HULSHOFF
537
HULSHOFF
From a religious point of view Protestantism shows
no intlications of progress; its doctrines are daily
losing ground, aljove all in e<lucated circles. There,
as recently declared by M. Edmond Stapfer, dean of
the faculty of Protestant theology at Paris, in the
"Revue Chretienne", "people no longer want most
of the traditional beliefs; they no longer want the
dogmatic system, used by the Reformers and the
Reveil, in which many 'evangelical' pastors still be-
lieve, or by their silence leave the faithful to con-
clude that they still lielieve. . . . The intellectuals
will have no more of these antiquities, they do not go
to hear the pastors preach; they are agnostics; they
respectfully salute the ancient beliefs, but they get on
without them, and have no need of them either for
their intellectual or their moral life." Indeed it does
not appear that the practice of religion has any more
vitality among the niasses than faith has among
the intellectuals. Official reports made to the synods
testify that "the number of mixed marriages is in-
creasing, which proves that faith is diminishing.
... In certain tlistricts the number is sometimes
as many as 95 per cent; even in the very Protestant
districts, we know of 25 per cent in one place and 20
per cent in others, and as high as 50 per cent of unions
of this kind." As for attendance at public worship:
"Here", says one report made to the General Synod
of Bordeaux (1899), "are the figures for a section of
the country which must be classed among the best,
that of the Pyrenees. The average of attendance is
32 per cent. It does not go so high everywhere; in
Paris, for example, it reaches only 1 1 per cent, and in
some churches of Poitou we must go still lower . . .
to averages of 5 per cent. The same difference is
found in the number of communicants: here it is 12
per cent; there, 4 or even 3 per cent." These are
results which would doubtless have astonished and
scandalized Calvin, but which are sufficiently ex-
plained by the theory of free inquiry and the intimate
history of French Protestantism, especially during
the last century.
Calvin, Opera ia Corpus rpformatorum (Brunswick, 1863- 96), ed. Baum. Cunitz, and Reu-ss; [de Bkze], Histoire cc- cU'siastique des eglises rcformces au royaume de France (2 vols., Toulouse, 1882); de La Tour, Les Origines de la Riforme (2 vols, already issued. Paris, 1905-9); Florimond de R.emond, Histoire de la naissance, progres, el decadence de Vhcresie de re sit'cle (Paris, 1612); Graf, Essni sur la vie et les ecrits de J. Le- fevre dEtaples (Strasburg, 1892); de Sabbatier-Plantier, Origines de la Reformation fran^aise (Toulouse, 1870) ; Laval, Compendious History of the Reformation in France (7 vols., Lon- don, 1737); Smedley, History of the Reformed Religion in France (3 vols., London, 1832); Browning, History of the Huijuenots (London, 1840); PuAUX, Histoire de la Reformation fran^aise (7 vols., Paris, 1859); (juiCK, Synodicon in Gallia reformata (2 vols., London, 1(592); Aymon, Les synodes nationaux (2 vols.. The Hai3:ue, 1710); de Felice, Histoire des synodes nationaux (Paris, 1864); XX X' Synode general de VEglise refonnee de France. Procis-verbaux et actes (Paris, 1873); Bersier, His- toire du stinode general de VEglise reformce de France (2 vols., Paris, 1872); Petavel, La Bible en France (Paris. 1864); Degert, Proeis de huit evcques fran<:ais suspects de calvinisme (Paris, 1904); [BENotx]. Histoire de VEdit de Nantes (5 vols., Delft. 1693); Degert, Le cardinal d'Ossal (Paris. 1896); Pet- rat, Histoire des pasteurs du Desert (2 vols.. Paris, 1842); An- QUEZ, Histoire des assemblees politiques des Reformes de France (Paris. 1S59); Coignet, Uivoiuiion du protestantisme fran^nia au XI X^ sii'cle (Paris, 190S); Encycloprdie des sciences reli- gieuses, ed. Lichtenberger (Paris, 1877-82), s. v.; Haag, La France protestante (10 vols., Paris, 1846; 2nd ed. begun in 1877); Bulletin de I'hisloire du protestantisme fran^.ais; Revue chretienne; DE Prat, Annuaires protestants; Gambier, Agendas protestants.
Antoine Degert.
HiilshoS (Drcste-Hltlshoff), Annette Elis.\- BETH, B.vRONEss VON, poetess; b. at Schloss Hulshoff near Miinster in Westphalia, 10 January, 1797; d. 24 May, 1848. After the death of her father. Baron Clemens August von Droste-Hulshoff (1826), she passed most of her life at Rvischhaus near Miinster. The monotony of this lonely life was broken, however, by prolonged visits to her brother-in-law's estates at Meersburg on Lake Constance, where she died.
Born prematurely, the poetess had a powerful mind in a delicate, sickly frame, a condition from which she
Annette I-heiin v<.>n Droste-
hulshoff
suffered all her life. The most remarkable of her
many mental gifts was an inexhaustible imagination
combined with keen powers of observation and the
facidty of reproducing her poetic concept in quaint
- md facile language. She was also .stimulated in
many ways by her congenial relations with both her maternal imcles, August and Werner von Haxt^ hausen, who brought lier in touch with the romantic movement. Her first training in poetic composition she received from the poet of the Hainbund, A. M. Sprickmann, professor of law at Miinster, whose in- fluence can be traced in many of the poems of her youth, which recall also those of Schiller. She owed still more to her friendship with Chr. B. Sehliiter, professor of philosophy at Miinster, for many years her mentor, and who, together with their common friend, W. Junkmann, sub.sequently professor of history at Breslau, first brought the poetess be- fore the public by selec- tions from her poetry, unfortunately not too happily chosen (Miin- ster, 1838). We must not, however, overesti- mate the influence of her Miinster friends on her poetic achieve- ments, any more than that of Levin Schiick- ing, with whom later she entered into friend- ly relations. Like all great minds, she fol- lowed her own course, and consequently the poems which she com- posed in the fruitful years she passed at Meersburg were the works of a finished poetess, who reeeivecl from Schiicking the right incentive at the right time.
Annette turned her muse to almost all kinds of poetry. In her dramatic attempts, however, she got no further than the fragment " Berta " and the one- act play "Perdu". Her brilliant descriptive powers in prose are amply manifested in her numerous letters and stories, among which are: "Bei uns zu Lande auf dem Lande", "Bilder aus Westfalen" and, particularly, "Die Judenbuche". With equal skill she handled narrative verse. Poetic imagery and warmth of colouring and vigour such as we see in the "Schlacht im Loener Bruch", are not frequently met with in German literature. Her "Geistliches Jahr" is a unique work in which she gives expression to her religious thoughts and impressions. It is intelligible only to thoso who in judging it take into account not merely the individuality of the author but also the entire tendency of the period when it was written.
The fame of the poetess rests chiefly on her lyric poems, her pastorales, and her ballads. In the poetic representation of nature, few can equal her. The poetical works of Annette von Droste-Hiilshoff are imperishable. What makes them so is their origin- ality, the proof that they are the works of a genius. It is this too that gained for their author the well- earned title of "Germany's greatest poetess". Col- lective editions of her works have been edited by Levin Schucking (1879); Kreiten (4 vols., 1884-87; 2nd ed., 1900); and Arens (1905); supplements and corrections to these by Esehmann (1909). Her letters were edited by Scliluter (2nd ed., 1880) and Th. Schucking (1893), and an important collection edited by Dr. Cardauns is embodied in the collection of Dr. Foster entitled " Forschungen und Funde" (1909). Dr. Foster is also engaged (1909) on an edition of the " Geistliclies .lalir ", the concluding part of which was left in an unfinislied state.
