{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_24534/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_24534","id":"gutenberg_24534","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24534","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian saints -- Spain -- Biography","Ignatius, of Loyola, Saint, 1491-1556"],"text":"Produced by Richard J. Shiffer and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive/Canadian Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY\n\n    OF\n\n    St. Ignatius\n\n\n\n    EDITED BY\n\n    J. F. X. O'CONOR, S.J.\n\n\n\n    NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO\n\n    BENZIGER BROTHERS\n\n    Printers to the Holy Apostolic See\n\n    1900\n\n\n\n    _Imprimatur._\n\n\n            MICHAEL AUGUSTINE,\n                   ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK.\n\n\n    _Nihil obstat._\n\n            EDWARDUS I. PURBRICK, S.J.,\n                _Praepositus Provincialis Provinciae\n                       Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis_.\n\n            JACOBUS J. CASEY, S.J.,\n                      _Censor Deputatus_.\n\nNEW YORK, Dec. 14, 1899.\n\n\n         COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY BENZIGER BROTHERS.\n\n\n[Illustration: ST. IGNATIUS RECEIVING ST. FRANCIS BORGIA.]\n\n[Illustration: ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA.]\n\n[Illustration: THE FIRST VOWS AT MONTMARTRE OF ST. IGNATIUS AND\nCOMPANIONS. FATHER FABER CELEBRATING MASS.]\n\n[Illustration: ST. IGNATIUS CONVERSING WITH ST. FRANCIS XAVIER AT THE\nUNIVERSITY OF PARIS.]\n\n[Illustration: ST. IGNATIUS AT THE HOLY SACRIFICE.\nPainted by Rubens.]\n\n\n\n\nEditor's Preface\n\n\nThis account of the life of St. Ignatius, dictated by himself, is\nconsidered by the Bollandists the most valuable record of the great\nFounder of the Society of Jesus. The editors of the _Stimmen Aus Maria\nLaach_, the German review, as well as those of the English magazine,\n_The Month_, tell us that it, more than any other work, gives an\ninsight into the spiritual life of St. Ignatius. Few works in\nascetical literature, except the writings of St. Teresa and St.\nAugustine, impart such a knowledge of the soul.\n\nTo understand fully the Spiritual Exercises, we should know something\nof the man who wrote them. In this life of St. Ignatius, told in his\nown words, we acquire an intimate knowledge of the author of the\nExercises. We discern the Saint's natural disposition, which was the\nfoundation of his spiritual character. We learn of his conversion, his\ntrials, the obstacles in his way, the heroism with which he\naccomplished his great mission.\n\nThis autobiography of St. Ignatius is the groundwork of all the great\nlives of him that have been written.\n\nBartoli draws from it, Genelli develops it, the recent magnificent\nworks of Father Clair, S.J., and of Stewart Rose are amplifications of\nthis simple story of the life of St. Ignatius.\n\nThe Saint in his narrative always refers to himself in the third\nperson, and this mode of speech has here been retained. Many persons\nwho have neither the time, nor, perhaps, the inclination, to read\nlarger works, will read, we trust, with pleasure and profit this\nautobiography.\n\nIgnatius, as he lay wounded in his brother's house, read the lives of\nthe saints to while away the time. Touched by grace, he cried, \"What\nSt. Francis and St. Dominic have done, that, by God's grace, I will\ndo.\" May this little book, in like manner, inspire its readers with\nthe desire of imitating St. Ignatius.\n\n                                                  THE EDITOR.\n\n       EASTER, 1900.\n  COLLEGE OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER,\n       NEW YORK.\n\n\n\n\n_Preface of Father Louis Gonzalez, S.J., to the \"Acts of St.\nIgnatius,\" received from the lips of the Saint and translated into\nLatin by Father Hannibal Codretto, S.J._\n\nPreface of the Writer\n\n\nJesus, Mary. In the year 1553, one Friday morning, August 4, the eve\nof the feast of Our Lady of the Snows, while St. Ignatius was in the\ngarden, I began to give him an account of my soul, and, among other\nthings, I spoke to him of how I was tempted by vain glory. The\nspiritual advice he gave me was this: \"Refer everything that you do to\nGod; strive to offer Him all the good you find in yourself,\nacknowledging that this comes from God, and thank Him for it.\" The\nadvice given to me on this occasion was so consoling to me that I\ncould not refrain from tears. St. Ignatius then related to me that for\ntwo years he had struggled against vain glory; so much so, indeed,\nthat when he was about to embark for Jerusalem at Barcelona he did not\ndare to tell any one where he was going. He told me, moreover, that\nsince that time his soul had experienced great peace in regard to this\nmatter.\n\nAn hour or two later we went to dinner, and, while Master Polancus and\nI were dining with him, St. Ignatius said that Master Natalis and\nothers of the Society had often asked him to give a narrative of his\nlife, but he had never as yet decided to do so. On this occasion,\nhowever, after I had spoken to him, he reflected upon it alone. He was\nfavorably inclined toward it. From the way he spoke, it was evident\nGod had enlightened him. He had resolved to manifest the main points\nof his interior life up to the present, and had concluded that I was\nthe one to whom he would make these things known.\n\nAt that time St. Ignatius was in very feeble health. He did not\npromise himself one day of life, but, on the contrary, if any one were\nto say, \"I shall do that within two weeks or a week,\" St. Ignatius was\naccustomed to say: \"How is that? Do you think you are going to live\nthat long?\" However, on this occasion, he said he hoped to live three\nor four months to finish the narrative. The next day when I asked him\nwhen he wished to begin, he answered that I should remind him every\nday until he had an opportunity for it. As he could not find time,\npartly on account of his many occupations, he told me to remind him of\nit every Sunday. In the following September he called me, and began to\nrelate his whole life clearly and distinctly with all the\naccompanying circumstances. Afterward, in the same month, he called me\nthree or four times, and told me the history of his life up to the\ntime of his dwelling at Manresa. The method followed by St. Ignatius\nis so clear that he places vividly before our eyes the events of the\npast.\n\nIt was not necessary to ask him anything, as nothing important was\nomitted. I began to write down certain points immediately, and I\nafterward filled out the details. I endeavored to write nothing that I\ndid not hear from him. So closely did I adhere to his very words that\nafterward I was unable to explain the meaning of some of them. This\nnarrative I wrote, as I have indicated above, up to September, 1553.\nFrom that time until the 18th of October, 1554, when Father Natalis\ncame, St. Ignatius did not continue the narrative, but pleaded excuse\non account of infirmities or other business, saying to me, \"When such\nand such a business is settled, remind me of it.\" When that work was\ndone, I recalled it to his memory. He replied, \"Now I have that other\naffair on hand; when it is finished remind me.\"\n\nFather Natalis was overjoyed that a beginning had been made, and told\nme to urge St. Ignatius to complete it, often saying to me, \"In no\nother way can you do more good to the Society, for this is\nfundamentally the Society.\" He himself spoke to St. Ignatius about it,\nand I was told to remind him of it when the work in regard to the\nfounding of the college was finished. And when it was over, and the\nbusiness with Prester John settled and the courier had departed, we\ncontinued the history on the 9th of March, 1555. About this time Pope\nJulius became ill, and died on the 23d of the same month. The\nnarrative was then postponed until the election of the new Pope, who\ndied soon after his election. Our work remained untouched until Pope\nPaul mounted the papal throne. On account of the great heat and many\noccupations, the biography did not make much progress until the 21st\nof September, when there was question of sending me to Spain. And so\nhe appointed the morning of the 22d for a meeting in the red tower.\nAfter saying Mass I went to him to ask him if it were the time. He\ntold me to go and wait for him in the red tower. Supposing that I\nshould have to wait a long while, I delayed on the porch, talking with\na brother who asked me about something. When St. Ignatius came he\nreprimanded me because, contrary to obedience, I had not waited for\nhim in the appointed place, and he would not do anything that day.\nThen we urged him very earnestly to continue. So he came to the red\ntower, and, according to his custom, dictated while walking.\n\nWhile taking these notes I tried to see his face, and kept drawing\nnear to him. He said to me, \"Keep your rule.\" And as I approached\nagain, and looked at him a second and a third time, he repeated what\nhe had said and then went away. Finally, after some time, he returned\nto the red tower to complete the dictation. As I was about starting on\nmy journey, and St. Ignatius spoke to me the day before my departure,\nI could not write out the narrative in full at Rome. At Genoa where I\nwent I had no Spanish secretary, so I dictated in Latin the points I\nhad brought with me, and finished the writing at Genoa in December,\n1555.\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\n                                                                   Page\n\n  EDITOR'S PREFACE                                                    5\n\n  PREFACE OF THE WRITER                                               9\n\n  CHAPTER I\n\n  His Military Life--He is wounded at the Siege of Pampeluna--His\n  Cure--Spiritual Reading--The Apparition--The Gift of Chastity--His\n  Longing for the Journey to Jerusalem and for a Holier Life         19\n\n  CHAPTER II\n\n  Ignatius leaves his Native Land--What he did at Montserrat and\n  Manresa                                                            30\n\n  CHAPTER III\n\n  Scruples--Heavenly Favors--Journey to Barcelona                    47\n\n  CHAPTER IV\n\n  His Journey to Rome, Venice, Jerusalem, and the Holy Land          66\n\n  CHAPTER V\n\n  The Arrival in Apulia, Venice, Ferrara, and Genoa--He is\n  apprehended as a Spy--He is despised as a Fool--His Studies at\n  Barcelona and  Alcala                                              78\n\n  CHAPTER VI\n\n  The Prisons at Alcala and Salamanca                                93\n\n  CHAPTER VII\n\n  His Studies in Paris, and Other Incidents of his Life             111\n\n  CHAPTER VIII\n\n  His Arrival in his Native Land and the Virtues practised\n  there--His Journey into Spain and Italy--The Famous Apparition\n  and his Life in the Same Place                                    129\n\n  APPENDIX\n\n  St. Ignatius and his Work for Education                           145\n\n  Authors                                                           155\n\n  The Educational Plan of St. Ignatius                              156\n\n\n\n\nThe Autobiography of St. Ignatius\n\nThe Account of his Life dictated to Father Gonzalez by St. Ignatius\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nHIS MILITARY LIFE--HE IS WOUNDED AT THE SIEGE OF PAMPELUNA--HIS\nCURE--SPIRITUAL READING--THE APPARITION--THE GIFT OF CHASTITY--HIS\nLONGING FOR THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM AND FOR A HOLIER LIFE\n\n\nUp to his twenty-sixth year the heart of Ignatius was enthralled by\nthe vanities of the world. His special delight was in the military\nlife, and he seemed led by a strong and empty desire of gaining for\nhimself a great name. The citadel of Pampeluna was held in siege by\nthe French. All the other soldiers were unanimous in wishing to\nsurrender on condition of freedom to leave, since it was impossible to\nhold out any longer; but Ignatius so persuaded the commander, that,\nagainst the views of all the other nobles, he decided to hold the\ncitadel against the enemy.\n\nWhen the day of assault came, Ignatius made his confession to one of\nthe nobles, his companion in arms. The soldier also made his to\nIgnatius. After the walls were destroyed, Ignatius stood fighting\nbravely until a cannon ball of the enemy broke one of his legs and\nseriously injured the other.\n\nWhen he fell, the citadel was surrendered. When the French took\npossession of the town, they showed great admiration for Ignatius.\nAfter twelve or fifteen days at Pampeluna, where he received the best\ncare from the physicians of the French army, he was borne on a litter\nto Loyola. His recovery was very slow, and doctors and surgeons were\nsummoned from all parts for a consultation. They decided that the leg\nshould be broken again, that the bones, which had knit badly, might be\nproperly reset; for they had not been properly set in the beginning,\nor else had been so jostled on the journey that a cure was impossible.\nHe submitted to have his flesh cut again. During the operation, as in\nall he suffered before and after, he uttered no word and gave no sign\nof suffering save that of tightly clenching his fists.\n\nIn the meantime his strength was failing. He could take no food, and\nshowed other symptoms of approaching death. On the feast of St. John\nthe doctors gave up hope of his recovery, and he was advised to make\nhis confession. Having received the sacraments on the eve of the\nfeasts of Sts. Peter and Paul, toward evening the doctors said that if\nby the middle of the night there were no change for the better, he\nwould surely die. He had great devotion to St. Peter, and it so\nhappened by the goodness of God that in the middle of the night he\nbegan to grow better.\n\nHis recovery was so rapid that in a few days he was out of danger. As\nthe bones of his leg settled and pressed upon each other, one bone\nprotruded below the knee. The result was that one leg was shorter than\nthe other, and the bone causing a lump there, made the leg seem quite\ndeformed. As he could not bear this, since he intended to live a life\nat court, he asked the doctors whether the bone could be cut away.\nThey replied that it could, but it would cause him more suffering than\nall that had preceded, as everything was healed, and they would need\nspace in order to cut it. He determined, however, to undergo this\ntorture.\n\nHis elder brother looked on with astonishment and admiration. He said\nhe could never have had the fortitude to suffer the pain which the\nsick man bore with his usual patience. When the flesh and the bone\nthat protruded were cut away, means were taken to prevent the leg from\nbecoming shorter than the other. For this purpose, in spite of sharp\nand constant pain, the leg was kept stretched for many days. Finally\nthe Lord gave him health. He came out of the danger safe and strong\nwith the exception that he could not easily stand on his leg, but was\nforced to lie in bed.\n\nAs Ignatius had a love for fiction, when he found himself out of\ndanger he asked for some romances to pass away the time. In that\nhouse there was no book of the kind. They gave him, instead, \"The Life\nof Christ,\" by Rudolph, the Carthusian, and another book called the\n\"Flowers of the Saints,\" both in Spanish. By frequent reading of these\nbooks he began to get some love for spiritual things. This reading led\nhis mind to meditate on holy things, yet sometimes it wandered to\nthoughts which he had been accustomed to dwell upon before.\n\nAmong these there was one thought which, above the others, so filled\nhis heart that he became, as it were, immersed and absorbed in it.\nUnconsciously, it engaged his attention for three and four hours at a\ntime. He pictured to himself what he should do in honor of an\nillustrious lady, how he should journey to the city where she was, in\nwhat words he would address her, and what bright and pleasant sayings\nhe would make use of, what manner of warlike exploits he should\nperform to please her. He was so carried away by this thought that he\ndid not even perceive how far beyond his power it was to do what he\nproposed, for she was a lady exceedingly illustrious and of the\nhighest nobility.\n\nIn the meantime the divine mercy was at work substituting for these\nthoughts others suggested by his recent readings. While perusing the\nlife of Our Lord and the saints, he began to reflect, saying to\nhimself: \"What if I should do what St. Francis did?\" \"What if I should\nact like St. Dominic?\" He pondered over these things in his mind, and\nkept continually proposing to himself serious and difficult things. He\nseemed to feel a certain readiness for doing them, with no other\nreason except this thought: \"St. Dominic did this; I, too, will do\nit.\" \"St. Francis did this; therefore I will do it.\" These heroic\nresolutions remained for a time, and then other vain and worldly\nthoughts followed. This succession of thoughts occupied him for a long\nwhile, those about God alternating with those about the world. But in\nthese thoughts there was this difference. When he thought of worldly\nthings it gave him great pleasure, but afterward he found himself dry\nand sad. But when he thought of journeying to Jerusalem, and of living\nonly on herbs, and practising austerities, he found pleasure not only\nwhile thinking of them, but also when he had ceased.\n\nThis difference he did not notice or value, until one day the eyes of\nhis soul were opened and he began to inquire the reason of the\ndifference. He learned by experience that one train of thought left\nhim sad, the other joyful. This was his first reasoning on spiritual\nmatters. Afterward, when he began the Spiritual Exercises, he was\nenlightened, and understood what he afterward taught his children\nabout the discernment of spirits. When gradually he recognized the\ndifferent spirits by which he was moved, one, the spirit of God, the\nother, the devil, and when he had gained no little spiritual light\nfrom the reading of pious books, he began to think more seriously of\nhis past life, and how much penance he should do to expiate his past\nsins.\n\nAmid these thoughts the holy wish to imitate saintly men came to his\nmind; his resolve was not more definite than to promise with the help\nof divine grace that what they had done he also would do. After his\nrecovery his one wish was to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He fasted\nfrequently and scourged himself to satisfy the desire of penance that\nruled in a soul filled with the spirit of God.\n\nThe vain thoughts were gradually lessened by means of these\ndesires--desires that were not a little strengthened by the following\nvision. While watching one night he plainly saw the image of the\nBlessed Mother of God with the Infant Jesus, at the sight of which,\nfor a considerable time, he received abundant consolation, and felt\nsuch contrition for his past life that he thought of nothing else.\nFrom that time until August, 1555, when this was written, he never\nfelt the least motion of concupiscence. This privilege we may suppose\nfrom this fact to have been a divine gift, although we dare not state\nit, nor say anything except confirm what has been already said. His\nbrother and all in the house recognized from what appeared externally\nhow great a change had taken place in his soul.\n\nHe continued his reading meanwhile, and kept the holy resolution he\nhad made. At home his conversation was wholly devoted to divine\nthings, and helped much to the spiritual advancement of others.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nIGNATIUS LEAVES HIS NATIVE LAND--WHAT HE DID AT MONTSERRAT AND AT\nMANRESA\n\n\nIgnatius, starting from his father's house, set out upon his journey\non horseback. About this time he began his habit of taking the\ndiscipline every night. His brother desired to accompany him as far as\nOgna, and during the journey was persuaded by the Saint to pass one\nnight of watching at the shrine of Our Blessed Lady at Aruncuz. Having\nprayed some time at the shrine for new strength for his journey,\nleaving his brother at Ogna at the house of their sister, to whom he\npaid a short visit, he journeyed on to Navarre. Remembering that an\nofficial in the Duke's palace owed him some money, he collected it by\nsending in a written account to the treasurer, and distributed it\namong persons to whom he felt indebted. A portion of the money he\ndevoted to the restoration of a picture of the Blessed Virgin. Then\ndismissing his two remaining servants, he rode forth alone from\nNavarre in the direction of Montserrat, a mountain town of Catalonia\nin the northern part of Spain.\n\nIt will not be amiss to recall an event that occurred during this\njourney, to show the manner in which God directed him. Although filled\nwith an ardent desire of serving God, yet his knowledge of spiritual\nthings was still very obscure. He had undertaken to perform\nextraordinary penances, not so much with a view to satisfy for his\nsins as with the intention of doing something pleasing to his Lord. He\ndeclared indeed that though filled with the liveliest abhorrence of\nhis past sins, he could not assure himself that they were forgiven;\nyet in his austerities so intense was his desire to do great things\nfor Christ that he did not think of his sins. When he recalled the\npenances practised by holy persons, his whole mind was bent on doing\nsomething to equal and even surpass them. In this holy ambition he\nfound his consolation, for he had no interior motive for his penances,\nknowing as yet very little about humility or charity or patience, for\nto obtain these many holy men have led austere lives. He knew still\nless the value of discretion, which regulates the practice of these\nvirtues. To do something great for the glory of his God, to emulate\nsaintly men in all that they had done before him--this was the only\nobject of Ignatius in his practices of external mortification.\n\nWhile he journeyed on, a Saracen mounted on a horse came up with him.\nIn the course of the conversation mention was made of the Blessed\nVirgin. The stranger remarked that though he admitted that the Mother\nof Christ had conceived without detriment to her virginal purity, yet\nhe could not believe that after the conception of her divine Son she\nwas still a virgin. He was so obstinate in holding this opinion, that\nno amount of reasoning on the part of Ignatius could force him to\nabandon it. Shortly afterward the Saracen rode on, leaving the pilgrim\nto his own reflections. These were not of the most peaceful nature. He\nwas sorely troubled as he thought over the conduct of his recent\nfellow-traveler, and felt that he had but poorly acquitted himself of\nhis duty of honoring the Mother of God. The longer his mind thought\nupon the matter, the more his soul was filled with indignation against\nhimself for having allowed the Saracen to speak as he had done of the\nBlessed Virgin, and for the lack of courage he fancied he had shown in\nnot at once resenting the insult. He consequently felt impelled by a\nstrong impulse to hasten after him and slay the miscreant for the\ninsulting language he had used. After much internal conflict with\nthese thoughts, he still remained in doubt, nor could he decide what\ncourse to follow. The Saracen, who had ridden on, had mentioned to him\nthat it was his intention to proceed to a town not far distant from\nthe highroad. At length, Ignatius, wearied by his inward struggle and\nnot arriving at any determination, decided to settle all his doubts in\nthe following novel way: he would give free rein to his horse, and if,\non coming to the cross-road, his horse should turn into the path that\nled to the destination of the Moor, he would pursue him and kill him;\nbut if his horse kept to the highroad he would allow the wretch to\nescape. Having done as he had decided, it happened through the\nProvidence of God that his horse kept to the highroad, though the\nplace was distant only about thirty or forty yards, and the way\nleading to it was very wide and easy.\n\nArriving at a large village situated a short distance from Montserrat,\nhe determined to procure a garment to wear on his journey to\nJerusalem. He therefore bought a piece of sackcloth, poorly woven, and\nfilled with prickly wooden fibres. Of this he made a garment that\nreached to his feet. He bought, also, a pair of shoes of coarse stuff\nthat is often used in making brooms. He never wore but one shoe, and\nthat not for the sake of the comfort to be derived from it, but\nbecause, as he was in the habit of wearing a cord tied below the knee\nby way of mortification, this leg would be very much swollen at\nnight, though he rode all day on horseback. For this reason, he felt\nhe ought to wear a shoe on that foot. He provided himself also with a\npilgrim's staff and a gourd to drink from. All these he tied to his\nsaddle.\n\nThus equipped, he continued on his way to Montserrat, pondering in his\nmind, as was his wont, on the great things he would do for the love of\nGod. And as he had formerly read the stories of Amadeus of Gaul and\nother such writers, who told how the Christian knights of the past\nwere accustomed to spend the entire night, preceding the day on which\nthey were to receive knighthood, on guard before an altar of the\nBlessed Virgin, he was filled with these chivalric fancies, and\nresolved to prepare himself for a noble knighthood by passing a night\nin vigil before an altar of Our Lady at Montserrat. He would observe\nall the formalities of this ceremony, neither sitting nor lying down,\nbut alternately standing and kneeling, and there he would lay aside\nhis worldly dignities to assume the arms of Christ.\n\nWhen he arrived at Montserrat, he passed a long time in prayer, and\nwith the consent of his confessor he made in writing a general\nconfession of his sins. Three whole days were employed in this\nundertaking. He begged and obtained leave of his confessor to give up\nhis horse, and to hang up his sword and his dagger in the church, near\nthe altar of the Blessed Virgin. This confessor was the first to whom\nhe unfolded his interior, and disclosed his resolution of devoting\nhimself to a spiritual life. Never before had he manifested his\npurpose to anybody.\n\nThe eve of the Annunciation of Our Blessed Lady in the year 1522 was\nthe time he chose to carry out the project he had formed. At\nnightfall, unobserved by any one, he approached a beggar, and taking\noff his own costly garments gave them to the beggar. He then put on\nthe pilgrim's dress he had previously bought, and hastened to the\nchurch, where he threw himself on his knees before the altar of the\nBlessed Mother of God, and there, now kneeling, now standing, with\nstaff in hand, he passed the entire night.\n\nAfter receiving the Blessed Sacrament, to avoid recognition he left\nthe town at daybreak. He did not go by the direct route that leads to\nBarcelona, as he might have met those who knew him and would honor\nhim, but he took a byway that led him to a town called Manresa. Here\nhe determined to remain a few days in the hospital and write out some\nnotes in his little book, which for his own consolation he carefully\ncarried about with him. At about a league's distance from Montserrat,\nhe was overtaken by a man who had ridden after him at a rapid pace.\nThis man accosted him and inquired if he had given certain garments to\na poor man, as the latter had declared. Ignatius answered that it was\ntrue that he had given them to a beggar. On learning that the latter\nhad been ill-treated because he was suspected of having stolen the\nclothes, the eyes of Ignatius filled with tears, in pity for the poor\nman.\n\nAlthough he had fled so anxiously from the praise of men, he did not\nremain long at Manresa before many marvellous things were narrated of\nhim. This fame arose from what had occurred at Montserrat. His\nreputation increased day by day. Men vied with each other in adding\nsome particulars about his sanctity, declaring that he had abandoned\nimmense revenues, and other wonderful things without much regard to\nreal facts.\n\nAt Manresa he lived on the alms that he daily begged. He never ate\nmeat nor partook of wine, though they were offered him. On Sundays,\nhowever, he never fasted, and if wine were offered him, he drank of it\nsparingly. In former days he had been very careful of his hair, which\nhe had worn, and, indeed, not unbecomingly, in the fashionable manner\nof the young men of his age; but now he determined to cease to care\nfor it, neither to comb it nor to cut it, and to dispense with all\ncovering for his head both day and night. To punish himself for the\ntoo great nicety which he had formerly had in the care of his hands\nand feet, he now resolved to neglect them.\n\nIt was while he was living at the hospital at Manresa that the\nfollowing strange event took place. Very frequently on a clear\nmoonlight night there appeared in the courtyard before him an\nindistinct shape which he could not see clearly enough to tell what\nit was. Yet it appeared so symmetrical and beautiful that his soul was\nfilled with pleasure and joy as he gazed at it. It had something of\nthe form of a serpent with glittering eyes, and yet they were not\neyes. He felt an indescribable joy steal over him at the sight of this\nobject. The oftener he saw it, the greater was the consolation he\nderived from it, and when the vision left him, his soul was filled\nwith sorrow and sadness.\n\nUp to this period he had remained in a constant state of tranquillity\nand consolation, without any interior knowledge of the trials that\nbeset the spiritual life. But during the time that the vision lasted,\nsometimes for days, or a little previous to that time, his soul was\nviolently agitated by a thought that brought him no little uneasiness.\nThere flashed upon his mind the idea of the difficulty that attended\nthe kind of life he had begun, and he felt as if he heard some one\nwhispering to him, \"How can you keep up for seventy years of your life\nthese practices which you have begun?\" Knowing that this thought was a\ntemptation of the evil one, he expelled it by this answer: \"Can you,\nwretched one, promise me one hour of life?\" In this manner he overcame\nthe temptation, and his soul was restored to peace. This was his first\ntrial besides what has already been narrated, and it came upon him\nsuddenly one day as he was entering the church. He was accustomed to\nhear Mass daily, and to assist at Vespers and Compline--devotions from\nwhich he derived much consolation. During Mass, he always read over\nthe history of the Passion, and his soul was filled with a joyful\nfeeling of uninterrupted calm.\n\nShortly after the temptation just spoken of, he began to experience\ngreat changes in his soul. At one time he was deprived of all\nconsolation, so that he found no pleasure in vocal prayer, in hearing\nMass, or in any spiritual exercise. At another, on the contrary, he\nsuddenly felt as if all sorrow and desolation were taken from him,\nexperiencing the relief of one from whose shoulders a heavy cloak had\nsuddenly been lifted. On noticing all this, he was surprised,\nwondering what could be the import of these changes which he had never\nbefore experienced, and he said to himself, \"What new kind of life is\nthis upon which I am entering?\"\n\nAt this time he became acquainted with some holy persons who\nmanifested great confidence in him, and gladly conversed with him; for\nthough he had, as yet, little knowledge of spiritual things, still he\nspoke with great fervor on religious subjects, and incited his\nhearers to make greater progress in the way of God's service. Among\nthose holy persons who dwelt at Manresa, there was one lady well\nadvanced in years who had long been given to the service of God, and\nwho was so well known in many places in Spain that his Catholic\nMajesty, the King of Spain, had desired her presence on one occasion\nin order to take counsel with her about certain projects that he had\nin his mind. This lady, speaking one day to our new soldier of Christ,\nsaid to him, \"Would that the Lord Jesus might appear to you some day!\"\nIgnatius, wondering at her words, understood in a literal sense, and\nasked her, \"What would He look like if He were to show Himself to me?\"\n\nHe always persevered in his custom of approaching the Sacraments of\nConfession and Holy Communion every week. But herein he found a great\nsource of anxiety on account of the scruples with which he was\nannoyed. For though he had written out his general confession at\nMontserrat, and with great diligence and care had tried to make it\ncomplete, yet he always felt that he had forgotten something in his\nconfession, and this caused him much anxiety. Even though he should\nnow confess it again, he received no consolation. He tried then to\nfind a spiritual person, who could give him relief in his trouble, but\nhe found no one. Finally, a certain doctor who had experience in\nspiritual things, and who was a preacher in the church, advised him to\nwrite down anything he remembered and feared that he had not\nconfessed. He obeyed, and even after he had confessed these sins, his\nscruples still continued to fill his soul, and he was constantly\nrecalling minor details that he had not confessed. In this way he was\ncruelly tormented. He knew well that these scruples caused no little\nharm to the spiritual life, and that it was most expedient to get rid\nof them, yet they continued to torture him. At times it occurred to\nhim that it would be well if he could have his confessor command him\nin the name of the Lord Jesus not again to confess anything of his\npast sins; and he inwardly prayed that his confessor would give him\nsome such command, but he could not bring himself to ask him to do\nso.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nSCRUPLES--HEAVENLY FAVORS--JOURNEY TO BARCELONA\n\n\nAt last his confessor, without any suggestion on the part of the\npenitent, commanded him to confess nothing of his past life, except\nwhat was very clear and evident. But as he regarded everything of the\npast as evident, the confessor's order did not help him at all. He was\nin constant anxiety. At that time he lived in the Dominican monastery,\nin a little cell which the Fathers had allotted to him. He kept up his\nusual custom of praying on bended knees for seven hours a day, and\nscourged himself three times a day and during the night. But all this\ndid not remove his scruples, which had been tormenting him for\nmonths. One day, when terribly tormented, he began to pray. During his\nprayer, he cried out to God in a loud voice: \"O Lord, help me, for I\nfind no remedy among men, nor in any creature! If I thought I could\nfind one, no labor would seem too great to me. Show me some one! O\nLord! where may I find one? I am willing to do anything to find\nrelief.\"\n\nWhile tortured by these thoughts, several times he was violently\ntempted to cast himself out of the large window of his cell. This\nwindow was quite near the place where he was praying. But since he\nknew that it would be a sin to take his own life, he began to pray, \"O\nLord, I will not do anything to offend Thee.\" He repeated these words\nfrequently with his former prayer, when there came to his mind the\nstory of a certain holy man, who, to obtain of God some favor which\nhe ardently desired, spent many days without food, until he obtained\nthe favor he asked. He determined to do the same. He resolved in his\nheart neither to eat nor drink until God should look upon him in\nmercy, or until he should find himself at the point of death; then\nonly should he eat.\n\nThis resolution was taken on a Sunday after communion, and for a whole\nweek he neither ate nor drank anything; in the meantime he practised\nhis usual penances, recited the Divine Office, prayed on bended knees\nat the appointed times, and rose at midnight. On the following Sunday,\nwhen about to make his usual confession, as he had been in the habit\nof making known to his confessor everything he had done, even the\nsmallest detail, he told him that he had not eaten anything during the\npast week. Hereupon his confessor bade him break his fast. Although\nhe felt that he still had sufficient strength to continue without\nfood, nevertheless he obeyed his confessor, and on that day and the\nnext he was free from scruples. On the third day, however, which was\nTuesday, while standing in prayer, the remembrance of his sins came\nback to him. One suggested another, until he passed in review, one\nafter another, all his past sins. He then thought he ought to repeat\nhis general confession. After these thoughts a sort of disgust seized\nhim, so that he felt an inclination to give up the life he was\nleading. While in this state, God was pleased to arouse him as it were\nfrom sleep, and to relieve him of his trouble. As he had acquired some\nexperience in the discernment of spirits, he profited by the lessons\nhe had learned of God, and began to examine how that spirit had\nentered into possession of his soul; then he resolved never again to\nspeak of his past sins in confession. From that day he was free from\nscruples, and felt certain that it was the will of our merciful Lord\nto deliver him from his trouble of soul.\n\nBesides the seven hours devoted to prayer, he spent a portion of his\ntime in assisting souls who came to him for advice. During the rest of\nthe day he gave his thoughts to God, pondering on what he had read or\nmeditated that day. When he retired, it often happened that wonderful\nilluminations and great spiritual consolations came to him, so that he\nabridged the short time he had already allotted to sleep. Once while\nthinking over this matter he concluded that he had given sufficient\ntime for conversation with God, and that moreover the whole day was\nalso given to Him. Then he began to doubt whether these illuminations\nwere from the Good Spirit. Finally he came to the conclusion that it\nwould be better to give up a portion and to give sufficient time to\nsleep. This he did.\n\nWhile he persevered in his resolution to abstain from meat, it\nhappened on a certain morning after rising, that a dish of cooked meat\nseemed to be set before him. He appeared to see it with his eyes,\nalthough he had felt no previous craving for it. At the same time he\nafterward experienced within himself a certain movement of the will,\nurging him to eat meat. Although the remembrance of his former\nresolution came to mind, he had no doubt about determining to eat\nmeat. When he made this known to his confessor, the latter advised him\nto consider whether it was a temptation or not. Pondering over it, he\nfelt certain that he was right. At that period God dealt with him as a\nteacher instructing a pupil. Was this on account of his ignorance or\ndulness, or because he had no one else to teach him? Or on account of\nthe fixed resolve he had of serving God, with which God Himself had\ninspired him, for the light given him could not possibly be greater?\nHe was firmly convinced, both then and afterward, that God had treated\nhim thus because it was the better spiritual training for him. The\nfive following points will prove what he says:--\n\nIn the first place, he had a great devotion to the Blessed Trinity.\nEvery day he prayed to each of the three Persons and to the whole\nTrinity. While thus praying to the Blessed Trinity, the thought came\nof how to offer fourfold prayers to the Divinity. This thought,\nhowever, caused him little or no trouble. Once, while reciting on the\nsteps of the monastery the little hours in honor of the Blessed\nVirgin, his vision carried him beyond the earth. He seemed to behold\nthe Blessed Trinity in the form of a lyre or harp; this vision\naffected him so much that he could not refrain from tears and sighs.\nOn the same day he accompanied the procession from the church, but\neven up to the time of dinner he could not withhold his tears, and\nafter dinner his joy and consolation were so great that he could speak\nof no subject except the Blessed Trinity. In these conversations he\nmade use of many different comparisons to illustrate his thoughts.\nSuch an impression was made on him on that occasion that during his\nafter life, whenever he prayed to the Blessed Trinity, he experienced\ngreat devotion.\n\nAt another time, to his great joy, God permitted him to understand how\nHe had created this world. This vision presented to him a white\nobject, with rays emanating from it. From this object God sent forth\nlight. However, he could not clearly explain this vision, nor could he\nrecall the illuminations given to him by God on that occasion. During\nhis stay of about a year at Manresa, after he had begun to receive\nfrom God consolations, and fruitful lights for the direction of\nothers, he gave up his former rigorous penances. At that time he\ntrimmed his nails and hair. During the time of his residence at\nManresa, while assisting at Mass, he had another vision in the church\nof the monastery. At the elevation of the body of Christ Our Lord he\nbeheld, with the eyes of his soul, white rays descending from above.\nAlthough he cannot, after so long an interval, explain the details of\nthis vision, still the manner in which Our Lord Jesus Christ is\npresent in the Blessed Sacrament was clearly and vividly stamped upon\nhis mind. Often in prayer, and even during a long space of time, did\nhe see the humanity of Christ with the eyes of the soul. The form\nunder which this vision appeared was that of a white body, neither\nlarge nor small; besides, there seemed to be no distinction of members\nin His body. This vision appeared to him often at Manresa, perhaps\ntwenty or even forty times, once at Jerusalem, and once when he was at\nPadua. He saw the Blessed Virgin under the same form, without any\ndistinction of members. These visions gave him such strength that he\noften thought within himself, that even though Scripture did not bear\nwitness to these mysteries of faith, still, from what he had seen, it\nwould be his duty to lay down his life for them.\n\nOne day he went to the Church of St. Paul, situated about a mile from\nManresa. Near the road is a stream, on the bank of which he sat, and\ngazed at the deep waters flowing by. While seated there, the eyes of\nhis soul were opened. He did not have any special vision, but his mind\nwas enlightened on many subjects, spiritual and intellectual. So clear\nwas this knowledge that from that day everything appeared to him in a\nnew light. Such was the abundance of this light in his mind that all\nthe divine helps received, and all the knowledge acquired up to his\nsixty-second year, were not equal to it.\n\nFrom that day he seemed to be quite another man, and possessed of a\nnew intellect. This illumination lasted a long time. While kneeling in\nthanksgiving for this grace, there appeared to him that object which\nhe had often seen before, but had never understood. It seemed to be\nsomething most beautiful, and, as it were, gleaming with many eyes.\nThis is how it always appeared. There was a cross near which he was\npraying, and he noticed that near the cross the vision had lost some\nof its former beautiful color. He understood from this that the\napparition was the work of the devil, and whenever the vision appeared\nto him after that, as it did several times, he dispelled it with his\nstaff.\n\nDuring a violent fever at Manresa, he thought he was near his death.\nThe thought then came to his mind that he was already justified before\nGod. Calling to mind his sins, he tried to combat the thought, but\ncould not overcome it, and this struggle to overcome the temptation\ncaused him much more suffering than the fever itself. After the fever\nhad somewhat abated, and he was out of danger, he cried out to some\nnoble ladies who had come to visit him, and asked them for the love of\nGod, to cry out aloud the next time they should find him near death,\n\"O sinner!\" and \"Remember the sins by which you have offended God.\"\n\nOn another occasion, while sailing from Valencia to Italy, in the\nmidst of a violent storm, the rudder was broken, and he and every one\non board were convinced that the ship must founder unless help came\nfrom above. Then, as he examined his conscience and prepared for\ndeath, he had no dread on account of past sins, nor fear of eternal\npunishment, but he experienced intense shame and sorrow at the thought\nof not having made a good use of the favors and graces which God had\nbestowed upon him. Again, in the year 1550, he was dangerously ill,\nand in his own judgment and that of others he was about to die. This\ntime, however, whenever he thought of death, such consolation poured\ninto his soul that he wept tears of joy. He continued in this state\nso long that he often had to divert his mind from the thought of\ndeath, lest he should find in the thought too much consolation.\n\nIn the beginning of another winter he became very ill, and was placed\nunder the care of the father of a man named Ferrera, who afterward\nentered the service of Balthasar Faria. Here he was very carefully\nattended. Several ladies of the highest rank were very devoted to him,\nand came every night to watch beside him. When he began to recover, he\nwas still extremely weak, and suffered from severe pains in the\nstomach. These two causes, together with the intense cold and the\nentreaties of his attendants, induced him to wear shoes, warmer\nclothing, and a cap. He was obliged to accept two small coats of\ncoarse grayish stuff, and a small cap of the same color. During that\nillness his constant wish was to speak of spiritual things, and to\nfind some one who could talk upon such subjects. Meanwhile the time\nwhich he had determined upon for his journey to Jerusalem was\napproaching.\n\nIn the beginning of the year 1523, therefore, he set out for\nBarcelona. Many offered to accompany him, but he refused, as he wished\nto go alone. He expected to derive great advantage from placing his\nwhole trust in God alone. Several were very earnest, and insisted that\nas he knew neither Latin nor Italian, he should not go alone, but\nshould take with him a certain companion whom they praised very much.\nIgnatius replied that even were he the son or brother of the Duke of\nCordova, he would not take him as a companion, as he wished only three\nvirtues,--Faith, Hope, and Charity. If he took a companion, when\nhungry he would look to his companion for food; if exhausted, he\nwould call on his companion for help; and so he would confide in his\ncompanion, and have some affection for him: whereas he wished to place\nall this confidence, hope, and affection in God alone. These words\nwere not a mere expression of the lips, but they were the true\nsentiments of his heart. For these reasons he wished to embark not\nonly alone, but even without any provision for the voyage. When he\narranged about his passage, the captain agreed to take him free, as he\nhad no money; but on condition that he should take with him as much\nsailors' bread as would suffice for his sustenance. Were it not for\nthis condition imposed by the captain, Ignatius would have refused to\ntake with him any provision at all.\n\nWhen he thought of procuring bread, he was much troubled with\nscruples. \"Is this your hope and faith in God, who, you were sure,\nwould not fail you?\" The force and violence of the temptation were\nsuch that he was greatly distressed. Good reasons on both sides\npresented themselves. Finally, in his perplexity, he determined to\nleave the matter to his confessor. He told him first of his great\ndesire to go to Jerusalem, and to do everything for the greater glory\nof God. Then he gave the reasons for not taking provisions for the\nvoyage. His confessor decided that he ought to beg what was necessary\nand take it with him. He went to a lady of rank to ask for what he\nneeded. When she asked where he was going, he hesitated a little about\ntelling his final destination, and replied that he was going to Italy\nand Rome. She was somewhat astonished at this, and replied: \"To Rome?\nWhy, as to those who go there--well, I do not like to say what they\nare when they return.\" She meant by this that as most of those who\nwent to Rome did not go through motives of piety and devotion, when\nthey returned they were not much better. The reason of his not openly\ndeclaring that he intended to go to the holy city of Jerusalem was his\ndread of yielding to vain glory. In fact, he was so much troubled by\nthis fear that he was afraid to make known even the place of his birth\nor the name of his family. When he had secured the bread, before going\non board he took care to leave behind him, on a bench on the wharf,\nfive or six Spanish coins, which had been given to him as alms.\n\n[Illustration: OUR LADY OF THE WAYSIDE. Favorite Picture of St.\nIgnatius.]\n\nHe was obliged to remain at Barcelona more than twenty days before the\nship was ready to sail. During that time, in accordance with his\ncustom, in order to speak with spiritual men about his soul, he sought\nthem out even though dwelling in hermitages at a long distance from\nthe city. But neither then, nor during the whole time of his stay\nat Manresa, could he find any one who could help him to advance as he\nwished. He met one woman, however, who seemed to be thoroughly\nacquainted with the spiritual life. She promised to pray to Jesus\nChrist and to ask Him to appear to Ignatius in person. In consequence\nof this promise, after leaving Barcelona, he gave up all anxiety about\nfinding souls advanced in the spiritual life.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nHIS JOURNEY TO ROME, VENICE, JERUSALEM, AND THE HOLY LAND\n\n\nAfter a voyage of five days and nights the vessel in which they set\nout from Barcelona reached Gaeta, and the pilgrim disembarked and\nstarted for Rome, although there was danger there on account of the\nplague. After reaching the city, he found the gates closed. He spent\nthe night in a damp church, and in the morning sought to enter the\ncity, but could not obtain permission. As no alms could be obtained\noutside of the city, he wished to go on to a neighboring village, but\nfor sheer weakness, the pilgrim could go no farther. On that day it\nhappened that a great procession came out of the city. On inquiry the\npilgrim learned that the Duchess was in the throng. He approached her,\ntold her that his malady was simply the effect of weakness, and asked\npermission to enter the city to get relief. She readily consented. He\nwas successful and his strength returned, and two days later he\nresumed his journey, reaching Rome on Palm Sunday.\n\nThose whom he met at Rome knew he had no money for his journey to\nJerusalem. They tried to dissuade him from his undertaking, alleging\nthat such a journey was impossible without money. He felt assured,\nhowever, that everything needed for his voyage would be at hand when\nrequired. Accordingly, on the octave of Easter, he received the\nblessing of Adrian VI and left Rome for Venice. He had in his\npossession six or seven pieces of gold which they had given him to pay\nhis passage from Venice as far as Jerusalem. He had taken this money\nwith him from Venice only because they had convinced him that without\nit he could not reach Jerusalem. On the third day from the time he set\nout from Rome, he realized that this fear had come from a want of\nconfidence, and was sorry he had accepted the money, and was\ndeliberating about giving it away. Finally, however, he determined to\nspend it on those he met, who were chiefly beggars. The result was\nthat when he came to Venice he had only four coins left, and these\nwere necessary for his lodging that night.\n\nOn this journey to Venice, on account of sentinels placed around the\ncities, he was obliged to sleep outside the walls. The dread of the\npestilence was so great that one morning on rising he saw a man\nfleeing from him in terror. Pursuing his journey, he reached Chizoa\nwith several others who had joined him on the road. There he learned\nthat he would not be allowed to enter the city. He then proceeded with\nhis companions to Padua, to get the testimony of a notary that the\nparty was not stricken with the plague. Ignatius could not, on account\nof his weakness, keep pace with the others, and was left alone in an\nopen field. Then Christ appeared to him, as He had appeared on former\noccasions. By this vision he was greatly strengthened and consoled.\nThe next morning, filled with new courage, he came to the gate of the\ncity, and although provided with no certificate, entered unquestioned\nby the guard. In the same way he left the city unquestioned. His\ncompanions were surprised at this, for they had to present a\ncertificate, which he had taken no pains to procure. At Venice they\nbegged their food, and slept in St. Mark's Square. Ignatius refused to\ngo to the house of the Ambassador, and although he made no effort to\nget money for his voyage to Jerusalem, he felt sure nevertheless that\nGod would provide him with means.\n\nOne day he met a rich Spaniard, who asked him whither he was going,\nand having learned his intention, brought him to dine at his house.\nHere he remained for several days. From the time he left Manresa,\nIgnatius, while seated at table with others, had made it a practice\nnever to speak except to give a brief answer to questions. However, he\nheard all that was said, and took occasion after dinner to give the\nconversation a spiritual turn. His host and all his family were so\nfilled with admiration for him that they tried to induce him to remain\nwith them, and introduced him to the Doge of Venice. The latter\noffered him accommodations on the government ship about to sail for\nCyprus. Many pilgrims had assembled at Venice to go to Jerusalem, but\nthe greater part hesitated through fear, as the Island of Rhodes had\nfallen into the hands of the Turks. Thirteen sailed in the pilgrims'\nship, which was the first to weigh anchor. The government ship carried\neight or nine. About the time of departure Ignatius was taken ill with\na fever, which lasted several days. On the day of sailing he took the\nprescribed medicine, and asked the doctor if he could go. The doctor\nreplied he could if he wished the vessel to be his tomb. Nevertheless\nhe went on board, and after a fit of illness soon recovered.\n\nThe licentious conduct of those on board Ignatius severely censured.\nThe Spaniards advised him not to do this, as the rest thought of\nabandoning him on an island. But the wind quickly conveyed them to\nCyprus. From Cyprus they went to another port called Salinae, ten\nleagues distant. Here he went on board the ship of the pilgrims, with\nno other provision than his hope in Providence. During all that\nvoyage, the Lord often appeared to him, and gave him great\nconsolation. The visions seemed to take the form of something large,\nround, and golden. The travelers reached Joppa, and seated on asses,\nafter the custom of that region, they journeyed to Jerusalem. A noble\nSpanish gentleman, named Didacus Minez, as the pilgrims came in sight\nof the city, recommended silence and recollection.\n\nAll followed his suggestion, and when they saw a monk approaching with\na crucifix, dismounted. On beholding the city, Ignatius was deeply\naffected, and the rest affirmed that they experienced a sort of\nheavenly joy. He always felt this same devotion whenever he visited\nthe holy places. He decided to remain in Jerusalem, in order to visit\nthe holy places often. For this purpose he had taken with him letters\nof recommendation to the Father Guardian. On presenting them, he said\nthat he intended to remain there to satisfy his own devotion, but said\nnothing of his purpose of helping others. The Father Guardian told him\nhe did not see how this could be possible, as his house was not even\ncapable of providing for his own Religious, and he intended to send\nsome away from the Holy Land. Ignatius said he wished him merely to\nhear his confession, since he had come to make it. The Father Guardian\nsaid this could be done, but he should wait for the arrival of the\nProvincial, who was then at Bethlehem. Relying on this promise,\nIgnatius began to write letters to spiritual persons at Barcelona. He\nhad written some on the day before he was to depart, when he was\nsummoned in the name of the Father Guardian and the Provincial. Then\nthe Provincial, addressing him kindly, said he had heard of his pious\ndetermination to remain in the holy places, and had given it serious\nthought. Many others had the same desire, some had died, others had\nbeen taken prisoners, and to his Order was left the work of ransoming\ncaptives, wherefore he should prepare himself to resume his journey\nwith the pilgrims on the following day. To this Ignatius answered that\nhis resolution was very fixed, and he did not think that anything\nwould keep him from executing it. If the precept did not bind him\nunder pain of sin, he would not allow any fear to keep him from\ncarrying out his desire. The Provincial said he had authority from the\nHoly See to detain those he thought fit, and to even excommunicate\nthose who would not obey when stopped by him, and he thought in this\ncase it was better for him not to remain. When he wished to show the\npontifical papers giving him power to excommunicate, Ignatius said\nthere was no need, as he believed his word. If they had the authority,\nhe would obey.\n\nAfter this, returning to where he was before, he was seized with a\ngreat longing to visit Mount Olivet again before he departed, since\nthe Divine Will would not suffer him to remain in those holy places.\nOn that mountain is a rock from which Our Lord ascended to heaven, on\nwhich even now His footprints are visible. And this is what he wished\nto see again. Therefore, without telling any one, and without a guide,\nalthough it was a dangerous thing to go without a Turkish guard,\nsecretly withdrawing he went to Mount Olivet alone. As the guards\nwould not allow him to enter, he gave them his knife. After great\nconsolation in prayer he desired to go to Bethphage. When he reached\nthat place, he thought that on Mount Olivet he had not noticed the\nposition of the right foot of Our Lord and that of the left. He came a\nsecond time, and gave his scissors to the guards to allow him to\nenter. Afterward when at the monastery it was discovered he had gone\nwithout a guide, a great search was made for him. Coming down from\nMount Olivet he met a girdled Christian, those who are bound to wear a\ngirdle to distinguish them from the Mussulmans; this man, pretending\nto be very angry, threatened him with a large stick, and approaching,\nfirmly grasped him by the arm. He allowed himself to be led, but the\ngood man once he had hold of him did not let him go. In the meantime,\nas he was thus led along a captive, he was visited with great\nconsolation, as he seemed to see Christ walking above him. And this\ncontinued until he reached the monastery.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nHIS ARRIVAL IN APULIA, VENICE, FERRARA, AND GENOA--HE IS APPREHENDED\nAS A SPY--HE IS DESPISED AS A FOOL--HIS STUDIES AT BARCELONA AND\nALCALA\n\n\nOn the following day the pilgrims took their departure, and arriving\nat Cyprus, were assigned to different vessels. In the harbor of that\nplace were three or four ships bound for Venice. Of these one belonged\nto some Turks; another was too small; but the third, the property of a\nwealthy Venetian, was very large and strong.\n\nSome of the band asked the captain of this last to take the pilgrim\naboard; but, finding that no pay was to be offered, he refused, in\nspite of the fact that many begged him and were loud in their praises\nof the pilgrim. His reply was, that if the pilgrim were indeed a holy\nman, he might cross the sea as St. James did.\n\nThe favor they asked was easily obtained of the captain of the smaller\nship.\n\nOn a certain day they set sail with a favorable wind, but toward\nevening a storm arose, which tossed the vessels about in different\ndirections. The large ship, whose captain had refused to take\nIgnatius, was driven by the tempest against the Island of Cyprus, and\ndashed to pieces. A like fate overtook the Turkish vessel. The small\nship, however, though for a long time severely tried by wind and\nwaves, finally reached the shores of Apulia in safety.\n\nAlthough the winter had set in with intense cold and a heavy fall of\nsnow, Ignatius had no garments save a pair of knee-breeches of a very\nrough texture, leaving the legs naked, a black waistcoat open and\nquite ragged about his shoulders, a light cloak made of coarse hair,\nand a pair of shoes. He arrived at Venice about the middle of January,\nhaving spent a good part of the preceding month and all of November\naboard the ship which carried him from Cyprus.\n\nAt Venice, he met a friend who had been kind to him on his way to\nJerusalem. From him he received alms and some cloth, which he wrapped\nabout his body as a protection against the intense cold.\n\nWhen Ignatius understood that God did not wish him to remain at\nJerusalem, he began to consider what he should do. The plan he\napproved and adopted was to enter upon a course of study in order to\nbe better fitted to save souls. For this purpose he determined to go\nto Barcelona, and setting out from Venice he traveled toward Genoa.\n\nWhile praying at the principal church of Ferrara, he gave five or six\ncoins to a beggar who asked an alms. To a second beggar he was equally\ngenerous. As soon as the beggars saw him so prodigal of his alms, they\nflocked around him, until he had spent all the money that he had; so\nwhen others approached to ask for assistance, he excused himself on\nthe plea that he had nothing left.\n\nWhile proceeding from Ferrara to Genoa, he met some Spanish soldiers,\nwho treated him kindly, and who were not a little surprised at his\nchoosing such a route, since by so doing he was compelled to pass\nthrough the very midst of the armies of France and Spain. They\nentreated him therefore to take a safer road, which they would point\nout to him, and to withdraw from the highway.\n\nNot following their counsel, however, he kept straight on until he\ncame to a town fortified by strong walls. Seized as a spy, the guards\ncast him into a small house not far from the gate, and, as is\ncustomary in such suspicious times, closely questioned him. On all\npoints, however, he professed the greatest ignorance. Finally they\nsearched his clothes and shoes to see if he bore any messages, and\nfinding nothing, they led him into the presence of the captain. They\ndeprived him of his cloak, leaving him only his waistcoat and\nknee-breeches.\n\nAs he was compelled to go about in this condition, he recalled to mind\nthe thought of Christ led about as a captive. Although he was forced\nto walk through the three principal streets of the town, he did so,\nnot with sadness, but feeling great joy and consolation.\n\nIn addressing others he was in the habit of saying \"_you_,\" employing\nno other word either of reverence or dignity, believing that such was\nthe simplicity as well of the Apostles as of Christ Himself.\n\nWhile being conducted through the different streets, it occurred to\nhim that it would be well to depart somewhat from his ordinary custom,\nand to show greater respect to the commander of the place. Such a\nthought was by no means the outcome of the fear of any punishment\nwhich they might inflict. He felt, however, that this was a\ntemptation; he said, \"In that case I'll neither address him as a\nperson of dignity, nor bend the knee as a mark of respect, nor even\nremove my hat in his presence.\"\n\nHaving reached the residence of the commander, he was made to wait\nsome time in the courtyard before being summoned into his presence.\nThen, without manifesting the slightest degree of civility, he so\npaused after each word he spoke as to be taken for a fool by the\ncommander, who said to his captors, \"This man is an idiot; restore\nwhat belongs to him and send him away.\"\n\nA certain Spaniard met Ignatius coming from the house of the\ncommander, led him home, just as he was, and gave him food and\nwhatever was necessary for that night.\n\nThe next morning he resumed his journey until toward evening, when,\nespied by the soldiers of a fort, he was seized and brought to the\ncommander of the French forces. The latter, among other things, asked\nwhere he came from. When Ignatius answered, \"Guipuscoa,\" the officer\nsaid, \"I also come from near that place;\" and immediately he ordered\nIgnatius to be conducted within to supper and to be treated with great\nkindness.\n\nAt Genoa, he was recognized by a Cantabrian, who had spoken with him\nelsewhere, when in the army of his Catholic Majesty. Through his\ninfluence, he was taken on a ship bound for Barcelona. He came very\nnear being taken captive by Andrea Dorea, who was at that time in the\nservice of the French, and gave chase to the vessel.\n\nAt Barcelona, he was enabled to study through the assistance of a\nnoble and very pious lady, Isabel Roser, and a teacher, named Ardebal.\nBoth highly approved his plan, Ardebal promising to give him\ninstruction free, while Isabel generously offered to provide him with\neverything necessary.\n\nAt Manresa, there was a very holy monk, of the Order of St. Bernard,\nwith whom Ignatius wished to remain, as well for his own personal\nguidance as to prepare himself to direct others. He accordingly\naccepted the offer of his two generous friends on condition that what\nhe sought could not be obtained at Manresa. Finding, however, that the\nmonk had died, he returned to Barcelona and applied himself to study.\nIn this, however, he was destined to meet with some difficulties. In\nhis studies, the principles of grammar caused new spiritual thoughts\nand tastes to arise so abundantly, as to render him incapable of\ncommitting anything to memory, and though he strove hard, he could not\ndispel these thoughts.\n\nNoticing, however, that while praying at Mass he did not experience\nsimilar thoughts, he considered this a temptation. Accordingly, after\npraying for some time, he asked his teacher to come to the Church of\nBlessed Mary of the Sea, not far from the professor's house, and there\nto listen to what he would tell him. Ignatius faithfully made known\nthe whole state of his mind, and why he had as yet learned so little.\n\"But,\" he said, \"I promise not to be wanting in attention in school\nduring these two years, provided that at Barcelona I may be able to\nfind bread and water.\"\n\nSuch an acknowledgment was of the greatest efficacy, and he never\nafter experienced that temptation. The pains of the stomach, which\nafflicted him at Manresa, ceased, and, in fact, they did not trouble\nhim from the time he set out for Jerusalem.\n\nWhile studying at Barcelona, he wished to practise his former\npenances. Accordingly, making a hole in the soles of his shoes, he\ntore them, little by little, until nothing but the upper portion was\nleft.\n\nHis two years of study being completed, in which, they say, he greatly\nadvanced, he was advised by his master to go to Alcala to study\nphilosophy, as he was deemed ready for it.\n\nBefore setting out, however, he wished to be examined by a certain\ntheologian. As he also gave him the same advice, Ignatius,\nunaccompanied, started for Alcala. Here he began to beg and live upon\nalms. After ten or twelve days, this kind of life drew upon him the\ncontempt of a priest and of some others. They began to insult him as\none who preferred to live on alms, although quite able to support\nhimself.\n\nThe superior of a new hospital, seeing him thus rudely treated, took\nhim home, placed him in a room, and liberally provided for his needs.\n\nThe time of his arrival at Barcelona was about Lent of the year 1524;\nand as he remained there upwards of two years, we do not find him at\nAlcala until the year 1526. At the latter place he spent his time in\nstudying the works of Scotus, Albertus, Alcuin, and the Master of the\nSentences. He was diligent also in giving the Spiritual Exercises and\nexplaining the Christian doctrine, by which he gave great glory to\nGod, as very many were thereby led to a knowledge and taste of\nspiritual things. Many, however, fell victims to various temptations,\nan example of which is to be seen in one who was unable to scourge\nhimself, because, as he fancied, his hand was held by some invisible\nagent. Because of such affairs, and especially by reason of the great\ncrowd of men coming to him when he explained the Christian doctrine,\nvarious rumors began to spread among the people.\n\nWhen he first came to Alcala a friendship sprang up between him and\none Didacus Guya, who lived with his brother, a painter. Through that\nfriendship, Ignatius was abundantly supplied with all that was\nnecessary; hence he would bestow upon the poor the alms that he\nhimself obtained, and besides three other pilgrims stayed with him.\n\nOne day Ignatius went to Didacus to ask for alms in order to assist\nsome poor people. He replied that he had no money. Opening, however, a\nchest which belonged to him, he took from it trappings of various\ncolors, candlesticks, and other objects, which he gave to Ignatius,\nwho distributed them to the poor.\n\nMany rumors, as was stated above, became widespread in Alcala, and\nreached the ears even of the Inquisitors who were at Toledo, and who,\nas their host testified, styled Ignatius and his associates, Legati or\nIlluminati, and threatened him with capital punishment.\n\nThe Inquisitors who had come to Alcala to investigate their actions\nleft the entire affair in the hands of the Vicar Figueroa, who was\nthen negotiating with the Emperor, and returned to Toledo without\nhaving even once summoned them. Figueroa granted them the right to\ncontinue the work in which they were engaged, and the Inquisitors,\nafter mature deliberation, discovered error neither in their doctrines\nnor in their manner of life.\n\nThey did not, however, favor their custom of dressing alike, as they\nwere not Religious. Ignatius replied that the wish of the Vicar would\nbe obeyed, but he added: \"I do not see the fruit of these\nexaminations, since but a few days ago a certain priest refused holy\ncommunion to one, on the plea that he had communicated but eight days\nbefore; and to me, indeed, he gave it very reluctantly. We would like\nto know whether or not we have been guilty of any heresy?\" \"None,\"\nreplied Figueroa, \"else you would have been led to the stake.\" \"And\nthey would likewise have led you to the stake,\" responded Ignatius,\n\"had you been convicted of heresy.\"\n\nThe dress was changed according to the wish of Figueroa, who also\ndesired that the pilgrim should not go around barefooted for at least\nfifteen or twenty days. This command was also obeyed.\n\nFour months after, Figueroa, a second time, brought the Inquisition to\nbear upon them, influenced, as I think, by the fact that a certain\nmarried woman of rank, who chanced to be singularly devoted to the\npilgrim, went in disguise at daybreak to visit Ignatius at the\nhospital where he was staying. But even on this occasion Ignatius was\nnot summoned to appear before the Inquisition; nor was any sentence\npronounced against him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE PRISONS AT ALCALA AND SALAMANCA\n\n\nAfter the space of four months, Ignatius, who did not remain at the\nhospital, was taken from his lodging by a public officer, who cast him\ninto prison, with the command not to depart until otherwise ordered.\n\nThis took place during the summer months, and as the discipline of the\nprison was not very strict, an opportunity of visiting him was\nafforded many persons, to whom he explained the principles of\nChristian faith and the Exercises, as was his wont when enjoying\nperfect freedom.\n\nMany persons of rank were anxious to help him, but he did not wish to\navail himself of their offers. One person especially, Lady Teresa de\nCardena, sent frequently, offering to deliver him from prison. He\nreplied in these words, \"He, for whose love I am imprisoned, will free\nme when it may be His good pleasure.\"\n\nHe passed seventeen days in prison,--yet was totally ignorant of the\ncause,--when Figueroa came to question him. Among other things, he\nasked whether he commanded the observance of the Sabbath.\n\nAmong those who had frequently come to see Ignatius were two persons,\na mother and daughter, the latter of whom was young and beautiful.\nThese, especially the daughter, had made great progress in the\nspiritual life, and although ladies of rank, had determined to make a\npilgrimage alone and on foot, and beg their way to the shrine of\nVeronica, in the city of Jaen.\n\nThis occasioned so great a sensation throughout the city of Alcala\nthat Dr. Giruellus, who was the guardian of the two women, thinking\nthat Ignatius was the cause of their action, ordered him to be cast\ninto prison.\n\nAs the Vicar was willing to be fully informed, Ignatius said: \"These\nwomen made known to me their desire of going about from place to place\nto assist the poor they found in the different hospitals. I, however,\ndisapproved of their design, on account of the daughter, who was quite\nyoung and beautiful, representing to them at the same time that if\nthey felt strongly urged to assist the poor, Alcala presented a broad\nenough field for their labors, and they could satisfy their devotion\nby accompanying the Blessed Sacrament as it was being carried to the\nsick.\" When Ignatius had finished his account, Figueroa and the notary\ndeparted, after writing down what had taken place.\n\nCalisto, a companion of Ignatius, and who on recovering from a severe\nillness had heard of the imprisonment of Ignatius, hastened from\nSegovia, where he was staying, and came to Alcala, that he, too, might\nbe cast into prison.\n\nIgnatius advised him to go to the Vicar, who received him kindly, and\npromised to send him to prison. It was necessary, he said, for him to\nbe detained until the return of the women. It could then be seen\nwhether or not their account agreed with what he and Ignatius had\nstated.\n\nAs the confinement was undermining Calisto's health, Ignatius, through\nthe intervention of a professor who was a friend of his, obtained his\nliberation.\n\nWhen Ignatius had been in prison forty-two days, the women returned.\nHe was once more visited by the notary, who made known to him the\ncondition on which he was to regain his freedom. It was this: He and\nhis companions should wear the same style of clothing as the other\nstudents, and refrain from preaching the truths of faith until they\nhad finished four more years of study. Ignatius, indeed, had made more\nprogress in his studies than the rest, yet he confessed that he had\nnot been solidly grounded. And this he was always wont to say whenever\nhe was questioned.\n\nWhen Ignatius heard the judgment passed upon himself and his\ncompanions, he was at a loss what to do, for he saw very little chance\nof advancing the salvation of souls, hindered as he was for no other\nreason than that of not having completed a full course of study.\n\nHe finally resolved to trust the entire affair to the good sense and\njudgment of Fonseca, Archbishop of Toledo, whom, after leaving Alcala,\nhe found at Valladolid.\n\nTo the Archbishop, then, he made known everything with the utmost\nfidelity, and said that, although it was not a matter pertaining\neither to his court or judgment, he determined to act as the\nArchbishop should advise.\n\nThe Archbishop received him cordially, approving his intention of\ngoing to Salamanca, and assuring him that he would find friends there.\nSupplying him with everything necessary for his journey, he dismissed\nhim.\n\nWhen sentence had been pronounced against them at Alcala, Ignatius\npromised obedience, but at the same time observed that they were too\npoor to provide themselves with new clothing. Hearing this, the Vicar\nhimself supplied what they needed, and they set out for Alcala.\n\nFour of his companions had already taken up their abode at Salamanca.\nWhen he reached the city Ignatius went to church to pray, and was\nrecognized by a pious lady, who, asking his name, conducted him to his\ncompanions. About ten or twelve days after their arrival at Salamanca,\na Dominican monk, to whom Ignatius had made his confession, pressed\nhim to visit the convent, as some of the Religious wished to see him.\n\nIgnatius accepting the invitation \"in the name of the Lord,\" his\nconfessor thought it well for him to come to dine the Sunday\nfollowing, at the same time adding that many questions would be put to\nhim. On Sunday, therefore, as was appointed, the pilgrim came in\ncompany with Calisto.\n\nWhen dinner was over, the Superior, together with the confessor and\nothers, conducted Ignatius to a chapel, and after expressing his\npleasure at the good account received of him and his apostolic zeal,\nmanifested a desire of hearing a more full and exact account of his\nteaching.\n\nHe was first questioned in reference to his studies. Ignatius answered\nthat he had spent more time in studying than his companions, yet he\nconfessed that his knowledge was not very extensive, as he had never\nlaid a solid foundation.\n\n\"Why, then, do you preach?\" broke in the monk. \"We do not preach,\"\nreplied Ignatius; \"we are wont to talk familiarly about divine things\nwith some, in much the same as after dinner we converse with our\nhost.\"\n\n\"About what divine things?\" continued the monk; \"this is the very\npoint upon which we wish information.\"\n\n\"About different virtues and vices,\" rejoined Ignatius, \"endeavoring\nto inculcate a love of virtue and a detestation of vice.\"\n\n\"How comes it,\" said the monk, \"that you who are not learned should\npresume to converse upon virtue and vice? No one is wont to engage in\nsuch a task unless he has acquired knowledge or has been taught by the\nHoly Ghost. You confess ignorance of letters; it follows then that He\nhas been your director. We wish to learn, therefore, what He has been\npleased to make known to you.\"\n\nIgnatius at first made no reply, as he felt such reasoning was without\nvalue. Soon, however, breaking the silence, he remarked that there\nseemed no reason why he should say more upon the subject. As the monk\nstill pressed him, giving as a reason the fact that many were once\nmore thrusting forward the erroneous doctrine of Erasmus and others,\nIgnatius answered, \"I will add no more to what has already been said,\nunless questioned by those who have a right to expect an account from\nme.\"\n\nPrevious to the present proceedings the monk wished to know why\nCalisto was so strangely clothed, for, although of tall stature, he\nwent about almost barelegged, holding a staff in his hand, and wearing\na cloak much too short, and a hat of enormous size. The whole costume\nformed a rather ludicrous picture.\n\nIgnatius replied that although at Alcala they were ordered to dress as\nthe other students, Calisto had charitably given his clothes to a poor\npriest.\n\nThe monk showed himself displeased at this, remarking, \"Charity begins\nat home.\"\n\nBut to return to our former narrative. When the monk saw Ignatius\nfixed in his resolution, \"You shall remain here,\" he said, \"and we\nshall easily find a way of compelling you to make everything known.\"\nImmediately all the monks withdrew, the subprior signifying his wish\nthat Ignatius should remain in the chapel. The matter was then laid\nbefore the judges. Both Ignatius and Calisto remained three days in\nthe monastery, taking their meals with the community, before any\ndecision of the judges was made known to them. During this time the\nReligious frequently visited their cells, and Ignatius never failed to\nspeak with them in his accustomed manner. This caused the monks to be\ndivided in their opinion of him, and many, indeed, showed themselves\nvery kindly disposed.\n\nOn the third day a notary came to conduct them to prison. They were\nnot put with the common criminals, but their place of confinement was\nnevertheless very repulsive. In the centre of the cell there was a\npillar to which was attached a chain but a few feet in length, and so\nriveted to the prisoners that when either moved the other was obliged\nto follow him. They passed that night without any sleep. On the\nfollowing day, however, the report spread that they were prisoners.\nThe people then hastened to supply them with all they needed.\n\nIgnatius, as may readily be supposed, lost no opportunity of speaking\nupon spiritual things with those who came to see them.\n\nThey were each separately examined by a friar, to whom Ignatius\ndelivered all his writings. Among these were his Spiritual Exercises,\nthat it might be seen whether or not they contained any false\ndoctrine. When asked about his other companions, he told who and where\nthey were. They were arrested also, and confined in separate\napartments from that in which Ignatius was placed.\n\nAlthough help was offered on this occasion, he declined to accept it.\n\nAfter a few days he was called into the presence of the judges and\nprofessors, who made him answer many questions, not only on his\nSpiritual Exercises, but even on articles of faith, as, for example,\nthe Trinity and the Blessed Sacrament, requiring him to explain these\nmysteries.\n\nSo clear and exact was his explanation that his examiners could not\nfind the least flaw in his doctrine. He was equally correct in the\nanswer to the friar who proposed a difficulty in Canon Law.\n\nIn every case he said that he did not know the decision of the\nprofessors.\n\nWhen ordered to speak on the first commandment, he gave so full and\nexhaustive an explanation as to leave to his hearers no further chance\nof questioning him.\n\nAlthough he had not completed his studies, he frequently showed the\ndifference between a mortal and a venial sin of thought. While\nspeaking about his Exercises, he was closely questioned. To their\nquestions, however, he replied, \"What I say is either false or true;\nif false, condemn it.\" The doctrine remained uncondemned.\n\nFrancis de Mendoza, afterward Cardinal of Valencia, was one of those\nwho came to the prison to visit Ignatius. One day, while accompanied\nwith the friar, he asked him whether the prison and chains were not\ninsupportable. \"I shall give,\" said Ignatius, \"the reply made to-day\nto a woman who bewailed my lot. For the love of Jesus Christ, I gladly\nwould wear all the handcuffs and chains that could be found in\nSalamanca. And if you consider this an evil, you show that as yet you\nare not desirous of suffering imprisonment for the love of Our Lord.\"\n\nAbout this time it happened that all the inmates of the prison\nmanaged to escape, leaving only Ignatius and his companions. When this\nbecame known it caused a reaction in their favor, and they were placed\nfor the time in a large building adjoining the prison.\n\nOn the twenty-second day of their imprisonment they were summoned to\nhear their sentence.\n\nAlthough they were declared to be free from reproach both in their\nlives and their doctrines, and were allowed to continue their work of\nteaching the Christian doctrine and of speaking on spiritual subjects,\nyet they were forbidden to draw any distinction between mortal and\nvenial sin, until they should have spent four more years in study.\n\nAlthough Ignatius was unwilling to accept the sentence, because,\nthough condemned in no respect, he was nevertheless prevented from\nassisting his neighbor, he declared that he would submit as long as\nhe remained in Salamanca.\n\nRecommending the affair to God, Ignatius began to deliberate on his\nfuture plan of action. He considered it a waste of time to remain at\nSalamanca, as the restriction laid upon him prevented him from\nassisting those for whose salvation he wished to labor.\n\nHe resolved, accordingly, to set out for Paris for the purpose of\nthere continuing his studies.\n\nWhile studying at Barcelona, Ignatius was in doubt whether, after\ncompleting his studies, he should enter some Religious Order, or go\nfrom place to place, according to his custom.\n\nHe decided to enter upon the religious life. His next step was to find\nsome Order where the primitive fervor had not relaxed, as he felt that\nthere he would be more sure of satisfying his desire of suffering and\nassisting others spiritually by bearing, for the love of God, any\ninjury or insult to which he might be subjected.\n\nEven while at Salamanca these desires were ever present to him. To\nthis end he directed all his studies, endeavoring at the same time to\npersuade others to adopt a like course, and to strengthen in their\ngood resolutions those who had already embraced it.\n\nWhen he had resolved to go to Paris, he communicated his design to his\ncompanions, telling them to remain where they were, until he could\nfind a means of helping them in their studies.\n\nMany persons of rank endeavored to dissuade him from departing, but\nall to no purpose.\n\nPlacing the few books he possessed upon a little ass, he took leave of\nhis companions about fifteen or twenty days after they came out of\nprison.\n\nThose who met him at Barcelona sought to deter him from going to\nFrance, as at that time the war between the two countries was raging\nwith great fierceness. Notwithstanding the many acts of cruelty\ninflicted by the French upon the Spaniards, many of whom had been\nimpaled, he persevered in his intention.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nHIS STUDIES IN PARIS, AND OTHER INCIDENTS OF HIS LIFE\n\n\nHe left for Paris on foot and alone, and, according to his own\nreckoning, arrived there toward the beginning of February, 1528. While\nin prison, the Prince of Spain was born, and from this event we can\ndetermine the date of what preceded and followed. At Paris he lived\nwith some Spaniards, and attended the lectures given at the College of\nMontaigu. As he had been advanced too rapidly to the higher studies,\nhe returned to those of a lower grade, because he felt that in great\npart he lacked the proper groundwork. He therefore studied in a class\nwith children. When he first came to Paris, he received from a\nmerchant twenty-five gold crowns on an order sent from Barcelona.\nThese he put for safekeeping in the hands of one of the Spaniards with\nwhom he lived. This latter very soon appropriated them for his own\nuse, and when called upon, could not restore them. The result was that\nwhen Lent was over Ignatius found himself unprovided for, partly on\naccount of the loss mentioned, and partly on account of other\nexpenses. In consequence, he was forced to seek his livelihood by\nbegging, and to leave the house where he lived.\n\nAfterward he was received into the Hospital of St. James, near the\nChurch of the Holy Innocents. This residence proved no slight\nhindrance to his studies. The hospital was at a great distance from\nthe college, and while he could not gain admission at night unless he\nreturned before the sound of the Angelus, in the morning he was not\nallowed to depart before daylight. He could not, in consequence, be\npresent at, nor give his time to, the lectures with profit. He found\nanother hindrance, also, in loss of the time needed in getting alms\nwherewith to purchase food.\n\nAs he had not experienced interior spiritual suffering for almost five\nyears, he mortified himself by austere fasts and penances. After he\nhad spent some time in this way, living in the hospital and begging\nhis food, he noticed that his progress in letters was not rapid. He\nthen considered what course to follow. He had observed that many who\nlived as servants of the lecturers in the colleges had abundant time\nfor study. He resolved to seek some one whom he might serve in the\nsame way. He weighed the matter well, and not without consolation\nthought of it as follows: \"I shall imagine that my master is Christ,\nand I shall call one of the students Peter, another John, and to the\nrest I shall give the names of the remaining Apostles. Then, when my\nmaster gives me a command, I shall think, that Christ commands me.\nWhen any one else gives orders, I shall think that the order comes\nfrom St. Peter or some other Apostle.\" He was very diligent in seeking\na master, and spoke of the matter to a bachelor and to a Carthusian\nmonk, who knew many masters, and to others, but he was never able to\nfind one.\n\nDeprived of every resource, he was told by a Spanish monk that it\nwould be a wise step for him to go every year to Flanders, and there\nin two months he could procure enough for the whole year. He approved\nof the plan, after recommending the matter to God. On adopting this\nplan, he brought back yearly from Flanders whatever he needed for his\nmaintenance. Once even he passed over into England, and from there\nbrought greater alms than he had gathered in the previous years.\n\nWhen he first returned from Flanders he began to devote himself\nearnestly to spiritual work. About the same time he gave the Exercises\nto three persons,--to Peralta, to Castro, a friend who dwelt at\nSorbonne, and to a Cantabrian who lived in the College of St. Barbara,\nby name Amator. A great change was made in the lives of these men. At\nonce they gave to the poor whatever they had, even their books, while\nthey themselves began to live on the alms they begged, and to dwell in\nthe Hospital of St. James, where Ignatius had previously dwelt, and\nwhich he left as stated above. This incident aroused a great outcry in\nthe University of Paris, because the two first were very famous men.\nThe other Spaniards at once undertook to oppose them, but unable to\npersuade them by any argument to return to the university, a great\ncrowd went armed to the hospital and led, or rather dragged, them\naway.\n\nOn coming to the university they agreed with their captors to complete\ntheir course of studies, and afterward to follow out their\ndetermination. Castro went afterward to Spain, and after preaching for\na while at Burgos, joined the Order of the Carthusians at Valencia.\nPeralta undertook a journey to Jerusalem on foot and after the fashion\nof a pilgrim. In this garb he was seized in Italy by a military\nleader, his relative, who found a pretext for bringing him before the\nSovereign Pontiff, from whom he obtained a command for Peralta to\nreturn to Spain. All these events did not occur then, but years\nafterward. Exaggerated reports arose against Ignatius at Paris,\nespecially among the Spaniards. De Govea was wont to say that Amator,\nwho remained in his college, had been brought by Ignatius to the verge\nof insanity. He therefore made up his mind that as soon as Ignatius\ncame to the College of St. Barbara, he would give him a public\nwhipping as a seducer of the pupils.\n\nNow the Spaniard who had spent the money of Ignatius and had not paid\nhim, had set out to journey to Spain and fallen sick. As soon as\nIgnatius learned of this, he was seized with a longing to visit and\nhelp him, hoping by this to lead him to abandon the world and give\nhimself wholly to God. And indeed to accomplish this he wished to make\nthe journey barefooted, without food or drink. While praying for this\npurpose, he felt himself seized with great fear until, entering the\nChurch of St. Dominic, he resolved to make the journey in this manner.\nThe fear that it might be tempting God then left him; on the morning\nof the following day, upon arising, so great a fear seized him that it\nseemed to him that he could not even put on his clothes. In this\ninterior strife he left the house and went out of the city, and the\nfear did not leave him till he was nine miles from Paris. At this\ndistance there is a village which the inhabitants call Argenteuil,\nwhere the Holy Coat of Our Lord is said to be preserved. As he left\nthis place in great trouble of spirit, a feeling of great consolation\nand strength filled his soul with such joy that he began to shout\naloud and to talk with God as he walked through the fields. That\nnight, having completed forty-five miles, he went to rest with a\nbeggar in a hospital. On the next day toward nightfall he lodged in a\nstraw-thatched cabin. On the third day he arrived on foot. According\nto his resolve, he took neither food nor drink. Upon his arrival he\nconsoled the sick man, helped him on board a vessel which was about to\nsail for Spain, and gave him letters to his companions, Calisto,\nCaceres, and Artiaga, who were in Salamanca. Here we may dwell for a\nmoment on the fate of these companions. While Ignatius was at Paris he\noften sent them letters, telling them of the little hope left of\ncalling them to Paris for their studies. Still he urged by letter\nDonna Leonora de Mascarenas to use her influence with the King of\nPortugal for Calisto, that he might receive one of the burses which\nthe King had established. A certain yearly aid is called a burse.\nDonna Leonora gave Calisto a mule and money to take him to the court\nof the King of Portugal. He set out, but never reached that place. He\ncame back afterward to Spain and went to India. He returned rich, to\nthe great surprise of all at Salamanca, who had known him in former\ndays. Caceres, after returning to Segovia, his native city, began to\ngrow unmindful of his former purpose and life. Artiaga was first made\na magistrate. Afterward, when the Society was established at Rome, a\nbishopric was given to him. He wrote to Ignatius, \"I wish this\nbishopric to be given to one of the Society.\" But as soon as the\nanswer came that this was not to be done, he went to India, was made\nbishop, and died there a strange death. While sick it chanced that two\nphials of liquid were placed in water to cool, one containing a\nmedicine ordered for him by the doctor, the other a diluted poison\ncalled Sollimanus. His attendant gave him by mistake the poisoned\ndraught, which he drank, and thus ended his life.\n\nReturning to Paris Ignatius heard many rumors connecting his name with\nthat of Caceres and Peralta, and learned that he had been summoned\nbefore the judge. As he did not wish to remain in doubt, he went of\nhis own accord to the Inquisitor, a Dominican friar. \"I heard that I\nhad been sought for, and I now present myself.\" During the\nconversation he asked the Inquisitor to terminate the matter speedily.\nHe had determined to begin his course in arts on the approaching feast\nof St. Remigius, and therefore wished all other business completed in\norder to apply himself to his studies with greater profit. The\nInquisitor on his part told him that it was true that certain charges\nhad been made against him, but he allowed him to depart, and did not\nsummon him again.\n\nToward the first of October, the feast of St. Remigius, he began his\ncourse under the preceptor Master John Pegna, with the intention of\nfostering the vocations of those who wished to serve God. He intended\nto add others in order the more freely to give his mind to his\nstudies. He followed the lectures in philosophy, and experienced the\nsame temptations with which he had been assailed when studying grammar\nat Barcelona. During the lectures he was troubled by so many spiritual\nthoughts that he could not listen attentively. Accordingly, as he saw\nhe was making but little progress in his studies, he spoke to his\npreceptor and promised to attend the lectures, as long as he could\nfind bread and water enough to keep him alive. After making this\npromise, all these untimely devotions ceased to disturb him, and he\nquietly pursued his studies. He was at this period a friend of Peter\nFaber and Francis Xavier, whom he afterward led to the service of God\nby giving them the Exercises. During the last years he was not\npersecuted as at first. Speaking of this to him one day, Doctor\nFragus remarked that he was surprised that no one molested him.\nIgnatius replied: \"This is owing to the fact that I do not speak on\nreligious topics. But when the course is completed, we shall act as\nformerly.\"\n\nDuring the course of this conversation a monk approached Doctor Fragus\nand begged his aid in visiting a house, in which there were many\ncorpses of those whom he thought died of the plague. At that time the\nplague was beginning to spread in Paris. Doctor Fragus and Ignatius\nwished to visit the house, and procured the aid of a woman who was\nvery skilful in detecting the disease. After she had entered the house\nshe answered that the plague was certainly there. Ignatius, also,\nentered and consoled and revived a sick man he found lying there. When\nhe had touched the wounds with his hand, Ignatius departed alone. His\nhand began to cause him great pain, and it seemed as if he had caught\nthe disease. The fear that came upon him was so great that he was\nunable to vanquish and drive it away, until with a great effort he\nplaced his fingers in his mouth, and for a long time kept them there,\nsaying, \"If you have the plague in your hand, you will also have it in\nyour mouth.\" As soon as this was done, the illusion left him and the\npain he had felt in his hand ceased.\n\nHe was not allowed to enter the College of St. Barbara where he was\nthen living, for all fled from him when they learned that he had\nentered a house infected with the plague. He was obliged to remain\nseveral days outside of the college.\n\nAt Paris it is customary for those who follow the philosophical\nstudies to receive in their third year the Petra, as it is called, in\norder to obtain the bachelor's degree. Now those who are very poor\nare unable to comply with this custom, as it costs a gold crown. While\nIgnatius was in great hesitation, he submitted the matter to the\njudgment of his preceptor. The latter advised him to receive it. He\ndid so, but not without a complaint on the part of some, especially of\na certain Spaniard who had taken note of the fact.\n\nWhile in Paris he suffered great pains of the stomach for several\ndays. On the twenty-fifth day, for the space of an hour, a very severe\npain seized him, bringing with it a fever. One day the pains lasted\nfor sixteen or seventeen hours. At that time he had already concluded\nhis course, had spent some years in the study of theology, and had\ncollected his companions.\n\nAs the disease grew worse day by day, and the many remedies employed\nbrought no relief, the doctors said that the only one left for him was\nto revisit his native land, as nothing but his native air could cure\nhim. His companions gave him the same advice. By this time all had\ndetermined on their future conduct, namely, to go first to Venice, and\nthen to Jerusalem, where they would pass their whole life in helping\nsouls. If, however, they should not be allowed to remain in Jerusalem,\nthey were to return to Rome and offer themselves to the Sovereign\nPontiff, Christ's Vicar, that he might use their aid as he thought\nwould be for God's glory and the salvation of souls. They also agreed\nto wait one year at Venice for ships to carry them to the Holy Land;\nbut if during the year no ship were at hand, they should be absolved\nfrom the vow, and go to the Sovereign Pontiff. Finally Ignatius\nyielded to the advice of his companions, in order to attend to their\nbusiness in Spain. It was agreed among them, that after the recovery\nof his health he should settle their affairs and they should go to\nVenice, and there await him.\n\nHe left Paris in the year 1535, but according to the agreement his\ncompanions were to leave two years afterward on the feast of the\nconversion of St. Paul. However, owing to the wars, they were obliged\nto anticipate that time, and to set out from Paris in the month of\nNovember in the year 1536. On the very eve of his departure, as\nIgnatius had heard that an accusation had been made against him before\nthe Inquisitor, while no summons had as yet been served, he went to\nthat official and stated what he had heard. At the same time he told\nhim that he had several companions, and that he himself was about to\ntravel to Spain, and requested that sentence should be passed upon\nhim. The Inquisitor admitted that the accusation had been made, but\nthat he did not think it worthy of consideration. He said that he\nwished merely to see the writings of Ignatius, meaning the Exercises.\nHaving seen these he approved of them very highly, and begged Ignatius\nto give him a copy. Ignatius complied with his request, but insisted\nthat his trial be brought to an end, and that judgment be passed. As\nhis request met with a refusal, he brought a notary and witnesses to\nthe Inquisitor's house, and received their testimony in writing\nconcerning his innocence of the charges.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nHIS ARRIVAL IN HIS NATIVE LAND AND THE VIRTUES PRACTISED THERE--HIS\nJOURNEY INTO SPAIN AND ITALY--THE FAMOUS APPARITION AND HIS LIFE IN\nTHE SAME PLACE\n\n\nAfter the event related in the last chapter, Ignatius mounted the\nlittle horse which his companions had purchased for him, and began his\njourney toward his native land. Even on the way he found his health\nimproving. As soon as he arrived in the province of Guipuscoa, his\nnative country, abandoning the common highway he followed a road\nthrough the mountains because it was less frequented. He had advanced\na short distance by this path when he saw two armed men approaching.\nThe place was famous as the haunt of murderers. The men passed him a\nlittle and then turning, hurried after him. He was not a little\nfrightened, but still, addressing them, he learned that they were his\nbrother's servants sent to meet him. For he had reason to believe that\na warning of his coming was sent to his brother from Bayonne in\nFrance, where he had been recognized by several persons. Still\nIgnatius kept on in the direction he had taken, and shortly before he\narrived in the town he met some priests coming to meet him. They\nwished to bring him to his brother's home; but their efforts were\nunavailing. He went to a public hospital, and afterward, at a suitable\ntime, begged for alms through the town.\n\nMany came to see him in the hospital. He spoke to them, and through\nGod's grace gathered no little fruit. Upon his arrival, he resolved to\nteach the Christian doctrine to children every day. His brother\nobjected to this, and assured him that no one would come. In answer\nIgnatius said, \"One is enough for me.\" However, as soon as he began to\nteach, many came regularly, his brother among the number. In addition\nto this, on Sundays and feast days, he also preached to the people\nwith great fruit, and thousands came many miles to hear him. He\nlabored also for the removal of many abuses, and through God's grace\ngood results were obtained in many cases. To give an example: By his\nrepresentations to the governor he obtained an order forbidding\ngambling and other disorders, under great penalties. He took means\nthat the poor should be provided for publicly and regularly, and that\nthrice a day, morning, noon, and evening, according to the Roman\ncustom, a signal should be given by ringing a bell for the recital of\nthe Angelus by the people.\n\nAlthough at first he enjoyed good health, he afterward fell seriously\nill. For this reason, after his recovery, he determined to depart in\norder to accomplish the business which he had undertaken for his\ncompanions. He resolved to set out on foot and without money. His\nbrother was grieved at this, and looked on it as a disgrace to\nhimself. Ignatius concluded to yield this point, and at last, toward\nevening, he consented to be carried to the boundary of the province in\ncompany with his brother and relatives.\n\nBut as soon as he had left the province, he dismounted and without\nreceiving any sustenance for the journey he set out for Pampeluna and\nthence to Almazonus, the birthplace of Father Laynez. Then he traveled\non to Siguensa and to Toledo, and afterward from Toledo to Valencia.\nIn all these cities, the birthplaces of his companions, he would\nreceive nothing from their parents and relations, although they\noffered him a great many things, and begged him to accept them. At\nValencia he had a conversation with Castro. When ready to embark at\nValencia to sail to Genoa, several of his well-wishers dissuaded him,\nbecause, as they asserted, the Barbary pirates were on the sea with\nmany large ships. However, though they said a great deal to inspire\nfear, still he did not hesitate. Having gone aboard a vessel, a great\nstorm arose during the voyage. This was mentioned before, where\nIgnatius describes the three occasions on which he was in danger of\ndeath. On this journey he suffered a great deal, as I shall now\nrelate. One day after landing he wandered from his path and followed a\nroad which ran along the bank of a river. The road was high, while far\nbelow was the river deep and sluggish. The farther he advanced, the\nnarrower grew the road. At last he came to a spot where he could\nneither go forward nor backward. He then began to advance on hands and\nfeet and continued thus for a long time, full of fear. For as often as\nhe moved it seemed to him that he would fall into the river. This was\nthe greatest of all the bodily labors that he ever experienced. At\nlast he escaped, but just as he was entering Bologna he fell from a\nlittle bridge and was so wet and dirty from the mud and water as to\nafford much laughter to a great crowd who observed the accident. From\nhis entrance into Bologna until his departure he begged for alms, and\nthough he went through the whole city, he did not receive so much as a\nfarthing. As he was ill, he rested for a while at Bologna. Thence he\ndirected his steps toward Venice, traveling always in the same way. At\nVenice he spent his time in giving the Exercises and in other\nspiritual works. Those to whom he gave the Exercises were Peter\nContarenus, Gaspar a Doctis, Rozes a Spaniard, and another Spaniard\nnamed Hozes, who, like the pilgrim, was a great friend of the bishop.\nHozes at first would not make the Exercises, although he felt drawn to\ndo so. At last he resolved to undertake the work, and on the third or\nfourth day he opened his mind to Ignatius. He said that he had feared\nthat by the Exercises his mind might be imbued with false doctrines.\nIndeed, he had been persuaded by a man to be on his guard, and for\nthis reason he had brought along with him a book to use in case he\nwere imposed on. He made great progress in the Exercises, and finally\nembraced that manner of life which Ignatius had established. He was\nthe first of the companions of the Saint to die.\n\nAt Venice another persecution was stirred up against Ignatius. Some\nasserted that he had been burned in effigy both in Spain and in Paris.\nThe matter went so far that he was brought to trial, but obtained a\nfavorable sentence. At the beginning of the year 1538 the nine\ncompanions came to Venice and were scattered about the city in various\nhospitals to minister to the sick. After two or three months all\njourneyed to Rome to receive the Pope's blessing before going to\nJerusalem. Ignatius, however, did not go to Rome on account of Doctor\nOrtiz and the Theatine Cardinal recently raised to that dignity. The\ncompanions on their return brought the value of two or three hundred\ngold crowns which had been given to them as alms for their projected\njourney to Jerusalem. They would accept it only in the form of bills,\nand when they were unable to make the voyage to Jerusalem they\nreturned it to those who had made the gift. They returned to Venice\nin the same manner that they had set out for Rome. They traveled on\nfoot and begging, divided into three parties, as they were of\ndifferent nationalities. Those who were not priests were ordained at\nVenice, having received faculties from the Nuncio, who was then in\nthat city and who was afterward called Cardinal Verallus. They were\npromoted to the priesthood _sub titulo paupertatis_, having made vows\nof poverty and chastity. That year no ships left for the East, on\naccount of the breach of the treaty between the Venetians and Turks.\nWhen, therefore, they saw their hopes deferred, they dispersed into\nvarious parts of the Venetian territory, with the understanding that\nthey should wait one year, as they had previously resolved; when that\ntime had elapsed, they were to return to Rome if it was not possible\nto make the voyage. Vicenza fell to the lot of Ignatius. His\ncompanions were Faber and Laynez. Outside of the city they found a\nhouse that had neither door nor windows. Here they lived, sleeping on\na little straw which they had brought with them. Two of the three\nentered the city twice daily, in the morning and evening, to ask for\nalms. They returned with so little that it hardly sufficed for their\nnourishment. Their usual food was bread, when they could get it. The\none who chanced to remain at home did the baking. In this way they\nspent forty days, intent upon nothing but prayer.\n\nAfter the forty days were over, Master John Codurus arrived, and the\nfour determined to begin preaching. On the same day and at the same\nhour, in different squares, all began to preach, having first uttered\na great cry, and having waved their hats with their hands to call the\npeople. These sermons caused great talk in the city, and led many\ncitizens to a devout life. Now the needed nourishment was supplied to\nthem more abundantly. While the pilgrim was at Vicenza, he had many\nspiritual visions. Consolations were sent to him in great number. This\nwas especially so at Venice, while he was preparing for the priesthood\nand for celebrating Mass. On all his journeys, he received great\nsupernatural visitations, like those which he had been wont to receive\nat Manresa.\n\nWhile still at Venice he learned that one of his companions was sick\nunto death at Bassanum. He was himself ill with fever, still he\nundertook the journey, and walked so rapidly that Faber, his\ncompanion, was unable to keep up with him. On the way he received an\nassurance from God that his companion would not die of this illness.\nAs soon as they arrived at Bassanum, the sick man was very much\nconsoled, and not long after grew better. After this, all returned to\nVicenza, and there the ten tarried for a while, some going about the\nneighboring towns to beg for alms.\n\nIn the year that passed, as no means could be had of journeying to\nJerusalem, they set out on their way to Rome, divided into three or\nfour parties. On the journey Ignatius experienced singular visitations\nfrom God. After his reception of the priesthood, he had resolved to\nput off the offering of his first Mass for one year, in order to\nprepare himself better, and to ask the Most Blessed Virgin to place\nhim near her Son. One day, when he was a few miles from Rome, he\nentered a church to pray, and there felt his soul so moved and\nchanged, and saw so clearly that God the Father placed him with Christ\nHis Son, that he did not dare to doubt it. When Ignatius was told\nthat several other details were related by Laynez, he replied:\n\"Whatever Laynez said about the matter is true. For my part, I do not\nremember the particulars; but,\" he added, \"I know for certain that\nwhen I related what happened I told nothing but the truth.\" These were\nhis words about the vision. He referred me to Laynez to verify what he\nnarrated.\n\nOnce Ignatius left Rome for Monte Cassino, to give the Exercises to\nDoctor Ortiz, and spent forty days there. One day, at a certain hour,\nin a vision, he saw Hozes entering heaven. In this vision he shed\nabundant tears of consolation. He saw this so clearly that if he were\nto say the contrary, it would seem to him as if he were telling a lie.\nHe brought with him from Monte Cassino Francis Strada. After his\nreturn to Rome, he labored for the help of souls, and gave the\nExercises to two different persons, one of whom dwelt near the Sixtine\nBridge, the other near the Church of St. Mary Major. Soon the people\nbegan to persecute Ignatius and his companions. Michael was the first\nof all to be troublesome and to speak wickedly of Ignatius, and had\nhim summoned before the governor for trial. Ignatius showed the\ngovernor a letter written by the same Michael, in which he commended\nIgnatius very highly. The governor examined Michael, and the result\nwas that he was exiled from Rome. After him followed Mindarra and\nBerrera, who said that Ignatius and his companions were fugitives from\nSpain, Paris, and Venice. Finally, however, in the presence of the\ngovernor and ambassador then at Rome, both acknowledged that they had\nnothing which they could say against them with regard to their\ndoctrines or their lives. The ambassador ordered this lawsuit to be\nabandoned. Ignatius objected, saying that he wished the sentence to be\nmade clear and public. This did not please the ambassador and the\ngovernor, nor even those who had previously taken sides with Ignatius.\nA few months afterward the Roman Pontiff returned. While he was at\nTusculum Ignatius was admitted to an audience with the Holy Father,\nand having given some of his reasons, he obtained what he wished. The\nPope ordered sentence to be passed, and it was given in favor of\nIgnatius and his companions.\n\nThrough the labors of Ignatius and his companions, certain pious works\nwere established at Rome, as that of Catechumens, that of St. Martha,\nand that of the Orphans. Master Natalis can tell the rest.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\n\nST. IGNATIUS AND HIS WORK FOR EDUCATION\n\nIn the kingdom of Navarre, in the north of Spain, among those\nmountains whence the armorers of Toledo drew their metal and forged\nfor the world their trenchant steel, in a region where the generous,\npassionate, valiant people seemed to have formed their character on\nthe austere grandeur of nature itself, St. Ignatius was born.\n\nThe world represents him as a man of few and stern words, in\nappearance severe and dark, and yet a man in whom intellect is ever\nprominent, but intellect elevated by the grandeur of a soul of\nchivalry and by an exquisite delicacy of charity--this was the real\ncharacter of St. Ignatius. This will be seen in the brief glimpse\ngiven of his life and his spirit of charity, his absorbing love for\nsouls, in his work of founding missions, his greatness of mind and\nheart, in the work originated by him, and carried on by his followers,\nin the cause of higher education.\n\nHis character stands prominently on the horizon of history. He cannot\nbe ignored, nor is his existence or his work ignored.\n\nHis enemies have not passed him by without notice, and his friends,\nthe friends of God, have rejoiced that, as God sent him forth to teach\nand produce fruit that the fruit might remain, the fruit has remained.\n\nSt. Ignatius sends his voice down the centuries as a great\nindividuality. He has spoken as a man of God, as a man of ideas, a man\nof energy. He has made his influence felt throughout the universe,\nnot only in the civilized world, but in the uncivilized portion, to\nbring it into civilization, or to bear to it the advantages of\ncivilization.\n\nOther great men have spoken and have sent forth their influence.\nTheirs has been a message to the civilized world; it has been limited\nto one point of view. It has been prowess on the battlefield or on the\nseas, work in the ship of state or in the fields of science. But\nIgnatius has not been limited to any one of these. He is the founder\nof a Religious Order that has sent pioneers into all these fields and\nforests of valor or research; he is the writer of the Spiritual\nExercises that have won a fame gained by but few authors; he is the\nfather of many saints; he is the educator of generations; he is the\ninspirer of scientific, literary, theological, philosophical\ninvestigation, and the promoter of discoverers and of pioneer\nmissionaries in the Old and the New World.\n\nIgnatius was born, in 1491, at the chateau of Loyola, and at fifteen\nyears of age he was a page in the court of King Ferdinand, and then a\nsoldier under the Duke of Navarre, his relative. The army of Francis I\npenetrated into Navarre, and, at the siege of Pampeluna, Ignatius,\nCaptain of Infantry, was wounded by a cannon ball. His life is given\nin the preceding pages.\n\nI shall refer only briefly to it, and to his conversion. He was a\nyoung knight fond of gayety and feats of arms, and for some time after\nhe received the wound he was confined to his bed while his broken leg\nwas set; and while awaiting his slow recovery he read the lives of the\nsaints and of Christ, as these were the books given to him in place of\nthe novels he had asked for, as no others were in the house.\n\nIn reading the lives of the saints his heart was touched. His eyes\nwere opened to the vanity of life and the reality of eternity\ncompared with the worldliness of the life he had been leading.\nInspired with enthusiasm at the lives of the saints, he said, \"What\nthey have done, I can do.\" The event of his life proved the\nearnestness of his purpose.\n\nHe resolved to undertake a life of penance and self-denial, and, while\noccupied with these holy resolutions, he wrote in a book the principal\nevents of the life of Christ and His glorious Mother. It was at this\ntime that Our Lord sent him a vision to strengthen and console him. He\nbeheld one night, as he was holding his vigils, the glorious Queen of\nthe angels, who appeared to him holding in her arms her Blessed Son,\nenlightening him with the splendor of glory and charming him by her\nsweet presence.\n\nTo her he ascribes the inspiration of the Spiritual Exercises, and his\nOrder, imitating its founder, has shown the most unbounded affection\nand devoted filial love toward the Virgin Mother of Christ.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAt Alcala St. Ignatius studied, and there won for the Society of\nJesus, Laynez, Salmeron, and Babadilla. He afterward founded there a\ncollege where Vasquez, Suarez, and St. Francis Borgia expounded the\nHoly Scriptures. St. Ignatius sent Father de Torres to Salamanca to\nfound the famous college where the illustrious professors, Cardinal de\nLugo, Francis Suarez, Maldonatus, Gregory of Valencia, Francis Ribera,\nand many other illustrious men were professors.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAt the University of Paris, in 1534, on the 14th of March, St.\nIgnatius received the degree of Master of Arts and Doctor of\nPhilosophy, having received the degree of Bachelor of Arts two years\nbefore. The University of Paris had the honor of having as pupils St.\nIgnatius, St. Francis Xavier, Peter Faber, Claude le Jay, Simon\nRodriguez, John Codura, Paschasius, Brouet, Martin Olave, all honored\nwith the academic degree.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAmong the earlier colleges founded by St. Ignatius were the\nfollowing:--\n\nIn 1542 the College of Coimbra, in Portugal, arose. In 1546 St.\nFrancis Borgia founded the College of Gandia. In 1556 the College of\nIngolstadt was founded. In 1552 a college was founded at Vienna, and\nin 1556 one at Prague. In 1553 the Roman College was fully founded.\nAnd in 1568 the colleges at Lima, Peru.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe German College founded in Rome by St. Ignatius produced many\nremarkable men.\n\nFrom it came 1 pope, Gregory XV, 24 cardinals, 6 electors of the\nEmpire, 19 princes, 21 archbishops, 121 titular bishops, 100 bishops\nin _partibus infidelium_, 6 abbots or generals of religious orders,\n11 martyrs of faith, 13 martyrs of charity, and 55 others, conspicuous\nfor piety and learning.\n\nThis was at the end of the eighteenth century. In our own time in one\nclassroom Father Cardella counted seventeen different orders of all\ndifferent nationalities present at the lectures of theology in the\nRoman College.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Roman College was the type of the Jesuit College. It was begun by\nFrancis Borgia, in 1551, at the foot of the Capitol in Rome, with\nfourteen members of the Order and Father John Peltier, a Frenchman, as\nSuperior.\n\nThe professors taught rhetoric and three languages,--Hebrew, Greek,\nand Latin. There were present there at a given time 2107 students, 300\nin theology. The most eminent professors filled the chairs:\ntheologians like Suarez and Vasquez; commentators such as Cornelius a\nLapide and Maldonatus; founders of national history schools, as\nMariana and Pallavicini; Clavius, reformer of the Gregorian Calendar;\nKircher, universal in the exact sciences, while the other colleges\nthroughout the world remained provided with their own required forces\nand maintained their own prestige.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFrom this college came forth distinguished men in every line of\nintellectual life, and general eminence, men of elevated thought and\nof noble and generous minds. In particular three characters\ncame--young men that were to fill with admiration of their greatness\nthe succeeding century.\n\nStanislaus Kostka, a Polish noble who died at seventeen years of age;\nAloysius Gonzaga, an Italian prince of twenty-three; and John\nBerchmans, a Flemish townsman of twenty-two.\n\nAmong some of the famous men educated by the Jesuits we find Bossuet,\nCorneille, Moliere, Tasso, Fontenelle, Diderot, Voltaire, and\nBourdaloue, himself a Jesuit.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhen Pere Poree replied to the remark that he was not one of the great\npoets, he said, \"At least you may grant that I have been able to make\nsome of them.\" A few others were Descartes, Buffon, Justus Lipsius,\nMuratori the historian, Calderon, and Vico, the author of \"Ideas of\nHistory,\" Richelieu, Tilly, Malesherbes, Don John of Austria,\nLuxembourg, Esterhazy, Choiseul, St. Francis de Sales, Lambertini,\nafterward Benedict XIV, the most learned of the popes, and the present\nPontiff, Pope Leo XIII, renowned for his learning and wisdom.\n\nNearly all the Jesuit writers had been Jesuit professors, with almost\nno exception, and nearly all had taught humanities, belles-lettres,\nand rhetoric. Father Southwell in 1676 numbers 2240 authors, and\nFather de Backer in 1876 counts 11,100.\n\n\nAUTHORS\n\nWe find some remarkable authors among the Jesuit writers. Foremost\ncome the Bollandists, renowned throughout the world for their\nmonumental work, the \"Acta Sanctorum.\" Similar gigantic works were\ncarried on by Fathers de Backer, Sommervogel, and Pachtler. In the\nvarious branches of learning we need mention a few of the greater\nwriters.\n\nIn astronomy, we find Ricci, Perry, De Vico, Secchi, Curley, Sestini.\n\nIn mathematics, Hagen, Algue.\n\nIn naval tactics, \"The Jesuit's Book.\"\n\nIn archaeology, Garucci, Marchi, the master of De Rossi.\n\nIn Oriental languages, Strassmaier, Harvas, Maas, Van den Gheyn.\n\nIn theology, Suarez, Vasquez, Toletus, Maldonatus, Franzelin.\n\nIn philosophy, Cominbricenses, Liberatore.\n\nIn moral philosophy, Busenbaum, Gury, Toledo, Ballerini, Layman,\nLehmkuhl, Genicot.\n\nIn asceticism, Alvarez de Paz, Gaudier, Rodriguez, Scaramelli, Grou.\n\nThe Spiritual Exercises comprise a whole library. Father Watragan has\nwritten a work merely to record the editions and commentaries on these\nExercises.\n\n\nTHE EDUCATIONAL PLAN OF ST. IGNATIUS\n\nSt. Ignatius had gathered about him a body of picked men. The Roman\nCollege, the type of colleges of Jesuit education, would have for its\nprofessors only those who had been doctors of the University of\nParis.\n\nThe outline of the course of education was given by St. Ignatius. It\nwas completed and developed by Aquaviva. The work was still more\nperfected by Father Laynez, of whom it is said,--\n\n\"St. Ignatius praised him not only on account of other great merits,\nbut particularly for devising and arranging the system of colleges.\"\n\nAs to the number of students found under a unified method of thorough\nteaching, it will be interesting to take them in review.\n\nIn Rome in 1584, the twenty colleges attending classes in the Roman\nCollege numbered 2108 students, in Poland there were 10,000 young men\nchiefly of the nobility, at Rome 2000, at La Fleche 1700. In the\nseventeenth century at the College of Louis le Grand, in Paris, the\nnumber varied between 2000 and 3000. In 1627 the Province of Paris had\nin fourteen colleges 13,195 students.\n\nThe papal seminaries under Gregory XIII, at Vienna, Dillengen, Fulda,\nPrague, Graetz, Olmuetz, Wilna, as well as in Japan, were directed by\nthe Fathers, as also that of Pius V and of St. Charles Borromeo at\nMilan.\n\nTaking an average, there were more than two hundred thousand students\nbeing educated in these educational institutions.\n\nA comparison could be made on this basis of the work done by the Order\nand that which is accomplished by Oxford.\n\nIf Oxford spends annually a revenue of $2,500,000 to supply facilities\nfor higher education to two thousand of the nobility and gentry, how\nmuch would be required to educate a quarter of a million\nstudents,--not two thousand, but two hundred and fifty thousand?\n\nThe fundamental principles in the educational institute of St.\nIgnatius were these:--\n\nFirst, solidity and thoroughness.\n\nThe first condition of all higher studies as well as of lower studies\nwas such that, as St. Ignatius said, \"It was useless to begin at the\ntop, as the edifice without a good foundation would never stand.\"\n\nLet literature and philosophy be gone through with satisfactorily, and\nthen theology may be approached.\n\nLiterature must come first of all. St. Ignatius provides for law and\nmedicine, but by professors of law and medicine outside of the Order;\nbut no professors of the Order were sent for work outside of Jesuit\ninstitutions. If the younger men were sent abroad, the younger\ngeneration would be deprived of that type; and if eminent men were\nsent forth without a permanent Jesuit College, the work would not be\nthat of the Order, but of scattered individuals, and would soon\nperish.\n\nIn the cause of education St. Ignatius had placed in his charter the\nwatchwords \"Defence and Advance.\" As a leader of a military type he\nhad gathered about him the flower of youth and of mature age, from\ncollege and university, from doctor's chair and prince's throne, and\nin fifteen years from the foundation of the Order left one hundred\ncolleges and houses in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Sicily, Germany,\nFrance, Brazil, and the East Indies. Xavier traveled from India and\nCeylon, in the west, to Malucca, Japan, and the coast of China on the\neast. Wherever the energy and activity of Apostolic zeal penetrated it\nwas with the purpose, and usually the result, of permanent Apostolic\nwork in the foundation of educational institutions. Father de Backer\nsays,--\n\n\"Wherever a Jesuit set his foot, wherever there was founded a house, a\ncollege, a mission, there too came apostles of another class, who\nlabored, who taught, who wrote.\"\n\nThis is true even to our day where in the Rocky Mountains, beside the\nmission house of Spokane Falls, rises the Jesuit College of Spokane.\n\nSixty years later than the time of St. Ignatius there were 272\ncolleges, and in 150 years the collegiate and university houses of\neducation numbered 769.\n\n\"Looking at these seven hundred institutions of secondary and superior\neducation,\" says Father Thomas Hughes in his work on Loyola, \"in their\nscope of legislative executive power we find they were not so much a\nplurality of institutions as a single one.\n\n\"If we look at the 92 colleges in France, although the University of\nParis was in one quarter of the city, and in that sense materially\none,--although including 50 colleges,--yet in the formal and essential\nbond these 92 Jesuit colleges were vastly more of a unit as an\nidentical educational power than any faculty existing. No faculty at\nParis, Rome, Salamanca, or Oxford ever preserved the control over its\n50, 20, or 8 colleges that each Provincial exercised over his 10, 20,\nor 30 colleges, or the general of the Order over the 700 colleges,\nwith 22,126 members in the Order.\"\n\nAt the present day we find the Jesuit colleges in almost every part of\nthe known world. In Rome and in China, in South Africa and North\nAmerica, in the Philippine Islands as well as in Ceylon and Egypt, in\nAustralia and Cuba, as well as in Syria and the city of New York.\n\nWe may glance briefly at the colleges scattered over the world,\ncontaining to-day 52,692 Jesuit pupils.\n\nThis is a larger number than those taught at Oxford and Cambridge and\nGlasgow and Harvard or Yale or Princeton or in Paris and Edinburgh.\n\nIn the Jesuit College at Rome there are 2082 students.\n\n  In Brazil,                        757\n     Naples,                        960\n     Denver,                        100\n     Sicily,                        376\n     Turin,                         516\n     California,                    850\n     Rocky Mountains,                72\n     Venice,                        520\n     Mangalore (India),             483\n     Austria,                      1746\n     Egypt,                         500\n     Toulouse,                     1581\n     Madura,                       1800\n     Aragon,                       1414\n     Manila\n       Philippine Islands,\n         Municipal Atheneum,       1123\n       Normal School,               680\n     Chili and Paraguay,           4913\n     Castile,                      2073\n     Cuba, Havana, and Cienfuegos,  397\n     Colombia,                      766\n     Portugal,                      560\n     Belgium,                      6658\n     Bengal,                        983\n     Ceylon,                         35\n     Galicia,                       474\n     Germany,                      3443\n     Holland,                       613\n     France,                       3384\n     China,                         122\n     Lyons,                        2191\n     Syria,                         608\n     Mexico,                        684\n     Toledo,                        782\n     Ecuador and Peru,              820\n     England,                      1454\n     Zambesi,                        64\n     Ireland,                       883\n     Australia,                     447\n     New York and Maryland,        2815\n     Jamaica, West Indies,           60\n     Missouri,                     2061\n     B. Honduras,                  2122\n     Canada,                        511\n     New Orleans,                   504\n\nThus the total number of students--studying with professors of the\nSociety of Jesus under one university system in all parts of the known\nworld--is 52,692.\n\nThere has been no going back. Fifty years ago, when the groundwork of\nrebuilding the 700 institutions that had been destroyed by the\nsuppression had to be commenced all over again, there were but 15,000,\nto-day there are 52,692.\n\nSt. Ignatius was born in 1491. The first College of Coimbra was\nfounded in 1542. From 1542 to 1773 is a period of 231 years. The\nsuppression lasted from 1773 to 1814 (41 years). The new work\ncontinued from 1814 to 1899, a period of 85 years.\n\nAmong the colleges founded in the chief cities of the world are Loyola\nCollege, at Loyola in Spain; St. Omer's College, in Belgium, the link\nbetween Europe and America; Stonyhurst College, in England; Clongoes\nWood, Ireland; Mangalore, in India, the only first-grade college in\nthe district; Melbourne, Australia; St. Ignatius College, California,\nthe pioneer of Pacific coast missions and of the Rocky Mountains; at\nKansas City the only boarding college in the far West; St. Ignatius,\nat Cleveland, Ohio, one of the latest Western colleges; Spring Hill\nCollege, at Mobile, Alabama; Georgetown College, at Washington, D.C.;\nHoly Cross College, at Worcester, Massachusetts; St. John's College,\nat Fordham, New York; St. Francis Xavier's College, in New York City.\n\nIn the proportion mentioned above, in the same period (that is, a\nperiod of 231 years), there will be in the Jesuit colleges 263,690\npupils.\n\nSt. Ignatius died July 31, 1556. He was sixty-five years of age. At\nthe age of thirty he hung up his sword at Montserrat, and, with ready\nmind and heart and pen, in thirty-five years he achieved the gigantic\nwork of the founding and developing the Order. The educational work\nwas projected and advanced in a brief period of fifteen years, from\n1542 to 1556.\n\nHe was a man of prudence and deliberation, and of unswerving decision.\n\nVigilant and patient, whenever he appeared account had to be taken of\nthe man; and so with his Order, whenever it appears it is to be\nrecognized either by foes to oppose it or friends to love it and\nforward its work. It has its churches--its missions--its colleges. In\nits churches it is faithful to the teaching of Christ and His Church,\nloyal ever to the Vicar of Christ; in its missions, unbounded in zeal\nand personal self-sacrifice; in its colleges, it aims ever at the\nsolid and thorough training of complete Christian education. Ignatius\nof Loyola made his Order to go on without him, and it goes on just as\nhe made it.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n           PRINTED BY BENZIGER BROTHERS, NEW YORK","title":"The Autobiography of St. Ignatius","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":22979}