Jacob Masen (28 March 1606 - 27 September 1681) was a German

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

, historian,

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...

and

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

. He is known as a prolific writer in Latin.James J. Mertz, John P. Murphy, ''Jesuit Latin Poets of the 17th and 18th Centuries: an anthology of neo-Latin poetry'' (1989), p.153.

Life

He was born at Dahlen in

Jülich Jülich (; in old spellings also known as ''Guelich'' or ''Gülich'', , , Ripuarian: ''Jöllesch'') is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. As a border region between the competin ...

, and studied in Cologne. Having entered the Order of Jesus in 1629, he taught poetry and rhetoric in the Lower Rhine region. After theological studies he was ordained

between 1639 and 1641. On the 3 May 1648 he took his

final vows Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices, and views. In the Buddhist tradition, in particular within the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, many different kinds of r ...

in Cologne. where he also acted as a

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who Open-air preaching, preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach com ...

. He also acted in

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn (district), Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pade ...

and

Trier Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...

. He died, aged 75, in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

Works

He completed a substantial antiquarian work on Trier by

Christoph Brouwer Christoph Brouwer (or ''Browerius'') (12 March 1559 – 1617) was a Society of Jesus, Jesuit priest of the Netherlands, and ecclesiastical historian. He is particularly known for his contribution to the history of the Archdiocese of Trier. Li ...

. His epic poem ''Sarcotis'' (1654) became notorious in the 18th century, after William Lauder alleged that

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...

had plagiarised it in writing ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...

''. With

Jacob Bidermann Jacob Bidermann (1578 – 20 August 1639) was born in the village of Ehingen, about 30 miles southwest of Ulm. He was a Jesuit priest and professor of theology, but is remembered mostly for his plays. He had a talent for writing plays that be ...

, he was one of the most important Jesuit dramatists influencing German drama.Leonard Foster, ''Neo-Latin Tradition and Vernacular Poetry'', p. 100, in Gerhart Hoffmeister (editor), ''German Baroque Literature: The European Perspective'' (1983).

Notes

External links

* http://www.kirchenlexikon.de/m/masen_j.shtml {{DEFAULTSORT:Masen, Jacob 1606 births 1681 deaths 17th-century German Jesuits German poets German male poets German male dramatists and playwrights 17th-century German dramatists and playwrights 17th-century German male writers

Life

Works

Notes

Further reading

External links