RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Cyril and Methodius Cysat
project by sending back with them the sacred vessels which had been taken from the temple and a considerable sum of money to buy building materials with. After the work had been stopped by enemies of the Jews it was recommended under the exhortations of the prophets, and when the authorities asked the Jews what right they had to build a temple they referred to the decree of Cyrus. Darius, who was then reigning, caused a search for this alleged decree to be made, and it was found in the Babylonian archives (Ezra vi. 2), whereupon Darius reaffirmed the decree and the work proceeded to its triumphant close. Daniel was in the favor of Cyrus, and it was in that year of Cyrus that he had the vision recorded in his tenth chapter.
Bibliography: Herodotus, Hist., i. 95, 108-130, 177-214; Ctesias, Persica, vii.-xi,; transl. of the Cyrus and Nabonidu3 Inscriptions, Records of the Past, new series, v. 144 sqq., London, 1882. Consult: F. Justi, Geschichte des alten Persiens, Berlin, 1879; T. G. Pinches, in TSBA, vii., 1880; V. Floigl, Cyrus und Herodot, Leipsic, 1881; J. V. Prasek, Medien und das Haus des Kyaxares, Berlin, 1890; E. Schrader and F. Peiser, in Keilinschriftliche BiUiothek, iii. 2, pp. 120 sqq., iv. 258 sqq., Berlin, 1892- 1896; T. K. Cheyne, Jewish Religious Life After the Exile, New York, 1898; G. F. Unger, in Ahhandlungen der kaiserlichen bayerischen Akademie, 1. Classe, vol. xvi., part 3; DB, i. 541-542; EB, i. 978-982.
CYSAT, RENWARD, AND THE COUNTERREF- ORMATION IN SWITZERLAND.
Situation After the Battle of Kappel (§ 1). Carlo Borromeo and the Jesuits (§ 2). Various Agencies (§ 3).
The battle of Kappel in 1531 (see Zwingli, Huldreich) had obstructed the advance of the Reformation in the Swiss Confederacy and brought about a reactionary subscription to the Roman faith. The majority of the thirteen cantons as then organized belonged to the Roman Church (Lucerne, Schwytz, Uri, Unterwalden, Zug, Soleure, Fribourg); two were on a footing of religious equality (Glarus, Appenzell); while only four (Basel, Bern, Sohaffhausen, Zurich) were strictly Protestant. The last four, however, were I. Situation superior in actual power and in intel- After the lectual forces to the remaining cantons Battle of all together. The Roman cantons had Kappel. the advantage of a closely compact situation, and the original cantons were bordered on the south by the entirely or still predominantly Roman districts of Valais, Ticino, and Grisons; the other Roman jurisdictions, also (Fribourg, Soleure, diocese of Basel, Saint Gall), separated the Protestant cantons. Prior to the Council of Trent the status of the Roman Church in these her subject jurisdictions was by no means more hopeful than elsewhere; the spirituality and with it the entire existence of the Church was everywhere in a state of melancholy decline; only the support of the governing powers and the conservative disposition of the people at large constituted the mainstay of Catholicism in these democratic little communities.
The Counterreformation found two centers in Switzerland: in the diocese of Basel (see Jacob Christoph, Bishop of Basel) and in the orig-
inal cantons, where the chief center was Lucerne. Here Ludwig Pfyffer, the mayor— the " Swiss King " — (d. 1594) and Renward Cysat, the modest town clerk (b. 1545; d. Mar. 16, 1614), were the life of the movement, the former of greater public renown, though the latter in his many-sided activity as statesman, man of letters, ecclesiastical zealot, and friend of the Jesuits is the more distinctively typical figure. Originally an apothecary, but broadening himself with extensive culture, especially in languages, Cysat became " underclerk " of Lucerne in 1670; and from 1575 till his death he was town clerk. His office, which conjointly with that of the mayor was the most important with regard to the public affairs of the town and State, gave him a right to exert a partial influence over the ecclesiastical and political concerns of Lucerne. His office was not subject to annual mutation, and through his hands all documents of any consequence had to pass. As " Roman notary " from 1570 various channels of communication were opened up for him with spiritual dignitaries and even with the Curia; and as early as that very year, 1570, he came thus into closer touch with Carlo Borromeo (q.v.), cardinal and archbishop of Milan.
Borromeo's journey to Switzerland in 1570 is the external starting-point of the Counterreformation for that country. It was Borromeo's indefatigable activity which secured in the same year the enactment of the Council's resolutions, and incited to measures for ameliorating the evil 2. Carlo condition of the clergy; later (1579) Borromeo he founded in Milan a Swiss College and the {Collegium Helveticum) for the edu- Jesuits. cation of worthy Swiss clerics. He now gave his stimulating counsel at Lucerne, and continued afterward in communication with the leading men of the Roman districts. Through the efforts of Pfyffer and Cysat a Jesuits' College was instituted at Lucerne in 1574, and the Jesuits' activity soon bore fruits; by means of the school they influenced youth; and, by their strict example, the clergy and the life of the community. Voluntary Hberality increased, new churches were built; processions, festival plays, ecclesiastical feasts soon again played an extensive part in public life. The municipal authorities everywhere supported the Jesuits' purposes; and negligent priests were disciplined by temporal magistrates. In 1579 Bishop Bonomi of Vercelli came to Lucerne as papal nuncio, and the seven Roman cantons and the dioceses of Constance and Basel were placed under his jurisdiction. By visitations, by founding a Capuchin convent at Altdorf, which became a point of departure for many further foundations, and a Jesuits' College at Fribourg he promoted the Counterreformation; in fact, by these measures and especially by his advocacy of a league contracted in 1579 between the bishop of Basel and the Roman cantons he became so odious to the Protestant cantons that in 1580 he was rudely insulted in the jurisdiction of Bern. This incident, which came near causing civil war, and Bonomi's doubtless warranted and yet not_ quite unobjectionable encroachment upon affairs in the
Cysat Dagon