Christian Francken

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Christian Francken (* 1550 in Gardelegen ; † 1611 in Rome ) was a German Jesuit and later Unitarian theologian and writer .

life and work

Francken came from Gardelegen in the Altmark . His parents were oriented towards the Reformation, but soon turned back to the Catholic Church . Francken later became a professor at the Jesuit School in Vienna.

However, he gave up this position in 1577 and turned to the Reformation side. In 1580 he switched to teaching at the University of Altdorf . Initially a Lutheran , he professed Unitarianism from around 1583 . He published Reformation writings in Basel and La Rochelle . In 1584 he became principal of the school in Chmielnik, Poland .

From there, Francken was also involved in the internal church dispute between the Polish Brothers and took sides with Szymon Budny's non- adorant position . His debate with Faustus Socinus on March 14, 1583 became particularly well known. He later moved to Transylvania , where he was accepted at the court of Johannes Gerendi in Neusatz (Hungarian: Aranyosgerend ), who could also be counted among the Nonadoranten and later one of the founders of the Sabbatarians should be. In 1587, Franken also stayed for a short time in Prague , where he introduced the English mathematician John Dee to the ideas of Unitarianism. In 1588 he traveled back to Transylvania and stayed in Kisvárdo with the nobleman István Szakolyi , with whom he read the writings of Marsilio Ficino . In 1590 he finally became a lecturer at the College of Transylvanian Unitarians in Cluj-Napoca . Here he met Franz David , Johannes Sommer (1542–1574) and Jacob Palaeologus, among others .

In his last years, Francken traveled to Italy, among other places, where he is said to have been arrested by the Inquisition and later converted back to Catholicism.

literature

  • Andreas Räß : Christian Franken. Man of letters and philosopher. 1595 . In: ders .: The convertites since the Reformation according to their lives and from their writings , Vol. III From 1590–1601 . KM Hoffmann, Colmar / Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 1866, pp. 295–307 ( Google Books )
  • József Simon: Christian Francken's philosophy of religion 1552 - 1610? : Atheism and Radical Reformation in Early Modern East Central Europe, Wiesbaden, 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05771-4
  • Katrin Keller, Petr Maťa, Martin Scheutz: Nobility and Religion in the Early Modern Habsburg Monarchy , Institute for Austrian Historical Research, ISSN 1012-5752, Volume 68, Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-205-20390-2 , p. 27
  • Siegfried Wollgast: Philosophy in Germany between Reformation and Enlightenment 1550–1650 , Walter de Gruyter 2016, ISBN 978-3-050-06835-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Katrin Keller, Petr Maťa, Martin Scheutz: Nobility and Religion in the Early Modern Habsburg Monarchy , Institute for Austrian Historical Research, ISSN 1012-5752, Volume 68, Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-205-20390-2 , p. 27
personal data
SURNAME Francken, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Jesuit and later Unitarian theologian and writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1550
PLACE OF BIRTH Guards
DATE OF DEATH 1611
Place of death Rome