WERNZ, Franz Xaver. - Canonist, 25th Superior General of the Society of Jesus, b. at Rottweil (Württemberg) on 4 Dec. 1842, d. at Rome on 19 Aug. 1914.
He entered the Order in 1857, and for 31 years was professor of canon law at Ditton-Hall and St. Bueno’s (1875–1882), then at Rome in the Gregorian University (1882–1906), where he was also rector from 1904 to 1906. In that year he was elected General of the Society (8 Sept.). Highly esteemed for his clarity, depth, prudent moderation and unshaken justice, he served from 1886 as consultor to the Roman Congregations of the Council, the Holy Office, and Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, and later became a member of the Commission for the Codification of Canon Law. Still wider and more lasting fame came to him from his work, now a classic, *Ius decretalium* (6 vols., Rome 1898–1914; now adapted to the CIC by P. P. Vidal and F. Aguirre as *Ius canonicum*, 7 vols., Rome 1928–37): for its orderly arrangement, its rich and learned treatment, and its wealth of historical, juridical and allied learning, many of its suggestions and formulations live on in the Code.
As General he fostered the spiritual and interior life of the Society and its varied external activities—new chairs and regulations at the Gregorian University, constant care for the Biblical Institute founded by Pius X so that it might fulfil its high purpose, new periodicals of high popular appeal, effective protection of the *Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu*, and vigorous support of the apostolate (spiritual exercises, Marian congregations, and the sodality of the Good Death). Against modernism he stood with firm and steady tenacity, keeping it far from his own, guarding them against every lightness of mind and pursuit of rash novelties. To him especially belongs the new mission in Japan, which he regarded as the legitimate heir of the ancient mission watered by the blood of so many martyrs. Nor were trials and sorrows wanting, for he saw the Society persecuted in France, Spain and Portugal, and himself and his men singled out by enemies and false brethren, almost as though they were slack and little obedient to the authority of the Church in the modernist controversy.