Carpzov

CARPZOV: A family of German lawyers and theologians, of which the following are the most important members:

1. Benedikt Carpzov: Lawyer; b. at Wittenberg May 27, 1595; d. at Leipsic Aug. 30, 1666. He was educated at Wittenberg, Leipsic, and Jena, and after a tour through Italy, France, and England became a member of the court of sheriffs at Leipsic, 424where he remained with little interruption for forty years. He was later appointed assessor of the supreme court in Leipsic and counselor of the Dresden court of appeals. In 1645 he was made professor in the faculty of law at Leipsic, and was for eight years a member of the privy council of Dresden, but returned to Leipsic in 1661. Although he had not a creative mind, his diligence, judgment, and system enabled him to become the founder of German jurisprudence, and in his Practica nova imperialis Saxonica rerum criminalium (Wittenberg, 1638) he formulated the first system of German criminal law, while his Jurisprudentia ecclesiastica seu consistorialis (Leipsic, 1649) formed the earliest complete system of Protestant ecclesiastical law. He distinguished carefully between ecclesiastical and canon law, and was the first to use the ordinances of the Evangelical Church, the rescripts of the sovereigns, and the decisions of the consistories, thus summarizing the legal development of Protestantism since the Reformation.

2. Johann Benedikt Carpzov the Elder: Theologian, brother of the preceding; b. at Rochlitz (16 m. n.n.w. of Chemnitz) June 22, 1607; d. at Leipsic Oct. 22, 1657. He studied at the University of Wittenberg from 1623 to 1627, and then entered the University of Leipsic. In 1632 he was appointed pastor at Meuselwitz and five years later became deacon at the Church of St. Thomas at Leipsic. In ten years he rose to the archdeaconry and received the additional appointments of assessor of the consistory and canon, having become professor of theology at the university in 1641, although his pastoral duties allowed him little time for teaching. He maintained a certain reserve in the syncretistic controversies of the period, and though in harmony with his colleague Hülsemann, he carried on a friendly correspondence with Calixtus and later with his pupil Titius. His most important work, which has won him the title of the father of symbolics, was his Isagoge in libros ecclesiarum Lutheranarum symbolicos (Leipsic, 1665), which was completed after his death by Olearius, general superintendent of Magdeburg. Still more famous, however, is his Hodegeticum brevibus aphorismis olim pro collegio concionatorio conceptum et nunc revisum (1656), which gives 100 methods of arranging sermons.

3. Johann Benedikt Carpzov the Younger: Theologian, son of the preceding; b. at Leipsic Apr. 24, 1639; d. there Mar. 23, 1699. He was educated in his native city and at Jena, and was also influenced by Buxtorf in Basel and by Johann Schmid in Strasburg. In 1659 be became privat-docent at Leipsic, and in 1665 was appointed professor of ethics. Three years later he was made licentiate of theology and professor of Oriental languages. In 1684 he became professor of theology, having already been made deacon in 1671, archdeacon in 1674, and pastor of St. Thomas's in 1679. His pastoral duties forbade extensive literary activity, and he therefore restricted himself to editing the works of others, such as the Jus regium of Wilhelm Schickhard (Leipsic, 1674), the In Prophetas Minores commentarius of Johann Tarnov (1688), the Horæ Talmudicæ et Hebraicæ of John Lightfoot (1674), and an enlarged edition of his father's Hodegeticum (1689). Through this last-named work an interest was aroused in homiletics which completely overshadowed philosophy and exegesis. There was gradually evolved, therefore, an antagonism between Carpzov and Spener, which increased in bitterness until in 1691 three programs assailed Pietism, and five years later Carpzov attacked Thomasius in his De jure decidendi controrversias theologicas (1696), vainly attempting to support a failing cause.

4. Samuel Benedikt Carpzov: Theologian, son of Johann Benedikt the Elder; b. at Leipsic Jan. 17, 1647; d. at Dresden Aug. 31, 1707. After studying philosophy and philology at the university of his native city from 1663 to 1668, he went to Wittenberg, where he became a close friend of Calov and Aegidius Strauch. In 1674 he was called to Dresden as court-preacher, and five years later he was transferred to the Kreuzkirche, being also appointed superintendent and thus given the right to attend the sessions of the high consistory. He conducted the negotiations for the call of Spener, and proved himself a true friend of the Pietist until his brother at Leipsic became the leader of the opposition and persuaded him to change his attitude. After the retirement of Spener and the death of Green, Carpzov was chosen to succeed them, and he accepted with much hesitation, although he held the position for the remainder of his life.

5. Johann Gottlob Carpzov: Theologian, son of the preceding; b. at Dresden Sept. 26, 1679; d. at Lübeck Apr. 7, 1767. He was educated at Leipsic and Altdorf, and though the most learned theologian of his family, was indoctrinated with reactionary principles by his father and uncle. In 1708 he went from Dresden to Leipsic as deacon. He ranked among the foremost of Old Testament scholars, although in the preface to his Introductio in libros Veteris Testamenti (Leipsic, 1721) he declared that only the entire absence of such a work had rendered it possible for him to publish his own. This book, like his Critica sacra (1728), is characterized by clear arrangement, deep knowledge, and thorough criticism. Equally valuable was his Apparatus historico-criticus antiquitatum Veteris Testamenti (1748). His chief attacks were reserved for R. Simon, Clericus, and Spinoza, as representatives of the new criticism, and his point of view was that of Buxtorf and Hottinger, so that he postulated the verbal inspiration of the text of the Bible, and admitted no error whatsoever. He was, moreover, a consistent opponent of Pietism and the Moravians, and gladly accepted a call as superintendent to the orthodox city of Lübeck in 1730, after having been obliged to decline a similar invitation to go to Danzig. There he continued his polemics against the Moravians, publishing in 1742 one of the sharpest of all attacks on them in his Religionsuntersuchung der böhmischen und mährischen Brüder von Anbeginn ihrer Gemeinden bis auf gegenwärtige Zeiten.

6. Johann Benedikt Carpzov: Classical scholar and theologian, grandson of Johann Benedikt the Younger; b. at Leipsic May 20, 1720; d. at Königslutter (9 m. w.n.w. of Helmstädt) Apr. 18, 1803. 425He was educated at the university of his native city, where he was appointed associate professor in 1747, but was called in the following year as professor of Greek to Helmstädt, and in 1757 became abbot of Königslutter. Adhering to the orthodoxy of his family, he was commissioned by the duke to save the reputation of the university, endangered by the rationalism of Albrecht Teller, and he accordingly published his Liber doctrinalis theologiæ purioris (Brunswick, 1768). His philological learning was shown in his editions of the classics and in his Sacræ exercitationes in epistolam ad Hebræos ex Philone Alexandrino (Helmstädt, 1750); Stricturæ theologicæ in epistolam S. Pauli ad Romanos (1756); and Epistolarum catholicarum septenarius (Halle, 1790). His lectures, which he delivered in Latin, were devoted to classics, the New Testament, patristics, and Dolscius's Greek translation of the Augsburg Confession.

(Georg Mueller.)

Bibliography: On the family consult: ADB, iv. 10–26; R. Stintzing, Geschichte der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft, i. 723, ii. 56, Munich, 1880. On Benedikt Carpsov consult: K. Ricker, Die rechtliche Stellung der evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands, pp. 218–220, Leipsic, 1893. On Johann the Elder consult: A. H. Kreysig, Album der evangelisch-lutherischen Geistlichen in . . . Sachsen, pp. 265–267, Dresden, 1883; T. Spizel, Vetus academia Jesu Christi, pp. 227–233, Augsburg, 1671. On Johann the Younger consult: H. Pipping, Sacer decadum septenarius memoriam theologorum . . . , pp. 763–784, Leipsic, 1705; K. Rieker, ut sup., pp. 220–222; A. H. Kreysig, ut sup., pp. 265, 277. On Samuel Benedikt consult: J. A. Gleich, Annalium ecclesiasticoram, ii. 522–550, Dresden, 1730; G. L. Zeissler, Geschickte der sächsischen Oberhofprediger, pp. 111–119, Leipsic, 1856. On Johann Gottlob consult: A. H. Kreysig, ut sup., pp. 108, 266; L. Diestel, Geschichte des Alten Testaments in der christlichen Kirche, p. 352, Jena, 1869. On Johann Benedikt consult: F. Koldewey, Geschichte der klassischen Philologie, pp.165–168, Brunswick, 1897 (gives further literature).