Johannes Trithemius - Life

Life

When Johannes was still an infant his father Johann von Heidenburg died. His stepfather, whom his mother Elisabeth married seven years later, was hostile to education - thus Johannes could only learn in secrecy and with many difficulties. He learned Greek, Latin and Hebrew. When he was 17 years old he escaped from his home and wandered around looking for good teachers, travelling to Trier, Cologne, the Netherlands, Heidelberg.

He studied at the University of Heidelberg. Travelling from university to his home town in 1482, he was surprised by a snowstorm and took refuge in the Benedictine abbey of Sponheim near Bad Kreuznach. He decided to stay and was elected abbot in 1483, at the age of twenty-one. He set out to transform the abbey from a neglected and undisciplined place into a centre of learning. In his time, the abbey library increased from around fifty items to more than two thousand. He often served as featured speaker and chapter secretary at the Bursfelde Congregation's annual chapter from 1492 to 1503, the annual meeting of reform-minded abbots. Trithemius also supervised the visitations of the congregation's abbeys.

Trithemius wrote extensively as a historian, starting with a chronic of Sponheim and culminating in a two-volume work on the history of Hirsau Abbey. His work was distinguished by mastery of the Latin language and eloquent phrasing, yet it was soon discovered that he inserted several fictional passages into his works. His work as a historian has been tainted ever since, the invented passages proved by several scholars.

However, his efforts did not meet with praise, and his reputation as a magician did not further his acceptance. Increasing differences with the convent led to his resignation in 1506, when he decided to take up the offer of the Bishop of Würzburg, Lorenz von Bibra (bishop from 1495 to 1519), to become the abbot of St. James's Abbey, the Schottenkloster in Würzburg. He remained there until the end of his life. Trithemius was buried in this abbey's church, a tombstone by the famous Tilman Riemenschneider was erected in his honor. In 1825 the tombstone was moved to the Neumünster church, next to the cathedral. It was damaged in the firebombing of 1945 and subsequently restored by the workshop of Theodor Spiegel.

Among his pupils were Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535) and Paracelsus (1493–1541).