Foreigners in Their Own Land: The Catholic Religious Women of Lutheran Württemberg, 1534-1609

     In 1534, Duke Ulrich I of Württemberg decided that his duchy in southwest Germany would no longer be Catholic, but Lutheran. The territory’s inhabitants would either have to convert to protestantism or go into exile. A significant number of Württemberg’s Catholic nuns, however, refused to do either—stubbornly insisting that they would remain in their convents, true to their faith. Surprisingly, the duke eventually agreed to allow these women to stay in their convents—receiving no visitors, new postulants, or sacraments—until their deaths, which for some did not come until the beginning of the seventeenth century. These women were therefore rather exceptional: When confronted by the Reformation, most Catholic nuns throughout Germany converted or left for foreign lands. 

     With the help of letters, visitation records, and a diary, my paper will examine the remarkable story of these Catholic nuns living in a Lutheran land. Why did these women insist on staying in a territory that rejected their faith? Why did three consecutive dukes allow these women to openly defy the message of the Reformation? And, finally, what effects did the continued presence of these defiantly Catholic women have on a territory that was supposed to have rejected and replaced Catholicism? These questions are central not only to this story but also to the latest research on religious identity, diversity, and tolerance in early modern Europe. My conclusion will point to the complex mixture of religious, economic, and political motivations which turned these women into foreigners in their own land.