„Wahrheit kompt doch endlich ans liecht" : Edition und Kontextualisierung zweier Gedichte aus der Sammlung Geistliche und Weltliche Poemata (1650) von Anna Ovena Hoyer (1584-1655)

Sammanfattning: Through a diplomatic transcription and contextualisation of two poems from Geistliche und Weltliche Poemata (1650) by Anna Ovena Hoyer (1584-1655) it is suggested that two contexts are highly relevant and fruitful for understanding the polemical nature of the Early Modern Era. The two examined contexts are anti-clericalism  ̶  the negative stance towards Lutheran clergymen  ̶  and the conditions for writing as a female in Early Modern times. By offering comments and providing information regarding these two contexts, it is demonstrated how they successfully explain and motivate how a lay uneducated poetess develops rhetorical strategies to express radical criticism of the discourse of Lutheran clergymen. Notably, the authors of the two poems, Werdenhagen and Hoyer, legitimise a morally superior poetess by constructing a feminine authority derived analogously from the story of Martha and Mariam in the Bible. Furthermore, Hoyer uses this claim of being a mouthpiece for godly wisdom to delegitimise the bookly and rational knowledge acquired in the universities by the Lutheran clergymen. By using the politically charged term “der gemeine Mann”, she appeals to the political defeats of the great majority of laymen in the Early Modern Era. In her polemic against the Lutheran clergymen, it is implied that the expected silent subservience of the laymen towards the clergymen is problematic, since the clergymen due to their blind faith in bookly knowledge are neither righteous nor Christian. Thus, it is suggested that the examined pieces of poetry could be understood as radical criticism of the Lutheran social model.