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.