Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/858

 PFEFFERKORN

786

FFISTER

p:i\v the Trappists for Ihc first time. Whilst, waiting for his bishop s permission to join this order, he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In November, lSt)4, he wius professed at the Trappist monastery of Marienwald in Austria, and was made sub-prior a few weeks later. He again went to Rome in 1866, where he reorganized the well-known monastery at Tre Fonlane. Then he conceived the idea of a foundation in Turkey. The difficulties seemed insiiperable, but in 1869 he was able to open the monastery of Marias- tern in Bosnia, which was raised to the status of an abbey in 1879. In that year Bishop Richards of tiie Eastern Vicariate of the Cape of Good Hope was in Europe, seeking Trappists to evangelize the Kafirs and to teach them to work. When all others had declined the invitation, Abbot PVanz rcsf)lved to re- linquish his settled abbey and face fresh difficulties in South Africa. At the end of July, 18S0, he arrived at Dunbrody, the place purchased by Hisliop Richards for the work. But on account of the drought, winds and baboons, he declared the site unsuitable after a trial of several years. A\'ith the permission of Bishop Jolivet, O.M.I., of the Natal Vicariate, he then (De- cember, 1882) bought from the Land Colonization Company a part of the farm Zoekoegat, near Pine- town. The fine monastery of Mariannhill was built here, and it soon became t he centre of a great work of civilization. Finding the need of a sisterhood to teach the Kafir girls, with characteristic energy he founded the Sisters of the Precious Blood, who number more than .300. In 1885 Mariannhill was created an abbey, and Prior Franz Pfanner elected the first mitred abbot. But in 1893 he resigned his prelacy and began life again in the mission station of Emmaus, where he remained until his death.

The missionary methods of Abbot Franz and his successors have won the approval of all those inter- ested in the natives of South Africa. Such various authorities as Mark Twain and the last Prime Minis- ter of the Cape have spoken enthusiastically of the work. It has prospered exceedingly. At the date of Abbot Franz's death there were 55 priests, 223 lay- brothers and 326 nuns working in 42 mission stations among the natives. Only a few months before Abbot Franz's death the Holy See, at the petition of the Trappists of Mariannhill, made a considerable change in their status. The Cistercian Rule in its rigour, for which Abbot Pfanner was most zealous, was found to be an ob.stacle to missionary development in some particulars. Hence the name of the order was changed to that of the Missionary Religious of Mariannhill, and they were given a milder rule on a three years' trial, after which the whole subject will again be sub- mitted to the judgment of the Holy See. For bibliography, see Mabiannhill.

Sidney R. Welch.

PfeSerkom, Johannes, a baptized Jew, b. prob- ably at Nuremberg, 1469; d. at Cologne, between 1521 and 1524. In 1505, after many years of wander- ing, he, together with his wife and children, was con- verted to Christianity at Cologne. He soon became known through his efforts for the conversion of the Jews and his controversy with Reuchlin. In "Der Judenspiegel " (Cologne, 1507), he demanded that the Jews should give up the practice of usury, work for their hving, attend Christian sermons, and do away with the Books of the Talmud, which caused such hatred against Christianity. On the other hand, he condemned the persecution of the Jews as an obstacle to their conversion, and defended them against the charge of murdering Christian children for ritual pur- po.ses. Bitterly opposed by the Jews on account of this work, he \arulently attacked them in : " Wie die blinden Jiiden ihr Ostem halten" 0.508); " Judenbeicht" (1508) ; and " Judenfeind " (1.509). Convinced that the principal source of the obduracy of the Jews lay in their

books, he tried to have them seized and destroyed. He obtained from several Dominican convents recommen- dations to Kunigunde, I lie sister of the Kmpcror Maxi- milian, and through hrr iiilluence to tlic cniiicnir him- self. On 19 August, l.")'.t, Maximilian ordered the Jews to deliver to Pfetferkorn all books opposing Christianity. Pfefferkorn began the work of confisca- tion at Frankfort-on-t he-Main; thence he went to Worms, Mainz, Bmgen, l.onh, Lahnstein, and Deutz. But a new imperial maiulate of 10 Nov., 1509, gave the direction of tlie whole affair to the Elector and Archbishop of Mainz, LTriel von Gemmingen, with orders to secure opinions from the L^niversities of Mainz, Cologne, Erfurt, and Heidelberg, from the in- quisitor Jakob Hochstraten of Cologne, from the priest Victor von Carben, and from Joliann Reuchlin. Pfefferkorn, in order to vindicate his act ion and to gain still further the good will of the cmixTor, wrote "In Lob und Eer dem allcrdurclilcuchligsten gross- mechtigsten Ftirsten und Herrn Maximilian" (Co- logne, 1510). In April he was again at Frankfort, and with the delegate of the Elector of Mainz and Pro- fessor Hermann Ortlieb, he undertook a new confisca- tion.

Hochstraten and the Universities of Mainz and Cologne decided (Oct., 1510) against the Jewish books. Reuchlin declared that only those books obviously offensive (as the "Nizachon" and "Toldoth Jeschu") should be destroyed. The elector sent all the answers received at the end of October to the emperor through Pfefferkorn. Thus informed of Reuchlin's vote Pfefferkorn was greatlj- excited, and answered with " Hand.spiegel " (Mainz, 1511), in which he attacked Reuchlin unmercifully. Reuchlin complained to the Emperor Maximilian, and he answered Pfefferkorn's attack with his "Augenspiegel", against which Pfefferkorn published his "Brand.spiegel". In June, 1513, both parties were silenced by the emperor. Pfefferkorn however published in 1514 a new polemic, "Sturmglock", against both the Jews and Reuchlin. During the controversy between Reuchlin and the theologians of Cologne, Pfefferkorn was assailed in the "Epistote obscurorum virorum" by the young Hu- manists who espoused Reuchlin's cause. He re- plied with "Beschirmung", or "Defensio J. Peperi- corni contra famosaset criminales obscurorum virorum epistolas" (Cologne, 1516), "Streitbiichlein" (1517). When in 1520 Reuchlin's case was decided in Rome by the condemnation of "Augenspiegel", PfefTerkorn wrote as an expression of his triumph "Ein mitleid- liche Klag" (Cologne, 1521). PfefTerkorn was a fanatic and his pubUc and literary life had little of sympathy or grace, but he was certainly an honour- able character and the caricature which his opponents have drawn of him is far from true.

Geiger, Pfefferkorn in Jiidische Zeilschrifi ftlr Wissenscha/l und Leben. VH (1869), 293-307; Idem, Joh. Reuchlin (Leipzig. 1871), 209-454; Idem, Der Kampf gegen die Backer der Juden am Anfange des 16. Jahrhunderts in seiner Beziehung auf Frankfurt in ArchivfUr Frankfurts Geschichte und Kunst, new series, IV (1869). 208-17; Roth. Der Kampf um die JudenbUcher und Reuchlin ror der theologischen FakuUdt zu Maim 1B09-I51S in Der Katholik. II (1909), 4th series. XL, 139-44; Janssen, Geschichte des deulschen Volkes. II (Freiburg, 1897), 43 eq.

Feiedeich Lauchert.

Pfister, Adolf, educationist, b. at Hechingen in Hohenzollern, 26 Sept., 1810; d. at Ober-Dischingen in Wtirtemberg, 29 April, 1878. He was educated at the Latin school at Hechingen, at the Lj'ceum of Rastatt, and later at Sasbach. He then studied theology at the Grand Seminary of Strasburg, and was ordained to the priesthood, 25 May, 1833, at Freiburg. After serving for five months as curate at Sasbach, and for a year as assistant at the cathedral of Freiburg, he returned to Hohenzollern, and, from 1835 to 1838, was curate at Steinhofen near Hechin- gen. In 1838 he obtained civic rights in Wiirtem- berg, and as a priest of the Diocese of Rottenburg,