What the worthy couple learned from the Revelation, combined with numerous passages from the Bible--in reading which they were assisted by earnest prayer, followed by divine inspiration--was remarkable. The Millennium was not already come, but was approaching. It was to begin, at no very distant time, by the return of Christ on earth; when this should take place, a portion of the dead would rise; in great periods of thousands of years, the whole human race, living and dead, were to attain salvation; the Calvinists and Lutherans were to be united, and all Jews and heathen converted; then all even the worst sinners would be redeemed from hell; and, last of all, the devil himself brought out of his miserable condition, and, through repentance and penance, changed again into an angel; but this last would only be at the end of 50,000 years: from that time there would be endless bliss, love and joy. They were inclined to think that the beginning of this glorious time would be from 1739 to 1740.
In the year 1688, Petersen accepted the appointment of Superintendent at Luneburg. They considered it as a special providence that he had been called there, because once, in passing through on a journey, he had preached a beautiful sermon which had given much satisfaction; but in Luneburg he found many orthodox opponents who vexed and irritated him, and some mocked him on account of the opinions which he held concerning the millennial kingdom. They were, besides, injured by the intimacy with the Fraulein Rosamunda von der Asseburg, whose violent excitement and nervous exaltation had created a great sensation. The tender and innocent character of the maiden captivated both the Petersens; they supported the divine nature of her revelations, and defended her in the press, especially as the dear maiden revealed exactly the same concerning the already-mentioned return of the Lamb of God which had been disclosed to them. The private devotions which they held with the sick maiden gave great offence to the worldly-minded, and they were maliciously calumniated. When Petersen once was in great danger of drowning on the Elbe, he thought himself like the prophet Jonas, who was cast by the Lord into the body of a whale because he would not proclaim the secret of the Lord's word; and in this hour of danger he vowed that henceforth he would no longer conceal from the world his great secret. And he honestly kept his word. The millennial kingdom, and the return of the Lamb, were brought forward incessantly in his sermons. His hearers were amazed, his opponents denounced him, and he was removed from his office in 1692. They both bore this misfortune with love and trust in God.
From that time they passed their life in travelling about and writing books, in visits to those who were like-minded, and in constant disputes with the orthodox. They became to the multitude like persons of evil repute, to whom calumny and ill-natured gossip seemed to cling; they were obliged usually to keep their names secret on their journeys; but never were they wanting in warm patrons and friends. In the castles of princes, in the houses of the nobles, among the city authorities, and in the rooms of artisans, they found admirers. More than all others was Kniphausen, the President of the Supreme Court of Justice, their protector. The year Petersen was dismissed, he obtained for them a pension from the court of Berlin, and granted them a house at Magdeburg; other patrons also sent them money, and gave them recommendations, so that they were in a position to buy a small property at Magdeburg. They were, nevertheless, annoyed by the peasants and the clergymen of the place, and by denunciations in Berlin; but the Queen herself maintained intercourse with the proclaimer of a revelation so full of hope, and rejoiced that he promised salvation finally to the wicked. Thus he remained safe, though, indeed, the harmless proclaimer of a coming kingdom of glory was in danger of being deceived by wolves in sheep's clothing for among the pious people travelling about there were many deceivers. Once there came a troop of mendicant students, who maintained that they were Pietists, and demanded donations; then an adventurer desired instruction, having heard that every one who allowed himself to be converted would receive ten thalers. At last there came a false officer, who, in the absence of the husband, under the pretence of being a follower of the Lamb, insinuated himself into the confidence of the Frau Doctorin, who, probably from an indelible recollection of her noble birth, was disposed to bear special goodwill to the distinguished believer; but the husband returned home, just in time to prevent the foreign deceiver persuading his guileless wife to give him a letter of recommendation. On a journey to Nuremberg, they were received into the Pegnitzer Blumen order--he as Petrophilus, she as Phœbe. Such success comforted them amid the flood of flying sheets that surged up against them. The true-hearted Petersen complained that every one rose up in controversy against him, to prove themselves orthodox, and be made doctors of theology; and when even the pious stumbled at his doctrine of the seven trumpets, or if they reproached him, that he had once, when the opportunity offered, reappeared in the character of the old professor of poetry, and had celebrated the coronation of Frederick I. of Prussia and other worldly events in Latin verses which flowed from him like water, he bore it with resignation. The last years of their life they dwelt in the pious district of Zerbst at Thymern, where they had obtained a property, as their former property at Nieder-Dodeleben had been too unquiet for them, and the peasants had become too hostile. In 1718, Petersen succeeded, by victorious disputations, in restoring to the Evangelical communion the Duke Moritz Wilhelm von Sachsen-Zeitz. They died at a great age--she in 1724, he in 1727.
After Spener had been removed to Berlin, the University of Halle became the intellectual centre of Pietism; it was there that the impassioned Franke, with his companions Breithaupt and Anton, led the theological party. Henceforth the youth were systematically trained in the faith of the Pietists; immense was the concourse of students; only Luther had collected a greater number at Wittemberg. At Halle the dangers of the new tendency were evident: the colleges became mere schools for the propagation of their views; industrious, patient labour in the paths of human science appeared almost superfluous; not only the controversial points of the orthodox, but all the dogmas of the Church were treated by many with indifference and contempt. The mind was overstrained by intense prayer and spiritual exercises. Instead of unruly lads who sharpened their backswords on a stone, and drank immense glasses of beer, "fioricos or hausticos," in one draught, pale fellows crept through the streets of the city in a state of inward abstraction, with vehement movements of the hands, and loud outcries. All the believers rejoiced over this wonderful manifestation of divine grace; but their opponents complained of the increasing melancholy, and of distractions of the spirit, and of nefarious proceedings of the worst kind. Vain were the warnings of the moderate Spener.
From Halle, Pietism spread to the other Universities. Wittemberg and Rostock withstood it long, and were for many years the last bulwarks of orthodoxy. Even at the courts this faith gained influence: it forced its way among the governments, and after 1700 filled the country churches of most of the German territories. And its dominion was not confined to Germany: an active intercourse with the pious of Denmark and Sweden, and the Sclavonian East, contributed to maintain the inward communion of these countries with the spiritual life of Germany, which lasted till the end of the century. Even the orthodox opponents were, without knowing it, transformed by this Pietism; the old scholastic disputes were silenced, and they endeavoured to defend their own point of view with greater dignity and learning.
Meanwhile the defects in the faith of the Pietists became greater, the deterioration more striking. Since the process of spiritual regeneration had become the secret act of a man's life, after which the whole soul morbidly strained, all the bliss of salvation depended on his admittance into the community of the pious. He who by a special act of God's grace was brought into the condition of regeneration, lived in a state of grace; his soul was guarded from all sin by the Lord; he breathed a purer and more heavenly atmosphere, secure of the mercy of the Lamb, already redeemed from sin here. But it was difficult for the more cultivated minds to go through this spiritual process: it did not prosper with all conscientious men, as it did with the jurist Johann Jacob Moser. Touching are the accounts delivered to us of the strivings of individuals, of the anguish and self-torture which fruitlessly ground down body and soul. Among the weaker we find every kind of self-delusion and hypocrisy. Very soon it became doubtful whether the regenerate was an enthusiast or a deceiver: occasionally he was both at the same time.
After Pietism had won the favour of persons of distinction and the governing powers, it became a remunerative concern, a fashionable thing, an assistance to very worldly objects. Generally those who received the holiest revelations were tender, weak natures, whom one could not suppose capable of the strenuous work which is necessary for worldly service; they lived at the cost of their patrons. The artisans were received into the society of the upper classes in order to assure their spiritual progress, and whoever desired protection, hastened as penitents to attend the meetings for edification, of some great lord, which they preferred holding in special chambers prepared for the purpose, rather than in the chapels of their castles. Sighs, groans, wringing the hands, and talk about illumination, became now here and now there a lucrative speculation. In the regenerate clergy, who held the souls of weak nobles and gentry in their hands, might be found all the faults peculiar to ambitious favourites, pride and mean selfishness. Soon also the morality of many came into ill repute, and when, after the decease of a devout lord, a society of ambitious Pietists were expelled, a feeling of malicious pleasure was generally excited.
Thus an opposition to Pietism arose on all sides, equally among the orthodox, the worldly, and the learned, and finally in the sound common sense of the people. How the judgment of the thoughtful against it was expressed in the first half of the eighteenth century shall here be shown by a short example.
The worthy Semler, of whom more details will be given later, relates among his youthful reminiscences the sorrowful fate of his brother Ernst Johann, who returned in a distracted state to his parental home, from the regenerate circle of Magister Brumhardt and of Professor Buddeus at the University of Jena. The passage gives such a good insight into the period of decaying Pietism, that it shall be given here with a few abbreviations.
"My brother was so habitually upright that he even mistrusted his own feelings. Easy though it was to many of the brotherhood to declare the day and the hour of their being sealed to redemption, which warranted their living in a state of pure, spiritual, heavenly joyfulness, and raised them to the rank of God's children, yet little could my brother forgive himself this spiritual falsehood; he could not coincide in what was so lightly and so repeatedly spoken of by others. He therefore fell into immoderate grief over the greatness of his sins, which were alone his hindrance; he not only prayed, but he moaned half the night before the Lord, but there was no change in his feelings. He seldom eat meat, no white or wheaten bread; he considered himself quite unworthy even of existence. Every night, when I had gone to sleep, he stole secretly out of bed, crept into the small adjoining library, knelt or lay down on the floor, and gradually lost, in his passionate emotions, all caution as to speaking softly and gently. His moaning and lamenting awoke me. I sought him out, and small confidence as I had in myself to produce any great effect--being as yet little advanced in conversion,--yet I repeated to him at intervals such beautiful lines and verses, both Greek and Hebrew, that he often embraced me and sighed, Haying, 'Ah, if this would but begin in me.' I answered sometimes hastily, that this was perversion instead of conversion, and how impossible it was for that way to be right and true, wherein one acted contrary to the intentions of God, and made one's-self into an utterly useless, helpless creature. 'Yes,' he said, 'that is what I am, and cannot sufficiently acknowledge it.' I talked with my mother, who wept over her son, who might now have been our mainstay, if he had not been spoilt by these false ideas. My father disapproved of all this still more strongly, and expatiated at such length from dogmatic and polemical divinity, that I could well see in what account he held these new spiritual institutions. Meanwhile he was obliged to be on his guard, for the whole Court were in favour of this party; many were undoubtedly very well-meaning Christians, but there were also undeniably many idlers and adventurers, who entered these institutions, and found their good, comfortable life very easy. All the evidence of their life in the flesh--which evidence was not rare nor imperceptible--was of no avail; who could succeed here? Occasionally there was a convert who lived in shame with his maidservant; it was not investigated, it was a calumny, and in case of necessity they placed him elsewhere, if his peasants were too Lutheran. By degrees my brother insinuated that my father also had not yet entered the narrow way, and that he could not be helped to it. They roamed about the woods day and night, so that moonlight devotion, which many now again recommend, is nothing new. They sang the new hymns together; the Duke often indeed gave the conveyances for these meetings, together with refreshments; nay, he often himself was the coachman, when he wished publicly to do honour to some old shoemakers' wives who had much faith, for the Saviour's sake. I am so far from wishing to exaggerate the state of things, that indeed I have not said all. The period for the annual pilgrimage came, for this custom had been retained from the old times and institutions of the monks. In many places the grace of the Saviour was supposed to dwell abundantly, almost visibly, and thither did the brothers and sisters make their pilgrimages, in reality contrary to the principle laid down by Christ, that neither Jerusalem nor Samaria was the special abiding-place of His spirit. Many of them brought their provisions with them. My brother assuredly did not travel to Ebersdorf without money, but brought nothing back, for he had bought this or that little book to give to the brothers as a memento. This enthusiasm had its real views, that aspired to great ends, although directly afterwards they were moderated, because the Philadelphian reckoning did not coincide with them. During these my brother's pious journeys, my mother died, for the remembrance of whom I daily bless my God. My brother found her in her coffin when he returned; he felt all the grief of a son, threw himself upon her, and lay there long, crying aloud, 'Ah, if I, useless creature, had but died in my mother's stead!' Now we obtained an entrance to his heart; this journey on foot had much weakened his hypochondria; the exhortations of the brotherhood called forth some ideas which he could not himself realize; he was to a certain extent calmed, or began to believe himself so. We represented to him that he must make his gifts serviceable to his fellow-men, however small they might be. He first took a situation as preceptor in a small orphan-house, and afterwards with Herr von Dieskau, who dwelt in a castle of that name, in the most beautiful country that one could select for oneself One portion of this old castle stands upon the city wall; under the wall there is a small footpath with a hedge planted as a protection against slipping, but just under this fragment of rock flows the Saale, sometimes very full and broad, but always deep enough to allow the passage of rafts and boats; from the castle the eye falls upon a half circle of wood and hills. Here my brother might perhaps have found rest and refreshment, but he did not live much longer."