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FRANCKE, AUGUST HERMANN (1663-1727)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 5 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FRANCKE, See also:AUGUST See also:HERMANN (1663-1727) , See also:German See also:Protestant divine, was See also:born on the 22nd of See also:March 1663 at See also:Lubeck. He was educated at the gymnasium in See also:Gotha, and afterwards at the See also:universities of See also:Erfurt, See also:Kiel, where he came under the See also:influence of the pietist See also:Christian Kortholt (1633-1694), and See also:Leipzig. During his student career he made a See also:special study of See also:Hebrew and See also:Greek; and in See also:order to learn Hebrew more thoroughly, he for some See also:time put himself under the instructions of See also:Rabbi See also:Ezra Edzardi at See also:Hamburg. He graduated at Leipzig, where in 1685 he became a Privatdozent. A See also:year later, by the help of his friend P. Anton, and with the approval and encouragement of P. J Spener, he founded the Collegium Philobiblicum, at which a number of graduates were accustomed to meet for the systematic study of the See also:Bible, philologically and practically. He next passed some months at See also:Luneburg as assistant or See also:curate to the learned See also:superintendent, C. H. Sandhagen (1639-1697), and there his religious See also:life was remarkably quickened. and deepened. On leaving Luneburg he spent some time in Hamburg, where he became a teacher in a private school, and made the acquaintance of Nikolaus See also:Lange (1659-1720). After a See also:long visit to Spener, who was at that time a See also:court preacher in See also:Dresden, he returned to Leipzig in the See also:spring of 1689, and began to give Bible lectures of an exegetical and See also:practical See also:kind, at the same time resuming the Collegium Philobiblicum of earlier days.

He soon became popular as a lecturer; but the peculiarities of his teaching almost immediately aroused a violent opposition on the See also:

part of the university authorities; and before the end of the year he was interdicted from lecturing on the ground of his alleged See also:pietism. Thus it was that Francke's name first came to be publicly associated with that of Spener, and with pietism. Prohibited from lecturing in Leipzig, Francke in 1690 found See also:work at Erfurt as " See also:deacon " of one of the See also:city churches. Here his evangelistic fervour attracted multitudes to his See also:preaching, including See also:Roman Catholics, but at the same time excited the anger of his opponents; and the result of their opposition was that after a See also:ministry of fifteen months he was commanded by the See also:civil authorities (27th of See also:September 1691) to leave Erfurt within See also:forty-eight See also:hours. The same year witnessed the See also:expulsion of Spener from Dresden. In See also:December, through Spener's influence, Francke accepted an invitation to fill the See also:chair of Greek and See also:oriental See also:languages in the new university of See also:Halle, which was at that time being organized by the elector See also:Frederick III. of See also:Brandenburg; and at the same time, the chair having no See also:salary attached to it, he was appointed pastor of Glaucha in the immediate neighbourhood of the See also:town. He afterwards became See also:professor of See also:theology. Here, for the next See also:thirty-six years, until his See also:death on the 8th of See also:June 1727, he continued to See also:discharge the twofold See also:office of pastor and professor with rare See also:energy and success. At the very outset of his labours he had been profoundly impressed with a sense of his responsibility towards the numerous outcast See also:children who were growing up around him in See also:ignorance and See also:crime. After a number of tentative plans, he resolved in 1695 to See also:institute what is often called a " ragged school," supported by public charity. A single See also:room was at first sufficient, but within a year it was found necessary to See also:purchase a See also:house, to which another was added in 1697. In 1698 there were See also:loo orphans under his See also:charge to be clothed and fed, besides 5oo children who were taught as See also:day scholars.

The See also:

schools See also:grew in importance and are still known as the Francke'sche Stiftungen. The See also:education given was strictly religious. Hebrew was included, while the Greek and Latin See also:classics were neglected; the Homilies of Macarius took the See also:place of See also:Thucydides. The same principle was consistently applied in his university teaching. Even as professor of Greek he had given See also:great prominence in his lectures to the study of the Scriptures; but he found a much more congenial See also:sphere when, in 1698, he was appointed to the chair of theology. Yet his first courses of lectures in that See also:department were readings and expositions of the Old and New Testament; and to this, as also to See also:hermeneutics, he always attached special importance, believing that for theology a See also:sound exegesis was the one indispensable requisite. " Theologus nascitur in scripturis," he used to say; but during his occupancy of the theological chair he lectured at various times upon other branches of theology also. Amongst his colleagues were See also:Paul Anton (1661–1730), See also:Joachim J. Breithaupt (1658–1732) and Joachim Lange (1670-1744),–men like-minded with him-self. Through their influence upon the students, Halle became a centre from which pietism (q.v.) became very widely diffused over See also:Germany. His See also:principal contributions to theological literature were: Manuductio ad lectionem Scripturae Sacrae (1693); Praeleciiones hermeneuticae (1717) ; Commentatio de scopo librorum Veteris et Novi Testamenti (1724); and Lectiones paraeneticae (1726-1736). The Manuductio was translated into See also:English in 1813, under the See also:title A See also:Guide to the See also:Reading and Study of the See also:Holy Scriptures.

An See also:

account of his orphanage, entitled Segensvolle Fussstapfen, &c. (1709), which subsequently passed through several See also:editions, has also been partially translated, under the title The Footsteps of Divine See also:Providence: or, The bountiful See also:Hand of See also:Heaven defraying the Expenses of Faith. See H. E. F. See also:Guericke's A. H. Francke (1827), which has been translated into English (The Life of A. H. Francke, 1837) ; Gustave Kramer's Beilrdge zur Geschichte A. H. Francke's (1861), and Neue Beitrage (1875) ; A.

See also:

Stein, A. H. Francke (3rd ed., 1894) ; See also:article in See also:Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopadie (ed. 1899) ; Knuth, See also:Die Francke'schen Stiftungen (2nd ed., 1903).

End of Article: FRANCKE, AUGUST HERMANN (1663-1727)

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