View source for Hase, Karl August von (1800-1890)

Karl August von Hase (1800-1890), a [[Luther, Martin (1483-1546)|Lutheran]] church historian, professor of theology at the University of [[Jena (Thuringia, Germany)|Jena]], 1830-1883. In his historical writings he also dealt with the [[Anabaptism|Anabaptists]], but without doing them justice. To his book, <em>Neue Propheten</em> (1851), he added a section called "Das Reich der Wiedertäufer," which was published in 1860 as the third part in a new edition, after a Dutch edition, <em>Het Rijk der Wederdoopers</em>, had appeared in 1854. The book deals principally with the excesses of the [[Münster Anabaptists|Münsterites]], and is based on the incorrect premise that the Anabaptist movement was founded in 1521 by the "new prophets" in [[Zwickau Prophets|Zwickau]]. The quiet Anabaptists were briefly touched without differentiation. Even though he recognizes the demand of the Anabaptists for the "strict heroic morality of original Christianity," Hase nevertheless sees a danger in this "heresy," "because most of its adherents could depend on the sanctity of their conduct" (second edition, 12). His descriptions pursue a definite objective: in his mind the recollection of the "old Anabaptism" seemed instructive at a time "when a newly rising Protestant orthodoxy gives new justification to Anabaptism" (Foreword to the second edition of <em>Neue Propheten,</em> 1861, p. X).

In his <em>Kirchengeschichte auf der Grundlage akademischer Vorlesungen</em> only the Münsterites are given extensive discussion, while the quiet Anabaptists are passed by and the results of recent research are ignored. Even in the edition of 1891 he says, "Nowhere is a founder of the Anabaptists named" (Part III, section 1, p. 285), although Hase had in his book <em>Das Reich der Wiedertäufer</em> (p. 174) called attention to the forthcoming publication of the second book by C. A. Cornelius, <em>Geschichte des Münsterischen Aufruhrs</em> (Leipzig, 1860), which gives an authentic account, based on sources, of the origins of the [[Zürich (Switzerland)|Zürich ]]Anabaptists in 1525.
= Bibliography =
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. <em>Mennonitisches Lexikon</em>, 4 vols. Frankfurt &amp; Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. II, 261.

Hermsen, H. <em>Die Täufer in der deutschen Dichtung</em>. Stuttgart, 1913.
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