Marc Swanner (1639-1713):The Man Behind Fox and Penn Claus Bernet (bio) During Germany’s early modern period, Quakerism was the most significant imported religious community of all those which gained a foothold there. Numerous German rulers and dignitaries of the church were deliberately sought from within England; Quaker communities arose in various places in Germany and were then interwoven into a multinational transatlantic network of this religious community. Less well known than the early start of Quakerism in Germany is the fate of German Quakers from the early days of this movement. Marc Swanner is one of these figures; because of his collaboration with George Fox and William Penn he is arguably one of the most significant German Quakers overall. However, hardly anything is known about his life and works. This essay connects for the first time the history of the “German” Markus Schwaner from Zittau with that of the “English” Marc Swanner in London. These two individuals are, of course, one and the same person, whose life story in Germany and in England has heretofore been investigated entirely separately, since German scholars were unaware of Schwaner’s story after his departure to England, while Anglo-American researchers knew nothing of his previous life in Germany. Introduction Up until this point, the Silesian local historian Carl Gottlob Moráwek (1816-1896) concerned himself with the Inquisitorial case against Schwaner. In 1887 he presented his findings, which are conserved in the Christian-Weise-Bibliothek in Zittau, Saxony. The title of his work is “A Son of Zittau Who in the Last Quarter of the 17th Century Was Banned After Six Months in Jail by His Home City and Country as a Result of Religious Intolerance. A Presentation Compiled According to Cited Sources (Acta). Zittau, 1879.” 1 Moráweks presentation is mainly a copy of an essay by Christian Pescheck, the minister of the city of Zittau (1787-1859): “Marcus Schwaner, a Quaker. A Remarkable Inquisition Story from Oberlausitz, from the Year 1676 [Marcus Schwaner, ein Quäker. Eine merkwürdige Inquisitionsgeschichte aus der Oberlausitz, vom Jahre 1676]” from the Journal Zeitschrift für die historische Theologie of 1832, the latest source of information available to Moráwek when he wrote. This information was freely edited and used inserts from Johann Benedict Carpzov’s [End Page 20] (1675-1739) work about Zittau. Carpzov’s work continues up to the present day to be the primary source on this case. Johann Benedict Carpzov’s Latin “Analecta Fastorum Zittaviensium” was lost in a devastating fire in Zittau in 1757, as were all other city files on this case. However, we still have the German translation of Johann Benedict Carpzov’s “Historical Showplace: Zittau” [Historischer Schauplatz Zittau] of 1716. The minutes and documents rendered therein rise to the status of a primary source, the most important which we have on Schwaner’s case. Johann Benedict Carpzov (also Carpzow) is not unknown. He was the son of Leipzig’s theology professor Samuel Benedict Carpzov (1647-1707), who made the struggle against Pietism his life’s mission, and fought against home Bible studies, the so-called Collegia Biblica. As official chaplain of Dresden, he was the orthodox successor to Phillip Jakob Spener. His great-uncle was Benedict Carpzov (1595-1666), criminal and civil judge in Leipzig, who was responsible for meting out some three hundred death penalties—most of these in witchcraft cases -and took pride in having read the Bible 53 times. Johann Benedict Carpzov (1607-1657), another scion of this widely distributed ministerial family, was the last luminary in the University of Helmstedt, then in decline. He held high there the banner of orthodoxy, a family tradition so to say, and worked against the conciliatory faction that was seeking to re-unite the two great churches such as Georg Calixt (1586-1656) spear-headed. 2 Our Carpzov from Zittau studied law in Wittenberg and Frankfurt on the Oder River. In 1702 he returned to Zittau and became city legal counsel and in 1720 mayor. During this period appeared two of his successful works, “Analecta Fastorum Zittaviensium” (1716) and shortly thereafter the “Recently Opened Honorary Temple of Remarkable Antiquities of the Margraviate of Ober...