Then Busch said:
“Because I have authority to do so, say to them: the confessor is sitting in the church, in front of the window, where you are wont to confess, so you may go there and confess.” Then the prioress or eldest of the sisters came to the window and confessed fully to me ... and when she had finished I said, “Sister, have you more to say?” Whereat she cried in alarm, “Are you the provost of the Neuwerk?” I answered, “Even so.” “Then have I confessed to the provost?” “Yea.” “What now shall I do and say?” I replied, “Be silent and tell no one that I have heard your confession, so that the others may come to confess, otherwise you will be the only one to have confessed to me.” She did so and receiving absolution left me, telling no one that she had confessed to me.
After that each nun who came received the same advice, until all had confessed[2148].
At Derneburg the nuns were afraid to come and confess for another reason. There was current in the taverns and dining halls of the whole country side a tale of the terrible penance imposed by Busch upon a brother of his monastery of Sülte, who took a larger draught of drink from the drinking cup than Busch thought seemly, whereupon he was said to have caused the unfortunate man to lie for three hours before the dining table in the frater, with his mouth stretched open by a large horse-bone; and when one of the brothers burst out laughing at the sight, Busch was said to have thrown the drinking cup in his face. The weeping nuns informed him between their sobs: “We are virgins and maids, we cannot do such a great penance for such a little fault.” Busch was obliged to assure them that the whole tale was a fabrication[2149]. At Escherde he had the same difficulty.
The frightened nuns were afraid to confess to me, because they had heard that I was wont to inflict very severe penances, which was not true, as I afterwards told them. Then their praepositus said to them: “The bishop’s mandate orders you to confess to him under pain of excommunication and if you refuse then you will be under an interdict. My good ladies, I counsel you to confess to him. I will place beside him my servant with a drawn sword and if he says one bad or harsh word to you it shall cleave his head.” When they saw and heard that they could not escape they consented to confess to me, but they sent before them first one bold nun in order to beard me. Seated in the confessional, she began, “Sir, what do you here?” I answered, “I lead you all to the kingdom of heaven.”... Half the nuns confessed to me that day. To the third of them I said, “Sister, am I as harsh as you said I was?” and she replied, “You are a man of gold, gentle and kind beyond all things.” In the evening, when we were supping I said to the praepositus: “What are your nuns saying about me? Am I as severe as they thought?” He replied, “When it was their turn to go to confession, the hair of their heads stood on end, but when they came away from you, they returned in great consolation.” The next day I finished the others before dinner, and towards the end I asked one of them. “Am I as hard and severe as you heard?” and she replied, “Now you are honey-tongued. But when you have got our consent and have tied a rope to our horns to drag us along, then you will say to us: You must and shall do all that I desire.” I answered her, “Beloved sister, fear not, for I shall always remain kind and benign towards you”[2150].
Besides confessing the nuns Busch and his fellow visitors went through the conventual routine with them, showing them how they ought to perform divine service, to behave in the frater and to hold chapters. The most efficacious means of reform employed, however, was to send for some reformed nuns from another convent, to dwell in the newly reformed house. Nuns of the order of Mary Magdalen in Hildesheim went to Heiningen, Stederburg, Frankenburg, and the White Ladies of Magdeburg. Fischbeck was reformed by nuns of the Windesheim order. Marienberg was reformed by nuns of Bronopia and in its turn sent reformers to Marienborn and Stendal, where nuns of Dorstadt had already made reforms, from which the original members soon fell away. Two nuns and a conversa were sent from Heiningen to the Holy Cross at Erfurt and the Abbess and four nuns of Derneburg went to Weinhausen[2151]. The newcomers were usually gladly lent and graciously received in their new homes; sometimes they remained and held office in the latter and sometimes they returned to their own houses, when the reform was firmly rooted. The tale of the reform of Marienberg is charming[2152]. Busch, with the consent of the chapter-general of the congregation of Windesheim, took from Bronopia two nuns, Ida and Tecla and a lay sister Aleidis, who for his sake and for the sake of the good work left their own country and their noble friends and relatives, and made a long and sometimes dangerous journey with Busch across Westphalia and Saxony to Helmstedt. Here they were joyfully received. Ida was made subprioress to introduce reforms and to order all the internal discipline of the house; Tecla, who was a learned lady, was made governess of the novices, teaching them to sing and to read Latin and “to write letters and missives in a masterly manner, in good Latin, as I have seen and examined with my eyes.” Aleidis was made mistress of the conversi.
For three years these nuns dwelt at Helmstedt, beloved of all and bringing the place to excellent order. Then Tecla fell ill. The Prioress sent for Busch:
and I came and found her sitting in the infirmary and ordered her to be bled and to receive suitable medicine. And when I had remained there for two or three days I decided to go away without taking them and I bade them farewell at eventide;
for Busch had decided that it was time for the sisters to return to Bronopia:
After this the proctress of the house came to me, saying: “Beloved father! Sister Tecla is asking for you with tears, for she says she will never see you again. I beseech you that you will go and speak to her once again tomorrow, before you leave.” I answered, “Willingly, for she is my dear sister and for God’s sake and mine she left all her rich friends and her own country and followed me to this strange and distant land.” The next day, therefore, I visited her in her bed, in the presence of Ida and Aleidis. Then she was better and was well content that I should go away and soon she recovered altogether from that illness.