Provenance and early years Johann Balthasar Schupp was born in
Giessen, the eldest recorded child of a prosperous middle class couple. He was baptised as a Protestant on 29 March 1610, but the baptismal record did not mention his birth date. The birth date of 1 March 1610 is widely applied in secondary sources, but no original record of it is traceable. Reasons for the non-appearance of the ambitious history book included the acute politico-military and economic pressures of the time. Throughout the 1630s
plague and
war ravaged the area. Sometimes the basic necessities of life were unavailable in
Marburg. Schupp was forced by plague to leave the city on a number of occasions. Along with the challenges inherent in the Landgraf's commission, there were times when he was required to add administrative deanery duties to his job portfolio, and on one occasion he also found himself serving as a university
Prorector throughout virtually the whole of 1643. By the end of the decade he was nevertheless finding opportunities to turn his attentions from the Philosophy faculty (which under the conventions of the time incorporated a wide range of topics including History and Eloquence) and towards the Theology faculty, thus fulfilling some of those ambitions with which he had returned from
Leiden back in 1635. After the death of
Johannes Steuber in 1643 the relevant official appointed Schupp to succeed him as the minister-preacher (
"Prediger") at the
Elisabethkirche (Church of St.Elisabeth). He combined the office with his continuing academic duties at
the university. Some of the hymns reappeared in the 1666 edition of the
Praxis Pietatis (German-language hymn book) produced in
Frankfurt: some were reproduced in
locally compiled and printed "community hymnals". Schupp's hymn lyrics no doubt served their purpose for seventeenth century Lutherans, but they were essentially "of their time". During later centuries they have been overlooked: they evince no enduring poetic merit.
Hamburg years On Friday 20 July 1649 Balthasar Schupp was installed in his new office by
Pastor Müller who had, it seems, taken charge during the interregnum at
the "Hauptkirche". This was followed by "Der rachgierige Lucidor" (
"Vindictive Lucidor"). On 4 July 1656 he published one of his sermons under the title "Gedenk daran Hamburg" (
"Think on it, Hamburg"). This was the only time he published one of his sermons in full as a written pamphlet, although quotations and extracts from some of his sermons do appear in some of his other publications. From contemporary references it is clear that "Der geplagte Hiob" (
"Plagued Job") must have appeared before
Michaelmas (29 September) 1657, although there are today no surviving versions from before 1659. During the Summer of 1657 Schupp also used his Danish contacts to have a
Latin language pamphlet published in
Copenhagen. "Invitatio publica ad adornandum memoriale biblicum" was presented as an appendix to "
Psalm 151" and consists of a letter (falsely) attributed to
the apostle, Paul and addressed to the
Laodiceans.
Before the commissioners It was on
Michaelmas 1657 that Balthasar Schupp found himself facing a "Commission of the Ministry", a panel of senior Lutheran clergy that had been convened in response to the growing disquiet caused by his increasingly challenging complementary career as a published author. The commissioners requested, on behalf of the ministry that Schupp should (1) not produce theological writing under pseudonyms, (2) avoid the printing of any
biblical apocrypha, (3) submit anything that he wrote to the
church "seniors" so that it might be censored and (4) avoid including fables, jokes and funny stories in connection with phrases from
Holy Scripture. According to the report of the encountered that was produced by the
"Senior",
Pastor Müller (who had also been sitting as chairman of the commission) Schupp agreed to the first two of these requests, but rejected the third and the fourth, insisting that they would have infringed his freedom. The meeting therefore ended with a "friendly request" from the commission that Schupp should "stick to the rules" (
"intra terminos bleiben"). and "Freund in der Noth" (
"Friend in need" - published under the author's own name) both appeared just a few weeks later. "Freund in der Noth" was probably written on or shortly before 16 August 1657. "Salomo" was probably written a little earlier. Only the "Afterword to the reader" at the end of "Salomo" was clearly written after the
Michaelmas hearing.
"Seven evil spirits" "Sieben böse Geister, welche heutiges Tages Knechte und Mägde regieren und verführe" (
loosely, "Seven evil spirits which these days rule over and seduce household servants of both sexes") was written after 8 June 1657 and first printed before 5 April 1658. This tract discusses issues of the time involving household servants and tries to find ways to improve the situation. It clearly belongs to the "political" category rather than the "edifying" of Schupp's pamphlets, but in pursuit of its serious purpose it follows to a serious approach, even if it is still not entirely free of fables and anecdotes. Writing in his tract "Calender" which was first printed in 1659 and which he addresses/dedicates to his son Anton Meno Schupp (1637–1703), Schupp himself opines that the author using the name Butyrolambius was not necessarily even an ordained minister. What does become apparent is that, regardless of his opinions on the authorship, Schupp was powerfully affected by "Der Bücherdieb Antenor": the book preoccupied him for several years.
More pamphlet attacks Meanwhile, another literary opponent came onto the scene. "Discurs de republica academica" was printed in
Leipzig in 1659. In it the author, identified as Master Bernhard Schmid, produced a systematic refutation of "Freund in der Noth"
Final years Despite Balthasar Schupp's background in education, it was not till the next year that Schupp committed his thoughts on the schools and universities to one of his tracts. The result was entitled "Ambassadeur Zipphusius". However, this was printed only posthumously, and at the instigation of his son, Jost Burchard Schupp, who included it in a 1667 compendium of Schupp's collected works. There were several more tracts printed during Schupp's final couple of years, mostly in the "edifying" rather than the "political" category. At least a further three were published posthumously by one or other of his sons. The order in which these were actually written is not entirely clear. Sources giving more details of his death indicate that his final days were marked by a rapid deterioration which was unresponsive to the curative efforts of the physicians. He died towards the end of the morning, at around eleven o'clock, "in a spirit of great and unbelievable joy". His last recorded words, appropriate to his pastoral calling, were: "I believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and an everlasting life". For many years Balthasar Schupp was forgotten. During the nineteenth century he was rediscovered by scholars such as
Ludwig Wachler,
Friedrich Adolf Ebert and, later in the century,
Carl Bertheau. Following this revival in his reputation, at least one of these was content to share the judgement that Johann Balthasar Schupp had become "generally regarded as one of the most significant men of his time". == Published output (selection) ==