Johann Theodor von Tschesch

Johann Theodor von Tschesch (born March 18, 1595 in Voigtsdorf , Principality of Neisse , † February 22, 1649 in Elbing ) was a German lawyer and mystic .

Life

Johann Theodor von Tschesch came from a noble Silesian family. His parents were Friedrich von Tschesch, Herr auf Krippitz and Dammelwitz , and Helena von Pannwitz . Johann Theodor probably attended the Protestant Latin school in Schweidnitz between 1601 and 1614 . He then studied law in Leipzig , Marburg and Heidelberg . In doing so, he sought contact with Reformed courts. He dedicated his disputation Discursus Academicus De Defensione Extrajudiciali to the councils of the Brieger and Liegnitzer Höfe. After graduation he got a job as 1619/20 advice from the Bohemian (winter) -King Friedrich V. Because of this after the Battle of White Mountain was forced to flee into exile in 1620, sealed Esch lost his job, but rose soon became the Privy Council in the dukes Georg Rudolf von Liegnitz and Johann Christian von Brieg . They sought a renewal of the church.

Tschesch probably wrote the treatise Trewhertzige Memories of the Evangelical Priesthood in Germany between 1626/27 (printed in 1637 without a statement of the author), in which violent criticism of the current ecclesiastical conditions was made and a spiritual rebirth was demanded. Tschesch, who now increasingly immersed himself in the writings of Jakob Böhme and - also under the impression of personal acquaintance with Abraham von Franckenberg and Augustin Fuhrmann - developed into a dogma-critical spiritualist , got into trouble of conscience and gave up his position at court for a short time in 1626 and finally in 1639 . In further publications he intensified his criticism of a purely external Christianity; for this purpose he tried to get the writings of Boehme to be published. After 1641 he stayed in Amsterdam and in 1645 in Hamburg. In 1649 he died in Elbing.

Fonts (selection)

• Double apologia and Christian responsibility to the five blasphemous main points of David Gilberti of Utrecht, in common: Against the person and writings of the dear and highly enlightened man Jacob Bohemia ..., Amsterdam 1676 digitized
• Introduction in the noble Lielien branch ... of the writings of Jacob Boehmens , Amsterdam 1679 Digitized

literature

• Adolf Schimmelpfennig :  Tschesch, Johann Theodor von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 38, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 718 f.
• Tünde Beatrix Karnitscher: The forgotten spiritualist Johann Theodor von Tschesch (1595 - 1649): Investigations and securing evidence of the life and work of a religious nonconformist ( dissertation ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015.
• Tünde Beatrix Karnitscher: Johann Theodor von Tschesch (1595 - 1649) . In: Schlesische Lebensbilder Volume XII, edited by Joachim Bahlcke , Würzburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-929817-08-9 , pp. 71-87.

Web links

• Works by and about Johann Theodor von Tschesch  in the German Digital Library