70 Kant: A Biographyaltogether, or so it seemed to some. The Wolffians gave in - at least pub¬
licly. More quietly, they continued to advocate and teach Wolffian philos¬
ophy. Ultimately, in Königsberg as elsewhere, the Pietistic actions "hardly
interfered with the spread of Wolffian ideas."^41 Yet many a promising
career, such as that of Marquardt, was effectively over. None of the younger
Wolffian or orthodox lecturers could hope for advancement of any kind,
and most of those who had not given up teaching when Kant entered the
university remained mere lecturers. They had not been promoted simply
because they were not Pietists.
The most important of the orthodox opponents of Pietism was the
theologian Johann Jakob Quandt (i 686-1772), who had already opposed
Lysius. He was a highly educated and, by all accounts, very talented the¬
ologian and a specialist in "Oriental" languages, who also knew English,
French, and Dutch. Quandt had an extensive library of books in all of these
languages. Considered as one of the best preachers in all of Prussia, he
advocated a rational {vernünftig) orthodox faith.^42 Not a Wolffian himself,
he was close to many of the younger instructors who were influenced by
Wolff.^43 Though he became increasingly more isolated at the university
over the years, he remained influential in the city. He had the ear of those
who were in power locally, namely the nobility and the public officials in
Königsberg (including much of the clergy). Still, the orthodox forces were
marginalized. The conflict between the Pietists and the orthodox was a part
of the political struggle between the forces of the central government in
Berlin and the local government and nobility in Königsberg (and elsewhere),
and the king had the upper hand in this struggle. Nevertheless, the influ¬
ence of Quandt and his followers should not be underestimated. The power
of the Pietists continued to increase until 1740, but they were never in ab¬
solute control, and this was to a large extent due to Quandt.
Another peculiar development in the intellectual history of the univer¬
sity began in 1732. In August ofthat year, Bock wrote to Gottsched: "You
will not be little surprised when your brother tells you that the Wolffian
philosophy is now imported here by those from Halle themselves, and that
they praise it in front of everyone as the best kind.... Who would have
been able to imagine such a transformation some time ago? Even a year
ago it would have appeared to be incredible, if someone had prophesied
this .. ,"^44 What had happened? Schulz had arrived in the meantime.
As one of Schulz's students said, "This most learned man taught me to
get to know theology from another side in that he brought so much philos¬
ophy into it that one was forced to believe that Christ and all his apostles