PISTORIS, JOHANN. - Polemicist and historian, b. at Nidda on 14 Feb. 1546 (hence the name Niddanus), d. at Freiburg im Breisgau on 18 July 1608. Son of the namesake P. J. Niddanus senior, who as a parish priest had embraced Protestantism, had married and had taken a notable part in the various religious colloquies.
He studied theology, law and medicine at Marburg and at Wittenberg, later becoming court physician to the Margrave Charles of Baden-Durlach, with whom he also held the office of historiographer and counsellor in religious matters. After various waverings from Lutheranism toward Calvinism, he returned in 1588 to Catholicism, to which he con-
...converted in 1590 also the court preacher Zehender and Margrave James III. This last conversion, which was solemnly celebrated also in Rome, remained without consequences, owing to the premature death of the margrave. Driven out by the anti-Catholic reaction that followed this death, P. betook himself to Freiburg im Breisgau, where he was ordained priest (1591) and was then appointed by Card. Andrew of Austria as his vicar general for the diocese of Constance. Subsequently he was imperial councillor, provost of the cathedral of Breslau, apostolic protonotary and from 1601 confessor of Rudolf II, displaying uninterruptedly great zeal for the restoration of the Catholic religion.
The polemical activity of P. was very intense from the time of his conversion. In it he is a stringent dialectician, but also often harsh. The most significant writing is the Anatomia Lutheri (published in two parts, Cologne 1595 and 1598), in which he analyzes the writings of Luther taken in their original text and edition. For historical scholarship P. has the merit of having investigated and published vast collections of sources, of which the most famous are: Polemiciae historiae corpus (3 parts, Basel 1582), and Rerum Germanicarum scriptores (3 vols., Frankfurt 1583-1607).
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