JAKOB BÖHME

Philosophical mystic, had a profound influence on such later intellectual movement as Idealism and Romanticism.

Bóhme settled in Görlitz (1594 or 1595), where he married and became a shoemaker.
In 1600 he had a religious experience that provided him with an insight into the polarization of empirical reality, tentatively expressed (1612) in a manuscript, The Aurora. The work was condemned by the Luteran pastor of Görlitz, who persuaded the town council to forbid Böhme from further writing.

In 1619 he resumed writing in defiance of the ban, utilizing alchemical terminology to drescribe his nature mysticism. The Way to Christ (1622) was followed (in 1623) by his two major works, The Great Mystery and On the Election of Grace.

Though an attempt to banish him from Görlitz was apparently not upheld by the Elector´s court in Dresden, he took refuge in a neighbouring castle until shortly before his death.