The Hungarian prelate Péter Pázmány (1570-1637), one of the great figures of the Counter Reformation, restored Roman Catholicism to Hungary. A superb stylist, he has been hailed as the father of modern Hungarian prose.

Péter Pázmány was born into a noble Protestant family at Nagyvárad on Oct. 4, 1570. Guided by his Roman Catholic stepmother, he became a convert at the age of 13. Pázmány attended the Jesuit college at Kolozsvár, entering the Jesuit novitiate at Cracow in 1587. He studied philosophy in Vienna and theology in Rome under Gabriel Vásquez and Robert Bellarmine. In 1598 Pázmány became professor of philosophy at the University of Graz. In 1601 he began a 2-year visit to Hungary, where he initiated his brilliant literary career with his Answer to Stephen Magyary...