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Surius THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 172 Sverdrup acts of Henry VIII., and it vested the fulness of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the crown. It pre scribed for all holding office in Church and State an oath recognizing the Queen as " the only Su preme Governor of this realm as well in all spiritual and ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporals," and provided penalties for those refusing to take it. SURIUS, su'ri-us, LAURENTTIUS: German Car thusian; b. at Liibeck in 1522; d. at Cologne May 23, 1578. Probably of Protestant parentage, he. was educated at Frankfort-on-the-Oder and at Cologne, where he became acquainted with Petrus Canisius; was won to Roman Catholicism, and, in 1541, became a Carthusian. All his subsequent life was characterized by his zeal for the exercise of the rules of his order, and, in his writings, by his pas sionate enthusiasm for his church and his violent hatred of the Reformation. Among his works was a Commentarius brevis rerum in orbe gestarum ab anno 1500 usque in. annum 1568 (Cologne, 1568), which was continued by others to 1673, and was in reply to Johann Sleidan's Protestant Commentarii de statu religionis et reirepublicw, Carolo Quinto Caesare (Strasburg, 1555), a famous history of the Reformation. He also wrote Homilite live cam ciones prwstantissimorum ecelesicv doctorum in evanr gelia totius anni (1569); and Concilia omnia (1567). His main work was the Vitae sanctarum (6 vols., 1570-75), republished with an additional volume under the title, De probatis sanctorum historiis (1618; 12 vols., Turin, 1875), which was recognized by the Bollandists as the best predecessor of their own hagiology (ASB). (0. ZSCKLERt.) BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. RAss, Die Convertiten seit der Reforma tion, ii. 338 eqq., Freiburg, 1866; ADB, xxxvii. 166; %L, xi. 999-1001; Der Katholik, 1863, ii. 416 sqq. SURPLICE. See VESTMENTS AND INSIGNIA, ECCLESIASTICAL. SURPLICE FEES. See STOLE FEES. SUSA. See SHUsBAN. SUSANNA, HISTORY OF. See APOCRYPHA, A, IV., 3. SUSO (SUS, SUSE, SEUSE), HEINRICH (AMAN DUS): German mystic; b. at Constance Mar. 21, 1300; d. at Ulm Jan. 25, 1366. One of the great est of German mystics, and the inspired prophet of the religious lyric, he understood how through di vine love to influence a sinful world by the power of human love and sympathy. He came of a noble family, but took the name of his mother, a godly woman, in preference to that of his worldly father, Von Berg. Being delicate, he was destined for the ministry, and was permitted to enter the Domin ican monastery when only thirteen. Being dissat isfied spiritually with the monastic routine, he sought to attain higher spirituality and devoted himself to the practise of asceticism, wearing a hair shirt studded with nails and a cross a span long, pierced with nails and needles, and remained for years in utter seclusion, in order to tame his spirit and subdue his body. While studying in Strasburg and Cologne, in his twenty-eighth year, he came under the influence and teaching of Eckhart (q.v.), whom he defended from the charge of heresy. Suso
practised asceticism until his fortieth year, when his system was so exhausted that, in order to.save his body, he was forced to discontinue it. Returning to his monastery he became lector and prior. He sided with the pope in his dispute with Louis of Bavaria, and was banished from Constance and sent to Diessenhoven (1339-46). Here he began work as an itinerant preacher, also hearing confessions, and in his wanderings sought out the Dominican convent of Toss (near Winterthur) and met Elsbet Stagel, daughter of a councilor of ZuT1Cn, who was the original inspirer of the publication of his biography. He subsequently retired to Ulm, passing his later years in the Dominican monastery there. At what date he was summoned before a council and his books condemned, as containing false doctrine that contaminated the whole land, is uncertain.
Among Suso's writings was the so-called Exemplar, a collection of four treatises with a prologue: (1) the " Biography "; (2) " Book of Eternal Wisdom "; (3) " Little Book of Truth "; (4) " Little Book of Letters," to which was added an unabridged book of letters. A fifth work is Horologium sapienr tine; a sixth consisted of " Sermons," and there was possibly a seventh, the Mirenebuchlein. The date of these books is unknown. The " Biography " owed its existence to Elsbet Stagel, who wrote down all that Suso had told her of his life. On learning this, Suso destroyed a portion of the notes and expanded and revised the rest, not observing chronological order, but describing his inner life, using his career merely as a guide to the attainment of Christian perfection. He finished it shortly before his death. The " Book of Eternal Wisdom " became one of the favorite books of meditation of the Middle Ages. Suso made a free Latin translation of it, the Horologium sapientice, in order to present it to Hugo von Beaucemain, who was general of his order, 1333-41, and this fixes its probable date. The " Book of Truth " is mainly devoted to the defense of Eckhart, and to that end is directed against the Beghards (see BEGHARDB AND BEOVIISES) and the Brethren of the Free Spirit (see FREE SPIRIT, BRETHREN of THE), who distorted Eckhart's teachings.
The aim of all Suso's teaching was to point the path to perfection, as it was made plain to him in his monastic study of the writings of Solomon, dur ing which time he had visions of Christ and of the Virgin Mary. Many of his views and speculations are derived from the great teachers of the Church, John of Damascus, Augustine, Bonaventura, and others. In certain points Vekhart's views are dis tinctly recognizable, as, for instance, the teaching that in aspiring to perfection man becomes one with God. Suso's aim, however, was not speculation; he sought to make religion have a practical bearing on life. (FERDINAND CoHRS.) BIHLIOaRAPHY: The writings of Suso were first edited by F. Fabri, Augsburg, 1482, then by A. Sorge, 1512, L. Surius' Lat. transl., Cologne, 1555, by A. Diepenbrock, Heinrich Svsos . . Leben cared SchriJten, Regensburg, 1829, 4th ed., 1884, by Denifle, Munich, 1880, and by A. E. Bihlmeyer, Stuttgart, 1907; Fr. transl, by Thirot, 2 vole., Paris, 1899; and the Bri,eJe, ed. W. Preger, Leip sic, 1876. Preger also edited an additional and previ ously unknown writing in AMA, III. Mass% sai. 2, pp.
