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[German Version] Founded by Philip of Hesse in 1527 as the first Protestant university in Germany, the University of Marburg (renamed the Philipps-Universität in the 20th cent.) was a product of the Reformation in Hesse; it also met a territorial need and served to consolidate Philip's sovereignty. The establishment of a studium universale, without the customary papal privilege, took place in the context of an educational program promoting Humanism and the Reformation. Imperial approval – and hence recognition of university status – had to wait u…

[German Version] I. The Term The term quietism (from Lat. quies, “rest, quiet, silence”) was originally a polemical term for a particular school of ¶ Catholic mysticism. in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose spirituality was directed toward ataraxia (“tranquility”) as its highest goal. During the conflicts in Italy over its characteristic feature, orazione di quiete (“quiet prayer”), after 1680 the name quietists became attached to its advocates. A little later, probably in the context of the papal condemnation in 1687, the abstract term quietism was coined. II. History Quietism r…

[German Version] (Dec 2, 1628, Amsterdam – 1702, Friedrichstadt), millenarian prophetic preacher. Rothe was born into a patrician merchant family. After university studies and years of travel, during which he came under the influence of L.F. Gifftheil, he appeared in various Dutch cities as an inspired itinerant preacher called by God. In England his proclamation of a “fifth monarchy” (Dan 2:44; Fifth Monarchists) was interpreted as political propaganda for Charles II and prompted his arrest in 16…

[German Version] (Jan 2, 1661, Dobergast, Saxony – Sep 12, 1720, Kassel), radical Pietist itinerant preacher. After dropping out of secondary school, Tenn­hardt, the son of a prosperous farmer, worked as a barber and then after 1688 as a wigmaker in Nuremberg. As a young man, he was already an avid reader of mystical works, an interest that shaped his later religiosity, which involved repeated visions. In 1704, after the death of his wife, in a vision he experienced a call to be God’s “chancery cl…

[German Version] are communities which arose out of radical Pietism and still exist today. As early as around 1690, ecstatic, visionary and prophetic phenomena became manifest in the Pietist movement. After the appearance of ecstatic prophets from the Camisards, who came to Germany via England and the Netherlands, German prophets and prophetesses as well started to appear as “mediums”; in 1714, they sparked an enthusiastic “inspirational awakening,” primarily among the radical Pietists, which was …

[German Version] The Rijnsburg Collegiants were a Dutch religious group of the 17th and 18th centuries. When, after the Synod of Dort, the ministers of the Remonstrants (Arminians) were banned, the church elder Gisbert van der Codde and his brothers (Jan the elder, Arie, and Jan the younger) set up meetings for worship ( collegia) without a minister, in 1619 in Warmond and in 1621 in Rijnsburg, with reading of Scripture, prayer, and open preaching. In the course of the 17th century, these meetings were amplified by further collegia in other towns; the most important, in Rotterdam a…

[German Version] (1598–1659?), itinerant prophet. In 1629 Werner, a peasant from Bockendorf in Saxony, felt called by a vision to spend the next years prophesying and commenting on the “changes in the Holy Roman Empire” coming during the Thirty Years War. He condemned Saxony’s “betrayal” in the 1635 Peace of Prague. After 1636 he marched with the Swedish army; even after the Peace of Westphalia (Westphalia, Peace of), he accompanied military units until his death. He called for war against the Cat…

[German Version] This is a movement within the 17th-18th century mystical Spiritualism. The Philadelphian Society was founded in London between 1670 and 1694 by the visionary J. Leade with other English followers of Jacob Böhme. Applying the seven letters of Revelation to seven periods of church history, they believed that the time of “Philadelphia” (Rev 3:7ff.) was now beginning, with the gathering of the true children of God into the eschatological community. The Phila-¶ delphians kept a “non-party” distance from religious parties (confessions) and their teachings (…

[German Version] (Aug 14, 1666, Gudensberg near Kassel – May 3, 1733, Hersfeld). Mel studied in Rinteln, Bremen and Groningen, and was influenced by covenant theology and the Reformed Pietism of T. Undereyck. In 1690 he became preacher in Mitau (Kurland), 1692 in Memel, 1697 court preacher, and, from 1702, also professor in Königsberg. Here he held conventicles and, influenced by G.W. Leibniz, devised plans for missionary work among the heathen. In 1701 he became a member of the Prussian Akademie …

[German Version] (Jun 12, 1665, Stuttgart – Dec 11, 1728, Schwarzenau), radical Pietist (Pietism). After studying theology (from 1683) and a period as a graduate student (1689–1692) in Tübingen, Gruber pastored in Württemberg (1692–1703, Großbottwar, 1703–1706, Hofen). His heterodox views (Millenarianism/Chiliasm, perfectionism), contacts with the enthusiasts and his impudent attitude toward fellow pastors and members of his congregation provoked conflicts that led in 1706 to his dismissal from th…

[German Version] (often erroneously called Heinrich; Apr 17, 1680, Strasbourg – Mar 12, 1753, Berleburg). While still a theology student in his hometown, Haug was already involved in a fierce controversy concerning Pietist-Philadelphian conventicles. Following his banishment (1705) and a two-year sojourn in Esslingen that also ended with his expulsion ( Zeugnuß der Liebe an die Inwohnere der Stadt Straßburg und Eißlingen [Testimony of love to the inhabitants of the city of Strassburg and Eißlingen] (1708), Haug settled with his father David and his brothe…

[German Version] (Sep 5, 1666, Annaberg, Saxony – May 30, 1714, Perleberg, Altmark), the son of a Latin teacher, studied at Wittenberg from 1685 to 1689; there he came under influence of the polyhistor Conrad Samuel Schurtzfleisch (1641–1708). He turned from orthodox scholastic theology to Pietism under the influence of the writings…

[German Version] (1669/ 1670, Lauenburg/Elbe – Jan 12 [?], 1721, Schwarzenau), one of the chief proponents of radical Pietism. The son of a Lutheran official and his Catholic wife, Hochmann studied law at several universities, experienced conversion in Halle with accompanying enthusiastic phenomena and worked as a tutor in Pietist homes for some years. Before the turn of the century, associated with millennialist expectations (Millenarianism), he appeared in Switzerland, in Frankfurt, Laubach and …

[German Version] (Mar 18, 1595, Voigstdorf, Silesia [Wójtówka, Poland] – Feb 22, 1649, Elbing [Elbląg]), mystical spiritualist. After studying law in Marburg, in 1619 he entered the service of the elector palatine Frederick V and later the dukes of Silesia. His life was dominated by his conversion in 1621, brought about by an accident. He turned to a spiritualism that sought to combine the heritage of mysticism with the ideas of the Reformation (J. Tauler and Luther as duo centra unienda). He was surrounded by a circle of friends that included A. v. Franckenberg, with whom …

[German Version] (1648, Vlissingen – 1700, Middelburg), Dutch Reformed separatist. Already during his study of theology at Leiden, F. Spanheim the Younger was suspicious of his student’s views. In 1673, without passing his examinations, he began to organize “exercises” (conventicles) in Vlissingen, which he later continued in other towns. Since his views aroused distrust and he was even suspected of being an adherent of B. Spinoza, his attempts to find a church appointment were unsuccessful. Versc…

[German Version] (not: Johann; Mar 1, 1691, Eberbach/Neckar – Jul 6, 1768, Ephrata, PA), a radical pietist (Pietism). In the Palatinate as well as in the counties of Ysenburg and Wittgenstein, the itinerant baker came into contact with Pietistic groups, especially inspiration communities and Anabaptists (Church of the Brethren), and …

[German Version] The Ronsdorf Sect grew out of a Philadelphian society (Philadelphians) in Elberfeld. Its central figures were the merchant Elias Eller (1690–1750) and the baker’s daughter Anna v. Buchel (1702–1743; from 1733 Eller’s wife), who as “Mother of Zion” received ecstatic revelations (Inspirationist communities) regarding the imminent millennial kingdom (Millenarianism). Their son Benjamin (1734–1735) was to be the messiah. Even pastors, for example F.D.E. Schleiermacher’s grandfather Da…

[German Version] (Nov 14, 1741, Sibiu [Ger. Hermannstadt] – Oct 7/13, 1806, Biertan [Ger. Birthälm], Transylvania, Romania). The son of a goldsmith, Müller studied in Jena; in 1767 he became a teacher at the secondary school in his home town, and in 1776 its rector; in 1785, pastor in Guşteriţa (Ger. Hammersdorf), and in 1792 bishop of the Protestant church of the Augsburg Confession in Transylvania ¶ with seat in Biertan. As (co-)author of the anonymously published Die Siebenbürger Sachsen. Eine Volksschrift hg. bey Auflebung der für erloschen erklärten Nation (1790), and a Freemas…

[German Version] (Apr 15, 1646, Metz – May 21, 1719, Rijnsburg, near Leiden), French mystic. After attending school, Poiret became a tutor in French at the court of the counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg in Bouxwiller, Alsace. From 1664 he studied theology at Basel, Hanau, and Heidelberg. After ordination in 1669, he served as an assistant minister in French Reformed churches of the Palatinate (Otterberg, Frankenthal, Mannheim). From 1672 to 1676 he was pastor in Annweiler. During these years he had his …

[German Version] (died after 1736), radical Pietist. A cobbler's apprentice, he was expelled from his home city, Frankfurt am Main, in 1709, because of his polemics against the church and authority, led an irregular life as a wandering prophet (Wittgenstein region, Leiden and Altona). In view of the impending judgment of God, he called “false and unrepentant C…