Hille Feicken was an Anabaptist woman, native of Sneek, Dutch province of Friesland and baptized there, married to the Anabaptist Psalmus of Utrecht, enticed by the prophecies of Münster as the New Zion left Sneek in 1534 to join the "chosen" at Münster. On 16 June 1534, early in the morning she left the city of Münster with the intention—like Judith and Holophernes (in the Apocryphal book of Judith) of seducing and killing the Catholic bishop of Münster, who had laid siege to the city. Of course this enterprise signally failed. Hille was taken prisoner by the bishop's troops, tried, tortured, and put to death. Her confession, published by Kerssenbroich, Cornelius, and Niesert, contains important material concerning the revolutionary Anabaptist movement.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, pp. 741-742. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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