Marquette University

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History Faculty Research and Publications

History Department

1-1-1981

Peter Cansius
John Donnelly
Marquette University, john.p.donnelly@marquette.edu

Published version. "Peter Cansius," in Shapers of Religious Traditions in Germany, Switzerland, and
Poland, 1560-1600. Eds. Jill Raitt. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981, pp. 141-156. Yale
University Press. Used with permission.

l?eJreJR- ~RN151U5
1521-1597
JOHN PATRICK DONNELLY

LIFE

Peter Kanijs, or Canisius, was born at Nijmegen in 152 L

Jakob Kanijs, Peter's father, was a man of culture who had
attended the Universities of Paris and Orleans and had
served as tutor to the sons of Duke Rene II of Lorraine. Later he proved an
astute businessman and politician, serving nine terms as mayor ofNijmegen.
As his eldest son, Peter received the best education available, first at the local
Latin school, then at a nearby boarding establishment, and finally at the
University of Cologne.
Cologne was a natural choice, even though the university had fallen on
evil days, for the Rhine !jnked it to Nijmegen, and Jakob Kanijs had business
connections there. Among staunch Catholics such as the Kani;s family, C0logne was renowned, as the German Rome, filled with old churches and relics
of.the saints. Jakob entrusted his son to two outstanding priests, Andrew
Herll and Nicholas van Esche, who introduced their fifteen-year-old charge to
the Dutch and Rhenish spirituality of the late Middle Ages. Through van
Esche, Canisiusbecame friendly with Gerard Kalckbrenner and Johannes
Lanspergiy.s, the prior and subprior at the Charterhouse of St. Barbara, which
was a shining exception to the usual deterioration of monasteries during that
era. Lanspergi~ attained eminence. asa mystic and as a controversial theologian. The Carthusian life attracted Canisius, especially after his best
friend, Laurence Surius, entered the Charterhouse. Still Canisius hesitated,
perhll-ps deterred by a prediction of a saintly Beguine that he was destined for a
new order ofpriests. Surius later went on to edit the biographies of many of the
saints. The friendship between Canisius and the Cologne Carthusians later
broadened into a special bond of prayer between. the Carthusians and the
Jesuits.
Atbis father's request Canisius transferred to Louvain in 1539 to study
law, but when Jakob then arranged a lucrative marriage for him, Peter
counter~ by taking a private vow of perpetual chastity, .returning to
Cologne, and beginning theological studies. For centuries Cologne h~been a
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center of scholasticism, famous for the lectures of Albert the Great, Thomas
Aquinas, and Duns Scotus. Canisius esteemed the medieval scholastics
throughout his life, but his own emphasis on Scripture and the Church
Fathers suggests a preference for the humanist tradition in theology. He also
learned Greek and Hebrew, languages much lauded by the humanists, but
several fundamental drives of humanism never took deep root in his conservative temperament. He did not develop an interest in humane letters for their
own sake, and although throughout his life he reread Cicero to sharpen his
Ladnity, style was for Canisius only a useful tool, never the expression of a
distinctive ego.
In 1541 a Spanish Jesuit, Alvaro Alfonso, joined the college where
Canisius was residing. Alfonso told Peter about the Society of Jesus and the
work of Ignatius Loyola's earliest companion, Pierre Favre., at Mainz. Intrigued, Canisius took ship up the Rhine to learn more about the new order of
priests. The meeting with Favre at Mainz ended his years ofsearching. "To my
great good fortune Ihave found the man I was seeking-if he is a man and not
an angel of the Lord. Never have I seen nor heard such a learned and profound
theologian nor a man of such shining and exalted virtue . . . . I can hardly
describe how the Spiritual Exercises transformed my soul and senses, enlightened my mind with new rays of heavenly grace and I feel infused with
new strength .... I feel changed into a new man." Six months later Peter
C~.nisius took his vows as the first German Jesuit. 1
. Shortly thereafter, he became the first Jesuit to publish a book. He is
probably responsible for the German translation ofthe sermons of the Rhenish
mystic Johann Taqler, which appeared at Cologne in 1543. 2 Three years later
Canisius was ordained to the priesthood and began to publish the fruits of his
patristic studies: two volumes of St. Cyril of Alexandria, including the editio
princeps of Cyril's Genesis commentary. Since Erasmus had already published
St. Cyril, the young student did not lack courage, but his edition is not
remarkable for scholarship. More successful was his edition of St. Leo the
Great that same year, which went on to be reprinted six times.
By this time Canisius had become the leader of nine young Jesuits
studying at Cologne, but more important was his role in frustrating the efforts'
of Archbishop Hermann von Wied to Lutheranize his electorate. Had von
Wied succeeded, the history of Germany could have been very different, since
the majority of electors would have been Protestant, A Protestant emperor
might have been the coup de grace to German Catholicism. Von Wied met
1. Otto Braunsberger, ed., Beali Petri Canisii Societatis ItSfi Epistlllae etl\(ta (Freiburg i. B.: Herder,
1896-1923), 1: 76-77. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola are a system of reflection and

meditation, mainly on the life ofehrist, designed for a thitty-day retreat under a skilled director. They aim
at bringing a person's major decisions and way of life into line with God's will. The printed Spiritllal
Exmises contain rules and suggestions that the director adapts to individuals ,and their needs. Loyola
considered Pierre Favre the best director among his early companions.
2. For the controverted authorship, sceJames Brodrick, St. PettrCa1lis;lIs. SJ . 1521-1597. (New
York: Sheet! and Ward, 1935), pp. 38--40.

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strong opposition from the university, the chapter of canons, the Jesuits, and
the chancellor, Johann Gropper. When Charles V visited Cologne in 1545,
the Catholic leaders chose Canisius to present their case against the archbishop. Later they sent Canisius to the emperor at Antwerp and at Geislingen.
Charles was sympathetic but postponed action until his victory over the
Lutherans at Miihlberg allowed him to depose von Wied.
Early in 1547 Cardinal Truchsess of Augsburg appointed Canisius as his
theologian at the Council of Trent. Peter had hardly arrived at Trent when the
council was transferred to Bologna. Canisius spoke only twice before the
congregation of theologians, but he put his knowledge of German .and
Germany at the disposal of the other Jesuits at Bologna, Diego (Jacob) Laynez, Alfonso Salmeron, and Claude Lejay. He soon forged lasting friendships with each of them.
When the council was prorogued in June 1547, Loyola summoned
Canisius to Rome where he entered a primitive form of the Jesuit tertianship,
or final spiritual training. After making the Spiritual Exercises a second
time, 3 he devoted several months to prayer, to service in the Roman hospi tals,
and to menial housework-scrubbing floors, washing dishes, and serving at
table. At the end of this experience Loyola sent Canisius and nine others to
start a college at Messina. The Sicilian venture was the first of three hundred
colleges for lay students that the Jesuits established during Canisius's lifetime. At Messina he taught rhetoric and headed the division of humanities,
and the experience gained There by trial and error stood him in good stead
when he organized the first Jesuit colleges in~Germany. Almost a y~ after
landing in Sicily, he got new orders flOm Rome. The duke of Bavaria needed
professors of theology at Ingolstadt, where the university had declined sharply
after the death of Johann Eck in 1543. He was to join Lejay and Salmeron in
restoring this citadel of Bavarian Catholicism.
From 1549 to 1580 Canisius worked in Germany as teacher, preacher,
writer, Jesuit provincial, and adviser to the Catholic princes. His major bases
of operations were Ingolstadt, Vienna, Augsburg, Innsbruck, and Munich,
but his duties forced him to tramp the wretched roads ofEurope more than any
major religious figure of the era. In 1565 alone, when he served as unofficial
nuncio to the empire, he logged five thousand miles. Seven times he went to
Rome, but recurrent short trips, such as his sixty-one journeys between
Dilligen and Augsburg and twenty-four climbs through the Alps from
Augsburg to Innsbruck, probably entailed greater hardship.
Canisius was the first Jesuit to enter Poland when he came as theological
adviser to the papal nuncio in 1558, first to Cracow and then to the Diet
of Piotrk6w. The strength of Protestantism in Cracow and throughout the
realm alarmed him. He found Polish Catholics xenophobiC, backward, and
filled with anti-:Roman bias; the bishops and clergy seemed apathetic and
3. A Jesuit twice spends thirty days following the Spiritual Exercises oflgnatius Loyola, once as a
novice and again as a fenian three years or so following his ordination to t~, priesthood.

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avaricious. Typically, his reaction was not discouragement but a desire to

labor and give his life for Catholicism in Poland.. 4 Seven years later he helped
send a group of Jesuits to Braniewo (Braunsberg), and they gradually
developed into the flourishing Polish province ofJesuits. He was aided in this
by Cardinal Stanislas Hosius, who had been urging on Canisius the establishment of the Society of Jesus in Poland as early as 1554 (see chapter 10). The
correspondence between the Polish cardinal and the Dutch Jesuit witnesses to
nearly thirty yea~ of friendship and cooperation. Canisius gave valued advice
when Hosius served as cardinal legate at the Council of Trent. For many years
Canisius looked after the publication of Hosius's works in Germany, much of '
which was not routine. In the case of Hosius's Solida Propugnatio (Cologne,
1558) against Johann Brem, Canisius divided the work into chapters and
provided marginal summaries and an index. He encouraged Hosius late in life
to take up his pen again and do battle for the Lord. For years Canisius supplied
the cardinal with the latest books from German publishers; in turn Hosius
sent him manuscripts ftom Rome for his controversial works. 5
In 1580, when the Jesuit provincial, Paul Hoffaeus, sent him to supervise the founding of a Jesuit college at Fribourg in Switzerland, Canis ius left
Germany, never to return. Perhaps Hoffaeus was glad to get rid of the old
man, for he had long opposed his absorption in controversial theology and
objected to his strict opinions against taking interest on certain kinds ofloans,
but Hoffaeus also realized how much Canisius's prudence and reputation for
holiness would advance the delicate negotiations with the Fribourg senate for
the new college. 6 Fribourg, squeezed between Protestant Bern and the Vaud,
needed a college to fortify its Catholicism and stop the drain of its youth to the
Protestant academies of Bern , BaSel, Lausanne, and Geneva. The initial funds
for the college came, as so often, from the suppression ofa monastery. Canisius
took up the task of preacher at Fribourg and meanwhile tried to deat with
monk-pensioners, with rents from the monastic lands, and even with the
temporal jurisdiction of two villages. In 1582 the Jesuits opened their school
in two rented houses, but it took three more years and generous help from the
senate before work could begin on a permanent college.
Gradually canisius had to cut back on his preaching, since his voice and
his health generally were failing. In 1591 he began to use a cane to totter
about. His growing inability to engage in the active apostolate galled him, as
we see from the many references in his letters to the" decrepitude ofold age."7
He explained to a friend that "a useless old fellow like me has plenty of
leisure, .. but he tried to contribute whatever he could. As long as he managed

~\

4. Braunsberger, 2:31~3.
5. Braunsbetger, 2:202f, 888; 3:490, 392f, 515f; 4: 19f, 793f.
6. Brodrick, pp. 712-72; Burkhart Schneider, "Peter Canisius und Paul Hoffaeus," Z,its,hri/t for
~ ItAtholisd" ThetJlogiI 89 (1957): 304-30.
,
7. Braunsberger, 8:844'.

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to get about, he insisted on doing his share in washing the community dishes
and sweeping the floors. Throughout his life he had devoted up to seven hours
daily to prayer, but now he added quiet walks with his rosary. The citizens
came to see his presence in Fribourg as a talisman, "the strongest defense and
ornament of their republic."8
Writing was the one activity that his health permitted, and his productivity continued unabated. Although he kept revising his earlier works, he
increasingly turned to composing devotional books. Canisius published the
lives of several local Swiss saints, together with prayers that were attributed to
them. As history these books are worthless, but history was incidental to his
purposes. Thus his life of the holy hausfrau Ida was an exhortation to married
couples, while his writings on the soldier-saints-such as that on St. Maurice,
A Mirror for Soldiers-were intended for Swiss mercenaries. For the future
emperor, Ferdinand II, Canisius composed a book of prayers. It is easy to
dismiss such writings, but they found an eager audience. The great work of his
last years was five large volumes of meditations and notes on the gospels for
Sundays and feast days. 9

THEOLOGY

Canisius is best known for his catechisms, which eventually appeared in five hundred editions in twenty-five languages. In Germany as in the rest of Europe before the
Reformation, catechetical instruction for children had long centered on such
traditional topics as the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's
Prayer. This material was often cast into verse for easier memorization and
supplemented by explanations of the seven sacraments, the seven capital sins,
the eight beatitudes, and similar material. Nevertheless, the pre-Reformation tradition had failed to capitalize on the invention of printing by placing
effective catechisms in children's hands. Very early, Protestants began to fill
this vacuum, culminating with Luther's large and small catechisms of 1529.
Catholic catechisms were slow to appear, but by midcentury German Catholics could choose between the catechisms of Georg Witzel, Johann Gropper,
8. Braunsberger, 8:677, 883.
9. For a discussion of the literature on Canisius, see Engelbert M. Baxbaum, Petrtls CanisillJ tmd die
kirchliche Erneuerung des Herzogtums Bayern, 1549-1556 (Rome: Institutum historicum S.l., 1973), pp.
1-11. Canisius's published works include three catechisms, three polemical works in theology, nine books
of piety, eight volumes of sermons and sermon notes, and five books on the lives of the saints. Friedrich
Streicher has produced a critical edition of the catechisms: S. Petri Canisii Doctoris Ecclesiae Catechismi Latini
et Germanici; t, Catechismi Latini; fl, Catechismi GermaniC;, (Munich: Officina Silesiana; Rome: Universitas
Gregoriana, 1933, 1936). Other major works are: Commentarii de Verbi Dei Corruptelis; 1.lohannis Baptistae
Historia; fl. De Maria Virgine Incomparabili (Paris, 1584); Notae in Evangelicas Lectiones (Fribourg, 1591,
1593); Meditationes seu Notaein Evangelicas Lectiones, vol: I, (Freiburg i. B.: Herder, 1939); vols. 2 and 3
(Munich: Officina Sileslana, 1955, 1961). For a listing of Canis ius editions, see Carlos Sommervogel,
Bibliotheque de fa Compagnie de jesus (Paris: Picard, 1891) 2:617-88.

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Pedro de Soto, Michael Helding, and others, but none of these could rival that
of Luther. 10
Ferdinand of Austria had long desired a compendium of Catholic
theology aimed at priests and educated laymen; Canisius, Lejay, and Laynez
had all tried their hand at this project without much success. Early in 1553
Canisius turned instead to a large catechism, which so delighted Ferdinand
that he promised it would be the only catechism allowed in Austria. The first
edition, Summa Doctrinae Christianae, appeared anonymously at Vienna in
1555 and went through twenty printings in the first four years. Ferdinand and
his advisers made the capital suggestion that Canisius provide marginal
references to Scripture, the Church Fathers, and the ecumenical councils so
that teachers and students could see the evidence that backed the statements of
the Summa. Later Canisius helped Peter Buys (or Busaeus), a fellow Jesuit
from Nijmegen, to compile the Opus Catechisticum, whose four volumes and
2,500 pages reprint the text of the Summa together with the passages referred to in its margins. 11 The first edition of the Summa has 213 questions
and covers 69 pages in the Streicher critical edition; after the Council of
Trent Canisius nearly doubled the length of the catechism by expanding his
answers, by adding 9 new questions, and by reprinting almost verbatim the
Tridentine decrees on original sin and justification. Marginal references to
Scripture rose from eleven hundred to two thousand, while patristic citations
jumped from four hundred to twelve hundred. Canisius seldom referred to
scholastic theology since he preferred to base his vocabulary and teaching
on Scripture and the fathers.
In 1556 a Latin grarnmarappeared at Ingolstadt that contained in an
appendix the first edition of Canis ius's Catechismus minimus. It occupies only
seven pages in Streicher's edition. Editions in Latin and German quickly
followed, often containing prayers, hymns, and instructions on confession
and communion. The most popular of the Canisius series of catechisms was
the minor, or PartJus Catechismus Catholicorum, of 1559, which was intended for "
adolescents and contained three innovations not found in its larger or smaller
companions. It was often illustrated; especially lavish was the Plantin edition
of 1589 with lO2 engravings by Peter van der Borcht. Secondly, the minor
often contains a calendar of the church year with elaborate references to
readings for each day. Finally, it includes an appendix of thirty-seven
scriptural quotations for students to quote against heretics; these quotations
do not argue against any specific teaching but simply stress the value of tradition and the authority of the church. Only the minor and the minimus were
designed for memorization. One-reason for the success of the Canisius cate10. Jean-Claude Dhotel, Lcr Originfs dM ftllkhiJ".1IIINimIe (Paris: Editions Montaigne, 1967), pp.
15-98..
11. CtIIKhiSt!li, 1:38--46- , 67--70- ; Braunsberger, 1:411-13; Brodrick, pp. 173-79; 221-24.

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chisms was that they increased in length and sophistication as the child grew,
while remaining familiar in wording, doctrine, and format. 12
Most sixteenth-century catechisms, including those of Luther, Calvin,
and the Council of Trent, have Jour major parts dealing with the Apostles'
Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the sacraments,
although the order of presentation varies. In contrast, Canisius divides
Christian doctrine into two parts, "wisdom" and "justice." Under wisdom he
deals with faith (the Apostles' Creed), hope (The Lord's Prayer and the Hail
Mary), charity (The Ten Commandments and the precepts of the church), and
the sacraments. The second part, devoted to justice, is shorter but more
distinctive. Justice consists in fleeing evil and doing good. Canisius describes
four categories of sin that the Christian must flee. In explaining how the
Christian does good he takes up the works of mercy, the cardinal virtues, the
gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, the beatitudes, and the evangelical
counsels. He closes by explaining the four last things: death, judgment, hell,
and heaven. Giving students information about Catholic doctrine was important, but Canisius's real goal was leading them to prayerfulness, to the
frequent use of the sacraments, and to moral living based on intelligent
religious conviction. The justitia of Canisius, chiefly derived from Augustine
and Gregory the Great, is not an isolated philosophical virtue but includes
theological justification and the whole of Christian living.
In one sense the catechisms of Canis ius are among the least polemical of
the Reformation era; they never mention Luther, Calvin, or any Protestant by
name, and they seldom advert to Protestant doctrine, but simply present the
arguments for the Catholic positions on disputed points. In their lack ofdirect
reference to Protestant teaching they contrast with many Catholic catechisms
such as those of Edmond Auger, the famous FrenchJesuit. Gradually even the
French Jesuits came to prefer Canisius's catechisms to those of Auger, both
because their section on justice and practical piety had no parallel in Auger
and because they did not even bring up the alternative explanations of the
Protestants. 13
In another sense the catechisms of Canis ius are profoundly anti-Protestant. Their heavy stress on good works was designed to oppose Luther's
emphasis on faith. The division into two parts, one devoted to Christian wisdom and the other devoted to justice and devout living, clearly cuts against
12. Within Canisius's lifetime there were eighty-two printings of the Summa (twenty in the empire)
and 132 Latin printings of the Minor (fifry-eight in the empire), plus four of the MinimuJ. There were
thirteen printings each in German of the Minor and the MinimuJ. Stricher, CatechiJmi, (l:96~168;
2: 16-17), lists the Latin and German editions, but there were many other vernacular translations, for
example ten of the Summa and thirteen of the Minor in French: Dhotel, pp. 80, 81. For photo-reprints of
early English translations, see Englirh RecuJant Literature, vols. 2, 32, 35; (Menston, Yorkshire: Scolar
Press, 1968, 1970, 1971).
13. Dhotel, pp. 77-80.

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Luther's link between faith and justification. In defending traditional Catholic faith and practice, Canis ius shows little of the spirit of compromise found
in Erasmians such as Georg Witzel. Canisius begins his tract on the sacraments in the Sum1Tlfl with a defense of the solemn rituals with which the
Catholic Church surrounded the sacraments. He tries to build up a scriptural
and patristic defense for the five sacraments that most Protestants rejected.
Thus he sees the laying on of hands in the Acts of the Apostles as evidence for
confirmation. He argues for transubstantiation but devotes more space to
defending communion under one kind wherever custom and church authorities have sanctioned it. Because baptism caused little controversy between Catholics and mainstream Protestants, he treats it very briefly, giving
it only a third of the space he devotes to holy orders. pearly the needs of
controversy produced an imbalance in treating the various points of doctrine;
central truths on which there was general agreement get short shrift, while
disputed questions suffer the elephantiasis so common in Reformation polemics. After explaining the Ten Commandments Canisius takes up the
precepts of the church, which he prefaces with a long defense of church
authority. The visible church is the city placed on a mountain, the pillar and
foundation of truth that God fosters, preserves, defends, and vindicates.
Anyone who rejects her doctrines or denies the authority of her ministers,
particularly of the popes, is not a member of the church. Christians need the
teaching of the church to recognize the Scriptures and to distinguish their true
meaning from the false interpretations of heretics.
The controversies of the Reformation even intrude into the second part of
the Canis ius catechisms, which treats justice. In contrast to Luther, who
defines sin as a transgression of God's law, Canisius builds on a Catholic
theology of infused grace and defines mortal sin as a free act that destroys the
spiritual life and brings death to the soul. Among the evangelical counsels he
singles out for detailed treatment poverty, chastity, and obedience, which
form the three vows of the monastic life.
The chapter on justice devotes a section to three traditional good
works-fasting, prayer, and alms. Although Canisius begins by citing St.
Augustine's threefold division of fasting into avoidance of sin, moderation in
food and drink, and specific fasts commanded by church authorities, he
concentrates on defending ecclesiastical fasts from Protestant attacks. His
treatment of prayer contains little echo of his own training in the devotio
moderna and the Spiritual Exercises; it heaps up commendations and examples
of prayer from the Bible, but there is no hint of mysticism, little on inward
union with God, nor much practical instruction on how to pray. His
catechisms failed to prepare Catholics for the spread of systematic meditation,
which was central to Counter-Reformation renewal. To almsgiving Canisius
links the traditional seven spiritual and seven corporal works of mercy. He
stresses that help for the needy must be generous, spontaneous, and universal,
undertaken for the pure love of God rather than from human vanity, but the

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socialdimension of charity is neglected. He devotes his ingenuity to discover~

ing scriptural quotations urging charity rather than to suggesting concrete
applications in a sixteenth-century context. His focus remains the spiritual
profit of the giver rather than' the help given the needy. 14
Through most of his life German Catholics felt themselves on the
defensive and suffered from an inferiority complex. To overcome this feeling
of inferiori ty St. Peter encouraged Catholic controversialists, even though the
effect of their polemics was more to hearten waverers than to win converts. He
constantly hectored friends to enter the fray with new books. He was always
ready to contribute a preface, correct proofs, or shoulder negotiations with
printers. He felt that Erasmus, despite his erudition, had done a disservice to
the church because his edition ofSt. Jerome attacked the monastic life that the
hermit of Bethlehem had extolled. Accordingly Canisius prepared a selection
ofJerome's letters and added a preface defending the religious life against his
fellow Dutchman. 15 Selling in competition with the bulky, expensive edition
of Erasmus, his handy octavo selection went through forty printings. During
the late sixteenth century the exploitation of the Church Fathers grew in the
polemical literature, and Canisius made himself a specialist on them.
Canisius was not a creative theologian, nor did he enjoy controversial
theology, but at the command of Pius V he undertook to reply to the
Magdeburg Centuries, the massive church history arranged by centuries that
Flacius Illyricus and his associates at Magdeburg had produced (see chapters 1
and 2 above). The task increasingly absorbed his time from 1567 to 1577. He
quickly recognized that to refute the centuriators, passage by passage, was
beyond his powers. Still less could he have produced an alternative interpretation of Christian history such as Cardinal Baronius did in the Anna/es at the
end of the century. Canisius therefore decided to concentrate his effort on the
first century and devote a volume each to John the Baptist, Mary, and St.
Peter. Each volume would be at once a work of piety, a theological essay, and a
refutation of the centuriators by showing how they mishandled the three
biblical figures. The first fruit of his labor was Iohannis Baptistae Historia
Evange/ica (1571), which expanded the scattered New Testament statements
about the Baptist to 796 pages; each chapter begins with the scriptural verse,
appends the comments of the centuriators, then gives the lengthy censura of
Canisius. Protestant exegetes generally reacted against the patristic interpretation of St. John as the precursor of monasticism by toning down the
strangeness of his lifestyle. Thus the camel's hair worn by the Baptist becomes
sturdy peasant garb or even a stylish woven garment. For Martin Bucer, the
Baptist, when he retires to the desett, should not be compared to a hermit but
to somebody who moves from the Rhineland to a backward patt of Lorraine.
Zwingli and Calvin allegorize the desert to stand for the ruined spiritual
14. CatechiJmi, 1: 169-80.
15. Braunsberger, 3:274-85.

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condition of the Jewish people. Canisius counters that "the outstanding

continence, abstinence and general austerity of life pertains to the ornament
and fullness" of the Baptist's sanctity. His treatment of the Baptist's diet of
honey and locusts widens into a case for Lenten fasting and abstinence. The
recovery of the body of the Baptist by his disci pIes becomes a defense of relics.
More important are sections on celibacy, the nature of true repentance, the
role of good works in Christian sanctification, and vocation to the ministry.
Canisius added a long preface that ranges over many areas of doctrine and
many Protestant theologians. Anticipating Bossuet's Variations, he contrasts
Catholic unity with Protestant diversity. Among others, he attacks the
Antitrinitarianism of Michael Servetus, Bernardino Ochino, and Laelius
Socinus, and even finds Luther lukewarm in the defense of the Nicene Creed.
He enumerates and mocks the many Protestant theories of the Eucharist.
Rather idiosyncratic views such as the Brenz..Andreae doctrine of the ubiquity
of Christ's body (see chapter 3 above) and Calvin's treatment of Christ's
descent into hell (a blasphemy as evil as anything in Mohammed or Arius) are
skillfully used to blacken all Protestant teaching . 16
Canisius published De Maria Virgine IncomparaiJili in 1577 to continue
his attack on the centuriators; again, many otl!.er Protestants come under
fire-.:--Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, and Brenz are cited over four hundred
times each. Nevertheless, devotion overshadows polemics, for this enormous
book is really a summary of the whole of Christian thought about the Virgin .
The revised edition of 1583 contains four thousand references to Scripture and
ten thousand to patristic and scholastic authors. These statistics suggest
Canisius's strengths and weaknesses as a writer and theologian. His reading
was very wide, but he lacked originality and critical acumen. He tried to
convince readers by inundating them with quotations and citations drawn
from earlier authorities. Canisius never got his projected volume on St. Peter
the Apostle beyond preliminary notes. Friends at Rome urged him to
continue, but the Jesuit provincial, Paul Hoffaeus, bitterly opposed the
project. Canisius had become a perfectionist, constantly revising his manuscripts, constantly ransacking libraries and pestering others for new quotations. Hoffaeus felt that Canisius should stick to short devotional books in
German, practical books for ordinary people. Canisius yielded. In the course
of his life he published a dozen books of prayers and pious readings. Hoffaeus
was probably right; Canisius was at his best as a director of souls and a
devotional writer, and German Catholicism needed zealous pastors more than
speculative theologians. Indeed, throughout Europe the Catholic Reformation did not rest on savants but on men ofaction, for it was basically a reform of
piety rather than of ideas.
16. For Calvin, Christ's descent into hell implied that Christ underwent the internal torments of the
damned in his soul. bmitlltes, 2: 16.

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ROLE IN THE
CHURCH

When the central period of Canisius's life began, with

his return from Italy in 1549, it was obvious that the Interim had failed to pave the way for religious union in
Germany. The princes, preachers, and people of north and
central Germany were so unshakably committed to the Augsburg Confession
that even Charles V at the zenith of his power could not uproot thirty years of
Protestant growth. The region for Catholic reform during the lifetime of
Canisius remained restricted to areas under Catholic princes, especially to
Austria and Bavaria. Even in these areas Lutheranism was widespread among
the common people and the lower nobility. Most Catholics were apathetic, so
that without the support of the emperors and the dukes of Bavaria, the efforts
of Canisius and the other Catholic reformers would have availed little in
preserving these lands for the old church. Although Canisius lacked the
qualities of a courtier, he soon became a confidential adviser to these princes
because they respected his holiness and sincerity. His advice looked to one
goal, the good of the church. The Catholic princes aimed at several conflicting
goals, so that they often disregarded his advice, but in spite of disagreements
Canisius and the Catholic princes retained their mutual respect.
Jesuit education in Germany began with the arrival of Canisius, Lejay,
and Salmeron at Ingolstadt in 1549. During the next two decades the
establishment of Jesuit colleges and universities was Canisius's most important work. The origins of these colleges varied. Sometimes the Jesuits
established a separate college at an older university, as at Ingolstadt; sometimes they assumed control of an earlier foundation, as at the University of
Dilligen; sometimes they started new schools from the ground up, as at
Wiirzburg and Fribourg. Canisius played a major role in establishing the
Jesuit schools at Ingolstadt, Vienna, Prague, Munich, Dilligen, Mainz,
Innsbruck, Hall, Wiirzburg, Speyer, Regensburg, Augsburg and Fribourg.
He played a less direct role in the foundation of eight others. Of these,
Munich, Mainz, Dilligen, Vienna, and Wiirzburg averaged about nine
hundred students each by the time of his death. All were fortresses of the
Catholic Reformation and seedbeds for a new breed of priests. During the
thirty central years of Canisius's apostolate, the first handful of German
Jesuits grew to eleven hundred, most of them engaged in education. 17
The colleges were usually established only after painful negotiations and
often had strings attached. At Ingolstadt the Jesuits had to supply two
professors of theology for the university and were pledged to serve the duke of
Bavaria "in matters of religion wherever and in whatever way they can
whenever he so requests them." 18 All too often the patron tried to endow the
new colleges at the expense of a third party. A favorite device was to offer the
17. Berhard Duhr, GtJchichte der jtJNiten in den Lander deNtJcher ZNnge in XVI ,jahrhNndert (Freiburg i.
B.: Herder, 1907) 1:66-91, passim.
18. Brodrick, p. 268.

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JOHN PATRICK DONNEllY

Jesuits the building and income of a decayed monastery or convent, either

forcing the remaining monks or friars to move to another house of their order,
or simply moving the Jesuits in as unwelcome guests. Again and again
Canisius fought this .sort of project, not always successfully.
Canisius realized that the students of his colleges were the key to the
future of Catholicism in the empire. A pioneer of Jesuit educational practice
and theory, he was convinced that young boys were pliant and that despite the
ravages of original sin they could be guided to good habits. University
students should be forced to live in supervised hostels, but the rigors of a
College de Montaigu-the famous Paris college attended by Calvin and
Ignatius of Loyola-would only drive students away. Regulations against
dancing and fencing should not be enacted because they could not be
enforced. Canisius insisted that the school buildings be kept clean, well
heated, and in good repair. Few details escaped him: doors should be padded
to close without noise. There should be a plentiful supply of balls and game
equipment for the younger lads. Although corporal punishment was not
altogether abolished, masters were to imitate Christ the Perfect Teacher in
courtesy and gentleness toward their students. The study of Aristotle dominated the Jesuit curriculum, but the school libraries, always a special concern
of Canisius, contained a surprising range of books. Training in piety invariably went hand in hand with academic subjects.
InJune 1556 Loyola established the Jesuit province of upper Germany
(Boheinia, Austria, and Bavaria) and appointed Canisius as its first provincial.
Although the usual term of office was three years, he remained provincial,
with short interruptions, until 1569. These were pioneer years with few
customs and traditions to guide the Jesuits. Especially at the beginning many
of the Jesuits were foreigners who were rushed into action before completing
the long spiritual and intellectual training that later became a Jesuit hallmark. The Jesuit lifestyle was then a novelty, and the early Jesuits had a
charisma that attracted men of talent, energy, and holiness. These same
qualities attracted eccentrics, however. Later the long training would sift out
those unsuited to Jesuit life, but in the pioneer days too many of them got out
into ministry and some even became superiors. 19 Beyond doubt, fellow Jesuits
laid the heaviest crosses on the shoulders ofCanisius , so that when he retired as
provincial at forty,-eight he was an old man, but by the same token these trials
developed and displayed his sterling charity.
Canisius was a practical man. He judged that the three key men in every
Jesuit house were the superior, the preacher, and the cook. In deciding to
locate the Jesuit novitiate at Prague rather than at Vienna, he gave three
specific advantages: Prague was politically more secure, enjoyed better
19. Each Jesuit community is headed by a superior responsible for the work and well-being, physical
and spiritlUll, of the members who in turn owe him obedience. The superior owes obedience to the
provincial and the provincial to the superior general, who from the time of Ignatius Loyola to the present
has lived in Rome.

PETER CANISIUS

153

weather, and brewed better beer. 20 Bad beer meant sick Jesuits. An extraordinary number ofJesuits under Canisius had health problems, particularly
tuberculosis, but not all the ailments were physical. The razor-tongued
Father Jean Couvillon was an. able Ingolstadt theologian but was given to
neurotic guilt feelings, hallucinations, and temper tantrums, which alternated with periods of depression. He would skip community meals, then
order special foods served in his room. Because his sickness was attributed to
the bad beer of Ingolstadt (ironically only a few leagues north of Munich),
Canisius called Couvillon to Regensburg and made him his own secretary.
Couvillon never really recovered, but Peter's kindness helped him do much
good work. At Vienna the problem was the superior, the BasqueJuan Vitoria.
Like Loyola he was a dreamer of great schemes for the glory of God, but he
lacked common sense. A man of great personal austerity, he could not
appreciate why his subjects were unhappy when he sold off most of the
community's furniture in order to decorate the church. He insisted that
everything at Vienna be done Italian style, even to the way the eggs were
cooked. By 1561 three of his subjects could take no more and left the Jesuits.
Canisius rushed to the spot and did his best to restore the situation with
kindness all around. Vitoria's faults came from excessive zeal, but what could
be said for the novice who served as cook for Canisius and absconded with two
hundred crowns intended for the distribution to the poor? Or the Jesuit court
preacher at Innsbruck who converted to Lutheranism? More bizarre was the
young Englishman Edward Thorn who entered the Jesuits for adventure and a
free education, while remaining a convinced Protestant; all went well until
the young Jesuits studying at Dilligen were asked to make the Tridentine
Confession of Faith. Here Thorn baulked and decamped to Protestant
territory. These episodes are only samples of the trials that Canisius underwent as' provincial.
Most German priests and bishops watched the spread of Protestantism
with apathy and discouragement. The shortcomings of the Catholic clergy in
carrying out their pastoral duties filled Canisius with anguish and fired his
zeal. Nothing was more fundamental than their failure to preach. Despite his
duties as teacher, writer, and superior, Peter found time to become one of the
most effective preachers of the age. A stolid Dutchman who lacked flair and
magnetism, he compensated by hard work and total sincerity. As a young
professor of rhetoric Canisius had mastered ancient oratorical theory, but
when he larded his early speeches with rhetorical flourishes, he found that he
lost his audience. His mature preaching was simple, direct, and designed to
move his listeners to holy living. Canisius was official preacher for seven years
at Augsburg, five years at Innsbruck, and eight years at Fribourg. During
these years he averaged two sermons a week, sometimes speaking for two
hours or longer. Sometimes he preached almost daily. Some twelve thousand
20, Braunsberger, 3: 190.

154

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f:..,.'

JOHN PATRICK DONNEllY

pages of sermon notes survive and witness to his careful preparation, with the
main points written out in full and the margins aswarm with directions. It
was these that he drew together at the end of his life into five volumes of notes
on the gospel readings for Sundays and feast days. Two volumes appeared
before his death, but three were not published until the twentieth century.
These are not sermons so much as notes, prayers, and suggestions to help
parish priests prepare their own sermons.
When Canisius was appointed cathedral preacher at Augsburg in 1559,
Catholicism was nearly dead in that commercial heart of the empire. Only
eight hundred Catholics made their Easter duty the year Canisius arrived, and
his first sermon drew only fifty, but as his reputation spread his audience
grew. During his first year he was responsible for nine hundred Augsburgers
returning to the Catholic sacraments, and the whole tone of Catholic devotionallife improved. Although his sermons at Augsburg were mainly explanations of doctrine, they also took up the problem of city poverty with
great frankness. Both as preacher and adviser Canisius did not hesitate to
present his own convictions, however unpleasing to his audience and patrons, even when more popular positions were within the limits of Catholic
orthodoxy. He took a very conservative stand on usury, although the Fuggers
were personal friends and generous supporters of the Jesuits. 21 Likewise, he
argued against granting the chalice to the laity when this was a pet project of
Emperor Ferdinand.
It would be pleasant to report that Canisius foreshadowed the ecumenical spirit in his dealings with Protestants, but he was a man of his acrimonious
times. He accepted the provisions of the Peace of Augsburg that allowed
princes and free cities to impose either Catholicism or Lutheranism, not
because the Peace was an ideal but because it was the best settlement that
political circumstances allowed. Constantly he urged Catholic princes to
exercise their full rights under the Peace, even as the Lutheran princes were
doing. Heresy was for Canisius a deadly plague, but he often esteemed individual Lutherans as men of sincerity and virtue. "They have gone astray ...
without contention, willfulness or obstinacy. Most Germans are by nature
simple, homely folk. Born and bred in Lutheranism, they receive with
docility what they are taught in schools, churches and heretical books, and
that is why they have gone astray."22 The distinction between formal, obstinate heresy and the material, guiltless heresy of the common folk was an
important contribution in an age when most theologians assumed that false
belief flowed from willful blindness. Only slowly did Rome come to accept
this obvious distinction.
21. The Fuggers, che leading German banking family, resided in Augsburg. Canisius was parcicularly close co George and Ancon Fugger and was responsible for che conversion of Ursula and Sybil
Fugger. See Brodrick, pp. 435-37, 592-96.
22. Braunsberger, 8: 131.

PETER. CANISIUS

155

Canisius argued that the conversion of Lutherans in Catholic territories

depended on driving out their religious leaders and replacing them with
zealous priests from the new Catholic colleges and seminaries. Coercion
against the common people, Canisius warned Rome, was neither wise nor
feasible. Germany was not Italy or Spain. He finally persuaded the curia
to ease regulations governing the conversion of Protestants in Germany.
Canisius advised his fellow Jesuits to imitate the courtesy of Christ, who
would not quench the smoking flax, in their dealings with Protestants. On
the other hand he urged stronger action toward the German Catholic princes:
Lutheran ministers should be expelled, publishing strictly regulated, and
heretical books combed out of Catholic schools. Teachers and graduates at
Catholic universities should be made to swear the Profesjio Fidei Tridentinae. 23
Emperor Ferdinand made Canisius one of the six Catholic spokesmen at
the Colloquy of Worms in 1557. The leading Lutheran spokesmen were
Melanchthon, Johann Brenz, and Erhardt Schnepf. Canisius had little hope
that this theological summit meeting would have any more success in finding
a via media than had earlier imperially sponsored colloquies. His pessimism
was shared by Melanchthon, whose opening speech repudiated the decrees of
Trent and pledged loyalty to the Confesjio Aligmtana. The most important
speech of Canisius went straight to the crucial weakness of the colloquies: the
inability of Catholi~ and Protestants to agree on the criteria of religious
truth. He argued that Scripture was insufficient since it did not prevent
division among Protestants or even among Lutherans. His speech gave an
opening to Schnepf, a leading follower ofFlacius Illyricus, who demanded a
condemnation of Zwinglians, Majorists, and all who deviated from the
Aligmtana. To Brenz and Melanchthon, who wanted to present a united Protestant front, this demand was deeply embarrassing. Melanchthon countered
with efforts to purge the Flacians. For all practical purposes the split between
Lutherans finished the colloquy, but before it broke up Melanchthon accused
Canisius to his face of idolatry and blasphemy. Canisius remained calm and
polite, but later in a letter to the new Jesuit general, Laynez, Canisius vented
his exasperation at the Protestant leaders and rejoiced that the open discord in
the Lutheran camp might induce the Catholic princes to abandon sterile colloquies and support a reopening of the Council of Trent. 24
St. Peter Canisius, 2' the most important shaper ofCatholicism in southern Germany during the late sixteenth century, combined the inwardness of
the devotio moderna with an energetic apostolate in the service of the hierarchical church characteristic of the early Jesuits. His writings, especially
his catechisms, gave meaning and direction to generations of German Cath23. Braunsberger. 1:44; 4:229. 509; 5:361; 6:582-83; 8:130.
24. Braunsberger. 2:175-77; Brodrick. pp. 385-421.
25. Canisius waS beatified by Pius IX in 1864. Pius Xl canonized him and declared him a Doctor of
the Roman Catholic Church in 1925. His canonization process was encouraged by the Jesuits.


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JOHN PATRICK DONNEllY

olics, while the twenty Jesuit colleges that he helped to found trained the
priests, princes, and lay leaders who enabled German Catholicism to gain
the religious and political initiative in the early seventeenth century and to
continue as a rich cultural and spiritual tradition throughout the baroque era .

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