gion, and
far more important as a living link between Reformers like Denck,
Schwenckfeld, and Franck of the sixteenth century, and Jacob Boehme and
the spiritual interpreters of the English Commonwealth, was Valentine
Weigel, Pastor of Zschopau. Like so many of the men who figure in
these chapters, he is little known, seldom read, not a quick and
powerful name in the world, but he is worth knowing, and he was the
bearer of a burning and kindling torch of truth. He was born at
Naundorf, a suburb of Grossenhain, District of Meissen, in 1533. He
received the Bachelor's and Master's degree of the University of
Leipzig, and he pursued his studies still further in the University of
Wittenberg, his study-period having continued until 1567. In the
autumn of that year he was ordained and called to be Pastor of
Zschopau, where he passed as a minister his entire public life, which
came to a peaceful end in 1588. He was an ideal pastor and true
shepherd of his flock--loving them and being beloved by them. His
ministry was fresh and vital, and made his hearers _feel_ the presence
and the power of the Spirit of God.

There was, so far as I can discover the facts, only one blemish on his
really beautiful character. He lacked that robust, unswerving
conscience which compels a man who sees a new vision of the truth to
proclaim it, to champion it, and to suffer and even die for it when it
comes into collision with views which his own soul has outgrown. {140}
Weigel was resolved not to have his heart's deepest faith, his mind's
most certain truth, known, at least during his lifetime, by the persons
who were the guardians of orthodoxy. He signed the "Confessions" of
his time as though they expressed his own convictions; he counted it a
duty of the first importance to guard his pastoral flock from the
distractions and assaults of heresy-hunters, and he left his matured
and deeply meditated views for posterity to discover. How far he was
personally timid cannot now be determined. It would seem, however,
from his own words,[6] that he was especially concerned for the safety
and welfare of his own flock, who would suffer if he were cried down as
an enthusiast or a spiritual prophet. But even so, it is very doubtful
if any man can rightly permit anything on earth to take precedence to
his own loyalty to the vision of truth which his soul sees. As a
result, however, of the course he took, he died in good odour of
sanctity, and the