Princess Elizabeth of the Palatinate - Part 3

During the Thirty Year's War the Elector had begun appointing Reformed princesses as abbesses, and so now appointed her. This appointment relieved her from being a pensioner on any of her relatives, and also gave her standing in the German empire. She was authorized to send a deputy to its diets, and required to furnish one horseman and six foot soldiers for the imperial army. She also had to preside over a court of justice, and exercised authority over about seven thousand inhabitants. Her territory was small and her income therefore limited, but she exercised great ecconomy and banished all luxury from her little castle. Her chief diversion was knitting, and on Saturdays she sat as judge. Here her patience and justice were admirable, being tempered with mercy, and she often adding religious instruction. Here this cultivated princess lived, surrounded by rude, ignorant country-folk, and yet she enjoyed it, for she was able to relieve distress and better their condition. She gathered around herself in the castle a company of like-minded souls. The highly gifted Anna Shurman eagerly accepted an invitation to visit Elizabeth, so like her in intellectual and religious tastes. Both had been disciples of Descartes, but Anna was the more enthusiastic and visionary; Elizabeth the more profound and fonder of abstractions. She also threw open her land to all who desired refuge. It was this liberal spirit that brought her providentially into contact with the pietism of Labadie and also led to her association with William Penn. Labadie and his congregation from Holland having left the State Church were looked down upon as separatists; for at that time the idea of a free Church, independent of the State, was not dreamt of, and many of the separatists were fanatics. So when they came to settle in her land (1670), its inhabitants, the magistrates and the Lutheran ministers rose against their coming and appealed to her. As she did not grant their wishes, they appealed to the Elector of Brandenburg, asking that these strangers should be ordered out of the land. But the Elector at first permitted them to stay, as he saw Elizabeth wished by it to spread the Reformed faith, although he urged Elizabeth to be watchful over them. She graciously protected them against their enemies, and gave to the world an illustration of the beautiful principle of religous toleration. She was in turn affected by their earnestness and zeal, for it is evident, that as she became older, she was deepening in spirituality. She had to endure a good deal of ridicule for thus protecting the Labadists, even from some of her own noble relatives. Thus her sister, the beautiful Duchess Sophia of Hanover, visited her and tried to laugh at the religious earnestness of the followers of Labadie. But although she remained friendly to them, she was not able to give them an asylum for more than two years, for the other governments compelled her to send them away. But in it all she showed her love of religous liberty.

Her treatment of the followers of Labadie called the attention of William Penn to her. He, too, was about to lay out a colony in the western world, called Pennsylvania, for which her little land of Herford set the example of religious liberty.

Penn's visit to her at Herford, 1677, is quite interesting. He stayed there three days. On the first day at 7 a.m. he called on the princess, and was surprised to be recieved with such warm expressions of welcome. He said the conduct of persons in such an exalted station confirmed his hopes that the day of the Lord was approaching. He therefore took courage and began preaching. And they had a religious service which lasted from 7 to 11 o'clock. In the afternoon Penn and his companion returned to her castle, and found the princess had invited her intimate friend, the Countess of Horn, and several others to the service. He held services there till 7 p.m., and all, both preachers hearers, were deeply affected. The next day being the day when the princess recieved audiences and petitions, they did not get to see her till 9 a.m., but then all the inferior servants were also present. In the afternoon he fulfilled his promise made to her in the morning and narrated the story of his conversion to the Quaker faith, together with the persecutions he had suffered for it. His story was interupted by supper. He then took supper with her, and afterwards again continued before them the story of his conversion. This lasted till 11 o'clock, p.m., when they returned to their lodgings. On the next day, the last of their stay, not only the residents of the castle, but also the inhabitants of the town, were present. The service began with much prayer. Penn says of this meeting:

Yea, the quickening power and life of Jesus wrought and reached them; and virtue from Him, in whom dwelleth the Godhead bodily, went forth and distilled upon us His heavenly life, sweeter than the pure frankincense, yea, than the sweet-smelling myrrh which cometh from a far country. And as it began, so it was carried on, and so it ended.

After the meeting was over, the princess gave him good-bye, and was so overcome by her feelings that she could hardly give expression to her words. And as she bade him farewell, she most earnestly begged him to come again.