and the guidelines for human behavior should be reason and conscience. Therefore, both secular and ecclesiastical authorities are superfluous. In his Latin letter Amicus Amicis Amica! Knudsen summarizes his beliefs as: Insuper Deum negamus, Magistratum ex alto despicimus, Templa quoque cum omnibus Sacerdotibus rejicientes. Moreover, we deny God, we despise authorities from above and we reject the churches together with all ministers. For Knutzen, the uppermost rule was: "Live honestly, do not harm anybody and give everybody what they deserve." (in Latin, Honeste vivere, neminem laedere, suum cuique tribuere), an old Roman legal principle according to Ulpian. Sources and reception Knutzen was obviously inspired by Socinianism. Other influences (Spinoza?) are difficult to discern and are disputed. However, it can be shown that Knutzen was well-versed in the philosophical literature of his day even when it came to insignificant details. Knutzen's views provoked the violent rejection of ecclesiastical authors. In 1677, for example, the German theologian Tobias Pfanner claimed that Knutzen's work surpassed the infamy of all enemies of religion known until then. Pierre Bayle included Knutzen in his Dictionnaire historique et critique (first edition in 1697, further editions throughout the 18th century). Thus, for the philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, Knutzen became the first modern atheist known by name. Works Epistola amici ad amicum [Latin: Letter of a Friend to a Friend], also under the title Amicus Amicis Amica!, 1674. Gespräch zwischen einem Gastgeber und drei Gästen ungleicher Religion [German: Conversation between a Host and three Guests of different Religion], 1674. Gespräch zwischen einem Feldprediger namens Dr. Heinrich Brummern und einem lateinischen Musterschreiber [German: Conversation between an Army Chaplain called Dr Heinrich Brummern and a Latin Pattern-Writer], 1674. References Editions M. Knutzen, ein deutscher Atheist und revolutionärer Demokrat des 17. Jahrhunderts. Flugschriften und zeitgenössische sozialkritische Schriften, ed. and prefaced by Werner Pfoh. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag 1965. Matthias Knutzen: Schriften und Materialien, ed. by Winfried Schröder. (Philosophische Clandestina der deutschen Aufklärung. Texte und Dokumente / Philosophische Clandestina der deutschen Aufklärung Abteilung I: Texte und Dokumente). Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog 2010. Further reading Pierre Bayle, Matthias Knuzen, in: Dictionnaire historique et critique, edition of 1740, vol. 3, p. 12 online here (French) Winfried Schröder, Matthias Knutzen: Flugschriften, in: Winfried Schröder, Ursprünge des Atheismus. Untersuchungen zur Metaphysik- und Religionskritik des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart 1998, p. 420 f. , vol. 4, col. 190–193. External links Amicus, amicis, amica reproduced in its entirety in Encyclopédie