . Nothing is known about her childhood. On January 26th 1507 she married the widowed electoral Saxon castle captain Wolf von Selmenitz from the Thuringian noble family Selmnitz . The wedding was celebrated lavishly at Allstedt Castle . Elector Friedrich the Wise was present himself and financed the festival in an old friendship with Felicita's late father Hans von Münch. Until 1499 the von Selmenitz family had their headquarters in Söllmnitz , a small town between Gera and Zeitz . In 1464 the family bought Vitzenburg Castle , located high above the Unstrut . It remained in their possession until 1521. In Allstedt, on the Vitzenburg and in Glaucha near Halle, where the family acquired a farm, the couple had seven children, 5 boys and 2 girls.
The widow
The year 1519 became the fateful year of the young Felicitas von Selmenitz. On the night of January 8th to 9th, her husband was stabbed to death on the steps of the 'Golden Ring' in Halle by Moritz Knebel, Archbishop Marshal at the court of Cardinal Albrechts . He died not far on Märkerstrasse. The reason for this murder were old family feuds. The corpse was carried through the town to Glaucha after the neck judgment at Moritzburg and buried in front of the altar of the St. Georgen church at the Cistercian nunnery .
Felicitas von Selmenitz was 31 years old. She had already lost four children. She fled the plague to Weißenfels with three children . The two youngest children died here and were buried in front of the portal of the Marienkirche. Duke Georg von Sachsen supported the widow by giving her half of Vitzenburg Castle together with the village of Liederstedt as Wittum. But her husband's nephews made life difficult for her. They wanted to drive her out of her widow's residence and snatch the goods that had been prescribed to her as personal interest. Her brother-in-law Sebastian von Selmenitz stepped up to her side and defended her claims.
Glaucha near Halle
After the dispute had been settled, Felicitas and her only surviving son Georg von Selmenitz (1509–1578) moved back to the property in Glaucha. Here Felicitas had contact with the monastery of the Cistercians near the church of St. Georgen, the so-called Marienkammer. It was reported that Thomas Müntzer had become the successor of the local chaplain and confidante of Felicitas von Selmenitz. At the nightly Christmas mass in 1522 he had given her the Lord's Supper in both forms. The presentation of the chalice was a clear commitment to the 'New Doctrine'. Obviously Felicitas von Selmenitz had gained access to the writings of the Wittenberg reformers through Thomas Müntzer and her brother-in-law Bastian von Selmenitz. With her commitment to the 'New Doctrine' she exposed herself to great hostility in the city of Halle, Cardinal Albrecht's favorite residence. In January 1523 riots broke out against the construction of the New Abbey, the sale of indulgences and the public demonstration of the reliquary. Cardinal Albrecht responded with arrests and expulsions from the city.
Wittenberg and contact with the reformers
In this difficult situation, Felicitas von Selmenitz wrote a personal letter to Martin Luther . We have received the reply to the 'Wittben zu Halle, my dear friend in Christ' from April 1, 1528. Martin Luther advised her to wait and gave her consolation. But before receiving the reply, she left the city of Halle with her son Georg and his teacher Melchior Kling and took up quarters at the market in Wittenberg . Georg von Selmenitz was enrolled at the Wittenberg University in 1529 . Felicitas maintained close contacts with the Wittenberg reformers and their families. In the family library of those von Selmenitz, which was donated as the first large donation to the Marienbibliothek of the main church 'Our dear women' in Halle around 1580 , there are books from this period with handwritten dedications to the 'meritorious virtuous Frawen and dear fathers Felicitas von Selmenitz' by Johannes Bugenhagen , Caspar Cruciger , Justus Jonas and Martin Luther. Felicitas has the September Testament of 1522, Luther , First Book of Moses sampt a class, as Moses had to learn ' from 1527 and the first complete translation of the Bible studies in 1534 with a gift certificate Martin Luther meticulous and left us their reading tracks. These were underlining, handwritten repetitions of text passages and a separate 'image program' that ran through the scripts she read. We can read which topics particularly interested her, in which texts she found solace as a widow and single mother, what fears haunted her, what hopes she learned to live with.
The Bible from 1534 with Luther's personal donation note for Felicitas von Selmenitz was used on Reformation Day in the Marktkirche in Halle until the 1930s . Today it is kept in the Marienbibliothek as a great treasure.
Pest and return to Halle
When the plague broke out, Felicitas and Georg von Selmenitz left the city of Wittenberg and followed the university to Jena in 1535. Here they lived with a sister of Felicitas, a former nun who was married in Jena. In 1539 they had to flee again from the plague and were accepted by Melchior Kling's brother-in-law near Freiberg. In November 1546 Felicitas and Georg von Selmenitz finally said goodbye to Wittenberg. After a short stay in Magdeburg and Zerbst, we found her again in Halle from September 1547.
In 1550 Georg von Selmenitz became Chancellor of Count Gebhard von Mansfeld and in 1551 he married the wealthy widow of the archbishopric chancellor Christoph Türck, Ursula Türck, nee. Keller, from Leipzig . This year they probably moved into the Passendorf estate that Georg's wife had brought into the marriage
death
Felicitas von Selmenitz died on May 1, 1558. She was buried on May 2nd on the Stadtgottesacker zu Halle, in Bogen 2 (today 12). Her son Georg had commissioned a valuable epitaph in memory of his family. Wolf von Selmenitz with four sons and Felicitas with two daughters kneel under a crucifixion scene, flanked by the family crests of those of von Selmenitz and von Münch.
reception
Felicitas von Selmenitz was a woman who never stood in the 'front row' of the Protestants , but who did not shy away from standing up for her confession and representing the cause of the Reformation even against resistance. With her letter to Martin Luther and her decision to leave the city of Halle, she had shown courage, decisiveness and trust in God.
Her area of activity initially extended to her large family. Under the severe blows of fate that she had to endure as a mother and wife, she found her way through intensive study of Martin Luther's translation of the Bible and the Reformation writings accessible to her into a large community that confirmed and consolidated her faith.
After the violent death of her husband, Felicitas von Selmenitz opened up to Lutheran teachings and accepted them. Her brother-in-law Bastian von Selmenitz and Thomas Müntzer accompanied them on this journey. In Wittenberg she met the families of the reformers. Encouraged by the conversations in a familiar circle, she read the Bible texts and Reformation writings that she received from the 'Wittenbergers'. For us today it is impressive to see the interest with which she read the texts. She has underlined everything that concerns widows and orphans, what concerns suffering and distress and what love and charity mean for them. We can discover the heart drawn by her as a symbol of love again and again on the margins. The artful cover of Martin Luther's sermons 'About the First Book of Mose', Wittenberg 1527, documents their confession with the text CHRISTVS IS ALLEIN VNSER BLIGINESS. This confession was her livelihood, her support as a widow in the troubled times of religious schism, the plague, the concern for her only son.
The dedication entries of the Wittenberg reformers show us that they took this woman seriously, valued her comments and shared her personal suffering. To this day Felicitas von Selmenitz is venerated as one of the first Protestant Christians in Halle. Since 1998, a street in the south of Halle, very close to the Luther Church, has borne the name of this brave, pious woman. Her legacy is her book collection, which has been kept and preserved in the Marienbibliothek in Halle for more than four centuries.
literature
- R. von Bagenski: History of the von Selmnitz family, Halle 1914.
- M. Hofmann: Promoter of the Reformation: Felicitas von Selmenitz, in: Glaube und Heimat. Mitteldeutsche Kirchenzeitung No. 36 (2011) Online (accessed November 30, 2017).
- F. Juntke: The Marienbibliothek zu Halle an der Saale in the 16th and early 17th centuries, in: Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel 136/25 (1969), 671–702.
- E. Koch: Felicitas von Selmnitz - an unadjusted widow, in: P. Freybe (ed.), Frauen fo (e) rdern Reformation (Wittenberg Sunday Lectures), Wittenberg 2004, 128–143.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ See also article ' Women of the Reformation '
- ↑ Based on a presentation by Mechthild Hofmann [accessible at: http://www.mitteldeutsche-kirchenzeitungen.de/2011/09/04/felicitas-von-selmnitz_foerderin-der-reformation/; accessed on July 1, 2017].
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Selmenitz, Felicitas von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | first woman of the Reformation in Halle an der Saale |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1488 |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 1, 1558 |
| Place of death | Halle , Saale |