Franck (or Frank), Sebastian (ca. 1499-ca. 1543)

Sixteenth-century visionary and freethinker. In 1531 he published the treatise L'Arbu de la science du bien et du mal, dont Adam a mangé la mort, et dont encore aujourd'hui tous les hommes la mangent. According to this work, the sin of Adam is an allegory and the Tree of Knowledge represents the person, will, knowledge, and life of Adam.

Franck's major publication was his Chronica, Zeitbuch und Geschichtsbibel (1536), based on the Nuremberg Chronicle. His Guldin Arch (1538) discusses pagan parallels to Christian sentiments and caused Franck trouble with religious authorities, who accused him of heresy. He was contemptuously criticized by Luther as "a devil's mouth." And yet although Franck is usually grouped with other spiritual reformers or mystics of his time, because he rebelled against the rigidity of mainstream religion, he was a universalist and claimed no authority or special insight by virtue of some unique personal revelation. He did not engage in fanciful verbal mysticism and had no predilection for magic.

Sources:

Franck, Sebastian. Paradoxa. Jena, Germany: E. Diederichs, 1909.

Gillispie, Charles Coulston, ed. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970-76.

Williams, George H. The Radical Reformation. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962.

Wollgast, Siegfried. Der deutsche Pantheismus im 16. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1972.

Sebastian 1554–78, king of Portugal (1557–78), grandson and successor of John III. He was under the regency first of his grandmother (until 1562) and then of his uncle Henry (a cardinal and later king) until declared of age in 1568. Weak and sickly, Sebastian was imbued by his Jesuit training with fanatic religious fervor, which he combined with a tremendous admiration for the military. Thus he viewed himself as a Christian knight and became determined to win glory by fighting the Muslim infidels in Africa. An appeal for help from a pretender to the Moroccan throne gave Sebastian his opportunity. Having secured (1576) a promise of aid from Philip II of Spain (his uncle), he spent vast sums of money in preparation for an expedition against Morocco. In 1578, Sebastian set out with a large force of foreign mercenaries (but no Spanish) and landed in Morocco. His headstrong desire to command and his lack of experience led to defeat in the Battle of the Three Kings at Ksar el Kebir . His army was wiped out, and he himself was killed. However, it was not known at the time that he was dead, and rumor had it that he had been captured. The legend that he would return persisted, and Sebastianism (a messianic religious belief) lasted well into the 19th cent. His uncle Henry succeeded him and was the last of the Aviz kings. The crown then went to Philip II, and Spanish control of Portugal began.

Sebastian ♂ From Latin Sebastianus, the name of a 3rd-century saint, a Roman soldier martyred by the arrows of his fellow officers. His sufferings were a favourite subject for medieval artists. The name means ‘man from Sebastē’, a city in Asia Minor so called from Greek sebastos ‘august, venerable’, used as a translation of the Latin imperial title Augustus.

Short form: Seb.

Sebastian,
1. Viola's twin brother in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night;

2. in his The Tempest, brother to Alonso.

Sebastián ♂ (Spanish) From Latin. See Sebastian.

Sebastian ♂ (German) From Latin Sebastianus.

Sebastian ♂ (German) From Latin.

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