The compositor asked Saur whether he thought that more than one Christ had appeared. Saur inquired of him why he suggested such an idea; when the man pointed out this verse and said it appeared to him that by it Conrad Beissel, the founder of the Ephrata Cloister, meant himself. Saur wrote to Beissel, and asked whether the suspicion had any foundation; whereupon Beissel replied to him that he was a fool. Such terse and uncomplimentary language did not please Saur, who soon after issued a pamphlet censuring Beissel, saying among other things that his name contained the number 666 of the beast of the Apocalypse, and that he had received something from all the planets — “from Mars his strength, from Venus his influence over women, and from Mercury his comedian tricks.” Beissel became quite angry, and one of the results of the widening breach was a new press at Ephrata. The Weyrauchs Hügel is the largest and most important collection of the hymns of the Ephrata Cloister. Many of them were written there by Beissel and others, but unfortunately it is not possible, except in a few instances, to determine the authorship of particular hymns. Christina Hoehn, “a pious and God-fearing woman,” who died an inmate of the Cloister at an advanced age, wrote those upon pages 465 and 466, beginning “Wenn mir das Creutz will machen Schmertzen,” and “Ich dringe ein in Jesu Liebe.”[1] Choral books, containing the music to
- ↑ The inmates whom I have been able to identify under their
cloister names are:
Father Friedsam, Conrad Beissel. Sister Albina, Margaret Hoecker. Sister Anastasia or Tabea, ——— Thomen. Sister Eunike, Philip Hanselmans' wife. Sister Marcella, Maria Christiana Saur. Brother Agabus, Stephen Koch. Brother Agonius, Michael Wohlfahrt. Brother Amos, John Meylin. Brother Ezekiel, Heinrich Sangmeister. Brother Elimelech, ——— Eckerlin. Brother Haggai, ——— Kroll, Brother Jabez, Peter Miller, Brother Jephune, ——— Eckerlin. Brother Jotham, ——— Eckerlin. Brother Obadiah, ——— Funck. Brother Obed, Ludwig Höcker. Brother Onesimus, Israel Eckerlin. Brother Philemon, Conrad Riesman. Brother Theodorus, Thomas Hardie. Brother Zephaniah, ——— Nägely.
