Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/833

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

PETER


761


PETER


the truth with modesty and dignity without scoffing or ridicule. The names of Luther and Melanchthon were never mentioned in his "Catechism". His love for the German people is characteristic; he urged the brothers of the order to practise German diligently, and he hked to hear the German national hymns sung. At his desire St. Ignatius decreed that all tlio members of the order .should offer monthly !Ma.sses and prayers for the welfare of Germany and the North. Ever the faithful advocate of the Germans at the Holy See, he obtained clemency for them in que.stions of ecclesias- tical censures, and permission to give extraordinary absolutions and to dispense from the law of fasting. He also wished the Index to be modified that German confessors might be authorized to permit the reading of some books, but in his sermons he warned the faithful to abstain from reading such books without permission. While he was rector of the University of Ingolstadt, a resolution was passed forbidding the use of Protestant textbooks and, at his request, the Duke of Bavaria forbade the importation of books opposed to religion and morals. At Cologne he requested the town council to forbid the printing or sale of books hos- tile to the Faith or immoral, and in the Tyrol had Archduke Fenlinand II suppress such books. He also advised Bishop Urban of Gurk, the court preacher of Ferdinand I, not to read so many Protestant books, but to study instead the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers. At Nimwegen he searched the libraries of his friends, and burned all heretical books. In the midst of all these cares Canisius remained essentially a man of prayer; he was an ardent advocate of the Rosary and its sodalities. He was also one of the pre- cursors of the modern devotion of the Sacred Heart. During his lifetime his "Catechism" appeared in more than 200 editions in at least twelve languages. It was one of the works which influenced St. Aloy- sius Gonzaga to enter the Society of Jesus ; it converted, among others. Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm of Neuburg; and as late as the eighteenth century in many places the words "Canisi" and catechism were sjmonymous. It remained the foundation and pattern for the catechisms printed later. His preaching also had great influence; in 1560 the clergy of the cathedral of Augsburg testified that by his sermons nine hun- dred persons had been brought back to the Church, and in May, 1562, it was reported the Easter com- municants numbered one thousand more than in former years. Canisius induced some of the promi- nent Fuggers to return to the Church, and converted the leader of the Aug.sburg Anabaptists. In 1.537 the Catholic clergy had been banished from Augsburg by the city council; but after the preaching of Canisius public processions were held, monasteries gained novices, people crowded to the jubilee indulgence, pilgrimages were revived, and frequent Communion again became the rule. After the election.s of 1562 there were eighteen Protestants and twenty-seven Catholics on the city council. He received the appro- bation of Pius IV by a special Brief in 1561. Great services were rendered by Canisius to the Church through the extension of the Society of Jesus; the difficulties were great: lack of novices, insufficient education of some of the younger members, poverty, plague, animosity of the Protestants, jealousy on the part of fellow-Catholics, the interference of princes and city councils. Notwithstanding all this, Canisius intro- duced the order into Bavaria, Bohemia, Swabia, the Tyrol, and Hungary, and prepared the way in Alsace, the Palatinate, Hesse, and Poland. Even opponents admit that to the Jesuits principally is due the credit of saving a large part of Germany from religious in- novation. In this work Canisius was the leader. In many respects Canisius was the product of an age which believed in strange miracles, put witches to death, and had recourse to force against the ad- herents of another faith; but notwithstanding all this,


Johannes Janssen does not hesitate to declare that Canisius was the most prominent and most influential Catholic reformer of the sixteenth century (Ge- schichte des deutschen Volkes, 15th and 16th editions, IV, p. 406). "Canisius more than any other man", writes A. Chroust, "saved for the Church of Rome the Catholic Germany of to-day" (Deutsche Zeitschrift filr Geschichtswissenschaft, new series, II, 106). It has often been declared that Canisius in many ways resembles St. Boniface, and he is therefore called the second Apostle of Germany. The Protestant pro- fessor of theology, Paul Drews, says: "It must be admitted that, from the standpoint of Rome, he deserves the title of Apostle of Germany" ("Petrus Canisius". Ilallc, 1S02, p. 103).

Sddu after his death reports spread of the mirac- ulous help ublained by invoking his name. His tomb was visited by pilgrims. The Society of Jesus decided to urge his beatification. The ecclesiastical investiga- tions of his virtues and mirat'les were at first con- ducted by the Bishops of Fribourg, Dillingen, and Freising (162.5-90); the apostolic proceedings began in 1734, but were interrupted by political and relig- ious disorders. Gregory XVI resumed them about 1833; Pius IX on 17 April, 1864, approved of four of the miracles submitted, and on 20 November, 1869, the solemn beatification took place in St. Peter's at Rome. In connexion with this, there appeared be- tween 1864-66 more than thirty different biographies. On the occasion of the tercentenary of his death, Leo XIII issued to the bishops of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland his much-discussed "Epistola Encyclica de raemoria sa;culari B. Petri Canisii" ; the bishops of Switzerland issued a collective pastoral; in numerous places of Europe and in some places in the United States this tercentenarj' was celebrated and about fifty pamphlets were puijlished . In order to encourage the veneration of Canisius there is published at Fri- bourg, Switzerland, monthly since 1896, the "Cani- sius-Stimmen " (in German and French). The infir- mary of the College of St. Michael, in which Canisius died, is now a chapel. Vestments and other objects which he used are kept in different houses of the order. The Canisius College at Buffalo possesses precious relics. In the house of Canisius in the Broersstraat at Nimwegen the room is still shown where he was bom. Other memorials are: the Canisius statue in one of the public squares of Fribourg, the statue in the cathedral of Augsburg, the Church of the Holy Saviour and the Mother of Sorrows, recently built in his memory in Vienna, and the new Canisius College at Nimwegen. At the twenty-sixth general meeting of German Cathohcs held at Aachen, 1879, a Canisius society for the religious education of the young was founded. The general prayer, said every Sunday in the churches originated by Canisius, is still in use in the greater part of Germany, and also in many places in Austria and Switzerland. Various portraits of Canisius exist: in the Churches of St. Nicolaus and St. Michael at Fribourg; in the vestry of the Augsburg Cathedral; in the Church of St. Michael at Munich; in the town hall at Nimwegen; in the town hall at lng<j|stadt; in the Cistercian monastery at Stams. The woodcut in Pantaleo, "Prosopographia", III (Basle, 1566), is worthless. Copper-plates were produced by Wierx (1619), Custos (1612), Sadeler (1628), Hainzelmann (1693), etc. In the nineteenth century are : Fracas- sini's painting in the Vatican; Jeckel's .steel engraving; Leo Samberger's painting; Steinle's engraving (1886). In most of these pictures Canisius is represented wit h his catechism and other books, or surrounded by chil- dren whom he is instructing. (See Doctrine, Chris- Ti.\x; Codnter-Reformation; Society of Jesus.)

B. P. Canisii Episl. rl Arln. prl. BRArNsnEnnEn fh vola., Frei- burgimBr., IS'lfi I'ln-.i, -, v r„,.f, ,„■■,■ an>l 7'.Mmfn/vm; the

Beatification \. ' • •■ i.ir-. ! ■ i ;'ii.( in onK' a few

copies, theolfi. I . uh] !■ nil ■• 1 '..' // ./• !l: (').rnnicon

Poland, Ejn.l^.l.i 1/1,1/. I ,n,. I... ;n..'i'./ .11-, - . i.n ^Uiuut thirty