Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/839

 PETER

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PETER

fidant to be put in chains. Peter was forced to retire to Ktrurin whore Frederiek had him imprisoned at San

Miiii.ilii iiii'l li:id his ex c's put out. He is said to have idiiiiuLttc'il .siiiri.l.- hill-, liis letters, a part of which were printed iii (lie .sixtccntli century, are of gre.at interest. He was also esteemed as a poet. His poems contain many violent satires on the clergy.

Hdill.^rd-Br^holles, Vie el erjrrespondaiice de Pierre de la Vigne (Paris, 1865); Capasso a.nd Tanelli, Pielro delta Vigna (Caserta, 1882); Hanauer, Material zur Beurleitung der Petrua de Vinea-Briefe in Mitteilungen des Oestrr. Instititts, XXI; as to the manuscripts of tlie letters of. Archiv fiir deulsche Gesch., VII (1839), 890 sqq.; Petrus de Vinea, Epistolarum libri VI. ed. IsELIua (2 vols., Basle, 1740) ; Gerdbs, Gesch. der H ohenstaufern und ihrer Zeit (Leipzig, 1908); Hauvts, Deutsclie Kaisergesch. in der Zeit der Salter und Staufer (Leipzig, 1909); Wattenbach, Deutschlands geschichtsquetlen im Mittelatter (Stuttgart, 1894) ; WiNKELMANN, JahrbUcher der deutschengescti. unter Friedrich IT [2 vols, up to 1233 (Leipzig. 1889 and 1897)].

F. Kampers.

Peter Faber (F.wre or Lb FiivRE), Blessed, b. 13 April, 150(3, at Villaret, Savoy; d. 1 Aug., 1546, in Rome. As a child lie tended his father's sheep during the week, and on Sunday he taught catechism to other children. The instinctive knowledge of his vocation as an apostle inspired him with a desire to study. .\t first he was entrusted to the care of a priest at Thones, and then to a neighbouring school. Although without any definite plans for the future, he resolved to go to Paris. His parents consented to the separation, and in 1525 Peter arrived in Paris. Here he acquired the learning he desired, and found quite unexpectedly his real vocation. He was admitted gratuitously to the college of Sainte-Barbe, and shared the lodging of a student from Navarre, Francis Xavier, the future saint, in a tower which still existed in 1850. They became intimately attached to each other, receiving on the same day in 1530 the degree of master of arts. At the university he also met St. Ignatius Loyola (q. V.) and became one of his associates. He was or- dained in 1834, and received at Montmartre, on 15 .August of the same year, the vows of Ignatius and his five companions. To these first six volunteers, three others were to attach themselves. Ignatius appointed them all to meet at Venice, and charged Faber to conduct them there. Leaving Paris 15 Nov., 153(3, Faber and liis companions rejoined Ignatius at Venice in Jan., 1537. Ignatius then thought of going to evangelize the Holy Land, but God had destined him for a vaster field of action.

After Ignatius, Faber was the one whom Xavier and his companions esteemed the most eminent. He merited this esteem by his profound knowledge, his gentle sanctity, and his influence over souls. Faber now repaired to Rome, and after some months of preaching and teaching, the pope sent him to Parma and Piacenza, where he brought about a revival of Christian piety. Recalled to Rome, Faber was sent to Germany to uphold Catholicism at the Diet of Worms. In reality the diets which the Protestants were en- abled to hold through the weakness of Charles accom- plished no good. From the Diet of Worms, convoked in 1540, he was called to that of Ratisbon in 1541. Faber was startled by the ruin which Protestantism had caused in Germany, and by the state of decadence presented by Catholicism; and he saw that the rem- edy did not lie in discussions with the heretics, but in the reform of the faithful — above all, of the clergj'. For ten months, at Speyer, at Ratisbon, and at Mainz, he conducted himself with gentleness and success. It was above all by the Spiritual Exercises that he accom- plished most of his conversions. Princes, prelates, and priests revealed their consciences to Mm, and people were astounded by the efficacy of an apostolate accomplished so rapidly. Recalled to Spain by St. Ignatius, Faber tore himself away from the field where he had already gathered such a harvest, and won Savoy, which has never ceased to venerate him as a saint; but he had hardly been in Spain six months

when by order of the pope he was again sent to Ger- many. This time for nineteen months Faber was to work for the reform of Speyer, Mainz, and Cologne — a thankless task. However, he gained the ecclesias- tics little by httle, changed their hearts, and discov- ered in the young many vocations. That he decidetl the vocation of Bl. Peter Canisius is in itself sufficient to justify his being called the Apostle of Germany. The Archbishop of Cologne, Herman of Wied, was already won over by the heresy which he was later publicly to embrace. It was also at Cologne that Faber espe- cially exercised his zeal. After spending some months at Louvain, in 1543, where he implanted the seeds of numerous vocations among the young, he returned to Cologne, and there it may be said that he extirpated all heresy. But he was forced by obedience to leave Germany in August, 1544, going at first to Portugal, later to Spain. At the court of Lisbon and that of Valladolid, Faber was an angel of God. He was called to the principal cities of Spain, and everywhere incul- cated fervour and fostered vocations. Let it suffice to mention that of Francis Borgia, which he, more than anyone else, was the means of strengthening. Faber, at forty, was wasted by his incessant labours and his unceasing journeys always made on foot. The po])e, however, thought of sending him to the Council of Trent as theologian of the Holy See; John III wanted him to be made Patriarch of ^thopia. Called to Rome, Faber, weakened by fever, arrived there 17 July, 1546, to die in the arms of St. Ignatius, the first of the following August. Those who had known him already invoked him as a saint. Saint Francis de Sales, whose character recalled that of Faber's, never spoke of him except as a saint. He was beatified, 5 September, 1872; his feast is kept on 8 August.

Memoriale B. Petri Fabri. ed. Bouix (Paris, 1873); Cartas y otros escritos del B. Pedro Fabro (Bilbao).

Pierre Sttau.

Peter Fourier, Saint, known as le bon Pere de Mattaincourt, b. at Mirecourt, Lorraine, 30 Nov., 1565; d. at Gray, Haute-Saone, 9 Dec, 1640. At fif- teen he was sent to the University of Pont - a - Mousson. His piety and learning led many noble families to ask him to educate their sons. He be- came a Canon Reg- ular in the Abbey of Chaumousey and was ordained in 1589. By order of his abbot he re- turned to the uni- versity and becaiiii' proficient in pa- tristic theology; he knew the "Sum- ma" of St. Thoiiii- by heart. In },')'.> i he was made pari.sli priest of Mattain- court, a corrupt district threatened with the new here.sj-. B\ his prayers, instructions, and good example, religion was soon restored. Fourier did not neglect the tem- poral interests of his parishioners; to help those wlio through ill-fortune had fallen into poverty, he estab- lished a kind of mutual help bank. He instituted three sodalities, of St. Sebastian for men, of the Holy Rosary for women, and of the Immaculate Concep- tion for girls, or "Children of Mary". He composed some dialogues which treated of the virtues opposed to the vices most coniiTion among his people. These dialogues the children deUvered every Sunday in pub-