Eva von Buttlar

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Eva Margaretha von Buttlar (22 June 1670, Barchfeld, Hesse-Kassel - 27 April 1721) was a mystic-libertine sectarian and the eponym for a group known as Buttlarsche Rotte (Buttlarian gang).

Barchfeld Ortsteil of Barchfeld-Immelborn in Thuringia, Germany

Barchfeld is a village and a former municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany. Since 31 December 2012, it is part of the municipality Barchfeld-Immelborn.

Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel state of the Holy Roman Empire in 1567–1803

The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, spelled Hesse-Cassel during its entire existence, was a state in the Holy Roman Empire that was directly subject to the Emperor. The state was created in 1567 when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided upon the death of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. His eldest son William IV inherited the northern half of the Landgraviate and the capital of Kassel. The other sons received the Landgraviate of Hesse-Marburg, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Rheinfels and the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Libertine person who rejects common moral or sexual restraints which they see as unnecessary or undesirable

A libertine is one devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which are seen as unnecessary or undesirable, especially one who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour sanctified by the larger society. Libertinism is described as an extreme form of hedonism. Libertines put value on physical pleasures, meaning those experienced through the senses. As a philosophy, libertinism gained new-found adherents in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, particularly in France and Great Britain. Notable among these were John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester and the Marquis de Sade.

Contents

Biography

Eva von Buttlar was born in the German town of Eisenach. She left her husband, the count tutor Jean de Vèsias. Together with Justus Gottfried Winter, a theology student and Johann Georg Appenfeller, a medical student, she founded a philadelphical society in Allendorf called the "Christliche und Philadelpische Sozietät" (Christian and Philadelphical Society). This society grew to about seventy members and proclaimed the dawn of the millennial empire. After the pietistscommand (assembly ban for separatist societies) of Karl von Hessen-Kassel, they moved from Allendorf to Glashütte and, later to Saßmannshausen near Lassphe in the shire of Wittgenstein.

Eisenach Place in Thuringia, Germany

Eisenach is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located 50 kilometres west of Erfurt, 70 km southeast of Kassel and 150 km northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situated near the former Inner German border. A major attraction is Wartburg castle, which has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 1999.

Bad Sooden-Allendorf Place in Hesse, Germany

Bad Sooden-Allendorf is a town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.

Glashütte Place in Saxony, Germany

Glashütte [German pronunciation: [ˈɡlaːsˌhʏtə](listen)] is a town in Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge, Free State of Saxony, Germany, which was the birthplace of the German watchmaking industry. The city has a population of about 7,000. Historically it was first mentioned in a document around 1445. In January 2008, the former municipality Reinhardtsgrimma was merged into Glashütte.

The Society was rejected by different Pietists like Spener and Francke and other separatist Societies. In November 1704, the Society was arrested for fornication, blasphemy, abortion and double infant murder. They escaped in March 1705 from Castle Wittgenstein.

Fornication

Fornication is generally consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other. When one of the partners to consensual sexual intercourse is a married person, it may be described as adultery.

Blasphemy is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable.

Abortion is the ending of pregnancy due to removing an embryo or fetus before it can survive outside the uterus. An abortion that occurs spontaneously is also known as a miscarriage. When deliberate steps are taken to end a pregnancy, it is called an induced abortion, or less frequently an "induced miscarriage". The word abortion is often used to mean only induced abortions. A similar procedure after the fetus could potentially survive outside the womb is known as a "late termination of pregnancy" or less accurately as a "late term abortion".

On 3 November 1705, Winter announced Eva as the fiancé of the holy spirit and Appenfeller to be God's son. In 1706, the activities of the society peaked in Lüdge near Pyrmont. Again driven by court order, they moved to Altona, where the society caused no further issues. Butllar then married Appenfeller. In 1713, she gave birth to her only child, a son designated as the Messiah. After her death in April 1721, the Society continued, but their history was lost.

Bad Pyrmont Place in Lower Saxony, Germany

Bad Pyrmont is a town in the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont, in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany, with a population close to 19,000. It is located on the River Emmer, about 10 km west of the Weser. Bad Pyrmont is a popular spa resort that gained its reputation as a fashionable place for princely vacations in the 17th and 18th centuries. The town is also the center of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Germany.

Altona, Hamburg Borough of Hamburg in Germany

Altona is the westernmost urban borough (Bezirk) of the German city state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864 Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy and Denmark's only real harbour directly to the North Sea. Altona was an independent city until 1937. In 2016 the population was 270,263.

Messiah saviour or liberator of a group of people, most commonly in the Abrahamic religions

In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias is a saviour or liberator of a group of people.

Beliefs and viewpoints

Buttlar rejected ecclesiasticism and any religious restriction made by Philadelphian groups and the contempt of worship and sacrament made by separatist groups.

Everything else the society practiced can be summarized as sectarian-sexual libertinism, particularly the society's idiosyncratic interpretation of the Sophia-Speculation and the myth of androgynous primeval man. With Winer as the "Godfather" and Appenfeller as the "Son", she, the "heavenly Sophia", allegorized the visible "heavenly trinity".

the "practical application" of the mystical idea of the marriage of spiritual man with heavenly Sophia, as developed by Jakob Böhme and Johann Georg Gichtel involved the physical union with "Mother Eve" at the "Pool of Bethesda", which restored the androgynous "creation condition".

The "carnal intercourse as something sacred" (Winter considered), bound the members of the society in the practice of their faith.

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