WILDENSPUCH, vil'den-spuH, CRUCIFIXION, THE: An event which took place in the hamlet of Wildenspuch (about 6 m. s. of Schaffhausen), canton of Zurich, Switzerland, Mar. 15, 1823. The deed is partially explicable from the religious ferment caused quite widely in Europe by several series of events, such as the Napoleonic wars, the German wars for freedom, the lingering effects of the French Revolution, the famine years of 1816 1817, and the celebration of the Reformation, which in the region named took place in 1819. A sort of revival, attended by violent physical convulsions and other like phenomena, involved the district and induced singular experiences and led to singular beliefs in numbers of cases.

In the hamlet of Wildenspuch, consisting of about twenty houses, lived a well-to-do family named Peter engaged in agriculture, in which there were one son and five daughters, one of the latter married to a shoemaker and farmer named Johannes Moser, of the neighboring village of Oerlingen. The youngest daughter was Maxgareta, born in 1794, unusually gifted mentally and spiritually, and from an early age very precocious. She became the favorite of the family and neighborhood, and was expected to develop into something extraordinary. She, however, developed chronic phthisis, and seemed destined to an early death. But one day at noon during her illness, while in her father's vineyard, she had a vision of an angel who showed her a herb in a place about an hour distant from her home which was to cure her. She found the herb, distilled from it a tea which she drank, and found herself restored. In thankfulness she dedicated herself to God, became associated with pious persons, attended with her brother-in-law Moser the assemblies of the Herrnhut Brethren, began to preach, and conceived that she had battles with the devil and evil spirits. She came into connection with Barbara Juliana von Kruedener (q.v.), being accompanied by her brotherin-law and her sisters Elizabeth and Susanna, and she came to have the opinion that the events of the period presaged the imminent end of the world.

A new influence upon her at this time was the personality and opinions of Jakob Ganz, a man of lowly birth and moderate equipment, vicar of Embrach in the canton of Zurich, and a preacher of revival type. He had developed the theory that in order to attain blessedness no real change was necessary in man's life, but that there was needed simply a development of the good in man which had been latent but not lost. His watchword was: Not Christ for us, but Christ in us. The Church was Antichrist since Christ had not arisen in it. In each Christian Christ must .fight Satan, suffer, die, and rise again. Under this influence Margareta deserted the association of the Brethren and preached at home. In a vision she found herself before the throne of God, saw there the Father and the Spirit surrounded by angels, patriarchs, Elijah, and the apostles; but the Son was not there, and God told her that the Son was to live, suffer, die, and abide in her; she also looked into hell, where she saw thousands of poor souls whom she was to save. Through Ganz a certain melancholic shoemaker named Morf, a married man and a father, was summoned to receive in his house Margareta and her sister Elizabeth, where they remained inactive for a year and a half, while to Morf was revealed that with Margareta he was to enjoy a spiritual love and was to be transported to heaven. The two sisters returned home Jan. 11, 1823, after Margareta had given birth the night before to a daughter by Morf -as Maxgareta stated, altogether unexpectedly to her, therefore by God's doing. She declared that she must prepare for the great event which was to happen, and therefore undertook no more visits and remained at home inactive. On Mar. 13, she assembled her relations to fight against the devil for

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the salvation of many lost souls. From morning till night they beat the walls and the floor of the house, crying out epithets against the devil; the next day the same was done, until the house was weakened, parts of partitions fell, and the police interfered. The next day Margareta declared that to complete the victory blood must flow, obtained from her sister a statement of willingness to die, and then smote her sister to death. She told the maid that on the third day she would raise her sister from the dead. The final revelation was to the effect that Margareta must herself die, and she commanded the maid to strike her, which was done with a knife on neck and forehead; Margareta had the blood received in a basin with the words: Now will souls be saved and Satan be overpowered. She then commanded the maid to crucify her, and, when the latter demurred, asked whether she was unwilling to do God's work in order to prevent souls from remaining unsaved. She threw herself on the bed while the maid drove nails through feet, hands, elbows, and breast, Margareta giving no sign of suffering and promising to rise on the third day. The end came when a knife was driven through her head. Until the following Tuesday all awaited the predicted resurrection, when the father reported the death, and all concerned were taken into custody. The authorities made a thorough investigation, punished the participants with terms of imprisonment ranging from six months to sixteen years, and had the house torn down with the command that the spot remain uninhabited.

This strange occurrence has been widely debated and attributed to various causes, including vainglory, spiritual pride, and the like. But the case is better understood as that of a weak and hysterical girl with an extraordinarily active mind, which the religious excitability of the times aroused to unusual conceptions; the effect of the mingling of her own experiences with the doctrine of Ganz, together with the effect of her preaching and the leadership yielded to her by the circle'which heard her sufficiently explain the processes by which Margareta Peter was led to her astounding course. It is to be added that the participants in the events received their sentences and punishment in the sense of a martyrdom.

Carl Pestalozzi† .

Bibliography: J. L. Meyer, Schw&rmerische Grevelscenen in Wildenspuch, 2d ed., Zurich, 1824; C. E. Jarcke,

in J. E. Hitzig's Annalen der . . Criminalrechtspilege, Berlin, 1830, also in Jarcke's Vermischte Schriften, vol. ii., Munich, 1839; J. F. von Meyer, in Bldtter für h6here Wahrheat, v (1824), 282 sqq., vi (1825), 377 sqq.; Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, viii (1831), nos. 20-23; and J. Scherr's novel, Die Gekrewigte . . . von Wildisbuch, St. Gall, 1860.