Daniel Ernst Jablonski
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Daniel Ernst Jablonski (November 20, 1660 Nassenhuben - May 25, 1741 Berlin), German theologian, and reformer, known for his efforts to bring about a union between Lutheran and Calvinist Protestants.
Professor Jablonski was born at Nassenhuben near Danzig (Mokry Dwór, Gdańsk). His father Peter Figulus was a minister of the Moravian Church (Böhmisch-Mährische Brüder); the son preferred the Bohemian nickname Jablonski based on father's birthplace. His maternal grandfather, Johann Amos Comenius (d. 1670), was a bishop of the Moravian Church. Having studied at Frankfurt (Oder) and at Oxford, Jablonski entered upon his career as a preacher at Magdeburg in 1683, and then from 1686 to 1691 he was the head of the Moravian college at Lissa, a position which had been filled by his grandfather.
Still retaining his connection with the Moravians, he was appointed court preacher at Königsberg in 1691 by the elector of Brandenburg, Frederick III, and here, entering upon a career of great activity, he soon became a person of influence in court circles. In 1693 he was transferred to Berlin as court preacher, and in 1699 he was consecrated a bishop of the Moravian Church the Unity of the Brethren.
At Berlin Jablonski worked hard to bring about a union between the followers of Luther and those of Calvin; the courts of Berlin, Hanover, Brunswick and Gotha were interested in his scheme, and his principal helper was the philosopher Gottfried Leibniz. His idea appears to have been to form a general union between the German, the English and the Swiss Protestants, and thus to establish un academique sancta catholica and apostotic academique evangelica and reformata ecclesia. For some years negotiations were carried on with a view to attaining this end, but eventually it was found impossible to surmount the many difficulties in the way; Jablonski and Leibniz, however, did not cease to believe in the possibility of accomplishing their purpose. Jablonski's next plan was to reform the Church of Prussia by introducing into it the episcopate, and also the liturgy of the English Church, but here again he was unsuccessful.
As a scholar, Jablonski brought out a Hebrew edition of the Old Testament, and translated Bentley's A Confutation of Atheism into Latin (1696). He had some share in founding the Brandenburgische Societät der Wissenschaften. Between 1700 and 1731 he became secretary of the Academy and vice president in 1710, 1715, 1719, 1723, 1727, 1729, 1731 and 1733. Between 1710 and 1731 Jablonski was director of the Philology and Oriental Studies at the Academy. Between 1733 and 1741 Jablonski was president of the Academy. He received a degree from the university of Oxford.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition article "Daniel Ernst Jablonski", a publication now in the public domain.
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