Jonathan Briant

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Jonathan Briant (born August 31, 1726 in Stockholm , † September 1, 1810 in Herrnhut ) was a Moravian . He founded the Moravian Brethren in Christiansfeld .

ancestors

The Briant family originally came from France and settled in Sweden. Well-known name variants are "Bréant" and "Breant". In his archive in Herrnhut, Briant wrote his résumé and noted that his grandfather “fled to Sweden from France because of religion”. It can therefore be assumed that the family belonged to the Huguenots .

The first Brean family member that can be proven in the north was Briants great-grandfather Isak Breant the Elder († 1701). He was a wealthy Stockholm merchant and founded the Iggesunds Bruk ironworks . A son from his first marriage named Isak Breant the Younger with unknown dates inherited his father's company and sold the steelworks, which had been destroyed by fire in 1721. A son from his second marriage named David Breant (1677-1739) served as an officer and was raised to the nobility in 1712 as "de Briant". He left no children when he died.

Isak Breant the younger had three sons. They joined Pietism, which the Orthodox Lutheran state church strongly opposed, but which nevertheless recorded a significant increase in membership in Stockholm in the 1720s. In the 1730s, many members radicalized and preferred radical offshoots who followed mystical traditions. Enlightened by the “inner word”, they completely turned away from the state church.

The son Abraham Breant († 1756) worked as an auditor in the War College and followed the Finnish brothers Jakob and Erik Erikkson. He resigned and moved with Erikkson's followers in 1735 via Copenhagen to the Netherlands and then into exile in northern Germany. Together with his followers he went back to Sweden in 1745. There they set up a small separatist community on the Skevik farm on Värmdö . The son Karl († 1780) chose the same path.

The third son Isak Breant the younger named Johan Breant (1697-1763) and his first wife Anna, nee Huusgafvel, († June 30, 1748), was Jonathan Briants father. In 1722 he was demonstrably giving conventicles in the sense of pietism in Halle. He later turned to radical orientations. In 1733 he hired a student as a private tutor who later temporarily chose a rice hut as a residence as a hermit. Because he was concerned for the salvation of his soul, Johan Breant resigned from the civil service in 1735. Then he sought the proximity of the Moravians, who from around 1740 found great popularity in Stockholm. Briants mother came from a radical pietistic Finnish family and remained true to this belief system until the end of her life.

One of Jonathan Briants' uncle was the civil servant Abraham Isaksson Breant († 1756).

Live and act

Briant noted in his notes that there was an "awakened" piety in his parents' house. The rigorous anti-world hostility of the separatists and the associated disputes about the orientation among the religious minorities on him may also have had a clear influence on his youth. At the age of eight he asked his parents whether he could leave Sweden with the brothers Eriksson and his uncles and go into exile because he suspected that his father and mother would like it. After he had to realize that the group no longer lived in Stockholm, he cried violently and wrote a "lament of an abandoned man", according to Briant in his autobiography.

Where and what Briant studied is not well documented. His handwritten curriculum vitae shows that he undertook “studies”. A degree in theology is listed in the printed version of the autobiography. Following the wishes of his parents, he switched to law over the past two years. However, it is not recorded in the registers of the universities of Uppsala and Lund.

From 1742 Briant worked as a volunteer in the Stockholm Imperial War College and apparently quickly got a permanent position. In the invalids department, one of his colleagues was a “honest mystic” who recommended that he study the works of Madame Guyon and Jacob Boehme . Briant then experienced severe internal unrest, practiced strict ascetic penance rituals and constantly researched his conscience.

Following his father's advice, Briant dealt with the Stockholm residents of Herrnhutern and their writings and songs, accompanied by warnings from his mother. A little later he worked actively in the youth work of the community. In the summer of 1749 he took a four-month vacation with the parishes in Amsterdam , Zeist and Herrnhaag , where he finally wanted to stay permanently. The Swedish state initially did not comply with his request to end his employment relationship, but instead gave him leave of absence for a further year, paying all his salaries.

At the turn of the year 1749/50 Briant became a member of the Brethren Congregation. From 1750 he attended the seminary in Barby and made the acquaintance of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf at a synod of the Brothers Unity . In 1754, Briant helped Zinzendorf's son-in-law Johannes von Watteville to work as a language teacher at the herrnhuter educational institution in Uhyst (Spree) . This moved to Niesky in 1756 and five years later to Großhennersdorf . There he made translations of Zinzendorf's song texts into the Swedish language, which were included in a hymn book published in Reval in 1767.

In the spring of 1762, Briant moved to Copenhagen as a "caretaker for the unmarried brothers" at the brothers' partnership, which had existed there since 1739. From 1764 he also worked as a mission agent and organized the exchange between the Moravian mission branches in Greenland and the Danish West Indies and the authorities in Denmark. He also took care of supplying the houses with food and materials. In 1768/69 he unsuccessfully negotiated the establishment of a mission station on the African Guinean coast , for which the Guinean Company had spoken out. The foundation did not come about due to the early death of the missionaries.

During his time in Copenhagen Briant traveled repeatedly to groups of the Moravians in the Duchy of Schleswig, Skåne and Stockholm. In 1766 he met Christian Günther von Stolberg's widow in Copenhagen, who was pietistic. Her son Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg later wrote the first letters that are documented to Briant. In 1770 Briant took over the leadership of the Brethren's internal mission throughout the Danish state. As part of this so-called “diaspora work”, he was particularly active in Jutland and the Duchy of Schleswig. After getting married, he moved to Flensburg . In the early summer of 1771, Carl August and Johann Friedrich Struensee Briant suggested creating a new Moravian colony. Briant took up the proposal and started the foundation that same year.

Lorenz Prätorius (1708–1781), co-founder of the Copenhagen Brethren, then helped Briant to a position in the Elders 'Conference of the Brothers' Unity in Barby . In 1769 the university had rejected the proposal made by treasurer Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann to Briant to set up a Moravian colony on his Wandsbek estate. However, she now agreed to a renewed wish to found the company. Briant and Johannes Prätorius (1738–1782), who worked in the Gnadau Brethren , took over the management of the project.

In September 1771 Briant and Praetorius bought the Tyrstrup farm , near which many Moravians lived. Praetorius created an extremely liberal concession for the colony, which provided for extensive promotional measures. King Christian VII signed this in December 1771. After the fall of Johann Friedrich Struensee in 1772, the new government did not change the promise in September of the same year. Briant and Praetorius then went to Barby. The Elders' Conference there approved Briant's proposal for the colony's new location. The construction was to be carried out according to Praetorius' plans. Praetorius was ordained a preacher and Briant a parish helper. As such, he and his wife looked after couples and gave Danish sermons. Praetorius preached for German-speaking parishioners.

Briant organized most of the colony establishment and extensive construction work. He lent 9,000 thalers from his father-in-law and received a donation of a further 1,000 thalers from him. With that he acquired the building material. On April 1, 1773, the foundation stone was laid for the first building, which was initially to be used as a church and hall. At the end of August 1773 he was able to move into his own house on Kirchplatz. In 1775 Briant set up two boarding schools for boys and girls. Such facilities, which were not part of the initial concession, turned out to be very successful after a short time. Soon pupils from all over Scandinavia visited the facilities. In addition, Briant maintained contacts with the Danish authorities and the Danish-speaking region.

In 1780, the first construction phase was completed in Tyrstrup. The colony now had large central buildings, workshops and its own synodal community order. Briant would actually have been granted the position of senior pastor of the community for which the conference of elders proposed him. Since the Brothers Unity awarded offices by lottery, he got a different task: he was supposed to lead the entire work of the diaspora in the Scandinavian countries and therefore went back to Copenhagen. In 1783 he was able to ensure that the Moravians there were allowed to hold public meetings. In 1784 he directed the construction of a large meeting house for the community.

From Copenhagen, Briant continued to take care of Herrnhuter in Christiansfeld, whose temporary exemption from customs expired in 1782. Briant managed to extend the privilege for ten years. He also prevented official measures that threatened due to complaints from merchants from Hadersleben , who complained about ruinous competition. In 1784 Briant received a call to the Elders' Conference of the Brothers Unity. Immediately after the inauguration of the meeting house in Copenhagen at the beginning of October 1784, he moved to Herrnhut. At first he worked here in the economic department. In 1789 he moved to the spiritual department for Scandinavian matters. He worked to ensure that Danish sermons were retained in Christiansfeld and that contacts with the Danish surrounding area remained good.

From May to November 1790 Briant visited Christiansfeld again with his wife. Due to increasing health problems, he stopped working for the Brothers Unity in 1801. In 1802 he traveled to Christiansfeld for the last time privately.

family

Briant's first marriage was on November 28, 1770 in Herrnhut Maria Isager (* September 5, 1742 in Ringköbing ; † July 31, 1778 in Christiansfeld). Her father Peter Isager (1709–1778) worked as a merchant in Ringköbing, had owned the Hindsels estate on the Limfjord since 1751 and was married to Margarethe, née Noe (1713–1793). In his second marriage, Briant married on November 15, 1780 in Herrnhut Charlotte Louise von Hermsdorf (* November 1, 1753 - January 10, 1807), who was a widow of Heinrich Adolf Ludwig von Hermsdorf († 1778). She was the daughter of Johann Ludwig von Marschall (1720–1800) and his wife Helene Charlotte, née von Tschirschky (1728–1768). Both marriages remained childless.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Dieter Lohmeier: Briant, Jonathan. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck. Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 71.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Dieter Lohmeier: Briant, Jonathan. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck. Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 72.
  3. ↑ a b c d Dieter Lohmeier: Briant, Jonathan. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck. Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 73
  4. ^ Dieter Lohmeier: Briant, Jonathan. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck. Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, pp. 73–74.
  5. ↑ a b c d Dieter Lohmeier: Briant, Jonathan. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck. Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 74.
  6. ^ A b Dieter Lohmeier: Briant, Jonathan. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck. Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 76.
personal data
SURNAME Briant, Jonathan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Herrnhuter
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1726
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1810
Place of death Herrnhut