Conrad Vetter

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Conrad Vetter (* 1548 in Engen ; † October 11, 1622 in Munich ) was a Bavarian Jesuit and Counter-Reformation writer of Swabian origin.

Life

Vetter attended school in his native Engen and then, despite his youth, served as chaplain of the women's monastery in Schwäbisch Hall for several years . At the age of 28 he joined the Jesuit order in Munich in 1576 . Even as a novice , his brilliant rhetoric and oratory talent were evident , which predestined him to become the future propagandist of the Counter-Reformation . In the 19th century, his brother in the order, Guido Maria Dreves SJ, described Vetter's unusual talent as " equally fruitful as terrible ".

Vetter's oratorical reputation spread rapidly, and in 1588 he was appointed cathedral preacher in Regensburg , where he made himself particularly prominent through the conversion of numerous Protestants. However, his sharply polemical anti-Lutheran publications met with considerable criticism, even from within his own ranks. Even the great Catholic historian Johannes Janssen attested that he had a downright “ uncomfortable skill ” in the German language.

Vetter quickly became known, especially through the translations of the Counter-Reformation writings by Jakob Gretser SJ. In order to reach the lowest classes, he used a popular, pictorial, rumbling-Bavarian tone, which makes him stand out from the otherwise usual, drier controversial theological literature.

Works (selection)

  • Jacob Gretser and Conrad Vetter: Pvffer. This is the shattering of the Predicant mirror of Jesus of Philip Heilbrunner . with a vivid description of his and his closest comrades Predicantic Spirit, that is Lugen- Blasphemy- Lermen- Auffrhur- Mord- and Blutgirigen Geiste ... Angermair, Ingolstadt 1601 ( digitized [accessed on 23 March 2013]).
  • Conrad Vetter: The Zwogestalthaffte Luther . That is: grip and fugue, as Doctor Martin Luther will be able to excuse himself finely on the last day of the ... Zanck and Zwyspalt, aroused by him, of the necessity of the two figures in the H. Sacrament of the Altar. Eder, Ingolstadt 1602 ( digitized [accessed on March 23, 2013]).
  • Jacob Gretser and Conrad Vetter: Flaelavg. That is: A sharp and bitter, but wholesome lye pouring to neatly weigh down the unhealthy head, and unclean kidney grind of an unknown and unnamed fable, and novelist, who was the one who, on the Christianist King Henneo IV in France and Mordstuck , to blame the Jesuits with an official truck, and otherwise also in a hospitable and cunning white, measured and assiduously with a good Evangelical conscience . Sartorius, Ingolstadt 1610, urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb00018393-4 .
  • Paradeissvogel… heavenly hymn of praise. 1613, ed. by Gerhard Dünnhaupt . Stuttgart: Hiersemann 1999 (Ndr. D. Edition 1613) ISBN 3-7772-9923-5
  • Jacob Gretser and Conrad Vetter: Schlaffhauß of the renegade Mammelucken . Newly from an unknown, and lying not at all sleepy, but rather cheerful infamant, to shameful injury to the well-known and overbearing man, D. Ioannis Pistorii, & c. as well as others, and even princely persons, high esteem, and laudable reputation. Angermair, Ingolstadt 1616 ( digitized [accessed on March 23, 2013]).

Literature (selection)

  • Dieter Breuer: Upper German Literature 1565–1650 . Munich 1979
  • Bernard Duhr: History of the Jesuits in the lands of the German tongue . Freiburg 1907
  • Theodor Kurrus: "Conrad Vetter", in: Lexicon for Theology and Church , Vol. 10 (Freiburg 1965), p. 758 f.
  • Heinrich Thoelen: Menologium or life pictures from the history of the German order province of the Society of Jesus . Stomdrukkerij, Roermond 1901

Bibliography and works list

Web links

Wikisource: Conrad Vetter  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Cousin, Conrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publicist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1548
PLACE OF BIRTH Narrow
DATE OF DEATH October 11, 1622
Place of death Munich