ACKERMANN, LEOPOLD - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. I, p. 162

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

ACKERMANN, LEOPOLD. - Exegete, b. and d. in Vienna (17 Nov. 1771–8 Sept. 1831). Having entered (1790) among the Augustinian Canons Regular under the name of Pietro Fourier at Klosterneuburg, he taught there for thirty years the sacred Scriptures and ecclesiastical history. He was also a zealous promoter of the liturgical movement and of the restoration of Gregorian chant. He left numerous writings, among which are noteworthy: *De antiquitate et auctoritate psalmorum Davidis* (Vienna 1821); *De psalmodiae sacrae origine et progressu* (Vienna 1823); *De cantu et musica sacra* (Vienna 1825).

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He founded various houses and missions and made a visitation of the extensive province, gathering material for his future works. He then took a prominent part, as theologian to Archbishop St Toribio de Mogrovejo, in the work of the Third Provincial Council of Lima (August 1582–October 1583), of great historical importance; he drew up its acts and, with other fellow-experts in languages, composed the trilingual catechism: Spanish, Quechua and Aymara, of which he also supervised the printing (Lima 1585, this being the first book printed in Lima); he also collaborated on the Confessionario para los curas de Indios (Lima 1585) and other works prescribed by the Council.

Recalled to Europe, where he disembarked in 1587, the Author obtained from Sixtus V in Rome the approval of the Council (1588), and printed its acts: Concilium Limense (Madrid 1590). Returning to Spain, where he was visitor of the Jesuit provinces of Andalusia and Aragon, he devoted himself to literary composition and preaching, using in favour of the missions the authority he enjoyed on the subject both within his own Order and in the royal councils. Acquaviva used him for delicate negotiations with the court of Madrid, in the difficulties which the Society then encountered in Spain; but here the Author, recently named superior of the professed house at Valladolid, allowed himself to be induced to support, with his authority, the schemes of a small faction of restless religious with mainly nationalistic aims against Acquaviva himself. With the support of Philip II he came to Rome (1592) and obtained from Clement VIII the summoning of the Fifth General Congregation of the Society (1593–94). When it had justified Acquaviva and maintained the integrity of the Institute of the Society, the Author submitted and was reconciled with the General, protesting that he had always acted in good faith (his apology is printed in Rodriguez Carraciolo, pp. 123–153). Returning to Spain, he resumed the government of the house at Valladolid, then of the college at Salamanca.

The author was an indefatigable writer (a complete list of his works is found in the bibliography by E. Uriarte-M. Leciña). We have mentioned his writings in connection with the Council of Lima. The fruit of his theological teaching in Peru are the *De temporibus novissimis*, Rome 1590, and the *De Christo revelato*, Rome 1590; the author himself published three volumes of *Conciones*, Salamanca 1596–99 (others remained unpublished). But he owes his fame chiefly to two works that have become classics: *De natura novi Orbis et de promulgatione Evangelii apud barbaros sive de procuranda Indorum salute*, Salamanca 1590 (several reprints, the last at Manila 1585; the work is commonly cited as *De procuranda Indorum salute*). Though not the first synthesis of theoretical missiology, it was the first to enjoy wide circulation, and its influence was very great; the work still retains its value for the general problems of missionary methodology and those of a Christian colonial policy. Even greater diffusion, though of less lasting worth, was enjoyed by the *Historia natural y moral de las Indias*, Seville 1590 (numerous reprints and translations; in Italian by Gio. Paolo Galucci, Venice 1596). Of the seven books, the first two are the *De natura novi Orbis* from the preceding work; the next three deal with the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms; the last two, on American ethnography, are directed more specifically to missionaries. Though not original in every part (the section on Mexico depends on the *Historia de las Indias de Nueva España* by the Dominican Diego Durán), this vast synthesis earned the author the title of “Pliny of the New World,” bestowed by the Benedictine critic P. Feijoo.

BIBL.: J. E. de Uriarte-M. Leciña, *Biblioteca de Escritores de la Compañía de Jesús...*, I, Madrid 1925, pp. 24–33; Streit, *Bibl.*, I, pp. 72–74; II, pp. 249–54 and passim; J. Rodriguez Carraciolo, *El p. José Acosta y su importancia en la literatura científica española*, Madrid 1889; L. Lopetegui, *El p. José de A. y las Misiones*, Madrid 1942 (supersedes earlier publications on the missionary aspect); id., *Como debe entenderse la labor misionial del p. José de A. S. I.?*, in *Studia missionaria*, I (Rome 1943), pp. 115–36; L. Kilger, *Die Peru-Relation des José de A. y 1576 und seine Missionstheorie*, in *Neue Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft*, I (Schöneck 1945), pp. 24–36; A. Astrain, *Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la Asistencia de España*, III, Madrid 1925, pp. 401–29, for the incidents of 1592–95 and the struggle with Acquaviva.