Caspar Schoppe (27 May 1576 – 19 November 1649) was a German

catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

controversialist Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

Life

He was born at Neumarkt in the

upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (; , , ) is an administrative district in the east of Bavaria, Germany. It consists of seven districts and 226 municipalities, including three cities. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and nume ...

and studied at several German universities. He converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in about 1599, after reading the ''

Annales Ecclesiastici (full title ; "Ecclesiastical annals from Christ's nativity to 1198"), consisting of twelve folio volumes, is a history of the first 12 centuries of the Christian Church, written by Caesar Baronius and Odorico Raynaldi and published betwee ...

'' of Baronius. Schoppe obtained the favour of

Pope Clement VIII Pope Clement VIII (; ; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 30 January 1592 to his death in March 1605. Born in Fano, Papal States to a prominen ...

, and distinguished himself by the virulence of his writings against the

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

. He became involved in a controversy with

Joseph Justus Scaliger Joseph Justus Scaliger (; 5 August 1540 – 21 January 1609) was a Franco-Italian Calvinist religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Je ...

, formerly his intimate friend, and others; wrote ''Ecclesiasticus auctoritati Jacobi regis oppositus'' (1611), an attack upon

James I of England James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 unti ...

; and in '' Classicum belli sacri'' (1619) urged the Catholic princes to wage war upon the Protestants. In about 1607, Schoppe entered the service of Ferdinand, archduke of Styria, afterwards

Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (9 July 1578 – 15 February 1637) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary, Hungary, and List of Croatian monarchs, Croatia from 1619 until his death in 1637. He was the son of Archduke Charles II, Archduke of Austr ...

, who found him very useful in rebutting the arguments of the Protestants, and who sent him on several diplomatic errands. According to

Pierre Bayle Pierre Bayle (; 18 November 1647 – 28 December 1706) was a French philosopher, author, and lexicographer. He is best known for his '' Historical and Critical Dictionary'', whose publication began in 1697. Many of the more controversial ideas ...

, he was almost killed by some Englishmen at

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

in 1614, and again fearing for his life he left Germany for Italy in 1617, afterwards taking part in an attack upon the

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 ...

s. Anthony Grafton writes about Bayle and Scioppius: "We owe to him aylethe preservation of Caspar Scioppius' description of the sparrow he watched, from his student lodgings at Ingolstadt, having intercourse twenty times and then dying--as well as Scioppius' reflection, 'O unfair lot. Is this to be granted to sparrows and denied to men?'"

Anthony Grafton Anthony Thomas Grafton (born May 21, 1950) is an American historian of early modern Europe and the Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, where he is also the Director the Program in European Cultural Studies. He i ...

. (1997) The footnote: A curious history. Harvard University Press, p. 197 Schoppe died at

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

on 19 November 1649.

Works

In his ''Life of Sir

Henry Wotton Sir Henry Wotton (; 30 March 1568 – December 1639) was an English author, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England, House of Commons in 1614 and 1625. When on a mission to Augsburg in 1604, he famously said "An amba ...

Izaak Walton Izaak Walton (baptised 21 September 1593 – 15 December 1683) was an English writer. Best known as the author of ''The Compleat Angler'' (1653), he also wrote a number of short biographies including one of his friend John Donne. They have been ...

, calling him Jasper Scioppius, refers to Schoppe as "a man of a restless spirit and a malicious pen." More recent material appears in ''Wotton And His Worlds'' by Gerald Curzon (2004). Schoppe's major work is, perhaps, his ''Grammatica philosophica'' (Milan, 1628). He also wrote: *''De arte critica'' (1597) *''De Antichristo'' (1605) *''Pro auctoritate ecclesiae in decidendis fidei controversiis libellus'' *''Scaliger hypobolymaeus'' (1607), a virulent attack on Scaliger Anti-jesuitical Works: *''Flagellum Jesuiticum'' (1632) *''Mysteria patrum jesuitorum'' (1633) *''Arcana societatis Jesu'' (1635). For a fuller list of his writings see J. P. Nicéron ''Mémoires'', (1727–1745). See also C. Nisard, ''Les Gladiateurs de la république des lettres'' (Paris. 1860).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schoppe, Caspar 1576 births 1649 deaths Converts to Roman Catholicism German scholars German philologists German Catholics