Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries, Vol. I.

by Gustav Freytag

CHAPTER V.

The "Stillen im Lande," or Pietists (1600-1700).--Tendencies of Protestantism till 1618--Consequences of the war--The older Pietism--Spener--Hatred of worldly pleasures--The women--Self-contemplation and social intercourse--Good effects on morals--The revival--Characters of Petersen and his wife--Narrative of Johanna Eleonora Petersen--Narrative of Dr. Johann Wilhelm Petersen--Fate of this couple, and their revelations--The later Pietism and its aberrations--Opposition--Lamentations of the student, Ernst Johann Semler--Progress of the people through Pietism