Franz Neumayr

Franz Neumayr (17 January 1697 – 1 May 1765) was a German Jesuit preacher, writer on theological, controversial and ascetical subjects, and author of many Latin dramas on sacred themes.

His controversial sermons were directed in a great part against the Lutherans, and in particular against the apostate monk Franz Ignatius Rothfischer [de], and Chladonium.

They include: Latin plays for the use of his Latin sodality, which periodically staged such productions for the pleasure and edification of the literary men of Munich; sermons which he had delivered in the pulpit of Augsburg cathedral; works on asceticism; treatises on rhetoric and poetry; and some essays on moral theology in defence of the Jesuit system.

Some of his Latin plays were republished in two collections: On his ascetical writings probably the most famous and most valuable is the little book Idea Theologiae Asceticae, Scientiam Sanctorum exhibens, a posthumous work first published in Rome by Alexander Monaldi in 1839.

Of his literary treatises, the Idea Rhetorices deals with the precepts and use of rhetoric; Idea Poesis is a similar volume on poetry and in the title he says of the art, "Ad Ingeniorum Culturam, Animorum Oblectationem ac Morum Doctrinam".