Peter Miller (162)

Peter Miller (25 December 1709–25 September 1796) was a clergyman turned mystic brother, and a member of the American Philosophical Society via his 1768 election to the American Society. Born Johann Pieter Müller in Germany to a Reformed Church pastor, Peter’s early study of divinity at Heidelberg was inflected by German pietism, and his impulse toward mysticism only grew with age. After arriving in Philadelphia in summer 1730 he became quickly known to the Presbyterian and Reformed clergy—to the former for his faculties with Latin and theology; to the latter for his mulish resistance of hierarchy. Despite ordination by the Presbyterians that winter, Miller’s encounters with the variety of spiritualisms that peppered early Pennsylvania drew him ever deeper into mystical seeking, and in 1735 he was baptized by Conrad Beissel, founder of a schismatic group of Seventh Day Baptists (Dunkers). The monastic life of the Ephrata Community—saturated by love feasts, visions, mortifications, and 2 a.m. watches (so as to be ready for the return of Christ)—suited him well. Taking the name Brother Jabez, Miller’s learnedness landed him at the head of the Brethren’s printshop where he undertook a number of translation projects. The famed music of Ephrata drew him into correspondence with Benjamin Franklin. With the death of Beissel in 1768, Miller took over the community, but without new converts and an aging population, Ephrata was withering by the eve of the Revolution. They remained unmolested neutrals, owing to the fervor of their principles. The community continued to shrink, and for his last years Miller focused largely on its history. After his death in 1796, the accelerating declension left historical memory the only remnant of life at Ephrata. (PI)