Goswin Nickel (1582 - 31 July 1664) was a German Jesuit priest and the tenth

Superior-General of the Society of Jesus The superior general of the Society of Jesus is the leader of the Society of Jesus, the Catholic religious order also known as the Jesuits. He is generally addressed as Father General. The position sometimes carries the nickname of the Black Po ...

Goswin was born in Koslar, North-Westphalia (Germany). He studied in Paderborn and Mainz (1611–1615), where he was promoted priest on 28 October 1614. He was elected Superior-General less than a week after the death of his predecessor

Aloysius Gottifredi Aloysius (Alessandro Luigi) Gottifredi (3 May 1595 – 12 March 1652) was an Italian Jesuit, elected the ninth Superior-General of the Society of Jesus. His term of less than two months is the shortest of anyone to hold the office. Father Gottif ...

, on 17 March 1652. During these years the quarrels with the Jansenist theologians were growing more and more acrimonious, especially in France where

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pa ...

, French scientist, philosopher and Jansenist sympathizer was leading the attack on the Jesuits. The great controversy on the

Chinese Rites The Chinese Rites controversy () was a dispute among Roman Catholic missionaries over the religiosity of Confucianism and Chinese rituals during the 17th and 18th centuries. The debate discussed whether Chinese ritual practices of honoring fami ...

(1645) continued. Owing to his great age, Father Nickel obtained from the 11th General Congregation the election of Gian Paolo Oliva as vicar-general with right of succession (on 7 June 1661). This was approved by

Alexander VII Pope Alexander VII ( it, Alessandro VII; 13 February 159922 May 1667), born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death in May 1667. He began his career as a vice- papal legate, an ...

. The German novelist Thomas Mann mentions Nickel in his famous book '' The Magic Mountain'', bringing up a relatively forgotten quote by the Superior-General about love for one's fatherland, which Nickel called "a plague with the most certain death of

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

love". This notion of Nickel's has already been touched on in the Finnish philosopher

Edward Westermark Edvard Alexander Westermarck (Helsinki, 20 November 1862 – Tenala, 3 September 1939) was a Finnish philosopher and sociologist. Among other subjects, he studied exogamy and the incest taboo. Biography Westermarck was born in 1862 in a ...

's book ''

The Origin and Development of Moral Ideas ''The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas'' is a book by the Finnish philosopher Edvard Westermarck, published between 1906 and 1908. One of his main works, Pojman 1999. p. 970. it is a monumental study and a classic in its field, though no ...

'', back in 1917. Nickel died in Rome.

References

* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Nickel 1582 births 1664 deaths 16th-century German people 17th-century German Jesuits 17th-century German theologians People from Jülich Superiors General of the Society of Jesus 17th-century German writers 17th-century German male writers