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KRUDENER, BARBARA JULIANA, BARONESS V...
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See also:KRUDENER, See also:BARBARA JULIANA, BARONESS VON (1764-1824) , See also:Russian religious mystic and author, was See also:born at See also:Riga in See also:Livonia on the rith of See also:November 1764. Her See also:father, See also:Otto See also:Hermann von Vietinghoff, who had fought as a See also:colonel in See also:Catherine II.'s See also:wars, was one of the two councillors for Livonia and a See also:man of immense See also:wealth; her See also:mother, nee Countess See also:Anna Ulrica von See also:Munnich, was a See also:grand-daughter of the celebrated See also: The baron was coldly See also:kind; he refused to hear of a See also:divorce and attempted to arrange a modus vivendi, which was facilitated by the departure of De Fregeville for the See also:war. All was useless; Juliana refused to remain at Copenhagen, and, setting out on her travels, visited Riga, St See also:Petersburg—where her father had become a senator2—See also:Berlin, See also:Leipzig and See also:Switzerland. In 1798 her husband became ambassador at Berlin, and she joined him there. But the stiff See also:court society of See also:Prussia was irksome to her; See also:money difficulties continued; and by way of See also:climax, the See also:murder of the See also:tsar Paul, in whose favour Baron Krudener had stood high, made the position of the ambassador extremely See also:precarious. The baroness seized the occasion to leave for the See also:baths of See also:Teplitz, whence she wrote to her husband that the doctors had ordered her to See also:winter in the south. He died on the 14th of See also:June 1802, without ever having seen her again.
Meanwhile the baroness had been revelling in the intellectual society of Coppet and of Paris. She was now See also:thirty-six; her charms were fading, but her See also:passion for admiration survived. She had tried the effect of the See also:shawl See also:dance, in See also:imitation of Emma, See also:Lady See also: Though she had " found See also:peace," however, the disorder of her nerves continued,
' A portrait of Madame de Krudener and her son as " See also:Venus disarming See also:Cupid," by See also:Angelica See also:Kauffmann, of this See also:period, is in the Louvre.
2 He died while she was there in 1792.
xv. ,_aand she was ordered by her See also:doctor to the baths of See also:Wiesbaden. At See also:Konigsberg she had an interview with See also:Queen See also:Louise, and, more important still, with one See also:Adam See also: On the 5th of June 18or, accordingly, she arrived at the See also:Protestant parsonage of Sainte See also:Marie-aux-Mines, accompanied by her daughter Juliette, her step-daughter Sophie and a Russian See also:valet.
This remained for two years her headquarters. Fontaines, See also:half-See also:charlatan, half-dupe, had introduced into his See also:household a prophetess named Marie Gottliebin Kummer,' whose visions, carefully calculated for her own purposes, became the See also:oracle of the divine mysteries for the baroness. Under this influence she believed more firmly than ever in the approaching See also:millennium and her own mission to proclaim it. Her See also:rank, her reckless charities, and her exuberant eloquence produced a See also:great effect on the See also:simple country folk; and when, in 1809, it was decided to found a See also:colony of the " elect " in See also:order to wait for " the coming of the Lord," many wretched peasants sold or distributed all they possessed and followed the baroness and Fontaines into See also:Wurttemberg, where the See also:settlement was established at Catharinenplaisir and the See also:chateau of Bonnigheim, only to be dispersed (May I) by an unsympathetic See also:government.° Further wanderings followed: to Lichtenthal near Baden; to Karlsruhe and the congenial society of pietistic princesses; to Riga, where she was See also:present at the deathbed of her mother (See also:Jan. 24, 1811) then back to Karlsruhe. The influence of Fontaines, to whom she had teen spiritually married " (Madame Fontaines being content with the See also:part of Martha in the household, so See also:long as the baroness's funds lasted), had now waned, and she had fallen under that of Johann Kaspar Wegelin 0766-1833), a pious See also:linen-See also:draper of See also:Strassburg, who taught her the sweetness of " See also:complete annihilation of the will and mystic See also:death." Her See also:preaching and her indiscriminate charities now began to attract curious crowds from afar; and her See also:appearance everywhere was accompanied by an epidemic of visions and prophesyings, which culminated in the appearance in 1811 of the See also:comet, a sure sign of the approaching end. In 1812 she was at Strassburg, whence she paid more than one visit to J.. F. See also:Oberlin (q.v.), the famous pastor of Waldbach in See also:Steinthal (See also:Ban de la See also:Roche), and where she had the See also:glory of converting her See also:host, Adrien de Lazay-Marnesia, the See also:prefect. In 1813 she was at See also:Geneva, where she established the faith of a See also:band of young pietists in revolt against the Calvinist See also: 4 She had been condemned some years previously in Wurttemberg to the See also:pillory and three years' imprisonment as a " swindler " (Belrugerin), on her own See also:confession. Her curious See also:history is given in detail by M. Muhlenbeck.
° In 1809 it was obviously inconvenient to have See also:people proclaiming Napoleon as " the Beast."
11
Juliette d At the end of the year she returned with her Rev. xii. r. She wandered with Kellner from See also:place to place daughters and Empeytaz to Baden, a fateful See also:migration.
The empress See also: A private door connected the establishments, and every evening the emperor went to take part in the See also:prayer-meetings conducted by the baroness and Empeytaz. Chiliasm seemed to have found an entrance into the high See also:councils of Europe, and the baroness von Krudener had become a See also:political force to be reckoned with. See also:Admission to her religious gatherings was sought by a See also:crowd of people celebrated in the intellectual and social world; Chateaubriand came, and See also:Benjamin See also:Constant, Madame See also:Recamier, the duchesse de See also:Bourbon, and Madame de Duras. The fame of the wonderful See also:con-version, moreover, attracted other members of the chiliastic fraternity, among them Fontaines, who brought with him the prophetess Marie Kummer. In this religious forcing-See also:house the See also:idea of the See also:Holy See also:Alliance germinated and See also:grew to rapid maturity. On the 26th of September the portentous See also:proclamation, which was to See also:herald the opening of a new age of peace and See also:goodwill on earth, was signed by the sovereigns of Russia, See also:Austria and Prussia (see HOLY ALLIANCE; and EUROPE: History). Its authorship has ever been a See also:matter of dispute. Madame de Krudener herself claimed that she had suggested the idea, and that Alexander had submitted the draft for her approval. This is probably correct, though the tsar later, when he had recovered his See also:mental See also:equilibrium, reproved her for her indiscretion in talking of the matter. His eyes, indeed, had begun to be opened before he left Paris, and Marie Kummer was the unintentional cause. At the very first seance the prophetess, whose revelations had been praised by the baroness in extravagant terms, had the evil See also:inspiration to announce in her See also:trance to the emperor that it was God's will that he should endow the religious colony to which she belonged! Alexander merely remarked that he had received too many such revelations before to be impressed. The baroness's influence was shaken but not destroyed, and before he left Paris Alexander gave her a See also:passport to Russia. She was not, however, destined to see him again. She left Paris on the 22nd of See also:October 1815, intending to travel to St Petersburg by way of Switzerland. The tsar, however, offended by her indiscretions and sensible of the ridicule which his relations with her had brought upon him, showed little disposition to See also:hurry her arrival. She remained in Switzerland, where she presently fell under the influence of an unscrupulous adventurer named J. G. Kellner. For months Empeytaz, an honest enthusiast, struggled to See also:save her from this man's clutches, but in vain. Kellner too well knew how to flatter the baroness's inordinate vanity: the author of the Holy Alliance could be none other than the " woman clothed with the sun " of 1 Berckheim had been French See also:commissioner of See also:police in See also:Mainz and had abandoned his See also:post in 1813. proclaiming her mission, working miracles, persuading her converts to sell all and follow her. Crowds of beggars and rapscallions of every description gathered wherever she went, supported by the charities squandered from the See also:common fund. She became a See also:nuisance to the authorities and a menace to the peace; Wurttemberg had expelled her, and the example was followed by every Swiss See also:canton she entered in turn. At last, in See also:August 1817, she set out for her See also:estate in Livonia, accompanied by Kellner and a remnant of the elect. The emperor Alexander having opened the See also:Crimea to See also:German and Swiss chiliasts in See also:search of a See also:land of promise, the baroness's son-in-See also:law Berckheim and his wife now proceeded thither to help establish the new colonies. In November 182o the baroness at last went herself to St Petersburg, where Berckheim was lying See also:ill. She was there when the See also:news arrived of See also:Ypsilanti's invasion of the Danubian principalities, which opened the war of See also:Greek See also:independence. She at once proclaimed the divine mission of the tsar to take up arms on behalf of Christendom. Alexander, however, had long since exchanged her influence for that of Metternich, and he was far from anxious to be forced into even a holy war. To the baroness's overtures he replied in a long and polite See also:letter, the gist of which was that she must leave St Petersburg at once. In 1823 the death of Kellner, whom to the last she regarded as a See also:saint, was a severe See also:blow to her. Her health was failing, but she allowed herself to be persuaded by Princess Galitzin to accompany her to the Crimea, where she had established a Swiss colony. Here, at Karasu Bazar, she died on the 25th of See also:December 1824. Sainte-Beuve said of Madame de Krudener: " See also:Elie avait un immense besoin que le monde s'occupat d'elle . . . ; 1'amour propre, toujours l'amour propre . . . ! " A kindlier See also:epitaph might, perhaps, be written in her own words, uttered after the See also:revelation of the misery of the See also:Crimean colonists had at last opened her eyes: " The See also:good that I have done will endure; the evil that I have done (for how often have I not mistaken for the See also:voice of God that which was no more than the result of my See also:imagination and my See also:pride) the See also:mercy of God will blot out." Much See also:information about Madame de Krudener, coloured by the author's views, is to be found in H. L. Empeytaz's See also:Notice sur See also:Alexandre, empereur de Russie (2nd ed., Paris, 184o). The See also:Vie de Madame de Krudener (2 vols., Paris, 1849), by the Swiss banker and Philhellene J. G. Eynard, was long the See also:standard See also:life and contains much material, but is far from authoritative. In See also:English appeared the Life and Letters of Madame de Krudener, by See also:Clarence See also:Ford (See also:London, 1893). The most authoritative study, based on a wealth of See also:original See also:research, is E. Muhlenbeck's Etude sur See also:les origines de la Sainte-Alliance (Paris, 1909), in which numerous references are given. (W. A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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