FRANCK, SEBASTIAN. - Protestant historian and philosopher, b. at Donauwörth in 1499, d. at Basel in 1542 or 1543.
Having passed from Catholicism to Protestantism in 1527 and moved to Strasbourg in '29, after his marriage to Otilia Behaim, he led a restless existence, professing and teaching radical doctrines in matters of philosophy and religion, which brought him enmities and persecutions.
He preached a religious-universalistic theism, setting aside even the teachings of the Bible, which he disdainfully called "the paper pope," and he set out these theories of his systematically in the Paradoxa (Ulm 1534-35).
His aversion was also directed at the "theologians of the letter," advocating an absolute freedom of judgment, outside of all theological dogmatism: for which Luther and Melanchthon struck him with their censures.
In the work Chronica, Zeitbuch und Geschichtsbibel (Strasbourg 1531) he maintained the original thesis that the biblical narrative allegorically foreshadowed the historical development of humanity; he also composed a Cosmographia
(Ulm 1534). But his most important writing is the Germaniae chronicon (Frankfurt 1538), carried out with sure knowledge of the sources and quite remarkable critical acumen, especially in relation to the scientific knowledge of the time.
Bibliography5 worksA. Reimann, S. F. als Geschichtspädagogik, Berlin 1921; Überweg, III, pp. 130-41, 645-46 (extensive bibliography); G. Dilthey, L'analisi del
BIBL.: A. Reimann, S. F. als Geschichtspädagogik, Berlin 1921; Überweg, III, pp. 130-41, 645-46 (extensive bibliography); G. Dilthey, L'analisi dell'uomo e l'istituzione della natura, I, Italian trans. by G. Sanna, Venice 1927, p. 105 s.p.; E. Fiezer, Storia della storiografia moderna, I, Italian trans. by A. Spinelli, Naples 1944, pp. 226-27; II, ibid. 1944, p. 347, where there is the most recent bibliography.
Montini, Renzo Uberto. “Franck, sebastian.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, coll. 1691–1692. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/franck-sebastian.
MLA
Montini, Renzo Uberto. “Franck, sebastian.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, coll. 1691–1692. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/franck-sebastian.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec5_franck_sebastian,
author = {Montini, Renzo Uberto},
title = {Franck, sebastian},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {V},
pages = {1691--1692},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/franck-sebastian}
}
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