CENTRAL
534
CENTURIATORS
Central Verein of North America, German-
Roman Catholic (Deutscher rdmisch-katholischer
Central re n in run Nordamerika). — The origin of the
Central Verein dates back to 1854, in which year
the presidents of three German Catholic benevolent
societies of Buffalo, New York, issued a call to vari-
ous German Catholic societies for the purpose of form-
ing a central body. The movement was inspired and
advocated by zealous missionary priests, and ap-
proved by Bishop Timon of Buffalo. The success of
a similar organization among their Catholic brethren
in Germany (founded at Mainz, 1848), lent additional
force to the arguments for a union in the United
States. The call was responded to by seventeen
societies, and on 15 April, 1855, the Central Verein
was duly organized in St. Alphonsus Hall, Baltimore,
Maryland. The main object at the outset was to
unite the energies of the various associations against
freemasonry and secret societies in general. Hence
the efforts of the new organization were directed
chiefly towards defending the menaced rights of the
Catholics in the United States, as also " to promote
a vigorous religious activity in the united societies
according to the spirit of the Roman Catholic Church
and mutually to aid and materially to benefit one
another". Membership was restricted to Catholic
benevolent societies whose official language was Ger-
man. The growth by decades was as follows:
1855, 17 societies, 1,500 members
1865, 62 " 8,340
1875, 302 " 31,672
1885, 37S " 32,783 "
1895. 548 " 48,989
From the last named date, however, the growth became less marked, and in 1901 a reorganization movement was inaugurated. Instead of affiliating local societies as heretofore, the formation of state organizations was encouraged, and these so-called "Staatsverbande" were then incorporated as a whole, the various local societies losing their direct affiliation to the Central Verein. This plan proved a complete success. In 1907 the report of the secretary showed sixteen state organizations and fifty-two local societies from states in which no "Staatsver- band" existed, with a total paid-up membership of 99,291. The unreported membership would bring this total far beyond 100,000. The Holy See ap- proved the work of the Central Verein in a reply to a letter of allegiance sent by the eleventh general con- vention held at Buffalo, 1866, to Pope Pius IX. The reply praises the spirit of Catholic unity prevailing among the members and wishes them success and the ever copious assistance of Divine grace. It gratefully acknowledges and appreciates the contributions the Central Verein had gathered for the support of the Holy See. During fifty-two years the society contrib- uted about 812,000 to the Peter's-pence collection.
The care of the immigrants was made a prominent feature of the work of the society, and special agents were appointed to look after their interests in New York and Baltimore. Later on the Central Verein was affiliated to the St. Raphael's Society. The re- sult of their combined efforts was the establishment in New York of the Leo House for the use of Catholic immigrants. Aid was extended to a similar under- taking at Galveston, Texas. The cause of Catholic education has a conspicuous advocate in the Central Venin. The Teachers' Seminary at St. Francis, Wis- consin, was founded mainly by contributions from this society. In his address to the delegates assembled in Dubuque, Iowa, 1907, Archbishop Falconio, the Apostolic Delegate, said: "What your society has done in the interest of Christian education is truly admirable and an example worthy of imitation for ail Catholics". The annual conventions, under the name of " Katholikentage ", have assumed large proportions. Extending over four or five days, they
include solemn church festivities, parades, addresses
by prominent clergymen and laymen, business meet-
ings, and social gatherings.
Matt, The German. Roman Catholic Central Verein (St. Paul, Minn.).
Peter J. Bourscheidt.
Centuriators of Magdeburg. — In 1559 there ap- peared at Basle the first three folio volumes of a work
entitled " Ecclesiastica Historia secundum sin-
gulas centurias per aliquot studiosos et pios
viros in Urbe Magdeburgica." (i. e. A History of the Church . . according to centuries, . . . done at Magdeburg by some learned and pious men). It was the work of a group of Lutheran scholars who had gathered at Magdeburg, and who are now known to history as the "Centuriators of Magdeburg" because of the way in which they divided their work (century by century) and the place in wdiich the first five volumes were written; most of the others were written at Wismar or elsewhere, but the sub-title "in Urbe Magdeburgica" was retained. The originator of the idea and the moving spirit of the organization which produced the work was Matthias Vlacich (latinized Flacius), also known as Francovich, and, from the country of his birth (Istria), Illyrieus. Born in 1520, the influence of his uncle Baldo Lupertino, an apos- tate friar, prevented him from becoming a monk and directed his steps in 1539 to Germany, where, at Augs- burg, Basle, Tubingen, and Wittenberg, he developed a fanatical anti-Roman temper. The Augsburg In- terim of 1547 led to the Adiaphoristic controversy, in the course of which he poured forth a flood of calum- nious abuse upon the Reformer Philip Melanchthon; the bitter feeling generated gave rise to the hostile parties of Philippists and Flacians. All attempts to restore peace failed, and the Lhiiversity of Jena, where Flacius was appointed professor of theology in 1557, became a centre of rigid Lutheranism in strong opposition to Melanchthon. His wanderings after 1562, and the numerous domestic controversies be- tween the Reformers, in which Flacius took part until his death (11 March, 1575), did not prevent him from becoming the most learned Lutheran theologian of his day, while, in addition to numerous minor contro- versial works, his untiring energy led him to devise the vast historical work known as "The Centuries".
After Luther's death (1546) anti-Catholic contro- versy tended to lose its dogmatic character and to be- come historical. Flacius sought historical weapons wherewith to destroy Catholicism, and in that spirit wrote his once famous and influential catalogue of anti-papal witnesses, "Catalogus testium veritatis qui ante nostram setatem Pontifici Romano eiusque er- roribus reclamarunt" (Basle, 1556; enlarged ed., Strasburg, 1562; ed. by Dietericus, Frankfort, 1672). Some four hundred anti-papal witnesses to truth were cited, St. Gregory the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas being included in the number of those who had stood up for truth against "the Papal Antichrist". As early as 1553 Flacius was seeking patrons whose finan- cial support should enable him to carry out his com- prehensive plan of a church history which was "to reveal the beginnings, the development and the ruth- less designs of the Antichrist". The German princes, and the burghers particularly of Augsburg and Nurem- berg, helped him generously, but no support was forthcoming from the followers of Melanchthon. He travelled through Germany in search of material. while his zealous fellow-worker. Marcus Wagner (from Weimar near Gotha), searched the libraries of Aus- tria. Bavaria. Scotland, and Denmark for the same purpose. Into the vexed question of the dishonour- able means alleged to have been used by Flacius in ac- quiring MSS., and his use of the knife to mutilate them, thus giving rise to the proverbial Manus Flo- oiana ami cuUer Flacianus, we cannot enter here. An examination of the remains of his library, now at
