Gynecology from a man’s mouth – the sexualized representation of Anabaptists

Let’s start with the ending. In Waldsee, north of Ravensburg, a group of women and men were arrested on May 26, 1530, as the chronicle of Fridolin Sicher from St. Gallen reports. They were accused of Anabaptism, a charge punishable by death in the empire of Charles V since 1529.

Anabaptism emerged in the 1620s from the Reformation movements. What the various movements of Anabaptism have in common is that their representatives reject infant baptism and instead view baptism as a voluntary profession of Christianity, and therefore it should be performed in adulthood. An Anabaptist circle of former followers and students of Ulrich Zwingli was formed in Switzerland.

Back to the group: six of the men are put to death by sword shortly afterwards. One of them is Jakob Hottinger from Zollikon near Zurich. The chronicle further describes how one of the women is thrown into the water and drowned. To give her a chance to pull out, she is pulled up again just before she suffocates, but the woman just says, “Where are you getting me from? The flesh was almost conquered.” It’s a gruesome scene. Remarkably, she gives us her last words, and the last words of a woman.

In all likelihood, the drowned woman was baptist Margret Hottinger, Jacob’s sister. Her biography can only be reconstructed in fragments. But what we see clearly in all the sources that have come to us is their eloquence. Margret Hottinger and a number of other Anabaptists from Zurich and Eastern Switzerland spoke with her. And it was precisely this circumstance that posed a serious problem for the reformers and the authorities.

Margret Hottinger’s first testimonies come from interrogation protocols of the Zurich Council. At the end of 1525, she was arrested, imprisoned, and interrogated, along with all of Zurich’s leading Anabaptists. She is given a choice: if she recants, she will be released in exchange for a fine. If she does not recant, she will be sent to prison with bread and water Wellenberg Tower thrown. Other prominent Anabaptists such as Martin Linck and Michael Sattler admit this. Margret Hottingerin von Zollikckenn – we read that in the sources – I answered. And in modern German it sounds something like this:

Margret Hottinger remains steadfast. The interrogation continues throughout the winter. In the following log we read:

In fact, there is not a single example of infant baptism in the Bible, which is why Ulrich Zwingli was initially not averse to adult baptism. However, after several public debates about baptism, the Zurich Reformation turned away from this idea, supported infant baptism and increasingly punished the attitude against baptism. On March 5, 1526, Margret Hottinger was interrogated again. Again she answers:

The minutes include the testimony of another woman. Her name is Winbrat Fanwiler and she is from St. Gallen. And Winbrat Fanwiler follows immediately:

Two days later, the Zurich council tightened the screws and issued a new ruling:

Margret Hottinger and other Anabaptists withstood the pressure for almost two more months, but eventually she gave in, recanted and was released. This of course without giving up their faith. Margret Hottinger immediately leaves for Eastern Switzerland with her brother Jakob Hottinger, and Winbrat Fanwiler accompanies her.

Words have also come to us from this time, but they suddenly sound different and strange. Our sources are not protocols and court documents, but reports and letters written by men and addressed to men.

In his Chronicle of St. Gall Johannes Kessler confirms that Margret Hottinger exhibited “highly moral behavior” and that she was loved and highly respected by the Anabaptists. In the next sentence, however, the amiability is over. Because Margret Hottinger, writes Kessler, loudly proclaimed in St. Gallen: “I am God!” Moreover, she forgave the sins of others and said, “He who prays sins.” She also expressed incomprehensible things in a language as if guided by God.

There are several pages in Kessler’s chronicle devoted solely to the actions and words of women. Margret Hottinger’s cellmate Winbrat Fanwiler also appears, but she has suddenly given herself the name Martha. A woman from Verena Burmer is said to foam at the mouth, speak in a cruel voice, tremble and publicly announce, “I must give birth to the Antichrist!”

There is also a certain Barbara Mürglen. She screams, “Woe, oh woe!” and falls over. Then she gets up again and shouts: “What have we done, what have we done!” Her face beams. She sweats so much that you have to undo her belt and take off all her clothes until she finally lies there naked.

In another scene from the chronicle, Barbara Mürglen and Verena Burmerin sit naked before a group of men and preach. We learn from Johannes Kessler that one of these men looked at her shame and mentally wished she would hide it. But Verena Burmerin managed to recognize his thoughts. So she went to him and punished him.

Men who allow themselves to be punished by naked women: that is not enough. The shower in the men’s room spreads widely. None other than Ulrich Zwingli writes to the St. Gall theologian Vadian demanding an accurate report on what is happening among the Anabaptists. “There was a messenger from Johannes Hess with me,” Zwingli writes,

Zwingli further reports how he heard that five Anabaptists near Appenzell had committed homosexual acts and had been burned as a result. He concludes his description with the words: “We see what it means to be overwhelmed!”

Truth and fiction are likely to be confused in these traditions. What makes all these descriptions prick up, however, is the extremely stereotypical nature of the sexual excesses described. The question therefore arises whether men in particular were not overwhelmed by their own fantasies and also carried out slanderous propaganda.

In any case, the type of preparation and the stylistic devices chosen speak a clear language in their own way and suggest that the female speech acts of the early Anabaptist period touched on deep-seated anxieties. To regain control of these fears and legitimize their own actions, the ruling elite resorted to a proven tool that has been used time and time again: sexual devaluation.

In the recently made Zwingli film we can still see traces of the consequences of these demeaning images and stereotyping of the Swiss Anabaptists. It is very clear to us in Gottfried Keller’s Anabaptist novella Ursula. On the one hand, one cannot ignore the fact that there is state support for Zwinglikitsch, for example when Ulrich Zwingli’s “graceful, clear Toggenburg dialect” and his “mobile language” are mentioned.

But what happens when baptismal Ursula opens her mouth? A ‘sensual fire’ begins to shine in the woman’s eyes, a fire that is also the ‘flame of the will-o’-the-wisp’. But your words? They remain completely incomprehensible.

With the sexualized representation of the Anabaptists, hierarchy is created, or in this case: restored. Because whoever has the power to utter intelligible words determines what happens. But anyone who cannot express themselves intelligibly can be thrown out.

It is therefore time to increasingly emphasize and notice how Margret Hottinger – and many other Anabaptists – Your answer has given. The offensive sources all too easily obscure the fact that during the early baptismal movement in Zurich people who were not very well established in the hierarchy were sometimes very successful in expanding their scope of action in word and deed.