A HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES. BY K. R. HAGENBACH, D.D., PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BASLE TRANSLATED FROM THE LAST GERMAN EDITION, WITH BY REV. JOHN F. HURST, D.D. VOLUME I. LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON, 27 PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXX. THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. Karl Rudolf Hagenbach, D. D., of whose Kirchengeschichte des achtzehnten und neunzehnten Jahrhunderts the present work is a translation, is one of the most genial, attractive and fruitful theologians on the Continent. Though a Swiss citizen, so far as his language and literary labors are concerned he is essentially a German, for, ever since the latter part of the eighteenth century, the theology of German Switzerland has been identical with that of Germany itself. The frequent editions of his works treating the history of the Church, owing at once to their fascinating style, liberality, and fidelity to fact, prove him to be the most popular of all European writers in that department. He was born on the 4th of March, 1801, at Basle, Switzerland, where his father, Karl Friedrich Hagenbach (who died on the 20th of November, 1849), celebrated by his Tentamen Floræ Basileensis (2 vols. Basle: 1821-34. Supplement, 1843), was Professor of Anatomy and Botany. The son received his preparatory education in his native city, and visited the Universities of Bonn and Berlin, when he became an adherent of Schleiermacher's theology. Returning to Basle in 1823, he became a teacher in the University, and his doctrinal views were matured chiefly through the influence of De Wette, who was Professor there. He was soon appointed Professor extraordinary, in 1828 was elected Professor in ordinary, and in 1830 received the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He shortly became known as a pleasing and forcible lecturer, and his literary works began to attract the attention of the German theological public. His Tabellarische Uebersicht der Dogmengeschichte was published in Basle in 1828, and his Vorlesungen über Wesen und Geschichte der Reformation, extending down to the middle of the 19th century, were published in six volumes (Leipzig: 1834-43; 2nd ed., 1851-56). An English edition of valuable portions of the last of this series (die Kirchengeschichte des 18ten und 19ten Jahrhunderts), translated by the Revs. W. L. Gage and J. H. W. Stuckenberg, was published in Edinburgh (Clarks) in 1865, under the title of German Rationalism. After a lengthy interval, Dr. Hagenbach added to the series his Vorlesungen über die Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters (2 vols. Leipzig: 1860, 61). He has also published a Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, which has met with great favor (2 vols. Leipzig: 1840, 41; 5th ed., 1867). An English translation of this was issued in Edinburgh (Clarks) in 1846, and a third edition thereof in 1858. The American edition, however, prepared by H. B. Smith, D. D., of the Union Theological Seminary, N. Y., contains large additions upon both the German and Edinburgh editions, especially on Anglican and American theology, and it is to be regretted that Dr. Hagenbach, though he acknowledges their value, has not seen proper to incorporate them into his new edition (1867), for they would have revealed to German theologians a fact they have never been willing to accept, - that the Anglo-Saxon mind has displayed a theological vigor, acuteness and industry fully equal to its great achievements in other fields, which all the world readily recognizes. Dr. Hagenbach's Encyklopädie and Methodologie der theologischen Wissenschaften appeared in 1833 (Leipzig: 7th ed., 1864). A work based on this, and adapted to the English and American public, is now in course of preparation by J. M'Clintock, LL. D., President of Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, New Jersey. To the Leben und ausgewählte Schriften der Väter und Be THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. gründer der reformirten Kirche (Elberfeld: 1859) Dr. Hagenbach contributed the second volume, containing the Biographies of Oecolampadius and Myconius. He has also been one of the most industrious coöperators on Herzog's Real-Encyklopædie, having furnished no less than one hundred and twelve articles. In addition to his numerous contributions to theological magazines, may be mentioned his smaller works: Grundlinien der Homiletik und Liturgik (Leipzig: 1863), Denkschrift auf De Wette (Leipzig: 1850), and the Geschichte der theologischen Schule Basel's (Basle: 1860), and Leitfaden zum christlichen Religionsunterricht an höhern Gymnasien und Bildungsanstalten (Leipzig: 1850; 3rd ed., 1867). He has published six volumes of Sermons (Basle: 1830-58), which have given him a high position among pulpit orators. Since 1845 he has conducted (though after 1860 in connection with Finsler) the Kirchenblatt für die reformirte Schweiz. He has also found time for poetical labor, the fruit of which are his Luther und seine Zeit (Frauenfeld: 1838), and Gedichte (2 vols. Basle: 1846; 2nd ed., 1863). Dr. Hagenbach's theological position is evangelical. He belongs to the milder group of the Mediatory School,whose chief representatives are Tholuck, Julius Müller, Dorner, and the late Richard Rothe, which takes its rise. in Schleiermacher, is the reaction of orthodoxy against the long dominant Rationalism, and aims at the reconciliation of reason and revelation, science and faith. As to the department in which he has chiefly employed his pen, he belongs to the school called into life by Neander, of whom he says with filial veneration: "Neander's school has become largely extended, and nearly all the talents that have of late been called into play in the sphere of historical theology, owe their incitement, at least partially and indirectly, to this school. Entire branches of church history, especially that of monography, which has produced such ripe fruit within the last three decades, have arisen directly from it. Whole phases of ecclesiastical life, special departments of missionary history, the history of Christian ethics, of beneficence, and of the inward life of the spirit, have been brought to light |