Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/114

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BUS


86


BUSEMBAUM


Jooelin of Brakelond (d. 1211); John Boston de Bury, author and bibliographer (d. 1430); John Lydgate, poet (d. 1446), and Byfield who was burnt for heresy in 1530.

Thompson. Records of St. Edmund's; Dugdale, Monastiton (London. 1821). Ill, 9S-176; Jocelini de Brakelonda, De nl.us oestix Smiixonis AUiulis (Camden Society. 1X40); Tymms, Handbook of Bury St. Edmund s (Sth ed., 1905). See also Careyle, Past and Present (1S43).

Edwin Burton.

Bus, Cesar de, Venerable, a priest, and founder of two religious congregations, b. 3 February, 1544, at Cavaillon, Comtat Venaissin (now France); d. 15 April, 1607, at Avignon. At eighteen he joined the king's army and took part in the war against the Hugue- nots. After the war he devoted some time to poetry and painting, but soon made up his mind to join the fleet which was then besieging La Ro- chelle. Owing to a serious sickness this design could not be carried out. Up to this time de Bus had led a pious and virtuous life, which, however, during a sojourn of three years in Paris was changed for one of pleasure and dissipation. From Paris he went back to Cavaillon. Upon the death of his brother, a canon of Salon, he succeeded in ob- taining the vacated benefice, which he sought for the gratification of his worldly ambitions. Shortly after this, however, he returned to a better life, resumed his studies, and in 1582 was ordained to the priesthood. He distinguished himself by his works of charity and his zeal in preaching and catechizing, and conceived the idea of instituting a congregation of priests who should devote them- selves to the preaching of Christian doctrine. In 1592, the " Pri'tres seculiers de la doctrine chr<5tienne", or "Doctrinaires", were founded in the town of L'Isle and in the following year came to Avignon. This congregation was approved by Pope Clement VIII, 23 December, 1597. Besides the Doctri- naires, de Bus founded an order of women called "Filles de la doctrine chretienne" and later Ursu- lines. Pope Pius VII declared him Venerable in 1821. Five volumes of his "Instructions familieres" were published (Paris, 1666).

De Beaivus, Vie d,i J: Cesar de Bus (Paris. 1645); Du- mas, Vie du /'.,/. Bus (Paris, 1703): Helyot. Histoire des ordres religieui. revised ed. I.v Bai.khe in Migne, Encycbo- p(dit th.nl, ,,1,',/ue i l'.iu-. IMS), XXI; Brischar in KircherUei., Ill, 1873, ^. v. lh;ti ino! i< r; Baillet, Les vies des saints (Paris. 1739), III. 617; HeimbOCHER, Die Orden und Kon- gregalionen der kathol. Kirche (Paderborn, 1897), II, 338.

C. A. DuBRAY.

Busche, Hermann von dem. See Humanists.

Busee (Bus/EUS or Buys), Pierre, a Jesuit theologian, b. at Nimwegen in 1540; d. at Vienna in 1587. When twenty-one years old he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Cologne, where, fix years later (1567), he became master of novices. In addition to this office he was appointed to give religious instruction to the higher classes in the Jesuit college at Cologne. He then undertook to complete the lame catechism of Canisius by adding to it the full text of the Scriptural and patristic references cited by the author. St. Peter Canisius himself encouraged this undertaking. The first volume appeared at Cologne in 1569, under the title: "Authoritates Bacrse Scripturse <t sanctorum Patrum, qute in summa doctrrnae christians doe- toris Petri Canisii citantur". The following year, 1570, the work was completed, and was received at once with much favour. It consists of four volumes; for some unknown reason the last volume is lacking in the fine edition of the catechism, with notes by Busee, which was issued in 1571 by the celebrated house of Manutius, of Venice, the de- scendants of Aldus .Manutius. In 1577 a new edition, revised and augmented by another Jes- uit, Jean Base, was published at Cologne in one folio volume, under another title: "Opus catechisti-


cum . . . D. Petri Canisii theologi S. J. prreclarig divinae Scriptural testimoniis, sanctorumque Patrum sententiis sedulo illustratum opera D. Petri Busaei Noviomagi, ejusd. Soc. theologi, nunc vero primum accessione nova, locupletatum atque restitution) ". SLx years before this Father Bus6e had left Cologne and gone to Vienna, where he lectured on the Holy Scriptures in the university and taught Hebrew at the college of the Jesuits. In 1584 Bus6e went to Rome at the command of the General of the Society, Father Acquaviva, who had appointed him a member of a commission to draw up a system or plan of studies {Ratio SludioTum) for the entire Society. On his return to Vienna Bus6e was made Rector of the College of Nobles and died while holding this position.

De Backer and Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la c. de J., II, eol. 439-442; Braunsberger, Entstehung und erste Ent- uicklun,/ der Katechismen des S. Petrus Canisius (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1893); Bruckeb in Diet, de theol. cath., II, col. 1265, 1206.

A. FOURNET.

Busembaum, Hermann, moral theologian, b. at Notteln, Westphalia, 1600; d. at Munster, 31 January, 1668. He entered the Society of Jesus in his nine- teenth year. After completing his studies he taught the classics, philosophy, and moral and dogmatic theology, in various houses of the order. He was rector of the colleges of Hildesheim and Munster, socius to the provincial, and again rector at Munster, where he died. His prudence, keenness of intellect, firmness of will, large-heartedness, and tact combined to form a rare character. These natural gifts were heightened by a singular innocence of life and con- stant communion with God. Hence we are not sur- prised to learn that he was eminently successful as a director of souls. He was chosen by Christoph Bernhard von Galen, the Prince-Bishop of Munster, as his confessor and became his most trusted adviser; and much of the growth and enduring spiritual activity of that diocese is due to these two men. Towards the end of his life Busembaum was attacked by a lingering and extremely painful sickness. He died peacefully and with sentiments of great piety. He was a holy man; but it is as a great theologian that he is especially remembered. In 1645 as South- well says, or according to De Backer in 1650, appeared his principal work: "Medulla theologise moralis facili ac perspicua, methodo resolvens casus con- scientise ex variis probatisque auctoribus concinnata ". This work is a classic; its conciseness, clearness, method, depth, vastness of theological lore com- pressed into so small a volume, sanity of judgment, and practical utility proclaimed its author to be a man gifted in a superlative degree with the moral instinct and the powers of a great teacher. Busem- baum's name became in a short while one of the im- portant ones in moral theology. In his preface to the first edition he acknowledges his indebtedness to two Jesuits, Hermann N (inning and Friedrich Spe, whose manuscripts he had before him while composing his own work, and he claims for them a share in what- ever good his "Medulla" was to effect. The author lived to see the fortieth edition of his little book. l"p to tin- year 1S45, over two hundred editions had ap- peared, which gives us an average of more than one edition for every year of its existence. The book was printed in all the great centres of the Catholic world, Minister, Cologne, Frankfort, Ingolstadt, Lisbon, Lyons, Venice, Padua, ami Rome; it was used as a textbook in numberless seminaries for over two centuries. This success is certainly phenomenal.

Nor was Busembaum less fortunate in his commen- tators. Three of the greatest moralists of their re- spective periods, La Croix, St. AJphonsus Liguori,

anil, in our own days. Ballerini, took the "Medulla" as their text and commented on it in their masterly volumes. St. Alphonsus wished to put into the hands