This article examines the case of the
controversial seventeenth-century theologian Jacob Reihing. In 1621
Reihing fled Pfalz-Neuburg, where he had played an instrumental role in
re-Catholicizing the territory, to seek asylum in Württemberg. His
defection provoked shock and dismay in political, religious and academic
circles in Pfalz-Neuburg and Bavaria. In Stuttgart Reihing was granted
the protection of the duke and sent to the University of Tübingen.
Jesuits and Catholic princes made a series of interventions, first in an
effort to encourage Reihing to return to the fold and then to blacken
his name. In spite of these pressures, the endorsements of the duke of
Württemberg continued apace: Reihing was allowed a very public ceremony
of conversion and was appointed professor of theology in Tübingen. The
task of rehabilitating the former Jesuit fell largely to the University
of Tübingen. Its professors attempted to refashion Reihing as an
archetypal Lutheran scholar and carefully tended his public image over
the remaining years of his life. For their part the Jesuits intensified
their attempts at character assassination. The battle over Reihing’s
reputation continued until and, indeed, beyond his death. This article
explores the controversies generated by Reihing’s conversion and
subsequent life and career and examines in particular the struggle over
his reputation. In doing so it addresses a wider clash of ideals
governing academic identities, lifestyles and behaviours in which
scholars and institutions divided by confession participated.