HOSEA
473
HOSITJS
gies of the Church; a position which it has ever
since retained both in the East and the West. It is
found in the "Didache", and the "Apostohc Consti-
tutions ". Eusebius (H. E., II, xxiii), quoting tlie ac-
count given by Hegesippus of the death of St. Jame.s,
has: "And as many as were confirmed and gloried
in the testimony of James, and said Hosanna to
the Son of David", etc. St. Clement of Alexandria
says it meant "light, glory, praise". St. Augustine
(in 2nd Le.sson for Saturday before Palm Sunday)
says: "Vox autem obsecrantis est, hosanna, sicut
nonnulli dicunt qui hebra^am linguam noverunt, magis
affectum indicans, quam rem aliquam significans,
sicut sunt in lingua latina, quas interjectiones vocant."
(According to some who are versed in Hebrew, hosanna
is a word of supplication, used like the interjections
in Latin, to express feeling and other than to signify
a thing.) In every Mass the word liosanna is said twice
during the Sanctus at the end of the Preface. It is sung
by the choir at high Mass. It is also repeatedly sung
during the distribution of the palms, and the solemn
procession on Palm vSunday. We gather from St.
Jerome (Matt., xxi, 1.5) etc. that the faithful, in some
places, were accustomed to salute bishops and holy
men with cries of hosanna. Modern Jews have a
procession of palm-branches, in the synagogue, every
day during the Feast of Tabernacles, in September,
while prayers called hosannas are recited. The joyous
character of the festival receives its fullest expression
on the seventh day, the popular name of which is
The Great Hosanna {Hosha'na Rabba) (Oesterley and
Box, "Religion and Worship of the Synagogue", and
the Mishna tract Sukkah, III, 8).
Set- Dictionaries of Vigouroux, Smith, Kitto, Hasting.^; St. Jerome, Ep. xx (Reply to Pope Damasus); Idem, Comm. in Matt., xxi, 9, 15; Bingham, Antiquiliea, XIV, ii, 5.
C. Aherne.
Hosea. See Oseb.
Hosius (Hos, Hosz), Stanislaus, cardinal and Prince-Bishop of Ermland; b. of German parents at Cracow, 5 May, 1504; d. at Capranica, near Rome, 5 August, 1579. He spent his early youth at Cracow and Wilna; and at the age of fifteen, when he was already well versed in German, Polish, and Latin, entered the University of Cracow, from which he graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1520. The pious and talented youth found a patron in Peter Tomicki, Bishop of Cracow and Vice-Chancellor of Poland, who employed him as private secretary and entrusted to him the education of his nephews. A few years later the bishop furnished him with the means to continue his studies at the then famous LIniversities of Padua and Bologna, where, besides perfecting himself in the humanities, he pursued the studies of theology and jurisprudence. Among his professors at Padua was the famous humanist, Lazaro Buonamico; Reginald Pole was one of his fellow-students. At Bologna he pursuetl the humanities under Romulo Amasio, and jurisprudence under Hugo Buoneompagni, the future Gregory XIII. Among his fellow-students here were the future Cardinals Otto Truchsess von Waklburg and Cristoforo Madruzzo. After graduating as doctor of canon and civil law at the University of Bologna on 8 June, 15.34, he returned to Cracow and became secretary in the royal chancery. On the death of Bishop Tomicki (1535) he continued as secretary under the new vice-chancellor, Bishop Choinski of Plock.
About this time begins his intimate friendship with the great neo-Latin poet Dantiscus, then Bishop of Culm. After the death of Bishop Choinski in 1538, Hosius was appointed royal secretary. In this posi- tion he had the entire confidence of King Sigismund, who bestowed various ecclesiastical benefices upon him as reward for his faithful services. He already held a provostship at Wielun, and another at Vislica. To these the king added a canonry at Frauenburg in
1538, at Cracow in 1540, and at Sandomir in 1542.
In 1543 Hosius was ordained priest and in addition to
the above-mentioned benefices, received the parishes
of Golombie and Radlow in 1546. King Sigismund
died in 1548, but before his death he had instructed his
son and successor, Sigismund II, to nominate Hosius
for the next vacant episcopal see. When, therefore,
in 1549, Bishop Giese of Culm was transferred to the
See of Ermland, the young king nominated Hosius for
the See of Culm. Hosius had not sought after this
dignity and accepted it only with reluctance. The
papal approbation arrived in September, 1549; but,
before taking possession of his see, Hosius was sent by
Sigismund on an important mission to the courts of
King Ferdinand I at Prague, and Emperor Charles V
at Brussels and Ghent. The mission resulted in an
offensive and defensive alliance between Poland and
these two monarchies. Upon his return to Poland he
received episcopal consecration at Cracow on 23 March,
1550, and immediately took possession of his see.
On 25 July, 1550, Pope Julius III appointed him
"Inquisitor hsreticae pravitatis" for the neighbour-
ing Diocese of Pomesania, which was rapidly turning
Protestant. The enticing doctrines of Protestantism
were also making alarming headway in the Diocese of
Culm, and it was with great difficulty that Hosius
succeeded in stemming their progress. His first
pastoral letters show his deep concern for the preserva-
tion of the Catholic Faith among his flock; and his
religious colloquies with some of the reformers at
Thorn give testimony of his untiring zeal for the con-
version of those who had already left the true fold.
But the field of his activities was soon to be changed.
The king nominated him for the more important
Diocese of Ermland in January, 1551, whereupon the
cathedral chapter of Ermland postulated him on 2
March, 1551, and Julius III transferred him to that
see on 27 April, 1551. Upon receiving the papal
Bulls he left Liibau, where he had resided while Bishop
of Culm, and took possession of the Diocese of Erm-
land on 21 July.
As Bishop of Ermland Hosius devoted all his efforts to the maintenance of the Catholic religion in Polantl. His great learning and wide experience, coupled with deep piety, made him the natural leader of the Polish episcopate in its struggle against Protestantism, which was making deep inroads into Poland during the rule of the weak and vacillating King Sigismund II. For the first seven years of his episcopate he served the Catholic cause chiefly by his numerous polemical writings in defence of Catholic truth. He had already in his youth given proof of his literary ability by com- posing various Latin poems; and as early as 1528 he had published, in the original and with a Latin trans- lation, the short treatise of St. Chrysostom in which a parallel is drawn between a king and a monk. In 1535 he had also written a lengthy biography of his deceased patron. Bishop Tomicki. All these writings have been published by Hipler in the first volume of his collection of the letters of Hosius (Cracow, 1879). Shortly after his appointment to the See of Ermland he took part in the provincial Synod of Piotrkow, in June, 1551. On this occasion the assembled bishops entrusted him with the drawing up of a Profession of the Catholic Faith, to which they all subscribed and which they agreed to publish. Afterwards Hosius expanded these articles into an elaborate exposition of Catholic doctrine "Confessio fidei catholicse chris- tianse", part of which was published at Cracow in 1553, the remainder at Mainz in 1557. The work is one of the best pieces of polemical literature produced during the period of the Reformation. In faultless Latin the author places the whole array of Catholic doctrines in contrast with the opposing doctrines of the reformers, and proves by means of irresistible arguments, drawn from Holy Scripture and patristic literature, that Catholicity is strictly identical with
