PIETISM AND THE HOHENZOLLERN STATE TO 1700

By early 1691 Spener's relationship with the Elector of Saxony had deteriorated so seriously that he left the country. Spener did not remain unemployed for long, however; for in June he received from the Brandenburg-Prussian state a dual appointment as provost at Berlin's St. Nicholas church and as a member of the Lutheran consistory of Brandenburg. Yet it would be a mistake to suppose that a working partnership between the Hohenzollern regime and the Pietists followed automatically from Spener's appointment. The Pietists, for their part, initially had reservations about too close an association with the Brandenburg-Prussian state. For one of the most important characteristics of the early Pietist movement was precisely its desire to loosen the bonds between church and state that had tightened during the confessional era. Spontaneous action arising from conventicles within the church would, it was felt, first renew the Lutheran community and then serve as an instrument for social transformation “from below.”

Nor, despite the many political and religious reasons for supporting Pietism, was it by any means assured that the Brandenburg-Prussian state's backing for that movement would long endure. What would always remain a possible source of conflict between the Pietists and the Hohenzollern state were the latter's periodic attempts to pursue a goal first set forth by Frederick III (I): the union of the Lutheran and Reformed faiths.