Anabaptisticum et enthusiasticum Pantheon und geistliches Rüst-Hauss
Anabaptisticum et Enthusiastcum Pantheon Und Geistliches Rüst-Hausz Wider die Alten Quäcker Und Neuen Frey-Geister . . ., a strange pamphleteering volume, large folio in size, with over 1,000 pages, was compiled in 1702 by a certain Johann Friedrich Corvinus (Rabe), a Lutheran minister of Hornburg (died 1724). The volume contains 14 different pamphlets attacking practically everyone who was not of the strict Lutheran orthodoxy of about 1700. It attacks above all the Quakers, but also Mystics, Pansophists (Rosicrucians), all kinds of Pietists (e.g., Labadie), philosophers such as Descartes, Spinoza and Hobbes, Jews, Cromwell and his Puritans, and, last but not least, the "old and new fanatics of Anabaptist spirit" (pamphlet II). Yet, in the text proper, only Thomas Müntzer is discussed.
To Mennonites the book is of value because it prints in its sixth pamphlet, called Alte und neue Schwarmgeister Brut und Quaker Greuel, on pages 352-361 the full text of the Confession oder Kurzes und einfältiges Glaubens Bekenntnis derer so man nennet die vereinigten Flämischen, Friesischen und Hochdeutschen Taufgesinnten oder Mennoniten, ausgegeben durch die Gemeinde in Preussen, 1660, and subsequently on pages 362-367 the Kurze Unterweisung aus der Schrift, 1690 (in full), the oldest known German Prussian catechism, also called the Fragebüchlein, yet without the prayers usually printed within this otherwise well-known Prussian devotional manual. (The only known copy of this confession and catechism is in the [[Amsterdam Mennonite Library (Bibliotheek en Archief van de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente te Amsterdam)|Amsterdam Mennonite Library]].) Remarkably, this print appears only as an appendix to the pamphlet VI and is without commentary, something unusual in this otherwise so venomous book.
In general, the book has value as a collection of original sources and information otherwise not available. As such it might be compared with the more neutral Annales Anabaptistici of 1672, and with G. Arnold's Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie of 1699, where the heretics are eulogized. No doubt the Lutheran orthodoxy was then fighting a hard fight of survival, and the book was a tool in this struggle.
It should be mentioned that pamphlet Number III contains B. Figken's Historia Fanaticorum (Danzig,1701) mainly against the then rather aggressive Quakers. Allegedly this pamphlet is a translation of an English original (London, 1660). Number XII has the long-winded title, Erschröckliche Brüderschaft der alten und neuen Wiedertäuffer, Quäker, Schwärmer und freigeister mit denen heil- und Gottlosen Juden (1702).
Bibliography
Friedmann Robert. Mennonite Piety Through the Centuries: Its Genius and its Literature. Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History. Goshen, Ind.: Mennonite Historical Society, 1949: 119, 129 f.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. I, 69.
Hubben, Wilhelm. Die Quäker in der deutschen Vergangenheit. Leipzig: Quaker Verlag, 1929: 97.
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| Author(s) | Robert Friedmann |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1955 |
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MLA style
Friedmann, Robert. "Anabaptisticum et enthusiasticum Pantheon und geistliches Rüst-Hauss." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1955. Web. 23 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Anabaptisticum_et_enthusiasticum_Pantheon_und_geistliches_R%C3%BCst-Hauss&oldid=106975.
APA style
Friedmann, Robert. (1955). Anabaptisticum et enthusiasticum Pantheon und geistliches Rüst-Hauss. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 23 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Anabaptisticum_et_enthusiasticum_Pantheon_und_geistliches_R%C3%BCst-Hauss&oldid=106975.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, pp. 117-118. All rights reserved.
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