Hermann Thyräus

German Jesuit, b. at Neuss on the Rhine, 1532; d. at Mainz, 26 October, 1591. He studied first at Cologne, and then, after 1522, at the Collegium Germanicum at Rome. On 26 may, 1556, he was received into the Society of Jesus by St. Ignatius Loyola, two months before the latter's death. In the same year, Thyräus was made a professor of theology at Ingolstadt, where he taught for three years the "Magister sententiarum", and in the fourth year controversial theology. In 1560 he became a professor at Trier, and lectured on the Epistles of St. Paul . He was rector of the college at Trier (1565-70), provincial of the Jesuit province of the Rhine (1571-8), and from 1578 until his death rector of the college at Mainz. He did excellent service to the Catholic cause and the Counter-Reformation in Germany. The "Liber de religionis libertate", ascribed to him, was written most probably by his younger brother Peter, also a Jesuit. His "Confessio Augustana", with controversial notes, appeared at Dillingen in 1567. He also left several volumes of sermons. According to the testimony of van Reiffenberg ("Historia Soc. Jesu ad Rhenum infer."), he was skilful, industrious, frank, unaffected, and not lacking in shrewdness; and was in consequence highly esteemed by the archbishops of the Rhine, who often employed him in important matters. He was also a noted preacher, and left several volumes of sermons. When he occupied the pulpit at Trier as many as 4000 people often came together to hear him.