Abraham Kyburz

Abraham Kyburz (born March 25, 1700 ; deviating around 1704 in Heimberg ; † December 1765 in Thun ) was a Swiss Protestant clergyman who was close to Pietism .

Life

Abraham Kyburz was the son of the small farmer Adam Kyburz, in whose house in Bern Pietists held prayer; his mother was Sara Kyburz (* 1661 in Aarau ), daughter of Simon Ehrsam (* October 4, 1618 in Aarau).

He studied at the high school in Bern and became vicar in Biglen on August 25, 1729 . During his studies he got to know the German pietist and mystic Johann Friedrich Rock , who occasionally visited his father in Bern, and during his time as vicar he got to know the later founder of Basel Pietism, Hieronymus Annoni .

In 1731 his permission to preach was withdrawn for the first time, among other things because he had distributed the Nuremberg calendar, which, according to the Council of Churches , contained erroneous beliefs; for this he had written a pamphlet in which he described a choir court session against the Pietists in such a way that the Orthodox authorities appeared in a bad light. He then stayed in Zurich and took a ten-year-old girl with him who he said was inspired ; in Zurich in 1733 he was forbidden to preach.

In 1735 he became vicar in Kirchberg , but had to leave the place again because he preached according to the Berleburg Bible , which he passed on to David Tschanz , the later founder of the mystically inclined Heimberger Brüder separatist movement .

On December 23, 1737 he was elected pastor in Bümpliz . After he became pastor in Schwarzenegg in April 1746 , his dismissal took place there on September 1, 1750, because he was accused, among other things, of having missed several funeral sermons, the sick died due to his absence without spiritual assistance and he kept children's teaching with his own Catechism .

After his dismissal, he settled in Bern and tried to earn a living by editing publications.

On December 18, 1755 he was elected country helper in Saanen , but there he verbally attacked another pastor during a sermon, so that he was deposed again on June 27, 1756. He was only allowed to do so because of his erroneous doctrines in his writings still have it printed under the strictest censorship.

Shortly afterwards he served in Germany as a field chaplain in the Imperial Army and became a Prussian prisoner of war during the Seven Years' War , probably in the Battle of Roßbach .

In 1760 he returned to Bern and was given a trial as a vicariate; he was only allowed to vote again on February 27, 1763. The following year he was elected helper in Thun on March 19, 1764 .

Since 1737 he was married to Johanna Katharina (born July 4, 1701 in Bern), daughter of the notary David von Rütte (1663–1731). They had three children together:

• Samuel Theodor Kyburz (born February 24, 1737 in Aarau);
• Maria Henriona Rosina Kyburz (* May 1740 in Bümpliz);
• Anna Margaretha Kyburz (born February 28, 1742 in Bümpliz).

Writing

Abraham Kyburz published numerous writings, some of them plagiarism , which, among other things , dealt with church history, such as the persecution of the Gospels in Austria and the Anabaptists and separatists in Geneva . In his work Newly Explained Virtue and Vice Calendar , he sharply denounced the official church and in The discovered secret of malice in the Brüggler sect he reported in detail on the sectarian activities of the brothers Christian and Hieronymus Kohler (1714-1753) from Brügglen and the execution of the latter, trying to refute their heresy .

Under the pseudonym Tecknophilo Christiano he published the book Die kluge / Vernunft- und Schriftmaessige Kinder-Zucht , in which he dealt with the religious upbringing of the youngest in the community and which marked the beginning of his conflict with the Bernese clergy.

He also wrote, among other things, the six-volume history children's prayer and picture Bible ; the illustrations for this were created by Katharina Sperling (1699–1741), wife of the engraver Hieronymus Sperling (1695–1777), as well as the Theologia naturalis et experimentalis , a song of praise in rhyme to the inhabitants, animals, plants and minerals of the Alpine world.

Fonts (selection)

• Newly explained virtues and vices calendar . Bern 1735.
• History, children, prayer and picture bible, or: the secret of godliness and wickedness .
  • 1st part . Augsburg 1737.
  • 2nd part . Augsburg 1739.
  • 3rd part . Augsburg 1742.
  • 4th part . Augsburg 1746.
  • 5th part . Basel 1758.
  • 6th part . Bern 1763.
• Milch-Speis Before minors and infants, or, briefly and clear instructions for true Christianity: given to the simple ones for the best of affectionate love by a special lover of youth . Bern 1735.
• The most important and most useful work before the common being: namely: The clever, reason and scriptural discipline of children . Bern 1735.
• In eighty-seven praiseworthy and criminal stories, from Job, Ruth, Daniel and those of all the Apocryphic books, together with the appended continuation of the Asmonean and Herodic incidents, except for the birth of the eternal King and High Priest of Jesus,: According to the bitter-edifying teaching method , and communicated along with Kupffer ideas . Augsburg 1742.
• Catechetical Children's Bible, or, Holy Church and Bible Histories . Bern 1744.
• 82 Old Testament histories . Bernstadt, 1744.
• Theologia naturalis et experimentalis: Prepared for the chores, businesses and actions of the inhabitants of the High and Low Swiss Mountains . Bern 1754.
• The secret of malice discovered in the Brüggler sect . Zurich 1754.
• Impartial description of everything that has happened since the year 1752. Up to this day, memorable events with the separatists and Anabaptists in the Canton of Basel and in the Republic of Geneva . 1754.
• Today's persecution of the Evangelicals in the Arch-Duchy of Austria ob der Ens, in Steyermark and Carinthia in Hungary, Litthauen and other regions: Truthfully described from proven documents. 1754.
• The new Schweitzer war, quickly resolved, and quickly subdued: wherever it occurs. A description of the Leviner Valley . 1755.
• Continuation of today's riots, From Separatists and Anabaptists to Basel and Geneva: What else is there a miracle of grace in the conversion of a child murderer, along with other examples of conversion . 1755.
• Brief description of the life of the children of God and the children of the world, drawn up by the Apostolic Brush and in a sermon on Phil. 3, v. Performed 17–21 . Zurich 1756.
• The sixth costume of the third table of the Fruit-Bringing Society, containing a sermon of penance from the earth bid, as of November 1st. and December 9th every now and then . 1756.
• The suffering and dying duke of life . Basel 1759.
• Abraham Kyburzens Preacher Divine Words Four conversations of godliness between a pious mother and her child . Zurich 1760.
• Jesus, the true friend in need: For consolation in life, suffering and death: presented in three sermons about Luc. XI. V. 5-10: Second, third, fourth sermon . Bern 1764.
• The clever house-father .

literature

• Abraham Kyburz in the Bernese Biographies Collection, Volume 4. Bern 1902.
• Abraham Kyburz . In: Stefan Mario Huber: More instructive for the youth . Göttingen 2013.

Web links

• Bernhard Ryter: Abraham Kyburz. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bernese families - persons. Retrieved February 27, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Heimberger Brothers. Retrieved February 28, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Brüggler Rotte. Retrieved February 28, 2020 .