"They fell into ecstasy, threw their arms back and forth, distorted their eyes, and spoke in the Spirit, without any notion of what they were saying. Giezendanner himself often received inspirations. He laid his hands on two ministers who were friends of his, Ziegler and Schulthess, and set them apart as notaries of the Holy Spirit, so that they could write down exactly what the Holy Spirit said through Giezendanner."
He prophesied judgment against the city, criticizing especially the "fear of men" shown by church leaders and calling its governors hypocritical scribes. We have an eyewitness account of one of these inspired prophecies as narrated by Pastor Ringgli from the neighboring parish of Weiningen:
"I went to Engstringen on Sunday, June 28th, about two o'clock in the afternoon, and met the following group of people at Landowner Schneeberger's house: The owner and his wife, their son-in-law Orelli, Quartercaptain Zoller, Oeri the goldsmith, the wife of Pastor Lindinner from Buchs, the ministers Ziegler, Schulthess, Herrliberger . . . and finally Giezendanner and his brother. In the room writing implements were already on hand, and on the table lay a paper which had been headed,
"Pronouncement of Hans Ulrich Giezendanner."
Then Giezendanner knelt in prayer, until a soft southwind, which seemed to him suspicious [south was the direction of Zurich], ended his praying.
Then he became still.
Gradually some movement - shuddering, and twitching of the mouth and head came over him and he began to speak, sometimes slowly, sometimes more rapidly, but always in broken snatches, at the same time he moved around in the room, his eyes closed. Then he sat down for a quarter of an hour. When he stood up again he picked up his speaking at the exact point where he had broken off, while his whole body trembled. This happened about four times. Schulthess was assigned the recording of Giezendanner's bodily movements, and Ziegler and Herrliberger recorded his words. They had been instructed by Giezendanner not to edit the style of his utterances. Giezendanner himself would correct the "Inspiration" later.
The audience, especially Ziegler, had sighed. Giezendanner laid his hands on the heads of the women. The purpose of his pronouncement was clear, since he had immediately addressed himself to the cities of Zurich and Bern and had interpreted the animals found on their coats of arms."
There were three such
prophecies, and one of them was actually read before the
Zurich Town Council through the agency of a sympathetic
member. But the councilors remained unmoved. Within a month
they banned Giezendanner from all of Zurich's lands. The
exile from Zurich marks the end of Giezendanner's
increasingly bitter campaign as an Inspirationist in
Switzerland, but an even more humiliating encounter lay ahead
of him.
After a few months spent as a teacher in Frankfurt, he
traveled further into Germany to join the circle of
Inspirationists gathered at the Ronneburg. His three closest
followers, the clergymen Ungemuth, Schulthess, and
Herrliberger, loyally went along. The two latter men, since
they were under the Zurich Council's jurisdiction, had been
suspended from their offices for three years and forbidden
all contact with Pietists of any sort. Despite this
prohibition they stayed with Giezendanner.
next page