Johannes Frey (theologian)

Johannes Frey (1793)

Johannes Frey (born June 16, 1743 in Basel ; † October 2, 1800 ibid) was a Reformed theologian, whose license to teach was revoked after 27 years of service at the grammar school because he had denied students against statements in the Bible .

Life

From pietist to enlightener

“
Consecrated to character development and learning”:
motto above the entrance to
the grammar school on Münsterplatz

He was the oldest child of the turner Johann Jakob Frey (1715–1788) and the midwife Maria Magdalena Pfaff (1720–1779). He earned his theology studies as a private tutor . In order to save college money, he learned autodidactically . In 1764 he converted to pietism . In 1766, like his brother Martin (1751–1819) later, he was a candidate for a pastor's office, but the two never received a pastor's or professor's position. As a result, Frey joined the Basel councilor and historical philosopher Isaak Iselin (1728–1782) and became a supporter of the Enlightenment . In 1769 he published an attempt at catechetical instruction in natural religion . In 1771 lessons in revealed religion followed . In it he wrote that the principles of Christ's teaching were consistent with natural religion. In 1773 he became a teacher of the lowest class (Sexta) at the grammar school. In 1774 he married the orphan Anna Margaretha Faesch (1748–1807).

Frey was one of the first members of the Society founded by Iselin in 1777 for the promotion and encouragement of the good and the common good . He answered two of the prize questions advertised by them: his essay On Poverty, Betteley and Charity, in which he pointed to the dark side of the Ancien Régime such as guild compulsory and buying offices , won first prize. It is uncertain whether his price specification on the subject of dress codes was also printed. As a part-time job , Frey taught morals at the School for Poor Maids, which ran the encouragement society . His resignation from this (1780) is probably due to the fact that he was offensive as a scout and found no support from the sick Iselin. Now he founded a private summer school. He waived tuition fees for those with no means of funding.

First conviction

In his instruction to happiness according to the pure teaching of Christ (1782) Frey radicalized the doctrine of happiness of Christianity by Gotthilf Samuel Steinbarth (1738-1809). The censors forbade the printing of the script, but a second version was published in 1784 under the title Allgemeine Glückseligkeitslehre . Frey was probably the author of anonymous letters to the mayors and the chief guild master of Basel, in which in 1786 a “pure religion of reason ” was demanded. Nature, not the Bible ("a collection of human writings") teaches the truth; Original sin , the devil and hell are "phantasms of simple-minded church leaders". With the missing essay Complete Message from the Education System in Basel , Frey won the award that Karl Viktor von Bonstetten (1745–1832) donated at the annual meeting of the Helvetic Society . The award was delayed until 1788 because city clerk Andreas Merian (1742–1811) and Dreierherr Johann Friedrich Münch (1729–1808) presented to the Society's commission that "writing overturns all religion". In 1787 Frey is said to have said to his students, "There is no pastor who does not pretend lies and deceit in the pulpit". In the same year he was a founding member of the General Reading Society , which was led by Iselin's successor Peter Ochs (1752-1821), and soon afterwards their librarian.

Frey's Sermon on the Enlightenment (July 21, 1789)

In addition to his teaching activities, Frey also worked as a preacher. A week after the storming of the Bastille (July 14, 1789) - the French Revolution also had religious roots - he gave a sermon on the Enlightenment. In it he referred to Jesus as an enlightener and theologians hostile to the enlightenment as "spiritual dictators" who sold the people for stupid in order to be able to rule and exploit them. In disregard of an order of the church convention, he had the sermon mentioned printed. The convention then forbade him to sit in the pulpit. In a selection of the teachings and deeds of Jesus (1790), Frey again presented Jesus as an enlightener. Church superiors, Orthodox and Pietists, whom he equated with the high priests , scribes and Pharisees of the Bible, ran a storm against the Scriptures. Pastor Johann Rudolf Burckhardt (1738–1820) seems to have orchestrated this. From Zurich, Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) provided the protesters with rifle aid . As a result of a decision by the Small Council , Frey was no longer allowed to give religious instruction. When he fell ill and crawled to the cross, the council overturned this judgment in 1791. But he had the incriminated writing burned.

Second conviction

Liberty Tree on Münsterplatz (January 22, 1798)

Frey and his brother Martin were among the patriots (comparable to the French Jacobins ) who met in the Rheineck-Kämmerlein from 1797 . When the freedom tree was planted in 1798 , Mrs. Frey's nephew Pastor Johann Jakob Faesch preached the sermon in the cathedral. Frey's mentioned brother, a private teacher by profession, was elected to the provisional national assembly of the canton of Basel and to its education committee, the forerunner of the education council. In the year of the Helvetic Revolution, Frey published a catechism-like world history. End of 1799 he demanded in a letter to the Minister of Science and Arts of the Helvetic Republic , the former theology professor Philipp Albert Stapfer (1766-1840), the separation of church and state , the removal of the minister from the teaching staff, the abolition of religious education at public schools and the replacement of Latin and Greek with more contemporary subjects.

Once in the Helvetic Republic, the Republicans (like the French Girondists ) the Patriots from power coup , had complained in February 1800 five fathers with Johann Heinrich Wieland (1758-1838), the managing chamber and the Education of the Canton of Basel presided. They accused Frey of having made blasphemous statements in a history lesson with a strange class (Quarta) . Among other things, he told the high school students that Balaam's donkey never spoke. The complaint was probably organized by Pastor Burckhardt. The Administrative Chamber then withdrew Frey's license to teach after 27 years of service and also charged him with the salary of a vicar . The reprimanded turned to Stapfer for help. Although the latter found that Frey had acted in a "fit of carelessness", he intervened in his favor. On his orders, Basel's public prosecutor Johann Michael Gysendörfer (1766–1809) published a defense for the convicted.

The triumph of the donkey

Le triomphe des ânes
sur le sens commun: caricature

A stranger had previously made the Frey case the subject of a French-language satire , which was dismissed by the Republicans as a “tasteless piece”. Its title is in German: The Triumph of Donkeys Over Common Sense or Minutes of the really extraordinary meeting that took place in Basel and at which the citizen Johannes F., public teacher, was condemned for daring to tell seven-year-old children, Balaam Donkey never spoke. The title page shows a meeting of long-eared judges. In the text it is said that a theological congress of donkeys met in Basel and constituted it as the highest inquisition court in order to define the indefinable, to obscure the clear, to recommend the useless and to declare complete nonsense to be sublime. By trying to condemn the accused to be crucified, the donkeys put him on a par with Jesus. A doctor called Diafoirus , like the charlatan in Molière's conceited patient , offers to dispose of the donkey's enemies with poison. The theologian Théocroque recommends poisoning public opinion instead. Wieland appears as Biturix (Girondist), who presides over the donkey congress and signs the condemnation judgment against Frey. The printing location Basel appears as Onopolis (donkey town), the printer as Martin-Bâton (donkey driver).

Victim of a poison attack?

Johannes Merian: grave inscription
for his friend Frey

Wieland would have liked to become governor of the Canton of Basel. But his actions against Frey had discredited him, which is why the writer Heinrich Zschokke (1771-1848) was appointed in his place . Frey collected material for a book about heretic trials that had taken place in Basel in the 18th century. He died within nine days of "constipation in the abdomen - perhaps entanglement of the intestines". Basel's patriots carried him to the grave like a martyr . On the coffin lay a civic crown . After the funeral, Frey's friend Johannes Merian (1772–1805) wrote to his father: “Licentiat Gysendörfer is also fatally ill and, like Frey, suffers from constipation; if he dies too, it is said that it is a punishment from God. ”The simultaneous illness of Frey and his defender involuntarily suggests the figure of Diafoirus in the triumph of the donkey , but of course nothing is proven.

Posthumous rehabilitation

At the request of Stapfer's successor, Johann Melchior Mohr (1762–1846), the Executive Council of the Helvetic Republic canceled Frey's dismissal in early 1801. He also decreed: "The administrative chamber and the Education Council of Basel, who have committed striking irregularities in the procedure in this business, the displeasure of the government should be shown in the most serious way."

The opponents of the Helvetic Revolution generally used religion as a weapon. Other victims of heretic persecution were the Pestalozzians Kaspar David Hardmeyer (1772–1832) and Andreas Moser (1766–1806) because of their deism . Hardmeyer was forced to resign from the Zurich church service in 1800, and canton school teacher Moser was expelled from Aarau under threats of death in the run-up to the Stecklikkrieg (1802) . Their opponents, pastors Johann Jakob Schweizer (1771–1843) and Johann Jakob Pfleger (1746–1819), were like Burckhardt aristocrats ( reactionaries ).

Works

• Quædam observationes de eloquentia sacra (...) Basileæ 1766.
• Miscellaneæ in scriptorum græcorum nonnullos observationes (…) Basileæ 1768.
• Attempting catechetical instruction in natural religion for a reflective age. Basel 1769.
• Lessons in the revealed religion (...) Basel 1771.
• Report of the moral teacher of the near school in the Mehrer Stadt. In: History of the society for the promotion and encouragement of the good and non-profit Basel. First decade from 1777–1786. Continuation of the story of the encouraging society through the year 1780. Basel 1780, pp. 12–15.
• Frank thoughts to answer the questions (…) In: Ueber Armuth, Betteley and Charity. Collection of some writings received from the Aufmunterungsgesellschaft in Basel, in 1779, Basel 1780, pp. 1–38.
• General doctrine of happiness. Basel 1784.
• Philosophy of a man. A counterpart to a woman's philosophy. From an observer. Basel 1785. (With the exception of the title page lost.)
• A sermon on the Enlightenment. (Basel) 1789. (held at St. Leonhard, July 21, 1789.)
• Selection of the teachings and deeds of Jesus. Basel 1790.
• General history of nations. Textbook for boys aged 7–9. Basel 1798. (Bibliothèque de l'Université de Genève, Uni Bastions, SHAG S 27/2.)
• To the parents of my students! Basel (1800). (State Archives Basel-Stadt, Church Archives N 25.)
• Geography textbook. Reworked and improved by Joh. Heinrich Kölner. Basel 1802.

Sources and representations

• Le triomphe des ânes sur le sens commun (ou procès-verbal de la séance vraiment extraordinaire qui vient d'avoir lieu à Bâle, et dans laquelle le citoyen Jean F ***, instituteur public, a été condamné pour avoir osé dire à des enfans de sept ans que l'ânesse de Balaam n'avoit jamais parlé). Onopolis (1800), doi : 10.3931 / e-rara-23597 .
• (Johann Michael) Gysendörffer: Defense of the citizen M (agister) Johannes Frey, S (ancti) M (inisterii) C (andidatus), teacher at the local high school, on the occasion of one of five fathers about his teachings at the local education council, submitted a complaint by order of the Minister of Arts and Sciences of the Helvetian Republic. Basel, August 21, 1800.
• (Johannes Merian :) Stand speech given at the funeral of the citizen Johannes Frey teacher at the grammar school in Basel on October 5th, 1800. Sent by a friend. Basel.
• Suum cuique. Resolution of the Executive Council of the one and indivisible helvet. Republic, concerning the trial of the citizen Johannes Frey, former teacher at the grammar school in Basel. Bern, January 7, 1801.
• Rudolf Kündig: A spiritual process in the Basel church a hundred years ago. In: Church Gazette for Reformed Switzerland, Bern 1891, No. 5-50.
• Paul Burckhardt : Heretic trials in the old Basel state church. In: Sunday newspaper of Basler Nachrichten, Basel 1910, No. 6-8.
• Paul Wernle (editor): From the papers of a pietist and enlightener. In: Basler Jahrbuch, 1911, pp. 1–34.
• Wilhelm Merian (editor): Letters from the Helvetic. in: Basler Jahrbuch, 1919, pp. 249-287, 1920, pp. 195-252, 1921, pp. 178-211.
• Paul Wernle: Swiss Protestantism in the XVIII. Century. Volume 1, Tübingen 1923, pp. 36, 86, 530, Volume 2, Tübingen 1924, pp. 302, 353, 366, 392, 398 / note. 1, 590 f., Volume 3, Tübingen 1925, pp. 50, 107 f., 277, 430.
• Same thing: Swiss Protestantism in the Helvetic era. 1. Part, Zurich / Leipzig 1938, pp. 15, 191 (describes Frey as “ enfant terrible of the Basel Enlightenment”), 194, 227, 306, 448 (accuses Frey of “immature radicalism”).
• Sandra Gabriella Kobelt (-Walker): Nonconformist in the pillory. The development of Johannes Frey from Pietist to supporter of the revolution 1743–1800. Diss. Phil. Basel 1997, Bern 1998.
• Georg Pfleiderer: Johannes Frey - Pietist and enlightener. In: Thirty, sixty, hundredfold. Basel sermons from six centuries. Edited by Katrin Kusmierz et al., Zurich 2004, pp. 87–93.
• Sandra Kobelt: Frey, Johannes. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

References and comments

1. ↑ Bonaparte's uncle Cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763–1839) came from the same Basel family . Four of Frey's five children died young. Johann Jakob (* 1775), on the other hand, survived his parents. In 1789 he was sent to Vevey for commercial training. When his father died he was serving in the arms of the Helvetic Republic.
2. ^ System of the pure philosophy or doctrine of happiness of Christianity. Züllichau 1778.
3. ↑ Kobelt (1998), pp. 166-173, citations: p. 169.
4. ↑ Frey's formulation, quoted from Wernle (1911), p. 17. The Basel Church Convention found the motto of the article Only truth makes free to be heretical.
5. ↑ Kobelt (1998), p. 152.
6. ^ Compare Dale K. Van Kley: The Religious Origins of the French Revolution. New Haven (Connecticut) / London 1996.
7. ↑ Frey (1789), p. 14.
8. ↑ So he wrote on p. 64: "(...) how much would the Enlightenment (...) have gained if Jesus had lived longer, only thirty years longer?"
9. ↑ Kobelt (1998), p. 165 f.
10. ↑ In the two months of its existence, the committee carried out a more comprehensive inquiry into education than that of Stapfer's 1799.
11. ^ A geography teaching aid written by Frey for learning by heart (lost) was later revised by Johann Heinrich Kölner.
12. ^ The Helvetic Republic took over the state church of the Old Confederation . Article 6 of their Constitution stated: “ Freedom of conscience is unrestricted; however, the public expression of religious opinions must be subordinate to the sentiments of unity and peace. "
13. ↑ Coup of January 8, 1800 . Bonaparte had previously declared the French Revolution to be over.
14. ↑ Kobelt (1998), p. 166, 219 f.
15. ^ Ibid, p. 223.
16. ↑ The New Swiss Republican. Edited by Escher and Usteri . June 11, 1800, p. 120.
17. ↑ In reality, the third graders in question were 10 to 13 years old.
18. ↑ The ancient Biturigians lived in the area that would later become the Gironde department .
19. ↑ Probably the patriot Samuel Flick.
20. ↑ Merian, p. 7. ( Manen : Spirits of the Dead . Clerisey : Geistlichkeit.)
21. ^ Werner Ort: Heinrich Zschokke 1771–1848. A biography. Baden 2013, p. 337 f.
22. ↑ Merian (1800), p. 5.
23. ^ Head of the subordinate's office Johannes Faesch (1760-1815).
24. ↑ Merian (1920), p. 221.
25. ↑ An autopsy of the corpse does not seem to have taken place.
26. ↑ Suum cuique.
27. ^ After Zschokke's resignation in the same year, Wieland became governor of the government, and in 1802 even finance minister of the Helvetic Republic. 1812-1832 he was mayor of Basel. His restorative policy contributed to the breakup of the Canton of Basel into two half-cantons (1833).
28. ↑ A widespread slogan was - here in a hexameter version:
    "Our tree of freedom is Jesus Christ on the cross
    And we only bend our knees in front of his holy image!"
    (Johann Jakob Schweizer: Werner von Stanz. 1st half, Winterthur 1802, p 204)
    The Schwyz Capuchin Father Paul Styger (1764–1824) and the Hermit Pastor Marian Herzog (1758–1828) even led troops into the field.
29. ↑ Both Swiss and Pfleger did not shy away from equating their respective opponents with the Antichrist from the Apocalypse .
30. ↑ ( Marianne Ehrmann :) Philosophy of a woman. From an observer. In 1784.