PHILELEUTHERUS HELVETIUS. (Pseudonym of Johannes Jakob Zimmermann.) De miraculis quae Pythagorae, Apollonio Tyanensi, Francisco Assisio, Dominico, & Ignatio Lojolae tribuuntur, libellus, auctore Phileleuthero Helvetio. Douai (Duaci) (= Zürich), Typis Petri Columbii, 1734. 8vo. (XVI;XXXVI),404 p. Vellum 17 cm (Ref: Brunet 4,602; Graesse 5,263; E. Weller, 'Die falschen und fingirten Druckorte', Leipzig, 1858, p. 190) (Details: 5 thongs laced through the joints. Short title & year on the back. All 3 edges marbled. Good quality paper) (Condition: Vellum soiled. Old inscription on the front flyleaf: 'Bel exemplaire de ce livre curieux et recherché'; old references written on the verso of this flyleaf) (Note: 'Johannes Jakob Zimmermann, Professor der Theologie an der Karlsschule in Zürich war der erste namhafte Vertreter der religiösen Aufklärung dieser Stadt'. Zimmermann was born in 1695 in Zürich, and died there in 1756. During his studies he came under the influence of freethinkers like Clericus and Grotius, and began to dislike orthodoxy, and grew interested in heretics. In 1737 he was appointed professor of natural law and of church history in his hometown, and later succeeded, against all expectations, in gaining a professorship of theology. (Hauptprofessur) 'In dieser Stellung entfaltete er eine bedeutende Thätigkeit als Lehrer und Freund der studirenden Jugend und veröffentlichte daneben eine Reihe von theils gelehrten, theils mehr populären Abhandlungen philosophischen und theologischen Inhaltes'. Zimmermann wanted to discuss fruchtbringende Fragen instead of the traditionellen Subtilitäten, and made a stand against Verketzerungssucht. He warned against too exaggerated views on the holiness of the first christians, and the visions and wonders that occurred in the first centuries of christianity. To prove his point he wrote this De miraculis quae Pythagorae, Apollonio Tyanensi, Francisco Assisio, Dominico, & Ignatio Lojolae tribuuntur, libellus. Their stories were merely inventions of naive followers, he argues. His scepticism brought him ennemies among the clergy, who opposed his arminian heresy. 'Zimmermann's Bekämpfung der Orthodoxie stützt sich auf die Überzeugung, das die Religion eine praktische Angelegenheit des Menschen sei. Das oberste Ziel der Religion ist die Besserung des Menschen. (...) Die zürcherischen Theologen der zweiten Hälfte des Jahrhunderts kamen aus seine Schule'. (ADB 45,271-273) Zimmermann's book against wonderworking and supernatural tales remained on the Index of forbidden books of the Catholic Church till 1948. It was published pseudonymously in Zürich. The name of the Swiss author was already revealed to the public in a review of the book in the Bibliothèque germanique, ou Histoire littéraire de l'Allemagne, de la Suisse et des Pays du Nord, Année 1735, Tome 31, p. 148/152. We quote part of the review: 'Après quelques Reflexions générales sur les Miracles, il parle d'abord de ceux de Pythagore & d'Apollonius, & puis de ceux de St. François, de St. Dominique, & de St. Ignace de Loyola. Ensuite il entre dans l'Examen de la doctrine, des moers; & du but de chacun des ces faiseurs de Miracles en particulier. Il prétend que les Miracles des uns & des autres ne sauroient venir de Dieu; mais il ne veut pas non plus qu'ils ayent été l'Ouvrage de Demon, desorte qu'il ne lui reste d'autre partie à prendre que de les taxer comme il fait de Chimeres & d'impostures, de faux Miracles ménagés par l'adresse des Charlatans Thaumaturges. On se sera pas faché de lire ce que Notre Auteur dit pour appuyer son sentiment, surtout par rapport aux prétendus Miracles d'Apollonius de Tyane. Monsieur Zimmermann ameroit mieux qu'on canonisât Socrate, que les trois Saints qu'il met en parallele avec Pythagore & avec Apollonius'. Zimmermann's pseudonym Phileleutherus Helvetius, means a Swiss loving freedom, or a Swiss liberal. This pen name echoes the pseudonym used by the famous English philologist and theologian Richard Bentley, 1662-1742, the greatest name among classical scholars of the first half of the 18th century. In 1710 he published a book with his emendations of the fragments of Menander and Philemon under this assumed name. Zimmermann, by choosing this name, seems to connect his endeavour to wipe out idolatry, superstition and the belief in wonders in pre-elightenment faith with the battle fought by Bentley against orthodox classical philologists who thought that old was best. He proved in his Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris (1697), that some ancient texts, which were believed to be old, authorative, and great literature, were in fact late antique forgeries without any literary or historical merit. Zimmermann tries to do the same. He argues that wondrous tales concerning Franciscus of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan order, and Dominicus Guzman, the founder of the Dominican order, and Ignatius de Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, which were considered to be true, and which were promoted by the Catholic Church, were in fact mendacious fabrications. (mendacia & figmenta Monachorum, p. a2 recto) He also battles against the veneration of saints and the canonization of numerous saints by the Catholic Church. The transsubstantion of the body of Christ is in his eyes ridiculous. As a consequence the Vatican placed this book on the Index of forbidden books. And allthough Zimmermann admits in his preface, in caeteris satis ostendi, me natura ad jocos risusque proclivem non esse (p. b4 verso), one reads on the title that this book was published in 'Duaci', i.e. in Duacum, the Latin form of the name of the city of Douai in North of France, near Arras. It was in this city in the Spanish Netherlands, now French Flanders, that the Spanish king Philip II founded in 1559 with the support of pope Paulus IV a university which was to be a catholic bulwark of the Contrareformation against the spreading of the protestantism in the Low Countries. The contemporary reader would immediately have realized that this was an impossible and funny combination, an antipapist book, on the title of which pagan charlatans were on equal level with great saints, being published in the lion's den of Douai. The book was in fact published in Zürich. The name of the printer/publisher deserves some attention too. The non existing name 'Petrus Columbius' (Peter Dove) in the imprint seems to be programmatic. Contemporary readers might recognize Acts 4:8-11, where the apostle Petrus speaks up filled with the Holy Spirit, and explains that Christ is the only one a christian should worship. This passage forbids to believe in wonders, other than those of Christ, and forbids to worship other deities/saints. The dove symbolises the Holy Spirit since early christianity. It is told (John, 1:32) that the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus's head like a dove (quasi columbam), when he was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan. By way of conclusion we cite the titles of some chapters. Chapter 10: Miracula Pythagorae, Apollonii, Francisci, Dominici, Lojolae non sunt a Deo, quia doctrina eorum omnibus Dei virtutibus contraria, 11: '(...) quia Relig. Christianae veritatem & divinitatem subvertunt; 13: Disquiritur, utrum Miracula illa Diabolo sint tribuenda'. There is also a chapter (15) in which Zimmermann proves that Pontifices illos homines fuisse, cum rerum divinarum ignarissimos, tum impudentissimos, nequissimosque) (Collation: *8, a-b8, A-2B8 2C2) (Photographs on request)
Book number: 120531 Euro 450.00

Keywords: (Oude Druk), (Rare Books), Altertum, Antike, Antiquity, Apollonius of Tyana, Dominicus Guzman, Franciscus of Assissi, Heidentum, Ignatius de Loyola, Pythagoras, Tyanensis, ancient philosophy, antike Philosophie, paganism, religion, saints, superstition