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THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 132SUICERUS, JOHANNES HEINRICH: Swiss theologian, son of the preceding; b. in Zurich in 1646; d. in Heidelberg Sept. 23, 1705. He studied in Zurich and Geneva; was professor of Greek and philosophy in the gymnasium at Hanau 1665-67; then became pastor at Birmensdorf near Zurich; in 1683 succeeded his father at the Carolinum; and went in the spring of 1705 as first pastor and ecclesiastical councilor to Heidelberg. He caused considerable excitement by the publication of his book on Revelation (1674), and it was suppressed, but lie had it and his Lapis Lydius printed anonymously in Holland (1676), after which he received a reprimand from the council of Zurich. Outside of his commentary on Colossians, his other works were on subjects in philosophy or church politics.
SUICIDE: The intentional killing of oneself, the term excluding both the shortening of life by excess or recklessness, and self-sacrifice, or the surrender of life to gain a higher moral good, since only in suicide is there a conscious and deliberate contempt for life per se and an entire absence of desire to attain any superior good (as in self-sacrifice) or even a greater degree of pleasure (as in excess or recklessness). The history of suicide reveals marked variations according to race and period. Among peoples of simple civilization and those with a fixed code of morals and an unshaken
History. belief suicide is very rare, and is deemed unnatural and reprehensible. This was the view of the early Greeks, and of the Pythagoreans, Plato, and Aristotle; but with the decay of national thought and character Stoicism taught indifference to life and death as mere exter nal phenomena, and advocated voluntary surrender of life as a means of gaining independence for the soul. This view, which failed to distinguish clearly between self-sacrifice and suicide, and was also irreconcilable with the Stoic doctrine of the virtu ous man's submission to the universe, was eagerly defended by the Romans of the early Empire, par ticularly by Seneca (q.v.). While Biblical religion conquered this attitude of despair and the useless ness of life, neither the Old nor the New Testament contains any specific prohibition o_ suicide, though the principles enunciated in the sixth command ment and in such passages as Rom. xiv. 7-9, I Con vi. 19, and Eph. v. 29 may be extended by analogy to suicide. Even where cases of suicide are recorded, as of Saul (I Sam. xxxi. 4), Ahithophel (II Sam. xvii. 23), Zimri (I Kings xvi. 18), and Judas (Matt. xxvii. 5, Acts i. 18, 25), there is no word of con demnation of the act in itself. On the other hand, Paul once prevented suicide (Acts xvi. 27-28). The lack of express prohibition finds explanation partly in the extreme rarity of suicide among the Jews, and partly in the national abhorrence of it, the sole exception being when patriotic motives entered into the question (Judges xvi. 28-30; II Macc. xiv. 37-46; Josephus, Ant., XIV., xiii. 10). Christianity worked here, not by prohibitions, but by creating a new attitude of mind, teaching the fatherly love of God (I Cor. x. 13; I Thess. v. 9), giving life a distinct ethical content (Phil. i. 22 sqq.),and interpreting suffering as a divine dispensation (Rom. v. 3 sqq., viii. 18). The early Church firmly opposed suicide, although practically the only case in which such a tendency appeared was in the overzealous desire for martyrdom (see MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS). Whether, in time of persecution, Christian women might commit suicide to escape dishonor was a moot question, lauded by Eusebius, Chrysostom, and Jerome, but condemned by Augustine (De civitate Dei, i. 16 sqq.), the latter position also being taken by church councils, some of which forbade the suicide honorable burial (Orldans, 533, canon 15, Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ii. 757, Eng. transl., iv. 187, Fr. transl., ii. 2, p. 1135; Braga, 563, capitulum 16, Hefele, ut sup., iii. 19, Eng. transl., iv. 385, Fr. transl., iii. 1, p. 180). The rise of the tenet of personal freedom in the period of the early Illumination wrought a marked change, although many of the earliest works advocating the permissibility of suicide could appear only posthumously, as J. Donne's Biathanatos (London, 1644) and D. Hume's essay on suicide in his Two Essays (1777). In the general literature of the eighteenth century suicide was frequently discussed as a psychological and moral question, as by Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Goethe; but while these authors advocated a less rigorous attitude, theologians and all the best philosophical writers, such as Spinoza, Wolff, Mendelssohn, Kant, and Fichte, condemned it. Modern pessimism maintains a rather indeterminate position toward the problem.
The increasing frequency of suicide had been statistically proved in the nineteenth century, the rate being at least trebled in the great civilized countries. A large number of suicides, about a third, may be traced to mental derangement, thus indicating a close connection between sui-
Conditions tide and insanity. Suicide is more freand quent in cities than in the country,
Remedy. increasing with ease of communication and the progress of education; it is far more frequent among Protestants than among Roman Catholics, but is in inverse proportion to crimes against the person. All this does not imply that higher culture involves despair and disgust for life, but that as needs increase, the number of those increases who, unable to satisfy these needs, des pair since they have within themselves no means of consolation. The highest percentage of suicides is found among the Germanic peoples, next coming the Romance peoples and the Slavs. The reasons for the excessive frequency of suicide amdng the Teutons has been ascribed either to the use of in toxicants or to the results of unrestricted investi gation in science and religion, although it seems more probable that the true explanation lies in Germanic idealism and individualism, with a touch of sentimentalism, which is ill adapted to cope with stern and circumscribing conditions. A still more potent factor than all others, however, is the decay of religion and of moral conviction during the nine teenth century, which has deprived large masses of influences most potent in counteracting the tend ency to suicide; for it is only a spiritual and inward strength which can enable the individual to stand
