Hosius,_Stanislaus

Hosius, Stanislaus (1504-1579), Polish cardinal, was born in Cracow on the 5th of May 1504. He studied law at Padua and Bologna, and entering the church became in 1549 bishop of Kulm, in 1551 bishop of Ermland, and in 1561 cardinal. Hosius had Jesuit sympathies and actively opposed the Protestant reformation, going so far as to desire a repetition of the St Bartholomew massacre in Poland. Apart from its being “the property of the Roman Church,” he regarded the Bible as having no more worth than the fables of Aesop. Hosius was not distinguished as a theologian, though he drew up the Confessio fidei christiana catholica adopted by the synod of Piotrkow in 1557. He was, however, supreme as a diplomatist and administrator. Besides carrying through many difficult negotiations, he founded the lyceum of Braunsberg, which became the centre of the Roman Catholic mission among Protestants. He died at Capranica near Rome on the 5th of August 1579.

A collected edition of his works was published at Cologne in 1584. Life by A. Eichhorn (Mainz, 1854), 2 vols.

* * *