新教改革与修女还俗——以明斯特贝格的修女乌苏拉为例

Protestant Reformation and Nun' s Fleeing from the Convent:The Case of Ursula von Münsterberg

宗教改革时期,德国部分地区出现修女逃离修道院现象。修女还俗一般发生在信奉新教地区,在反对新教最为强烈的、天主教诸侯萨克森公爵控制下的修道院里发生其表妹修女乌苏拉主动还俗事件则较为罕见,对天主教地区的修女还俗和新教运动的深入推进产生了极大影响。乌苏拉与新教互动,并以自己的方式付诸实践。其方式有二:一是用亲身经历揭露隐修的荒谬;二是呼吁离开修道院,使包括自己在内的修女们摆脱家族和修道院的双重控制,过上积极的社会生活。修女还俗并不只是一个单纯的宗教现象,而是与其时修道院内外发生的剧烈社会变化有关。以不同方式发生的修女还俗事件还告诉我们:来自宗教的和非宗教的力量共同促成了修女的还俗。只有对此进行更为全面的研究,才能在修女与新教、宗教与政治、修道院与社会、修女个人意愿与社会集体意志之间,架起一座分析的桥梁。

In the Reformation, nuns fled from convent in some areas of Germany. It was an extraordinary e- vent, which only often happened in Protestant cities. However, while under the sovereignty of Duke George of Saxony, a Catholic prince and the strongest opponent of Luther, his female cousin, Ursula von Mtinsterberg, who was a nun, escaped from the convent to Lutheran Wittenberg. She was familiar with Prot- estant teachings and has written an apology to criticize monasticism and ask people to abandon unsatisfactory convent life for a more fulfilling secular life. Nuns＇ fleeing from the convent was not a simple religious is- sue, it has intense connection with the social change during the Reformation. Cases of Nuns leaving the con- vent would give us a new insight into the complex issues such as nuns and Protestantism, religion and poli- tics, convents and secular society, individual wills of the nuns and collective wills of the society.