Danzig -- Religions - Pietists

Some pietists had influence in Danzig, but many of them were treated rather badly, and there were repeated attempts to ban their writings and practices within the city. The Geistliches Ministerium (College of Lutheran pastors) largely controlled who would be examined as candidate for clerical positions in Danzig. Study in Halle, especially with known Pietists, virtually excluded a person as candidate. Those who publicly denounced the ministrations of ordained preachers as superfluous or unchristian faced possible incarceration. Salomon Bach, a lawyer in the village of Petershagen, was imprisoned in 1729 for rejecting the sacraments on grounds that this seemed too much like priestly absolution, something he believed only God capable of. One of Germany's best known anti-pietists was Samuel Schellwig, rector of a local school and pastor of St. Trinitatis. Paul Swietlicki, deacon and then pastor at St. Johann's (1734-1756), had difficulty trying to convince the Ministerium to be tolerant of Pietists.

[Gotthilf Löschin. Der seufzende Berrhoenser. In Beiträge zur Geschichte Danzigs und seiner Umgebungen. (1837) Hannover-Döhren: Verlag Harro v. Hirschheydt, 1977. I. 85-91.]
[Eduard Schnaase. Geschichte der evangelischen Kirche Danzigs. Danzig: Bertling, 1863. S. 402-416.]