Pierre Canisius - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Formation

At the time when the Réforme extended on Europe, strongly shaking the Christian Occident, the catholic families confirmed their faith in the Roman Church by a solved and determined attachment. Pierre Kanijs was born in Nimègue with the Netherlands in one from these families. His/her father was a middle-class rich person, Jacob Canisius; he lost his mother, Ægidia van Houweningen, shortly after his birth.

In 1536, Pierre was sent to study with Cologne the " arts" , civil law and whereas it matures the decision to become priest; he directs his studies of Théologie towards the Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church. He passed part of 1539 to the the University of Louvain, and in 1540 Maître was accepted are Arts in Cologne.

In spring 1543, it meets Pierre Favre, first companion of saint Ignace de Loyola, who, in charge of a papal mission, remains with Mainz. Under its direction, it follows the spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignace during thirty days; then, it decides to enter the Society of Jesus, where it is allowed on May 8th. It founds then in Cologne, the first house Jesuit in Germany.

In 1546, Pierre Canisius is ordered priest and leaves soon Cologne for the Italy. Then, the following year, it is sent to the Concile of Thirty as theologist of the Cardinal Otto Truchsess von Waldburge, the bishop of Augsburg.

After the adjournment of the council, Ignace recalls it to Rome and makes him achieve its noviciate under its own direction. To spring 1548, it is sent with a group of ten Jesuits under the direction of Jerome Nadal to found with Messine the first college Jesuit. It teaches Latin and rhetoric there.

Missions in Germany and Switzerland

In 1549, on the order of the pope Paul III which answers a request of the Duke Guillaume IV of Bavaria, Pierre Canisius is sent with Claude Jay and Alonso Salmeron to teach in particular at the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria. It is of this base that during thirty years Pierre Canisius will deploy in the Holy roman Empire its activity in favor of the Catholic church then threatened by its own decline and powerful pushed Protestant reform under the influence of Martin Luther.

September 7th, 1549, he pronounced his wishes solemnels in Rome, in the presence of Ignace de Loyola. Then, with Bologna, he lives himself to decree the rank of Doctor of Divinity. In 1550, he was elected vice-chancellor of the University of Ingolstadt. Then, in 1552 Ignace to the new college Vienna sent it; he also preached with the Cathédrale Saint Etienne and at the Court of Ferdinand I. He refused several times archevéché of Vienna in spite of the requests for Ferdinand then Pape Jules III.

In years 1555 and 56, he taught in several colleges of his kind, and founded those of Ingolstadt and Prague, of Augsburg, Freiburg in Suisse.

In 1556, Ignace names it first provincial of High-Germany (Souabe, Bavaria, Boheme, Hungary, High and Low Austria).

In 1555, it took part in the Diet of Augsburg with Ferdinand; Then during the winter 1556-57, he became the adviser of the king to the Diet of Ratisbon. Named by the catholic princes and the pope, it taken share with the religious debates with Worms. Champion of the Catholic cause, it frequently opposed Melanchthon. He succeeds in dividing the Protestants who gave up the discussions.

Its nephew is Henri Canisius.

Great Catechism

It wrote for the teaching of the religion an excellent precis: Summa doctrinsa christianse , 1554, known under the name of Great Catechism , and translated into several languages, in particular into French by the Abbot Adolphe-Charles Peltier, 1857, It gave itself of this work a summary, the Petit Catechism , which became popular. It translates the Pères of the Church too forgotten at the time and to which Luther wants to refer at no price.

If it fights the Reform, it is soft for the Protestant reformers. Conscious of the weaknesses of the Catholic church, it is convinced that the renewal of the Church, term which it prefers with reform, must pass by the fight against the ignorance of the clergy and the faithful ones.

At the time where printing works generates only mistrust, since it was one of the instruments of the dispute, it uses about it abundantly: “Progress must be put at the service of God. ”

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