Friedrich von Spee

Friedrich Von Spee (born at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine on February 25, 1591, died at Trier on August 7, 1635) was a German Jesuit and poet, most noted as an opponent of trials for witchcraft.

Publications

His literary activity belongs to the last years of his life, the details of which are little known. Two of his works were not published until after his death: Goldenes Tugendbuch (Golden Book of Virtues), a book of devotion highly prized by Leibniz, and the Trutznachtigall, a collection of fifty to sixty sacred songs, which take a prominent place among religious lyrics of the seventeenth century, and have been in recent times repeatedly printed and revised. But the assumption that the author in this work applied the metrical principle independent of Opitz, is at least doubtful.

Related Topics:
Leibniz - Seventeenth century - Opitz

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His principal work, through which he obtained a world-wide reputation, is the Cautio Criminalis, written in Latin. It is an arraignment of trial for witchcraft, based upon his own awful experiences probably principally in Westphalia, for the traditional assumption that he acted for a long time as "witch confessor" in Würzburg has no documentary authority. This work was printed in 1631 at Rinteln without Spee's name or permission, although he was doubtless widely known as its author. He does not advocate the immediate abolition of trials for witchcraft, but describes with sarcasm the horrible abuses in the prevailing legal proceedings, particularly the inhuman use of the rack. He demands measures of reform, such as a new German imperial law on the subject, liability to damages on the part of the judges, etc., which, if they had been conscientiously carried out, would have quickly put an end to the persecution of witches. Many a generation passed before witch burning ceased in Germany, the classic land of these outrages; but at all events the Cautio Criminals brought about its abolition in a number of places, especially at Mainz, and led the way to its gradual suppression. The moral impression created by its publication was very great. Even in the seventeenth century a number of new editions and German translations appeared, Protestants also eagerly assisting in promoting its circulation. Among the members of Spee's order his treatise seems to have usually found a favourable reception, although it was published without official sanction, and its publication led to a correspondence between the general of the Jesuits, the provincial of the order on the Lower Rhine, and Spee himself.

Related Topics:
Latin - Westphalia - 1631 - Rinteln - Sarcasm - Rack - Mainz - German translations - Protestant - Lower Rhine

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