Asseburg, Rosamunde Juliane von

ASSEBURG, ās´se-bUrg, ROSAMUNDE JULIANE VON: Religious enthusiast; b. at Eigenstedt, near Aschersleben (30 m. n.w. of Halle), Prussia, 1672; d. in Dresden Nov. 8, 1712. She might have been forgotten long ago, if the well-known millenarian, Johann Wilhelm Petersen (q.v.), had not called attention to her, and been followed in the study of her case by such men as Spener, Löscher, and Leibnitz. According to her own statement, she received divine revelations and had glorious visions when only seven years old, and was regarded in the neighborhood of her home as an inspired prophetess. She asserted that Christ himself had appeared to her, and that an angel had received her tears in a golden vessel. At first these revelations were confided only to the circle of her friends; but they obtained wider currency when she removed to Magdeburg and became acquainted with Petersen who published a treatise on her case in 1691, discussing the question whether God might be supposed still to reveal himself in direct apparitions. Löscher, at Dresden, and Johann Friedrich Meyer, at Hamburg, warned against believing her; Spener, asked for his opinion by the electress of Saxony, expressed himself with great caution; Leibnitz supported her, and compared her visions to those of St. Bridget and other holy women of the Middle Ages. Peterson received her at Lüneburg, where her mental excitement increased to such a degree as to cause disturbance in the town and to call for an official investigation. Petersen’s deposition from the office of superintendent and banishment followed in 1692, and implied the condemnation of his friend. She followed him to Wolfenbüttel and to Magdeburg; later she lived in Berlin, and in the house of a Saxon countess, where Petersen used to call and visit her as late as the year 1708. It is said that she died in Dresden Nov. 8, 1712, and was buried at Schönfeld near Pillnitz. Her poem 320euch gegeben, is included in some modern German hymn-books.

(F. W. Dibelius.)

Bibliography: J, W. Petersen, Lebensbeschreibung, Frankfort, 1719 (reproduced in Eng., in the work by J. W. P., A Letter to Some Divines Concerning the Question whether God, since Christ’s Ascension doth any more Reveal Himself to Mankind by the Means of Divine Apparitions? With an Exact Account of what God hath Bestowed upon a Noble Maid . . . written in High-Dutch and Now Set Forth in Eng., London, 1695).