PFYFFER, LUDWIG. - Swiss soldier and statesman, b. in 1524 at Lucerne, d. there on 17 March 1594. He was at first in the service of the king of France.

In 1567 with a regiment he entered the service of Charles IX; having returned to Switzerland in 1569, he was the recognized leader of the Catholics, and as Schultheiss of Lucerne, from 1571 until his death, he made Lucerne the stronghold of Swiss Catholicism against the Reformed. There he promoted the establishment of a college directed by the Jesuits and obtained from the Holy See the sending of a permanent nuncio. In 1576, in the service of Henry III, he protested in Paris against Condé; he had a large part in the conclusion of the alliance of the following year between the six Catholic cantons and Savoy. In 1588 he signed a treaty with Spain at Milan.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: A. v. Segesser, L. P. und seine Zeit, 4 vols., Bern 1880-82; H. Zur Gilgen, P., in Dictionnaire historique et biographique de la Suisse, V, pp. 279-80, with bibl.; E. F. Müller, s. v. in LThK, VIII, col. 209, with bibl.

Silvio Furlani

@incollection{ec9_pfyffer_ludwig, author = {Furlani, Silvio}, title = {Pfyffer, ludwig}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1311}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/pfyffer-ludwig} }

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Pfyffer, Ludwig

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