A Conversion Too Far

Abstract

AbstractThe last Calvinist Baron of Büren died suddenly in 1610, after years of struggle with the Catholic Prince-Bishop of Paderborn. His widow Elisabeth converted to Catholicism, along with her four year old son Moritz. During her lifetime, the small territory her son controlled remained a relatively safe place for Protestants. Moritz, on the other hand, made a vow as a teenager to join the Jesuit order. After years of resisting his mother’s attempt to arrange a marriage for him, while enjoying a stellar career as a Jurist in the Reichskammergericht, Moritz fulfilled this vow after his mother’s death. The end of his life saw him involved in three separate lawsuits in an attempt to remove his family members from his ancestral lands and replace them with a community of Jesuits, to whom he had deeded his family’s property. The estate and town of Büren were entirely Catholic within fifteen years of the community’s establishment. This paper explores the difference between Elisabeth’s measured strategy of conversion and Moritz’s counter-Reformation inspired zeal.