Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 by Various
page 45 of 281 (16%)
page 45 of 281 (16%)
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1652 the Roman Catholic Church, in 1661 took orders as a priest, and
became coadjutor to the prince bishop of Breslau. He died at Breslau on the 9th of July 1677. In 1657 Silesius published under the title _Heilige Seelenlust, oder geistliche Hirtenlieder der in ihren Jesum verliebten Psyche_ (1657), a collection of 205 hymns, the most beautiful of which, such as, _Liebe, die du mich zum Bilde deiner Gottheit hast gemacht_ and _Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held_, have been adopted in the German Protestant hymnal. More remarkable, however, is his _Geistreiche Sinn-und Schluss-reime_ (1657), afterwards called _Cherubinischer Wandersmann_ (1674). This is a collection of "Reimsprüche" or rhymed distichs embodying a strange mystical pantheism drawn mainly from the writings of Jakob Böhme and his followers. Silesius delighted specially in the subtle paradoxes of mysticism. The essence of God, for instance, he held to be love; God, he said, can love nothing inferior to himself; but he cannot be an object of love to himself without going out, so to speak, of himself, without manifesting his infinity in a finite form; in other words, by becoming man. God and man are therefore essentially one. A complete edition of Scheffler's works (_Sämtliche poetische Werke_) was published by D.A. Rosenthal, 2 vols. (Regensburg, 1862). Both the _Cherubinischer Wandersmann_ and _Heilige Seelenlust_ have been republished by G. Ellinger (1895 and 1901); a selection from the former work by O.E. Hartleben (1896). For further notices of Silesius' life and work, see Hoffmann von Fallersleben in _Weimarisches Jahrbuch I_. (Hanover, 1854); A. Kahlert, _Angelus Silesius_ (1853); C. Seltmann, _Angelus Silesius und seine Mystik_ (1896), and a biog. by H. Mahn (Dresden, 1896). |
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