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[German Version] (Apr 1, 1753, Chambéry – Feb 26, 1821, Turin). After studying law in Turin from 1769 to 1772, Maistre practiced law in his home town, and in 1773 became a freemason (Freemasons). His career reached its peak in 1788 when he became senator of Savoy. The military encroachment of the French Revolution into his home town in 1792 forced him to emigrate the following year to Lausanne. This destabilizing experience made him a political advocate of the Restoration ( Considérations sur la France, 1796). The theological basis for this was a strong sense of providence. Mai…

[German Version] (Jun 6, 1684, Hawkhurst, Kent – Jul 24, 1768, Hawkhurst, Kent). After his formation at a Presbyterian academy in London from 1699 to 1703 and studying in Utrecht and Leiden, Lardner was an independent preacher from 1709, and a private chaplain and tutor from 1713. While officiating as an assistant preacher in London (from 1721), he worked on his main publication, a work of popular enlightenment entitled The Credibility of the Gospel History (17 vols., 1727–1757), which was based on a series of lectures. The basic notions of historical criticism impart…

[German Version] (c. 910–992), reforming abbot of Montier-en-Der (from 967/68) and St. Bénigne (c. 982–985). Adso composed lives of various saints and (between 949 and 954) an influential summary of the Antichrist tradition in biographical form. In it, Adso categorized the West Frankish Carolingians (to whom his patron Gerberga was related by marriage) as the heirs of Rome in God's plan of salvation. Volker Leppin Bibliography CCCM 45, 1976 R. Konrad, De ortu et tempore Antichristi, 1964.

[German Version] Biblia pauperum, was the name given to the Bible abbreviations for preaching purposes in the late Middle Ages. Technically “Bible of the Poor” denotes a specific, primarily pictorial work of monastic provenance. As far as it can be reconstructed, its earliest, originally anonymous exemplar was written in the southeastern German language area in…

[German Version] (Dec 25, 1756, Benevento – Apr 19, 1844, Rome) came from a noble family and was doctor of canon and civil law. In 1785 he was consecrated titular bishop of Damietta, and in the same year, without the recognition of the archbishop of Cologne, took office in the city as papal nuncio. Against episcopalism (II; Ems, Congress of), he vigorously represented the papal position. As nuncio in Lisbon (1794/1795–1802) he fought with equal vigor (having been made a cardinal in 1801) against P…

[German Version] I. Church History – II. Dogmatics – III. Ethics I. Church History The term “enthusiasts” ( Schwärmer) is not a historiographic category but a theologically evaluative term for a type of piety that by false appeal to the Holy Spirit (Spirit/Holy Spirit) pays inadequate regard to the extra nos of Christian salvation. Luther, along with T. Müntzer and A. v. Karlstadt, shaped its usage in the dispute with the Zwickau …

[German Version] Baroness de Stäel-Holstein (Apr 22, 1766, Paris – Jul 14, 1817, Paris). As an exile during the French Revolution, Mme. de Staël was the central figure of a European network of communication. Refracting the ideas of J.-J. Rousseau through the lens of early German Romanticism, she wrote in criticism of the social conventionality restricting women, and preached the perfecting of humanity in history. Volker Leppin Bibliography C. Blennerhassett, Madame de Staël, 1889 (Eng.).

[German Version] I. Definition The use of spiritualism as a precise technical term was shaped by the Soziallehren of E. Troeltsch, who used it to distinguish between two groups Luther had lumped together as Schwärmer (“Enthusiasts”): spiritualists and Anabaptists. The common characteristic shared by the groups called spiritualists is their belief in the direct effect of the Holy Spirit (Spirit/Holy Spirit) within each individual, in contrast to the outward working of the Spirit through the words of Scripture. As a rule, this belief i…