JABLONSKI, ya-blon'skî, DANIEL ERNST: Bishop of the Moravians; b. at Nassenhuben, near Danzig, Nov. 20, 1660; d. at Berlin May 25, 1741. He was educated at the gymnasium of Lissa and studied theology at Frankfort-on-the-Oder and at Oxford. In 1683 he was appointed Reformed preacher in Magdeburg, and in 1686 became pastor of the Polish congregation and rector of the gymnasium at Lissa. In 1691 he went to Prussia and became court preacher at Königsberg; but he always remained faithful to the Moravians in their exile and used his political influence to assist them in every way. At the synod of Lissa in 1699 he was chosen senior of the Unity and received their episcopal ordination. In 1737 he consecrated Count Zinzendorf bishop, and thus he formed the transition from the old stock of the Moravian Brethren to the younger branch of the Herrnhuters. His influence upon the development of the Prussian state is still more important. Since Sigismund of Brandenburg had adopted the Reformed creed (1613; see SIGISMUND, JOHANN), a union of the evangelical denominations had become a necessity for the Hohenzollerns, and Jablonski was the man to give this tendency a concrete form and a theological basis. Similar efforts were made at the court of Hanover by Leibnitz and by Molanus (qq.v.). Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick and the court of Gotha also sympathized with these unionistic movements. In the meantime Jablonski had become court preacher at Berlin (1697), and as Brandenburg was being transformed about this time into the state of Prussia, he considered it his mission to unite all Protestants under the leadership of Prussia. He entered into negotiations with Leibnitz and Molanus, but the undertaking failed on account of the opposition of the clergy. Another ideal which Jablonski tried to realize was the introduction of the episcopate into the Evangelical Church, which met a response in King Frederick's appointment of his court preacher's bishops. But failure resulted in 1713 when Frederick William I. ascended the throne. Against the demoralization of church life Jablonski attempted to introduce ethical societies after the model of the English societies for the reformation of manners. The Berlin Academy of Sciences owes its existence to his advocacy with that of Leibnitz. Jablonski was its first vice-president and director of the philologico-historical class, and in 1733 he became its president. His literary activity was not less important. He made a careful edition of the Old-Testament text which J. H. Michaelis adopted as the basis of his well-known Kommentarbibel (1720); at Jablonski's instigation the Berlin edition of the Babylonian Talmud was printed. He translated Bentley's Confutation of Atheism into Latin (Berlin, 1696); his Historia consensus Sendomiriensis (Berlin, 1731) is important in the sphere of church history, likewise his Jura et libertates dissidentium in regno Poloniae (1708).

(P. KLEINERT.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. E. Kapp, Sammlung vertrauter Briefe des Freiherrn von Leibnitz und Hofpredigers Jablonski, Leipsic, 1747; C. W. Hering, Geschichte der kirchliche Unionsversuche, ii, 313 sqq, ib.1838; G. E. Guhrauer, G. W. Freiherr von Leibnitz, ii. 177 sqq, Breslau, 1846; A. L. Richter, Geschichte der evangelischen Kirchenverfassung in Deutschland, Leipsic, 1851; F. Brandes, Geschichte der kirchlichen Politik des Hauses Brandenburg, vol. i., Gotha, 1872; A. Ritschl, Geschichte des Pietismus, iii. 302 sqq., Bonn, 1886; J. Kvacala, Fünfzig Jahre im preussischen Hofpredigerdienste, Dorpat, 1896; idem, Neue Beiträge zum Briefwechsel zwischen D. E. Jablonski und G. W. Leibnitz, ib. 1899.