In Southern Germany Pietism found its most congenial soil in Wurtemberg, where the ground had already been prepared by the labours of [283]Andrea. At first it showed itself in small fanatical sects, which drew down on themselves not a little contempt and even persecution, and a prohibition of all private meetings for any religious purpose whatever. But it soon found an excellent leader in Albert Bengel (1687-1732), one of the brightest examples of this school. He was a man of earnest piety, and of a remarkably powerful and sagacious mind, whose position as head of the important theological seminary of Denkendorf, and afterwards as prelate and member of the consistory, gave him great influence over the whole development of religious thought in Wurtemberg, and enabled him among other things to procure the repeal of the law against religious meetings. He was the author of many prose works on theology, of which those on Biblical criticism, especially his "Gnomon," held a high place in the estimation of theologians; and he also wrote a few good hymns. [34]

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Footnotes:

[34] He was a student of prophecy, and fixed on the year 1836 as the close of the present dispensation, candidly adding, however, "Should that year pass over without some wonderful change, there must be a fundamental error in my system."