Engelbrecht, Johann

Engelbrecht, Johann, a visionary religionist, was born in Brunswick 1599. He was sickly from his youth, and suffered dreadfully from melancholy, caused by physical pain as well as by mental disturbance. He believed himself (after 1623) the subject of revelations and visions, and went from house to house preaching and narrating his supernaturally acquired knowledge of heaven and hell. Some preachers, like Paul Egard, in Holstein, gave very favorable testimonials of his character and his preaching; but the larger number took offense at his pretended revelations, and persecuted him. In Hamburg, where he spent several years, he was imprisoned. During the last years of his life he lived in great retirement in his native city. He died in 1644. Though unlettered, he wrote several books, especially a View of Heaven (Brunswick, 1625); and they were collected in 1640, and again in 1697, into editions of his Werke und Offenbarungen (Brunsw. and Alnsterd.). Some of his writings have been translate41 into French and English. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 4:32.