Ida Wied

Ida Wied (* around 1538 presumably in the county of Wied ; † 1601 in the Beselich Abbey ) was abbess from 1578 to 1588 and from around 1599 to 1601 of the Premonstratensian Abbey of Beselich. The denominational disputes of the 16th century were reflected in her life and work that were typical for a religious woman.

origin

In November 1538, the countess widow Elisabeth von Wied, wife of Count Johann III, who died in 1533, handed over the property . von Wied-Runkel , a child by the name of "Itgen" (= Idachen), was given a substantial amount of money to educate the nuns of the Premonstratensian monastery in Beselich, over which the counts von Wied-Runkel supervised. In contemporary sources, the girl is named "Ittgen Wieda", "Ida Wiede", "Ida Wiedt" or similar. The surname "Wied" or the like is to be understood according to a custom common in the 16th century as an indication of the geographical origin, in other words: Ida from Wied. There are no contemporary sources on Ida's parents.

Nun and abbess

After a good decade, Ida decided to stay in the Beselich monastery and join the Premonstratensian Order. She was dressed on November 18, 1549 . The young religious seems to have proven herself in her status, because in 1570 the abbess of the Cistercian monastery Marienthron near Wehrheim im Taunus tried to win Ida as a teacher for her monastery. But the Beselich abbess as well as Ida refused this offer and Ida stayed in her home monastery Beselich. In 1578 Ida is attested to as abbess ("caretaker") of the Beselich monastery. This dignity was presumably given to her in 1577, after the death of her predecessor. The Reformation , which had taken hold in the county of Wied around the mid-forties of the 16th century following Lutheran lines, initially seems to have hardly affected the way of life in the Beselich monastery. A source from 1596 mentions Count Johann IV von Wied († 1581) the Christian reformer of the monastery, but the religious life and choral prayer of the nuns in all probability remained untouched. In 1587 the Wiedisches Grafhaus converted to Calvinism , and this marked the decisive turning point in the history of the monastery. Count Wilhelm IV von Wied gave the monastery an order according to his denomination and appointed Reformed pastors as co-administrators and co-overseers of the monastery. The removal of the furnishings from the monastery church and the prevention of choir prayer by denying the monastery women access to the choir seem to have provoked Ida's energetic protest. Thereupon Ida was removed from her office as abbess, and the previous prioress was given this office. Ida remained in the monastery, however, and in 1588 she signed lease agreements for the monastery together with the new abbess. Then Ida's tracks are lost in the dark.

Late years

It was not until 1599 that she reappeared in a leading position alongside the head of the monastery. The days of the Beselich monastery, however, were numbered, since its lifeblood had been taken from it under the Reformed sovereign. At the end of the 16th century, the monastery was almost depopulated; only a few old women religious lived there. Spiritually and economically, the monastery was so dilapidated that Count Wilhelm IV von Wied gave it a new order in 1600. But this order could no longer hold back the end. Ida didn't live to see it anymore. She died in 1601. In 1615 the monastery was turned into a state hospital. This ended the history of the Beselich Monastery, founded around 1170. The property became the property of the Jesuit College in Hadamar.

Historiography

When Beselich was taken over by the Jesuit order , the monastery archives came to Hadamar in the Jesuit college there. The chronicle of the Beselich monastery, written there in 1640, is entirely in the spirit of counter-Reformation propaganda. Ida is now referred to as "Ida von Wied" and stylized as the "natural daughter of Count Wied". The creation of legends also flourishes. Ida was thrown into a lightless prison with some steadfast fellow conventuals who opposed the reformatory innovations and all contact with the outside world was prevented until Count Wilhelm IV von Wied finally gave her freedom again. Spiritually strengthened by the Franciscans from Limburg, Ida remained steadfast in her old faith and died in this faith. The claim that Ida was an illegitimate daughter of the House of Wied could be based on the fact that the countess widow Elisabeth von Wied provided Ida with the sumptuous dowry of 500 florins in gold when she was handed over to the Beselich monastery in 1538  , but this is not proof. The assertion of Ida's descent from a Count von Wied, however, lived on until the 20th century - but with false references as evidence.

literature

• Hellmuth Gensicke, Bourgeois and rural branches and descendants of Nassau noble families, in: Genealogisches Jahrbuch Vol. 8, Neustadt an der Aisch 1968, pp. 41-62
• Wolf Heino Struck (edit.), Sources on the history of the monasteries and monasteries in the area of ​​the middle Lahn up to the end of the Middle Ages, Vol. 3, The monasteries Bärbach, Beselich, Dirstein and Gnadenthal, the Johanniterhaus Eschau and the Klause Fachingen, Regesten [before 1153] -1634, Wiesbaden 1961
• Georg Wagner : Beselich monastery and pilgrimage site . Wiesbaden-Dotzheim 1935.

Individual evidence

1. ^ WH Struck, No. 467, p. 232
2. ↑ Ibid., Passim
3. ↑ Ibid., No. 473/474, p. 234
4. ↑ Ibid., No. 503, p. 246, note 1
5. ↑ Ibid., No. 505, p. 248
6. ↑ Ibid., No. 527a
7. ↑ Ibid., No. 521, p. 254
8. ↑ Ibid., No. 530, p. 266; ibid., No. 532, p. 267
9. ↑ Ibid., No. 531, p. 267f.
10. ↑ Ibid., No. 536, p. 282, note 50
11. ↑ Ibid., No. 536, p. 277
12. ↑ Ibid., No. 536, pp. 275, 277 f.
13. ↑ H. Gensicke, p. 47f.