Frauenklöster in der Reformationszeit: Lebensformen von Nonnen in Sachsen zwischen Reform und landesherrlicher Aufhebung by Sabine Zinsmeyer

Abstract

Reviewed by: Frauenklöster in der Reformationszeit: Lebensformen von Nonnen in Sachsen zwischen Reform und landesherrlicher Aufhebung by Sabine Zinsmeyer Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer Frauenklöster in der Reformationszeit: Lebensformen von Nonnen in Sachsen zwischen Reform und landesherrlicher Aufhebung. By Sabine Zinsmeyer. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2016. 455 pp. On 6 October 1528, Ursula von Münsterberg and two other nuns of the religious order of Mary Magdalene left their convent in the city of Freiberg in Saxony in the middle of the night. Münsterberg's published defense of her flight made her an early heroine of the Lutheran Reformation, featured prominently in historical works from the sixteenth century to the present. While much continues to be written about Münsterberg's flight, little is known about her convent or fellow nuns. In this revised version of her 2015 dissertation at the University of Leipzig, Sabine Zinsmeyer aims to discover whether Münsterberg's reaction was typical of nuns' reactions to the reform movement in Saxony and what happened to the inhabitants of Freiberg and nearby convents after the Reformation (29). [End Page 98] Figuring that out is not an easy task. As Zinsmeyer points out in Chapter One, available sources on convents are fragmentary or simply non-existent. Zinsmeyer chose Freiberg for her research because as a large convent, it left more traces. Saxon scholars, for instance, collected documents on the convent in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae, which provides substantial material for this study. Yet, significant gaps do exist. The convent fell into ruin in the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, leaving little material culture to analyze. In addition, as fifteenth-century reformers opined, the nuns in the convent did not keep records, financial or otherwise. The nuns of Freiberg only started keeping a cartulary in 1522, at the insistence of their reformed-minded abbess. In Chapter Two, Zinsmeyer contexualizes developments in Saxony. Because she is interested in the eastern portion of Saxony, she highlights the unsuccessful attempts by the bishop of Meissen and the dukes to reform the Saxon convents in the late fifteenth century. She then outlines the political background of the monastic policies of the Saxon dukes in both Albertine and Ernestine Saxony from the late Middle Ages through the mid-sixteenth century. The chapter concludes with a look at Luther's teachings on monastic vows. In the 100-page Chapter Three, Zinsmeyer gives a series of short episodic discussions on the convent of Freiberg, set in generally chronological order. The middle of the chapter includes an intriguing study on Münsterberg's flight and on the visitation of the convent that followed. Following this, Zinsmeyer turns to sketches of what might have influenced the events of 1528, including the growing support of George's brother and heir, Henry and his wife Katherine of Mecklenberg for the reform in their territory centered in Freiberg. Zinsmeyer hypothesizes that their appointment of a Lutheran pastor and sending of books to Freiberg may have enabled Münsterberg, and other nuns, gradually to adopt the reforms (171), although she also points to other factors such as the convent community and relatives of the women. In Chapter Four, Zinsmeyer briefly outlines visitations and movements of nuns in seven additional convents: four (Döbeln, Großenhain, Reisa, and Meißen) located in Albertine Saxony near Freiberg and three (Sornzig, Sitzenroda, and Altenburg) located nearby in Ernestine Saxony. Despite the piecemeal survival of sources from [End Page 99] these convents, Zinsmeyer hints at a connection between the experiences of nuns in these convents with those in Freiberg, a topic she begins to elaborate in Chapter Five, her concluding chapter, dedicated to a series of short comparative vignettes on themes ranging from conversion to social status. The book concludes with two long sections: biographies of each of the Freiberg nuns and transcription of sources on Freiberg nuns and on sequestration unavailable elsewhere. As one might expect of a dissertation, the analysis hints at interesting questions without fully developing cohesive answers. Zinsmeyer, for instance, mentions but does not follow up on the correspondence between nuns and their families. The organization also leads to considerable repetition of examples and factual material. Her research, however, has...