Profiles of Anabaptist Women: Sixteenth-Century Reforming Pioneers

Women in the Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren

URSULA HELLRIGEL OF THE OTZ VALLEY AND ANNELEIN OF FREIBURG The persecution of Anabaptists in Tirol reached its peak in the mid 1530s. During this time many of the pursued believers left their homes in the Austrian territory and escaped to Moravia to make a new life for themselves where the rulers were more tolerant. If the fleeing Anabaptists safely reached Rattenberg on the Inn River and were not caught on the boats travelling eastward, they were relatively sure of reaching what some called "the promised land." It was one thing that whole families made their way to Moravia, but quite another that even young people sought to leave their homeland for the sake of their faith. Ursula Hellrigel was one such person. She languished in the prisons of Tirol five years before finally being allowed to join the Anabaptists in their new home. The government responded to Ursula's staunch adherence in her Anabaptistbelief with severe punishment, then with repeated postponement, and seemingly forgot about her. However, the persistence of family members and others seeking her release finally brought results. Ursula's story is unusual in itself, but the fact that she wrote a hymn makes this young woman all the more significant. In May 1538 the seventeen­year­old Ursula Hellrigel, daughter of a peasant farmer, was one of ten Anabaptist prisoners held at the St. Petersberg castle in the upper Inn Valley. One of the prisoners, a former priest, was an Anabaptist leader and therefore was transferred to the prison in Brixen. 196 Profiles of Anabaptist Women Another member of the group, a youth of nineteen years, planned to recant and would be released after he had done penance, sworn the oath [Urfehde] and paid the costs of his upkeep in prison. The other eight Anabaptists would await the arrival of Dr. Gallus Miiller, who was coming to St. Petersberg in order to persuade these heretics of their erring ways.1 Dr. Muller was a theologian and his sermons were very popular with the people. He had come to Innsbruck three years earlier when Ferdinand I appointed him as a preacher in his court. With his eloquent speech and skilful persuasion, he had a reputation for bringing Anabaptists back to the established church by peaceful means, thus avoiding the bloodshed and martyrdom that so many of the Anabaptists chose. His first and probably most difficult assignment on coming to Tirol had been to try to convert Jacob Hutter, who had been captured in 1535. Of the Anabaptists in the Hellrigel family, Dr. Muller was successful only with Ursula's brother Oswald, who later sought his sister's release from prison.2 By mid­October 1538, Ursula was part of another group of Anabaptists in St. Petersberg who stubbornly persisted in their heresy. This group included Anastasia Ruepp, a young woman of eighteen, her father Hans Ruepp, a sixty­five­year­old woman, a man named Georg, and Ursula. Hans Ruepp and his daughter came from the same place as Ursula's family, namely the Otz Valley, west of Innsbruck. Ursula and Georg were not relapsi (Anabaptists who had already been arrested and released, but had rejoined the movement) and therefore they were to be persuaded to give up their Anabaptist beliefs. But the efforts of Dr. Muller failed, and so the government used other means. For six and a half months the prisoners were kept on a meagre diet, all to no avail. In light of these unusual circumstances, the local authorities now asked the king for advice on what to do next. In particular, they wanted to know if the imprisonment of the two young women [Dirnen], Ursula and Anastasia, should be prolonged. The idea of enclosing the prisoners behind brick walls was not a good one since the inhabitants in these valleys were simple and naive [einfdltig], and did not shy away from punishment or even death.3 Little did the officials know just how persistent young women such as Ursula could be, and little did Ursula know just how long her imprisonment would last. The king sent his response in early November. He instructed the authorities in St. Petersberg to do everything in their power to persuade the five tenacious Anabaptists to recant in order to save their souls.4 Eleven months later, in September 1539, special mention was made of Ursula's case. She had been in prison for almost a year at this point because of repeated postponements of her case. This...