Bibliotheca Dissidentium XXXI

Ludwig Hätzer from Bischofszell (Switzerland) is considered one of the most remarkable Christian Hebraists of the early Reformation due to his translation of the Prophetic Books of the Old Testament, which he published together with Hans Denck in Worms in 1527. As a young priest, Hätzer became a vocal adherent of Ulrich Zwingli's reform efforts in Zurich in 1523. Soon later, he sided with the group around Conrad Grebel and Felix Mantz, with whom the Anabaptist movement began in Zurich in 1525. As an itinerant scholar, Hätzer translated Reformation writings from Latin into German for several printers. In the few years leading up to his execution in Constance in 1529, Hätzer's theological thinking evolved into increasingly radical conclusions. Coming from biblical humanism and the Swiss Reformers, he arrived at Anabaptist, Spiritualist and ultimately anti-Trinitarian views. The bio-bibliography by Aneke Dornbusch comprehensively documents the sources and research literature on Hätzer's life and work. For the first time it provides a complete overview of the works authored, translated and edited by Hätzer, including the Theologia Germanica.

The name Martin Seidel is associated with a treatise on the origins of Christianity, dated 1587, which circulated in manuscript among radical Enlightenment circles in the eighteenth century. Recent research has confirmed that Seidel's treatise, which anticipates fundamental ideas of Deism, indeed goes back to the sixteenth century. Seidel came from Ohlau (O?awa) in Silesia and was enrolled at the University of Heidelberg in 1564. In 1573, Seidel gave up a position as a teacher at the Heidelberg Paedagogium. Little is known about the rest of his life. His application for a position as a teacher at a school run by the Polish Brethren in Cracow in 1584 was unsuccessful. Between 1573 and the 1590s, Seidel produced various handwritten versions of his proto-deistic critique of Christianity. In 2021, Pablo Toribio discovered an extended, apparently autograph manuscript version of this extraordinarily remarkable text. The dossier offers the first comprehensive documentation of the sources and research literature on the biography, work and reception of Martin Seidel.