Friedrich Spanheim
Friedrich Spanheim the elder (January 1, 1600, Amberg – May 14, 1649, Leiden) was a Calvinistic theology professor at the University of Leiden.
Life
He entered in 1614 the University of Heidelberg where he studied philology and philosophy, and in 1619 removed to Geneva to study theology. In 1621 he became tutor in the house of Jean de Bonne, Baron de Vitrolle, governor of Embrun in Dauphiné, and after three years he visited Geneva, and Paris, and England, returning to Geneva in 1626 and becoming professor of philosophy. In 1631 he went over to the theological faculty, and was rector of the academy from 1633 to 1637.
In 1642 he moved to Leiden as professor of theology. There Spanheim became one of the most prominent defenders of the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination against Amyraldism.
Works
He published anonymously, Le Soldat suedois (1633), a history of the Thirty Years' War until 1631 and Le Mercure suisse (1634); Commentaire historique de la vie et de la mort de . . Christofle Vicomte de Dohna (1639).
Friedrich Spanheim the Younger
Friedrich Spanheim the Younger (1 May 1632 – 18 May 1701) was a German Calvinist theologian of conservative views, son of Friedrich Spanheim.
Life
He was born in Geneva, and studied at the University of Leiden, graduating M.A. in 1648. He joined the faculty of the University of Heidelberg in 1655.
In 1670 he moved to Leiden, replacing the late Johannes Cocceius as Professor of theology. Spanheim emphasised the study of church history. His theological position was expressed in dogmatic and polemical terms, as he took on Arminians, Cartesians, the followers of Cocceius and Jesuits. Spanheim encouraged the Voetians to stamp their orthodoxy on the Leiden theological faculty, and in 1676 pushed for the publication of 20 deprecated positions, marking out the Cocceian/Cartesian views. In the university Abraham Heidanus, Wittichius and Burchardus de Volder resisted strongly, and Heidanus lost his position. In the longer term, however, the Voetian victory was pyrrhic, in that Cartesianism quite soon prevailed.
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