Adam Contzen

Frontispiece to "The Plots of the Jesuits" (1653). This is the only image currently known that depicts Contzen. It is worth pointing out that this is a satirical representation of Contzen and other influential Catholic thinkers. “Image 352756001 - | British Museum,” accessed July 23, 2021, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/352756001.

Also pictured: Tomasso Campanella (1568-1639) with his work De Monarchia Hispanica (circa 1640), Robert Persons (1546-1610) with his work Memorial for the Reformation of England (1596), and Cardinal Richelieu

Adam Contzen was a Jesuit priest who also wrote on Aristotelian political philosophy [c. 1571-1635]. He was born in the Duchy of Jülich in 1571 and entered Jesuit college in Cologne in 1588. From there, Contzen officially joined the Society of Jesus in 1591 at Trier and was ordained in 1603. He then served as professor of philosophy at the University of Würzburg until 1610, after which he was transferred to the University of Mainz where he served in the same capacity until 1623.[1] Between 1610 and 1623, Contzen published almost a book a year; these books found him ensnared in the complicated intellectual discussions concerning the interpretation of scripture and also political economy. He was knowledgeable in Latin, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, and German. Furthermore, according to Robert Bireley, he also knew the Aramaic languages of Chaldean and Syriac. Contzen's most extensive work, the Politicorum Libri Decem or Ten Books on Politics, was first published in 1621 where it attracted the attention of Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria [r. 1597-1651], with an expanded edition published in 1629.[2] Both editions of the PLD were written in Latin, and neither have been translated into a modern language.

[1] Robert Bireley, Maximilian of Bavaria, Adam Contzen SJ and the Counter-Reformation in Germany 1624-1635, (Göttingen: 1975), 25-26.

[2] Ibid., 26-27.