Sebastian Franck (January 20, 1499 – c. 1543) was a 16th century German freethinker, humanist, and radical reformer. January 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1499 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events February 21 - Battle of Wayna Daga - A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeat the armies of Adal led by Ahmed Gragn. ... See also the specific life stance known as Humanism For the Renaissance liberal arts movement, see Renaissance humanism Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appeal to universal human qualities...

Franck was born about 1499 at Donauwörth, Bavaria. Because of this he styled himself Franck von Word. He entered the University of Ingolstadt on March 26, 1515, and afterwards went to Bethlehem College, incorporated with the university, as an institution of the Dominicans at Heidelberg. Here he met Martin Bucer and Martin Frecht, with whom he probably attended the Augsburg conference in October 1518. Known as Nordschwabens freundliche Mitte (North Swabias Friendly Center), Donauwörth is a city in the German State of Bavaria (Bayern), in the region of Swabia (Schwabenland). ... For other uses, see Bavaria (disambiguation). ... The University of Ingolstadt was founded in 1472 by Louis the Rich, the Duke of Bavaria at the time, and its first Chancellor was the Bishop of Eichstätt. ... March 26 is the 85th day of the year (86th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1515 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ... Martin Bucer Martin Bucer (or Butzer, Latin Martinus Buccer, Martinus Bucerus ) (November 11, 1491 – February 28, 1551) was a German Protestant reformer. ... For other meanings for Augsburg: See Augsburg (disambiguation) , Augsburg is a city in south-central Germany. ...

Originally ordained as a priest, in 1525 Franck went over to the Reformed party at Nuremberg and became preacher at Gustenfelden. His first work was a German translation (with additions) of the first part of the Diallage (or Conciliatio locorum Scripturae), directed against Sacramentarians and Anabaptists by Andrew Althamer, then deacon of St. Sebalds at Nuremberg. On March 17, 1528 he married a gifted lady, whose brothers, pupils of Albrecht Dürer, had got into trouble through Anabaptist tendencies. In the same year he wrote a treatise against drunkenness. In 1529 he produced a free version of the Supplycacyon of the Beggers, written abroad by Simon Fish. Franck, in his preface, says the original was in English; elsewhere he says it was in Latin; the theory that his German was really the original is not warranted. The Reformed churches are a group of Protestant denominations historically related by a similar Zwinglian or Calvinist system of doctrine but organizationally independent. ... “Nürnberg” redirects here. ... Anabaptists (Greek ανα (again) +βαπτιζω (baptize), thus, re-baptizers[1], German: Wiedertäufer) are Christians of the Radical Reformation. ... is the 76th day of the year (77th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events June 19 - Battle of Landriano - A French army in Italy under Marshal St. ... Albrecht Dürer (pronounced /al. ... For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ...

Advance in his religious ideas led him to seek the freer atmosphere of Strassburg in the autumn of 1529. To his translation (1530) of a Latin Chronicle and Description of Turkey (Turkenchronik), by a Transylvanian captive, which had been prefaced by Luther, he added an appendix holding up the Turk as in many respects an example to Christians. He also substituted, in lieu of the restrictions of Lutheran, Zwinglian and Anabaptist sects, the vision of an invisible spiritual church, universal in its scope. To this ideal he remained faithful. At Strassburg began his friendship with Kaspar Schwenkfeld. Here he also published, in 1531, his most important work, the Chronica, Zeitbuch und Geschichtsbibel, largely a compilation on the basis of the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), and in its treatment of social and religious questions connected with the Reformation. In it he exhibited a strong sympathy with "heretics" and fairness to all kinds of freedom in opinion. As a German historian, he is a forerunner of Gottfried Arnold. Driven from Strassburg by the authorities, after a short imprisonment in December 1531, he tried to make a living in 1532 as a soapboiler at Esslingen, removing in 1533 for a better market to Ulm, where on October 28, 1534 he was admitted as a burgess. Strasbourg townscape Strasbourg (German Straßburg, road to castle, Alsatian Strossburi) is the capital and principal city of the Alsace région of northeastern France. ... Kaspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig (1490-1561) was a Silesian nobleman who became a Christian Reformer and spiritualist. ... Strasbourg townscape Strasbourg (German Straßburg, road to castle, Alsatian Strossburi) is the capital and principal city of the Alsace région of northeastern France. ... Alternate use: Esslingen, Switzerland Esslingen is a city in the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, capital of the district of Esslingen. ... For other uses, see Ulm (disambiguation). ... is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1534 (MDXXXIV) was a common year in the 16th century. ...

His Weltbuch, a supplement to his Chronica, was printed at Tubingen in 1534. His publication, in the same year, of the Paradoxa brought him into trouble with the authorities. An order for his banishment was withdrawn on his promise to submit future works for censure. Not interpreting this as applying to works printed outside Ulm, he published in 1538 at Augsburg his Guldin Arch and at Frankfort his Germaniae chronicon, with the result that he had to leave Ulm in January 1539. He seems to have had no settled abode from that time. At Basel he found work as a printer, and it was probably there that he died in the winter of 1542–1543. He had published in 1539 his Kriegbuchlein des Friedens, his Schrifftliche und ganz grundliche Auslegung des 64 Psalms, and his Das verbutschierte mit sieben Siegein verschlossene Buch (a biblical index, exhibiting the dissonance of Scripture). In 1541 he published his Spruchwörter (a collection of proverbs). In 1542 he issued a new edition of his Paradoxa and some smaller works.

Franck combined the humanist's passion for freedom with the mystic's devotion to the religion of the spirit. Luther contemptuously dismissed him as a mouthpiece of the devil. Martin Frecht of Nuremberg pursued him with bitter zeal. But his courage did not fail him, and in his last year, in a public Latin letter, he exhorted his friend Johann Campanus to maintain freedom of thought in face of the charge of heresy. Franck came to believe that God communicates with individuals through a portion of the divine remaining in each human being. He came to dismiss the human institution of the church, and believed that theology could not properly claim to give expression to this inner word of God in the heart of the believer. For example, Franck wrote, "To substitute Scripture for the self-revealing Spirit is to put the dead letter in the place of the living Word..." Johann Campanus (also Johannes Campanus) was an Flemish Anabaptist religious reformer of the sixteenth century. ...

Writings

• Autobiographical Letter to Johann Campanus (1531)
• Weltbuch (1534)
• Chronicle of Germany (1538)
• Golden Arch (1538)
• A Universal Chronicle of the World's History from the Earliest Times to the Present
• Book of the Ages
• Chronicle and Description of Turkey
• Paradoxa (1534)
• Preface and Translation into German of Althamer's Diallage
• Seven Sealed Book (1539)
• The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
• Translation with Additions of Erasmus' Praise of Folly
• The Vanity of Arts and Sciences

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition article "Sebastian Franck", a publication now in the public domain.
• 280 Paradoxes or Wondrous Sayings, by Sebastian Franck ISBN 0-88946-814-1
• Sebastian Franck (1499–1542), ISBN 3-447-03454-8
• Sebastian Franck von Word, by C. A. Hase

Encyclopædia Britannica, the eleventh edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

External links

• Sebastian Franck in Strasbourg — by Geoffrey Dipple