page_title: Anna Maria van Schurman
section_title: The Labadists
hierarchical_section_title: Anna Maria van Schurman / The Labadists
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Zelfportret van Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678) op 33-jarige leeftijd. Non animi fastus, nec formae gratia suasit Vultus aeterno sculpere in aere meos: Sed, si forte rudis stilus sic meliora negaret, Tentarem prima ne potiora vicem. A.M. à Schurman sculp. et delin. [= sculpsit et delineavit] Anno 1633. (Opmerking: in lopend schrift gothische en moderne "e" door elkaar gebruikt, bijvoorbeeld in "sculpere".) Vertaling: Niet trots of schoonheid bracht me ertoe Om mijn gelaatstrekken te graveren in eeuwig koper: Maar als mijn zeer ongeoefende (graveer)stift (stijl) beter werk nog niet aankan (weigert), Laat ik de eerste keer niet iets belangrijkers proberen. A.M. à Schurman gravure en tekening. 1633. English: Self portrait Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678), aged 33. Text (translation) No pride or beauty prompted me to engrave my features in eternal copper; But if my unpractised graver was not yet capable of producing good work, I would not risk a more weighty task the first time. A.M. à Schurman engraving and drawing. 1633. Adapted from link.springer.com Katlijne Van Der Stighelen ‘Et Ses Artistes Mains…’ The art of Anna Maria van Schurman, Note 29
context_page_description: Anna Maria van Schurman was a Dutch painter, engraver, poet, and scholar, who is best known for her exceptional learning and her defence of female education. She was a highly educated woman, who excelled in art, music, and literature, and became proficient in fourteen languages, including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Aramaic, and an Ethiopic language, as well as various contemporary European languages. She was also the first woman to study at a Dutch university.
context_section_description: In her 60s Schurman emerged as one of the principal leaders of the Labadists. In the 1660s Schurman had become increasingly disillusioned with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. She made the reformation of the church her goal. Along with corresponding with ministers, she travelled throughout the country and organised meetings with them. She lamented the lack of spiritual devotion and the "exhibits of the ecclesiastics" that occupied the church's pulpits.
  In 1661 Schurman's brother studied theology with the Hebrew scholar Johannes Buxtorf in Basel and learned about the defrocked French priest Jean de Labadie. He travelled to Geneva to meet him. In 1662 he corresponded with Schurman at length about Labadie's teachings. When Labadie and a small number of followers stopped over in Utrecht on the way to Middelburg, they lodged in Schurman's house. Labadie became the pastor of Middelburg, preaching millenarianism, arguing for moral regeneration and that believers should live apart from unbelievers. Schurman supported him even when he was removed as a pastor. When in late 1669 Labadie settled in Amsterdam to establish a separatist church, Schurman sold her house and part of her library. She joined Labadie's sectarian community. In March 1669 she broke with the Reformed Church when she published a 10-page pamphlet On the Reformation necessary at present in the Church of Christ. She denounced the church men for trampling on "celestial wisdom", arguing that the people of God should be separated from the "mondains" through "hatred of the world" and "divine love".
  A public smear campaign followed. Schurman was attacked by her intellectual friends, including Huygens and Voetius. Her writing style became forthright and confident. When the Labadists had to leave Amsterdam, Schurman secured an invitation from her friend Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, who in 1667 had become abbess at the Lutheran Damenstift of Herford Abbey. The 50 Labadists lived there between 1670 and 1672. At Herdford Schurman continued her art work and the Labadists maintained a printing press. Schurman was referred to by the Labadists as Mama, Labadie as Papa. Rumours had it that Labadie and Schurman had married; however, he married Lucia van Sommelsdijck. In 1772 the Labadists moved to Altona in Denmark, as Elisabeth of Bohemia had advocated on their behalf in correspondence with the King of Denmark. In 1673 Schurman published Eukleria, or Choosing the Better Part, a reference to Luke 10:42 when Mary chooses the better part by sitting at the feet of Christ. In it she derided Gisbertus Voetius's opposition to her admiration for Saint Paula, a disciple of St Jerome, who had helped to translate the Bible into Latin. Voetius argued that women should have a limited public role and that anything else was feminine impropriety. Eukleria was well received by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and prominent pietists, including Johann Jacob Schütz, Philipp Jakob Spener and Eleonore van Merlau.
  When Labadie died in 1674 Schurman investigated the possibility of moving to England, corresponding with the Latin scholar Lucy Hutchinson and the theologian John Owen on the matter. But the Labadists moved to the village Wieuwerd in Friesland and attracted numerous new members, including Maria Sibylla Merian. About 400 Labadists practiced absolute detachment from worldly values. They attempted to return to early church practices, sharing all property. In the final years of her life Schurman was housebound due to severe rheumatism. She continued to write, keeping up correspondence and working on the second part of Eukleria. She died aged 70 in 1678.
caption: Self portrait, 1632
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