distinctly academic cast. This was the adaptation of Leibnitz's
system by Christian Wolff, who, after building up a large influence
among students by his method of teaching, [1268] came into public
prominence by a rectorial address [1269] at Halle (1721) in which
he warmly praised the ethics of Confucius. Such praise was naturally
held to imply disparagement of Christianity; and as a result of the
pietist outcry Wolff was condemned by the king to exile from Prussia,
under penalty of the gallows, [1270] all "atheistical" writings being
at the same time forbidden. Wolff's system, however, prevailed so
completely, in virtue of its lucidity and the rationalizing tendency
of the age, that in the year 1738 there were said to be already 107
authors of his cast of thinking. Nevertheless, he refused to return
to Halle on any invitation till the accession (1740) of Frederick
the Great, one of his warmest admirers, whereafter he figured as
the German thinker of his age. His teaching, which for the first
time popularized philosophy in the German language, in turn helped
greatly, by its ratiocinative cast, to promote the rationalistic
temper, though orthodox enough from the modern point of view. Under
the new reign, however, pietism and Wolffism alike lost prestige,
[1271] and the age of anti-Christian and Christian rationalism
began. Thus the period of freethinking in Germany follows close upon
one of religious revival. The 6,000 theologians trained at Halle in the
first generation of the century had "worked like a leaven through all
Germany." [1272] "Not since the time of the Reformation had Germany
such a large number of truly pious preachers and laymen as towards
the end of the first half of the eighteenth century." [1273] There,
as elsewhere, religion intellectually collapsed.
As to Wolff's rationalistic influence see Cairns, Unbelief in
the Eighteenth Century, 1881, p. 173; Pusey, pp. 115-19; Pünjer,
p. 529; Lechler, pp. 448-49. "It cannot be questioned that, in
his philosophy, the main stress rests upon the rational" (Kahnis,
as cited, p. 28). "Francke and Lange (pietists) ... saw atheism
and corruption of manners springing up from Wolff's school"
(before his exile). Id. p. 113. Wolff's chief offence lay in
stressing natural religion, and in indicating, as Tholuck observes,
that that could be demonstrated, whereas revealed religion could
only be believed (Abriss, p. 18). He greatly pleased Voltaire
by the dictum that men ought to be just even though they had
the misfortune to be atheists. It is noted by Tholuck, however
(Abriss, as cited, p. 11, note), that the decree for Wolff's
expulsion was inspired not by his theological colleagues but
by two military advisers of the king. Tholuck's own criticism
resolves itself into a protest against Wolff's predilection for
logical connection in his exposition. The fatal thing was that
Wolff accustomed German Christians to reason.