Heinrich Schacht (Jesuit)

Heinrich Schacht (* around 1583/85; † January 2, 1654 in Altona ) was a Jesuit .

Live and act

Heinrich Schacht was the son of an unknown man who was probably called Mauritz and supposedly worked as a magistrate in Schleswig. On April 25, 1602 he was enrolled as a student at the Johanneum School of Academics . Martin Stricker convinced him of the Catholic Church and also advised him to move to Braunsberg around 1603 , where he attended the Jesuit seminary. Half a year later he was sent to Vilna . Here he studied the Humaniora for a year and a half and converted from the Protestant to the Catholic faith around 1604/05.

On February 26, 1607, Schacht enrolled at the Jesuit school in Prague . On May 15, 1608, he acquired the degree of master's degree and went back to Hamburg . The Altona Jesuits then sent him to Rome , where he entered the Jesuit novitiate. On September 8, 1610, Schacht took the simple vows and was sent again to Germany. He then taught at a grammar school in Braunsberg for five years. On November 10, 1617, he enrolled to study theology at the University of Würzburg . He later continued his studies in Bamberg. After his ordination around 1618 he worked as a preacher, catechist and school prefect at the Jesuit school in Düsseldorf.

In 1622 the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples was established . According to this, missionaries should personally scout countries of the Reformation and help secret Catholics and people close to the Catholic faith. Schacht was to do this in Denmark first. However, the secret Catholic and royal secretary Göran Bähr (Georg Ursinus) asked that Schacht should travel to Sweden. In August 1623 his mission began from Düsseldorf. On the way he had to spend three months in Dutch custody in Arnhem and was released after paying a ransom. Then he went via Hamburg to Lübeck, had to experience a shipwreck, reached the Danish Nyköping and Copenhagen. During the trip he probably disguised himself as a merchant, according to later sources as a mousetrap dealer.

At the beginning of December 1623, Schacht's journey continued via Jönköping to Nyköping in Sweden . Here he was arrested again. To keep his mission a secret, he burned his Bible, breviary, and seal. According to Swedish law, Catholics were considered high traitors. Schacht had to testify before the king at Gripsholm Castle and was released. At the castle he met Göran Bähr, with whom he had agreed on an identification word. Bähr brought him to the Catholic Zacharias Anthelius, who was mayor of Södertälje and who let Schacht live in his house.

At the beginning of March 1624, Schacht reached Stockholm, where he revealed his purpose of travel to the king and Roman Veraldi's lute player. Veraldi betrayed Schacht, who then had to spend a few days in dungeon, on March 23, 1624. Ursinus and Anthelius were also imprisoned. A court interrogation followed within a short time. The trials ended for Ursinus on April 12th and for Schacht and Anthelius on April 17th with death sentences . A torture sentence was also imposed on Schacht. Apparently, however, he did not admit to being particularly involved in proceedings by the Jesuit order against the king.

Ursinus and Anthelius died on September 11, 1624 by public beheading . The king, however, pardoned Schacht, whose prison term ended in December 1624. At the beginning of 1625 he reached Lübeck by ship. In 1627 he was supposed to write a report about Jutland , which the emperor's troops had occupied. Also Tilly had great interest in a mission in the region. Schacht served for some time in Tilly's army and was probably able to influence it well.

From around 1630 Schacht lived in Hamburg and worked there as a pastor for the diaspora and house chaplain of the imperial ambassador . In the last years of his life he could only work to a limited extent due to his old age and several illnesses. Until the end of his life he was considered an honest and gifted preacher.

literature

• Vello Helk : Schacht, Heinrich . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 7. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1985, pp. 255-257.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Göran Bähr , urn: sbl: 16273 , Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (Art. By B. BOETHIUS.), Accessed 2017-09-04.
2. ↑ Zacharias Olai Anthelius , urn: sbl: 18738 , Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (Art. By B. Boëthius.), Accessed 2017-09-04.