THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Johannis (1849); Predigten iiber die erste Epistel des Apostels Petrus (1855; Eng. transl., 1856); Zwanzig Predigten im Jahre I84.6 gehalten (Halle, 1857); and Apostelgeschichte. Cap. 2-10. in 25 Predigten (Elberfeld, 1874). Some of these sermons have appeared in English under the title Miscellaneous Sermons (London, 1855). (H. Calaminus.)
Bibliography: Zur Erinnerung an Hermann Friedrich Kohlbriigge, Elberfeld, 1875; Eine Erinnerung an H. F. Kohlbriigge, Weiland Pastor der niederlandische-reformirten Kirchen, Hagen, 1882; A. Ritschl, Geschichte des Pietismus, i. 593 sqq., Bonn, 1880.
KOHLER, CHRISTIAN and HIERONYMUS:
Swiss fanatics and impostors, founders of the sect of the Briigglers. Christian was born in 1710 and Hieronymus in 1714 at Briigglen near Rtiggisberg (9 m. s. of Bern), Switzerland, in a region dominated by the influence of sectaries, prophetesses, and mystics. From their father the two brothers inherited a reputation for hydromancy, and soon discovered how to turn their knowledge to material profit, revealing at the same time a certain degree of native talent and a cunning and ambition which became an important factor in gaming a following. They had received no regular education, one being a day-laborer and the other a wagoner, had married at an early age, and were conspicuous for their moral delinquencies. In 1745 a remarkable movement, traceable to the influence of pietistic separatism, broke out in Briigglen and its vicinity, when children began to pray and to preach to their elders. Among these inspired children were the offspring of the Kohler brothers, and from them the fanatic spirit passed to their parents, who now experienced visions and dreams, and related to their neighbors the wonderful revelations vouchsafed them during periods of ecstasy. It has been supposed that in the beginning the two men were subjects of self-deception, but it is not impossible that their ecstatic visions were deliberate mendacities. They made use of the plentiful apocalyptic literature of the time for all their revelations with regard to the millennium and the antichrist, while they shared with all separatists an irreconcilable hatred for the Church. Their sole innovation was their audacious impersonation of the Trinity, a claim in which they were assisted by a woman of evil repute named Elizabeth Kissling. Christian Kohler proclaimed himself the temple of the Father, Hieronymus that of the son, and the Kissling woman that of the Holy Ghost. The success of their imposture evidently turned their heads, for they made no attempt to preserve any consistency of deception, but announced themselves at various times as the two witnesses of the Apocalypse, as the servants of Christ and his representatives, and as the successors to the throne of God. The Kissling woman was not only the incarnation of the Holy Ghost, but also the woman of the Apocalypse who was to give birth to the Saviour. At the same time they continued to practise divination and answered questions concerning the condition of the dead, being able to speak with authority since Christian Kohler was in constant communication with heaven. In case the departed soul was declared by them to be in hell, they professed themselves able to absolve it, and thus
profited by an active trade in indulgences. In 1750 after they had pursued their practises for more than five years, they were arrested and banished from the canton for six years. They frequently returned in secret, however, and renewed their prophecies until a price was set upon their heads. Hieronymus was seized Oct. 8, 1752, and executed Jan. 16, 1753- Elizabeth Kissling was imprisoned; and Christian after incarceration, professed himself ready to abandon his beliefs. His subsequent fate is unknown. Most of the Briigglers were quite ignorant of the vicious character of their prophets and abjured their heresies, but some remained faithful to the " murdered Messiah," and awaited his speedy return. The sect disappeared, but about fifty years later the Antonians renewed many of their doctrines and practises (see Antonians, 2).
(W. Hadorn.) Bibliography: J. R. Kyburz, Das entdeckte Geheimnis der Bosheit in der BriXgglersekte, 2 vols., Zurich, 1753; L. Meister, Helvetische Szenen der neueren Schwarmerei und Intoleranz, pp. 161 sqq., ib. 1785; J. R. Schlegel, Kirchengeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts, II., ii. 1062 sqq., 3 vols., Heilbronn, 1784-96; K. R. Hagenbach, Hist, of the Church in the 18th and 19th Centuries, 2 vols., New York, 1869; Hadorn, in Theologische Zeitschrift aus der Schweiz, 1900, part iv.
KOHLER, KAUFMANN: German-American rabbi; b. at Fiirth (5 m. n.w. of Nuremberg), Germany, May 10, 1848. He studied at the rabbinical schools of Hassfurt, Hochberg, Mainz, Altona, and Frankfort, and at the universities of Munich, Berlin, Leipsic, and Erlangen (Ph.D., 1868). In 1869 he came to the United States and was rabbi of Congregation Beth- El in Detroit until 1871. He then became rabbi of Sinai Congregation, Chicago, where he introduced Sunday lectures into the service of the American synagogue. In 1879 he was chosen rabbi of Temple Beth-El, New York City. In 1903 he was made honorary minister of that synagogue for life, that he might accept the proffered presidency of Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, O. He is one of the leaders of Reformed Judaism in the United States. He edited the weekly Sabbath Visitor 1881-82 and the weekly Jewish Reformer in 1886, and was editor of the departments of theology and philosophy of the Jewish Encyclopedia. He has edited David Einhorn's ausgewdhlte Predigten und Reden (New York, 1880) and has written: Der Segen Jakob's (Berlin, 1867); Die Bibel und die Todesstrafe (Leipsic, 1868); Das hohe Lied ubersetzt und kritisch neu bearbeitet (New York, 1878); Backwards or Forwards: Lectures on Reformed Judaism (1885); The Ethical Basis of Judaism (1887); Church and Synagogue in their Mutual Relations (Chicago, 1889); and A Guide to Instruction in Judaism (New York, 1898).
KOLB, FRANZ: Reformer; b. at Intzlingen, near Lorrach (28 m. s.s.w. of Freiburg), Baden, 1465; d. at Bern Nov. 10, 1535. In 1491 he entered the University of Basel, where humanism was well represented; in 1497 he became master and teacher in St. Martin's school, but in 1502 he retired to a Carthusian monastery in Swabia. Zwingli was probably his successor in Basel. In 1504 Kolb went to Freiburg as cantor and preacher and afterward was active for some time in the neighboring