1 The Most Important Material for a Study of Schwenckfeld Is the Following
Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum, edited by C. D. Hartranft. Published Leipzig, vol. i. (1907); vol. ii. (1911); vol. iii. (1913). Other volumes to follow.
Schriften von Kaspar Schwenckfeld, in 4 folio volumes. Published between the years 1564-1570. Indicated in my notes as vol. i., vol. ii., vol. iii. A, vol. iii. B. There are, too, many uncollected books and tracts, to some of which I refer in footnotes.
Karl Ecke, Schwenckfeld, Luther, und der Gedanke einer apostolischen Reformation (Berlin, 1911). Important book, but to be followed with caution.
R. H. Gruetzmacher, Wort und Geist (Leipzig, 1902).
Gottfried Arnold, Kirchenund Ketzer-Historien, i. pp. 1246-1299. (Edition of 1740.)
H. W. Erbkam, Geschichte der prolestantischen Sekten im Zeitaller der Reformation (Hamburg und Gotha, 1848), pp. 357-475.
Doellinger, Die Reformation, i. pp. 257-280.
Ernst Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen (Tuebingen, 1912), pp. 881-886.
[2] Christ, Schwenckfeld insisted, is the sum of the whole Bible, and to learn to know Christ fundamentally is to grasp the substance of the entire Scripture.
[3] He wrote in 1543 to Luther: “I owe to you in God and the truth all honour, love, and goodwill, because from the first I have reaped much fruit from your service, and I have not ceased to pray for you according to my poor powers.”—Schriften, ii. p. 701 d.
[4] In An Epistle to the Sisters in the Cloister at Naumberg, written probably in the autumn of 1523, he says: “A true Christian life in its essential requirements does not consist in external appearance... but quite the contrary, it does consist in personal trust in God through an experience of Jesus Christ, which the Holy Ghost brings forth in the heart by the hearing of the Divine Word.”—Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum, i. p. 118.
[5] Ermahnung dess Missbrauchs etlicher fuernemsten Artikel des Evangelii (1524). Corpus Schw. ii. pp. 26-105.
[6] “Wir greyffen das Creutz noch am waichsten Ort an.”—Ermahnung dess Missbrauchs. Corpus Schw. ii. p. 89.
[7] “There are now in general two parties that make wrong use of the Gospel of Christ, one of which turns to the right and the other to the left of the only true and straight way. The first party is that of the Papacy... the other party consists of those to whom God has now granted a gracious light—But!”—Ermahnung dess Missbrauchs.
[8] The Stillstand was proposed in a Circular Letter written by Schwenckfeld, Valentine Crautwald, and the Liegnitz Pastors, April 21, 1526.—Corpus Schwenckfeld, i. pp. 325-333.
[9] The revival of this idea of a Stillstand, that is, of a suspension of certain time-honoured practices of the Church until a further revelation and new enduement should be granted, will be referred to in later chapters, especially in connection with the Collegiants of Holland and the English Seekers.
[10] Ecke, op. cit. p. 217.
[11] Arnold, op. cit. ii. p. 251. There are many similar references to Schwenckfeld in Luther’s Table Talk, and he usually calls him by the opprobrious name of “Stenkfeld.”
[12] “Ein natuerliches Licht kennt Schwenckfeld nicht.”—Gruetzmacher, Wort und Grist (Leipzig, 1902), p. 168.
[13] The important data for Schwenckfeld’s doctrine of Christ and the way of salvation will be found in the following writings by him:—
Von der goettlichen Kindschaft und Herrlichkeit des ganzen Sones Gottes (1538).
Ermanunge zum wahren und selig machende Erkaenntnis Christi (1539).
Konfession und Erklaerung von Erkaenntnus Christi und seiner goettlichen Herrlichkeit (1540).
[14] Schriften, i. p. 664. See also p. 662.
[15] For the doctrine of deification in Irenaeus see Harnack, Hist. of Dogma, ii. pp. 230-318.
[16] See Schriften, i. p. 768.
[17] Ibid. i. p. 767 a.
[18] Schriften, i. p. 767 a.
[19] Die heilige Schrift. x. d.
[20] Ibid. cviii. c.
[21] Ibid. ii. b.
[22] Die heilige Schrift. vi. and vii.
[23] Vom Worte Gottes, xxii. c.
[24] Die heilige Schrift. iv. b.
[25] Catechismus vom Wort des Creuetses, vom Wort Gottes, und vom Underscheide des Worts des Geists und Buchstabens.
[26] Die heilige Schrift. iv. c.
[27] Schriften, i. p. 725.
[28] Ibid. i. p. 634.
[29] Schriften, i. p. 380.
[30] See ibid. ii. p. 421.
[31] Corpus Schwenck. i. p. 295.
[32] Schriften, iii. A.
[33] Schriften, ii. p. 290.
[34] Schriften, ii. p. 785.
[35] Ibid. i. p. 768 b.
[36] Schriften, i. p. 513. For a criticism of the legalism of the Anabaptists see ibid. i. pp. 801-808.
[37] The details are given in Friederich Roth’s Augsburgs Reformations-Geschichte (Muenchen, 1907), iii. p. 245 ff.
[38] A Preservative or Treacle against the Poyson of Pelagius, etc. (1551), A iii.
[39] For a fuller account of the Collegiants see Chap. VII.
[40] Schriften, iii. B, p. 572.
[41] Ibid. ii. p. 783.
[42] Ibid. a. p. 784.
[43] Ibid. iii. A, p. 146.
[44] Schriften, ii. p. 785.
[45] Ibid. ii. p. 783.
[46] Ibid. iii. A, p. 74.
[47] Franck’s Chronica (1531), p. ccccli.
[48] Rutherford, A Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist (1648), chap. v.
← Back to Spiritual Reformers in the 16th and 17th Centuries