Editing Samuel von Pufendorf (section)

===Early life===
Pufendorf was born at [[Zwönitz|Dorfchemnitz]] in the [[Electorate of Saxony]]. His father Esaias Elias Pufendorf from [[Glauchau]] was a [[lutheranism|Lutheran]] pastor, and Samuel Pufendorf himself was destined for the ministry.

Educated at the [[Landes- und Fürstenschule Grimma|Fürstenschule]] at [[Grimma]], he was sent to study [[theology]] at the [[University of Leipzig]]. The narrow and [[dogma]]tic teaching was repugnant to Pufendorf, and he soon abandoned it for the study of public [[law]].

Leaving Leipzig altogether, Pufendorf relocated to [[University of Jena]], where he formed an intimate friendship with [[Erhard Weigel]], the [[mathematician]], whose influence helped to develop his remarkable independence of character. Under the influence of Weigel, he started to read [[Hugo Grotius]], [[Thomas Hobbes]] and [[René Descartes]].

Pufendorf left Jena in 1658 as Magister and became a tutor in the family of [[Peter Julius Coyet]], one of the resident ministers of King [[Charles X Gustav of Sweden]], at [[Copenhagen]] with the help of his brother {{ill|Esaias von Pufendorf|de|lt=Esaias}}, a diplomat in the Swedish service.

At this time, Charles was endeavoring to impose an unwanted alliance on Denmark. In the middle of the negotiations he opened hostilities and the Danes turned with anger against his envoys. Coyet succeeded in escaping, but the second minister, [[Steno Bielke]], and the rest of the staff were arrested and thrown into prison. Pufendorf shared this misfortune, and was held in captivity for eight months. He occupied himself in meditating upon what he had read in the works of Hugo Grotius and Thomas Hobbes, and mentally constructed a system of universal law. At the end of his captivity, he accompanied his pupils, the sons of Coyet, to the [[University of Leiden]].