Peter Canisius's Triple Catechism (1555–58), which contains…

Peter Canisius's Triple Catechism (1555–58), which contains a lucid exposition of Roman Catholic dogma, is to become the most famous catechism of the Counter-Reformation, going through four hundred editions in one hundred and fifty years.

Perhaps more than any of his contemporaries, Canisius had delayed the advance of Protestantism by his participation in the religious discussions at Worms in 1557 and at the Council of Trent and the Diet of Augsburg in 1559.

Canisius seeks to renew the Roman Catholic church in Germany by means of his friendship with the Holy Roman emperor and numerous magnates, by his zealous preaching in various German towns, by the extension of the Jesuit order, and especially by his desire to provide worthy and scholarly priests.

His German missions have won him fast friendships with persons in all walks of life, including the emperor.

He has done important work in southern Germany and Austria, Bohemia, and Switzerland, where in 1580 he settles in Fribourg and founds a Jesuit college (now the University of Fribourg).

Born in Nijmegen and educated at the University of Cologne, he had become a Jesuit in 1543 and taught at the universities of Cologne, Ingolstadt, and Vienna.

He has founded colleges at Munich (1559), Innsbruck (1562), Dillingen (1563), Würzburg (1567), Augsburg, and Vienna.