Sebastian Franck

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Sebastian Franck (disambiguation) .

Sebastian Franck on an engraving by Andreas Luppius (1654–1731); the authenticity of the portrait is considered uncertain.

Sebastian Franck (also Sebastian Franck von Wörd , Latin Sebastianus Francus Woerdensis , pseudonyms Friedrich Wernstreyt , Felix Frei; * 1499 in Donauwörth , † 1542 in Basel ) was a German theologian, writer, publicist , chronicler , geographer, philosopher, translator and printer .

After studying theology, Franck first worked as a Catholic priest in pastoral care, then he joined the Reformation and became a Lutheran preacher. He later renounced the clerical office and concentrated on writing, taking a radical reformation and an attitude critical of authority. In Strasbourg he published a world chronicle in which he relentlessly criticized the ecclesiastical and secular authorities , which led to his expulsion from the city. In Ulm , where he ran a printing company from 1535, he again got into a serious conflict because of his " heresy ", which in turn ended with a powerful opposition driving him away. He then moved to Basel in 1539, where he continued to work as a writer and printer in the last years of his life.

At the center of Franck's view of the world and history was an unusually radical rejection of any form of religious tutelage for the time. As a victim of the bitter religious struggles of the Reformation, he saw the root of the evil in denominational dogmatism . He considered this to be an inevitable consequence of the establishment of the institutional church system. He therefore rejected any type of church organization and pleaded for impartiality in denominational disputes. He saw the cause of the corruption of Christianity in the church institutions. Above all, he condemned the connection between church and state and state intervention in religious disagreements.

In the place of the external authorities, including the Bible, Franck put the “inner word” in the spirit of the individual as the authority that guides action, the norm of knowledge and the sole source of salvation. He also emphasized the role of historical and individual experience as a source of knowledge. His historical studies led him to a devastating record of the exercise of power in the monarchical state. In the violent uprising, however, he saw no way to improve conditions.

The contemporary scholars sharply rejected Franck's views. The numerous editions of his works in the 16th century, however, testify to the lively interest that his ideas met with a wider audience. In the Netherlands in particular, the ideas of the radical Reformation writer met with a strong response from dissident circles. In the modern age, his criticism of authority, his pacifism and his demand for tolerance have earned him a lot of recognition; he is recognized as a forerunner of enlightenment thinkers.

Life

Origin, training and activity as a clergyman

Sebastian Franck was born in Donauwörth in 1499. The often mentioned date of birth January 20th is speculative. He came from a modest background. His father was probably the weaver Sixt Franck. An uncle named Michael Franck was an innkeeper in Nördlingen .

After attending the Latin school in Nördlingen or the school of the Benedictine monastery Heiligkreuz in Donauwörth, Sebastian Franck was enrolled on March 26, 1515 at the University of Ingolstadt as a student of the artist faculty . On December 13, 1517, he completed his studies in artes liberales with the degree of baccalaureus . He then continued his training at the College of the Dominicans in Heidelberg with the study of Catholic theology. There were Martin Bucer and Martin Frecht , later well-known reformers were his classmates. Both Ingolstadt and Heidelberg were dominated by a conservative mentality, and the lessons were based on the traditional approach of medieval scholasticism . After all, some humanists were already active in Ingolstadt , including Johannes Aventinus , whom Franck valued. Later, in the last years of his life, Franck found retrospectively that he was born as a German in a barbaric age and that he had received inadequate instruction in an “amusic” milieu. He was referring to the fact that the humanistic education system in his home country had taken a long time and with difficulty, which is why he had hardly been able to benefit from it in his youth. He often complained that he had never been able to completely eliminate his educational gaps. Indeed, his Latin remained clumsy and awkward. All his life, Franck regretted not having received a full humanist education and admired the humanist cultural renewal movement. He had limited knowledge of Greek and no knowledge of Hebrew.

Franck was probably among the audience at the Heidelberg disputation on April 26, 1518 , in which Martin Luther , who was still an Augustinian monk at the time , defended his doctrine of justification . The young audience was very impressed by Luther's appearance. On this occasion Franck can have got a first impression of the new theology.

Franck's letter to the bailiff in Schwabach dated April 3, 1526, Nuremberg State Archives . Because of his low income in Büchenbach, Franck asks for tax relief.

After completing his theological training, Franck was ordained a priest in 1523 at the earliest . He then worked as a Catholic pastor in the diocese of Augsburg , presumably in Benzenzimmern . During this time, however, he finally turned to the Reformation ideas and changed his denomination. Towards the end of 1524 or in the first months of 1525 the City Council of Nuremberg sent him to Büchenbach near Roth as a Lutheran preacher . There he held the position of early knife , which was associated with a low and insecure income. His poor salary was three quarters of a guilder a week. During this time he experienced the peasant war . Later, in retrospect, he disapproved of the uncompromising attitude of the peasants who would have rejected sensible proposals. In 1527 he moved to Gustenfelden , where he again worked as an early knife.

On March 17, 1528 Franck married Ottilie Beham in Nuremberg, who was a sister or close relative of the famous painters and engravers Barthel Beham and Sebald Beham . The two brothers were arrested in Nuremberg in January 1525 because of their religious and political views, tried and banished from the city. Together with Georg Pencz , they were considered "the three godless painters" because they were accused of recognizing neither biblical authority nor secular authorities. Barthel Beham sympathized with the social revolutionary movement around Thomas Müntzer . The Nuremberg school rector and reformer Hans Denck , who also had to leave Nuremberg in 1525 , belonged to the brothers' circle .

At this time, at the latest, Franck began to deal with the ideas of the radical reformation and social revolutionary circles around the “godless painters” and Denck. His wife, who was close to the state-persecuted Anabaptist movement, may have played a role in this. At that time, however, Franck was still working with the anti-Anabaptist reformer Andreas Althamer . He translated Althamer's text Diallage, directed against Denck, from Latin into German, expanded it and added a foreword to it. In this work, printed in 1528, he assumed a largely Lutheran position.

As a writer, Franck was passionate about his conviction that there can be no faith without changing one's way of life. In doing so, he acknowledged one of the main demands of the radical Reformation movement. He dealt with a practical example in his first separate treatise, which he probably wrote as early as 1528/1529, or 1531 at the latest. In this pamphlet he denounced the "horrible vice of drunkenness" which was very widespread at the time and which was incompatible with religion. If a preacher realizes that he is falling on deaf ears with his demand for an improvement in the way of life, he should remain silent or walk away. The deep frustration that speaks from Franck's words shows how little he was able to achieve as a pastor. Official morality and everyday reality diverged widely in the village milieu in which he worked. Towards the end of 1528 or the following year, Franck drew the conclusions from this: he gave up his ministry and settled in Nuremberg in order to address a more receptive audience as a writer and translator.

Dissidentism and provocation of authorities

At that time Nuremberg was an important, economically and culturally flourishing imperial city . The Reformation was officially carried out there in 1525. Part of the population was open to radical religious and social reform ideas. However, the city council was suspicious and willing to crack down on the spread of heretical and seditious thoughts. Therefore, Nuremberg was only partially suitable as a place of residence for a publicist like Franck, who had increasingly alienated himself from the mainstream Lutheran movement and approached the authoritarian attitude of Hans Denck, who died in 1527. It was probably the relatively repressive conditions in Nuremberg that prompted Franck to move to Strasbourg in 1530 or 1531.

The imperial city of Strasbourg had been a refuge for religious dissidents since the mid-1520s . Franck later described the relatively liberal mentality there in his writings: In Strasbourg, refugees are accepted without asking about their origin or their reasons for fleeing; Anyone who has committed a crime for which one is hanged elsewhere is only flogged in Strasbourg. However, there were also expulsions there for religious reasons.

At his new residence, Franck came into contact with other dissidents whose beliefs partly or largely coincided with his own. Among them were above all Kaspar Schwenckfeld and Johannes Bünderlin , probably Christian Entfelder and probably also Michael Servetus . Schwenckfeld, who had a large sphere of influence, became an important ally for Franck, even though they differed in a central area, anthropology : Schwenckfeld's view of human nature was much more pessimistic than Franck's and more Lutheran. Franck expressed himself with great admiration about Bünderlin, whose ideas largely correspond to those of Hans Denck. Otherwise he viewed contemporary theologians and the dissident scene rather distantly. In particular, he disapproved of the tendency to form sects, the widespread rapturous enthusiasm and the tendency towards dream visions. In the course of time his aversion to any institutional church or sect and to the belief in the importance of external practices became more and more decided.

Franck found reasons for rejecting all church claims to authority in world history, which he dealt intensively with. The fruit of these studies was his extensive work Chronica, Zeitbuch und Geschichtbibel , which appeared in Strasbourg in September 1531. In this world chronicle, Franck came to a devastating judgment not only about the papacy, but also about the empire and the secular rulers in general. Some authors, on the other hand, who were considered heretics - representatives of false doctrines - he portrayed as exemplary Christians. He also counted the contemporary Catholic humanist Erasmus among the laudable "heretics" , whom he wanted to capture for the current of dissidentism. For this purpose, he compiled utterances by the humanist that sounded suspicious or heretical from a strictly ecclesiastical Catholic point of view. On the other hand, Erasmus fiercely defended himself, because he did not want to break with the Catholic Church. He complained to the Strasbourg city council and asked him to intervene.

Thereupon the city council ordered the arrest of Franck on December 18, 1531. He was accused of circumventing the censorship, which was mild and superficial in Strasbourg. He deceived the censors by not showing them the entire text and giving them the impression that his book was just a harmless historical compilation . This accusation was arguably at least partially true. On December 30, 1531, the city council decided to expel the unpopular publicist from Strasbourg. For Franck and his printer Balthasar Beck, the conflict turned out to be catastrophic. The publication was probably a financial disaster, because the still available copies of the book were confiscated. However, Beck may have managed to hide part of the edition. This is supported by the relatively large number of specimens that have been preserved.

The event attracted considerable attention. He was brought to the attention of Emperor Charles V , and the leading Strasbourg councilor Jakob Sturm had to defend his magistrate's behavior towards the angry Archbishop of Mainz, Albrecht von Brandenburg . For the city council, the political situation in the empire was delicate at that time. Under these circumstances, hardship was the order of the day. Franck felt that. After being expelled from Strasbourg, he first found refuge in the nearby town of Kehl on the Rhine. From there he tried to persuade the Strasbourg Council to repeal the ban decision. However, his request was resolutely rejected. With his fundamental criticism of the ecclesiastical and secular authorities, he had made many enemies.

The time of conflict in Ulm

In autumn 1532 Franck went to Esslingen . There he worked as a soap boiler , but with little success because the demand was low; washing with soap was customary in this area only among the nobility. Therefore Franck decided to move to Ulm, where he settled with his wife and two children in 1533. Now he resumed his work as an author and translator. He found work in Hans Varnier's print shop. In October 1534 he was granted citizenship in Ulm, but only on the condition that he did not publish any dangerous writings. In the autumn of 1535 the Ulm council allowed him to open his own printing house.

In Ulm, Franck continued to stand up for his highly controversial religious beliefs and insisted on his rejection of any ecclesiastical official authority. As a result, he got into a serious conflict with the influential theologians Martin Frecht, Martin Bucer and Philipp Melanchthon . He was accused of belonging to the Anabaptist movement. This accusation was suitable to make him suspicious of the secular authorities, because the dissidents discredited as "Anabaptists" were regarded as rebels. Melanchthon turned to Landgrave Philip of Hesse , who thereupon demanded in a letter dated December 31, 1534 to the Ulm city council, the expulsion of the "rebel". However, this stubbornly resisted, whereby his new status as a citizen came in handy. He emphasized that he was by no means an Anabaptist. An investigative commission set up by the council investigated him and submitted a negative report written by Frecht, and an report by the school caretaker, in which Frecht was probably responsible, came to the same conclusion. However, Franck found support from the mayor Bernhard Besserer, who warned in a statement of October 26, 1535 against a tyranny of theologians. After a protracted argument, the city council decided on November 5, 1535 to allow Franck to stay on the condition that he strictly submitted to city censorship. A relatively quiet period followed, during which Franck had his explosive work Die Guldin Arch , which was not allowed to appear in Ulm, printed in Augsburg. Thereupon his opponents became active again, and the city council ordered a new investigation on July 1, 1538. Now Franck took the position that censorship only applies to publications in Ulm. He was able to hold off the proceedings for a while, but Frecht, who was the leading theologian in Ulm and had the city clergy behind him, emphatically demanded his expulsion. Finally, following an opinion by the commission, the city council finally decided in January 1539 to expel the dissident and his family. He left Ulm in July with his wife and five children and moved to Basel. He was accepted there, although Frecht had warned against him in a letter.

Last years in Basel

Franck's wife Ottilie died in Basel or on the way there. In 1541 he married Margarete (Barbara) Beck, the stepdaughter of the Strasbourg printer Balthasar Beck, who had dared to publish his Chronica ten years earlier .

In professional terms, the move to Basel proved to be a success. Franck was able to continue his work as an author and printer without hindrance. He brought out a print as early as 1540. In the following years he worked with the printer Nikolaus Brylinger . Apparently his financial situation was now favorable: in May 1541 he acquired citizenship of the city of Basel, paying the considerable fees in cash, in July he was accepted into the saffron guild and in November he bought a house for 60 pounds . After his death in autumn of the following year, the inventory of his estate was drawn up on October 31, 1542, and is now in the Basel-Stadt State Archives . His widow sold the house for £ 147 in March 1543.

Works

In addition to his own writings, Franck also published his translations of Latin works by other authors, which he made available to a wider reading public. In some cases he not only translated them into his mother tongue, but also revised them considerably, adding in particular comments and his own reflections. Therefore, the transition between translations and independent works is fluid. The more important writings and translations are:

• Diallage (Nuremberg 1528), the German translation of a Latin script by the theologian Andreas Althamer, which is intended to resolve discrepancies in the Bible. In Franck's foreword the main features of his later thinking are already outlined, but still within the framework of Lutheran theology.

• Klagbrief (Nuremberg 1529), the edited German version of an anti-Catholic pamphlet by the English reformer Simon Fish . Franck translated a Latin version of the work originally written in English, greatly expanding the text and giving an introduction to his understanding of the book.

• Chronica and description of Turkey (Nuremberg and Augsburg 1530), Franck's heavily edited translation of the Latin script Libellus de ritu et moribus Turcorum , an important source for the history of the Ottoman Empire , with his own discussions . Its author, a Dominican from Transylvania , spent twenty-two years as a prisoner in the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century and then reported on the customs there. The current occasion for the translation was the sensational first Turkish siege of Vienna in 1529. In his afterword, Franck warned that the confrontation with Islam and the expanding Ottoman Empire should give Christians cause for self-criticism, because the moral depravity they cause Accused Turks of being widespread among them. Franck omitted from his translation the part of the original text that deals with the superiority of Christianity over Islam.

Woodcut on the title page of the text From the dreadful vice of drunkenness , Augsburg 1531 edition, drawn by the Petrarch master . On the right gluttony on the blackboard, on the left someone vomits after the indulgence.

• From the horrible vice of drunkenness (Augsburg 1531), a drastic description of the emotional and physical consequences of the very widespread abuse of alcohol. The author is skeptical about the prospect of a remedy. The central theme is the sharp contrast between the commitment to Christianity and the unwillingness to implement Christian morals in everyday life.

• An artificially polite declamation (Nuremberg 1531), Franck's translation of the Declamatio lepidissima ebriosi, scortatoris, aleatoris de vitiositate disceptantium by the Italian humanist Filippo Beroaldo , a satirical, entertaining argument. An inheritance dispute between three brothers, one of whom is a drinker, the second a fornicator and the third a gambling addict, is presented in literary form. Franck prefixed his translation with an ironic dedication letter to his uncle, the innkeeper Michael Franck.

• Chronica, Zeitbuch and Geschichtbibel (Strasbourg 1531, revised new edition Ulm 1536), Franck's extensive world and church history comprising 536 sheets in folio format . It is divided into three parts: the first chronicle , which, as the chronicle of the Old Testament, deals with the history of mankind from Adam to Christ, the other chronicle , called the Imperial Yearbook , which depicts the history of the rulers from Julius Caesar to the then reigning emperor, Charles V , and the third chronicle , the chronicle of the popes and spiritual trades . Part of the papal history is the heretic chronicle , in which dissident positions are comprehensively described. The material is taken from older historical works, especially the Schedel Chronicle , and the sources are named. The author's own contribution consists in the far-reaching conclusions that he draws from looking at history. Franck emphasizes that his presentation is impartial. By this he means that he does not judge from any denominational or sectarian perspective. Its aim is the moral knowledge and wisdom that can be obtained by studying history. In this sense, he sees the chronicle as a "history bible". In the introduction he points out his pioneering role: there is a lack of well-known chronicles in the German language, and it is not without reason that the Germans are viewed by the Italians as barbarians without culture.

• Weltbuch (Tübingen 1534), the first cosmography in German. This manual describes the four continents of Asia, Africa, Europe and America as a “mirror and image of the whole earth”. As a geographer, Franck primarily follows the concept of descriptive natural and regional studies of the ancient scholar Strabo , not the cosmological- astronomical, mathematical and cartographic orientation of Ptolemy and the contemporary "Nuremberg School of Geography". He is concerned with the qualitative, not the quantitative, aspects of the description of the earth. Human geography is a focus . Folklore attracts special attention .

• Kronbüchlein (Ulm 1534), Franck's name for four smaller writings and translations published together, with which he wants to show the worthlessness of all worldly pseudo-wisdom and a piety without a spiritual foundation:
  • Praise of Folly , the first German translation of Erasmus' Moriae encomium
  • On the hopelessness, vanity and uncertainty of all human arts and wisdom, together with the appendix Praise the Donkey , a partial translation of the text De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum declamatio invectiva by the contemporary scholar Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim
  • From the tree of knowledge of good and bad , Franck's contemporary interpretation of the biblical story of the tree of knowledge and the tree of life
  • Encomium, a praise of the foolish divine word , a work by Franck on the difference between the “outer” and the “inner” word of the Bible

• Paradoxa ducenta octogina (Ulm 1534), a collection of paradoxical statements which the author uses as a starting point for theological and religious-philosophical discussions. The material is partly taken from the Bible and other sources, partly from popular sayings; Franck probably formulated some things himself. He wants to show that a literal understanding cannot do justice to the paradoxes. It leads into error and is the cause of the contradictions between the sects and directions. The hidden truth can only be grasped through the “inner word” that is inherent in man and that is therefore found in oneself, not in the outside world. The indissolubility of the paradoxes is supposed to trigger a movement in the reader that will advance him spiritually.

Title page of the book Das Verbütschierte Buch , Augsburg 1539 edition. The woodcut shows a blindfolded man as a "non-reader" - it is Moses - in front of a lectern on which the book, closed with seven seals, lies.

• The Guldin Arch ( Die goldene Arche , Augsburg 1538), a collection of more than five hundred folio pages of quotations from the Bible, from theological writings and from works by "pagans and philosophers". The selected passages are intended to bring the author's understanding of spirituality closer to the readership. Franck also takes the floor himself in the preface, in insertions and marginal notes. He accuses “our theologians” - meaning scholastically thinking scholars - that they “measure and define” everything as if “they alone ate the Holy Spirit ”.

• Germaniae Chronicon (Frankfurt am Main and Augsburg 1538), an extensive work that deals with the political and cultural history of "the whole of Germany, of all German peoples". It is based on the chronicle of Johannes Nauclerus .

• Das Verbütschierte Buch (Augsburg 1539), a guide to reading the Bible, which is presented as a "verbütschierter" (sealed) book. The author wants to show the reader how the " seven seals " with which the Bible is closed can be opened. According to his presentation, contradictions can be resolved if one disregards the literal meaning of opposing biblical statements and turns to the overarching spiritual truth, which includes both statements.

• War booklet of peace (Augsburg 1539), a pamphlet published under the pseudonym "Friedrich Wernstreyt", in which arguments to justify Franck's ethics of peace are compiled.

• Proverbs (Frankfurt am Main 1541), a large collection of almost seven thousand proverbs, proverbial idioms and sayings on various topics, some in Latin with translation. Usually, a Latin saying is followed by several similar German ones, some of which are not of German origin, but rather translations from Latin. Theological-philosophical discussions that externally connect to individual proverbs, historical examples and fables are inserted. Some proverbs are explained, others are not. Franck followed the concept of Erasmus' collection of proverbs Adagia . Like Erasmus, he saw indications of a hidden truth in the darkness and brevity of old proverbs. He considered Christian and Pagan proverbs to be equally valuable. But he by no means endorsed the assertions of all the proverbs he cited. Rather, he wanted to offer the reader the opportunity to sharpen his judgment by dealing with the diverse, sometimes contradicting statements.

Teaching

Franck's worldview is shaped by both the critical spirit of Renaissance humanism and the religious emancipation striving of the early Reformation period. The contemporaries from whom he received suggestions include, above all, the young Luther, Erasmus and Hans Denck. He also owed significant impulses to two spiritual authors of the 14th century: Johannes Tauler and the unknown author of Theologia deutsch . He dealt intensively with the Corpus Hermeticum .

Religious world of thought

At the center of Franck's world of thought is the relationship between man and God. Although he is a theologian, his teaching goes beyond conventional theological thinking in terms of both approach and consequences. Hence, it is less a theology in the usual sense than a religious philosophy. An important aspect is the eschatological expectation of the approaching end of the world, which Franck shares with many of his contemporaries. With the present and future grim, Franck longs for the end, but emphasizes the uncertainty of the timing and the details.

Fundamental criticism of Catholicism

One of Franck's main concerns is to refute the papal claim to authority, which he deals with in his papal chronicle. Using the source material, he wants to prove to the popes falsification of Christian doctrine and other misdeeds. He is faced with the problem that he has to rely on news from Italian sources for papal history, whose Catholic authors he does not consider trustworthy because of their integration into the church elite. In his view, they are careerists who have not sought the truth. In striving to remove the foundation of the papacy, he relies above all on an argument with which he wants to prove that the apostle Peter , the alleged first pope, was by no means bishop of Rome and was martyred there. In reality, Peter never stayed in Rome.

In contrast to other Reformation authors, Franck does not attribute the corruption of Christianity to the Constantinian turning point in the 4th century. Rather, he thinks that there was a truly Christian community only in the apostles' days. The decline had already occurred under the immediate successors of the apostles. For Franck, the connection between church and state from the time of Constantine the Great is just another phase in the process of increasing betrayal of Christian doctrine. In contrast to Luther and other reformers, Franck judges not only the papacy but also the councils negatively in principle. They have made a significant contribution to the consolidation of the church's tyranny and paved the way for brutal treatment of the heretics.

Franck does not regard the emergence and development of the papacy as an avoidable misfortune, but as a necessity. In his opinion, the world wants and must have a papacy; if necessary - as he sarcastically remarks - it would “steal” the papacy in order to be able to submit to such authority.

The concept of non-denominational Christianity

In the appendix of his Turkish Chronicle, Franck formulates for the first time his view that the Reformation movement is divided into four major faiths: the Lutheran, the Zwingl , the Anabaptist and a fourth, which only exists in the spirit, renounces all external means and positions itself beyond all confessional conflicts. The fourth, spiritualistic direction is his own. Franck's main concern is to spread his concept of a non-denominational "impartial Christianity" beyond the conflicting confessions. His ideal, which he does not consider attainable, is to overcome the division of Christianity into different churches and sects. But he does not mean that the establishment of a unified Church would be desirable. Rather, he basically regards every religious community that is dogmatically determined, institutionally organized and hierarchically structured as an evil. He attributes the emergence of denominations to a turning away from God and turning to insignificant and generally harmful externalities.

Franck's counter-concept is an unorganized and therefore invisible, purely spiritual community of real Christians. According to Franck's understanding, these differ from their environment through the foundation of their convictions and are only connected to one another through their relationship to one and the same truth. They do not derive their religious certainty from theological dogmas they have been taught, and not even from the Bible, but from a knowledge that they find within themselves. Hence there can be no privileged interpreter with them. According to Franck, the source of knowledge is present within the human being. One can gain access to it by freeing oneself from questionable external influences and only paying attention to the "inner word". This then becomes the sole authority and guide. Only when the decisive turn inward, towards the “buried treasure” has been made, does the person gain a correct understanding of the real teaching of the Bible. Those who content themselves with the mere wording and do not penetrate the hidden meaning are not led to God by the Bible, but on the contrary even removed from him. This conviction of Franck stands in sharp contrast to the Lutheran principle “ sola scriptura ”, according to which the Holy Scriptures interpret themselves because their wording is clear and the meaning is obvious.

This teaching presupposes a continuity between God and man, thanks to which a divine capacity for knowledge is established in man. Franck is well aware that his elevation of the "inner word" to the norm results in a problematic subjectivism : Everyone can now claim to have been instructed by the inner divine word and thus to have the truth. Franck accepts this consequence. With the principle of full independence, he also puts the burden of full responsibility on the individual. Everyone has to check for himself whether what he thinks he is hearing in himself is really the divine word.

For Franck, the invisible community of true Christians also includes many “Turks and pagans ” who “never heard the name of Christ” but “heard his power through the inner word and made it fruitful” and “taught and inwardly by God to be pulled. The Creator is impartial, he is also the "God of the Gentiles" and turns to all who "listen to him in silence". Among these listeners, Franck highlights the ancient philosophers Diogenes of Sinope and Plotinus .

From the unconditional priority of the "inner word" over the entire outside world, Franck demands unrestricted freedom of conscience. From this he draws an extraordinary consequence for his time: In contrast to other radical Reformation thinkers who advocate a tolerant church, he rejects the church system as such. From the course of history so far, he concludes that denominational institutions generally deny freedom of conscience. With their claim to a monopoly of truth they sow discord, with their demands for obedience they suppress the believers. It is true that the reformers exposed the evil in the Roman Church, but the evil principle appears in a new form in the Reformed Churches. The authority of Catholic dogmas has been replaced by that of the dead letter of the Bible, and believers are again misled. From this interpretation of history and the observation of contemporary violent conflicts, a core element of Franck's teaching is derived: the fundamental rejection of any form of religious tutelage. No ecclesiastical authority, be it Catholic or Protestant, may be granted control authority; no one has the right to establish binding dogmas and to brand divergent positions as false doctrines and to pursue them. In particular, the interaction of spiritual and secular violence is an abomination to Franck. He violently attacks the compliant clergy who are dependent on the sovereigns , among whom the court clergy occupies a prominent position. In them he sees accomplices of bad rulers who justify their crimes religiously and present them as a Christian duty.

Revelation, grace and salvation

For Franck, unlike for the Lutherans, the Bible is by no means the only source of revelation and thus the sole guideline. According to his understanding of revelation, the idea that the divine word is expressed in only one book is wrong. Rather, the word accompanies people when they adjust to it at all times and can be found in a variety of sources. Revelation is continuous through the course of history, and all that matters is that it is interpreted correctly. So the Bible is just one historical testimony among others. A chronicle that depicts historical events from a spiritual point of view can be a "history bible" that opens up the divine message to the discerning reader even better than the bible. This also relativizes the meaning of the historical Christ: According to Franck's understanding, he was indeed an appearance of the divine “Word”, but not its complete embodiment; In principle, this is not possible, because otherwise God's word would be finite. From this point of view, Christ does not appear as a Savior, but only as an example. In addition, it can be inferred from a letter by Franck from 1531 that he followed the argument of the dissident Spanish theologian Michael Servetus , with which he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity .

Franck justifies the criticism of the common faith in the Bible with a number of arguments:

• If the Bible were the source of salvation, diligent Bible reading should lead to ethical reform. But this is not the case; rather, everyone defends his immoral life with quotations from the Bible. A biblical justification can be found for every type of lifestyle and for the opposite, for example for waste and avarice. You can prove anything with scriptures. Lutherans believe that anyone who can read and has a Bible will find the Holy Ghost in it. However, this is a mistake.
• Belief in the literal authority of the Bible leads to theological subtleties that obscure the essentials. Franck includes the theologians' dispute over real presence .
• There are many contradicting statements in the Bible; what is really meant is by no means - as the Lutherans claim - obvious. These contradictions could not exist if God had not willed them. He put them there to unsettle the readers and thus prevent them from making an idol out of the scriptures.
• A number of writings that have been lost in the course of time are missing from the present Bible, for example the " Ethiopian Book of Enoch " (known today as it is) . God would not have allowed such losses if the Holy Scriptures as His Word were the highest authority.
• Human languages, including Hebrew, change over time, and one supersedes the other. Therefore language is an inadequate instrument for the transmission of the timeless divine truth.
• The Bible cannot be a binding norm because its text transmission is problematic, which leads to uncertainties. In this regard, Franck relies on the preparatory work of the humanistic biblical criticism .

Franck only regards the Old Testament as “Holy Scripture” , which in his opinion is a “dead letter” without proper interpretation. In contrast, he understands the New Testament as an "oral sermon".

While Franck Lutheran core set "sola scriptura" - the exclusive appeal to the Bible - discards, he shares another core belief of Luther: the understanding of salvation, according to a person through faith alone ( sola fide ) and grace ( sola gratia ) his salvation attained. According to this “ doctrine of justification ” , the good “works” that one performs do not contribute to salvation. The decided rejection of " work righteousness " expressed in this way is a main feature of Reformation theology. Works should not be understood as human achievements with which he earns a merit for which he can expect a reward from God. In no way can one become a better, more just, and pious person through good deeds. Rather, the relationship is the other way around, as Franck - taking up a comparison from Luther - emphasizes: The fruits “follow” the tree, because a good tree produces good fruit, a bad one bad, and it is not the fruit that makes it good or bad . Likewise, good works “follow” the righteous because he is already righteous. They can never “precede” the righteousness of an agent and make him just. You don't get good by doing good. However, Franck deviates from the Lutheran doctrine of justification in one essential point: In order to exclude any kind of fairness to work, Luther denies a naturally necessary link between faith and work. Franck, on the other hand, thinks that true belief must inevitably show itself in works that separation is impossible. If the belief is not put into practice through life, for example if a nominal Christian is addicted to alcohol, one can conclude that it is not a question of real belief. A dichotomy between teaching and life is unacceptable.

In addition, Franck's concept of grace differs from the Lutheran one. Franck attributes man's ability to attain true knowledge of God not to a particular historical grant of grace from God, but to man's natural disposition. He thinks that the human knowledge of God is actually a self-knowledge of God, and this is the meaning of creation, because without the creatures God would be unknown to himself.

A central aspect of Franck's religiosity is its purely spiritual character. He considers all outward appearances to be spiritually irrelevant. He therefore condemns belief in the importance and beneficial effect of rites and ceremonies. He considers the cult activities to be manifestations of a fateful superstition that distracts from divine truth and causes serious disputes and divisions. He directs this reproach not only at the Catholics, in whom cult acts play a prominent role; he extends it to all cult communities.

The ideal of freedom

Franck's skepticism towards the “world” and everything “secular” leads him to appreciate an inner seclusion and isolation. He cultivates the ideal of freedom from worrying about earthly goods. As a Protestant he rejects Catholic celibacy and is married himself, but he also criticizes the common practice of bourgeois married life, which is one-sidedly oriented towards the external norm of loyalty and neglects inner values. He asserts that behind outward honesty and apparent piety there could be a questionable character. On several occasions he points out the sullen manner and quarrelsome nature of wives. Nevertheless, he sticks to a high ideal of marriage. His attitude is ambivalent: on the one hand he praises conjugal love, on the other hand he considers it desirable to “die off to the world”, that is, to renounce worldly ties and thereby gain freedom. Family life and his own responsibility as a father mean a burden and bondage to him. As a model of a spiritually free sage, he worships the "laughing philosopher" Democritus , whom the senseless hustle and bustle of the people had stimulated to laugh.

Understanding of history

The requirement of impartiality

For Franck, the whole world with all creatures is an “open book”, a “living Bible” from which one can “study God's art” without any instructions. This is especially true of history - both for the experience of human history and for the personal history of the individual striving for knowledge. Anyone who had carefully followed the entire course of their own life would have to write “their own chronicle of themselves”. History is the “master of life” who “lives” and presents “living examples” to the viewer. God's word cannot “go out of his mouth”, rather he speaks to man “in work and in action”. However, this language of God is usually not understood. From Franck's point of view, the obstacle is the inability to detach oneself from subjective perspectives and the affects and evaluations associated with them. Franck counters such bias with his claim to impartiality. He points out that impartiality is an essential characteristic of God. Accordingly, the person who frees himself from partiality takes, as it were, the divine standpoint. What is meant is an inner attitude that keeps an equal distance from all churches, sects, states, peoples, parties, cultures and epochs.

When looking at historical events and actors, one has to beware not only of one's own prejudices, but also of all authorities. Foreign opinions and assertions must not overlap or distort the independent judgment. What is needed is an inner superiority over the manners and customs of the world and thus also over all foreign evaluation criteria. Franck is convinced that it is gained if one relies solely on the internal Word of God in evaluating collective and individual experiences. Franck comments on this: “But whoever dances along with the world cannot see the folly of the world because he is loaded with it himself. But whoever stands behind the dance is the only one who is aware of what is happening in the dance. ”He warns that one should not trust any book unconditionally, not even the Bible, as long as one has not learned“ with oneself ”to understand the content in God's terms and judge. In this sense, he also emphasizes that the assessment of the events that he describes as a chronicler is left to the reader. For him, the author's task is limited to collecting and presenting the material. The historian must not be present in his work. He has to present history as he finds it in his sources.

Franck's “impartial” attitude is also evident in his dealings with non-Christian religions. In doing so, he turns against the common demonization of the "unbelievers". He rejects the claim that many Christians are superior to those of other faiths based on their mere confession of Christianity. In his view, all cultures and times are equidistant from God; God has his people everywhere. Franck deals with Judaism, Islam and " paganism " in the same way as he does with the confessionalism of his environment. He rejects the institutions, rule systems and cult customs of foreign religions for the same reason that he rejects the hierarchical structures, formal regulations and ceremonies of Christian denominations. In particular, he criticizes the literal observance of the traditional commandments in Judaism, because he sees in it a dependence on outward appearances, which remove the believer from God and inevitably lead to Pharisaism . In Islam he criticizes the close connection between state and religion and the spread by violent means. With the "heathens" he dislikes the cult practices and images of gods, which from his point of view represent a shift towards superficiality that is far from God. However, Franck does not transfer all this criticism of religious rules and institutions to believing individuals. Rather, he emphasizes the statement that the individual experience of God is open to all followers of foreign religions, including polytheists , as well as Christians.

For Franck, impartiality also includes a resolute rejection of nationalism . He refuses to make "a great outcry" with one-sided praise from the German people, because the Germans may have performed significant deeds, but also often exercised great tyranny and injustice. No people is better than another.

Ruling power and war

Franck's view of history is shaped by a deep distrust of the state and state power. He particularly hates the traditional sacralization of rule. Behind the grandiose facades of sovereign self-expression there is nothing but misery. World history is uniform and similar, it repeats itself in catastrophes. Every society eventually fails catastrophically because it fails to recognize its mistakes. Franck sees no historical progress in the sense of humanization or the introduction of Christian moral principles into the world of politics. The Christianization of the late ancient Roman state in the course of the Constantinian change is by no means a welcome development for him, but is to be deplored as a comprehensive corruption of Christianity. He regards the seriousness of the conversion of Emperor Constantine the Great as doubtful; He tells of a legend according to which, when the emperor was baptized, a voice was heard in the air announcing that a poison or a plague had fallen into the church. According to Franck, the relationship between rulers and subjects has hardly improved since then. Although the emperors and kings have been nominally Christians for more than a millennium, they usually behave despotically like their pagan predecessors. Hardly anything good can be expected from them. Benevolent and responsible rulers have always been rare. The mentality of those in power is still essentially the same as it was at the time of the first kings of Israel . In the Christian states, power politics follows the same principles as in the pre-Christian world of antiquity . The rulers are mostly predatory, insatiable and deluded; Added to this is the arrogance of the popes, who claim and gain worldly power. All the glory of the haughty rulers is ultimately based on violence, is obsolete and sooner or later perishes through foreign violence. Wars are willfully instigated and then fought on the backs of the population. Finally, when, after all the bloodshed and devastation, general fatigue sets in, the quarreling princes reconcile and settle their differences of opinion. Particularly clearly the true nature of military conflicts shows mercenaries and mercenary nature : The war has become the normal state, mercenaries make the war craft a profitable business, to the highest bidder provide and eventually turn against their clients. Many a war would not have taken place if this “useless servile” did not exist.

Back cover of the War Book of Peace , Augsburg 1539 edition. Woodcut with citizens and knights in front of a tent in the war camp. Copy of an illustration by Hans Weiditz .

Franck sees war as the worst of all follies. He generally rejects military force as an inadmissible way for true Christians. He does not presume to judge soldiers defending their homeland, but points out that the path of peace is always safer and that in his day a Christian war is as rare as storks in winter. With his polemic against bloodshed, he wants to encourage like-minded people. But he is not a pacifist in the sense of a peace movement, because he does not believe in the goal of future world peace. He considers a general outlawing of war to be utopian. In his estimation, the injustice regime of the rulers and the violent resolution of political conflicts will never fundamentally change, since political business is by its nature diabolical. According to Franck, one cannot fight and drive out war with its opposite, peace. The only thing that can be achieved is for individual people to see through the nature of violence and then consistently turn away from it. Franck's journalism is aimed at this audience.

Taking up Erasmus's considerations, Franck regards the eagle as the heraldic animal of the emperors and princes as a symbol of the dubiousness of the secular authorities . It is characteristic of this bird that it is neither naturally tame nor can it be tamed like the falcon. The eagle is greedy for blood and hates peace. You can see from his figure that he was born to rob, murder and argue. Franck considers it very significant that the rulers use this bird of prey in their coat of arms. He sees it as a sign of the true nature of those in power who - as he mockingly remarks - pretend to be meek, completely unselfish promoters of the common good. In reality, one can hardly find one or two in the chronicles that actually correspond to such a self-portrayal.

Despite his sharp criticism of the rulers' behavior, Franck considers the monarchy to be sensible and necessary. He thinks that it prevents the misery of anarchic conditions and is therefore a lesser evil than the stupidity and inhumanity of the unleashed mob, which he often denounces. He regards the empire as a secular institution, he rejects the divine right . He prefers the elective monarchy to the succession. In general, he rejects the principle of the inheritance of positions of power and thus the livelihood of the nobility. The aristocracy's claim to rule is lacking, since the virtues of rulership are not inherited. Franck also denounces the rawness and violence widespread among the nobles. On the other hand, he approves of the Defensor pacis des Marsilius of Padua , a text directed against arbitrary rule.

Among the few rulers whom Franck judges favorably are Ludwig the Bavarian , whom he values ​​as an adversary of the Pope, and Emperor Friedrich III. whose love of peace he praises. On the other hand, he passed a devastating judgment on Charlemagne , who had surrendered the empire to the papacy through his coronation, and on the Carolingians . Franck thinks little of Emperor Charles V , who ruled during his lifetime , whose display of splendor he rebukes and who, among other things, resented the plundering of Rome by mercenaries in the Sacco di Roma . The Italian policy of the Holy Roman Emperor he refuses on principle as an aberration. The link between political power and religious authority in the Islamic world appears particularly reprehensible to him.

Franck's general convictions also resulted in a sharp rejection of the violent Christianization of the Saxons by Charlemagne . He credits the pagan Saxons with the fact that they did not make pictures of their gods, since they recognized that the incomprehensible deity could not be depicted. From Franck's point of view, such pagans are to a certain extent “more Christian” than Christians who worship images .

Resistance and Nonviolence

Franck basically sees the disaster in violence as such. He is not concerned with the question of who is legitimized to use force. That is why he also rejects the counterviolence of the oppressed who defend themselves through rioting, such as in the peasants' war. Against armed resistance, he objects that counter-violence leads to even worse conditions than the previous oppression, as the outcome of the Peasants' War shows. The situation of the peasants has deteriorated dramatically as a result of the uprising. Tyranny causes turmoil and this in turn leads to an even harsher tyranny. Franck sees the task of the individual in understanding the despotism and misery of war as an opportunity to gain knowledge and to orient one's own life accordingly, so that one does not commit an injustice. With this one should learn the lesson from the course of history or from one's own fate. Teaching through painful experience corresponds to the will of God, because it is the means by which some deluded people could be brought to insight. However, even this drastic means usually fails because most people are stubborn and hardly teachable.

Franck's understanding of history excludes an optimization of the political situation in terms of the realization of a state and social ideal. He considers the Reformation to have failed and a truly Christian society to be impossible. With sarcastic severity, he condemns the attempt made in the Anabaptist Empire of Munster to forcibly introduce a kingdom of God on earth with community of property , and points out the catastrophic consequences.

In the question of the duty of obedience to a tyrannical authority who orders outrageous acts, Franck deals with the views of Luther and the late medieval theologian Johann Wessel (Gansfort). For Wessel, in such cases there is not only a right to active resistance, but he even considers the overthrow of a tyrant to be a task based on natural law . In any case, Wessel calls for a refusal to obey immoral orders, otherwise one would become an accomplice. Although Luther advocates a duty to refuse obedience to outrageous orders, he does not consider participation in a possibly unlawful war to be absolutely inadmissible, but leaves the soldiers a margin of discretion. He even regards participation in a just defense war as an obligation. Franck contradicts Wessel with regard to the active resistance, which he fundamentally rejects, and Luther with regard to the passive resistance, which he demands more strictly. In contrast to Luther, he considers the duty of obedience to automatically expire as soon as an authority takes military action. If the war was fanned willfully, Franck accepts an unconditional duty to refuse to obey; whoever participates in such an enterprise is himself a tyrant, murderer and robber.

reception

Franck did not set up his own school, but his teaching met with a strong response. The numerous editions of his writings, some of which have been translated into several languages, ensured a wide reception. The vehemence with which his theses were condemned and opposed by both Catholic and Protestant sides shows the strength of the charisma of his ideas.

Early modern age

The statements of well-known contemporaries on Franck's teaching were almost unanimously negative. Their judgments were derogatory and mostly marked by strong hostility. Often, drastic criticism of the dissident's views was combined with personal abuse. Its main opponents were well-known and influential authors who developed a lively journalistic activity, while its sympathizers exercised restraint in the face of official disapproval.

Shortly after the publication of the chronicle printed in Strasbourg in 1531, the Catholic side began to criticize it sharply. Erasmus, embarrassed by referring to his allegedly “heretical” views in the Chronica , complained in a letter of March 2, 1532 to Martin Bucer about Franck, who had written an absurd pamphlet. In addition, this "chatterbox" (nugo) was so outrageous as to send him, Erasmus, a self-confident letter from the Strasbourg prison - apparently more from a pub - instead of apologizing. In April 1532, Albrecht von Brandenburg , who as cardinal and archbishop of Mainz was a leading representative of Catholicism in Germany, stated that he had read the Chronica and that it was a very harmful and evil book. The Catholic theologian Johannes Cochlaeus published two treatises in 1533 in which he polemicized against individual statements in the Chronica . A provincial synod of the ecclesiastical province of Cologne put the Chronica on the list of prohibited books in 1549.

The statements of prominent reformers were also very hostile. Martin Luther called Franck an evil, poisonous boy in a table speech from 1540. When the Lutheran theologian Johannes Freder published the High German version of his Dialogus in honor of married status in 1545 , in which he criticized Franck's collection of proverbs, Luther wrote the preface in which he vehemently attacked the dissident who had died three years earlier. Freder and Luther blamed Franck for the misogyny of some of the proverbs he had collected. Luther described Franck as a wicked blasphemer and abuser of the sacrament, who only rebukes everything and likes to write and speak the worst about everyone. With relish he digs into the misery, error and sin of poor people like a "dirty pig" in the dirt. He is a disgraceful fly that wants to sit first on the droppings and then on the face of people. He used the public's interest in history as a chronicler to mix his poison with the honey and sugar of the historical material and thus to cause the greatest possible damage. Luther concluded with the wish that Christ would destroy the " Beelzebub Francken".

Martin Bucer , one of the most prominent theologians of the Reformation, also vigorously polemicized against Franck. He was particularly bothered by the rejection of ecclesiastical order and the supervision of the authorities over church affairs. Bucer wrote in 1535 that Franck was showering the world with his errors, which he was selling under splendid titles as the most certain truth. He introduced much wrong and evil and mocked holy, godly teachers and emperors. The printing of his chronicle was only allowed because he lied to the Strasbourg censors.

The Lutheran superintendent in Magdeburg, Nikolaus von Amsdorf , opposed the distinction between the literal and the spiritual meaning of the Bible, which Franck, "even a rough and unlearned fellow", had represented in his criticism of Luther's doctrine of the Lord 's Supper in a text printed in 1535 .

In Ulm, Martin Frecht fought with great zeal against Franck's ideas in the 1530s. He argued, among other things, that Franck brought his books to the public "outrageously and cheekily" every day in order to preserve the reputation that he had achieved "among the common mob".

In March 1540 a group of respected Protestant theologians met in Schmalkalden , who condemned Schwenckfeld and Franck and gave their verdict weight through a joint declaration. The twelve signatories were Nikolaus von Amsdorf, Martin Bucer, Johannes Bugenhagen , Anton Corvinus , Caspar Cruciger the Elder , Justus Jonas the Elder , Johannes Kymaeus , Johannes Lening , Philipp Melanchthon , Balthasar Raid , Nikolaus Scheubel and Johannes Timan. The Latin text of the report comes from Melanchthon. The document condemns Schwenckfeld, Franck and "some other wanderers" who "lead the people away from the properly appointed church fellowship" in which "the teaching of the gospel is transmitted correctly and purely". By the insolence of these “fanatical and haughty hypocrites” who denied the effectiveness of the ministry, God was undoubtedly seriously offended. Franck had produced a dazzling work of verbal battles. He put the believers of the one (Protestant) church, which is the only bride of Christ, who teaches the gospel correctly and administers the sacraments correctly, on the same level as the " papists " (Catholics).

Rumors of his private life were spread among Franck's Protestant opponents. Frecht alluded to it as early as 1538 and remarked that he did not want to judge it. Melanchthon claimed in the 1550s that Franck was an adulterer and fornicator, that he had "made guilders " and then ran away.

An exception to the general condemnation of Franck was the humanist Sebastian Castellio (1515–1563), who published an anthology of statements against the persecution of heretics in 1554, quoting the Strasbourg Chronica in detail. However, as a precaution, Castellio did not name the author of the cited texts by name, but only gave a pseudonym.

In 1562 Johannes Calvin mentioned the "dreams of a dreamer named Sebastian Franck" who is known to be brainless.

In the Netherlands, Franck's ideas were well received by free spirits. Numerous editions of Dutch translations of works by the German dissident were published there in the second half of the 16th and early 17th centuries, including the Van het rycke Christi (Vom Reich Christi) , printed in Gouda in 1611 and 1617 , which is only available in the Dutch version has come down to us. These prints bear witness to the sustained activity of a current whose representatives were disparagingly referred to by the Calvinist side as "Franckists" or "Franckonists". The best known "Franckist" was Dirck Volkertszoon Coornhert (1522–1590). A leading Calvinist critic was Philips van Marnix (1540–1598), who in 1595 and 1598 published two treatises against Dutch libertines . He regarded the Dutch Baptist David Joris and Franck as the two main authors of the ideas he opposed . Marnix called for the use of state violence to silence the dissidents.

Franck's collection of proverbs achieved great sales success from the 1540s. Many reprints of an edited and more user-friendly edition from 1548 appeared. In the 17th century the work served as a material basis for new collections of sayings. It was also used for rhetorical purposes. From a linguistic perspective, Franck was honored as a promoter and curator of the German language.

In the 18th century, the theological controversy over Franck received little attention. Lutheran opponents of his teachings such as Valentin Ernst Löscher and Gustav Georg Zeltner counted him among the “fanatics”. In the Catholic area he was largely unmentioned.

The first dissertation on Franck and his teaching was written by the Lutheran and later Königsberg theology professor Samuel Gottlieb Wald . He received his doctorate from the University of Erlangen in 1793 with this work, in which he portrayed Franck as the forerunner of Immanuel Kant .

Modern

Bust of Franck on the Sebastian-Franck-Bridge in Donauwörth

Positive assessments of Franck's personality and performance, some of which are characterized by admiration, have dominated research since the 19th century. His thinking is often described as forward-looking and, at the same time, “modern”. With the criticism of authority and the Bible, anti-dogmatism and the far-reaching demand for tolerance, he set impulses that were far ahead of their time. He is a forerunner of the Enlightenment . With his pacifism and the concept of autonomy of conscience, Franck appears as a forerunner of modern ideas. Some researchers count him among the representatives of a "third force", a reform movement that tried in vain in the first half of the 16th century to save Europe from the devastating consequences of the sectarian division. He is also recognized as an important folk writer and mediator of knowledge. However, he is sometimes accused of pessimism, corrosive criticism, a lack of reality and the lack of a consistently worked out system.

The literary quality of the works is recognized; Franck is considered to be one of the outstanding prose writers of the Reformation period. According to Johannes Bolte's assessment , his language is clear and powerful, and he does not shy away from comparison with Luther, the “greatest prose writer of his time”. According to the judgment of the Dresden philosophy historian Siegfried Wollgast , Franck is “an outstanding master of the German language”, and Christoph Dejung believes that he wrote “the best German prose of the time alongside Luther”. In recent times there has been a special interest in the "media" aspects of Franck's writings: methods of compilation and processing, composition and communication techniques.

19th century

In the 1840s a direction of interpretation prevailed that saw in Franck a forerunner of Ludwig Feuerbach , because like him he understood the doctrine of God as a thoroughly subjective one. The historian Karl Hagen , who was a representative of the left in the Frankfurt National Assembly , and the philosopher Moritz Carrière were of this view .

The Bonn philologist Franz Weinkauff wrote the article about Franck in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie , which appeared in 1877. Weinkauff praised the radical Reformation writer as a “genuine free Protestant” who had consistently followed his convictions as a “flawless character and a witty self-thinker”. As a popular writer, he wrote handbooks in exemplary German for a wider readership and opposed “the conceit of scholars and the fanaticism of the parties”. His opponents had viciously attacked and slandered him.

The Tübingen church historian Alfred Hegler presented in his study Spirit and Script in Sebastian Franck in 1892 the contrast between spirit and script (biblical text) as a core element of Reformation spiritualism . He emphasized Franck's central position with regard to the development of ideas within the radical reform movements. He noted critically that Franck had "misunderstood the historical and community-building power of Christianity". Hegler also wrote the detailed biographical article in the 3rd edition of the Realencyklopadie for Protestant Theology and Church , which appeared in 1899. He saw in Franck a pantheist , "a link between the philosophy of the older Renaissance and the beginnings of pantheistic speculation of the modern age". In many ways Franck is "the first type of modern literate ". He was not a deep thinker, but a writer of great talent, "always lively, powerful, vividly writing", a personality "in which in a certain way more modern sentiment heralds itself than in the reformers".

The philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey treated Franck in detail in an essay published in 1891/1892. Dilthey found Franck was a "truly brilliant thinker and writer" and a panentheist . He carried out the spiritualistic direction of the German Reformation movement with a calm clarity "which the sect leaders lacked". In Franck's teaching, Christ is equated with the “light of nature” common to all human beings and with reason, and Adam with selfishness in man. The invisible Christ is therefore nothing but the “divinely immanent moral disposition of man”. A total reinterpretation of the doctrine of justification results from this concept; justification becomes a subjective process of consciousness. Franck derived consequences from his assumptions that made him the "forerunner or founder of modern religious philosophy ": "In a hundred rivulets, Franck's ideas flow towards modern times."

20th and 21st centuries

The theologian, philosopher and historian Ernst Troeltsch stated in 1912 that the relationship between Franck's ideas and modern religious philosophy was obvious, but that Dilthey had modernized too much and emphasized the connection with medieval mysticism too little. Troeltsch saw in Franck "one of the noblest and freest spirits" of the time, who lived as a "literary prophet of the sole redeeming power of the spirit and the inner word". He represented a cultless individualism and a mystical idea of ​​immanence, which is now finding “the approval of the modern”.

The church historian Karl Holl judged quite differently in 1923 about Franck, who is “today greatly overestimated because apparently little has been read”. He lived to a large extent from what he had read from books. His influence is largely due to the fact that his writings are relatively entertaining because of their versatility and untheological nature. Since he had deeply felt the tragedy of the establishment of a community, he stood up for an invisible church from which he had stripped everything that a community meant. Accordingly, an "almost complete regression of the social sense" can be observed with him. Holl accused Franck of a lack of understanding for the rebellious peasants; in his negative opinion on the riot there is "a good deal of human contempt".

The historian Rudolf Stadelmann offered a detailed critical examination of Franck's view of history in his 1929 habilitation thesis . Stadelmann found that Protestantism had drawn a sharp line between itself and the "spirit of negation" represented by Franck. As a pessimist, Franck despised human society in principle and thus opposed the optimism of Lutheranism, which, according to Stadelmann, is "one of the deepest sources of strength of the Lutheran personality". Franck's theory of history shows "an ingenious style" and has "great dramatic emotion and tragic seriousness", but he denies progress and confines himself to a monotonous complaint of ills. The nihilism of his contempt for history is "ultimately absolutely ahistorical".

The philosopher Ernst Bloch assessed Franck's position on social conflict positively in 1936, referring to socially critical statements in the paradoxes . He considered the early modern dissident to be a forerunner of his own direction and called him “a great friend” and “one of the most genuine confessional Christians against the perpetrators and murderers”. Franck was indeed aloof from the masses, but remained an admirer of Thomas Müntzer throughout his life . The outcome of the peasants' war depressed him deeply, so his books are full of desperation about the "world" which he saw in stark contrast to the realm of freedom and brotherhood.

In 1943, the writer Will-Erich Peuckert addressed a broad, non-specialist audience with his extensive biography Sebastian Franck. A German seeker . He praised Franck's "loyalty to what has been recognized as right and the inexorable clear consistency of thinking". At a turning point when the old values ​​were becoming fragile, he had succeeded in prevailing before the new. This is his enduring fame.

In 1947, the historian of philosophy Wilhelm Nestle described Franck as an important figure who was superior to Luther in terms of the breadth of his mind and consistency of thought. Franck is the real humanist among the Reformation personalities "in the sense of the knowledge that the human is superior to the Christian". He appears as a harbinger of the tolerance idea of ​​the Enlightenment and is characterized by a free spirit "open to all human beings". Since he was spiritually ahead of his time, he was often misunderstood during his lifetime.

The theologian Eberhard Teufel, who had already provided a detailed research overview in 1940, published a biography of Franck in 1954 in which he also dealt with the afterlife. He described Franck as a " Faustian man " who had withdrawn from all parties into solitude; he had become "the homeless, homeless", "fought and cast out everywhere".

The religious scholar Kurt Goldammer pointed out in 1956 that Franck had struck tones in his "downright anti-monarchist, anti-imperial, prince and anti-imperial criticism of political conditions" that were "not thought to be possible at this time". His “relentless attempt to unmask” must have had an extremely nihilistic effect on his contemporaries. As an analyst, he searched the historical pile of ruins and picked out many interesting pieces without being able to put them together into anything uniform and meaningful. One could call the author of the paradox “the man of the unsolved antithesis , the dialectical thinker without synthesis”.

In 1959, the cultural historian Friedrich Heer praised Franck's achievement of being the first to elevate the “curse name 'heretic'” to a name of salvation and honor. The accusation of relativism raised against Franck by “denominational Christians” was unjustified because he was not a relativist, but was certainly a relationist: He recognized “the relationships, the interdependencies in all historical structures, religions, ideas” and tried to “denominate” to pull the fang ”. With his dissolution of dogmatic Christianity he came very close to the early enlightenment, and from him “broad rivers flowed into Europe from the seventeenth to the twentieth century” through the underground.

The Marxist historian of philosophy Siegfried Wollgast , who teaches in Dresden, found in 1972 that “Franck clearly has pantheism”, which the “bourgeois Franck researchers” do not admit. Franck is "the theoretically most prominent figure after the failure of the early bourgeois revolution ".

In research, Franck is often counted among the “left wing of the Reformation”. This term summarizes some radical Reformation thinkers and currents who were in opposition to the Lutheran church system. In 1972 Horst Weigelt presented a study in which he singled out Franck as a representative of the "left wing" and examined his engagement with the Lutheran Reformation.

In 1992, under the direction of the Germanist Hans-Gert Roloff, a critical complete edition of Franck's works began to appear with separate commentary volumes. The project is being carried out at the Free University of Berlin . Sixteen volumes are planned. So far, three volumes of text and one volume of commentary have been published.

There has been an increased interest in research since the late 20th century. It appears in a number of monographs , including the dissertations by Christoph Dejung (1970/1980, on Franck's philosophy of history), Bruno Quast (1993, on the ethics of peace), Patrick Hayden-Roy (1994, a biography of Franck), Andreas Wagner ( 2007, on the social significance of Franck's theology from a social-scientific point of view), Yvonne Dellsperger (2008, on the Strasbourg Chronicle) and Vasily Arslanov (2017, on Franck's working method as a historian and the connection between his historiography and his church and sect criticism). In addition, two anthologies were published: the conference contributions to a “working discussion” on Franck in Wolfenbüttel (1993) and a collection of articles on the occasion of his 500th birthday (1999).

Jean-Claude Colbus analyzed the Strasbourg Chronica in 2005 . He sees in Franck the originator of a "counter-project" to the church projects which, from the point of view of the dissident critic, create God in the image of man and then worship this idol and thus themselves. The counter-project is - according to Colbus - the formation of man in the image of God on the basis of an individual relationship to the pantheistically understood God. Man appears as a fragment of the divine. A prerequisite for the success of the counter-project is the achievement of impartiality and the freedom associated with it. This makes you part of a timeless and spatial, strictly informal community. Colbus calls this a process of hominization (incarnation). He considers Franck's individualistic concept of society to be the starting point for a new era.

Issues and comments

• Hans-Gert Roloff (Ed.): Sebastian Franck: Complete works. Critical edition with commentary. Peter Lang, Bern et al. 1992–1993 and Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 2005 ff.
  • Volume 1 (edition part): Peter Klaus Knauer (ed.): Early writings. 1993, ISBN 3-906750-31-0 (contains: dialage , letter of complaint , chronica and description of Turkey , an artificially polite declamation , of the horrible vice of drunkenness )
  • Volume 1 (commentary): Christoph Dejung: Early writings: Commentary. 2005, ISBN 3-7728-2233-9 .
  • Volume 4: Peter Klaus Knauer (Ed.): The four Kronbüchlein. 1992, ISBN 3-261-04594-9 .
  • Volume 11: Peter Klaus Knauer (Ed.): Proverbs. 1993, ISBN 3-906752-23-2 .
• Alfred Hegler (ed.): Sebastian Franck's Latin paraphrase of German theology and his treatises preserved in Dutch. Schnürlen, Tübingen 1901 (critical partial edition of the paraphrase with investigation)
• Johannes Bolte (Ed.): Two satirical poems by Sebastian Franck. In: Meeting reports of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-historical class, 1925, pp. 89–114 (Edition of the poems of Sankt Pfenning's Lobgesang and Die Schehrten die Reversten )
• Sebastian Franck: Chronica. Strasbourg 1531 (first edition) (digitized version)
• Sebastian Franck: Chronica. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1969 (reprint of the Ulm 1536 edition). Digitized version of this issue
• Sebastian Franck: World Book. Tübingen 1534 (digitized version)
• Sebastian Franck: Paradoxes. Ulm 1534 (digitized version)
• Sebastian Franck: Paradoxes. Edited and introduced by Siegfried Wollgast. 2nd, revised edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-05-002608-1 (translated into modern German)
• Sebastian Franck: The Guldin Arch. Augsburg 1538 (digitized)
• Sebastian Franck: Germaniae Chronicon. Augsburg 1538 (digitized version)
• Sebastian Franck: The book sealed with flat sigels. Minerva, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-86598-408-8 (reprint of the Augsburg 1539 edition). Digitized version of this issue
• Sebastian Franck: Written and thoroughly thorough interpretation of the LXIIII. Psalm. Aupperle, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1957 (facsimile of the Strasbourg 1539 edition). Digitized version of this issue

• Sebastian Franck: War Booklet of Peace. Augsburg 1539 (digitized version)
• Sebastian Franck: War Büchlin of Peace. Olms, Hildesheim 1975, ISBN 3-487-05381-0 (reprint of the Frankfurt am Main 1550 edition)
• Sebastian Franck: The War Book of Peace. In: Siegfried Wollgast (ed.): On the idea of ​​peace in the time of the Reformation. Texts by Erasmus, Paracelsus, Franck. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1968, pp. 63–278 (translated into modern German)
• Sebastian Franck: Letter to Johannes Campanus . In: Manfred Krebs, Hans Georg Rott (ed.): Sources for the history of the Anabaptists. Volume 7: Alsace , Part 1: City of Strasbourg 1522–1532. Mohn, Gütersloh 1959, pp. 301–325 (No. 241; Early New High German and Dutch translation of the original Latin text of the letter of February 4, 1531)
• Sebastian Franck: Letter to Johannes Campanus. In: Heinold Fast (Ed.): The left wing of the Reformation. Carl Schünemann, Bremen 1962, pp. 219–233 (translated into modern German)

literature

Overview representations

• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Sebastian Franck. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 82-85 (some biographical information is out of date).
• Yvonne Häfner: Franck, Sebastian. In: Wilhelm Kühlmann et al. (Ed.): Early modern times in Germany 1520–1620. Literary scholarly author's lexicon . Volume 2, de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-025486-0 , Sp. 409-424
• Bruno Quast : Sebastian Franck. In: Stephan Füssel (ed.): German poets of the early modern period (1450–1600). Your life and work. Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-503-03040-9 , pp. 464-476.
• André Séguenny: Franck, Sebastian. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia . Volume 11, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1983, ISBN 3-11-008577-1 , pp. 307-312.
• Robert Stupperich :  Franck, Sebastian. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 320 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Horst Weigelt : Sebastian Franck. In: Martin Greschat (Ed.): Gestalten der Kirchengeschichte. Volume 6: Die Reformationszeit II. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-17-007302-8 , pp. 119–128.

Overall presentation

• Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World. A biography of Sebastian Franck. Peter Lang, New York et al. 1994, ISBN 0-8204-2083-2 .

Collections of articles

• Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542) (= Wolfenbütteler Forschungen . Volume 56). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1993, ISBN 3-447-03454-8 .
• Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Weidler, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89693-134-2 .

Investigations on individual subject areas

• Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Modalities and strategies for popularizing historical knowledge with Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2017, ISBN 978-3-374-05065-9 .
• Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy. An investigation into the philosophy of history with Sebastian Franck. Samizdat, Zurich 1980 (dissertation University of Zurich 1970)
• Andreas Wagner: The wrong thing about religions in Sebastian Franck. On the social significance of the spiritualism of the radical Reformation. Berlin 2007 (dissertation FU Berlin, online )
• Horst Weigelt: Sebastian Franck and the Lutheran Reformation. Mohn, Gütersloh 1972, ISBN 3-579-04304-8 .

Investigations on individual works

• Jean-Claude Colbus: La Chronique de Sébastien Franck (1499–1542). Vision de l'histoire et image de l'homme. Peter Lang, Bern et al. 2005, ISBN 3-03910-371-7 ( review by Vasily Arslanov)
• Yvonne Dellsperger : Living histories and experiences. Studies on Sebastian Franck's “Chronica Zeitbuoch vnnd Geschichtbibell” (1531/1536). Erich Schmidt, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-503-09837-8 .
• Ralph Häfner: Composition principle and literary meaning of Sebastian Franck's Florilegium Die Guldin Arch (1538). In: Euphorion 97, 2003, pp. 349-378.
• Albrecht Hagenlocher: Sebastian Franck's 'War Booklet of Peace'. In: Franz Josef Worstbrock (Hrsg.): War and peace in the horizon of Renaissance humanism. VCH, Weinheim 1986, ISBN 3-527-17014-6 , pp. 45-67.
• Peter Klaus Knauer: The letter lives. Writing strategies with Sebastian Franck (= Berlin Studies in German Studies . Volume 2). Peter Lang, Bern et al. 1993, ISBN 3-906751-56-2 (on the Kronbüchlein)
• Ulrich Meisser: Sebastian Franck's collection of proverbs from 1541. Rodopi, Amsterdam 1974, ISBN 90-6203-121-8 .
• Bruno Quast : Sebastian Franck's 'War Book of Frides'. Studies on radical reformation spiritualism. Francke, Tübingen / Basel 1993, ISBN 3-7720-2022-4 .

Bibliographies

• Christoph Dejung: Sebastian Franck. In: André Séguenny (Ed.): Bibliotheca dissidentium . Repertoire of the non-conformistes religieux des seizième et dix-septième siècles. Volume 7, Valentin Koerner, Baden-Baden 1986, ISBN 3-87320-106-2 , pp. 39–119.
• Klaus Kaczerowsky: Sebastian Franck. Bibliography. Directories of Franck's works, the books he has printed and secondary literature. Guido Pressler, Wiesbaden 1976, ISBN 3-87646-034-4 (contains bibliographical information on all early modern prints)

Web links

Commons : Sebastian Franck  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Sebastian Franck  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Sebastian Franck in the catalog of the German National Library
• Link collection of the university library of the FU Berlin ( Memento from October 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Ulrich Goerdten)

Remarks

1. ↑ The legend erroneously describes Franck as a Silesian nobleman (confusion with Kaspar Schwenckfeld ), the clothes are anachronistic ; see Siegfried Wollgast: Foreword. In: Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Berlin 1999, pp. 7-12, here: 11 f.
2. ^ Jean-Claude Colbus: La Chronique de Sébastien Franck (1499-1542). Bern 2005, p. 13 f .; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, p. 3.
3. ^ Jean-Claude Colbus: La Chronique de Sébastien Franck (1499-1542). Bern 2005, p. 15; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, p. 3 f.
4. ↑ See Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017, p. 21 f .; Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy , Zurich 1980, p. 93 f .; Andreas Wagner: The wrong thing about religions in Sebastian Franck , Berlin 2007, pp. 90–94 (online) .
5. ^ Jean-Claude Colbus: La Chronique de Sébastien Franck (1499-1542). Bern 2005, p. 16 f .; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, pp. 4-6; Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy , Zurich 1980, pp. 94–96.
6. ↑ Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World. New York 1994, p. 6 f .; Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy , Zurich 1980, p. 96 f.
7. ^ Jean-Claude Colbus: La Chronique de Sébastien Franck (1499-1542). Bern 2005, pp. 17–19; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, pp. 8-12; Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy , Zurich 1980, pp. 100–105; Vasily Arslanov: "Seliger Unfried" , Leipzig 2017, pp. 22-27.
8. ^ Siegfried Wollgast: The German pantheism in the 16th century. Berlin 1972, pp. 73-75; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, p. 10 f .; Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy , Zurich 1980, pp. 104, 108–113.
9. ↑ Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World. New York 1994, pp. 11-17; Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy , Zurich 1980, pp. 105–108.
10. ↑ For the dating see Peter Klaus Knauer (Hrsg.): Sebastian Franck: Complete Works. Volume 1: Early writings , Bern 1993, p. 503 f .; Christoph Dejung: Sebastian Franck: Complete Works , Volume 1: Early Writings: Commentary , Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 2005, pp. 543–551, 594; Vasily Arslanov: "Seliger Unfried" , Leipzig 2017, pp. 43–45.
11. ^ Jean-Claude Colbus: La Chronique de Sébastien Franck (1499-1542). Bern 2005, pp. 20–24; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, pp. 17-25.
12. ↑ Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World. New York 1994, pp. 25-42; on the dating of the departure to Strasbourg p. 42 and note 157.
13. ↑ Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World. New York 1994, pp. 43-50; Klaus Deppermann: Sebastian Franck's stay in Strasbourg. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 103-118, here: 103-108.
14. ^ Klaus Deppermann: Sebastian Franck's stay in Strasbourg. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 103-118, here: 109-111; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, pp. 50-68.
15. ^ Klaus Deppermann: Sebastian Franck's stay in Strasbourg. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 103-118, here: 112-114; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, pp. 68-96.
16. ↑ Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy. Zurich 1980, p. 244 f .; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, pp. 96-99.
17. ↑ Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World. New York 1994, pp. 98-101.
18. ^ Christoph Reske: The book printers of the 16th and 17th centuries in the German-speaking area. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Wiesbaden 2015, p. 1016 f .; Yvonne Dellsperger: Sebastian Franck and book printing. In: Michael Stolz, Adrian Mettauer (Ed.): Book culture in the Middle Ages. Berlin 2005, pp. 243-259, here: 247 f .; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, pp. 103-108; Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy , Zurich 1980, pp. 246–248.
19. ↑ Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World. New York 1994, pp. 139-191; Eberhard Teufel: "Landräumig" , Neustadt an der Aisch 1954, pp. 54–86, on better p. 74 f.
20. ↑ Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World. New York 1994, p. 193.
21. ^ Christoph Reske: The book printers of the 16th and 17th centuries in the German-speaking area. 2nd, revised edition. Wiesbaden 2015, p. 82; Eberhard Teufel: "Landräumig" , Neustadt an der Aisch 1954, pp. 94-102.
22. ↑ See also Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy. Zurich 1980, pp. 105-108; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, pp. 11-17; Vasily Arslanov: "Seliger Unfried" , Leipzig 2017, pp. 28–43.
23. ↑ See also Jean-Claude Colbus: La Chronique de Sébastien Franck (1499–1542). Bern 2005, pp. 46–57.
24. ↑ See on this work Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017, pp. 57-93; Christoph Dejung: Sebastian Franck: Complete Works , Volume 1: Early Writings: Commentary , Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 2005, pp. 335–369.
25. ↑ Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017, pp. 43–49.
26. ↑ See also Christoph Dejung: Sebastian Franck: Complete Works. Volume 1: Early writings: Commentary , Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 2005, pp. 515-517.
27. ↑ On Franck's relationship to Schedel's Chronicle, see Jean-Claude Colbus: Sébastien Franck et la Chronique de Nuremberg: une compilation sélective entre lettre et esprit. In: Marie Couton et al. (Ed.): Emprunt, plagiat, réécriture aux XV ^e , XVI ^e , XVII ^e siècles , Clermont-Ferrand 2006, pp. 267–288.
28. ↑ A table of contents is provided by Simon L. Verheus: witness and judgment. Nieuwkoop 1971, pp. 8–24, a detailed study by Vasily Arslanov: “Seliger Unfried” , Leipzig 2017, pp. 95–268.
29. ↑ Joachim Knape : Geohistoriographie and Geoskopie Sebastian Franck and Sebastian Munster. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 239-271, here: 239-243, 253.
30. ↑ See also Manfred Keßler: Sebastian Franck from Wörd as a translator under the conditions of censorship. In: Journal of the historical association for Swabia. Volume 99, 2006, pp. 7-30, here: 19-30.
31. ↑ See on this work Siegfried Wollgast (Hrsg.): Sebastian Franck: Paradoxa. 2nd, revised edition. Berlin 1995, pp. XXIII-LIX (introduction).
32. ↑ For the meaning of the picture see Stephan Waldhoff: Judentum als Metaphor. In: Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Berlin 1999, pp. 159-208, here: 166-173.
33. ↑ Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World. New York 1994, pp. 180-182.
34. ↑ See also Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy. Zurich 1980, pp. 8-11.
35. ↑ On the seals see Stephan Waldhoff: Judentum als Metaphor. In: Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Berlin 1999, pp. 159-208, here: 184-195.
36. ↑ See also Barbara Bauer: The philosophy of the proverb in Sebastian Franck. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 181-221, here: 181 f., 189-195, 217-221.
37. ↑ See on these influences Siegfried Wollgast: Sebastian Franck's theological-philosophical conceptions. Aspects. In: Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Berlin 1999, pp. 15-87, here: 19-21, 51-63; Kristine Hannak: Geist = rich Critik , Berlin 2013, pp. 73–80, 88–98; Meinulf Barbers : Tolerance in Sebastian Franck , Bonn 1964, pp. 40–43, 49 f .; Ralph Häfner: Composition principle and literary meaning of Sebastian Franck's Florilegium Die Guldin Arch (1538). In: Euphorion. Volume 97, 2003, pp. 349-378, here: 364-367.
38. ^ André Séguenny: Franck, Sebastian. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia. Volume 11, Berlin 1983, pp. 307-312, here: 309; Siegfried Wollgast: Sebastian Franck's theological-philosophical views. Aspects. In: Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Berlin 1999, pp. 15–87, here: 63–73.
39. ↑ See also Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy. Zurich 1980, pp. 1-19.
40. ↑ Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017, pp. 169 f., 172–177.
41. ↑ Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017, pp. 180–182.
42. ↑ Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017, p. 196 f.
43. ↑ Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017, pp. 205–207.
44. ↑ For the fundamental rejection of the church system and all denominations see Horst Weigelt: Sebastian Franck and the Lutheran Reformation. Gütersloh 1972, pp. 34-46.
45. ↑ Horst Weigelt: Sebastian Franck and the Lutheran Reformation. Gütersloh 1972, pp. 23-33, 42-46, 51-56; André Séguenny: Franck, Sebastian. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia. Volume 11, Berlin 1983, pp. 307-312, here: 309-311; Jan-Dirk Müller: As an introduction. Sebastian Franck: the scribe as compiler. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 13-38, here: 24-27; Yvonne Dellsperger: Living Histories and Experiences , Berlin 2008, pp. 112–116; Meinulf Barbers: Tolerance in Sebastian Franck , Bonn 1964, pp. 140–144, 162 f.
46. ↑ Priscilla Hayden-Roy: Hermeneutica gloriae vs. hermeneutica crucis. Sebastian Franck and Martin Luther on the Clarity of Scripture. In: Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 81, 1990, pp. 50–68, here: 51–58. See Steven E. Ozment : Mysticism and Dissent , New Haven / London 1973, pp. 159-165.
47. ↑ Rudolf Kommoss : Sebastian Franck and Erasmus of Rotterdam. Berlin 1934, p. 47 f.
48. ^ Sebastian Franck: Letter to Johannes Campanus. In: Manfred Krebs, Hans Georg Rott (ed.): Sources for the history of the Anabaptists. Volume 7: Alsace , Part 1: City of Strasbourg 1522–1532 , Gütersloh 1959, pp. 301–325, here: 317 (German translation of the lost Latin text from the 1563 edition).
49. ↑ Kuno Räber : Studies on the History Bible Sebastian Francks , Basel 1952, pp. 45–48; Meinulf Barbers: Tolerance in Sebastian Franck , Bonn 1964, p. 113 f.
50. ^ Meinulf Barbers: Tolerance in Sebastian Franck. Bonn 1964, pp. 122-131, 139; Horst Weigelt: Sebastian Franck and the Lutheran Reformation , Gütersloh 1972, pp. 34–38.
51. ^ André Séguenny: Franck, Sebastian. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia. Volume 11, Berlin 1983, pp. 307-312, here: 310 f .; Horst Weigelt: Sebastian Franck and the Lutheran Reformation , Gütersloh 1972, pp. 46–48.
52. ^ Sebastian Franck: Letter to Johannes Campanus. In: Manfred Krebs, Hans Georg Rott (ed.): Sources for the history of the Anabaptists. Volume 7: Alsace , Part 1: City of Strasbourg 1522–1532 , Gütersloh 1959, pp. 301–325, here: 322.
53. ↑ Horst Weigelt: Sebastian Franck and the Lutheran Reformation. Gütersloh 1972, pp. 47-51; Otto Langer: Inner Word and Inner Christ. On Sebastian Franck's mystical spiritualism and its implications. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 55-69, here: 57-60; Sven Grosse : Fundamental communication - Luther, Karlstadt and Sebastian Franck in the dispute about the mediality of the Bible. In: Johanna Haberer , Berndt Hamm (Eds.): Medialität, immediacy, presence , Tübingen 2012, pp. 99–116, here: 106–110; Arnold Reimann : Sebastian Franck as a historical philosopher , Berlin 1921, pp. 56–60.
54. ^ Siegfried Wollgast: Sebastian Franck's theological-philosophical conceptions. Aspects. In: Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Berlin 1999, pp. 15-87, here: 82 f.
55. ^ Yvonne Dellsperger: Living histories and experiences. Berlin 2008, pp. 106-109; Bruno Quast: Sebastian Francks 'Kriegbüchlin des Frides' , Tübingen / Basel 1993, pp. 103-107.
56. ↑ See also Otto Langer: Inner Word and Christ within. On Sebastian Franck's mystical spiritualism and its implications. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 55-69, here: 60-68; André Séguenny: Franck, Sebastian. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia. Volume 11, Berlin 1983, pp. 307-312, here: 310.
57. ↑ Sebastian Franck: Paradoxes 7 and 8.
58. ^ Kuno Räber: Studies on Sebastian Franck's History Bible. Basel 1952, p. 65.
59. ^ Jean Lebeau: "Le rire de Démocrite" et la philosophie de l'histoire de Sebastian Franck. In: Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 33, 1971, pp. 241–269, here: 259–261; Ulrich Meisser: Sebastian Franck's collection of proverbs from 1541 , Amsterdam 1974, pp. 366–370, 422–425. Cf. Paul Joachimsen : On the inner development of Sebastian Franck. In: Leaves for German Philosophy. Volume 2, 1928/29, pp. 1-28, here: 28; Kuno Räber: Studies on Sebastian Francks History Bible , Basel 1952, pp. 48–53.
60. ^ Sebastian Franck: Chronica. Strasbourg 1531, pp. A3 ^v and a4 ^v . See Steven E. Ozment: Sebastian Franck. Critic of a "new scholasticism". In: Hans-Jürgen Goertz (Ed.): Radikal Reformatoren , Munich 1978, pp. 201–209, here: 203 f .; Jan-Dirk Müller: As an introduction. Sebastian Franck: the scribe as compiler. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 13-38, here: 34-38.
61. ^ Sebastian Franck: World Book. Tübingen 1534, preface p. 2a.
62. ^ Meinulf Barbers: Tolerance in Sebastian Franck. Bonn 1964, pp. 112-114; Yvonne Dellsperger: Living Histories and Experiences , Berlin 2008, pp. 63–65; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, pp. 69-72.
63. ^ Sebastian Franck: Chronica. Ulm 1536, fol. 122 ^v . Cf. Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017, p. 273 f .; Yvonne Dellsperger: Living Histories and Experiences , Berlin 2008, pp. 37–45.
64. ^ Sebastian Franck: World Book. Tübingen 1534, preface p. 4a.
65. ^ Sebastian Franck: Chronica. Strasbourg 1531, p. A1 ^v .
66. ↑ Jan-Dirk Müller: For the introduction. Sebastian Franck: the scribe as compiler. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 13-38, here: 27-33; Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World , New York 1994, pp. 69-72.
67. ^ Sebastian Franck: World Book. Tübingen 1534, preface p. 3a. See Christoph Dejung: History teaches serenity. In: Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Berlin 1999, pp. 89–126, here: 119.
68. ^ Meinulf Barbers: Tolerance in Sebastian Franck. Bonn 1964, pp. 145-150.
69. ^ Meinulf Barbers: Tolerance in Sebastian Franck. Bonn 1964, pp. 150-153.
70. ^ Meinulf Barbers: Tolerance in Sebastian Franck. Bonn 1964, pp. 153-156.
71. ^ Meinulf Barbers: Tolerance in Sebastian Franck. Bonn 1964, p. 156.
72. ^ Gertraud Zaepernick : World and people with Sebastian Franck. In: Pietism and Modern Times. Volume 1, 1974, pp. 9-24, here: pp. 17 f. and note 15, 16.
73. ↑ Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017, p. 189 f .; Kuno Räber: Studies on the Sebastian Francks History Bible , Basel 1952, pp. 9–12, 15, 22.
74. ^ Kuno Räber: Studies on Sebastian Franck's History Bible. Basel 1952, pp. 12, 15 f., 21-23.
75. ↑ Sebastian Franck: War Booklet of Peace. Augsburg 1539, pp. 2a-3a. See Jean-Claude Colbus: La Chronique de Sébastien Franck (1499–1542). Bern 2005, p. 378 f.
76. ↑ Sebastian Franck: War Booklet of Peace. Augsburg 1539, p. 3a.
77. ^ Albrecht Hagenlocher: Sebastian Franck's 'War Book of Peace'. In: Franz Josef Worstbrock (Hrsg.): War and peace in the horizon of Renaissance humanism. Weinheim 1986, pp. 45-67, here: 58.
78. ↑ Stephan Waldhoff: The evangelist of the armed Moses. In: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 107, 1996, pp. 327–354, here: 330–332; Bruno Quast: Sebastian Francks 'Kriegbüchlin des Frides' , Tübingen / Basel 1993, p. 128; Kuno Räber: Studies on the Sebastian Francks History Bible , Basel 1952, pp. 21–23.
79. ^ Wilhelm Kühlmann : Allegorese , endangering the state. In: Literary Yearbook. Volume 24, 1983, pp. 51-76, here: 58-67; Yvonne Dellsperger: Living Histories and Experiences , Berlin 2008, pp. 71–75; Kuno Räber: Studies on Sebastian Francks History Bible , Basel 1952, pp. 12–15.
80. ^ André Séguenny: Historia magistra vitae. In: Marijn de Kroon, Marc Lienhard (eds.): Horizons européens de la Réforme en Alsace , Strasbourg 1980, pp. 107–118, here: 113–115; Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy , Zurich 1980, p. 132 f .; Yvonne Dellsperger: Living histories and experiences , Berlin 2008, p. 83 f .; Arnold Reimann: Sebastian Franck as a historical philosopher , Berlin 1921, p. 87 f.
81. ^ Arnold Reimann: Sebastian Franck as a philosopher of history. Berlin 1921, p. 71.
82. ^ Jean-Claude Colbus: La Chronique de Sébastien Franck (1499-1542). Bern 2005, pp. 363, 400; Kuno Räber: Studies on the History Bible of Sebastian Francks , Basel 1952, pp. 15–17, 24 f .; Arnold Reimann: Sebastian Franck as a historical philosopher , Berlin 1921, pp. 71–73.
83. ↑ Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017, pp. 193–195.
84. ^ Kuno Räber: Studies on Sebastian Franck's History Bible. Basel 1952, pp. 17-21. On Franck's attitude to the peasant war, Siegfried Wollgast: Sebastian Franck's theological-philosophical conceptions. Aspects. In: Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Berlin 1999, pp. 15-87, here: 15 f.
85. ↑ Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017, p. 273; Kuno Räber: Studies on the Sebastian Francks History Bible , Basel 1952, p. 27.
86. ^ Yvonne Dellsperger: Living histories and experiences. Berlin 2008, pp. 91-95. Compare Robert Stupperich: Sebastian Franck and the Münster Anabaptism. In: Rudolf Vierhaus , Manfred Botzenhart (eds.): Duration and change of history , Münster 1966, pp. 144–162, here: 157–162.
87. ↑ Bruno Quast: Sebastian Franck's 'War Book of Frides'. Tübingen / Basel 1993, pp. 107-112; Stephan Waldhoff: The evangelist of the armed Moses. In: Journal of Church History. Volume 107, 1996, pp. 327-354, here: 339; Albrecht Hagenlocher: Sebastian Franck's 'War Booklet of Peace'. In: Franz Josef Worstbrock (Hrsg.): War and peace in the horizon of Renaissance humanism. Weinheim 1986, pp. 45-67, here: 48-51.
88. ↑ For distribution through the book trade according to sources from the 1560s see Siegfried Wollgast: Der deutsche Pantheismus im 16. Jahrhundert , Berlin 1972, p. 251.
89. ↑ See on hostility and reception Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy. Zurich 1980, pp. 250-258; André Séguenny: Franck, Sebastian. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia. Volume 11, Berlin 1983, pp. 307-312, here: 308 f.
90. ↑ Percy Stafford Allen (ed.): Opus epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami , Volume 9, Oxford 1938, p. 454.
91. ↑ Eberhard Teufel: "Landräumig". Neustadt an der Aisch 1954, p. 36.
92. ↑ Eberhard Teufel: "Landräumig". Neustadt an der Aisch 1954, p. 48 f .; Siegfried Wollgast: The German pantheism in the 16th century , Berlin 1972, p. 85.
93. ^ Siegfried Wollgast: The German pantheism in the 16th century. Berlin 1972, p. 81, note 53.
94. ^ D. Martin Luther's works. Critical Complete Edition , Tischreden , Volume 4, Weimar 1916, p. 594 f.
95. ^ D. Martin Luther's works. Critical Complete Edition , Volume 54, Weimar 1928, pp. 171–175; see. Pp. 168–170 and Siegfried Wollgast: Der deutsche Pantheismus im 16. Jahrhundert , Berlin 1972, pp. 110–112 and Eberhard Teufel: “Landräumig” , Neustadt an der Aisch 1954, pp. 97–99, 103–106.
96. ↑ Eberhard Teufel: "Landräumig". Neustadt an der Aisch 1954, pp. 49–51. See Siegfried Wollgast: The German pantheism in the 16th century. Berlin 1972, pp. 82-85.
97. ↑ Eberhard Teufel: "Landräumig". Neustadt an der Aisch 1954, p. 51 f.
98. ↑ Eberhard Teufel: "Landräumig". Neustadt an der Aisch 1954, pp. 81–84.
99. ↑ Eberhard Teufel: "Landräumig". Neustadt an der Aisch 1954, pp. 89-94.
100. ↑ Eberhard Teufel: "Landräumig". Neustadt an der Aisch 1954, pp. 82 f., 108; Siegfried Wollgast: The German Pantheism in the 16th Century , Berlin 1972, p. 109.
101. ↑ On Castellio see Hans R. Guggisberg: Sebastian Franck and Sebastian Castellio. A contribution to the discussion. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 293-302; Meinulf Barbers: Tolerance in Sebastian Franck , Bonn 1964, pp. 172–177.
102. ↑ John Calvin: Response à un certain holandois. In: Mirjam van Veen (Ed.): Ioannis Calvini scripta didactica et polemica. Volume 1, Geneva 2005, pp. 209-273, here: 226.
103. ↑ Guillaume van Gemert: On the functionalization of Franck's ideas in the Netherlands. In: Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Berlin 1999, pp. 209-247, here: 212-219; Cornelis Augustijn, Theo Parmentier: Sebastian Franck in the northern Netherlands 1550 to 1600. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 303-318; Mirjam van Veen (Ed.): Ioannis Calvini scripta didactica et polemica , Volume 1, Geneva 2005, pp. 209-273, here: 25 f.
104. ↑ Barbara Bauer: The philosophy of the proverb in Sebastian Franck. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 181-221, here: 183-187.
105. ↑ Eberhard Teufel: "Landräumig". Neustadt an der Aisch 1954, p. 116 f .; Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542) , Berlin 1999, p. 8 f. (Preface). Cf. Kristine Hannak: Spirit = rich criticism. Berlin 2013, p. 74 f.
106. ^ Samuel Gottlieb Wald: De vita, scriptis et systemate mystico Sebastiani Franci. Erlangen 1793 (online) .
107. ↑ Peter Klaus Knauer: The letter lives. Bern 1993, pp. 7-16, 18-24. See Jan-Dirk Müller: Letter, Spirit, Subject: On an early modern problem figure in Sebastian Franck. In: Modern Language Notes. Volume 106, 1991, pp. 648-674, here: 649.
108. ↑ Judgments about the literary quality are compiled by Peter Klaus Knauer: The letter lives. Bern 1993, pp. 16-18.
109. ↑ Johannes Bolte (Ed.): Two satirical poems by Sebastian Franck. In: Meeting reports of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-historical class, 1925, pp. 89–114, here: 91.
110. ^ Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Berlin 1999, p. 7 f. (Preface).
111. ↑ Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy. Zurich 1980, p. 157.
112. ↑ Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017, pp. 13, 19.
113. ^ Siegfried Wollgast: The German pantheism in the 16th century. Berlin 1972, pp. 35-37; Peter Klaus Knauer: The letter is alive , Bern 1993, p. 4 f.
114. ^ Franz Weinkauff: Franck: Sebastian F. In: General German Biography. Volume 7, Leipzig 1877, pp. 214-219.
115. ^ Alfred Hegler: Spirit and writing in Sebastian Franck. Freiburg 1892, p. 288.
116. ^ Alfred Hegler: Franck, Sebastian. In: Realencyklopadie for Protestant Theology and Church. 3rd, improved edition. Volume 6, Leipzig 1899, pp. 142–150, here: 149 f. Cf. on Hegler Siegfried Wollgast: The German pantheism in the 16th century. Berlin 1972, pp. 41-43.
117. ^ Wilhelm Dilthey: Conception and analysis of humans in the 15th and 16th centuries. In: Archives for the History of Philosophy. Volume 5, 1892, pp. 337-400, here: 389-394.
118. ^ Ernst Troeltsch: The social doctrines of the Christian churches and groups. Tübingen 1912, pp. 886-888.
119. ^ Karl Holl: Collected essays on church history. Volume 1, 2nd and 3rd, increased and improved edition, Tübingen 1923, p. 435 f. and note 3 and p. 459 f. Cf. Eberhard Teufel: The "German Theology" and Sebastian Franck in the light of more recent research. In: Theologische Rundschau 12, 1940, pp. 99–129, here: 116–119.
120. ↑ Rudolf Stadelmann: On the spirit of the late Middle Ages. Halle / Saale 1929, pp. 247-253.
121. ↑ Ernst Bloch: From Sebastian Franck's “Paradoxa” (1936). In: Ernst Bloch: Philosophical essays on objective fantasy. Frankfurt am Main 1969, pp. 65–72, here: 65–67.
122. ^ Will-Erich Peuckert: Sebastian Franck. A German seeker. Munich 1943, pp. 555-557.
123. ^ Wilhelm Nestle: The crisis of Christianity. Stuttgart 1947, pp. 86, 227 f.
124. ↑ Eberhard Teufel: The "German Theology" and Sebastian Franck in the light of recent research. In: Theologische Rundschau. Volume 12, 1940, pp. 99-129.
125. ↑ Eberhard Teufel: "Landräumig". Sebastian Franck, a hiker on the Danube, Rhine and Neckar. Neustadt an der Aisch 1954, p. 9.
126. ↑ Kurt Goldammer: Idea of Peace and Thought of Tolerance in Paracelsus and the Spiritualists. II. Franck and Weigel. In: Archive for the history of the Reformation. Volume 47, 1956, pp. 180-211, here: 184, 192.
127. ↑ Friedrich Heer: The third force. Frankfurt am Main 1959, pp. 478, 480 f.
128. ^ Siegfried Wollgast: The German pantheism in the 16th century. Sebastian Franck and its effects on the development of pantheistic philosophy in Germany. Berlin 1972, p. 11, 151.
129. ↑ Horst Weigelt: Sebastian Franck and the Lutheran Reformation. Gütersloh 1972 (on the “left wing” p. 11 f., 21).
130. ↑ For details see the announcement of the edition in the volume Contributions to the 500th Birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542) , published by Siegfried Wollgast , Berlin 1999, pp. 255–259.
131. ↑ Christoph Dejung: Truth and Heresy. Zurich 1980.
132. ↑ Bruno Quast: Sebastian Franck's 'War Book of Frides'. Tübingen / Basel 1993.
133. ↑ Patrick Hayden-Roy: The Inner Word and the Outer World. New York 1994.
134. ↑ Andreas Wagner: The wrong of religions in Sebastian Franck. Dissertation FU Berlin 2007 (online) .
135. ↑ Vasily Arslanov: "Blessed Unfried". Leipzig 2017.
136. ↑ Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993.
137. ^ Siegfried Wollgast (Ed.): Contributions to the 500th birthday of Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Berlin 1999.
138. ^ Jean-Claude Colbus: La Chronique de Sébastien Franck (1499-1542). Bern 2005, pp. 431–438, p. 441 and note 3.
139. ↑ For the poem about the learned, Franck's authorship is doubted by Carlos Gilly : About two rhyming poems ascribed to Sebastian Franck. In: Jan-Dirk Müller (Ed.): Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Wiesbaden 1993, pp. 223-238.

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