Edited by Mathias Moosbrugger, this volume collects articles presented at a conference on the subject of Peter Canisius held in Innsbruck in 2021, on the five-hundredth anniversary of his birth. Canisius (1521–97) was born in Nijmegen and became the leading Jesuit in Germany and Switzerland in the sixteenth century. He was perhaps most famous for producing a widely used German-language catechism, often considered a Catholic version of Luther’s catechism, but of course a competitor to it as well. Canisius died in Fribourg (Freiburg) in Switzerland. A long campaign led by the Jesuits eventually led to Canisius’ beatification in 1864 and his canonisation in 1924.

This volume reflects the (somewhat belated) modernisation of the historiography around Canisius. Well into the second half of the twentieth century, biographies and studies of Canisius were mostly written by Jesuits and generally fit into the confessionalised historiography of the Reformation/Catholic Reformation/Counter-Reformation period. The scholars writing in this volume clearly, and at times explicitly, are working in a different mode. There is some debunking of old myths about Canisius and much historicising of his biography, placing him firmly in the framework of his times and culture. This is, then, a kind of revisionist work, one that goes beyond Ordensgeschichte (history of the religious order) and confessionalised history.

As the important contribution by Daniel Sidler points out, biographies of Canisius from the seventeenth century on were almost always part of the three-hundred-year canonisation campaign mounted by the Jesuits. This was a difficult project, since Canisius was neither a miracle worker nor a martyr, nor was he Italian or Spanish, and his case fell victim to the stricter rules the papacy developed around canonisation in the early modern period. In addition, the Jesuits had a number of saints and Canisius was considered in the second level of early Jesuits. Finally, as Sidler points out, the papacy was happy to let the Canisius case remain ‘half-finished’ during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, thereby avoiding alienating both German Catholics and the enemies of the Jesuits.

The canonisation process, and the many publications that came out of it, of course presented a very positive image of Canisius and his work. Markus Friedrich takes on several aspects of this traditional history. One the one hand, he critiques the way Canisius became part of the ‘Jesuit modernity narrative’, that is the idea that the Jesuits brought new ideas and a ‘modern’ sensibility to Catholicism. This narrative was reinforced in the 1980s by the confessionalisation thesis associated with Heinz Schilling and Wolfgang Reinhard, which emphasised the parallels between Catholic and Protestant reformers in creating a more individualised religion more appropriate for the early modern period. Modern historians of the Society of Jesus, for example John O’Malley, argued for an understanding of the Jesuits as innovative organisers and missionaries, while recognising the traditional aspects of their piety, teaching and theology.

Many of the articles in this collection present Canisius as a man of his times, pointing out some aspects of his biography that have been downplayed by earlier scholars. Wolfgang Behringer examines Canisius’ attitude toward the witch hunts that plagued Germany during his lifetime. In this area, Canisius, unlike most Jesuits, approved of and supported the arrest and execution of purported witches. Behringer reminds us that Canisius was not only aware of the witch hunts, but was a witness to arrests and trials at various times. This was not a theoretical issue for him, but a living reality.

Canisius was not a court Jesuit, like some of his Jesuit contemporaries, but, as Stefan Ehrenpreis argues, he was not the apolitical figure of much of the hagiography written about him. Canisius was a practical man who knew that German Catholicism depended on the political support of the Habsburg emperors and Bavarian archdukes and could only survive with the protection of the prince-bishops of the imperial Church. He attended many meetings, particularly Imperial diets, although he was disappointed not to be sent to the Council of Trent as a representative of the emperor. Canisius also had good connections in Rome, both with the Jesuit leadership and the papacy. However, although he was politically active, he rejected any negotiations or compromises with Protestants.

Another cluster of articles examine Canisius’ intellectual work, particularly his writings. Here again, Canisius is presented as a man of his times. Hilmar Pabel argues that Canisius was a ‘confessionalised humanist’. Much of his writing involved reworking earlier texts, but it was also always polemical. Moosbrugger points out that Canisius was not a good historian, not by modern standards and not by the standards of his own time. Canisius seemed to know this himself, but was tasked by the pope with a number of historical projects. At the end of his life, he devoted his time to writing Lives of Swiss saints, whom he presented (of course) as models for Swiss Catholics of his time.

Despite the polemical anti-Protestant character of much of Canisius’ writing, sermons and pastoral work, Klaus Unterberger argues that he was also profoundly influenced by the devotio moderna that was so important in the Netherlands and the lower Rhine region in the late medieval period. This is somewhat surprising, since both the Tridentine Church and the Society of Jesus were deeply suspicious of the kind of mystical religiosity of the devotio. Unterberger demonstrates that Canisius drew on the practices of introspective piety associated with the Carthusians of Cologne, a monastery that put the mysticism of the devotio moderna into everyday practice. Canisius developed a practical piety in this tradition, one that came to influence popular Catholicism in Germany.

The Peter Canisius that comes through in this collection is a man of his times, influenced by the religious and intellectual traditions of his home region, caught up in the political conflicts of his era, and tied, through the Jesuits, to the rapidly changing Catholic Church of the sixteenth century. This rounded story, with its critical perspectives on Canisius’ support of witch trials and his often forceful anti-Protestant polemics, makes him a more interesting and revealing character than the older hagiographical works.