Edzardi, Sebastian

Edzardi, Sebastian youngest son of Esra, was born at Hamburg August 1, 1673. When only eighteen years old he went to Holland and England, and soon after entered the University of Wittenberg, where he received his M.A. degree in 1695. He then entered upon the study of theology, but in 1696 was appointed professor of logic and metaphysics at the Hamburg Gymnasium. He was a man of vast learning, but his zeal for the Lutherans and his hatred of the Reformed, whom he believed insincere in their professions, engaged him in long and violent controversies. The king of Prussia, Friedrich I (in 1705), ordered five of Edzardi's dissertations written against the Reformed to be burned at Berlin by the hand of the sheriff (Walch, Ketzeir-Historie, 1:512 sq.; 3:1087 sq.). But this punishment was of no avail with Edzardi. He even went so far as to impeach the character of the University of Halle, which he called Holle (Tartarus). After the death of his father he aided his brother Georg Elieser in his efforts for the conversion of the Jews. He died June 10, 1736. A complete catalogue of his numerous polemical writings may be found in Thiessen, Versuch e. Gelehrt. Gesch. von Hamburg, Th. 1:139-154, and in Moller's Cimbria Literata, 1:147-151. His leading dissertations against a union with the Reformed were, Dissertut. de unione cum Reformatis hodiernis fugienda (Hanb. 1703, 4to): — Diatr. de caus. unionis a Calvinianis quaesitae (Hamb. 1704, 4to): — Pelagianismus Calvinianorum commonstratus (Hamb. [Vitab.] 1705, 4to): Manichaeismus Calvinianor. commonstratus, una cum consectario: nullum esse eccl. c. Calvin. unioni locum (Hamb. 1705, 4to). — Hoefer,

Nouv. Biogr. Gener. 15:694; Fuhrmann, Handworterb. d. Kirchengesch. 1:672; Aschblach, Allgem. Kirchen-Lexikon, 2:495; Schrockh, Kirchengeschichte s.d. Reform. 8:231, 232; Grasse, Allgem. Literargeschichte, 6:886. (J.H.W.)