Anna Owena Hoyers was a pragmatic, polemic and prolific woman writer of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. A truly renaissance woman, she was mainly concerned with living the Christian life.1 The most comprehensive edition of Hoyers' work is in the form of a little publication with a title page which reads Annae Hoijers Geistliche und Weltliche Poemata, Amsteldam, Beij Ludwig Elzevieren.1 It is this edition which will serve as a basis for a translation of her poem Schreiben an die Herrn Titulträger.
Born in 1584 in North Frisia, Anna Owena Hoyers came from a wealthy and educated family: her father, Hans Owens, was a well-known astronomer and mathematician of his time, while her mother was the daughter of an alderman and councilor in Oldensworth, North Germany.3 After her marriage at the age of fifteen to a wealthy town official, Hermann Hoyer, she moved with her husband to Hoyersworth, an estate in Eiderstedt with noble privileges. Several of Anna's poems were written there and it was from this estate that the events surrounding the poem An die Herrn Titulträger occurred: the poem was a response to the opposition of the orthodox clergy to her acceptance of some unorthodox Believers. It was at Eiderstedt that she bore her husband seven children, one of whom died as an infant. She seems to have been a good mother: her intense concern about the education of her children is evidenced in the poem Geistlich Gesprach zwischen Mutter und Kind (“A Spiritual Conversation between Mother and Child”).3
At the death of Hermann Hoyer in 1622, Anna became executrix of his large estate (including the Hoyersworth estate) and the sole guardian of their children. During their marriage, Anna had submitted to her husband in all areas of life but she had held in abeyance her disagreement with him over the unorthodox and anabaptist Believers. It seems that Hoyer had favoured the orthodox Lutheran pastors of Eiderstedt over such sects as the David Jorites, Mennonites and Anabaptists which had flourished at that time. After her husband's death, however, Anna opened her estate, her heart and her home to these controversial sectarians.
It was during this time that a certain Dr. Nicholas Teting and his friend Hartwig Lohmann were banished from their places in Flensburg as a result of an earlier on-going doctrinal conflict with the Lutheran pastors, Friedrich Dame, Friedrich Johannes and Habakuk Meyer. Anna heard of the controversy and took pity on them, became interested in their cause and invited them to take up residence in the gatekeeper's lodge on her Hoyersworth estate.
Rumours of the unorthodox behaviour at this estate caused the duke of Schleswig to order an investigation into the activities of Teting and Lohmann in 1623 which led to their banishment from the duchy in 1623.4 Anna and her family followed them in their exile to Husum where they began a community life in a house which she owned. As was to be expected, they met there with similar opposition and were bitterly attacked by the resident orthodox clergy. In 1624 Teting was commanded to recant or leave the country within fourteen days. He chose to leave and departed for Hamburg where he lived as a practising physician. Teting's friend, Lohmann, settled in Odense on the island of Fühnen where he eventually repented of his heretical beliefs and was received back into the orthodox Lutheran church. Anna eventually sold all her property in northern Germany and emigrated to Sweden.
Not surprisingly, Anna was angry over the course of events and wrote her biting satire An die Herrn Titulträger (“To the Titled Lords”) in response to the events surrounding the dispute between Teting and the Lutheran pastors, Friedrich Dame, Friedrich Johannes [Hansen] and Habakuk Meyer, as well as the subsequent banishment of Teting and Lohmann. The title of the poem is part of a longer one: Schreiben von I.O.T.A. An die Herrn Titulträger von Hohn Schulen (“A Writing by I.O.T.A. to the Titled Lords of Higher Learning”). I.O.T.A. represents an abbreviated variation of her own name: Johann Owens Tochter Anna. It might be that she thought that a reference to her mathematician/astronomer father would lend more weight to her cause and give her added respectability. She might also have wanted to show her independence from her husband by emphasising and resuming her maiden name. Another possible explanation might be her reference to the Greek letter iota, which signifies something small or a small amount, thereby denoting herself as a small or insignificant player/pawn in the religious and political controversy in Eiderstedt.
The satire, Anna says, was written as a response to das Büchlein wieder Nicol. T (“In Response to the Book Against Nicholas T[eting]”). Apparently the orthodox clergy had written a book denouncing Teting and his unorthodox believes and Anna felt a need to defend her friend. It ends with a letter-cross, a device quite typical throughout her writings to emphasise her main point and as a visual summary. Her letter-crosses resemble the acrostic which was used in Latin writings.
O you false slave prophets
Fritz Hansen and Fritz Dame
O serpents and vipers,
You, Satan's own brood,
How can you so boldly
The Truth oppose?
And with your erudition
Many a soul offend?
From the common man you take the light
Upon him you place your own sight,
Convincing him that he can see
In your book of prayers clearly.
Woe to you who pervert justice,
Who call good evil.
That you are not taught of God
Is clearly recognised
And of whose spirit you are children
Is clearly understood.
The best, in your opinion, I perceive,
Is slandering, reviling, disparaging,
Perverting the Scriptures maliciously,
Interpreting the spiritual carnally.
Truly you are blind, I tell you,
Nevertheless others you would lead.
The true light you do not have within.
Spiritual things you do not understand.
You judge according to the flesh and are fleshly,
Your folly is ridiculous.
In the schools you have studies,
That cannot be denied.
No saint can be found
According to you; your opinion is
That you alone are the saints
Whom God has created;
By your pretence you deceive the people.
O you carnal pastors
Who has sent you to teach?
Who graduated you?
Did God? O do tell
Who did call you?
To me it seems you are a hoax
Which even the children notice,
That a blind man is leading the blind
A sinner is teaching sinners.
Tell me, answer my question,
From the schools of higher learning
Where all kinds of knavish tricks,
Coquetry, lechery, gluttony, drunkenness,
And much more are learned
So that you cannot tell
From when comes the Truth
For which you let yourselves be known:
Reverend, venerable, and well-mannered
Yes, indeed, without a doubt
He who believes that is perverse
The devil lets you imagine that.
The parsons consume soldier's dung
His spirit has anointed you.
For as in the proverb, the cow
Births a calf where she walks.
The provost lets it be understood
That he is well-read.
One can see it in his left eye
How devoted and prayerful he has been.
Even during the night
Not sparing his eyes by light
Even now they are moist
Should he for all that be worthless?
Without a doubt, yes.
Who says that? It cannot be denied
That the world judges by appearance
Those who seem pompously fashionable
In long priestly garments
Great respect do receive:
When they in their respectability
There stand in the pulpit.
Their priestly robes hide the rogue
Gracefully they play their part
When they stand there in the hollow podium
Buttering up the people,
Without timidity they the Truth freely defame
No one may gainsay them
No matter who it may be
They rebuke immediately.
Those of highest rank are on their side,
Willfully, upon their request,
Expel those people
Who do teach godliness
So that their folly
May be seen as evil;
Or else their mischief
Will come to light
And be known to all.
But you, Lords, go easily
And yet, one must dare
To rebuke you in this matter
And freely speak the Truth.
Yes, should even the children
Resemble their womenfolk
Still it must be said
You must yield to the Truth
Only agree to it willingly.
Truth will yet remain the master
And soon through its brightness
Drive out your darkness,
And bring disgrace upon you
With that evil Meyer.
His trade has no goods
Only rotten and stinking eggs
Which he has tried to sell
In the land of Eiderstedt
And since he did not find
His customers, he must again be dispersed.
He flew with the cuckoo.
In Tönning he did alight
And with the cuckoo did depart
Flew away with him again.
Should these be true parsons?
Are they by God ordained
Who go astray in a common way?
Hasn't that the people vexed?
Everyone is led to believe
That they are the Lord's ambassadors
He who them does not as such receive
But as vagrants declared
Come unsummoned.
The same they suppress
So that in the city and country
God's apes may remain peacefully.
Be of good courage for a short time
He will soon disappear;
Those whom you have decried
Will nevertheless endure.
Your banishment will not help
That you have dissociated them.
Truth will come to the light
And will not be diminished
God is on their side always
He will not allow them to be crushed
Powerfully he knows to draw them forth
Even if it causes you sorrow.
He promotes the righteous' cause
Which you intend to banish;
Your deeds will be manifest
They cannot remain cloaked.
Come you parsons, come here all
Let yourselves be instructed
By Dr. Teting and Mr. Lohmann
Learn to study wisdom
And to God's power give submission
Betimes through their instruction
Else soon shall your reputation
Amongst the people cease to bloom.
Both of these gentlemen most certainly
Shall so examine you truly
That everyone, do believe
Your deception shall soon perceive,
One will then to another say
In the soon coming day
Look at the parsons stricken
How they are now beaten!
With their own rod wounded
Who have others therewith pounded
Their own sword they have sharpened
Has now them completely conquered
They have fallen into the pit
Which they for others did dig.
Praise God! Look you who are not blind
How they have taught.
Then will your entire priesthood
Stumble over a heap
Lose their power and standing
The pastor's cloth dispersing.
Then will we sing happily
And give thanks to our God,
When the monster has been overcome
Who tends to plague the pious.
Halleluja in sweet song be raised
In the highest, God be praised!
There lies the whore Babylon
Who had so raged on
May the Lord in time convert
Those for whom there is yet hope
While the door to his mercy
And grace are yet open.
May God grant in your blindness to see
May he open you eyes;
May you understand your foolishness
So that you will desire to be useful
For this from my heart I wish and pray.
If not, then there is at hand
He who will soon take vengeance
On you and bring you to ruin:
He will destroy you in his wrath.
This has been said, take heed.
He who has ears, let him hear.
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(Weil ihr Zeit habt bekannt ewer Bossheit/Und bessert euch bald/hohe Zeit ists VVarlich [Because you still have time, confess your sins and be converted; truly the time is at hand])