AFTER five years spent at Cassel with her good cousin Hedwig Sophie—years, no doubt, the happiest she had known—Elizabeth had succeeded her aunt Elizabeth Louisa, as abbess of Herford, in Westphalia.
This ancient abbey had been founded, in the year 839, for fourteen nuns, and had received from the Carlovingian emperors a great number of gifts and privileges. A cathedral-church and cathedral-school were attached to it. It was a free and independent abbey, under no jurisdiction but that of the abbess.
The town of Herford, which was of a later date than the abbey, stood at the junction of the rivers Werre and Aa. It was a town of considerable trade and importance, not under the jurisdiction of the abbey, but at the same time the sheriffs and corporation took a yearly oath of fealty to the abbess as her vassals.
To the abbess also belonged the right of the sale of provisions in the market, and each citizen on entering upon any municipal office had to swear that he would be true and loyal to the abbey. The abbess, on the other hand, had to promise to respect and maintain the customs and privileges of the town.
A bridge over the Aa led to the piece of ground called " The Freedom," upon which the abbey stood. It contained a large feudal hall, old-fashioned gardens, and the wings of the building (now a cotton factory) were roomy dwelling-places for the nuns in the old time, and for any decayed ladies after the Reformation, who were chosen by the abbess to end their days in this quiet retreat.
Four Lutheran priests performed the service in the cathedral-church, with other clergy and assistants ; but the abbesses, who on account of the great privileges of the abbey were chosen chiefly from royal and princely families, were not necessarily Lutherans. Several princesses of the Reformed Church had filled this post before Elizabeth's time. They were regarded as princesses and prelates of the Holy Roman empire, and for some short time back had been appointed by the Elector of Brandenburg, the present Elector being, as we know, Elizabeth's attached cousin, Frederick William I.
For Elizabeth, Anna von Schurmann had always retained her old affection. And she had heard that the princess was interested in the story of Labadie's labours and persecutions.
It seems to have been the princess herself who first had the thought of inviting the whole community to inhabit her roomy old abbey buildings.
She entrusted to a person at the Hague, in whom she had confidence, a message to Anna to this effect. But " this person," writes Anna, " not knowing himself the state of the case, and misled by the letter of a preacher of the Walloon Church at the Hague, which letter was filled with gall and hatred against Labadie and his followers, forwarded this letter to the noble princess, in order to deter her from her intention. But the illustrious princess was so far from altering her mind when she had read this letter, that she was the more confirmed in her purpose ; for she saw that this letter savoured more of the muddy water of a hellish stream, than of the clear stream of living water which Christ promised to His faithful servants, which He gave to them, and which He will ever give.
"Therefore the princess argued thus: 'A service which the world condemns and hates, is a service which is dear and acceptable to Christ. Now this service which I purpose, is hateful to the world and to the worldly, consequently it is approved by Christ, and is precious to Him.'
"And later did the princess describe to us how, in the theatrical style and light and mocking tone which marked that letter, she had perceived the worldly mind of the writer, and had also with the same glance perceived that honour was to be given to the injured and innocent servant of God, who was a true minister of His gospel.
" She therefore wrote at once to me, saying that she was well acquainted with my desire to free myself from the fetters of the world and of earthly things, and to end my days in the company of the people of God. She assured me that our old friendship remained always in her memory, and that she therefore cordially invited our whole community to take refuge with her, where they would have complete liberty of worship, and be sheltered under her authority.
" She also added, that if her proposal were agreeable to us, I should myself either go to her at once, as a carriage might perform the journey in twenty-four hours, or I should send a trusty and capable friend to arrange with her how she might send half way to meet the whole party.
" When I informed our pastors of this invitation, it was clear to them, and to all of us, that this opportunity was granted to us by God, and we therefore determined to send to the princess our dear friend and brother in Christ, Pastor Dulignon, who was well furnished with a knowledge of divine and human things, and with the wisdom and discretion of the saints."
By means of this discreet pastor all arrangements were made, and the whole party took ship at Amsterdam, to the number of fifty, many others promising to follow them shortly. Anna describes herself as being too full of joy to mind the discomforts of the journey, and her own maladies.
They landed at Bremen, where however they were most unwelcome, and were commanded to leave at the end of two days, as being a species of mad Quakers.
All the more warmly were they welcomed by the Princess Elizabeth. " My house is open," she said, "to all who love the Lord Jesus." When we remember the insane pride of birth and rank which marked those degraded times, we can all the more trace the work of God in the heart of the princess, who felt herself honoured in receiving this company, chiefly composed of working men and tradespeople.
The women of the company were of a higher rank, several ladies, young, and of large fortunes, having followed the example of Anna von Schurmann. Three of these, who were sisters, of the name of Sommerdyk, lived by themselves in a separate house. But others, like Anna, lived in the same house with Labadie and his friends. Anna, though an elderly lady, greatly scandalised the steady and discreet Dutch matrons by this unseemly example. She was unwise enough to say that her reputation, being her most precious jewel, was that which she most gladly offered up for Christ. Had she, in such a case, retained it for Christ, it would have been better. But the younger ladies, all whose scruples were demolished by Anna's remark, turned thenceforward a deaf ear to the remonstrances of their friends and relations.
They imagined themselves to be too spiritual to need the usual rules and observances of social life. It was the old story of confounding the crucifixion of the flesh with disregarding the laws of human nature. " Doth not nature itself teach you ?" God Himself has said, appealing to natural modesty. But many have been found in the history of the Church, and some are found still, who imagine that by cutting the string of the kite it will soar far higher than the kites with strings. The history of the Labadists is an example of this.
At the same time, to judge fairly of these young women, we must also remember that, like Christian and Mercy, of whom John Bunyan wrote, they were literally flying from the City of Destruction, from the world of which we have had glimpses in the history of those dark days. One of the Sommerdyk sisters related her story in later years to William Penn.
She said, "When I was yet a girl, I was plunged in grief at the dead works of the flesh in the Christian Church. How often did I say to myself, In what pride, in what lusts and pleasures and empty amusements, Christians are! Can such a way be the way to heaven and to glory ? Can such people be disciples of Christ ? No, no, O God ! Where is Thy little flock ? Where is Thy family, who live for Thee, who seek to follow Thee ? Let me be counted amongst their number.' "
She further related that at this time a sermon of Labadie's struck her to the heart ; she resolved there and then to leave the world, with its pleasures and its glory, and to ask to be received into this family separated to God. The Lord, who looks at the heart, owned and accepted the love which was willing to leave all for Him. We, at a distance, and in other days, are less capable of seeing the love, and more capable of seeing the mistakes, of these simpleminded Dutch maidens. Let us rejoice in that which was of God in their hearts and lives.
And at the same time, in considering the conduct of the Princess Elizabeth, we can rejoice to see one who was willing to become a fool for Christ's sake, and the more so, as her early ambition had been distinction in human wisdom, and her early education
had taught her to regard royal blood as a privilege which put an impassable gulf between princes and ordinary men and women.
" If we believe the biographer of Descartes, and all those who follow him," writes Guhrauer, the author of the best history of Elizabeth, " we should conclude that Elizabeth, as abbess of Herford, and up to the end of her life, found in Descartes' philosophy her sole rest and satisfaction, so much so that this philosophy served as her actual religion.
She made,' writes this author, of the abbey, a philosophical academy for all sorts of persons of mind and of learning, with no distinction of sect or religion. Catholics, Calvinists, and Lutherans were all alike welcome, nor were Socinians and Deists excluded. For admittance to this circle it was enough to be a philosopher, and first of all an adept in the philosophy of Descartes. This abbey, therefore, was regarded as one of the first schools of Cartesian philosophy as long as the princess lived, who presided over it. The name of Descartes was never mentioned there but with respect and reverence.'
" The whole of this description, however, is derived rather from a poetical imagination than from historical fact. The bare supposition that not only the three confessions of faith tolerated in the German empire, but also Socinianism and Deism, were allowed a place in the abbey of Herford, is deprived of all credibility, since, according to the laws of the empire as then existing, no Socinians or professed Deists were tolerated. The author of the life of Descartes either did not know, or concealed the fact, that Elizabeth, as abbess of Herford, had received the living principle of Christian faith in such a manner as to exclude the cult of philosophy as in former days."
Guhraner adds, "In some deep minds the last result of learning is often the sense of the vanity of human knowledge, and is therefore very frequently the passage into a new life, or, as some express it, the moment of the new birth."
That Elizabeth had thus passed from death to life the whole of her life as abbess of Herford is an undeniable proof.