Paul Helmreich

Paul Helmreich (as a Benedictine also Victor Hyazinth Helmreich ; * 1579 in Vienna ; † July 3, 1631 in Grimma ; ennobled 1610) was a German theologian and clergyman .

Life

Education and time as a Catholic

Helmreich was the son of a trade that came to Vienna from Nuremberg in 1577 . Since there was no Protestant school in Vienna, he attended the Vienna Jesuit College . After he lost his parents, the Jesuits persuaded him to convert to the Catholic faith. He then obtained his bachelor's degree , then his master's degree in philosophy around 1599 and then refused admission to the Jesuit order. Instead, he was accepted into the Dominican Order and shortly afterwards followed a call from Bamberg's Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp von Gebsattel to Bamberg. There he taught in the youngBamberg seminar in mathematics and astronomy as well as logic and rhetoric in the Dominican monastery in Bamberg . After teaching there for several years, the prince-bishop took him on a trip to Carinthia . From this trip he was called back to Vienna in 1605.

Helmreich was in St. Stephen's Cathedral the Doctor of Divinity conferred and the Papal Nuncio handed over a gold ring. There he made the acquaintance of the Viennese bishop Melchior Khlesl . He entered the service of the bishop with the promise of an early promotion, translated for him from German into Latin and ran the business for him. However, the bishop fell out of favor with the emperor Rudolf , as he supported the later emperor Matthias in intrigues against the emperor. He was later to become the chancellor of Emperor Matthias, but first the bishop had to go into hiding. That's why Helmreich moved to Salzburg .

On the recommendation of the Apostolic Nuncio , Helmreich was appointed consistorial councilor in Salzburg and court preacher to Prince Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau . However, Khlesl made sure that Helmreich would not be given any further promotion in Salzburg. Therefore, Helmreich turned to the Benedictine order with papal permission . In this he received the religious name Viktor Hyazinth. He was supposed to become abbot of the Mondsee monastery there. However, Khlesel prevented this appointment. However, he got Helmreich a job as a clergyman in the dean's office of Kirnberg an der Mank .

Turning away from the Catholic Church and Lutheran times

During this time, Helmreich received permission from the church and government to study and refute Martin Luther's schematism on the basis of the forbidden books. He did this in the following years and was then raised to the nobility in recognition of Emperor Rudolf . But as he studied the scriptures, he had doubts about the Catholic faith. These were strengthened during discussions in Nuremberg in 1614. In March 1618 he turned again to Nuremberg via Regensburg . There he received some money and various letters of recommendation. This was followed by an odyssey via Bayreuth , Coburg , Weimar to Jena . There he received instruction in Lutheran theology, but fell out with theologians and returned to Weimar. There he lived impoverished and was only able to return to Nuremberg in January 1619 with a letter of recommendation from Duke Johann Ernst .

Helmreich could not get a job in Nuremberg or at the University of Altdorf . He also received recognition in Ansbach , but no job there either. He therefore continued on his journey and finally came to the University of Wittenberg in 1622 . There he was proposed by the theological faculty as an associate professor of church history. The Duke, however, considered the existing full professorship in history to be sufficient. But now the widow of the Saxon Elector Sophia of Brandenburg took care of him. On December 27, 1624 he became a clergyman in Lausigk and finally on January 10, 1627 pastor and superintendent of Grimma.

Works (selection)

• Symbola Genethliaca, In Honorem Admodum Reverendi , Horitz, Bamberg 1602.
• Clypeus Christianismi , 1625.
• Speculum connubiale , 1628.

literature

• Georg Theodor Strobel : Message from D. Paul Helmreichs, Superint. to Grimma, life . In: Miscellanees of literary content: mostly from unpublished sources , 5th collection. Bauer, Nuremberg 1781, pp. 233-255.
• Heinrich Wilhelm Rotermund : Helmreich, Paul . In: General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts , 2nd Section, 5th Part. Gleditsch, Leipzig 1829, pp. 188–190.
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Helmreich, Paul . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 8th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1862, p. 297 ( digitized version ).
• Jakob Franck :  Helmreich, Paul . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, pp. 707 f.

Web links

• Works by and about Paul Helmreich  in the German Digital Library
• Publications by and about Paul Helmreich in VD 16 .
• Publications by and about Paul Helmreich in VD 17 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Neue Leipziger Literaturzeitung, 1811, XIII. Piece, col. 202.