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.)
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