Born at Amsterdam, 17 April, 1578; d. at Cologne, 21 June, 1656. He entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, 21 Nov., 1597; taught philosophy at Würzburg, and Sacred Scripture at Mainz. He became superior of the episcopal seminary at Würzburg. He wrote many works on philosophy and theology, among others a notable controversial reply to the Batavian Calvinist Lawrence in defence of the moral teaching of the Jesuits, "Castigatio conscientiae Jesuiticae cauteriata...a Jacobo Laurentio", Würzburg, 1617. It was said of him that he left a book for every one of the seventy-eight years of his life, several devotional treatises on the Blessed Virgin, and many ascetical and mystical treatises.
SOMMERVOGEL, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus, XII (Paris, 1896); POULAIN, Des Graces d'orasion (6th ed., Paris); The Graces of Interior Prayer, tr. SMITH (London, 1911).