Ribadeneira, Pedro

Ribadeneira, Pedro, a zealous Jesuit, pupil of Loyola, and industrious writer, was born at Toledo, Nov. 1, 1527. He was sent to Rome while young, and received by Lovola into his order in 1540, before it had been confirmed by the pope. In 1542 Ribadeneira removed to Paris for further studies in philosophy and theology, and three years later to Padua, where he completed his studies.

In 1549 he became teacher of rhetoric at Palermo. In 1552 he returned to Rome and labored effectively for the instituting of the Collegium Germanicum. Loyola sent him to Belgium in 1555, in order to promote the interests of Jesuitism, more particularly to secure permission of Philip II to introduce the order. He succeeded in his mission, and contributed by direct labors as a preacher at Louvain, and by defending the order against attacks of the Sorbonne, towards the realizing of that project. In 1559 he was appointed proepositus of the Collegium Germanicum, and in 1560, after having taken the four vows of his order, proepositus for the province of Tuscany. In 1563 he was commissary of the order in Sicily, and afterwards assistant to the generals Lainez and Francis Borgia. He attended the second general assembly of his order as the representative of Sicily, and the third as the representative of Rome, and subsequently was made overseer of all the houses of the Jesuits in Rome. Physical sufferings led to his return to Spain in 1584, and to the occupation of a writer in behalf of his order as his chief work. He was engaged in collecting the materials for a work intended to describe the services of the Jesuits in Spain and India when he died, at Madrid, Oct. 1, 1611. His head was found in an uninjured state, it is said, as late as 1633. As a thinker, Ribadeneira was characterized by credulity; as a writer, by a diffuse story-telling style in the manner of the old legends, whence his name was sarcastically transformed into Peter de Badineria, i.e. "chatterer." His works were numerous, and are fully given in Zettler's large Universal-Lexikon. They are ascetical or biographical in nature, though frequently devoted specifically to the interests of his order. We mention his Lives of Ignatius de Loyola, Borgia, Lainez, and Salmeron: — the Flos Sanctorum (transl. into English, 1669) — all in numerous editions: — the Hist. du Schisme de l'Angleterre (Valencia, 1588): — Le Prince Chretien, a defense against Machiavelli (Antw. 1597, etc.): — Catalogus Scriptorum Soc. Jesu — a catalogue of Jesuit writers, their provinces, colleges, houses, etc. (ibid. 1608); also translations from Albert the Great and Augustine into Spanish. SEE ALEGAMBE.