CHAPTER I.
Introduction.
Up to this time, the American field of Schwenkf elder hymnology appears to have been permitted to lie unworked and even uncleared; so that the present investigation has demanded pioneer effort. The explanation of this fact can readily be furnished. Until recent years, the sources which have made the present treatise possible were in the private possession of numerous individuals and of households of the sect, and hence were, for the most part, both inaccessible and unknown to the investigator. However, patient searching has brought to light much material relating to the production, transcribing, compiling and editing of hymns of Schwenkfelder authorship—the activity of the Schwenkfelders in the writing and collecting of hymns having extended from the first half of the sixteenth to the second half of the nineteenth century, a period of more than three hundred years. This material consists chiefly of manuscript sources hitherto unpublished, and is therefore of prime importance for a documentary account of the hymnology of the sect. The most important of the historical manuscripts exploited in the preparation of this work will be found printed with the text—care having been exercised to permit no deviation from the orthography employed by the chronicler. These citations are in most cases given in English translation also. The specimen hymns printed or reprinted are provided with footnotes explaining dialectal and obsolete forms. The illustrations will be found to include photographic reproductions indicating those manuscript compilations which served as sources for the first hymn-book of the sect printed in America.
The few brief notices which have thus far appeared, of the activity of the Schwenkfelders in the writing and compiling of hymns, have not been overlooked. In 1882, there appeared in the Reformed Quarterly Review an article entitled "Early German Hymnology of Pennsylvania," which contains an account of the Schwenkf elder hymn-book of 1762.[1] In 1898, the Americana Germanica published a treatise on the subject of German hymnology in America, in which the writer confines his account of Schwenkfelder hymn-writing to the following brief mention:[2] "Other sects, such as the Schwenkfelders, who came to Pennsylvania in 1734, may be passed over with the mere mention. The hymn-book of the Schwenkfelders, known as the Neu-cingerichtetes Gesangbuch, left Saur's press in 1762; it contains no hymns written in this country, but is interesting for its scholarly preface and excellent arrangement."
In the course of the present work, however, it will be seen that Schwenkfelder hymnology is entitled to more than mere mention, and that the statement, "it contains no hymns written in this country," is certainly without foundation. In 1904 appeared the Schwenkfelders in Pennsylvania, a historical study of the Schwenkfelders since their exodus from Saxony.[3] This contains a partial list of the Schwenkfelder hymn-writers whose hymns were admitted into the hymn-book printed in 1762. But all these references to the hymn-book in question merely suggest that Schwenkfelder hymnology holds a place in the hymnology of the Fatherland.
The larger works on hymnology have also been consulted. In Julian,[4] but two Schwenkfelder hymn-writers receive mention. They are Adam Reissner and Sebastian Franck. Even Daniel Sudermann is not named. Koch[5] distinguishes two schools of Schwenkfelder hymn-writers, namely, that of the Reformation period and a post-Reformation school. He treats a total of eight authors. We have already observed, in our preface, that Koch recognizes a well-defined Schwenkfeldian type of hymn-writing and cheerfully concedes to it a raison d'etre. But his account of the Schwenkfelder hymn-writers terminates with 1631, the year of Sudermann's death. Wackernagel[6] describes very fully the Schwenkfelder hymns of the period which he treats, but he discusses only the writers up to Sudermann inclusive, and his account is not biographical. Schneider's monograph[7] likewise closes with an account of the hymns of Daniel Sudermann. Indeed, both Wackernagel and Koch frankly acknowledge their indebtedness to Schneider for much of their information concerning the early hymn-writers of the school of Schwenkfeld.
It will be seen thus, that none of these authorities approaches the period with which the present treatise is particularly concerned. It is the purpose of this monograph (1) to present a survey of the entire field of Schwenkfelder hymnology, and (2) to submit the results of an examination of certain compilations of hymns extant in manuscript. The collections in question are those brought to America by the Schwenkf elders in 1734, together with the rearrangements and transcriptions of them produced here. Documentary sources have been employed almost exclusively, and with but one exception, the writer has enjoyed the use of the originals of the several hymn-collections examined. The hymn-book issued from the press of Christopher Saur has, of course, received attention ; but no minute analysis of this imprint has been attempted. It will frequently be referred to as the "Saur edition." The second and third editions of the printed hymnal are merely listed in our Descriptive Bibliography. Each is essentially an abridgment of the edition which preceded it.
In an address delivered before the Pennsylvania-German Society on the occasion of its first annual meeting, October 1891, Hon. Samuel W. Pennypacker, Former Governor of Pennsylvania, made the following reference to the results which the Schwenkfelders have accomplished in the transcribing of their own literature: "I want to call your attention to another sect, the Schwenkfelders who came to Pennsylvania. They were the followers of Caspar Schwenkfeld and the doctrines taught by him were almost identical with those taught by the Quakers. They came in 1734. Their literature was extensive and interesting. It is reproduced for the most part in huge folios written upon paper made at the Rittenhouse paper-mill on the Wissahickon, the earliest in America. These volumes sometimes contained a thousand pages, bound in stamped leather with brass corners and brass mounting. Among the notable facts connected with their history is the fact that they prepared a written description of all the writings of Schwenkfeld and their other authors and it is as far as I know the first attempt at a bibliography in this country."
The early history of the Schwenkfelders furnishes the explanation of this extraordinary activity in the copying of both their printed works as well as unpublished manuscripts. Repeatedly, the literature of the sect was proscribed and the use of the press forbidden them, so that for the preservation of the works of their various writers they were dependent upon their transcribers. Of this activity, the collecting and copying of hymns has always been a considerable part, and in our next chapter we list bibliographically the numerous larger collections of hymns which are still extant in manuscript and are products of the patient toil of Schwenkfelder transcribers. Furthermore, we shall see that some of the hymn-writers themselves served the sect as copyists. Thus Adam Reissner and Daniel Sudermann compiled large folios of hymns written by their own hands. A century later Caspar Weiss produced a compilation of hymns in two volumes in manuscript, in which he has perpetuated hymns written by Adam Reissner, Daniel Sudermann, Raimund Weckher, Valentin Triller, Antonius Oelsner, George Heydrich, Martin John, Jr., and other Schwenkfelder hymn-writers. Again, George Weiss subjected the collection of Caspar Weiss, his father, to a rearrangement and added more than 500 hymns of Schwenkfelder authorship. It is also noteworthy that this activity did not cease with the emigration of the sect from the Fatherland. The present writer has thus far examined six folios besides numerous quartos and a great variety of additional collections arranged for church use, all of which were compiled or transcribed in America. The extant manuscript hymn-books arranged for household use (Taegliche Gesangbuecher) are also numerous. It has been the writer's good fortune to unearth a number of important collections of hymns in manuscript and it is not unlikely that others exist which will yet be discovered. We should, therefore, not lose sight of the fact that the great mass of transcriptions—of hymns, of sermons, of historical matter and of other literature—produced by the Schwenkfelders in America represents the survival of the laborious work of transcribing which originated in Europe more than two hundred years before, when printers were forbidden to do press-work for the Schwenkfelders. Necessity was the mother of the device, and in this way for a period of more than two centuries preceding the emigration to America, copies of the Schwenkfeld prints which had been saved from seizure were multiplied, and both their earlier and their contemporaneous literature preserved.
Investigation has revealed the further fact that three collections of hymns served as the principal manuscript sources of the Schwenkf elder hymn-book of 1762, familiarly known as the "Saur edition." The collections in question form a connected series, beginning with the compilation of Caspar Weiss, which was completed in 1709. Hence, the first Schwenkf elder hymn- book printed in America was in part the result of a line of activity in the compiling of hymns, which began at the very opening of the 18th century, about 60 years before. The additional fact has also been disclosed that this continued activity is marked from its beginning to its close by a well-defined progression,—each compiler after the originator, having operated with the completed work of his predecessor as a basis. The series of collections comprising the extent of this activity consists therefore, essentially of four compilations of hymns, each regularly edited, although the first three collections of the series were never issued in printed form. Moreover, and singularly enough, the effort represented by this activity was confined to four families of the sect: Caspar Weiss of Harpersdorf, in Silesia, and the Rev. George Weiss, his son; the Rev. Balthaser Hoffmann and his son, the Rev. Christopher Hoffmann; Hans Christoph Huebner, and the Rev. Christopher Schultz. With the exception of Caspar Weiss, who died in Silesia before the emigration to Saxony, all were immigrants to America. George Weiss, Balthaser Hoffmann and Christopher Schultz were writers of hymns. And not only to Rev. Christopher Schultz as editor, but to each one of these compilers must be conceded a share in the credit for the ultimate product, the Neu-eingerichtetes Gesangbuch of 1762.
- ↑ The article was written by the Rev. J. H. Dubbs, D.D., LL.D. Since reprinted. This account is quoted in our last chapter.
- ↑ William A. Haussmann: German American Hymnology (1683-1800). Americana Germanica, Vol. II, No. 3.
- ↑ Howard Wiegner Kriebel:The Schwenkfelders in Pennsylvania: A Historical Sketch. Lancaster, 1904.
- ↑ John Julian: A Dictionary of Hymnology. New York, 1892.
- ↑ Emil Koch: Gesehichte des Kirchenlieds und Kirchengcsangs. Stuttgart 1866-1876.
- ↑ Philipp Wackernagel: Das dcutsche Kirchenlied von den aeltestcn Zeiten bis zu Anfang des lyten Jahrhundcrts. 5 vols. Leipzig, 1864-1877.
- ↑ A. F. H. Schneider: Zur Literatur der Schwenkfeldischen Liederdichter bis Daniel Sudermann. Berlin, 1857.