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Untitled Article
consecration of the chapel of this convent and the arrival of the relics which crowned its sanctity . The . Reformation having begun , the time was now at hand when the glory ~ of the place must pass away . The magistracy of Nuremberg , having abolished the mass and broken up all monastic associations in their city , extended their decrees through all the districts around . Unwelcome messengers had appeared at the gates of every convent to announce the day when its inmates must depart , and its
possessions be given into the hand of the civil power . By this summons the quiet of every monastic abode was instantaneously broken up- The superiors , inwardly mourning over the necessity which they must obey , strove in vain to preserve their authority during the few days which yet remained . The spiritual fathers observed no bounds in their reyjlings . of the heretic by whose infernal agency the half of the world had been drawn over from Christ to Satan , and the rulers of the earth become empowered to scatter abroad the defenceless sheep who had till now been guarded by shepherds so faithful as themselves . Among the flocks thus mourned over , a tumultuous variety of emotions contended for predominance . Dim remembrances of the distant world in some ; vivid recollections in others : in some , a horror of the turmoil of life which must now be encountered ; in others ,
transports mingled with awe in the prospect of restoration to society : and in all , eager curiosity respecting the progress of the religious feujls whose effects they were now feeling , and respecting him in whom these feuds originated . Towards sunset , one evening in the beginning of March , 1522 , Liese , one of the sisterhood of the convent before menfionec ^ ~ sat b \ rthe window of her cell to watch , for the last time , the approach .
of twilight over those mountains which had been the companions of her meditations for twelve years . Hither had she retired in her twentieth year , not from an impulse of enthusiastic devotion , nor in obedience to a family decree ; but , wrung by disappointment , with the hope of finding a sanctuary where -new griefs could not reach her , however impossible it might be for any power in earth or heaven to prevent the ghosts of former emotions from
haunting her . She had found more than she looked for . Here the floods which overwhelmed her spirit drew off into a natural channel , and a deep and calm flow of devotion sustained her . Here she had long supposed that she should spend the remainder of her days , and had therefore attached herself in . a spirit of content to every thing around her , contemplating no further change
than was from time to time wrought by the woodman ' s axe in the woods beneath her eye , or by the chances of mortality within the convent walls . On this last evening she lamented the confidence which had prevented her preparing herself for the encounter with society which she must again undergo . Her survey of the past presented nothing but melancholy , her anticipation of the future
Untitled Article
1 $ 4 JLiese ; or > the Progress of Worshi p *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1832, page 154, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1808/page/10/
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