Lüsen (Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Lüsen (Lisen; Italian, Luson) is a village (population in 1955 ca. 300) in the Lüsental, a subsidiary valley of the Rienz in southern Tyrol, Austria (now Italy). Although it was close to Brixen, it was open to the Anabaptist movement. In 1532 Hutter baptized seven persons here according to a statement made by Friedrich Brandenberg, his companion, who was put to death soon afterward. In 1534 Offerus Griesinger, one of the boldest and most adept Anabaptist apostles in Tyrol, won many adherents here. In 1535 the judge of Brixen came to Lüsen, called the people together, and announced to them the severe Anabaptist mandates of the Brixen government, and threatened that anyone who in the future sheltered an Anabaptist would be executed, and his house burned down. He took ten unsubmissive persons with him to Brixen, of whom seven recanted but only apparently, in order to escape to Moravia.
In 1536 Hans Grünfelder was leader and treasurer in Lüsen, and held a "big meeting" in March. Sigmund Han, the chancellor of the prince-bishop, informed the bishop that Hans Amon was active around Lüsen, and that 17 persons had left their homes to go to Moravia, including some who had once "sworn off" their error. The Brixen authorities raided the region, combing it for certain persons. Grunfelder escaped, but was later caught in the Oetztal and executed at Imst. Griesinger again took up the work here; in the meantime he had taken several groups to Moravia, returned as a missionary to Moravia, been imprisoned, and escaped. Now he was captured again at Lüsen in April 1537 and imprisoned in Brixen, whence he managed again to escape.
Anabaptists of Lüsen en route to Moravia in 1542 were stopped in Kropfsberg and sent to Brixen for judgment. Lüsen was also the home of Balthasar Dosser, "a particularly dangerous agitator," who was cruelly put to death with several companions at Innsbruck in 1562. Even in the 1580s, indeed in 1604 there are in the court record still some traces of the Anabaptists.
Bibliography
Beck, Josef. Die Geschichts-Bücher der Wiedertäufer in Oesterreich-Ungarn. Vienna, 1883; reprinted Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1967.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. II, 702.
Loesche, Georg. "Tirolensia: Täufertum und Protestantismus." Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für die Geschichte des Protestantismus im ehemaligen und im neuen Österreich 47 (1926).
Loserth, Johann. Der Anabaptismus in Tirol. Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1892.
Wolkan, Rudolf. Geschicht-Buch der Hutterischen Brüder. Macleod, AB, and Vienna, 1923.
Zieglschmid, A. J. F. Die älteste Chronik der Hutterischen Brüder: Ein Sprachdenkmal aus frühneuhochdeutscher Zeit Ithaca: Cayuga Press, 1943.
Zingerle, J. V. Schilderungen aus Tirol. 1877.
| Author(s) | Paul Dedic |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1957 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Dedic, Paul. "Lüsen (Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 18 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=L%C3%BCsen_(Trentino-Alto_Adige,_Italy)&oldid=145741.
APA style
Dedic, Paul. (1957). Lüsen (Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 18 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=L%C3%BCsen_(Trentino-Alto_Adige,_Italy)&oldid=145741.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, pp. 414-415. All rights reserved.
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