Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/25

 GREGORY

GREGORY

schools in Japan. In these schools numerous mission- aries were trained for the various countries where Protestantism had been made the state religion and for the missions among the pagans in China, India, and Japan. Thus Gregory XIII at least partly re- stored the old faith in England and the northern countries of Europe, supplied the CathoUcs in those countrie.s with their necessary priests, and introduced Christianity into the pagan countries of Eastern Asia. Perhaps one of the happiest events during his ponti- ficate was the arrival at Rome of four Japanese am- bassadors on 22 March, 1585. They had been sent by the converted kings of Bungo, Arima, and Omura, in Japan, to thank the pope for the fatherly care he had shown their country by sending them Jesuit mission- aries who had taught them the religion of Christ.

In order to safeguard the Catholic religion in Ger- many, he instituted a special Congregation of Cardi- nals for German affairs, the so-called Congregatio Germanica, which lasted from 1573-1578. To remain informed of the Catholic situation in that coimtry and keep in closer contact with its rulers, he erected resi- dent nimciatures at Vienna in 1581 and at Cologne in 1582. By his Bull " Provisionis nostra;" of 29 Jan., 1579, he confirmed the acts of his predecessor Pius V, condemning the errors of Baius, and at the same time he commissioned the Jesuit, Francis of Toledo, to demand the abjuration of Baius. In the religious orders Gregory XIII recognized a great power for the conversion of pagans, the repression of heresy and the maintenance of the Catholic religion. He was espe- cially friendly towards the Jesuits, whose rapid spread during his pontificate was greatly due to his encouragement and financial assistance. Neither did he neglect the other orders. He approved the Con- gregation of the Oratory in 1574, the Barnabites in 1579, and the Discalced Carmelites in 1580. The Premonstratensians he honoured by canonizing their founder, St. Norbert, in 1582.

Gregory XIII spared no efforts to restore the Catho- lic Faith in the countries that had Ijecome Protestant. In 157-1 he sent the Polish Jesuit Warsiewicz to John III of Sweden in order to convert him to Catholicity. Being then unsuccessful, he sent another Jesuit, the Norwegian Lawrence Nielssen in 1570, who succeeded in converting the king on 6 May, 1578. The king, however, soon turned Protestant again from political motives. In 1581, Gregory XIII dispatched the Jesuit Antonio Possevino as nuncio to Russia, to me- diate between Tsar Ivan IV and King Bathory of Poland. He not only brought about an amicable settlement between the two rulers, but also obtained for the Catholics of Russia the right to practise their religion openly. Gregory's attempts to procure re- ligious liberty for the Catholics in England were without avail. The world knows of the atrocities committed by Queen Elizabeth on many Catholic missionaries and laymen. No blame, therefore, at- taches to Gregory XIII for trying to depose the queen by force of arms. As early as 1578 he sent Thomas Stukeley with a ship and an army of 800 men to Ire- land, but the treacherous Stukeley joined his forces with those of King Sebastian of Portugal against Em- peror Abdulmelek of Morocco. Another papal expe- dition which sailed to Ireland in 1579 under the command of James Fitzmaurice, accompanied by Nicholas Sanders as papal nimcio, was equally unsuc- cessful. Gregory XIII had nothing whatever to do with the plot of Henry, Duke of Guise, and his brother Charles, Duke of Mayenne, to assassinate the queen, and most probably knew nothing whatever about it (see Bellesheim, "Wilhelm Cardmal Allen", Mainz, 1885, p. 144).

Some historians have severely criticized Gregory XIII for ordering that the horrible massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Day in 1572 be cele- brated in Rome by a "Te Deum " and other marks of

rejoicing. In defence of Gregory XIII it must be stated that he had nothing whatever to do with the massacre itself, and that he as well as Salviati, his nuncio in Paris, were kept in ignorance concerning the intended slaughter. The pope indeed participated in the Roman festivities, but he was probably not ac- quainted with the circumstances of the Parisian horrors and, like other European rulers, had been in- formed that the Huguenots had been detected in a conspiracy to kill the king and the whole royal family, and had been thus punished for their treacherous designs. But even if Gregory XI 11 was aware of all the circumstances of the massacre (which has never been proven). it must be borne in mind that he did not rejoice at the bloodshed, but at the suppression of a political and relig- ious rebellion. ThatGregoryXIII did not approve the massacre, but detested the cruel act and shed tears when he was ap- prised of it, is ex- pressly stated even by the apostate Gregorio Leti in his " Vita di Si.sto V" (Cologne, 1706), I, 431-4, and by Brantome, a contemporary of Gregory XIII, in his "Vie de M. I'Amiral de Chas tillon" (Complete works. The Hague, 1740, VIII, 196). The medal which Gregory XIII had struck in memory of the event bears his effigy on the obverse, whilst on

Gregory XIII After Engraving by F. Hulsius

the reverse under the legend Vgonotiorum Strages (overthrow of the Huguenots) stantls an angel with cross and drawn sword, killing the Huguenots.

No other act of Gregory XIII has gained for him a more lasting fame than his reform of the Julian Cal- endar which was completed and introduced into most Catholic countries in 1578. Closely connected with the reform of the calendar is the emendation of the Roman martyrology which was ordered by Gregory XIII in the autumn of 1580. The emendation was to consist chiefly in the restoration of the original text of Usuard's martyrology, which was in common use at the time of Gregory XIII. He entrusted the learned Cardinal Sirleto with the difficult undertaking. The cardinal formed a committee, consisting of ten mem- bers, who assisted him in the work. Tlie first edition of the new mart;sTology. which came out in 1582, was full of tj'pographical errors; likewise the second edi- tion of 1583. Both editions were suppressed by Gregory XIII, and in January, 1584, appeared a third and better edition under the title of "Marty- rologium Romanum Gregorii XIII jussu editum" (Rome, 1583). In a brief, dated 14 January, 1584, Gregory XIII ordered that the new martyrology should supersede all others. Another great literary achievement of Gregory XIII is an official Roman edition of the Corpus juris canonici. Shortly after the conclusion of the Council of Trent, Pius IV had appointed a committee which was to bring out a critical edition of the Decree of Gratian. The com- mittee was increased to thirty-five members {corrcc- tores Romani) by Pius V in 1566. Gregory XIII had been a member of it from the beginning. The