Edward Millard

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Edward Millard

Edward Millard (born November 21, 1822 in Bath , England , † June 13, 1906 in Wesel ) was an English Baptist clergyman, director of branch offices of the British and Foreign Bible Society and pioneer of the Austrian Baptist movement .

Life

Born in England, Edward Millard grew up in the Netherlands , where he studied pedagogy from 1839 and then worked as a teacher and educator until 1845. In 1846 he came to Elberfeld and got to know an awakening Christianity, under whose influence he made a personal religious decision . Just a year later he joined the British and Foreign Bible Society , which initially appointed him director of its Cologne branch. A short time later he worked in the same position in Berlin and from 1850 in Vienna .

The Austrian authorities initially gave Millard permission to distribute Bibles and religious scriptures. After 18 months, he reported to the Bible Society headquarters in London that 36,000 copies of Biblical scriptures had been distributed and another 25,000 had been printed. Millard opened his house for the worship meetings of a small Baptist group, to which he adhered as soon as he arrived in Vienna. During a service in 1851, the authorities ordered Millard's house to be searched. The Bibles and religious writings found were confiscated and then destroyed. While the worshipers present under arrest presented, Edward Millard and his family were expelled. The British government tried to intervene diplomatically against this deportation decision , but without success. The remaining bibles stored elsewhere were brought to Breslau ( Upper Silesia ) in view of the threatened destruction .

Bibles deposit of the British and Foreign Biblical Society in Vienna

It was not until 1861 that Edward Millard was able to apply for a new entry. In that year the so-called Protestant patent was issued in Austria , which allowed the Protestant population to exercise their religion fairly freely. Since the Baptists were excluded from these freedoms, Millard contacted the church leadership of the Evangelical Church in Austria . In 1864, with the help of the Evangelical Church, Millard succeeded in setting up a new Bible depot across from the Vienna State Opera. Within a few years, the work started by Millard took off. In all parts of the Habsburg monarchy - despite massive resistance from the Roman Catholic Church - branches of the Biblical Society emerged, which took care of the printing and dissemination of the Bibles and translated Bibles and scriptures into the 13 main languages ​​of the Danube Monarchy.

The return of Millard also gave the small Viennese Baptist community new impulses. Under his leadership, the Baptists in Vienna were constituted as a congregation on December 20, 1869, shortly after Johann Gerhard Oncken had stopped in Vienna on his return journey from southern Russia and south-eastern Europe and got to know the Viennese Baptists. Their worship meetings were again held at the Millard couple's home.

After his retirement as director of the Austrian branch office of the Bible Society (1887) Millard went to Wiesbaden and took over the pastoral care of the local Baptist congregation (from 1891 to 1896). He then moved to Wesel and from there accompanied the establishment of the Baptist congregations in Duisburg and Oberhausen until his death in 1906 . In addition to these activities, Millard also took on tasks in the Union of German Baptists .

Edward Millard was married to Diederike Johanna Hoen (1823-1893) from the Netherlands. The marriage had seven children: Henry Edward (1847–1902), Adrian Joseph († 1850), Edward Nathanael Benjafield (1851–1896), Albert (1853–?), Jane Sarah (1854–1939) and Helene Anna ( 1856-1918).

literature

  • The archives of the British and Foreign Bible Society contain 570 letters from Edward Millard.
  • K (arl) Uhl:  Millard Edward. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 6, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-7001-0128-7 , p. 299.
  • Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer: “Reminder sheets from the Baptist congregation in Vienna” for Edward Millard. A source for the early decades of the Austrian Baptists (since 1869) . In: Johann Hirnsperger, Christian Wessely (Ed.): Ways to Salvation? Religious denominations in Austria: Elaia Christengemeinden (ECG) and Islamic Alevi Faith Community in Austria (IAGÖ). With contributions from other religious communities (= theology in cultural dialogue; 7c). Tyrolia, Innsbruck 2014, pp. 115–142.
  • Hartmut Weyel: The future needs a past. History and Theology of the Free Evangelical Congregations . Volume II. Bundesverlag: Witten 2010, pp. 117–119
  • Johannes Fleischer: From the fire in Hamburg to Edward Millard: 1842–87 [originally written in 1938], in: Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer (Ed.): Fresh water on arid land. Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the Federation of Baptist Congregations in Austria , Oncken: Kassel 2005, pp. 14–24, ISBN 3-87939-203-X .
  • Friedrich Heyer: The Oriental Question in the Church's Life Circle: The Effect of the Churches Abroad on the Emancipation of the Orthodox Nations of Southeast Europe 1804 - 1912 . Volume 19 in the series of writings on the intellectual history of Eastern Europe . Verlag Otto Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden 1991. ISBN 3-447-03082-8 . Pp. 18-25
  • Nicholas Railton: No North Sea: The Anglo-German Evangelical Network in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century . Volume 24 in the Studies in Christian Mission series . Verlag Brill: Leiden, Boston, Cologne 1999. ISBN 90-04-11573-0 . P. 162f
  • Joseph Lehmann : History of the German Baptists , Vol. II, Cassel 1922 (Second, completely revised edition by FW Herrmann, Preacher in Königsberg i. Pr.), Short biography p. 295.
  • RS Ashton: Austrian ideas of religious liberty. A statement of facts. Dedicated to the Council of the Evangelical Alliance , Manchester 1882.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joseph Lehmann: History of the German Baptists. Second part from 1848 to 1870 . Second edition completely revised by Preacher FW Herrmann. Verlag von JG Oncken Nachf .: Cassel 1922. p. 295 (short biography Edward Millard)
  2. ^ A b Homepage of the Austrian Bible Society / History ( Memento from January 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ); Retrieved December 12, 2009
  3. ↑ cf. Union of German Baptist Congregations: Journal of Truth Witnesses , Cassel 1906, No. 25, 31, 34.
  4. ↑ [ = edward & s [] = Millard Historical Lexicon of the BEFG / Roland Fleischer: Edward Millard ]; viewed on May 25, 2020
  5. ↑ See: Hartmut Weyel: The future needs an origin. History and Theology of the Free Evangelical Congregations . Volume II. Bundesverlag: Witten 2010, pp. 117–119
  6. ↑ Search for "Millard". In: JANUS . Retrieved May 20, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Millard, Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English Baptist clergyman, director of the Austrian Bible Society
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH Bath , England
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1906
Place of death Wesel