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 JANOW

284

JANSSEN

vertiten seit der Reformation", I-X (Freiburg im Br., 1872).

Verhnndl. des hist. Vereins von OberpfaU und Regensburg, XLVIII (Ratisbon, 1896), 351-4.

Friedrich Lauchert.

Janow. See Lublin and Podlachia, Diocese of.

Janow, Matthew of, a medieval ecclesiastical au- thor, b. in the fourteenth century in Bohemia; d. at Prague, 30 Nov., 1394. Son of Wenzel of Janow, a Bohemian knight, he began his studies at Prague and continued them at the University of Paris where he graduated after a residence of nine years. Hence his title of Parisian Master {M agister Parisiensis) . In 1381 he was appointed canon and confessor in the cathedral of Prague, offices which he held until his death. He was never a preacher of the first rank, l)ut was conspicuous for his great zeal in the confessional. Between the years 1388 and 1392 he composed several treatises which he later collected under the title " Re- gute Veteris et Novi Testament! ". The work has never been published in its entirety, nor is it to be found complete in any one manuscript. Parts of it were wrongly ascribed to John Hus and published with his writings (Nuremberg, 1588, I, 376-471).

Janow attriljuted the evils in the Church to the contemporary Papal Schism, the large number of papal exemptions and reservations, and the excessive importance attached by some Christians to accidental external practices. Owing to the abuses which at times attended the veneration of saints and relics, he ultimately advocated the removal of such special ob- jects of piety from the churches. He was misled into this extreme view by his desire of promoting an intense interior devotion to the Blessed Eucharist. The fre- quent and even daily reception of Holy Communion by the laity was, according to him, not only desirable but almost necessary. At the Synod of Prague in 1389 such encouragement of daily Communion was prohib- ited, and the veneration of images defended. Janow's retraction of his erroneous views and his repeated protestations of never-failing loyalty to the Catholic Church are sufficient evidence that he cannot be styled, as is frequently done, a forerunner of Hus.

LosERTH, Hus urul H-'trft/ (Prague, 18S4), 57-63 and passim; Workman, The Dawn of the Reformation, II (London. 1902), 106-9; Neander. tr. Torrey, History of the Christian Religion and Church, V (Boston, 1859), 192-235; Luksch in Kirchen- lex., a. v.; Lutzow, Life of John Hus (London and New York, 1909), 47-62.

N. A. Weber.

Jansen (Jansens, Janssen, Janssenius or Jan-

8ENIUS GaNDAVIENSIS). CORNELIUS, THE ElDEK,

exegete, b. at Hulst, Flanders, 1510; d. at Cihent, 11 April, 1576. He received his early education at Ghent from the Brethren of the Common Life (called at Ghent the Hieronymites), and later studied theology and Oriental languages at Louvain. After he had become a licentiate of theology in 1534, he lectured, at the request of the abbot of the Pre- monstratensian Abbey of Tongerloo, to the young monks on the Holy Scriptures until 1542, from which date until 1562 he discharged the duties of pastor of the parish of St. Martin at Courtrai (Kor- tryk) with great success. Having finally attained the degree of Doctor of Theology in 1562, he was immediately appointed professor of theology at the University of Louvain, became in the following year dean of the collegiate seminary of St. James, and at- tended the last sessions of the Council of Trent as delegate of the university. On his return, King Philip II appointed him "first bishop of the newly founded See of (ihent, which dated only from 15.59. For a long time he refused to assume tlic dignity, on account of the difficult eonilitions in the diocese, and was not pn-eoiiizcd uiilil 15(iS, by Pius V. As bishop he devoted hiiiis<'lf especially to checking the ad- vance of Protestantism, and to carrying out with the

greatest exactness the decrees of the Council of Trent. With this object in view, he founded a seminary for priests at Ghent in 1569, held diocesan synods in 1571 and 1574, and published a ritual for his diocese. He was entrusted with the compilation of a ritual to be used in the ecclesiastical province of Mechlin, but did not finish it. While at Tongerloo he wrote a great deal, and, as pastor at Courtrai, had already become widely known for his exegetical work.

Among Jansen's writings is the "Concordia evan- gelica" (Louvain, 1549), to which he later added the " Commentarius in Concordiam et totam historiam evangelicam" (Louvain, 1572), undoubtedly his best work. He published also: "Commentarius in Pro- verbia Salomonis" (Louvain, 1567), and "Commen- tarius in Ecclesiasticum " (Louvain, 1569), both of which were republished in one work at Antwerp in 1589; "Commentarius in omnes Psalmos Davidicos" (Louvain, 1569), with an introduction to each psalm, an excellent paraphrase of the text, and explanations of the difficult passages; "Paraphrases in ea Veteris Testamenti Cantica, qua; per ferias singulas totius anni usus ecclesiasticus observat" (Louvain, 1569). After his death appeared " Annotationes in Librym Sapientiie " (Louvain, 1577).

Cornelius Jansen was one of the most distinguished among the exegetes of the sixteenth century, and his masterpiece, the aforesaid "Concordia Evangehca", was epoch-making in the history of Catholic exegesis, for he insisted on the literal interpretation, as against the mystical interpretation of his predecessors, em- phasized also the importance of the original text, and of a profound study of Oriental languages as aids to a full comprehension of the Vulgate.

Deutsche BiUiugraphie, XIII, 703 sq.; Hurter. Nomenclator, I (1892), 23 sq.; Annuaire de V Universitc de Louvain (1871),

Patricius Schlager.

Janssen, Johann, historian, b. 10 April, 1829, at Xanten, Germany; d. 24 December, 1891, at Frank- fort-on-the-Main. He received his early education in a school of liis native town. His course was interrupted, however, from the early part of 1842 to the spring of 1844, during which time he worked as an apprentice to a coppersmith. It soon became apparent, however, that he had no aptitude for this trade, and he was al- lowed to return to school. In 1846 he went to the gymnasium of Recklinghausen, from which he gradu- ated in the autumn of 1849. During the years 1849- 54 he frequented the Universities of Miinster, Louvain, Bonn, and Berlin, where he devoted himself to the study of theology and history; in August. 1853, he ob- tained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Bonn, in virtue of a Latin dissertation on the life of Wibald, Abbot of Stablo and Corvey (1098-1158); in August, 1854, he opened a course of history as Privatdozent at the Academy of Munster, but shortly afterwards, in September of the same year, he was askccl to take the chair of history for the Catholic students of the gymnasium at Frankfort-on-the-Main. He retained this jjosition up to the time of his death in 1891.

Not satisfied with attending to the ordinary duties of the class-room, Janssen devoted his spare time to his- torical research, the results of which were emlwdied in many learned volumes. At the .same time he took every opportunity to visit centres of learning; thus in 1863- 64 he spent several months in Italy and Rome, where he consulted the archives of the Vatican on matters relating to the Thirty Years War and to the first partition of Poland. ' In 1875-76 he was a deputy to the Prussian Diet, joined the Centre party, and spent nuieh time in Berlin. This sojourn in the Ger- man capital \v;is used not only to delen<l the interests of his constituency in I'arliamcnt, but- also to widen the range of his knowledge by personal intercourse