Introduction

Biography

Friedrich was the son of Pe­ter Spee, a judge at Kai­sers­werth.

He was edu­cat­ed in the Je­su­it gym­na­si­um at Co­logne, en­tered the or­der of the Je­su­its there on Sept. 22, 1610, and was or­dained priest about 1621. From 1613 to 1624 he was one of the tu­tors in the Je­su­it col­lege at Co­logne, and was then sent to Pa­der­born to as­sist in the Coun­ter Re­for­ma­tion.

In 1627 he was sum­moned by the Bi­shop of Würz­burg to act as con­fess­or to per­sons ac­cus­ed of witch­craft, and, with­in two years, had to ac­com­pa­ny to the stake some 200 per­sons, of all ranks and ag­es, in whose in­no­cence he him­self firm­ly be­lieved (his Cau­tio cri­mi­nal­is, sen de pro­ces­sibus con­tra sa­gas lib, Rin­teln, 1631, was the means of al­most put­ting a stop to such cru­el­ties).

He was then sent to fur­ther the Coun­ter Re­for­ma­tion at Peine near Hil­des­heim, but on Ap­ril 29, 1629, he was near­ly mur­dered by some per­sons from Hil­des­heim.

In 1631 he be­came pro­fes­sor of Mo­ral Theo­lo­gy at Co­logne. The last years of his life were spent at Trier, where, af­ter the ci­ty had been stormed by the Span­ish troops on May 6, 1635, he con­tract­ed a fe­ver from some of the hos­pi­tal pa­tients to whom he was min­is­ter­ing, and died there Aug. 7, 1635. (Koch, iv. 185; Goe­de­ke’s Grund­riss, vol. iii., 1887, p. 193, &c.)

Spee was the first im­port­ant writ­er of sac­red po­et­ry that had ap­peared in the Ger­man Ro­man Ca­tho­lic Church since the Re­for­ma­tion. Among his con­tem­po­rar­ies he was note­wor­thy for the beau­ty of his style, and his mas­te­ry of rhy­thm and metre. He seems to have come in­de­pen­dent­ly to much the same con­clu­sions re­gard­ing mea­sure and ac­cent, and the re­form of Ger­man pro­so­dy as did Opitz. He was how­ev­er of a much deep­er and pur­er na­ture than Opitz; and far sur­pass­es him in orig­in­al­ity, in ima­gi­na­tion, and in po­et­ic in­spi­ra­tion.

His po­ems are char­ac­ter­ised by a ve­ry keen love for the works of God in the na­tur­al world, and a de­light in all the sights and sounds of the coun­try, es­pe­cial­ly in spring and sum­mer; and at the same time by a deep and fer­vent love to God, to Christ, and to his fel­low­men. On the other hand his man­ner­isms are ve­ry pro­nounced; the pas­tor­al im­age­ry and dia­logue which he is fond of us­ing jar upon mo­dern ears when used on such se­ri­ous sub­jects as the Ago­ny in Geth­se­ma­ne. In the hymns to Je­sus he is too sub­jec­tive and sen­ti­ment­al, and works out the idea of Christ as the Bride­groom of the soul with un­ne­ces­sa­ry de­tail.

His po­ems are oft­en full of beau­ty, of pa­thos, and of gen­uine re­li­gious warmth, but they can­not be con­sid­er­ed as suit­able for pub­lic wor­ship, and hard­ly any real­ly came in­to use ex­cept as pro­ces­sion­als sung by the peo­ple at the great fes­tiv­als or at out­door ga­ther­ings. A num­ber passed in­to the Ro­man Ca­tho­lic hymn­books of the 17th cen­tu­ry, and one or two still sur­vive.

His ear­li­er po­ems are in­clud­ed in his (1) Trutz Nach­tig­al, od­er Geist­lichs-Poet­isch Lust-Wald­lein, &c, Co­logne, 1649. [Brit­ish Mu­se­um, Ber­lin Lib­ra­ry, &c. The ma­nu­script of this work, com­plet­ed in 1634, is in the Town Lib­ra­ry of Trier.] This is Spee’s most im­port­ant book; reached a 5th edi­tion in 1683, and has been se­ver­al times re­print­ed in this [the 19th] cen­tury. A few of the hymns had ap­peared in the Se­ra­phisch Lust­gart, Co­logne, 1635; the Geist­lich­er Psal­ter, Co­logne, 1638, and other Je­su­it books. (2) Güld­enes Tug­end-Buch, &c, Co­logne, 1649 [Got­ting­en Lib­ra­ry]. This is a prose work on the Chris­tian Grac­es of Faith, Hope, and Love, and has a few hymns in­ter­spersed.

Julian, quot­ed in the Hymnary