Books Fatal to Their AuthorsDitchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
History
Books Fatal to Their Authors
Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Authors; Prohibited books
Foremost among them was Quirinus Kulmanus (Kuhlmann), who has been
called the Prince of Fanatics, and wandered through many lands making
many disciples. He was born at Breslau in Silesia in 1651, and at
an early age saw strange visions, at one time the devils in hell, at
another the Beatific Glory of God. His native country did not appreciate
him, and he left it to wander on from university to university,
publishing his ravings. At Leyden he met with the works of Boehme,
another fanatic, who wrote a strange book, entitled _Aurora_, which
was suppressed by the magistrates. The reading of this author was like
casting oil into the fire. Poor Kuhlmann became wilder still in his
strange fanaticism, and joined himself to a pretended prophet, John
Rothe, whom the authorities at Amsterdam incarcerated, in order that he
might be able to foretell with greater certainty than he had done other
things when and after what manner he should be released. Kuhlmann then
wrote a book, entitled _Prodromus Quinquennii Mirabilis_, and published
at Leyden in 1674, in which he set forth his peculiar views. He stated
that in that same year the Fifth Monarchy or the Christian Kingdom was
about to commence, that he himself would bring forth a son from his own
wife, that this son by many miracles would found the kingdom, and that
he himself was the Son of God. On account of these mad ravings he was
exiled by the Chief of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and
expelled with infamy from the University of Leyden. But his strange
mission did not cease. He wandered for some time in France and England,
where he printed at his own expense several small books in 1681 and
1682, amongst others one piece addressed to Mahomet IV., _De Conversione
Turcarum_. The following passage occurs in this fantastic production:
"You saw, some months ago, O great Eastern Leader, a comet of unusual
magnitude, a true prognostic of the Kingdom of the Jesuelites, that is,
of the restoration of all people to the one-three God. O well is thee,
that thou hast turned thy mind before God, and by proclaiming a general
fast throughout thy empire, hast begun to fulfil the words of the Lord
to the prophet Drabicius." He declares that if the Christians refuse to
perform his will in destroying the kingdom of Antichrist, the Turks and
Tartars shall do it, to the disgrace of the Christians, which will be a
horror to angels and to men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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