Leigh Penman: 'The Unanticipated Millennium. Paul Egard, Orthodoxy, Heterodoxy and Chiliastic Error

LEIGH T.I. PENMAN

The Unanticipated Millennium.Orthodoxy, Heterodoxy and Chiliastic Errorin Paul Egard’s Posaune der göttlichen Gnade

und Liechtes (1623)

Paul Egard (c. 1578–1655), pastor of the village of Nortorf in Holstein,is one of the most intriguing and enigmatic figures in seventeenth-cen-tury Lutheranism.1 A devout minister praised widely for his pastoralskills, his mental acuity and his command of doctrine, Egard was also oneof the first members of the Lutheran church to adopt a chiliastic view ofhistory. Yet Egard’s chiliasm did not represent a break from the tenets oforthodox Lutheranism, or so he believed. Rather, Egard saw millenari-anism as a potential complement and valuable addition to the spiritualarmory of his faith. The centrepiece of Egard’s millenarian vision was hisPosaune der göttlichen Gnade und Liechtes (1623).2 This work was an inge-nious, detailed interpretation of the controversial 20th chapter of Reve-lation, which, Egard hoped, would become the foundation work uponwhich he could construct an extensive new devotional program, andusher in a new golden age for an embattled Lutheranism.

Egard’s advocacy of millenarianism in 1623 was remarkable, for it ap-peared in the midst of a polemical onslaught by fellow Lutheran divines

11

� I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Jürgen Beyer (Tartu), who introduced me toa wealth of little-known sources containing important information on Egard. Prof. Dr. ManfredJakubowski-Tiessen (Göttingen), Prof. Charles Zika (Melbourne), Dr. Catherine Kovesi (Mel-bourne) and Dr. Grantley McDonald (Tours) all read and commented on prior drafts of thisarticle. The research was supported by grants from the Günther-Findel-Stiftung zur Förderungder Wissenschaften at the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, and the Deutscher Akade-mischer Austauschdienst.The strange case of Paul Egard was first discussed in Johannes Wallmann: Zwischen Reformationund Pietismus. Reich Gottes und Chiliasmus in der lutherischen Orthodoxie. In: Verifikatio-nen. FS Gerhard Ebeling. Hg. v. Eberhard Jüngel. Tübingen 1982, 187–205, here 197–200.

� Paul Egard: Posaune der göttlichen Gnade und Liechtes: Das ist/ Offenbahrung unnd Ent-deckung des göttlichen Geheimnüß im Apocalypsi, von den tausend Jahren/ darinn die le-bendig gemachten Heiligen/ mit Christo sollen herrschen. Oder Erklärung deß ZwantzigstenCapittels der Offenbahrung Jesu Christi [. . .]. Lüneburg: Stern 1623.

against chiliastic heresy. Defined very broadly, chiliasm is the belief that,before the Last Judgment, there will be a time of God-granted felicityupon earth.3 Such a belief ran contrary to the pessimistic convictions ofapocalyptic orthodox Lutheranism. In glossing the key passages of Rev-elation 20, Luther himself believed that the millennium, that period ofgrace and happiness for the church, had occurred firmly in the past. TheAugsburg Confession (1530), as well as later elaborations of Lutherandoctrine, defined chiliastic heresy strictly; usually as an expectation of aliteral 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth. However, in the early seven-teenth century, dissidents and New Prophets such as Paul Nagel (†1624),Wilhelm Eo Neuheuser and Paul Felgenhauer (1593–after 1677), as wellas texts such as the Rosicrucian manifestos, began to propagate millen-arian visions that did not rely explicitly on Revelation 20.4 In reaction tothis development, several influential theologians, chief amongst themDaniel Cramer (1569–1637) and Johann Affelmann (1588–1624), broad-ened the definition of the error significantly, articulating a new categoryof the error called chiliasmus subtilis.5 In essence, the creation of chiliasmussubtilis opened the floodgates of interpretation. Its introduction meantthat virtually any expectation of a felicitous future, be it worldly or spir-itual, lasting a 1,000 years or only one, could be understood as an expres-sion of chiliastic heresy.6 The millennium presented by Egard in the Po-saune was limited in its nature. The pastor did not await a glorious earthlykingdom of Christ that would endure 1,000 years. Instead, he anticipateda millennium that would flourish for only a very brief period, and at that,only spiritually, in the hearts of true believers. It was a bold predictionthat, under the contemporary theological definitions, was nevertheless anexpression of chiliastic error.

Given the effective outlawing of chiliastic expectation of any kindwithin Lutheranism only shortly before its publication in 1623, Egard’sPosaune presented an unexpected, and certainly unanticipated millenarianvision. The present article, the first to offer sustained attention to thisimportant yet overlooked Lutheran figure and his work, is devoted toexplicating Egard’s millennial prediction, paying special attention toidentifying its sources, its contexts and its troubled reception. I argue that

12

� I further elaborate the nature and necessity of this broad definition of millenarianism whenconsidering the belief amongst Lutherans in the introduction to my forthcoming work; LeighT.I. Penman: Unanticipated Millenniums. The Lutheran Experience of Chiliastic Thought,1600–1630. (Studies in Early Modern Religious Reforms). Dordrecht, forthcoming.

� Ibid., chapters one and two.� Daniel Cramer: De Regno Jesu Christi Regis Regum & Domini Dominantium semper-in-

victi. Stettin: Kelner für Eichorn 1614, 310ff.; Johann Affelmann (praes.) & M. Daniele Spalchavero(resp.): Illustrium quaestionum theologicarum heptas. Rostock: Ferberus 1618.

� See Wallmann, Zwischen Reformation und Pietismus [see note 1], 192–195; See furtherPenman, Unanticipated Millenniums [see note 3], chapter four.

Egard drew on contemporary non-Lutheran and kryptoradikale sources inorder to inform the nature of his chiliastic program, but, unlike contem-porary dissidents, his intention in promoting a forthcoming millenniumwas never to lead souls away from the Lutheran church. Instead, havingwitnessed the success and excitement that the chiliastic expectations ofthe Rosicrucian manifestos and the New Prophets had aroused, Egardsought to combine these influential beliefs with an Arndtian devotionalframework to create a new and invigorating Lutheran Erbauungsphiloso-phie. This was a philosophy, Egard hoped, that would bolster the heartsand minds of a population threatened by the hardships of war, famine,and pestilence, and even attract back to the fold Lutherans who had beentempted by dissident chiliastic ideas.

1. Egard’s Life

Little is known about the life of Paul Egard, the Arndius Cimbrae or‘Johann Arndt of the Northern Mark,’ despite his prolific literary out-put.7 He was born in 1578 or 1579 as the son of a church organist inKellingshausen in the Duchy of Holstein. In May 1599, Egard matricu-lated at Rostock University, but was forced to abandon his studies shortlythereafter due to a lack of funds.8 The young man briefly served as dea-con in Kellingshausen in 1600, before taking up the same post at St.Marien in Rendsburg, where he was also appointed teacher of the Latinschool in 1601.9 In mid-1610, on account of his lucid and inspiring ser-mons, Egard was recommended by a local nobleman to King ChristianIV of Denmark, and was thereafter appointed on royal authority to thepastorate of the village of Nortorf.10

13

� The following account is based upon Johann Möller: Cimbria literata, sive Scriptorum du-catis utriusque Slesvicensis et Holsatici, quibus et alii vicini quidam accensentur, historia literariatriparta. Kopenhagen 1744, I, 151–154; ders.: Isagoge ad historiam chersonesi cimbricae. Ham-burg: Bredenckius für Liebezeit 1691, II, 169f.; August Tholuck: Lebenszeugen der lutherischenKirche aus allen Ständen vor und während der Zeit des dreißigjährigen Krieges. Berlin 1859,397–408; Dieter Lohmeier: Art. “Paulus Egardus.” In: Schleswig-Holsteinisches BiographischesLexikon 9, 1991, 102–104; Eduard Alberti: Art. “Paulus Egardus.” In: ADB V, 655f.; D. C.Carstens: Geschichte der Predigt in Schleswig-Holstein. In: Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fürSchleswig-Holstein-Lauenbergische Geschichte 22, 1892, 159–237, here 172–174.

Die Matrikel der Universität Rostock. Bd. 2. Hg. v. Adolph Hofmeister. Rostock 1891,263a; Lohmeier, Egardus [see note 6], 102.

Alberti, Art. “Paulus Egardus” [see note 7], 655; Ernst Feddersen: Kirchengeschichte Schles-wig-Holsteins. 3 Bde. Kiel 1907–1938, I, 295. Concerning his teaching appointment see PaulEgard: Medulla SS Theologiae sive Meditationes piae & utilissimae in S. Catechesin propositae.Hamburg: Heinrich Carstens 1622, A3v, B1r.

�� See G. Reimer: Wie Pastor Paulus Egardus nach Nortorf kam. In: Die Heimat (Kiel) 33,1923, 204ff.; Friedrich Freytag: Das Patronat der Kirche Sankt Martin in Nortorf. In: Die Kirche

There exists no illuminating account, nor reliable source of informa-tion concerning Egard’s life for the time spanning his appointment inNortorf in 1610 and 1623, when he published the Posaune. During thisperiod, however, the young pastor established a reputation as a zealousand exemplary preacher, who addressed his congregation both in low andhigh German, and whose ministry was coloured by an enthusiasm forArndt’s Wahres Christenthum.11

Despite his evident popularity among the laity, Egard’s earliest printedworks, amongst them the Agonia Christi (1620) and the Theologia practica(1622) were composed solely in Latin, for the benefit of an educatedaudience. Recognizing exactly whom Egard had to thank for his positionin Nortorf, several of these works contained lavish dedications to theDanish royalty. Evidently, however, Egard himself never wished to leaveNortorf. For although his early works were widely read, discussed andpraised in the corridors of power throughout Lutheran Europe, all invi-tations that were forwarded to Nortorf requesting Egard to establish him-self as a court minister in Holstein, Denmark and elsewhere were rejectedby this studious and committed preacher.12

Egard’s early publications detailed a practical outline for a good Chris-tian life, drawing upon the examples of Jesus’ suffering during the passionas an example for the devout, as well as taking inspiration from Solo-mon’s Book of Wisdom.13 Other writings, however, provide evidence ofEgard’s familiarity with marginally heterodox doctrines. This is especiallytrue of his Gnothi Seauton (1621),14 an 800 page treatise concerning themicrocosm and macrocosm and the interdependence of the human anddivine realms. Egard apparently conceived the book as a Lutheran cor-rective to Valentin Weigel’s (1533–1588) 1615 text of the same name,although Weigel himself is not mentioned in the work.15 In any event,

14

St. Martin in Nortorf (Propstei Rendsburg). Eine Festschrift zur 50-jährigen Wiederkehr derEinweihung des neuerbauten Kirchenschiffs am 15. Oktober 1873. Hg. v. dems. (Sonderdruckaus: Bilder aus der Heimat. Neumünster). Nortorf 1923, unpag., Kap. 4.

�� Feddersen, Kirchengeschichte Schleswig-Holsteins [see note 9], 454.�� Feddersen, Kirchengeschichte Schleswig-Holsteins [see note 9], 455.�� Paul Egard: Agonia hoc est, Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, Explicata practicè et para-

phrasticè. Hamburg: Heinrich Carstens 1621; ders.: Theologia practica sapientiss. Regis Israeli-tarum seu Salomon ecclesiastes exhibens microcosmum describens totum hominem, Qualisolim fuerit, jam sit, esse debeat, deo, proximo, sibi et tandem futurus sit, in lucem per lucemexpositus Logicè, mysticè, practicè, paraphrasticè: adjecta sunt in fronte tabula synoptica totiustractatus, in fine index rerum. Hamburg: Carstens 1622.

�� Paul Egard: Gnôthi Seauton Sive Tractatus Utilissimus De vera Microcosmi CognitioneTum Naturali, Tum Supernaturali, Vel De Scientia Illa Divina maxime necessaria, optima &difficilima: Qua Homo Seipsum Cognoscit Secundum tum Naturam, tum Gratiam, vel tum inAdamo, tum Christo, Expositus Et Propositus Theologicè & physiologicè: theoreticè & prac-ticè, Cum perpetuis infertis suspiriis Et unicè directus. 2 Bde. Hamburg: Carstens 1621f.

�� Valentin Weigel: Gnothi Seauton = Nosce te ipsum = Erkenne dich selbst: Zeiget vn[d]

the content of Egard’s early work betrays a complex of distinctly Her-metic, Paracelsian and Weigelian influences.16

Egard’s interest in these matters, whatever their inspiration may havebeen, was not merely literary. In addition to a first-hand knowledge ofheterodox literature, Egard was also personally acquainted with knownkryptoradikale agitators from throughout the Holy Roman Empire, in-cluding the Husum Weigelian Nikolaus Teting (c.1590–c.1642), the‘German Lazarus’ of Braunschweig, Hans Engelbrecht (1599–1642), theBöhme follower Johann Angelius Werdenhagen (1581–1652), and theLübeck physician and collector of Hermetic, Paracelsian and Weigelianmanuscripts, Joachim Morsius (1593–1644).17 In May 1622 Morsius trav-eled to Nortorf expressly to converse with the pastor. While there, Egardcompleted an entry in Morsius’s Album Amicorum with a short but lavishLatin dedication that made reference to Hermetic doctrines.18 This in-scription indicates that the two men probably discussed Hermetic phi-losophy with each other, a conversation that no doubt encompassedMorsius’s interests in Rosicrucianism and Weigelianism. Be that as itmay, an association with potentially heterodox ideas and Hermetic cos-mology did not harm or detract from Egard’s impeccable early reputationas a pastor. In 1622, he was described in glowing terms by Johann An-gelius Werdenhagen as

einen voernehmen, treuen und recht geisteifrigen Christen, der es heute mitdem wahren Christenthume gut meinet, auch ziemlich nach seinem talente,sich dahin bearbeitet, daß es auß dem leidigen Heidenthume, und schand-losen Babylonischen Gefangnisse, befreyet werde.19

15

weiset dahin/ daß der Mensch sey ein Microcosmus, das gröste Werck Gottes/ vnter der Him-mel [. . .]. Newenstatt: Johann Knuber 1615.

�� Cf. Martin Brecht: Das Aufkommen der neuen Frömmigkeitsbewegung in Deutschland. In:Geschichte des Pietismus. Bd. 1: Der Pietismus vom siebzehnten bis zum frühen achtzehntenJahrhundert. Hg. v. Martin Brecht. Göttingen 1993, 147.

�� On Werdenhagen and Morsius and their connection to Jakob Böhme, see Leigh T. I. Pen-man, “Ein Liebhaber des Mysterii, und ein großer Verwandter desselben.” Toward the Life ofBalthasar Walther: Kabbalist, Alchemist and Wandering Paracelsian Physician. In: Sudhoffs Ar-chiv. Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Forthcoming.

� See Heinrich Schneider: Joachim Morsius und sein Kreis. Zur Geistesgeschichte des 17. Ja-hrhunderts. Lübeck 1929, 45, 78, 86. Egard signed Morsius’ Commonplace book on 22 May1622, p. 579. Although the original volume has been lost, his message to Morsius was preservedin Johann Möller, Cimbria Literata [see note 7] I, 443 (s.v. ‘Morsius’): “Bene te novi de nomine& animo, etiamsi non te norim de facie. Novi ego te optimorum studiorum amatorem, quodin te magnum; novi te amatorem divinæ sapientiæ, quæ in Macro- & Microcosmo, atque inipso Christo, ob oculos posita, quod majus; Novi te amatorem Jesu, ejusque vitæ, quod omniummaximum & pulcherrimum. Prius redit te in mundo clarum & celebrem, alterum bonis, &sapientiæ studiosis, gratum & acceptum; sed posterius divinum & Deo proximum.”

� Chilobertus Jonas [Johann Angelius von Werdenhagen]: Zwey Nützliche Vnd jetziger Zeit beydiesem leider sehr betrübten vnd bedrengtem Zustande des Christenthumbs hochnötige Erin-nerungs Tractätlein [. . .]. O. O. 1622, 98.

Whether or not resultant of his interest in Hermetic ideas, during thecourse of 1623, Egard became convinced that an imminent change wasat hand for the human condition. The circumstances behind the suddenarrival of this conviction remain unclear. A passage in the Gülden Chris-tentumb des Himlischen Adelers (1623) suggests that the pastor of Nortorfexperienced a powerful spiritual awakening, courtesy of the Holy Spirit,that granted him a new insight into the books of the Bible.20 There werecertainly more mundane influences that might also have contributed tohis expectations. Foremost among these was Egard’s long-standing dis-satisfaction with contemporary literal (buchstäblich) interpretations ofscripture offered by his fellow theologians, which, he contended, offeredlittle insight into the true spirit of the Word. Secondly, inspired by hisenthusiasm for the works of Arndt, Egard asserted that it was essential toprovide practical inspirations for, and examples of, true Christian practiceto his congregation. True Christianity, the pastor asserted, existed not in‘titles, reputations or mere words, but in truth and in deed, in the trueliving recognition of Christ, in an active and living belief.’21 The manymillenarian predictions for the period 1623–1625 which also circulatedduring this period might also have impacted on his newfound inspiration.

The forthcoming transformation in the human condition, Egard be-lieved, concerned both the worldly and spiritual state of Christianity. Topromote his new beliefs, the pastor began to write exclusively in Ger-man, so that his works might reach the widest possible audience. Egardwas prolific. He wrote ceaselessly, composing book after book in orderto elaborate his devotional teachings, as well as to meet a burgeoningcommercial demand for his works.22 Egard’s controversial Posaune, hiscommentary on Revelation 20, was to be the centrepiece of his pastoralmission. In 1624, Egard defended the doctrines of Johann Arndt in print,thereby joining the vociferous contemporary debate about Arndt’s or-thodoxy and drawing the ire of Georg Rost (1582–1629), a cantankerousMecklenburg theologian.23 A highlight of Egard’s later work, and indeed

16

�� Paul Egard: Gülden Christenthumb des Himlischen Adelers/ Das ist: Die Erste/ Edle undGeistreiche Epistel S. Johannis . . . Darin das Göttliche Liecht und Leben oder Ware Christen-thumb/ aus Christi Hertz/ Sinn und Geist/ uberaus herrlich und lieblich wird beschrieben.Lüneburg: Stern 1623, A5r.

�� Egard, Gülden Christenthumb [see note 19], A4r–v.�� See Lohmeier, Egardus [see note 7], 103. A practical example of this popularity is the sur-

viving request by Egard’s Lüneburg publishers, the Stern brothers, for Egard to translate someof his earlier Latin works. See Paul Egard: Soliloliqua. Das ist: Acht und dreyssig schöneAndächtige Bekänntnisse. Lüneburg: Stern 1626, A2r–A2v.

�� Georg Rost: Amica ac fraterna Admonitio Super Controversiis De Vero Dn. JoannisArndten, generalis in Ducatu Luneburgico Superintendentis, p. m. Christianismo, inter D. D.Lucam Osiandrum & M. Henricum Varenium, Dn. Paulum Eggardum, aliosq[ue] Theologos& politicos ortis. Rostock: Hallevord 1626.

perhaps his most well-known publication, is undoubtedly his bizarrecommentary on the ancient Celtic-Germanic golden horns found in1639 at Gallehus in Denmark. Despite the pagan provenance of thesemagnificent relics, Egard insisted the strange carved figures that appearedon the horns encoded the rites and practices of ancient Christians.24 Thiseccentric and intriguing text demonstrated the pastor’s creativity inadapting unusual sources and attempting to apply them for the spiritualbenefit of Lutheranism. This same motivation, I suggest, also stood be-hind his appropriation of heterodox chiliastic ideas in the Posaune. Hisexistence in Nortorf being otherwise uneventful, Egard continued toauthor beautiful examples of devotional literature until his death in 1655.The appointment in Nortorf was the first and only pastorate he everoccupied.

2. The Posaune der göttlichen Gnade und Liechts (1623)

The Posaune prophesied a future period of happiness for the Lutheranchurch before the Last Judgment, in which the Holy Spirit and the trueteachings of Christ would flower and grow in the hearts of the devout.25

This purification and rebirth of the ‘inner’ Christian would be accompa-nied by concomitant purification of the ‘outer’ Christian. The assimilati-on of Christ by the devout thereby complete, the Heavenly Jerusalem, theReich Gottes, would be established in the hearts and minds of true Christianbelievers. Egard anticipated that this spiritual millennium would begin in1625. It was to last for approximately three years, roughly to the begin-ning of 1629, following which time the Day of Judgment would occur.

Egard’s prophecy in the Posaune that the true Christian would be trans-formed after 1625 was underwritten by an expectation of an ever increas-ing period of felicity for the church before the Last Judgment. Yet con-temporary society itself stood at a crossroad. An element common tomost of Egard’s work before the Posaune was his comparison of the pre-sent conditions of the world to those preceding Noah’s flood. ‘Just as theworld lived before the great flood,’ Egard warned, ‘so too do we livebefore the Judgment Day.’26 Egard even wrote a tract dedicated to expli-

17

�� Paul Egard: Theologische und Schrifftmässige Gedancken/ Und Außlegung über das wun-derbare/ köstliche und kunstreiche gülden Horn/ Des . . . Fürsten . . . Christiani desfünfften/ zu Dennemarck/ Norwegen/ [et]c. Erwehlten Princen/ welches nicht so gar vorlangen funden/ und hierbey eigentlich abgebildet ist. Lüneburg: Stern 1642; another ed., 1644.

�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2]; Möller, Cimbria literata [see note 7] I, 153 also notes a ghostedition ‘Hamburgi 1623 in 8 °.’

�� Paul Egard: Medulla SS Theologiae sive Meditationes piae & utilissimae in S. Catechesinpropositae. Hamburg: Heinrich Carstens 1622, A5v.

cating this belief, Spiegel der Jetzigen Zeit (1623), which was printedanonymously.27 Egard vision was suffused with the patriotic convictionthat, because of Luther’s reformation, the German people (uns Teutschen)were specifically chosen by God.28 Nevertheless, even despite the Re-former’s efforts, the Lutheranism of the 1620s contained no true spiritu-ality: it had become nothing more than a ‘masque and charade’(Larvenwerck und Affenspiel).29 Indeed, according to Egard the Germanswere worse-off than the Jews, for the simple fact that they had rejectedGod’s teachings even after Luther had shown them the true path.30

As the title of his Spiegel der jetzigen Zeit suggested, Egard linked sal-vation intrinsically to time. In the Posaune, the connection was made allthe more explicit. In the introductory preface, Egard declared that he hadwritten the work not only to ‘increase the light and grace’ amongst hisreadership, but also to ‘unlock the prophecies’ and ‘to recognize anddemonstrate (prüfen) the [final] age in which we live.’31 The Nortorfpreacher was well aware that the decision to write on Revelation 20, themost controversial chapter of the most difficult book in the Bible, wasfraught with danger. Egard anticipated, correctly, as it turned out, thatthe most negative reaction would come from his fellow theologians andthe learned (Gelehrten). Wary of the negative attention attracted by ‘in-novation’ in matters of religion, he therefore explicitly stated that, how-ever it might seem to the reader, what he affirmed in the Posaune did notconstitute a new, and therefore heretical teaching, nor did it contradictthe crucial article XVII of the Augsburg Confession.32

Egard began the Posaune with an unequivocal proposition: whoeverwill truly understand the hidden mysteries of future things must be in-spired by the light and grace of the Holy Spirit:

Wer nicht den geist der Weißheit/ Erkändtnüß und Weissagung hat/ darausdas Wort geflossen/ der wird den Sinn/ Liecht und Warheit GOttes nicht

18

�� P.E.N.H. [Paul Egard]: Heller/ Klarer/ Spiegel der Jetzigen Zeit/ deß Jetzigen Christen-thumbs/ Glaubens/ Lebens/ und Wesens im Newen Testament so mit dem Judenthumb/ imAlten Testament/ gar richtig ubereinstimmet. O. O. 1623. Jürgen Beyer has further made meaware of a contemporary Swedish edition of this text, published in Riga in 1627, presently inthe collection of the Uppsala University Library, which indeed identified Egard as the authoron the title page.

� P.E.N.H. [Paul Egard], Heller/ Klarer/ Spiegel, A2r.� P.E.N.H. [Paul Egard], Heller/ Klarer/ Spiegel, A5v.�� P.E.N.H. [Paul Egard], Heller/ Klarer/ Spiegel, A5v: “Daher sind wir jetzt böser, härter

und verstockter, als die Juden.”�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 7: “Ich habe kein ander warumb, oder ursache, denn dz Liecht

und warheit, Gott zu ehren, möge nach der Gnade, die mir in Christo Jesu gegeben ist, erkantwerden, unnd das Geheimnüß und Weissagung, die bißher verschlossen und versiegelt gewesen,eröffnet unnd ins Liecht gesetzt werden, zu erkennen und prüfen die Zeit, darinn wir leben.”

�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 12.

sehen. Niemand weiß des heiligen Geistes Sinn/ ohn den heiligenGeist/ welcher ist der Schlüssel zu allen Propheceyen.33

While Egard’s declaration sounds rather like something that one of theNew Prophets or Rosicrucians might have written, there was a twist.According to Egard, the true powers of the Holy Spirit and of prophecycould not be attained merely by anyone through personal illumination,as several dissidents asserted. Revelation through the Holy Spirit wasinstead collective; it could only be mediated through the offices of theLutheran church. Making obtuse reference to the New Prophets, Egardstressed that what he was offering was not a ‘new,’ and therefore self-evi-dently oppositional doctrine to traditional Lutheranism, but instead atime-honoured interpretation of scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit,and attained through Lutheran contemplation. His was no attempt atprophetic charisma or oppositional philosophy:

Hie ist keine newe Offenbahrung und Weissagung/ sondern eine GöttlicheErklärung und Eröffnung der H. Prophetischen weissagung und vorborgenGeheimnüß durch den Geist Gottes/ und ist nichts das wieder den wahrenGlaube und einhelligen Consensum der Gläubigen unnd Heiligen in Christoläuffet.34

Consistent with the idea of illumination granted by the Holy Spirit,Egard’s vision of the coming millennial kingdom was entirely spiritual incharacter. According to the Nortorf pastor, the world was entering adistinctively Joachite third age, the time of the evening, in which a dimlight would begin to shine, like an aurora (see Zach 14).35 This age wasidentical to the conclusion of the ‘time, times, and half a time’ describedin Daniel 12, which Egard understood as describing the present rule anddecline of Antichrist’s power in the physical world.36

As Egard’s interpretation of the aurora suggests, the idea of light is animportant, and indeed persistent theme in his millenarianism. Its qualitiesencode and constitute the essential foundations of the Kingdom of Goditself:

Gott seine Kirche nit bawe/ durch euserliche irdische gewalt/ krafft un[d]starcke/ sondern durch sein himlisch Liecht/ durch seinen Geist/ durchSchlüssel und Ketten.37

19

�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], A2r–v.�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 7�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 25: “Die dritte Zeit, ist der Abend, an welchem es sol Liecht

werden. Dieser Abend ist die letzte Zeit der Welt.”�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 83: “Die eine zeit ist der auffgang [von Antichrist], die zwo

Zeiten die währende herrschafft, die halbe Zeit der Lauff zum ausgang und ende.”�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 43, here referring to Rev 20:1–2.

The true Christian must soak up this spiritual light, like light from thesun itself, and unchain himself from fleeting mortality, thereby allowingthe seed of the true kingdom, which had been planted within his heart,to flower and grow to maturity.38 However, the light of God was alsoessential to chronology, the key element in Egard’s interpretation of thecrucial verses of Revelation 20 concerning the forthcoming millen-nium.

Egard supported his reading of Revelation 20:2 with a close examina-tion of Daniel 12. By privileging Daniel as a key to understanding thisdifficult verse, Egard hoped to deflect attention away from the self-evi-dently controversial use of Revelation as the basis of his chiliastic vision.Given the regard which Daniel 12 was held as a key to prophecy by thelikes of Paul Nagel, Jakob Böhme and Paul Felgenhauer, this attempt atobfuscation would have immediately alerted his fellow Lutherans to thepossibility that Egard intended to communicate information of a hetero-dox nature.39 Yet while, as I have already stated, the pastor was well awarethat his interpretation would be controversial, he added:

Ich hoffe aber denoch/ das nach der weissagung Danielis/ die Verstandigenes werden achten/ unnd ihr Hertz und Augen werden erheben/ und dasLiecht GOttes in der Heyligen stille/ mit Verläugnung ihrer Vernunft wahrnehmen. Die Zeit wird alles geben. Diese ist die letzte Propheceyung/ dienu noch für dem Ende der Welt/ soll erfüllet werden.40

For Egard, the 1,000 years for which Satan was to be imprisoned wasnot to be interpreted literally, for in the eyes of God, ‘a thousand yearsare as a day’ (Psalm 90:2, Peter 3). One thousand was instead for Egarda secret number, filled with mystery. It was, above all, ‘a number ofcompletion, into which all numbers are subsumed and contained.’ Themillennium would therefore comprise a ‘long time’ or a time that wouldsomehow ‘feel’ reasonably long.41 Although this was an interpretationthat had already been advocated by Cramer in 1618, it was not onesupported by the majority of Lutheran theologians.42

In order to connect his conception of the forthcoming millenniumever tighter with orthodox Lutheran expectations, Egard consciouslyconnected significant prophetic milestones of Revelation to events in thehistory of the faith. Egard argued, for example, that in 1517, the world

20

� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 45, also 62.� On Paul Nagel and Jakob Böhme’s prophetic use of Daniel 12, see Leigh T. I. Penman:

“Repulsive Blasphemies.” Paul Nagel’s Appropriation of Unprinted Works of Jakob Böhmeand Valentin Weigel in the Prodromus astronomiae apocalypticae (1620). In: Daphnis. Zeitschriftfür mittlere deutsche Literatur und Kultur der frühen Neuzeit (forthcoming).

�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 9f.�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 63.�� Penman, Unanticpated Millenniums [see note 3], chapter four.

entered the final ‘half time’ described in Daniel 12.43 The Antichrist, inthe form of the ‘Pope and a papist emperor,’ has already been revealed,and has relentlessly waged war against Lutheranism. The beast of Reve-lation 14, with its ill-matched body parts, reflected the influence of An-tichrist and the disunity of the contemporary, war-torn world. Its fearfulmagnificence accounted for Antichrist’s seductive and seemingly irresist-ible qualities. It is only through the love of God that the Lutheran faithfulhave been able to withstand this unholy attack for so long.44 In order togauge the duration of this third age and final ‘half time,’ Egard lookedto the prophetic 1290 days of Daniel 12, which, the pastor declared,actually represented months, and therefore a duration of around 109 cal-endar years.45 Adding these 109 years to the crucial date of 1517 broughtEgard, if only slightly testing the boundaries of acceptable mathematicalcalculation, to the year 1625. This would be the year ‘in which the newhonesty and purification will be noticed, and the great light of grace(Gnadenliecht) will be seen everywhere.’46 In other words, this was theyear in which the millennium of Rev 20 would dawn.

However, the millennium, that time of ‘fulfillment and completion,’would be only short. To calculate its duration, Egard once more turnedto Daniel 12, specifically verse 12, where the prophet declared ‘blessedis he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and fiveand thirty days.’ From this passage Egard concluded that the chiliasticage of spiritual happiness would endure only 1,335 days, or three yearsand nine months. The felicitous time would therefore only endure untilsometime in late 1629.47 However, the millennium would not suddenlygrind to a halt in that year. Indeed, Egard believed that the light of gracewould actually be at its most brilliant at this point.48 Yet such dayswould not last forever, and Egard returned to a familiar trope of pes-simistic Lutheran apocalypticism when it came to explaining the endof the millennium, and indeed the period before the Last Judgmentitself:

21

�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 83: “Jetzo ist er in seiner halbe[n] zeit sonderlich von Lutherizeit an.”

�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 82.�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 89f.: “Von nu biß auff die newe Läuterung und Reinigung

nehmen oder zehlen 1290. tage, das sind so viel Monden, denn das ist in der H. Schrifft zufinden, das die Jahre für Monden, die Monden für Jahre, die Monden für Tage, und widerumbtage für Monden genommen werden.”

�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 90f.�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 92: “Das ist 45 uber die vorige 1290 tage. Thue zu den 1290

tagen 45 tage, so hastu die 1335. Tage, das ist uber die vorige 107 Jahr, welche nach dem Zahl1290. in das 1625 Jahr einfallen, 3. Jahr unnd 9 Monat, das ist, biß in dz 1629 Jahr, denn45. Monden machen 3. Jahr und 9 Monat.”

� Egard, Posaune [see note 2].

[N]ach dieser Zeit aber/ wirdt das Liecht sich je mehr und mehr ver-lieren/ und Finsternüß wieder einfallen/ das/ wenn der Sohn Gottes wirdtkommen/ er wenig Glaubens auff Erden werde finden.49

The light of grace, the time of the millennium, would therefore striketrue Christians something like a bolt of lightning; quickly and brilliantly.After the illumination gradually faded, however, humanity would thenbe left to deal with the apocalyptic fallout. With reference to Matt 24:9,Egard explained the horrific conditions thus: ‘[Then] shall the sun bedarkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fallfrom heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.’50 The sunrepresented the power of Christ, the moon the Lutheran church, and thefalling stars its doctrines and teachings fading from a divine wisdom to amere earthly artifact of this wisdom (zur irdischen Weißheit und Dingen).51

The shaking of the heavens would cause ‘evil to exist amidst the spiritualand worldly regiments, and supernatural wonders shall be seen every-where.’52 This terrible period, however, was not to be feared, for ‘all ofthis will only endure a short time, because the Son of God will shortlythereafter return to pronounce judgment.’53 In a typically Lutheran fash-ion, Egard emphasized that the specific date of this final judgment wasknown to God alone.

3. The Unanticipated Millennium

The chiliastic period predicted by Egard was purely spiritual in char-acter, despite the fact that the predicted time was based on historicistreckonings derived from concrete events, such as the commencement ofLuther’s Reformation in 1517 and the Jubilee year of 1617. ‘Diesetausendt Jah[ren],’ Egard argued,

sollen nicht verstanden werden/ nach dem ordentlichen lauff der Zeit undJahren/ sondern mysticè, von einer sondern Gnadenzeit/ darinn das GöttlicheLiecht und Leben sol herschen.54

22

� Egard, Posaune [see note ***], 93.�� Egard, Posaune [see note ***], 94: Egard, however, carefully omits the reference to a

tribulation that precedes this verse, which might have compromised his interpretation.�� Egard, Posaune [see note ***], 94.�� Egard, Posaune [see note ***], 94.�� Egard, Posaune [see note ***], 94.�� Egard, Posaune [see note ***], 62f. Concerning the Jubilee Year of 1617, see Charles Zika:

The Reformation Jubilee of 1617: Appropriating the Past in European Centenary Celebrations.In: Ders.: Exorcising our Demons. Magic, Witchcraft and Visual Culture in Early ModernEurope. Leiden, Boston 2003, 197–236; Ruth Kastner: Geistlicher Rauffhandel. Form undFunktion der illustrierten Flugblätter zum Reformationsjubiläum 1617 in ihrem historischenund publizistischen Kontext. Frankfurt, Bern 1982.

Unlike contemporary New Prophets, several of whom also pro-pounded chiliastic philosophies mentioning a Gnadenzeit, Egard did notwant to heighten public excitement and enthusiasm over the promisedfuture period of spiritual grace. Instead, he wanted to stifle and undercutanticipation of the event. Simply relegating the godly kingdom to a spiri-tual realm of belief, however, would not have been enough to achievethis end. The Torgau dissident Nagel, for example, had also proposed apurely spiritual millennium, and yet had thereby attracted a large follow-ing and was vociferously condemned by the Lutheran theologians as adangerous chiliast.55

If he was to avoid charges of heresy, it was essential that Egard decon-struct and defuse the potentially dangerous heterodox elements inherentin his chiliastic vision. For if the Nortorf pastor wished to use the spiritualmillennium as a vehicle for his devotional philosophies, he had to ensurethat this vision was received by his audience in the right fashion. To thisend, throughout the Posaune, Egard strived to make clear to the readerthat the millennial period would come and go, without even ‘true’Christians themselves noticing its passing. Discussing the Angel with thekey and chains that would shackle Antichrist (Rev 20:1–3), Egard re-marked that, although this prophesied period was nigh, many would notbe able to comprehend the significance of what they were witnessing,for the identity of the angel, whom Egard himself believed was JohannArndt, would remain a mystery:

[O]b wol etliche ihn werden vor solcher Zeit sehen und erkennen/ so wer-den sie doch nit wissen/ daß er eben dieser Engel sey/ welches wird erst imJahr 1625. allenthalben durch die Göttliche Schriffte bekandt werden.56

Similar sentiments were expressed throughout the Posaune, whichstressed that the millenarian kingdom and its downfall will not be recog-nized until it is already over: ‘when all this shall occur, however, shallremain hidden until the dispersal of the holy people.’57 Egard repeatedthe basic unknowability of the End Time throughout his text, underlin-ing the fact that, although the worthy individual would certainly expe-rience the millennium spiritually, they could not anticipate the millennialperiod, nor perhaps – even as it was in progress – enjoy it. As soon as theaverage Christian was actually able to recognize what was happeningaround him, the felicitous time would already be over:

Mercke hie/ das von diesem Göttlichen Wercke/ nicht aus Fürwitz zu ur-theilen/ ehe es zum Ende gebracht/ denn CHristus sagt: Selig ist/ da dererwartet und ereichet 1335 Tage. Darumb muß das Ende erwartet werden.

23

�� See Penman, Unanticipated Millenniums [see note 3], chapter three.�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 91.�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 84.

Als dann kan man recht von einem Wercke urtheilen/ wann es vollendetist.58

By nullifying expectation of the millennial period and submitting thevery notion of prophetic authority and the actions of the Holy Spirit tothe Lutheran church itself, Egard was therefore able to produce a chili-astic vision in service to Lutheran belief. Although several theologiansbefore Egard had incorporated a low-level expectation of a period ofrespite for the church before the Last Judgment – often based on themedieval doctrine of the refreshment of the saints – these theologianswere reluctant to link this period with the prophecy of Rev 20:1–3.Instead, they associated it, like Egard, with Daniel 12, or the brief perioddescribed by Rev 20:9ff, when the throne of God appeared in the skyimmediately before the Last Judgment.59 Much like Egard’s conceptionof the chiliastic age, however, these views about the coming of the chili-astic age – even when the ‘respite’ offered by this felicitous time some-times stretched to a potential period of several hundred years – werecharacterized by their inability to be anticipated or awaited with hope.These conceptions could not inspire revolutionary or dissident enthusi-asm because the rewards of the kingdom arrived only after the horrors ofthe Last Days as prophesied in Revelation, Daniel and other apocalypses.

However, the very fact that Egard went to such efforts to eliminatethe possibility of his work inspiring heretics and enthusiasts begs the notunreasonable question of why he also found it necessary to include a seriesof precise chronological calculations within the work in order to dem-onstrate the rectitude of his vision. Egard’s stated goal in writing thePosaune was simply ‘zur Erweckung der Welt an das Licht.’60 I believethat Egard, aware of the contemporary appeal of chronological reckon-ing, was playing on the attractiveness of such chronological games inorder to attract would-be dissidents and those who had read dissidentworks and been swayed by their internal logic and ‘scientific’ character.This approach was not at all unprecedented within Lutheranism. In 1619,Daniel Cramer had included a selection of chronograms and 2 Esdras inhis edition of the Bible in order to dispel rumours concerning the ‘dan-gerous,’ ‘forbidden’ or ‘secret’ nature of such things.61 Egard’s strategy,however, suggests that he was intensely familiar with contemporary het-erodox literature, which indeed numbered amongst the sources of manyof his conjectures.

24

� Egard, Posaune [see note ***], 95� See Robin Bruce Barnes: Prophecy & Gnosis. Apocalypticism in the Wake of the Lutheran

Reformation. Stanford 1988, 123.�� Reprinted in Hans Engelbrecht: Christlicher Wunderreicher Bind-Brieff auff S. Johannis Tag

den 24. Junij ders vergangenen 1638. Jahrs gestellet [. . .]. O. O. 1639, K5v.�� Wallmann, Zwischen Reformation und Pietismus [see note 1], 193.

4. Three Sources of Egard’s chiliasm

Perhaps surprisingly, Egard’s recognition of the significance of the years1625–1629, and his basic kabbalistic explications of Daniel and Revelation20 were not unprecedented. They were not even unique within the Lu-theran interpretative tradition. Indeed, Egard’s chronology was in factadopted directly from a work by another influential author of devotionalliterature, Philipp Nicolai’s (1556–1608) Historia des Reichs Christi (1598).62

Contrary to Egard, Nicolai saw the period between 1625 and 1629 as oneof great tribulation for the church, mainly because his vision was influencedby the fate of the two witnesses of Rev 11:3.63 For Nicolai, it would be1629 that would mark the beginning of a new period of expansion andgrowth for Lutheranism, a felicitous age in which the true evangelical re-ligion would be made mighty (gewaltig) before the Last Judgment, whichNicolai expected to arrive around 1670.64 Despite this, it was Nicolai,however, who introduced the 1,335 prophetic days as a tool of eschato-logical insight into mainstream Lutheran thought, a fact which confirms hisHistoria as one of the major sources for Egard’s chronology.65

Further sources employed by Egard are rather more difficult to iden-tify. The pastor himself, however, provides us with two definite clues tothe origins of his chiliastic vision, both of which derive from thePosaune’s preface. Firstly, he there stressed his indebtedness to JohannArndt. Indeed, Egard declared that he wrote the Posaune specifically inorder to honour and promote Arndt’s doctrines.66 Arndt himself was, ofcourse, no chiliast, despite his knowledge of Paracelsus, Weigel, and,according to Friedrich Breckling (1629–1711), his admiration for theworks of Paul Nagel.67 Nowhere in his writings did Arndt present avision of an earthly kingdom of God before the Last Judgment, nor didhe offer extensive calculations concerning the End Times. However,Arndt did provide two key elements that would prove decisive for Egard.The first was the idea of the Gnadenreich, the indwelling kingdom of Godas the basis of an Erbauungsphilosophie. The second stemmed from Arndt’suntypical and unrelentingly positive view about the increase in prospectsof the Lutheran church before the Last Judgment. Arndt wished thatpeople would look forward to the End, rather than fear it. In his ‘Prayer

25

�� Philipp Nicolai: Historia deß Reichs Christi [. . .]. Lüneburg: Stern 1628. [11598], 551f.�� Nicolai, Historia deß Reichs Christi [see note 62], 444.�� Nicolai, Historia deß Reichs Christi [see note 62], 445, 459, 488.�� Nicolai, Historia deß Reichs Christi [see note 62], 551f. for his reckonings.�� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 13.�� Friedrich Breckling: Catalogus testium veritatis post Lutherum continuatis huc usque. In:

Gottfried Arnold: Kirchen- und Ketzer-Historie [. . .]. Schaffhausen 1742, IV, 1096: “M. PaulusNagelius ein Adeptus Astrologus, der viele wunderbahre schrifften zum verstand der mystischenAstrologie herauß gegeben, und darin von dem sel. Joh. Arnd hochgehalten ist [. . .].”

against the fear of the Judgment Day,’ printed in his Paradiesgärtlein,Arndt wrote:

Ach mein Herr Jesu Christe! Du wahrhafftiger Prophet, du hast uns das Endeder Welt verkündiget [. . .] laß mich alle tage auf deine Zukunft mit Freudenwarten, denn du wirst plötzlich kommen wie ein Blitz [. . .].68

This exhortation to a spiritual positivity was linked conceptually toArndt’s support for ideas of hope, optimism and confidence amongst thechurch community in the Last Days; an idea also zealously taken up byEgard.

The second clue to the sources of Egard’s chiliasm is decidedly moreobtuse, though no less revealing. In the course of his preface to thePosaune, Egard insisted that his interpretation of Revelation’s mysterieshad nothing at all to do with the contemporary Rosicrucian enthusiasm:

Diß werck keine Verwandtnis mit dem nichtigen und ruhmrettigen fürgebender brüder deß Rosen Creutzes habe/ Denn hie ist ein ander Liecht undGeist/ die nicht sich selbst/ sondern lauterlich Gott suchet und meynet.69

The content of the Posaune, however, suggests that although Egard didnot wish his ideas to be connected with Rosicrucianism, he neverthelessdrew on heterodox literature in order to inform his vision. For example,Egard’s prophecy of a spiritual kingdom of Christ that would commencein 1625 drew directly upon numerous prophecies relating to the forth-coming grand conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn which awaited a decisiveeschatological event for the years 1623–1625.70 His adoption of 1625 asthe crucial date evidently owed to his calibration of these expectationswith Nicolai’s pious predictions.

Indeed, unlike his many orthodox compatriots, Egard never hesitatedto draw upon the writings of so-called heretics when he believed theirwork could demonstrate a profound truth which might further the spiri-tual health of the Lutheran community. ‘Truth is truth,’ Egard wrote,‘and remains truth.’71 In his Ehrenrettung Johann Arndts (1624), Egard zeal-ously defended Arndt’s use of Valentin Weigel’s writings in the WahresChristenthum by citing, like Arndt himself, I Thess. 5:21: ‘Prove every-thing and hold fast that which is good.’72 Or, as Egard himself elaborated:

26

� Cited in Arnold, Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie [see note 66].� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 12f.�� See Penman, Unanticipated Millenniums [see note 3], chapter one.�� Paul Egard: Mundus immundus. Das ist: Das falsche Christenthumb der Welt [. . .] sampt

[. . .] Eine Abbildung der gegenwertigen Zeit/ auß der heiligen Schrifft und Exempel der Jüden.Goslar, Lüneburg: Stern 1623, A4r.

�� Cf. Johann Arndt: Zwey Sendschreiben. H. Johann Arendts darinnen er bezeuget/ daß seineBücher vom wahren Christentumb/ mit des Weigelij und dergleichen Schwärmer Irthum-men/ zur uebgebühr bezüchtiget werden. Magdeburg: Johann Francke 1620, A8v–B1r.

Was denn nu ein Ketzer guts hat/ das kan man ja von ihm entlehnen/ nichtals es sein ist/ sondern als es gut ist/ und Warheit und dem Wort Gottesgemäß ist. Denn Warheit sol allezeit Warheit sein/ ohn ansehen der Person[. . .] Man sol mehr in acht haben was gesaget wird/ als wer saget.73

This passage might be read not only as a defence of Arndt, but also asan apologia for Egard’s own use of heterodox prophetic ideas. Indeed,Egard’s defence of Arndt opened with an argumentative vignette basedon 1 Corinthians 16:9: ‘For a great door and effectual is opened untome, and there are many adversaries.’ Egard interpreted this verse as dem-onstrating the rectitude of anticipating a distinctly unorthodox, if notheterodox, notion of ‘a felicitous (glückliche) course of evangelism’ beforethe Last Judgment.74 However, I suggest that the Nortorf pastor’s inter-pretation drew not so much from St. Paul’s original epistle, as from itsrestatement in the Rosicrucian Fama fraternitatis (1614):

[D]ann gleich wie unsere Thüre [i. e., to the tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz]sich nach so viel Jahren wunderbarlicher weyse eröffnet, also solEuropae / eine Thüre auffgehen (so das Gemäwre hinweg ist), die sich schonsehen lesset und von nicht wenigen mit begierd erwartet wird.75

Egard’s appropriation of Johann Valentin Andreae’s (1586–1654) exe-gesis of Paul in the Fama fraternitatis took this form:

Also da auch Gott in dieser letzten Zeit herrn Johanne Arndten er-wecket/ das ware Christenthumb durch in wieder auffzurichten/ und dißedle und heilige Leben Christi in der Mensche[n] Hertz zu pflantzen/ hat erim eine grosse Thür in Europa auffgethan/ daß gar viel in allen Stenden derWelt zum Erkendtniß und Ubung des waren Christenthumbs sind gekom-men/ unnd Gott für seine unaußsprechliche Gnade mit frewden habengedancket/ wie ist am tage.76

As this passage indicates, Arndt was nothing less than a prophet in thescheme of Egard’s eschatology, akin to the second Elijah awaited by ad-herents of Paracelsian and Rosicrucian religiosity.77 Just as the first com-

27

�� Paul Egard: Ehrenrettung Johannis Arndten/ Das ist/ Christliche und in Gottes Wort wol-gegründete Erinnerung/ was von D. Lucae Osiandri, Theologiae Professoris zu Tübingen Ur-theil und Censur, uber Johan Arndten wahres Christenthumb/ sey zu halten. Lüneburg: Stern1624, 32, also 76.

�� Egard, Ehrenrettung Johannis Arndten [see note 72], A2r.�� Johann Valentin Andreae: Allgemeine und General Reformation der gantzen weiten Welt.

Beneben der Fama Fraternitatis, Deß löblichen Ordens des Rosenkreutzes/ an alle Gelehrte undHäupter Europae geschrieben: Auch einer kurtzen Responsion, von dem Herrn Haselmeyergestellet/ welcher deßwegen von den Jesuitern ist gefänglich eingezogen/ und auff eine Gal-leren geschmiedet: Itzo öffentlich in Druck verfertiget/ und allen trewen Hertzen commu-niciret worden. Kassel: Wilhelm Wessel 1614, 113f.

�� Egard, Ehrenrettung Johannis Arndten [see note 73], A3r.�� See Georg Goezius (praes.) C. H. von Elßwich (resp.): Dissertatio Historico-Theologica, Er-

ing of Jesus was announced by John the Baptist, so too would the secondcoming be announced by Arndt, whom Egard saw as the angel whowould bind Satan in Rev 20:1–3.78

Egard’s enthusiasm for the value of non-scriptural sources in explicat-ing the events of the Last Days extended to his whole-hearted supportfor the prophecies and exhortations of the mysterious lay-prophet HansEngelbrecht of Braunschweig.79 Engelbrecht’s notoriety and legitimacyderived partly from the fact that his visions first began following his tem-porary ‘death’ in 1622. When he miraculously returned to consciousnessand to the world, he brought with him lurid and ostensibly first-handvisions of heaven and hell, using which he urged repentance and humilitybefore God. His visions continued intermittently, and he travelled widelythroughout the Holy Roman Empire, promulgating his message every-where he stayed. Having interviewed Engelbrecht on several occasionsin Holstein, Egard became convinced that the prophet used ‘no deceitor guile,’ but was in fact a genuine witness to the visions he pronounced,‘moved by a good Spirit, and by God himself.’80 Such a remarkable man,Egard believed, could become a valuable servant of the faith, for he didnot seek by his proclamations to lead people away from the Lutheranministry, but instead to it.81 Ultimately, Egard concluded that Engel-brecht was, along with Arndt, one of the true ‘holy teachers’ (heiligeLehrer) who would announce the significance of the times, but whowould be ridiculed and accused of heresy on account of their divinely-endowed, and misunderstood, insights and powers.82

28

rores, qvos Joh. Bannier, Sartor Stargardiensis, Lubeckæ an. MDCXXV. proposuit, exhibens &refutans [. . .]. Lubeck: Vidua B. Schmalhertzii 1707; Susanna Åkerman: Alruna Rediviva: JohannBureus’ Hyperborean Theosophy. In: Rosenkreuz als europäisches Phänomen im 17. Jahrhun-dert. Amsterdam 2002, 329f.; Ehre-Gott Daniel Colberg: Das Platonisch-hermetisches Christen-thum [. . .]. Leipzig: Gleditsch 21710, I, 227–232; II, 300.

� August Pfeiffer: Antichiliasmus oder Erzehlung und Prüfung des betrieglichen Traums Dererso genannten Chiliasten [. . .]. Lübeck: Peter Böckmann 1691, 201; Cf. Möller, Cimbria Literata[see note 7] I, 153.

� Feddersen, Kirchengeschichte Schleswig-Holsteins [see note 9], 296. On Engelbrecht, seeAugust Friedrich Wilhelm Beste: Hans Engelbrecht. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Mystik des17. Jahrhunderts. In: Zeitschrift für die historische Theologie, NF 14, 1844, 122–155.

� See Egard’s letter, reprinted in Hans Engelbrecht: Christlicher Wunderreicher Bind-Brieffauff S. Johannis Tag den 24. Junij ders vergangenen 1638. Jahrs gestellet. O. O. 1639, K6r: “Wasanlanget Brieffes Zeiger Hanß Engelbrechten, so habe ich nun etzliche mahl mit ihme geredet,und befunden, so viel ich erkennen kan, das an ihme kein Betrug noch Fallschheit sey, sonderndurch den guten Geist Gottes getrieben und geführet werde, und suchet die Fortpflantzung deswahren Christenthumbs, und Erbauung vieler Hertzen in Christo, das aber die Welt ihn nichtkan leiden ist nicht zuverwundern, denn sie nicht alleine ihn, sondern auch andre Heilige Lehrerverwirfft, verketzert und verflucht GOtt wolle ihn durch seinen guten Geist stärcken underhalten.”

� Engelbrecht, Christlicher Wunderreicher Bind-Brieff [see note 80].� Engelbrecht, Christlicher Wunderreicher Bind-Brieff [see note 80].

Egard saw the emergence of such prophets and teachers, a vanguardof the enlightened, but not necessarily of the Gelehrten, as a crucial partof the final age, the age of true Christianity. In the Posaune, Egard stated:

In der letzten Zeit/ viel erleuchte Männer werden gefunden werden/ wel-che mit offnen Augen sehe[n] werden/ die so lange vorborgene und ver-sigelte Geheimnüß/ unnd sie entdecken.83

While a scriptural basis for such a belief may be found, among otherplaces, in Daniel 12:4,84 it also directly reflected popular prophetic ex-pectations of the time, and ran contrary to the pessimistic Lutheran opin-ion on the conditions of the world before the Last Judgment. This sen-timent also found expression in the Rosicrucian Fama fraternitatis, itselfan attempt to gather the opinions of the learned before the JudgmentDay. Indeed, the opening lines of the Fama declared:

Nachdem der allein weyse und gnädige Gott in den letzten Tagen sein Gnadund Güte so reichlich über das Menschliche Geschlecht außgossen, daß/ sichdie Erkantnuß, beydes seines Sohns und der Natur/ je mehr und mehr er-weitert, und wihr uns billich einer glücklichen zeit rühmen mögen/ daherdann nicht allein das halbe theil der unbekandten und verborgenen Welterfunden/ viel wunderliche und zuvor nie geschehne Werck und Geschöpffder Natur uns zuführen, und dann hocherleuchte Ingenia auffstehen las-sen/ die zum theil die verunreinigte unvollkommene Kunst wieder zu rechtbrächten, damit doch endlich der Mensch seinen Adel und Herrlichkeit ver-stünde/ welcher gestalt er Microcosmus/ und wie weit sich sein Kunst inder Natur erstrecket.85

The Fama went on to expand on the tropes of light and darkness thatso defined Egard’s explication of the prophetic drama of the millennium,and, as this passage indicates, also mirrored Egard’s distinctly Hermeticencapsulation of the process of the building of the heavenly Jerusalem inthe hearts of man: ‘Was in der kleinen Welt geschehen sol/ davon erin-nert die grosse Welt/ durch Gottes Anordnung/ wegen der Verwandt-nüß und Harmonie, zwischen der grossen und kleinen Welt.’86

However, as shown above, the boundaries of Egard’s millennial ex-pectations – indeed the very notion of chiliastic anticipation itself – re-mained sharply defined, and always subject to the authority of the Lu-theran spiritual Ministerium. It is for this reason that Egard felt secure indrawing upon extra-biblical, Rosicrucian and Weigelian material in sup-

29

� Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 72.� In addition to explicating the verse in the Posaune, Egard also used it to open his Informa-

torum Christianum: Das ist/ Kurtze und nützliche Erinnerung / von der dreyfachen Schule/ alsDer Göttlichen/ Der Menschlichen/ Der Teufflischen [. . .]. Lüneburg: Stern 1628, A2v, albeitthere without chiliastic overtones. See the discussion below.

� Andreae, Fama Fraternitatis [see note 75], 91f.� Cf. Egard, Posaune [see note 2], 28.

port of his chiliastic vision for the faith, while simultaneously denouncingthe chiliastic ruminations of the Weigelian prophet of Husum, NikolausTeting.87 This is despite the fact that in 1625, both Egard and Teting hadopened their respective works concerning the indwelling kingdom ofGod by citing Luke 17:22: ‘See that the Kingdom of God dwells withinyou.’88 Absent from Teting’s work, at least as far as Egard was concerned,was recognition of the authority of the Lutheran church in any consid-eration of the millennium. The prophet’s seemingly pious motto, ExChristo, per Christum, in Christum,89 lacked the appropriate moderationthat would be provided by the Lutheran ministry during the millennialperiod as Egard envisioned it.90 Because Egard crafted his own uniqueresponse to the conflicting ideas that surrounded him in an effort to savesouls through the power of the church, what has been said about JohannArndt could apply equally to the pastor of Nortorf: ‘[Er] ging seineneigenen Weg zwischen Luther, der Orthodoxie und dem radikalen pro-testantischen Spiritualismus.’91

5. The Printing of the Posaune

As Egard’s own careful qualifications concerning the character andintentions of the Posaune amply demonstrate, the author was aware thathis text was inherently controversial, and fully expected it to attract theire of fellow churchmen. Indeed, given the zealous watchfulness exer-

30

� Egard’s letter/report to the head-pastor in Husum, Petrus Danckwerth, was reprinted inJ. M. Krafft: Ein zweyfaches Zwey-Hundert-Jähriges Jubel-Gedächtnis, Deren das Erste In eineram Fest-Tage Allerheiligen 1722. gehaltenen Predigt vorstellet Die Reformation, so [. . .] 1522zu allererst in [. . .] Schleßwig und Holstein von Hermanno Tasten in dieser Stadt Husumangefangen worden, Das andere aber Eine [. . .] Historie des von [. . .] Luthero verdeutschten[. . .] N. Testaments. Hamburg: Fickweiler 1723, 488–492. On Teting see ADB XXXVII, 570;Möller, Cimbria Literata [see note 7] I, 677–680; D. C. Carstens: Zur Geschichte der SectirerNicolaus Teting u. Hartwig Lohmann. In: Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holstein-Lauenburgische Geschichte 21, 1891, 374–383; Dieter Lohmeier: Art. “Nikolaus Teting.” In:Schleswig-Holsteinisches Biographisches Lexicon IV, 1976, 216–218.

NTH [Nicolaus Teting]: Ein kurtze Sermon Vom REiche GOttes. Dediciert und offerierthiermit. Allen Brüdern in Christo/ zum Zeugnisse/ Ihr Dienstwilliger und umb deß ZeugnissesJesu Christi willen vertriebener Bruder in Christo. N. T. H. O. O. 1625, A1v.; cf. Egard, Gehe-imnuß des Reichs Gottes [see note 126], A2r.

Teting, Kurtze Sermon [see note 87], A4v.� One of Teting’s later works contained a spiteful appendix that claimed Egard’s teachings

were so absurd that they did not require refutation. Teting himself cited a range of early Lu-theran theologians in defence of his doctrines and to prove the legitimacy of his vision. SeeNicolaus Teting: Abgetrungene kurtze, jedoch gründliche, vnd mit H. Schrifft vnd Lutheri,Philippi Melanthonis, Pomerani, Brentii vnd anderer Authentisirten Lutherischen Theologenschrifften mehr Wolbewehrte Verantwortung, Nicolai Tetings. O. O. 1635, 115f.

� Berndt Hamm: Johann Arndts Wortverständnis. Ein Beitrag zu den Anfängen des Pietismus.In: PuN 8, 1982, 73.

cised by his contemporaries after the introduction of the chiliasmus subtiliscategory of the error, it is relatively surprising that the Posaune evenappeared in print in the first place. Therein lies something of a mystery.

Unfortunately, we are almost completely uninformed about the cir-cumstances that surrounded the printing of the work. Direct archivalevidence, be it in the form of censors’ reports from authorities in Lüne-burg, Hamburg, Wolfenbüttel or Goslar, where the book might haveattracted the most attention, remains to be located. As the title page ofthe first and only edition of the Posaune shows, the book was printed ‘InVerlegung Hans und Heinrich Stern, Buchhändl. in Lüneburg, 1623.’92

There is indirect evidence, however, to suggest that the printing of thePosaune was indeed controversial, and that the Stern firm suffered becauseof their decision to publish Egard’s work. The very fact that the Sternsfailed to name the printer of the Posaune suggests that they attempted towithhold information from censors concerning the text.

Established in 1614, the Sterns initially operated only as publishers.They would accept (or reject) works presented to them by individualauthors, agree to finance the printing, and then allocate the job to acertain press. Often a publisher also possessed the right to determinespecific conditions of sale, such as in which territories, or even in whichshops particular works might be vended. The majority of books pub-lished by the Stern firm during the 1620s were printed by Johann Vogtof Goslar, or by the ‘technically inept’ Ratsdrucker in Lüneburg, AndreaeMichelsen.93 The enduring economic health of the Stern publishing en-terprise was secured by the firm’s connection to Johann Arndt and otherproductive authors of devotional literature, like Egard. Arndt contrib-uted a foreword to a 1620 folio bible published by the firm,94 and soonfollowed after editions of Arndt’s Wahres Christenthum, Lehr- und Trost-büchlein and Paradiesgärtlein. Additionally, the firm published tracts writ-ten in response to the Rosicrucian furore,95 and in the 1620s, issuedseveral editions of Philipp Nicolai’s influential De Regno Christi. Accord-

31

� Martin Lipenius: Bibliotheca Realis Universalis Omnium Materiarum, Rerum et Titu-lorum, in Theologia, Jurisprudentia, Medicina et Philosophia Occurentium [. . .] in IV. Partesseu speciales bibliothecas [. . .] divisa. Bd. I. Leipzig 1685, 68, reports a 1620 edition which couldnot possibly have existed. Möller, Cimbria Literata [see note 7] I, 153, makes similarly dubiousreferences to editions printed in Hamburg in 1621 and 1623, none of which are extant andwhich are almost certainly ghost editions.

� Hans Dumrese: Lüneburg und die Offizin der Sterne: Der Sternverlag im 17. und 18. Ja-hrhundert. Lüneburg 1956, 16; Concerning Michelsen, see Christoph Reske: Die Buchdruckerdes 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts im deutschen Sprachgebeit. Auf der Grundlage des gleichnamigenWerkes von Josef Benzing. Wiesbaden 2007; H. Koch: Zur Geschichte des Buchdrucks in Lüne-burg im 17. Jahrhundert. In: Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1972, 244–247.

� Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Bibel-S. 2° 61.� Carlos Gilly: Cimelia Rhodostaurotica. Amsterdam 21995, nos. 190, 192f.

ing to Hans Dumrese, a historian of the firm, around 1623 the Sternenterprise became, in spite of considerable economic success, dissatisfiedwith the quality of the work of their printers.96 In May 1623 they there-fore applied for a printing privilege from the Lüneburg city council, in abid to bring a printing press in house.97

For some reason, however, the Lüneburg authorities were suspiciousof the Sterns’ motivations. Before being prepared to grant privilege, theydemanded a more extensive statement of the intentions of the new print-ing house.98 In July 1623, the Stern brothers replied with the requestedstatement.99 The submitted document is extremely interesting. It revealsthat the firm promised to print works only from ‘good and approvedAuthors,’ and would not issue ‘forbidden Pasquills, frivolous jokes orSchartechen,’ which, as the Sterns recognised, was not only against the law,but would also ‘contravene the honour of the business.’ Additionally, thefirm promised to present all materials printed for approval by censors.100

As the unusually stringent guarantees demanded by the council suggest,there seems to have been some questions raised concerning the trust-worthiness of the Stern printing house and their intended undertakings.

The council’s delayed reaction to the Sterns’ application eventuallyarrived several months later, in September 1623. Surprisingly, the privi-leges granted to the firm were limited. The Sterns were only allowed toprint materials that they themselves published (Verlagswerke). Under nocircumstances were job prints (Akzidenzdrucke) on behalf of other pub-lishers to be carried out. The council again insisted that all Stern bookshad to be presented to censors for approval. Strangest of all, however, itwarned that the firm’s already limited privilege could be revoked at anytime.101 Such demands were not often found in privileges of the time,and, while the Lüneburg council naturally had to ensure the interests ofthe already-active Michelsen firm, who had been active in the city forsome time, were protected, this seems to have been only one factor inthe unusually limited nature of the privilege.

Another factor seems to have been the somewhat dubious reputation ofthe Stern firm. This reputation might have had a number of origins. Itmight, for example, have stemmed from the firm’s decision to publishseveral Rosicrucian tracts during the 1610s. It is possible, however, that awariness of the Stern firm amongst the Lüneburg authorities was the direct

32

� Dumrese, Sterne [see note 92], 23.� Dumrese, Sterne [see note 92], 21–23. A copy of the application itself is preserved at

Wolfenbüttel, Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, [hereafter StA] StA IV Hs 11: 223, 4f. Wolfenbüttel, StA IV Hs 11: 223, 5. Wolfenbüttel, StA IV Hs 11: 223, 5–7.

��� Wolfenbüttel, StA IV Hs 11: 223, 7.��� Dumrese, Sterne [see note 93], 23.

result of an intriguing publishing plan presented by the Augsburg Paracel-sian Carl Widemann (1555–1635) to Duke August of Braunschweig-Lüneburg sometime during 1621. In that year Widemann, a key figure inthe chiliastic underground in the Holy Roman Empire, with connectionsto many kryptoradikale and heterodox personalities, petitioned the dukewith a plan to set in print a veritable library of Weigelian, chiliastic andother heterodox tracts, all of which, he envisioned, would be printed andpublished by the Stern brothers in Lüneburg.102 While Herzog August re-jected the plan, rightly fearing repercussions for religious unity within histerritories, Widemann’s project must have been formulated with the will-ing participation of the Stern firm, and is therefore evidence of the Sterns’sympathy or tolerance for heterodox and marginal religious material.103 Ifthe Lüneburg council had been informed of Widemann’s plan by DukeAugust – and it is certain they would have been instructed to keep an eyeon the activities of the Stern firm – their caution concerning the Sterns’printing rights seems entirely explicable.

Concerns over Widemann’s project within Braunschweig-Lüneburgmight also have directly impacted on the printing arrangements forEgard’s Posaune in 1623, which appears to have been published as thefirm was in negotiations with the Lüneburg city council. Given the con-troversial nature of the text, the Sterns might have withheld this infor-mation deliberately, in order to avoid possible recriminations for theirprivilege application. But where was the Posaune printed? In the yearsbefore 1623, the Sterns were only known to have employed two printersto produce their publications. Based purely on the dating of the Posaune,Dumrese suggested that Egard’s text was probably printed by Michelsenin Lüneburg sometime before September 1623. In support of this hy-pothesis, he claimed that the firm’s relationship with Vogt in Goslar hadalready been dissolved by this date.104 This claim is, however, inaccurate,for Vogt was still printing books on behalf of the Sterns as late as 1624.105

If the controversial nature of the Posaune was indeed the reason why theprinter’s name and location was withheld, it seems equally unlikely thatthe Sterns would print the book in Lüneburg, where the presses werebeing heavily scrutinized by local authorities.

33

��� Letter of 17/29 June 1621, cited in Carlos Gilly: ‘Theophrastia Sancta.’ Paracelsianism as aReligion, in conflict with the established Churches. In: Paracelsus. The Man and his Reputa-tion, His Ideas and their Transformation. Ed. by Ole Peter Grell. Leiden 1998, 180.

��� Der Briefwechsel zwischen Philipp Hainhofer und Herzog August d. J. Hg. v. R. Gobiet.München 1984, 334: “[D]aß die Theophrastische und Weigelianische bücher dieser orten zutrucken nicht verstattet werden; alß die in unserer Theologia, grosse Verwirrung würden ma-chen.” (Herzog August to Philipp Hainhofer, 16 June 1621)

��� Dumrese, Sterne [see note 93], 23.��� See Die 300jährige Geschichte des Hauses F. A. Lattmann zu Goslar bis zur Jetztzeit. Goslar

1904, 11f.

The most likely candidate for the printing, then, is Vogt in Goslar. Andindeed, a typographical comparison of 12 books published by the Sternsand printed by Michelsen and Vogt between 1620 and 1623 to the Posaunedemonstrates beyond all reasonable doubt that Egard’s text was indeedprinted in Goslar. On account of Goslar’s distance from Lüneburg, theVogt printing-house was an unusual choice for the Sterns, especially whennearby Hamburg offered abundant, and probably cheaper, opportunities.106

The choice of Vogt to print the Posaune, far from the prying eyes of localcensors, therefore seems to have been a deliberate act of subterfuge onbehalf of the Sterns. If this was intended as a strategy to avoid controversy,it worked. The Posaune appeared in print, apparently unmolested by anycensorial authority. However, if Egard’s work did not excite the ire ofpotential opponents as it went through the presses, it would certainly doso after it had appeared on bookstalls throughout the Holy Roman Empire.

6. The Reception of the Posaune

Although Wallmann, in his initial sketch of Egard’s chiliasm, claimedthat the pastor ‘blieb mit seiner Lehre vom tausendjährigen Reich unbe-helligt,’ this was not at all the case.107 That the publication of Egard’schiliastic text caused a sensation and a backlash within the Lutheranchurch was attested to by Egard himself in a letter to an unknown recipi-ent dated 22 August 1624, one year after his controversial book was firstset in print:

Was sonst anlanget meine Posaune/ die ich zur Erweckung der Welt an dasLicht gegeben/ so mercke ich/ daß dieselbe von Vielen übel außgelegtwird/ wie ihr ohne Zweiffel wisset/ und mir es von vielen wird übelaußgelegt/ als sagte ich von einer neuen Lehre/ welches mir nicht in denSinn kommen/ sondern zeuge daß das Licht/ welches itzt ist/ werdeherrlicher und grösser werden/ und sonderlich was durch S. Johann Arentenist angefangen/ werde herrlicher werden.108

The diary of Jacob Fabricius Jr. (1588–1645), adjunct Generalpropst andcourt preacher in Gottorf,109 provides several important references tocontroversy provoked by Egard’s Posaune.110 On 16 September 1624,

34

��� Ibid., 12. Concerning the Hamburg printers of the period, see Reske, Buchdrucker [see note93], s. v. ‘Hamburg.’

��� Wallmann, Zwischen Reformation und Pietismus [see note 1], 200.�� In: Engelbrecht, Christlicher Wunderreicher Bind-Brieff [see note 79], K5v. The letter is

dated 22 August 1624.�� On Fabricius see Möller, Cimbria Literata [see note 7] I, 165; Anders Anderson: Art. “Fab-

ricius, Jacob d. J.” In: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Biographisches Lexikon II, 1971, 135f.��� Jacob Fabricius, Jacob Fabricius den Yngres Optegnelser 1617–1644. Hg. v. A. Andersen.

Copenhagen 1964. References to Egard appear on pp. 239, 244, 250, 260, 263, 267, 282, 284.

Fabricius recorded that Johann Clüver (1593–1633), a promising youngtheologian and favourite of the Danish king, had recently spent sometime in Rostock with the theologian Johann Affelmann, one of the majortheorists on chiliastic heresy. Following this meeting, Clüver had de-clared his intention to write a tract directed against Egard’s Posaune.111

Evidently, during the course of their conversations, the two theologianshad compared Egard’s statements to Affelmann’s definitions of chiliasticerror, and determined that the Nortorf pastor advocated a kind of chili-asmus subtilis. Interestingly, both Clüver and Fabricius referred to Egard’stract under the title Offenbahrung der göttlichen Majestat. This was the sametitle as Aegidus Guttmann’s influential heterodox work, and was evi-dently intended as a kind of disparagement.112

Clüver’s decision to seek Affelmann’s advice, however, was promptedby an earlier exchange with Egard himself. Namely, sometime in early1624, after acquiring a copy of the Posaune and recognizing the thread ofchiliastic error that ran through it, Clüver visited Egard and demandedhe recant his opinions. He later wrote a revealing and intriguing accountof the situation:

Scripsi ad ipsum Autorem [i. e., Egard] anno 1624, deque hujus expositionisvanitate multis argumentis admonui: Sed perstitit ille in suavi suo somnio,meque rogavit, ut quod minus mihi placeret, omitterem. Sibi enim integrumesse perinde atque aliis, suam de obscurâ hac prophetiâ sententiam publicijuris facere. Sed tempus ipsam propheticam sat maturè redarguit, quantumquidem cordatiores judicant. Interim ne autor sibi & aliis de novo hoc regnoimponere pergat, paucula haec subjicere volui.113

Following the meeting, Clüver began work on a much more thoroughrefutation of the pastor’s chiliasm, in order to set the matter before theeyes of the public and force Egard to relinquish his ‘obscure’ revelations.The controversy expanded. Shortly after Clüver’s declaration, Fabriciusacquired a copy of Egard’s book, and, after reading the text in one sitting,concluded it was a mess of ‘hypocritical doctrines.’ ‘Truly I say,’ wroteFabricius, ‘that either the devil possessed him and dictated these thingsto him, or he is a very learned hypocrite.’114

35

��� Jacob Fabricius [see note 110], 239: 16. September 1624: “M. Clüverus dixerat Rostochii,er wolte schreiben wieder Egardi Tractatum von offenbarung der göttlichen Majestat.” ForClüver see ADB IV, 352f.; Möller, Cimbria Literata [see note 7] I, 103; Erich Pontoppidan:Annales ecclesiæ Danicæ diplomatici, oder nach Ordnung der Jahre abgefassete und mit Urkun-den belegte Kirchen=Historie des Reichs Dännemarck. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Owe Lynow1747, III, 807.

��� Aegidus Guttmann: Offenbarung göttlicher Mayestat. 2 Bde. Hanau: Johann Wolff 1619.��� Johann Clüver: Diluculum Apocalypticum seu commentarius in B. Apostoli et Evangelistae

Johannis Apocalypsin. Hg. v. Michael Clüver. Lübeck & Stralsund: Schernwebel & Meder 1646f.,101.

��� Jakob Fabricius [see note 110], 26. September, 1624: “Perlegi scriptum Egardi super Apoc.

The waking controversy over the Posaune was furthered by suspicionsthat Egard had been fraternizing with known heretics and kryptoradikalepersonalities, such as Joachim Morsius, Johann Angelius Werdenhagen,Hans Engelbrecht, and in particular with members of the circle that sur-rounded Nikolaus Teting. On 4 September 1624, only days after Clüverhad announced his intention to write against the Posaune, the Husumpastor Peter Danckwerth asked Egard to compose a theological reporton Teting’s teachings. In this report, which otherwise rejected Teting’sWeigelian doctrines outright, Egard was forced to admit that Teting hadonce visited him several years previously, although, he claimed, the twomen had only discussed their mutual admiration of Johann Arndt. WhileI have already shown that Egard wrote explicitly against Teting in thePosaune and elsewhere, the only plausible explanation for the inclusionof this information in an otherwise unremarkable theological report wasthat it is made in response to accusations that the two men had fraternizedor shared heretical ideas.

Egard’s positive attitude toward the visionary Engelbrecht, which coin-cided with the controversy over the Posaune, brought him under furthersuspicion.115 Engelbrecht had traveled to Husum in Schleswig in Augustand September of 1624, where he was hosted by members of Teting’scircle, such as Dorothea Hoyers, sister of the poet Anna Owena, and wasthought to be trading in Rosicrucian writings.116 He was also known as afriend of the Bohemian émigré and chiliast Paul Felgenhauer. For a ‘de-vout and exemplary’ pastor, it certainly seemed to his disapproving col-leagues that Egard had indeed been keeping some strange company.

Clüver’s promised Meditari contra Egardum was already in the possessionof the Stern print-shop in Lüneburg – the same firm that had publishedEgard’s Posaune – by early November 1624.117 It was, however, neverprinted.118 There might be several reasons for this. After 1623, Clüver

36

20. Nescivi prostare. Vere dico aut Diabolum illum occupasse ipsique hæc dictasse, aut doctis-simum hypocritam.” The entry continues: “Novi aliquem ante annos 20. Dabant circumstantiæesse Oligerum Rosekrantzium. Quæ illa explicatio? Ut et dicti Zach. 14 von tag weder nachtetc.? Evolvi omnia, tradidi Marschallo Podewilsio exemplar, cum peteret.”

��� Feddersen, Kirchengeschichte Schleswig-Holsteins [see note 9], 296.��� Jakob Fabricius [see note 110], 243ff. (19. September 1624) records a colloquium between

several theologians concerning Engelbrecht and his trip to Schleswig. Johann Winter reported:“Dieser Mensch (Engelbrecht) ist nu Husii ind Suavesteti gewesen, ut videret Rosecreutzer, quiid optaverant jam pridem, idque hac occasione [. . .] Illud scriptum hat er in gratiam Saccorumzugeschicket denen Rosecruetzern. [. . .] Er ist jetzt bei Dorothea Höyers.” (246) For Hoyers’sister Anna Owena and her connection to Teting, see Barbara Becker-Cantarino: ‘Biographie’ inAnna Owena Hoyers’ Geistliche und Weltliche Poemata. Tübingen 1986, 33*ff.

��� Jakob Fabricius [see note 110], 282: (2. or 3. November 1624): “Sternius ipsi scripsitClüverum aliquid meditari contra Egardum.”

�� The text does not appear in any contemporary bibliographies, nor is it mentioned by Möller,Cimbria Literata [see note 7] I, 103, in his discussion of Clüver’s writings.

was pastor and professor of theology at the Royal Stift in Sorø, Denmark,and therefore, like Egard, under the nominal protection of King Chris-tian IV. The king may have been reluctant to court controversy. Anotherexplanation might have been simple popularity of Egard’s works. Whilecontroversial material was certainly present in the Posaune, Clüver mighthave thought would do more harm than good to refute Egard’s errors.After all, on balance, Egard’s other texts did more good than harmamongst the Lutheran community. However, as Egard’s later work, thePraxis Fidei Salvificae (1627) clearly demonstrates, the major reasonClüver’s text never saw print was because, by mid 1624, Egard had al-ready decided to abandon the more controversial aspects of his chiliasticphilosophy.

Yet Clüver was not the only Lutheran theologian to take exception tothe doctrines of the Posaune. Another of Egard’s opponents was in fact acolleague of Affelmann, the Rostock theologian Paul Tarnow (1562–1633).119 In 1624, Tarnow delivered a fiery oration against Egard and othersupporters of Arndt’s works, a group that he designated – in distinction to,but clearly in company with, the New Prophets – as the ‘New Evangel-ists.’120 These New Evangelists occupied themselves with questions of de-votion and with ‘unusual opinions’ concerning the Last Days. Their teach-ings, Tarnow proclaimed, opened a veritable Pandora’s box of errors thatactively led the faithful away from God. According to Tarnow, the funda-ment of Lutheran religion was the ability to approach God with a compli-ant heart, something which the New Evangelists hindered: ‘The result ofthis [hindrance] is that their teachings are also to be considered a reason forGod’s fury and all the present unhappiness granted us.’121

Interestingly, Clüver’s condemnation of the Posaune did eventuallyappear in print, albeit posthumously and in a highly modified state, in hisDiluculum Apocalypticum (1646–47), a lavish folio commentary on Reve-lation. In the form in which it was finally printed, the condemnation wasrather soft, despite containing several pages of discussion of various errorsand misconceptions offered by a (barely-disguised) ‘P. E. Holsatus’.122 Itis important to understand, however, that, by 1646, Egard and his errorswere no longer what we might call ‘news’. Indeed, not only had theNortorf pastor already set aside the Posaune and its chiliastic ideas follow-

37

�� See Gottfried Arnold: Unparteyische Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie. Leipzig 1742, II, XVII,5, § 16, which briefly describes Egard’s dispute with Tarnow.

��� I have used the later German edition edited by Heinrich Ammersbach: Paul Tarnow: PandoraTarnoviana. Das ist/ Beschreibung des Neuen Evangelij, welches eine Uhrsach ist alles Un-glücks in der werthen Christenheit [. . .]. Quedlinberg: Ockell 1663.

��� Tarnow, Pandora Tarnoviana [see note 120], B4r.��� Clüver, Diluculum Apocalypticum [see note 113], 101–107. The rather less-disguised name

of ‘P. Egardi Posaune, anno 1623’ is amongst the entries in the Catalogus Interpretum on fol.[b8r–v].

ing controversies with Fabricius, Rost and Clüver, but the Diluculumitself appeared in print long after Egard’s prophesied millennium had‘occurred’ between 1625 and 1629.

In any event, except for Clüver and Tarnow’s efforts, Egard’s chiliasticideas generally escaped scrutiny and condemnation.123 Egard was indeedmentioned briefly in Georg Rost’s tract concerning Johann Arndt’sworks, where Rost linked Arndt and Egard’s ideas to those of Weigel, inaddition to the chiliastic prophets Paul Felgenhauer and Paul Nagel.124

However, the issue of Egard’s chiliastic heresy was otherwise obscuredby the chaotic shuffle of opinions concerning New Prophets, politicaldisaster, raging war and the orthodoxy of Arndt’s Wahres Christenthum.

7. Egard’s Chiliasm after 1624

As I mentioned previously, almost as suddenly as Egard’s chiliasticvision appeared, it vanished from his social program of devotional Chris-tianity. In 1627, when Egard and the Lutheran community should havebeen in the midst of the millennium that he himself had predicted onlyfour years earlier, we instead find the Nortorf pastor distancing himselffrom the Posaune and its prophecies. In his massive collection of sermons,Praxis Fidei Salvificae (1627), Egard included a list of his earlier works inwhich he explicated his most important teachings concerning the King-dom of God for the benefit of his readers:

Dieses nu zu beweisen und in der Menschen Hertz zu pflantzen/ habe ichbißher durch die Gnade Gottes/ und Kraft des heiligen Geistes/ etlichedeutsche Tractätlein/ als das Göttliche Heiligthumb/ ChristenthumbDavids/ Christenthumb Salomonis/ Gülden Christenthumb des himlischen Adel-ers/ Falsch Christenthumb/ und andere ans Licht gegeben/ und mich befleis-siget vielen zu dienen in Christo/ wie ich denn mich schüldig erkenne.125

In what is otherwise a nearly complete catalogue of his German lan-guage works to 1627, glaring in its absence from this list is the Posaune,which, in 1623, Egard had declared was to be the ‘cornerstone’ of hisentire German-language devotional program.

38

��� Cf. Feddersen, Kirchengeschichte Schleswig-Holsteins [see note 9], 296; Möller, CimbriaLiterata [see note 7] I, 153 contains details of later theologians who discussed Egard’s works,but provides no discussion of Egard’s contemporaries.

��� Rost, Amica [see note 23], [2]34f.��� Paul Egard: Praxis Fidei Salvificae, Das ist: Ubung des Seligmachenden Glaubens/ un[d]

Ernewrung des innern Menschen/ durch die Früchte des Geistes/ nach den Sontages Episteln[. . .]. Lüneburg: Johann und Heinrich Stern 1627, fol.) o (7r. For a bibliography of Egard’sworks, see Möller, Cimbria Literata [see note 7] I, 153.

There can be little doubt that the major reason why the Posaune wasnot mentioned here was because of the controversy it had engenderedamongst theologians upon its publication. But that Egard had alreadyexperienced a change of heart concerning his eschatological philosophyas early as 1625 is demonstrated by the content of his Geheimnuß desReichs Gottes (1625), an Arndtian tract that defended the idea of an in-dwelling kingdom of God in man.126 Such an idea had been vociferouslyrejected by Lukas Osiander (1571–1638) and other hardline Lutherantheologians as a variety of Weigelian or Schwenckfeldian heresy, the veryidea of which was an affront to the authority of the Lutheran church.127

In the Reich Gottes, Egard did not ask the question of when the godlyKingdom would dawn, as the prophetic context of his Posaune mighthave led us to anticipate, but instead, of how.128 Egard made it clear thatalthough the seeds of the indwelling kingdom were planted in temporalreality (in der Zeit) by the Holy Spirit working through the Gospels andall of Scripture, the consequences of personal grace and transcendence,that is to say the kingdom itself, flowered in eternity.129

If the Posaune was not proof enough that Egard did not share in thepessimistic eschatology of his orthodox Lutheran counterparts, in theReich Gottes he made it explicit. In the course of the text he cited Romans4:18 to demonstrate that hope begets hope: ‘Who against hope believedin hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according tothat which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.’ Hope was, as part of Egard’spastoral and devotional program, exactly what the Lutheran community,particularly the local community, needed during a time of war, inflation,famine and unrest. The major problem of rabidly orthodox theologianslike Osiander and others of his ilk, Egard argued, was not that Arndt,himself, or other New Evangelists were actually heretics, Rosicrucians,Weigelians, Schwärmer or whatever other names they were forced to bear:but rather that they were not Osiandrists. That is to say, they did not sharethe exact same picture of orthodox Lutheranism as Osiander himself.130

The content of the Reich Gottes however, marked a subtle but impor-tant change in Egard’s eschatology at first not easily perceptible. Egardindeed spoke there of the necessity of hope before the Judgment Day, ofa kingdom of God that began within earthly time, and of many otherelements that, at first glance, seem similar to the material covered in the

39

��� Paul Egard: Geheimnuß des Reichs Gottes im Menschen [. . .]. Lüneburg: Stern 1625.��� See Lukas Osiander: Admonitio de quorundam, ad præsentia hæc periculosa tempora spec-

tantium vaticiniorum, per fanaticos quosdam [. . .] in publicum sparsis corruptelis. Tübingen:Eberhard Wild 1621, 39, 44.

�� Egard, Geheimnuß [see note 126], 13.�� Egard, Geheimnuß [see note 126], 3.��� Egard, Ehrenrettung Johann Arndten [see note 73], 24.

Posaune. However, by 1625, Egard had removed the broader propheticand chronological contexts that had initially attracted accusations of chili-asmus subtilis and raised the ire of Clüver and others. The expectation ofthe end was much more subdued, and did not involve the expectationof a happy time between 1625 and 1629.

By the time of the Praxis (1627), Egard’s eschatological thought hadevolved even further. Although we know that the tract was printed in1627, there is no clue as to when the sermons which comprised thecollection were actually written. Based on content alone, it seems quitecertain that most, if not all, the sermons included may be dated after1625, or at least at a point after Egard had abandoned the millenarianstatements of the Posaune. In addition to providing clues to the transfor-mation of Egard’s eschatology, the book also offers important insight intoEgard’s pastoral philosophy, and into how he transliterated the contentand theory of his written works into active principles to be used for thebenefit of his pastorate.

I have shown in the prior discussion of the Posaune that Egard sawJohann Arndt and Hans Engelbrecht as ‘true teachers’ who would en-lighten the church in the Last Days. In the Praxis, the abilities of suchteachers were divorced from their inherently prophetic context, and in-stead cast in a much more mundane and pastoral light. Namely, Egardpromoted such teachers as possessing an authority that existed inde-pendently of, but in association with, ministers of the Lutheran church:

Gott erleuchtet und ernewert den Menschen nach seinem Bilde/ nicht ohnMittel/ sondern durch Mittel/ durch das heilige Predigampt und Wort Got-tes. Er sendet trewe Lehrer/ und machet sie durch seinen heiligen Geisttüchtig/ zu führen das Ampt des Evangelij/ auff daß er durch sie viel Men-schen bekehre/ läutere/ reinige und heile/ oder sie vom Wege derFinsterniß und Todts führe auff den Weg des Lebens.131

This formulation, which emphasized both the office of preacher andthe Word as legitimate sources of inspiration, also left room for recogni-tion of the likes of both Engelbrecht and Arndt. But in case Egard’snotion that the word of God, delivered by the Holy Spirit was a supremesource of knowledge attracted negative attention from other churchmembers, the pastor was also extremely careful in delineating the role ofthe Lutheran church in relation to such communications and the sub-sequent authority they engendered:

Das heilige Predigampt ist eine Werckstete des heiligen Geistes/ zu der Men-schen Seligkeit/ es ist ein heilsames Mittel/ dadurch der leib Christi er-bawet/ und die heiligen zugerichtet werden zum Werck des Ampts/ bis daß

40

��� Egard, Praxis [see note ***], 660.

wir alle hinan kommen zu einerley Glauben und Erkäntniß des Sohns Got-tes.132

In this clever passage Egard did not fully exclude the roles played bypersonal reflection and revelation from the work of the Holy Spirit. In-deed, the pastorate was only one potential workplace of the Spirit. Forsomeone who accorded Arndt, or the lay prophet Engelbrecht the high-est praise, this was only natural for Egard. In the above passage, Egardunderlined the idea that it was the responsibility of members of thechurch to counsel and guide such personal revelations – other Wercksteteof the Holy Spirit – to conform to Lutheran belief.

Despite his evident retreat from the chronological calculations andpredictions of the millennium for the years 1625 to 1629, the end of yearsermons presented in Egard’s Praxis – which traditionally focussed uponthe Last Judgment – nevertheless suggest that Egard believed that theLutheran church was experiencing a kind of spiritual Gnadenzeit, or pe-riod of millennial comfort. Egard even suggested a prayer to his commu-nity to encapsulate this idea:

Gib daß ich [die] gegenwertige Gnadenzeit recht in acht nehme/ und durchdeine grosse Güte/ Gedult und Langmuth mich lasse zur Busse führen. Undweil den HERR Jesu Christe/ bald wilt in den Wolcken des Himmels er-scheinen/ und kommen wie ein Dieb in der Nacht/ so regiere mich durchdeinen Geist/ daß ich im heiligen Wandel unnd gottseligem Wesen/ deinstets aus dem Himmel warte und nach deiner Zukunfft ein Verlangenhabe/ auff daß ich in dem newen Himmel und Erden . . . ewiglich mögeseyn [. . .].133

This Gnadenzeit therefore, much as Egard foreshadowed in his ReichGottes, existed outside the boundaries of time. This was a kind of eternalkingdom of God that constituted the idea of the ‘new heaven and thenew earth’ (Rev 21) not as a prophetic possibility, but rather as a kind ofinspirational pastoral example for the community:

Dieser newer Zustandt nach der Zeit ist verheissen von GOTT/ uns zumTrost und Frewd/ in dieser unser Unruhe/ Mühe/ Jammer und Angst auffErden. Derhalben wir auch auff denselbigen sollen sehen/ dahin mit unsernHertzen eilen/ und nicht zweiffeln/ sondern festiglich gläuben/ daß wir dennewen Himmel und Erden sehen werden/ denn die Verheissung Gottes istWarheit/ GOTT ist trew/ der uns zu geben das himmlische Wesen hat zuge-saget. [Psalm 27].134

This was the pastoral element of Egard’s philosophy at work. In themajority of his written works, the pastor was loath to mention the events

41

��� Egard, Praxis [see note ***], 661.��� Egard, Praxis [see note 125], 902.��� Egard, Praxis [see note 125], 900.

of the Thirty Years’ War that was raging throughout the Holy RomanEmpire, and indeed did so rarely. But presented above is the secondeffectus, or purpose, of Egard’s eschatology. The first effectus was to con-vert and unify people to the tenets of the Lutheran belief. The secondwas to provide a comfort (Trost) to the community during those chroni-cally uncertain times. Such a comfort would have been especially neces-sary in contemporary Holstein, at the northern frontier of the Empire,where rumours from both the Scandinavian kingdoms to the north andthe embattled territories to the south collided. This was a time of greatdoubt, for Christian VI, King of Denmark and Duke of Holstein hadrecklessly thrown his territories into the Thirty Years’ War in early 1625,without first securing binding promises of political or financial supportfrom any other parties should his efforts meet with misfortune.135 As itwas, Christian’s Danish troops were forced to engage in a series of crip-pling battles with Catholic forces led by both Tilly and Wallenstein,including the disastrous and infamous defeat at Lutter-am-Barenberg inAugust 1626. Catholic victory in this battle left Holstein in a dire posi-tion, indeed at the mercy of Tilly’s marauding imperial troops.136 Al-though Egard was probably not an eyewitness to any of these happenings,the worries and persistent anxieties of his frightened congregation, andindeed his wider readership, would not have been difficult to remark andto appreciate.

In any event, evidence drawn from several of Egard’s tracts indicatesthat, during 1624 or 1625, the pastor had abandoned his millenarianexpectations as originally outlined in the Posaune. At the very least he hadceased to express his optimistic eschatology with reference to the tropesof chiliastic literature. In its place, Egard confined himself to an Arndtianconception of an eternal inner Kingdom of God, a Gnadenzeit that ex-isted in eternity, access to which was through the office of the Lutheranpastorate.137 Although such views were already subject to criticism frommany theologians, Egard’s stress upon the essential nature of the Lutheranchurch as the means through which the godly might be accessed – andthe lack of any overly zealous opponent – perhaps spared him from con-tinued criticism. Still, with his abandonment of the Posaune, this surpris-ing and little known attempt to create a mainstream Lutheran chiliasticexpectation was, for the time being, effectively over.

42

��� Geoffrey Parker: The Thirty Years’ War. New York 21987, 75.��� Parker, The Thirty Years’ War [see note 135], 78.��� Egard, Geheimnuß des Reichs Christi [see note 126], 13, 16: “Das Reich Gottes kompt

durch das Evangelium und Wort, denn es ist nicht Fleisch, sondern Geist, nicht Natur, sondernGnade [. . .] Das heilige Predigampt ist eine Offenbahrung des Reichs Gottes, eine verklärungChristi, ein Mittel un[d] Weg zur Vereinigung und Gemeinschafft mit Christo, ein Zeichen undZeugniß der Gnade und Liebe Gottes gegen die Menschen.” These sentiments are repeated inEgard, Praxis [see note 125], 900, 902.

8. Egard and the Pietists

A result of Egard’s devotion to Lutheran spirituality in the mode ofJohann Arndt and his widespread popularity as an author of devotionalliterature was his positive reception amongst the Pietists. FriedrichBreckling had nothing but positive words to say about Egard’s philoso-phy, so too did Gottfried Arnold.138 His reception was not limited toGerman speaking lands, nor even to Europe itself. The notoriously se-lective New England Puritan Cotton Mather (1663–1728) read and citedhis works with approval.139 The most significant reader of Egard, how-ever, was Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705). Spener, the man who in-troduced the subtle chiliastic concept of the Hoffnung besserer Zeiten intoLutheran thought and founded the Pietistic movement also edited a col-lected edition of Egard’s works, the Außergelesenste Schrifften (1679–1683).140 This reception begs the question of whether Egard’s Posaune,although abandoned by its author shortly after its publication, might haveinfluenced Spener’s ‘passive chiliasm,’ and thereby the melioristic char-acter of much of later Pietistic eschatology.

Although Spener designated Egard Arndii summus aestimator et hypera-pistes, his assessment of the pastor of Nortorf’s writings was not univer-sally positive.141 Spener noted that while he read some of Egard’s bookswith true zeal, there remained several that he did not care much for.142

One work by Egard that Spener derided in no uncertain terms was thePosaune. In a letter of February 1677, when discussing which of Egard’sworks the Pietist intended to include in his edition of the Nortorf pastor’swritings, Spener wrote:

Ex omnibus autem fateor nullo minus me affectum esse, quam Explicationecap. 20 Apocal[ypsis], in eo enim videbatur nimium sibi indulgere et pro

43

�� Friedrich Breckling: In Nomine Jesu. Mysterium Iniquitatis. Die Welt des Teuffels Reich,wie sie Christi thörichtem Creutz-Reich entgegen gesetzt wird; Was dieselbe für ein Antichris-tenthumb, Mördergrub, und Grewel der Verwüstung für Gottes Augen ist [. . .]. Als das AnderTheil des Christi Triumphantis. [Amsterdam ?] 1662, 51. For Arnold, see the references inMöller, Cimbria Literata [see note 7] I, 151.

�� Cotton Mather. The Christian Philosopher. Ed. by W. Solberg. Chicago 2000, 339, 367,399.

��� Paul Egard: Pauli Egardi, eines weiland unverdächtigen, vortrefflichen und geistreichenLehrers außergelesenste Schrifften. 3 Bde. Hg. v. Philip Jakob Spener. Frankfurt/Main, Gießen1679–1683.

��� Spener, letter to Johann Conrad Hößlin, February 1676, in: Philipp Jakob Spener: Briefe ausder Frankfurter Zeit, 1666–1686. Bd. 2. Hg. v. Johannes Wallmann. Tübingen 1996, 309 epistle66.

��� Spener’s forewords to the first and third volumes of Egard’s selected works (31 March 1679& 31 Aug 1682) are reproduced in: Philipp Jakob Spener: Schriften. Hg. v. Erich Beyreuther. BandVIII/2: Erste Geistliche Schrifften (1699), Vorreden 1667–1698. Eingel. v. Dietrich Blaufuß.(ND der Ausg. Frankfurt/Main 1699). Hildesheim 2002, 113–157, here 132.

arbitro textum a nativa significatione flectere. Sed et eventus coniecturamrefellit. Potest tamen venia facilis dari labenti in argumentio difficili.143

Granted, much of Spener’s distaste for Egard’s book stemmed from hisown difficulties with reconciling the events of history with those de-scribed in Revelation 20.144 But Spener’s distaste for the Posaune alsoresulted from its perceived espousal of a subtle chiliasm incompatiblewith the Pietist’s own philosophy at that time,145 an incompatibility en-couraged by tensions concerning the spread of chiliastic doctrines withinLutheranism during the late seventeenth century. The Posaune, deemedtoo controversial by its editor, did not appear in the printed edition ofEgard’s Außergelesenste Schrifften. It was perhaps the very exclusion of thiswork that allowed Spener, perhaps with only a minor pang of con-science, to absolve Egard unequivocally from lasting suspicions of chili-astic error in his foreword to the edition:

Optimus ille est, qui minimis urgetur. Weßwegen wir auch seine [Egard’s] son-derbahre und zwar durch den außgang selbs widerlegte/ aber durch außnicht mit der so genanten Chiliastischen meynung übereinkommende erk-lärung des 20. Cap der Offenbahrung Johannis/ ihm leicht zugut halten/ undwie ander alter und neuer Lehrer besondere verstoß/ die wir selbs an denlieben Vatern/ so doch in ihrem gebührenden werth bleiben [. . .] an unsermlieben Luthero und andern Lehren.146

Spener’s own doctrine of the Hoffnung besserer Zeiten stemmed frommore concrete practices and less controversial scriptural passages thanthose selected by Egard as fundamental to the growth of the kingdom ofGod in man.147 But if there was any kind of continuity between Spener’spassive-chiliastic philosophy and Egard’s chiliasmus subtilis, it lay not inthe expectation of a felicitous future, but another common aspect withinthe philosophies of both men. For it was because of the willingness ofboth Egard and Spener to remain open to the visions and opinions ofheterodox authors that each reformer was able to develop his ownunique vision concerning the future happiness of the Church, regardlessof its scriptural basis. Thus while Egard drew upon Arndt, Weigel andthe Rosicrucians, Spener looked to Böhme, Quirinus Kuhlmann, andFriedrich Breckling.148 In this sense, both men held fast to I Thess. 5:21:‘Prove everything and hold fast that which is good.’

44

��� Spener, letter to Johann Wilhelm Petersen, 13 February 1677 in: Spener, Briefe [see note141], 45 epistle 8. Cf. Heike Krauter-Dierolf: Die Eschatologie Philipp Jakob Speners. Der Streitmit der lutherischen Orthodoxie um die ‘Hoffnung besserer Zeiten’. Tübingen 2005, 74f.

��� Spener, Briefe [see note 141], 45f.��� Krauter-Dierolf, Eschatologie Speners [see note 143], 74ff.��� Spener, Vorwort [see note 143], 134.��� See Wallmann, Zwischen Reformation und Pietismus [see note 1], 198.�� See Krauter-Dierolf, Eschatologie Speners [see note 143].

9. Conclusion

Paul Egard was the first member of the Lutheran church to incorporatechiliastic expectations into a devotional program as an official teachingof the Lutheran faith. His inspiration for so doing derived from his zealto formulate a functional and effective pastoral and devotional philoso-phy for his congregation and readers throughout the Holy Roman Em-pire, which could provide comfort and solace in what were incrediblydifficult circumstances. Egard’s reliance upon a chiliastic interpretationof Rev 20 resulted from his recognition of the inherent appeal that hopeof a felicitous worldly future held. It was a vision that granted hope,comfort and happiness. The pessimistic apocalypticism of the Lutheranfaith, on the other hand, with its promise of ever-worsening conditionsbefore the end, provided no such support, and was therefore of limitedvalue in relieving the anxieties of a tense congregation.

While the pastor knew – even if he was not aware of the works ofCramer and Affelmann which developed the error of chiliasmus subtilis –that his decision to promote the idea of a felicitous future would becontroversial, Egard was himself attracted to, and partly seduced by, doc-trines and teachings on the margins of orthodoxy, such as the Rosicrucianmanifestos and popular prophecies of a millennial period following thegreat conjunction of 1623. It was from his readings and contacts withheterodox and kryptoradikale thinkers like Joachim Morsius, Johann An-gelius Werdenhagen, Hans Engelbrecht and Nikolaus Teting that Egardencountered, first-hand, the raw appeal of the millennial vision. With hisPosaune, the pastor therefore attempted to subjugate chiliastic expecta-tions, as well as the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to the offices of theLutheran faith. For his fellow theologians, however, Egard’s opinionswere simply too much. By undermining the foundations of Lutheraneschatology and its soteriological implications – in other words, the keyrallying points of confessional identity – Egard’s actions threatened toundermine the faith itself. There can be no denying that, according tocontemporary definitions, what Egard preached in the Posaune was a sub-tle chiliastic position. No matter what its potential value as a work ofdevotional literature, and no matter the potential pastoral benefits that ahope for a felicitous future might have offered Lutheranism, there re-mained no place for Egard’s decidedly unanticipated millennium in theembattled Lutheran faith of the 1620s.

45