opment--it is impossible to settle
precisely when or where--he read the writings of the spiritual Reformers,
and received from them formative influences which turned him powerfully
to the cultivation of inward religion for his own soul and to the
expression and interpretation of a universal Christianity--a Christianity
of the inward Word and of an invisible Church. The lines of similarity
between many of his views and those of Franck are so marked that no one
can doubt that he read the books and meditated upon the bold teachings of
this solitary apostle of the invisible Church. In fact he frequently
mentions Franck by name in his writings and quotes his views. It is
certain, too, that he admired, loved, and translated the writings of
Sebastian Castellio, the French Humanist, first an admirer and then
opponent of Calvin, pioneer defender of freedom of thought, and exponent
of inward and spiritual religion of the type of the German Spiritual
Reformers,[6] and it is unmistakable that we have, in this Dutch
self-taught scholar, a virile interpreter of this same type of
Christianity, marked with his own peculiar variation, and penetrated with
the living convictions of his personal faith and first-hand experience.
While putting emphasis on personal experience and on inward insight he
nevertheless, like Franck, was suspicious {108} and wary of mystical
"enthusiasm" and of "private openings." He criticized the "revelations"
of David Joris and Henry Nicholas, and in place of their caprice he
endeavoured to find the way to a religion grounded in the nature of
things and of universal value. He was deeply read in the Mystics and
constantly used their terminology, but he often gave new meaning to their
words and pursued quite a different goal from that which absorbs the true
mystic.

Coornhert makes a sharp distinction between lower knowledge and higher
knowledge--knowledge proper. Lower knowledge does not get beyond images
and copies of true reality. It is sufficient for man's practical
guidance in the affairs of this world of space and time, but it becomes
only a "dead knowledge" when it is applied to matters of eternal moment.
The higher knowledge, on the other hand, is knowledge won through direct
experience and practice of the will. This higher knowledge is possible
for man because through Reason he partakes of the Word of God which is
Reason itself revealed and uttered, and therefore he may know God and
know of his own