The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876.: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and ScienceVarious
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876.: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
Charitas dated from his visit a quieter state of things and the
cessation of many petty persecutions on the part of Kaspar Nützel. She
says of Melanchthon in her diary: “I hope God sent this man to us at
the right time; …” and later in a letter she writes thus of the
administrator: “Would to God every one were as discreet as Master
Philip; we might then hope to be rid of many things that are very
vexatious.”
Although the three young nuns were not restored to the convent, their
parents, smarting under the many insinuations made against their
conduct, conveyed to the abbess, through Sigismund Fürer and Leonard
Tucher, a formal acknowledgment of their satisfaction at the “manner
in which the girls had been brought up and their health cared for”;
while the two men added of their own accord that as to the girls they
must tell the truth—_i.e._, that if it depended upon them, they would
be back at the convent before evening. Kaspar Nützel himself said the
same thing to the abbess, thanking her for the care bestowed on his
daughter’s physical and moral well-being, and acknowledging himself
indebted to the convent for this favor. But, better than this, he soon
wrote a letter in which he distinctly stated that he regretted having
several times “overstepped his legitimate authority in his attempts to
convert her to the new doctrines,” and promised that in future he
would attend with peculiar zeal at least to the temporal concerns of
the convent. Their possessions had, however, been so curtailed during
these troublous times that they almost literally subsisted on alms.
On All Souls’ day, 1527, the same two councillors who had witnessed
the forcible taking away of the young nuns two years before, and two
other associates, were commissioned to institute a domiciliary
visitation in the convent and to speak in private with each sister,
with a view to elicit their grievances and give them a chance of
speaking freely. The poor nuns were very much frightened at the
proposal, but Charitas only made this remonstrance:
“Worthy masters,” she said, “you are somewhat vehement
confessors. It has pleased our rulers to abolish private
confession to one man, and now you require us poor women to
confess to four men at once, and lay open to them all our
spiritual needs!” And as the men were rather staggered, she
continued: “You say many abuses among us have come to the
ears of the council. We should like to hear them detailed.
We have been driven and oppressed like worms for three
years, and would gladly, if we could, have hidden ourselves
under a stone like worms; but if we have offended in
anything, let it be clearly brought home to us.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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