Daniel Zwicker (22 January 1612 – 10 November 1678) was a German physician fromDanzig, and aSocinian theologian and controversialist of thePolish Brethren.
He was the son ofFriedrich Zwicker,Lutheran minister of theChurch of St. Bartholomew at Danzig. He was educated for the medical profession at theUniversity of Königsberg which he entered in 1629, and where he graduated with aDoctor's degree.Florian Crusius first influenced him in the direction ofUnitarian theology.[1]
He met with considerable opposition, beginning with his brotherFriedrich who had succeeded his father as minister. He left Danzig forPoland. Meeting someHutterite missionaries fromSlovakia, around 1650, he spent time atBruderhofs in the community ofAndreas Ehrenpreis; but returned to Danzig.He returned toStrassin, where he lived for a while.
From 1657 he moved to theNetherlands, and died inAmsterdam.[2]
His main theological interest lay in patristics. HisIrenicum Irenicorum (1658) attempted to reconstruct Christian theology before theNicene Creed.[3] Zwicker proposed that Christ'sdivinity, thepre-existence of Christ, and theincarnation were inventions of early heretics. It was attacked in detail byGeorge Bull. Bull's biographerRobert Nelson considered him an influential Unitarian, writing:
He was the first and most considerable of those Unitarian writers, which have fallen under the animadversion of Dr. Bull; for he was beforeSandius, and both Sandius and Mr.Gilbert Clerke have but copied in a manner after this learned Dantzicker, as also the rest have done, that have engaged on that side of the controversy.[4]
He was criticized bySamuel Przypkowski, and fell into controversy withJan Amos Komenský (Comenius). FollowingDavid Blondel'sJoanna Papissa (1657) which disproved the historical reality ofPope Joan Zwicker criticized theJoanna Papissa restituta ofSamuel Desmarets (Maresius) anonymously, in a work published with those ofÉtienne de Courcelles.
