Johannes Crellius (Polish: Jan Crell, English John Crell) (26 July Hellmitzheim 1590 – Raków 1633) was a Polish and German theologian.
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Johann Crell's father, Johann Crell Sr., was pastor of the church at Hellmitzheim, (today part of Iphofen in Kitzingen District), in Franken, northern Bavaria. His son Krzysztof Crell-Spinowski (1622–1680), and his grandsons Christopher Crell Jr. M.D. of London (1658-), Samuel Crellius (1660–1747) and Paweł Crell-Spinowski (1677-), as well as his great-grandsons in Georgia, United States, were all proponents of Socinian views.
Crellius moved to Poland at the age of 22, and quickly became known as one of the chief theologians of the Socinians, also known as Polish brethren. From 1613 he worked at the Racovian Academy at Raków, of which he was the rector from 1616 to 1621.[1] In 1630 he worked with Joachim Stegmann Sr. in the production of a German version of the Racovian New Testament.
Several of Crell's works were printed first by Rodecki and Sternacki at the printery of the Racovian Academy 1602-1638. These and others then appeared as Vol.III-V of Frans Kuyper's Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum quos Unitarios vocant ("Library of the Polish Brethren called Unitarians") Amsterdam 1668[2] Crell also featured in Christopher Sand's bibliography and biographical collection Bibliotheca antitrinitariorum (1684). These works were widely distributed being owned by Voltaire, John Locke and other Enlightenment thinkers.[3]
Since Crell was not translated into English, knowledge of his works passed out of the later generations of English Unitarians. However Thomas Belsham is one of the Unitarian authors who had access to Crell in the Latin and Belsham repeatedly cites Crell in his The Epistles of Paul the Apostle Translated, with an Exposition, and Notes (1822).
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