Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
PASTOR MATHESIUS. 703
n
In a work entitled, "Tableau analytique et raisonnée," &c., published
in London in 1786, by Benedict Chastanier, we find in the preface,
p. 21, the following words: “Mr. Springer121 informed us yesterday,
March 15, 1785, in the presence of a numerous and respectable
company, that Swedenborg had presented his " Arcana Coelestia" to
Mathesius, who was never willing to read the work , and who, from
an hostility he had conceived against the doctrines contained therein ,
had been constantly one of the greatest antagonists of Swedenborg ."
And at p. 24, we read: “Mr. Springer informed us yesterday that
Mathesius, who had succeeded in supplanting the good Pastor Ferelius,
who is now in Sweden, had become mad, and had in consequence
of this been suspended from his ministry, and recalled to Stockholm ,
where he is now living on a pension granted by the King."
In the “ Intellectual Repository” for January, 1836, the Rev. S.
Noble inserted the following statement: “Mr. Peter Provo, a respect.
able gentleman of the medical profession, who published the work
called Wisdom’s Dictates, on May 2, 1787, called on Mr. Bergström of
whom more will be said in the Notes to Volume II, and who keeps
the King’s Arms Tavern, in Wellclose Square; and who, during a
conversation of an hour’s length, related to him as follows: Mr.
Mathesius was an opponent of Swedenborg, and said that he was a
lunatic, &c.; but it is remarkable that he went lunatic himself, which
happened publicly one day when he was in the Swedish Church,
and about to preach : I was there, and saw it : he has been so ever
since, and sent back to Sweden, where he now is: this was about
four years ago.’ "
This state of lunacy does not seem to have been permanent; for
we learn in the Anteckningar, &c., that Mathesius was married in
1789 to Johanna Kjempe, and that their daughter Maria, who was
born in 1795, was married to Magister C. G. Carlén, who was a
teacher in the gymnasium at Skara. Of Mathesius himself we read
further, that he returned to Sweden in 1784, and at his own request,
and by the recommendation of the Archbishop, was formally released
from his duties in London by a royal decree, dated May 17, 1785,
receiving at the same time a yearly pension of 66 rix-dalers 32 shillings,
until he should be preferred to a pastorate in Sweden. Meanwhile
he lived on St. Halfvara, an estate of his own, in the parish of
Björsäter, belonging to the diocese of Skara, where he occupied
himself with private tuition . On February 14, 1805, he was appointed
pastor of Foglås in the same diocese, receiving at the same time
the title of dean. He died in 1808.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
