Sack, Brethren of the, a religious order, which was established about the beginning of the 13th cen- tury, and had monasteries in France, Germany, Italy, and England. The brethren were very austere, for they neither ate flesh nor drank wine. Besides, the sack which they wore, and from which they took the name, they went barelegged, and had only wooden sandals on their feet. — Buck, Theol. Diet. s. v.
Sack, August Friedrich Wilhelm, one of the most eminent German Reformed preachers of the reign of Frederick II of Prussia, was born at Harzgerode, Feb. 4, 1703. In 1722-24 he studied at Frankfort-on-the- Oder. The next two years he passed as tutor in the family of a French preacher at Stettin. Then he studied in Holland. Here he became acquainted with the chief theologians of Arminianism, from which his own views took a permanent coloring. From 1728 to 1731 he was teacher to a j'oung prince in the neighborhood of Mag- deburg. In 1731 he began to preach in Magdeburg, and rapidly rose in esteem and in office. In the last j'ear of the old king Frederick William I (1740) he was called to Berlin, where he entered upon his ministry of forty years. It was a noble an<l fruitful career. He stood independent between the two prevalent parties — the slavishly orthodox and the rationalists — holding to the good in both parties, and esteemed by the best in both. At the outbreak of the Seven Years' War he ac-
com]janied the royal family to Magdeburg, and there, for three years, was charged with the education of the crown-prince. At the close of the war, he resumed hi8 labors as cathedral preacher in Berlin. He preached his last sermon in 1780. He died April 3, 1786. The chief thetilogical work of Sack is Der vertheidigte Glaube der Christen (issued first in 1751, again in 1773), a pop- ular statement and defence of Christian doctrine, which is worthy of attention even to-day. In this work the author ablj' and safely avoids the two fatal extremes of dynamic determinism as to the action of grace and of the self-regeneration of the Socinians. '-The objective conditions of salvation are miraculously prepared in re- demption ; the subjective appropriation of these condi- tions is left to human freedom. God cannot convert man without man ; man cannot convert himself with- out God." Of Sack's sermons several volumes appeared (1735 to 1764). They passed through many editions. One volume of them was translated into French by Frederick II's queen, I21izabeth : Six Sermons de M. Sack (1776). In character Sack was worthy of his high position. He quailed not before tyrants, and was be- lieving in an age of negation and infidelitj-. He stood by the side of Spalding, Jerusalem, and Zollikofer, a pillar of the Church, when obscurantist and neologist were laboring to bury it in ruins. His was noble blood; his son and his son's son have followed worthily in his footsteps. See Sack, Lebensbeschreibung (by his son [Berlin, 1789, 2 vols. J) ; Herzog, Real-Encykl. xx, 653- 662. (J. P. L.)
Sack, Carl Heinrich, Dr., a German theologian, son of F. S. G. Sack, was born at Berlin, Oct. 17, 1790. He studied at Giittingen and Berlin, and commenced his lectures at the Berlin University in 1817. In 1818 he was made professor extraordinary, and in 1832 pro- fessor of theology in Bonn. He died at Pappelsdorf, near Bonn, Oct. 16, 1875. Of his many works we men- tion Chi'istliche Apologelik (Hamb. 1841): — Christliche Polemik (ibid. 1838) : — Geschichte der Predigt von Mos- heim bis Schleiermacher und Jtfenken (Heidelberg, 1866) : — Theologische A'ifsdfze (Gotha, 1871, etc.). See Zuch- o\d, Bibliotheca Theulogica, ii, 1106 sq. ; Theologisches Universal- Lerikon, s. v.; Koch, Gesch. des deutschen Kirchenliedes, vii, 353 ; Literarischer Handweiser (1875), p. 433 ; Theologisches Jahrbuch (Bielefeld, 1877), p. 228. (B. P.)
Sack, Friedrich Ferdinand Adolph, brother of the preceding, was born at Berlin, Jidy 16, 1788, and succeeded his father as court and cathedral preacher. He died Oct. 16, 1842. Together with his brother, he published Sermons (Bonn, 1835). He is also the author of the beautiful communion hymn Du ladcst, Herr, zu deinem Tisch. See Koch, Gesch. des deutschen Kirchen- liedes, vii, 353 ; Knapp, Evangel. Liederschatz, p. 1342, s. V. (B. P.)
Sack, Friedrich Samuel Gottfried, a Prus- sian theologian, court preacher, and Church governor, was born Sept. 4, 1738. His mother was of a French refugee family, which explains a fondness which Sack had for the French language and literature. He studied at the University of Frankfort-on-the-Oderfrom 1755 to 1757. The next two years he studied in England, com- ing into contact with Seeker, the archbishop of Canter- bury, Kemiicott, Lardner,,and others. On his return to Germany he acted as tutor to a young nobleman, whom he accompanied to Frankfort-on-t he-Oder, and where he again heard lectures. He now associated much with Tollner. After preaching at IMagdeburg (1769-77), he was called bj' Frederick II as fifth court preacher to Berlin. Gradually he rose to the first place. In 1786 he became a member of the high consistorv. The years 1804-13 were spent in arduous devotion to the oppressed and suffering people of the capital. In 1816 the king conferred upon him the title of bishop of the Evangeli- cal Church. He died Oct. 2, 1817. In theology Sack was independent of the traditions of orthodoxy, but he