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Johann Heinrich Alsted and English Millennialism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Robert G. Clouse
Robert G. Clouse
Affiliation:
Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana 47809
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Extract

At the twelfth International Congress of the Historical Sciences there were a number of papers read on the subject of religious tolerance and heresies in modern times. Among these there were two which are of particular relevance to anyone interested in the religious thought of the Reformation Era. Professors Martin Schmidt and Gerhard Schilfert, the authors, were especially concerned with English Puritanism and its relations with continental radical ferment. Schmidt analyzed the work of Hermann Weingarten, who believed that England's century of Reformation was the seventeenth rather than the sixteenth and that it was during the struggle against the Stuarts that the history of the English church became a record of new intellectual and religious movements. Hence, the chiliastic Independents of the English Interregnum were analagous to the Anabaptists of continental fame in the early sixteenth century. In fact, during the unrest of the English Puritan Revolution, German influences presumably transmitted from the Netherlands were willingly accepted. Among the writers involved in this process were Jakob Böhme and Ludwig Friedrich Gifftheil. From these sources came the belief in the second coming of Christ which formed the unifying bond for all shades of English revolutionary Christian thought. Cromwell, himself, was deeply affected by chiliastic thought, but when he assumed political responsibility, he had to act in a more rational way. Finally the enthusiasm of the Fifth Monarchists and the Levellers subsided into the quiet mysticism of the Quakers and the natural rights position of the Age of Reason.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , April 1969 , pp. 189 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1969

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References

1 La tolérance religieuse et les hérésies á l'époque moderne, Rapports, Volume I, Grands Themes. Comite International des Sciences Historiques. XII Congres International des Sciences Historiques, Vienne, 29 aout — septembre 1965 (Horn, 1965), 103ff.

2 Der englische Kongregationalismus (Independentismus) und das radikale deutsche Taufertum.

3 Die englischen Independenten und die deutschen Sekten in der 2. Halfte des 17. Jahrhunderts.

4 Die Revolutionskirchen Englands (Leipzig, 1868)Google Scholar.

5 For the information about Alsted's life, I have found the following to be helpful: Cole, Percival Richard, A Neglected Educator: Johann Heinrich Alsted (Sydney, 1910)Google Scholar; Creigern, Herman Ferdinand Von, Johann Amos Comenius als Theolog (Leipzig, 1881)Google Scholar; Heinrich Heppe, Alsted, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Bd. 1, 1875Google Scholar; Lippert, Friedrich Adolf Max, Johann Heinrich Alsteds Padagogisch Didaktische Reform — Bestrebungen und ihr Einfluss auf Johann Amos Comenius (Meissen, 1898)Google Scholar; Pixberg, Herman, Der Deutsche Calvinismus und die Padagogik (Gladbeck, 1952)Google Scholar; and F. W. E. ROTH, Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588-1638), Sein Leben Und Seine Schriften, Monatshejte der Comenius-Gesellschaft, ed. Keller, Ludwig (Berlin, 1895), IV, 29ffGoogle Scholar.

6 Gottfried Zedler and Hans Sommer, Die Matrikel der Hohen Schule und des Paedegogiums zu Herborn, Veroffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission fur Nassau (Wiesbaden, 1908), V, 828Google Scholar.

7 Theodore Wotschke, Der Herborner Alsted Verbindung mit Polen, Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte, 1936Google Scholar. Also in the preface to a book Axsted edited, The Art of Peroration Delivered by Jordano Bruno (1612)Google Scholar, he not only dedicated it to “his most noble and learned patron” Count Abraham Wrsotzky Gorni of Poland but he also recalls the good fellowship they had enjoyed with Count Vladislaus ab Ostrorog. Singer, Dorothea Waley, Giordano Bruno, His Life and Thought (New York, 1950), 142ffGoogle Scholar.

8 Heppe, Heinrich, Reformed Dogmatics, trans. Thomson, G. T. (London, 1950)Google Scholar, quotes from Alsted's Theologia Scholastica Didactica exhibens Locos Communes theologicos Methodo scholastica (Hanau, 1618)Google Scholar, on pages 11, 26, 52, 65, 66, 73, 102, 108, 118, 119, 128, 154, 155, 203, 265, 370, 417, 456, 457, 4S9, 473, 481, 638, 646, 708. This book, which is a summary of the leading Reformed theologians from Calvin onwards, illustrates the various Reformed beliefs with citations from these great Calvinist theologians. ALSTED is quoted under the subjects of Natural and Revealed theology, Scripture, the attributes of God, the Trinity, Predestination, Angels, Providence, Sin, the Person of Christ, the Mediatorial office of Christ, the Lord's Supper, and Glorification.

9 For further information on Ramism these books are valuable: Baker, Herschel, The Wars of Truth (Cambridge, 1952)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Craig, Hardin, The Enchanted Glass, The Elizabethan Mind in Literature (New York, 1936)Google Scholar; Graves, Frank, Peter Ramus and the Educational Reformation of the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1912)Google Scholar; Howell, William Samuel, Logic and Rhetoric in England 1500–1700 (Princeton, 1956)Google Scholar; Miller, Perry, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1939)Google Scholar; and the following works by Ong, Walter J.: Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue (Cambridge, 1958)Google Scholar; Ramus and Talon Inventory (Cambridge, 1958)Google Scholar; System, Space, and Intellect in Renaissance Symbolism, Bibliotheque d' Humanisme el Renaissance XVIII (1956), 222–39Google Scholar.

10 This encyclopedia was published at Herborn in 1630 and had 2,543 pages in seven volumes. For a resume of its contents see Encyclopaedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition (Cambridge, 1910), IX, 372Google Scholar.

11 Morison, Samuel Eliot, Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1936), I, 158CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Bayle, Pierre, A Dictionary Historical and Critical, trans. Bernard, John Peter, Birch, Thomas, Lockman, John (London, 1735), I, 529Google Scholar.

14 Miller, Perry, op. cit., 102Google Scholar.

15 As late as the 1670's Leibnitz was very interested in working out a revision of Alsted's work. Loemker, Leroy E., Leibnitz and the Herborn Encyclopedists, Journal of the History of Ideas (Jult-Sept., 1961), Vol. XXII, No. 3, p. 333Google Scholar.

16 There are several histories of millenarianism, but they lack objectivity. Among those I have used are: Boettner, Loraine, The Millennium (Philadelphia, 1958)Google Scholar; Elliott, E. B., Horae Apocalypticae; or, a Commentary on the Apocalypse, Critical and Historical (London, 1847)Google Scholar, Vols. I-IV; Froom, Leroy Edwin, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers (Washington, 1946-1954), Vols. I-IVGoogle Scholar; Nathaniel, GeorgePeters, Henry, The Theocratic Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus, the Christ (Grand Rapids, 1957)Google Scholar, Vols. I–III; Seiss, Joseph A., The Last Times, or Thoughts on Momentous Themes (Philadelphia, 1878)Google Scholar; Shtmeall, R. C., The Second Coming of Christ (New York, 1873)Google Scholar; Taylor, Daniel T., The Voice of the Church on the Coming and Kingdom of the Redeemer: A History of the Doctrine of the Reign of Christ on Earth (Philadelphia, 1856)Google Scholar; West, Nathaniel, History of the Premillennial Doctrine, Second Coming of Christ, Premillennial Essays (Chicago, 1879)Google Scholar; Case, Shirley Jackson, The Millennial Hope (Chicago, 1918)Google Scholar; Silver, Abba Hillel, Messianic Speculation in Israel (New York, 1927)Google Scholar. Works that are more objective and yet deal with more specialized aspects of the history of millen-arianism are: Cohen, Alfred, The Kingdom of God in Puritan Thought: A Study of the English Puritan Quest for the Fifth Monarchy (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Indiana University, 1961)Google Scholar; Cohn, Norman, The Pursuit of the Millennium (London, 1962)Google Scholar; Fixler, Michael, Milton and the Kingdoms of God (Evanston, 1964)Google Scholar; Tuveson, Ernest Lee, Millennium and Utopia (Berkeley, 1949)Google Scholar; and Wilson, John F., Studies in Puritan Millenarianism under the Early Stuarts (unpublished Th.D. thesis, Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1962)Google Scholar. Books that deal with the history of doctrine also treat the idea of the millennium in its many historical appearances. Samples of such work are: Kelly, John Norman Davidson, Early Christian Doctrines (New York, 1958)Google Scholar; Bethune-Baker, James Franklin, An Introduction of the Early History of Christian Doctrine (London, 1923)Google Scholar; Klausner, Joseph, The Messianic Idea in Israel (New York, 1958)Google Scholar; Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church (New York, 1894-1910), Vols. I–IIIGoogle Scholar. An interesting discussion which unfortunately does not have much material on the seventeenth century is Millennial Dreams in Action, ed. Thrupp, Sylvia L. (The Hague, 1962)Google Scholar. Since millennialism is a type of religious utopianism, the recent collection of essays edited by Manuel, Frank E., Utopias and Utopian Thought (Boston, 1966)Google Scholar, should be noted.

16 Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. Mcnehx, J. T., trans. Battles, F. L. (Philadelphia, 1960), Book III, 25, p. 996Google Scholar. Notice also Quistorp, Heinrich, Calvin's Doctrine of Last Things, trans. Knight, Harold (Richmond, 1955). 158ffGoogle Scholar.

17 Calvin, John, Joannis Calvini opera quae supersunt omnia, ed. Baum, W., Cunitz, E., Reuss, E. (Brunswigae, 1889), XLI, 302fGoogle Scholar.

18 Alsted, John Henry, Methodus Sacrosanctae Theologiae (Frankfurt a. M., 1614), 508ff. and 651ffGoogle Scholar.

19 Alsted, John Henry, Theologia Prophetica (Hanoviae, 1622), 556ff. and 842ffGoogle Scholar.

20 Diatribe de mille annis apocalypticis, non Mis Chiliastarum et Phantastarum, sed B. B. Danielis et Johannis (Herborn, 1627)Google Scholar; (Frankfurt a. M., 1627); (Herborn, 1630); (Herborn, German translation, 1630); (London, English translation, 1643).

21 Alsted, John Henry, The Beloved City, trans. Burton, William (London, 1643), 1Google Scholar.

23 Daniel 12:11 & 12 reads: “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.” ALSTED states that “from the time” is to be understood as referring to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and that a day in prophecy is to be understood as a year. Thus to the date of the destruction of Jerusalem in 69 A.D. we add twelve hundred ninety years, which makes 1359 A.D. “at which we must begin the Epocha or account of 1335 dayes, or years; and so we shall be brought to the year of Christ 2694 in which the thousand years in the Revelation shall have end; and they being ended the warre of Gog and Magog shall begin, to which also the last judgment shall put an end.” The Beloved City, 50.

23 Another expression of Alsted's mature millennial interest is the Thesaurus Chronologiae (Herborn, 1650), XIIGoogle Scholar, Chronologia Epocharum Propheticarum, 154ft. This work was first issued in 1624 and revised in a larger edition in 1628. The 1650 edition which is used in this paper is a later reprinting of the 1628 edition. This work was anonymously translated into English along with some information by Tycho Brahe on the astrological signs of the end of the age under the title, The World's Proceeding Woes and Succeeding Joyes…or, The Triple Pressage of Henry Alsted (A Man every way most learned) depending as well on the Oracles of Heaven, as on the opinions of the greatest Astrologers (London, 1642)Google Scholar. The compiler of this work adds a list of notables who have held to a millenarian view and he closes the list with this comment, “…and lastly that Henry Alsted most conversant in the Apocalyps, most full of most deep senses, and high mysteries in his truly golden work inscribed Diatribe of the thousand Apocalyptick yeares (which is a little Booke, but of great sedulity and diligence) doe manfully and solidly defend the same opinion. Forasmuch as he taking away all scruple of doubting in this matter, as one who liketh and hath a care of these divine secrets worthy to be knowne…”

24 William Burton, TO the Right Worshipfull, Sir John Cordwell Knight…This is found in the first page of the dedication of The Beloved City.

25 Ibid.

26 Burton, Introduction, The Beloved City, ii. Alsted's books can be found in seventeenth-century library lists such as Catalogus Librorum Bibliothecae selectissimae…Joannis Arthurii, compiled by Millington, Edward (London, 1682)Google Scholar and Bibliotheca Oweniana Sive Catalogus Librorum…John Oweni (London, 1684)Google Scholar. In a book written to help preachers, there are suggestions of books for them to use, and in this list we find Alsted's Chronology, p. 26, and his commentaries on various Bible passages, pp. 28, 32, 34, 41 and 42. The author recognizes Alsted as among the most valuable of recent commentators: “Amongst the later writers, some are eminent for their Orthodox sound judgments, proper and usefull matter. So the Protestant Commentators in generall: as Alsted, Bullinger, Calvin, Luther, P. Martyr, Melancthon Pareus, Piscator…” (p. 43). Alsted is also recommended as one of those who has capably handled the common places of theology (p. 47), and his writings on the creed, decalogue, and casuistry are considered valuable (pp. 48f.). Wilkins, John, Ecclesiastes, or, A Discourse concerning the Gift of Preaching as it fals under the rules of Art (London, 1647)Google Scholar.

27 Hayne, Thomas, Christ's Kingdom on Earth Opened According to the Scriptures, Herein is Examined What Mr. Th. Brightman, Dr. J. Alstede, Mr. J. Mede, Mr. H. Archer…hold concerning the Thousand Years of the Saints Reign with Christ (London, 1645), 3Google Scholar.

28 As he expresses it in a letter written on Septembers, 1645: “Send me the rest of Forbes: I like the book very well, and the man much the better for the book's cause. I marvell I can find nothing in its index against the millenaries: I cannot think the author a millenarie. I cannot dream why he should have omitted an errour so famous in antiquities, and so troublesome among us; for the most of the chiefe divines here, not only Independents, bot others; such as Twiss, Palmer, and many more, are express Chiliasts. It's needful, if his judgment be right, that he should amend that omission, by ane express and large appendix.” Baillie, Robert, The Letters and Journals, ed. Laing, David (Edinburgh, 1841), 313Google Scholar. The book that BAILLIE refers to is evidently Instructiones Historico-Theologicae (Amsterdam, 1645)Google Scholar, by John Forbes, formerly professor of theology at Aberdeen. “…more Errours have set up their head, and shewed their misshapen countenances lately here, then in any one place of the world this day are known, I adde, that there is not any Errour spoken of in the places most infamous for that evill, whether Amsterdam or Pole, or Transilvania… but all are among us, and divers more…” Baillie, Robert, Errours and Induration, are the great Sins and the great Judgments of the Time (London, 1645)Google Scholar, Introduction, 3f. (my number). Books listing the errors of the time became quite popular in mid-seventeenth-century England. Thus we have such works as A Discovery of 2Q Sects here in London (1641)Google Scholar and XXXIII Religions, Sects, Societies and Factions (Andrew Coe, 1644)Google Scholar.

29 Baillie, Robert, A Dissuasive from the Errours of the Time (London, 1645), 224Google Scholar.

30 Ibid., 224.

31 Ibid., 251.

32 Tuveson, Ernest Lee, op. cit., 76Google Scholar.

33 This was first published in Latin in 1627 and later reprinted in 1632 and 1642. It was translated into English by Richard More and published in 1643. The latter three editions had an historical application of the Revelation as well as the structural outline which composed the 1627 edition of the Clavis. Froom, Leroy Edwin, op. cit., II, 542Google Scholar.

34 Mede notes that he purchased several of Alsted's books. See Appendix I, The Book Purchases in Mead's Accounts, 1614-1637, Fletcher, Harris Francis, The Intellectual Development of John Milton (Urbana, 1961), II, 557fGoogle Scholar. Although Mede was hesitant about the use of astrology and date setting, nevertheless he was pleased with Alsted's literal millennialism. As he puts it, “That these 1000 yeares are yet to come: This I hold with Alstedius. But…it may be I have some singular conceit differing from…Alstedius…and others of that opinion.” Joseph Mede, Remains on Some Passages in the Apocalypse, The Works of the Piotts and Profoundly Learned Joseph Mede, ed. Worthington, J. (London, 1672), 603Google Scholar.

36 The importance of MEDE in apocalyptic theory in the English-speaking world seems to be well recognized. As Wilbur Smith states: “The greatest work, how-ever, of the 17th century on the Apocalypse was written by Joseph Mede (1586-1638) Clavis Apocalyptica… Probably no work on the Apocalypse by an English author from the time of the Reformation down to the beginning of the 19th century, and even later, has exercised as much influence as this profound interpretation.” A Preliminary Bibliography for the Study of Biblical Prophecy (Boston, 1952), 27.Google Scholar Froom also adds: “The millennium had a particularly hard struggle. First, the Augustinian theory, in revised form — placing the thousand years from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries — still held Christendom in a vicelike grip, and along with it went a spiritualized resurrection. Not until the Reformation was far advanced was the millennium wrested from its false medieval position and again placed in the future, introduced by the second advent and the literal resurrection of the righteous. This was reestablished by Joseph Mede, and the great majority soon followed his exegesis.” Op. cit., 785.

Among other writers who concur in this judgment, note the following: “Finally, as all know, the millennium is construed by Mede, so as by all the oldest expositors, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr…the first resurrection being the literal resurrection of the saints, fulfilled on Christ's coming to Antichrist's destruction.” , Elliot, op. cit., IV, 455Google Scholar. “The great Baxter, long resisting confesses he is powerless to confute the demonstrations of the premillenarians, saying, ‘I can not confute what such learned men as Mr. Mede, Dr. Twisse, and others have asserted.’ (Works II, p. SI3)-” , West, op. cit., 373Google Scholar. “It has been truly said of him (Mede), that his works have done more to revive the study of the prophecies, and to furnish guides to others in promoting millenarianism, than any other man before or since his day.” , Shimeall, op. cit., 91Google Scholar. “After the Reformation, however, the Reformers and others indorsed certain distinctive features belonging, as parts of the system, to Millenarian doctrine, we are chiefly indebted to a few leading minds for bringing forth a return to the old Patristic faith in all its essential forms. Prominent among these (is)…the profound Biblical scholar Joseph Mede (born 1586, died 1638), in his still celebrated Clavis Apocalyptica (translated into English) and Exposition on Peter…” , Peters, op. cit., I, 538Google Scholar.

36 William Twisse, The Preface to the Reader, The Apostasy of the Latter Times, i (my number). Ibid., 2.

37 Homes, Nathaniel, The Resurrection Revealed (London, 1653), 3fGoogle Scholar.

38 Ibid., 36.

39 For Henry More note the following: Cassirer, Ernst, The Platonic Renaissance in England, trans. Pettegrove, J. P. (Austin, 1953)Google Scholar; Colie, Rosalie, Light and Enlightenment: A Study of the Cambridge Platonists and the Dutch Arminians (Cambridge, 1957)Google Scholar; Lichtenstein, Aharon, Henry More, The Rational Theology of a Cambridge Platonist (Cambridge, 1962)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Powicke, Frederick James, The Cambridge Platonists (London, 1926)Google Scholar.

40 Apocalypsis Apocalypseos; or The Revelation of St. John the Divine Unveiled (London, 1680)Google Scholar. More's apocalyptic ideas are also expressed in: An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness (London, 1660)Google Scholar; An Exposition of the Seven Churches; Together with a Briefe Discourse of Idolatry; with Application to the Church of Rome (London, 1669)Google Scholar; A Modest Enquiry into The Mystery of Iniquity (London, 1664)Google Scholar.

4 Sherwin produced a number of works on millenarian themes and often quotes Mede approvingly in these works. Some of the best known are: The Times of Restitution of all things, with their neer approach upon the Ruine of the Beast, manifest by two tracts on Rev. XX.; and Rev. XXI.5 (London, 1675)Google Scholar; The Doctrine of Christ's glorious Kingdom…now Shortly approaching…and by the ensuing…exhorations may further appear (1672)Google Scholar; The Saints Rising…at the first blessed Resurrection…opened by that Key given by Christ Himself (London, 1674)Google Scholar.

42 Newton, Isaac, Daniel and The Apocalypse, ed. Whitla, W. (London, 1922), 303fGoogle Scholar. For an interesting analysis of this work notice Manuel, Frank E., Isaac Newton, Historian (Cambridge, Mass., 1963)Google Scholar.

43 As Newton wrote in reference to men like Mede and Alsted: “Amongst the Interpreters of the last age there is scarce one of note who hath not made some discovery worth knowing; and thence I seem to gather that God is about opening these mysteries. The success of others put me upon considering it; and if I have done anything which may be useful to following writers, I have my design.” Ibid., 305.