with Scip. Maffei, who had cast some doubt upon the authenticity of these fragments: — Ecclesice evangelicce libri symboiici ( Tubingen, 1730, 8vo). Finally, Pfaff di- rected the publication of the new German translation of the Bible, which appeared at Tubingen (1729, fob), a work on which, in connection with others, he actively labored. Pfaff was a learned man of the very first rank, but of doubtful moral character. He is the real found- er of the so-called collegial system, which regards the Church as a collegium: as a corporation possessing cor- porate rights, the Church can make her own statutes and laws, and can insist upon their observance. The attitude of the state towards her is but incidental, or similar to the position it occupies with respect to any other association. The magistratus politicus does not belong to her; the Church consisting solely of teachers and taught. It is only by transference, by virtue of silent or express compact, that the magistracy can re- ceive rights originally inherent in the Church. Results were, however, at first, and till after the commencement of the 19th century, in favor of the territorial system. The Bible known among the German Protestants as " the Bible of Tubingen" was published under Pfaff's di- rection in one folio volume in 1727. See Strieder, Hes- sische Gelehrtengesch. ; Rathlef, Gesch. jetztlebendt ■■/■ <:<- lehrten, pt. i; Schrb'ckh, Unparteiiscke Kirchengesch. iv. 787 ; Sax, Glioma stitrm, vi, 138, 648 ; Bauer, Ga'lh ri, , vol. v; Doring, Die Gelehrten Theologen Deutschlands, vol. iii, s. v. ; Ilirsehing, Handbuch ; Meusel, Lexikon, s. v. — Hoefer, Now. Biog. Generate, xxxix. 794 ; comp. Hurst's Hagenbacb, Ch. Hist. \xth and 19th. Centuries,!, llu sq., 410 ; Ebrard, Kirchen- u. Dogmengesch. iv, 131. (J. II. W.) Pfaff, Johann Christoph, a German Lutheran theologian, was born at Pfullingcn in 1631, and was ed- ucated at the university in Tubingen, where he after- wards flourished as professor of theology. He was also for a time pastor at St. Leonhard's Church in Stuttgard. He died in 1720. He was the author of about forty works and exegetical and dogmatical dissertations, but none of them are of much value in our day. A list of them may be found in Winer's T/teol. Lite.ratur, s. v. See also Bijckh, Gesch. der Unlet isiliit Ttibingiu; Le- poin, Leben der Gelehrten, and Bibliolheca Bremensis (1720). (J. H.W.)
Pfauser (Phauser), Johann Sebastian, a Ger- man Roman Catholic divine, was born at Constance in 1520. He came by recommendation of the bishop of Trent to Vienna as court-preacher of emperor Ferdi- nand I, but was obliged to quit that place on account of his anti-Roman tendency. He was thereafter employed as confessor and preacher by the emperor's son, Maxi- milian, and all efforts to supplant him here were unsuc- cessful until the Bohemian crown question arose, and it became necessary for the court to have the favor of all Ultramontane prelates. In 1560 Pfauser became pastor at Lauingen. He died in 1569. To the last Maximil- ian kept up a friendly correspondence with this good man. (J. H. W.)
Pfefferkorn, Johann (originally Joseph), a noted Jewish convert to Christianity, was born in Moravia in 1469. He embraced Christianity, and was publicly bap- tized at Cologne with his wife and children in 1506, when thirty-six years old. All the efforts of this man, who, with many faults, was certainly not wanting in merit, were early directed to the conversion of his breth- ren according to the flesh. The means he first made use of were highly laudable; for he treated them with gentleness, and even defended his former co-religionists against the calumny of their enemies. But fanatical and misguided, his zeal afterwards was less well ad- vised when he began to forbid and condemn the read- ing of any Hebrew book excepting the Old Testament. With the aid of the Dominican monks, he prevailed on the emperor Maximilian to adopt bis views, and in 1509 an edict was published which enjoined that all writings emanating from the Jews against the Christian religion
PFEFFERKORN
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PFEIFFER
should bo suppressed and condemned to the flames; this edict was Boon succeeded by another, July 6, L510, en- joining the destruction of every Hebrew I k with the
sole exception of the Old Testament, The execution of this edicl wa-. however, suspended until the opinion of the electoral archbishop Oriel of Mayence had been obtained. By reason of this delaj . Prof. John Reuchlin, whose opinion in iliis matter was sought for, was en- abled i" publish a voluminous treatise, in which he di- vided the Jewish work* into .seven different classes, and afti rwards proved which of these classes might be con- sidered dangerous or injurious to the < hristian religion. Among the books which he thinks in part harmless and in part useful, and even valuable to theology . and which he would in consequence preserve, were not only the i ommentaries of Rashi, the Kimchis, [bn-Ezra, Gerson- ides, Nachmanides, etc., bul the Talmud and the cab- alistic book Si. har (q. v.). On the other hand, Reuch- lin maintained that those only should be destroyed which contained blasphemies against Christ, such as the Nizzachon and Toledoth Jeshu. He further pointed out the impossibility ol suppressing books by an imperi- al decree which were dispersed in all parts of the world, and might easily be reprinted in other placi -. I he contest so. .11 grew warm between the adversaries of the