Jean de Labadie

Jean de Labadie

Jean de Labadie (born February 13, 1610 near Bourg near Bordeaux , † February 13, 1674 in Altona ) was a mystical Jesuit , converted to the Reformed Church and became a Pietist separatist .

Life

Jean de Labadie studied as a young man in French Jesuit colleges and entered this order. Soon he left the order in 1639 at his own request, allegedly for health reasons. Shortly before he had been ordained a priest. Already during his student days he had mystical experiences that led him to believe that he should perform an important task in the service of the kingdom of God . For the next ten years he served as an itinerant preacher.

On October 16, 1650, he converted to the Reformed Church. In Montauban he was employed as a preacher in 1652 and worked at the local Reformed Academy. After he was exiled there, he took over the same office in Orange in 1657 and in Geneva in 1659 . Here an enthusiastic circle of supporters gathered around him. He held special meetings, similar to the conventicles of the Dutch Nadere Reformatie . He regarded this circle as a true church based on the model of early Christianity . Also, Philipp Jakob Spener , the founder of pietism in the Lutheran Church in Germany, one of his sermons listeners and was influenced by him. His prophetic claim and his deviations from Reformed orthodoxy also aroused opposition, especially his chiliastic views . Labadie was hailed as the second Calvin by his admirers . So one tried to keep him in Geneva when he got an appointment to Middelburg in Zeeland in 1666 . Labadie, however, accepted this calling.

In the Netherlands, too, his work received very different responses. In addition to the many followers he won at his new place of work, other representatives of the Nadere Reformatie criticized him. His goal in Middelburg was the same as in Geneva: to create the true Church of the born again within the existing Church.

Through his writing activity he was able to spread his ideas widely. Most of the time he wrote in French. His works have been translated into Dutch, some also into German. For a Christian life in following Jesus, the rejection of the world was particularly important to him. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit got a central position in his thoughts, also in the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures. When his Utrecht colleague Louis Wolzogen a practical rational interpretation of Scripture propagated protested violently Labadie. According to Wolzüge, the Holy Spirit speaks only in the Holy Scriptures. For him, Labadies is enthusiastic about the fact that he also speaks outside of scripture. In the dispute with Labadie, the Walloon Synod sided with Wolzogen and suspended Labadie. In 1669 he was finally deposed and expelled from the country for fear of unrest.

He and his followers found acceptance in Amsterdam , where the group formed a free house church. His separation from the Reformed Church finally alienated the followers of the Nadere Reformatie from Labadie.

Through the mediation of Anna Maria von Schürmann , who had joined the Labadists, the group emigrated to Herford and, when an edict of the Reich Chamber of Commerce expelled him from there in 1672 , to Bremen and finally to Altona, where Labadie died in 1674. In the same year the community returned to the Netherlands, where it continued in Wieuwerd in West Friesland as a “reformed and secluded community” until the 18th century. An important defender of the Labadist community and its theology was Pierre Yvon (1646–1707).

His followers, the Labadists , hardly deviated outwardly from the teaching of the Reformed Church, but oriented themselves to a Catholic- monastic ideal and lived in community of goods from their own manual labor. The learned Anna Maria von Schürmann stood out among Labadie's followers. Maria Sibylla Merian also lived for a time in the community of Labadists.

Works

• Introduction à la piété dans les Mystères, Paroles et ceremonies de la Messe , Amiens, 1642.
• Odes sacrées sur le Très-adorable et auguste Mystère du S. Sacrement de l'Autel , Amiens, 1642.
• Traité de la Solitude chrestienne, ou la vie retirée du siècle , Paris, 1645.
• Declaration de Jean de Labadie, cy-devant prestre, predicateur et chanoine d'Amiens, contenant les raisons qui l'ont obligé à quitter la communion de l'Église Romaine pour se ranger à celle de l'Église Réformée , Montauban, 1650.
• Lettre de Jean de Labadie à ses amis de la Communion Romaine touchant sa Declaration , Montauban, 1651.
• Les Elevations d'esprit à Dieu, ou Contemplations fort instruisantes sur les plus grands Mysteres de la Foy , Montauban, 1651.
• Les Entretiens d'esprit durant le jour; ou Reflexions importantes sur la vie humaine, ... sur le Christianisme, ... sur le besoin de la Reformation de ses Moeurs , Montauban, 1651.
• Le Bon Usage de l'Eucharistie , Montauban, 1656.
• Practique des Oraisons, mental et vocale ... , Montauban, 1656.
• Recueil de quelques Maximes importantes de Doctrine, de Conduite et de Pieté Chrestienne , Montauban, 1657 (puis Genève, 1659).
• Les Saintes Décades de Quatrains de Pieté Chretienne touchant à la connoissance de Dieu, son honneur, son amour et l'union de l'âme avec lui , Orange, 1658 (Geneva, 1659, Amsterdam, 1671).
• La pratique de l'oraison et meditation Chretienne , Geneva, 1660.
• Le Iûne religieus ou le moyen de le bien faire , Geneva, 1665.
• Jugement charitable et juste sur l'état present des Juifs , Amsterdam 1667.
• Le Triomphe de l'Eucharistie, ou la vraye doctrine du St. Sacrement, avec les moyens d'y bien participer , Amsterdam, 1667.
• Le Héraut du Grand Roy Jesus, ou Eclaircissement de la doctrine de Jean de Labadie, pasteur, sur le Règne glorieux de Jésus-Christ et de ses saints en la terre aux derniers temps , Amsterdam, 1667.
• L'Idée d'un bon pasteur et d'une bonne Eglise , Amsterdam, 1667.
• Les Divins Herauts de la Penitence au Monde ... , Amsterdam, 1667.
• La Reformation de l'Eglise par le Pastorat , Middelburg, 1667.
• Le Veritable Exorcisme , Amsterdam, 1667.
• Le Discernement d'une Veritable Eglise suivant l'Écriture Sainte , Amsterdam, 1668.
• La Puissance eclesiastique bornée à l'Écriture et par Elle ... , Amsterdam, 1668.
• Manuel de Pieté , Middelburg 1668.
• Declaration Chrestienne et sincère de plusieurs Membres de l'Eglise de Dieu et de Jésus-Christ touchant les Justes Raisons et les Motifs qui les obligent à n'avoir point de Communion avec le synode dit Vualon , La Haye, 1669.
• Points fondamentaux de la vie vraimant Chretiene , Amsterdam 1670.
• Abrégé du Veritable Christianisme et Téoretique et pratique ... , Amsterdam, 1670.
• Le Chant Royal du Grand Roy Jésus, ou les Hymnes et Cantiques de l'Aigneau ... , Amsterdam, 1670.
• Receüil de diverse Chansons Spiritüeles , Amsterdam, 1670.
• L'Empire du S. Esprit sur les Ames ... , Amsterdam, 1671.
• Eclaircissement ou Declaration de la Foy et de la pureté des sentimens en la doctrine des Srs. Jean de Labadie, Pierre Yvon, Pierre Dulignon ... , Amsterdam, 1671.
• Veritas sui vindex, seu solemnis fidei declaratio ... , Herfordiae, 1672.
• Jesus revelé de nouveau ... , Altona, 1673.
• Fragmens de quelques poesies et sentimens d'esprit ... , Amsterdam, 1678.
• Poésies sacrées de l'amour divin , Amsterdam, 1680.
• Recueil de Cantiques spirituels , Amsterdam, 1680.
• Le Chretien regeneré ou nul , Amsterdam, 1685.

literature

• Johannes van den Berg: The piety strivings in the Netherlands. In: Martin Brecht (ed.): History of Pietism Vol. 1. Pietism from the seventeenth to the early eighteenth century . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993, ISBN 3525553439 , pp. 57-112.
• Michel de Certeau : La Fable mystique: XVIe – XVIIe siècle. Paris, 1987.
• Fabrizio Frigerio: L'historiographie de Jean de Labadie, Etat de la question , Genève, 1976.
• Fabrizio Frigerio: La poesia di Jean de Labadie e la mistica quietista. In: Conoscenza religiosa 1978, 1, pp. 60-66.
• Wilhelm Goeters : The preparation of Pietism in the Reformed Church of the Netherlands up to the Labadist crisis in 1670. Leipzig 1911.
• Aart de Groot: Jean de Labadie. In: Gestalten der Kirchengeschichte Vol. 7. Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne, Mainz 1982, pp. 191–204.
• Cornelis B. Hylkema: Reformers. Divorced studiën over de godsdienstige Fahrt uit de nadagen onzer gouden eeuw. Haarlem, 1900-1902.
• Leszek Kołakowski : Chrétiens sans Eglise, La Conscience religieuse et le lien confessionnel au XVIIe siècle. Paris, 1969.
• Alain Joblin: Jean de Labadie (1610–1674): un dissident au XVIIe siècle? In: Mélanges de sciences religieuses. 2004, vol. 61, n.2, pp. 33-44.
• Anne Lagny (Ed.): Les piétismes à l'âge classique. Crise, conversion, institutions. Villeneuve-d'Ascq, 2001.
• Johannes Lindeboom: Stepchildren van het christendom. La Haye, 1929.
• Georges Poulet : Les métamorphoses du cercle. Paris, 1961.
• Jean Rousset : Un brelan d'oubliés. In: L'esprit créateur , 1961, t. 1, pp. 61-100.
• Trevor John Saxby: The quest for the new Jerusalem, Jean de Labadie and the Labadists, 1610-1744. Dordrecht-Boston-Lancaster, 1987.
• M. Smits van Waasberghe: Het ontslag van Jean de Labadie uit de Societeit van Jezus. In: Ons geestelijk erf , 1952, pp. 23-49.
• Paul Tschackert :  Labadie, Jean de . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, p. 462 f.
• Daniel Vidal: Jean de Labadie (1610-1674). Passion mystique et esprit de Réforme. Grenoble, 2009.
• H. Van Berkum: De Labadie en de Labadisten, eene bladzijde uit de geschiedenis der Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk. Sneek 1851.
• Beate Köster:  Labadie, Jean de. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 4, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-038-7 , Sp. 905-907.

Web links

Commons : Jean de Labadie  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Publications by and about Jean de Labadie in VD 17 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jacob Cornelis van Slee :  Wolzo, Ludwig . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 44, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, pp. 205 f.