View source for Gieseler, Johann Karl Ludwig (1792-1854)

Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler (b. 3 March 1792, d. 8 July 1854) was a church historian, professor of theology at the University of Göttingen, author of <em>Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte</em> (Bonn, 1840-53), English translation, <em>A Textbook of Church History</em> (N.Y., 1868), which contains a treatise on the [[Anabaptism|Anabaptists]] (III, Part I, 196-200) and one on the Mennonites (Part II, 90-102), stating in terse and objective terms what was known by scholars at the time, and citing an amazing number of sources, including even the works of [[Menno Simons (1496-1561)|Menno Simons]]. He does not, of course, give a true picture. He traces the rise of the Mennonites to [[Müntzer, Thomas (1488/9-1525)|Thomas Müntzer]]. In the divisions of the Dutch Mennonites he sees the "repulsive picture of raw piety, crossed by vanity and self-assertion of the most petty kind," and concerning the Swiss Anabaptists he says, "Among them remnants of their original fanaticism continued a long time, and they differ in this from the Mennonites, who nevertheless regarded them as their brethren in faith and frequently had letters of intercession written by the States General to the cantons, as to [[Zürich (Switzerland)|Zürich]] in 1660, and to [[Bern (Switzerland)|Bern]] in 1718." On the whole, this history shows clearly what great progress research had made in the field of Mennonite history.
= Bibliography =
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. <em>Mennonitisches Lexikon</em>. Frankfurt &amp; Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe; Schneider, 1913-1967: v. II, 113.
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