ABSTRACT
Frederick appointed Francke to a professorship at the newly established University of Halle, as well as to a pastorate at a Lutheran Church in an impoverished Halle suburb. Francke's parishioners responded very positively to his ministry, and Francke quickly began to address Halle's socioeconomic problems by working to school the next generation in Christian values and vocationally useful skills. To shield the children of the 'poor school' from the harmful social environment outside the school, Francke and his associates mounted a successful campaign to raise money for a large orphanage. Shortly thereafter, in the early 1700s, Francke wrote a series of tracts, publicizing the achievements of his Halle institutions and heralding them as a model for a 'reformation' of society as a whole. In other words, Francke was not, as Luther was, a pessimist regarding humanity's future; but an optimist a millenarian, who believed that God's kingdom was in the process of being created on earth.
