Stanislaus Hosius

Stanislaus Hosius by Marcello Bacciarelli

Stanislaus Hosius (Polish: Stanisław Hozjusz) (5 May 1504 in Kraków, Poland - 5 August, 1579 in Capranica Prenestina, Italy) was a cardinal, since 1551 Prince-Bishop in Bishopric of Warmia, Prussia since 1558 papal legate to the Imperial Court in Viennna and since 1566 a papal legate to Poland.

Hosius was the son of Ulrich Hos of Pforzheim and was born in Kraków. Hosius studied law at the University of Padua and the University of Bologna. He became Bishop of Chełmno in 1549 and Prince-Bishop of Warmia in 1551. Hosius had Jesuit sympathies and actively opposed the Protestant Reformation, going so far as to desire a repetition of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Poland. Apart from its being "the property of the Roman Church," he regarded the Bible as having no more worth than Aesop's Fables.

Hosius was not distinguished as a theologian, though he drew up the Confessio fidei christiana catholica adopted by the Synod of Piotrków in 1557. He was, however, supreme as a diplomat and administrator. The Pope consecrated Hosius to fight the ongoing conversions to Protestantism. Hosius and Marcin Kromer were the two bishops most instrumental in keeping Warmia region Catholic, while neighboring Ducal Prussia became Protestant in 1525.

Hosius was called to the Imperial seat at Vienna in 1558/1559, where he was to work on the reopening of the Council of Trent and on (re)gaining the imperial son Maximilian for Catholicism. For his successful work Hosius was promoted to cardinal in 1561, returning to Warmia in 1563. In 1566 Pope Pius V consecrated him as Papal Legate to Poland.

Besides carrying through many difficult negotiations, he founded the lyceum of Braniewo (Braunsberg) in order to counter the rapidly spreading Protestants. It became the center of the Roman Catholic mission among Protestants. In 1572 Pope Gregory XIII declared Hosius a member of the Congregatio Germania. He died at Capranica near Rome on 5 August 1579.

A special friend to Hosius was Blessed Peter Canisius. Both Kromer and Hosius left many records of their German language speeches and sermons in their years of duty in the Bishropic of Warmia. They were later translated to Czech, English, and French.

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

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Four cities of Germany