Heterodoxie und Ungehorsam

Johann Rudolf Lavater (1579–1625) shares in the common lot of several 17th century scholars: respected by their contemporaries and widely known in their own time, they have meanwhile fallen into almost total oblivion. The detection of an hitherto unknown manuscript in the Zurich Central Library, containing a Latin speech that Lavater delivered in 1623, affords now the opportunity to re-discover this interesting figure. The essay has a double focus: on one hand, it portrays Lavater’s life and career; on the other hand, it analyses the content of the speech, which Lavater composed in order to celebrate the recent failure of a conspiracy against Maurice of Orange (1567–1625), stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. The speech is revealing of the official attitude in Zurich regarding not only the recent controversy between Calvinists and Arminians in the Netherlands, but also concerning the more general issue of the relationship between Church and State. Because of the special interest of this source, a critical edition of Lavater’s speech is included

Art · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Influence and Diplomacy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity