DANIEL

See also:

• ERNST, HEINRICH WILHELM (1814–1865)

ERNST

See also:

• DANIEL ERNST JABLONSKI (166o-1741)

JABLONSKI (166o-1741)  , German theologian, was born at Nassenhuben, near Danzig, on the 2oth of November 166o . His father was a minister of the Moravian Church, who had taken the name of Peter Figulus on his baptism; the son, however, preferred the Bohemian family name of Jablonski . His maternal grandfather, Johann Amos Comenius (d . 1670), was a bishop of the Moravian Church . Having studied at Frankfort-on-the-Oder and at Oxford, Jablonski entered upon his career as a preacher at Magdeburg in 1683, and then from 1686 to 1691 he was the head of the Moravian college at Lissa, a position which had been filled by his grandfather . Still retaining his connexion with the Moravians, he was appointed court preacher at Konigsberg in 1691 by the elector of Brandenburg, Frederick III., and here, entering upon a career of great activity, he soon became a person of influence in court circles . In 1693 he was transferred to Berlin as court preacher, and in 1699 he was consecrated a bishop of the Moravian Church . At Berlin Jablonski worked hard to bring about a union between the followers of Luther and those of Calvin; the courts of Berlin, Hanover, Brunswick and Gotha were interested in his scheme, and his principal helper was the philosopher Leibnitz . His idea appears to have been to form a general union between the German, the English and the Swiss Protestants, and thus to establish una eademque sancta catholica et aposto'ica eademque evangelica et reformats ecclesia . For some years negotiations were carried on with a view to attaining this end, but eventually it was found impossible to surmount the many difficulties in the way; Jablonski and Leibnitz, however, did not cease to believe in the possibility of accomplishing their purpose . Jablonski's next plan was to reform the Church of Prussia by introducing into it the episcopate, and also the liturgy of the English Church, but here again he was unsuccessful . As a scholar Jablonski brought out a Hebrew.edition of the Old Testament, and translated Bentley's A Confutation of Atheism into Latin (1696) .

He had some

share in founding the Berlin Academy of Sciences, of which he was president in 1733, and he received a degree from the university of Oxford . He died on the 25th of May 1741 . Jablonski's son, Paul Ernst Jablonski (1693-1757), was professor of theology and philosophy at the university of Frankforton-the-Oder . Editions of the letters which passed between Jablonski and Leibnitz, relative to the peoposed union, were published at Leipzig in 1747 and at Dorpat ir . 1899 .