Jacob Boehme II (1575 - 1624)

Born 24 Apr 1575 in Alt-Seidenberg, Switzerland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 17 Nov 1624 at age 49 in Görlitz, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany

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Biography

Jacob Boehme II is Notable.

From the HISTORY OF THE BOEHM (BEAM) FAMILY ^[1]

According to a Herr O. Boehm, now (1936) living in Zurich, there are few Boehms now resident in Switzerland and most of them originate from Wilchingen, a village in the Canton of Schaffhausen, situated between St. Gall and Basle, quite close to the German border. The ancestors of these Boehms appear for the first time in the family registers of Wilchingen in the year 1620, which leads us to believe that they were fugitives from Bohemia during the Thirty Years War when thousands of Hussan Heretics were expelled and found new homes in the neighbouring countries of Saxony, Silesia, and Switzerland.

Among the forerunners of a sect called the Pietists was Jacob Boehm, 1575-1624, the great Protestant Mystic, Theologian, and Philosopher, who started out as a shoemaker in Görlitz. He had had no formal education, having been a herd boy, and started a 3 year apprenticeship, aged 14, in 1589, until 1592, but regularly prayed and read the Bible ^[2]. By 1599 he had become a master shoemaker in Görlitz, and married Catharina Kuntzchmann, daughter of a Görlitz butcher, having 4 sons and 2 daughters. He worked hard at his business for the next ten years, allowing him to buy a substantial house where he continued his shoe business for another 3 years ^[3].

"Böhme had a number of mystical experiences throughout his youth, culminating in a vision in 1600 as one day he focused his attention onto the exquisite beauty of a beam of sunlight reflected in a pewter dish. He believed this vision revealed to him the spiritual structure of the world, as well as the relationship between God and man, and good and evil. At the time he chose not to speak of this experience openly" (ref.1). The experience persisted when he went outside and "gazed into the very heart of things, the very herbs and grass, and that actual nature harmonized with what he had inwardly seen" ^[4]. His complete transition into 'Cosmic Consciousness' did not take place for another 10 years, in 1610, and in his own words took place 'in one quarter of an hour', with a description of what he experienced (op.cit.).

Two years later he wrote a book for himself, which was never completed, given the title 'Aurora' by a friend, but of which a copy found it's way into the hands of Gregorius Richter, the chief pastor of Görlitz, who considered it heretical and threatened Böhme with exile if he continued working on it. He wrote several books from 1618 onwards for his friends but none were published until 1624, when 'The way to Christ' led to the Town Council expelling him from the town (ref.1).

His exposure of formal religion, his boldness in reproving sin, raised a storm of persecution. The Church exercised Civil as well as Ecclesiastical authority and Boehm was convicted of heresy and sentenced to prison. An elder brother was appointed to conduct him to the prison-house, he did not watch his brother very closely and as they were near the line that separated Switzerland from France the prisoner crossed over and was for ever free from his domestic and priestly persecutors.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ “History of Boehm (Beam) Family,” Fort Erie Local History, accessed January 19, 2019
2. ↑ Jakob Böhme From Wikipedia
3. ↑ 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Boehme, Jakob
4. ↑ Cosmic Consciousness, by Richard Maurice Bucke, 1901, at sacred-texts.com, Chapter 10 - Jacob Behmen (called The Teutonic Theosopher)
5. ↑ TWENTY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE WATERLOO HISTORICAL SOCIETY - 1936 - KITCHENER, ONT. - PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY April, 1938 - Pages 213 thru 228 - HISTORY OF THE BOEHM (BEAM) FAMILY

Other Sources

• The Life of Jacob Boehme - Ernst-Heinz Lemper: Jacob Böhme. Lebenswege (1575-1624) - Zittau, Görlitz: published by Gunter Oettel, 2000
• AURORA the DAY-SPRING - Or Dawning of the Day in the East Or Morning-Redness in the Rising of the SUN. That is The Root or Mother of Philosophy, Astrology & Theology from the true Ground. Or a Description of Nature. BY JACOB BEHMEN, THE TEUTONIC THEOSOPHER - 1612
• The Three Principles, OF THE DIVINE ESSENCE - By JACOB BEHMEN, the Teutonic Theosopher - 1619
• THE THREEFOLD LIFE OF MAN ACCORDING TO THE THREE PRINCIPLES BY JACOB BOEHME 1620