RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Sachau Sachsse
joys of life to the divine judgment seat, where, abandoned by his friends, he finds consolation in faith in the merits of Christ. Besides purely Biblical narratives are found legends of apostles and martyrs. In the writings which treat of virtues and vices there is found keen observation, cogent thought, and well-drawn characters, despite frequent monotony and prolixity. Here mention can only be made of Das kunstlich Frauen Lob, Fama das weitfliegend Geriicht, Die gut und bos Eigenschaft des Geldes, and Kampfgesprach Xenophontis Philosophi mit Frau Tugend und Frau Untugend. It is, however, in the fables, farces, and Shrove Tuesday plays that Hans Sachs reaches the zenith of his art. In the farces, 210 in number, the devil and fools are the principal characters. The devil, however, is ridiculous rather than dangerous, while the speeches of the fools contain serious admonitions. Among these farces allusion may be made to Der Teufel sucht ihm eine Ruhstatt auf Erden, Der eigensinnig Monch mit dem Wasserkrug, and Der Einsiedel mit dem Honigkrug. The Shrove Tuesday plays, of which the Nuremberg edition contains forty-two, are essentially dramatized farces, designed, as their author said, "only for seemly merriment and joy." The first of these plays, Das Hofgesind Veneris 1517), is based on the Tannhauser cycle, and among the others are Das bos Weib, Der fahrend Schiiler im Paradeiss, Das heiss Eisen, and Das Weib im Brunnen. In regard to religion and the Church, Hans Sachs was a Christian, almost a Protestant, poet. Between 1514 and 1518 he wrote eight hymns, in 1525 he issued his Etliche geystliche in der schrifft gegrilnte Lieder fur die lay en zu singen, and in 1528 his Dreytzehen Psalmen, his entire contributions of this character numbering thirty-five. Many of these marked distinct changes from the older views, as when he modified the Sant Christoff du heyliger man into the Christe warer sun Gottes fron. To the same category belong the paraphrases of books and portions of the Bible, as of the Psalter, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus, the types of the Old Testament, and the gospels for Sundays.
Hans Sachs was not only a poet, but a polemist, and was one of the first and most decided adherents of the Reformation in Nuremberg. Long an admirer of Luther, he himself entered the lists against the Roman Catholic Church with his poem of 700 verses, Die Wittembergisch Nachtigall, die man yetz horet uberall (1523). In 1524 he published his Vier Dialogen in Prosa: the disputation between a canon and a shoemaker; an attack on the Anti- outward works and vows of the clergy; Romanist and two admonitions to the Lutherans Writings, themselves against unseemly conduct and against abuse of their freedom. He created a sensation in 1527 by publishing, together with A. Osiander, his Eyn wunderliche weyssagung von dem Babstumb, wie es yhm biss an das endt der welt gehen sol, in Figuren oder gemal begriffen, a work consisting of thirty pictures and 150 verses by Hans Sachs. Luther highly approved the production, but it was suppressed at Nuremberg, and its author received a ' sharp warning from the authorities. Nevertheless, he expressed similar views two years later in his Inhalt zweierlei Predigt,
jede in einer kurzen Summ begriffen, in which the Lutheran doctrine of salvation was set forth in fifty-five verses, while all the practises of the Roman Catholic Church were pictured in an equal number of strophes, the reader being invited, at the close, to make his choice. To the same category belongs his Der gut und der bos Hirt (1531), based on John x., in which the shepherd with the triple crown enters the house by the roof, while the good shepherd (the Lutheran pastor) comes in by the door. Of bitterly polemic character was the Vergleichung des Babst mit Christo, jr paider leben und passion (1551), in seventy-five verses, and equally virulent was his Epitaphium Lutheri (1546). Repeatedly in other poems Hans Sachs assails usages and conditions in the Roman Catholic Church of which he disapproved. His Heiltum fur das unfleissige Haushalten was directed against relics, Der Ketzermeister mit den viel Kesselsuppen against luxury in monastic life, and Der Schwank vom verlornen und redeten Gxdden against the pope and indulgences, while auricular confession, holy water, and monasticism also came in for a share of his sarcasm. In the comedy of Die ungleichen Kinder Eva the good children repeat the Lutheran catechism by heart and receive all earthly blessings, while the bad answer with nonsense or in terms of atheism and Roman Catholicism, and are condemned to servitude and wretchedness.
In his lifetime Hans Sachs enjoyed wide esteem. With the change in poetic structure in the early seventeenth century, he sank into oblivion, but was rescued by Goethe and Herder, and since then he has been recognized as the first poet of the sixteenth century. (G. Holz.) Bibliography: M. S. Ranisch, Historisch-kritische Lebensbeschreibung Hans Sachsens, Altenburg, 1765; R. Genee, Hans Sachs und seine Zeit, 2d ed., Leipsic, 1902; J. L. Hoffmann, Hans Sachs. Sein Leben und Wirken, Nuremberg, 1847; O. Haupt, Leben und dichterische Wirksamkeit des Hans Sachs, Posen, 1868; F. Ahlfeld and E. Luthard, Hans Sachs und Albrecht Dilrer, Leipsic, 1875; F. Schultheiss, Hans Sachs in seinem Verhaltnisse zu Reformation, Leipsic, 1879; W. Kawerau, Hans Sachs und die Reformation, Halle, 1883; H. Nietschmann, Hans Sachs, Ein Lebensbild, Halle, 1889; E. Mummenhoff, Hans Sachs, Nuremberg, 1894; J. Nover, Hans Sachs, Hamburg, 1895; L. B. Suphan, Hans Sachs, Humanitdtzeit und Gegenwart, Weimar, 1895; L. Mettetal, Hans Sachs et la reformation, Paris, 1895; F. Fichler, Das Nachleben des Hans Sachs, Leipsic, 1904; H. Holzschuher, Hans Sachs in seiner Bedeutung ]ur unsere Zeit, Berlin, 1906.
SACHSSE, sac'se, EUGEN: German Protestant; b. at Cologne Aug. 20, 1839. He was educated at the universities of Bonn and Berlin (lie. theol., 1863), and after being pastor at Notho-on-the-Weser (1863-69), and teacher at the normal school of Hilchenbach (1869-71), was pastor at Hamm (1871- 1883) ; director and professor of the seminary for preachers at Herborn (1883-90), and was called to his present post of professor of practical theology in the Protestant taculty of the University of Bonn in 1890. He has written Ur sprung und Wesen des Pietismus (Wiesbaden, 1884); Die ewige Erlosung (sermons; 2 vols., Giitersloh, 1885-98); Ueber die Mogiichkeit Gott zu erkennen (Giessen, 1888); Evangelische Katechik (Berlin, 1897), and Der geschichtliche Wert der drei ersten Evangelien (1904); and has published a German translation of A. Hy-
Sack Brethren
Sacrament