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LAZARISTS 241 tile, in 1512, died in Rome, Jan. 19, 1565. He received his master's degree in the university of Alcala in 1533, and in the same year went to Paris for the double purpose of completing his theological studies and of forming the acquaint- ance of Ignatius Loyola. (See JESUITS.) He was ordained priest in Venice, June 24, 1537, and in the following November was appointed by Paul III. to teach scholastic theology in the Sapienza college in Rome. He was afterward employed in a series of reformatory missions destined to check in upper Italy the spread of Protestant doctrines, and to revive faith and piety among the clergy and people. One of the results of Ms labors there was the foun- dation in 1542 of a Jesuit college in Padua. He appeared at the council of Trent in May, 1546, as one of the pope's theologians, opening and closing in this capacity every public dis- cussion, and recapitulating the arguments on both sides. He labored during 1548 in reform- ing various dioceses in Sicily, founding schools, hospitals for the sick, and retreats for the aged and unprotected, as well as the college of Pa- lermo. In 1550 he accompanied the Spanish expedition to Tunis, and on his return he was appointed provincial of his order in upper Ita- ly. He opened the debates in the council of Trent, when it reassembled in 1551, and used his best endeavors to secure freedom to the Protestants invited to be present. During re- Eeated attacks of fever from which he suf- 3red, the council suspended its sessions. In punishment of a fault of insubordination which he committed in 1551, he was ordered by Lo- yola to compose a complete summary of dog- matic theology. The manuscript still exists in Rome, but no one has been able to deci- pher the writing. After the death of Loyola in 1556, Laynez governed the order as vicar general till 1558, when he was unanimously chosen general. In 1559 twelve of the cardi- nals had resolved to elect him pope after Paul IV. ; but their purpose was frustrated by his flight from Rome. In 1561 he went by order of the pope to the conference of Poissy, and in 1562 he was present again at the council of Trent, where he took a leading part. Laynez was conspicuous for his unwearied zeal in teaching; and he used his great influence in establishing free schools, colleges, and univer- sities, and in extending the missionary enter- prises of the Jesuits. He twice declined the dignity of cardinal. Besides the work on the- ology already mentioned, he left several manu- script treatises on other subjects, all of which are equally illegible. His life was written in French by Michel d'Esne (Douai, 1597). LAZARISTS, a society of regular clerks found- ed at Paris in 1625, so called from the priory of St. Lazare, near Paris, their first official residence, but whose proper name is " Priests of the Congregation of the Mission." While St. Vincent de Paul resided as tutor and chap- lain with the count de Joigny, father of Car- dinal de Retz, he effected much good among the count's numerous vassals by religious re- vivals, called missions in the Roman Catholic church. The countess de Joigny, wishing to have a body of such missionaries, obtained from her brother-in-law, Jean Francois de Gondi, archbishop of Paris, the College des Bons En- f ants, and induced Vincent with another priest, Antoine Portail, to take possession of it in 1625, for the purpose of founding a congrega- tion of missionary priests. Their enterprise was officially approved by the archbishop of Paris, April 24, 1626 ; and the missionary society was approved by Urban VIII., Jan. 12, 1632, and Vincent appointed by him its superior. A few days before this last date, Vincent was put in possession of the priory of St. Lazare in the St. Denis suburb, to which a leprosy hospital had been attached in the 12th century, and which had been till then the property of the canons regular of St. Augustine. The new congregation, which only numbered four asso- ciates in 1626, had so much increased in 1632 that they were called to labor in almost every diocese of France, and even in foreign countries. They lived together in great poverty and har- mony, without being bound by any religious obligation, till Alexander VII. issued a bull confirming their society, April 18, 1655, and in a brief published in the following September regulated their constitution. This prescribes that no one can be admitted into the congrega- tion till he has passed two years of seclusion in one of their seminaries. At the end of this pe- riod the candidate binds himself by the simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and a special vow of ministering to the spiritual needs of the poor. The associates are exempt- ed from the jurisdiction of bishops in the inte- rior of their houses, but dependent on that jurisdiction in diocesan ministrations. Their dress is that of the secular clergy. When the constitutions, with the supplementary rules drawn up by St. Vincent (who had in 1642 been elected by the congregation superior for life), were formally accepted, May 17, 1658, they had already formed establishments and founded mis- sions in every Catholic country of Europe. Be- ginning in Rome in 1640, their successful la- bors among the poor of the city, the shepherds of the Campagna, and the peasants of the surround- ing provinces, caused them to be called succes- sively to Genoa, Turin, Naples, and Tuscany. Their establishments in the former kingdom of Sardinia were suppressed by the French in 1798 ; they were restored in 1816, but occupied none of their former houses till 1830. The establishments formed by them after that date in Piedmont and the island of Sardinia con- tinued to prosper till 1870. They were equally prosperous in the kingdom of Naples, where they were compelled to form almost a separate organization in 1788 ; they reunited with the main body in 1827, and shared the fate of the religious orders in the late political changes in the peninsula. In 1646 eight Lazarists went to Ireland, and labored among the Catholics of