ROEHAMPTON PRINTED BY JAMES STANLEY [All right reserved J UPPER LIBRARY, ASCETICAL WORKS. TEACHINGS AND COUNSELS ' OF ST. FRANCIS XA VIER GATHERED FROM HIS LETTERS LONDON BURNS AND OATES LIMITED GRANVILLE MANSIONS W 1888 3X^"joo . F8T3 12U7 HOMINI BONO IN CONSPECTU SUO DEDIT DEUS SAPIENTIAM ET SCIENTIAM ET L/ETITIAM. (. Ecclesiastes c. ii.) PREFACE. The Letters of St. Francis Xavier have always been highly prized for their spiritual wisdom and discernment, apart from the historical value which they possess as the best materials for the narrative of his Life. The present volume consists of such passages, selected from these Letters, as seemed most generally valuable to Catholic readers, with the omission of such parts as are principally narra- tive, but without departing from the chronological order. H. J.C. 31, Farm Street, Berkeley Square. May 13. Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension, 1888. CONTENTS. PAGE i. First Letter after leaving Rome 1 2. Some account of the Journey to Lisbon . 2 3. Earnest Petitions for Prayer and Guidance 5 4. Expectation of Crosses and Consolations . 8 5. Need of Missioners 10 6. Consolations of the Missioner . 12 7. Life of St. Francis Xavier in India . • 13 8. Exhortations to Patience . 16 9. Responsibilities of the King 21 10. Qualities needed in Missioners • 25 1 1 . Desire to see friends .... . 27 12. Love for religious brethren . 29 13. Dependance on God’s guidance • 30 14. Exhortation to Obedience • 3i 15. Account of the Mission in the Moluccas • 33 16. Account of his Mission .... • 39 17. St. Francis in a Storm .... . 42 18. Responsibilities of the King • 44 19. Appeal for Spiritual Guidance • 48 20. Needs of the Mission .... . 49 21. Importance of baptizing Infants • 50 22. Exhortation to care of Conscience . • 52 23. Description of St. Francis by his brethren • 54 24. Encouragement to a Missioner • 56 25. Choice of a Superior .... • 58 26. Duties of the King . 60 27. Hopes of meeting hereafter • 63 28. A letter of recommendation . 64 X Contents. 2 Q. St. Francis Xavier’s instructions drawn from his own PAGE experience 65 30- Care of Conscience 68 3i- How to deal as to Restitution 70 32- Prudence in Preaching .... 72 33- Instructions for the Confessional . 75 34- How to deal with difficulties as to Faith 79 35- Obedience to Superiors .... 82 36- Various Counsels 85 37- Importance of Kindness and Diligence . 87 38- How to deal with Novices and Postulants 89 39- Boldness and Prudence .... 94 4 o. Study of the circumstances of men 97 4 1 * Preparation of Sermons .... 101 4 2 . Circumspection recommended 103 43- Care of himself 105 44- Recommending the Commandant of Malacca 106 45- Charity to other Orders .... 109 46. Sentiments on going to Japan 112 47- Zeal of the Missioners at Malacca . 117 4 8 . Help for a portionless girl 121 49- Commendation of Duarte Barreto . 127 5°. A rule of life 129 Si- Dangers of the Voyage to Japan . 133 52. Preparation for the Mission . 137 53- Affectionate advice .... 150 54- How to invest safely .... 154 55- To the merchants at Figi 156 56 . Hopes for the Chinese Mission 157 57- Qualities required in Missioners 159 58- Advice as to example .... 166 59- Further advice 168 6 o. Charitable reprehension .... 170 6 i. Severe reproofs 176 62 . General Instructions .... . 181 63 . Letter of recommendation # 189 64 . Instruction on Humility .... 190 Contents. xi 65. Rules for avoiding offence 66. Instruction for a Superior 67. Last Instructions . 68. On his last departure 69. Francis leaving Goa 70. A Letter of Consolation . 71. Resignation and sympathy 72. Last hopes of China 73. A last Letter of Affection 74. From his last Letter PAGE . 197 . 209 . 217 . 221 . 222 . 225 . 226 . 230 . 232 • 234 I. To St. Ignatius and others in Rome. Bologna, March 31, 1540. [FIRST LETTER AFTER LEAVING ROME.] On Easter Day I received your letter which came with the despatches of my Lord Ambassador ; and I cannot express all the joy and consolation which it has caused me — God our Lord alone knows it. For what is left of this life, I am well assured, it will be by letter only that we shall hold intercourse — in the other life, we shall be facie ad faciem and embrace one another perpetually. So what remains to us is that for this little time which we have still to pass in our mortal exile, we should take frequent looks at one another by means of letters, and for my part, I mean to do just as you bid me in this matter, and to keep the rule which little girls observe of writing constantly to their mothers. . . . Please, my dearest brother Don Pedro, to give my salutations to Donna Faustina Ancolini, and remind her in my name, if it is not too much for you to do, to keep her promise to me that she would go to confession and communion. Tell her also, if you please, to write and let me know that she has done so, and how often. Tell her that I have said one mass for her and my dear Vincenzo, and that to- morrow I shall say one for herself. She may be quite sure, moreover, that I shall never forget her, B 2 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. even when I am in India. And tell her from me that if she wishes to do a thing that will give real pleasure to her and my dear Vincenzo, she will forgive those who killed her son, for Vincenzo certainly prays a great deal for them in heaven. Here in Bologna I have more to do hearing con- fessions than I had lately in Rome at San Luigi. My tenderest love to all of you ; if I do not mention each one by name, it is not, you may be quite sure, that I forget any one. ii. To the Society at Rome. Lisbon, July 3, 1540. [SOME ACCOUNT OF THE JOURNEY TO LISBON.] We had not yet got out of Italy when our Lord was pleased to show His power in a manner quite miraculous, on one of our company, a servant of my Lord Ambassador. It was the same man whom you saw at Rome first put off, through weakness and cowardice, the design he had formed of embracing the religious life, and afterwards abandon it altogether. We came on a large river, and no one knew whether or where there was a ford. This poor man was urged by his own rashness to try to find it, though we all cried out to him not to do it ; all in vain, for he rode on into the channel of the stream, though he knew nothing of its depth. He had not gone far, when the force of the current overpowered his horse, and carried it away together with its rider. We all looked on in heartfelt pity. The stream bore him down in a moment, quite as far as the distance from your house at Rome to San Luigi’s. And then our Lord God vouchsafed to hear the ardent prayers Delay in obeying God's calls. 3 which His servant, my Lord Ambassador, poured forth at that pitiable sight, praying, and all his servants with him, non sine lacrymis, for what was in all human appearance the desperate case of that poor fellow. Our Lord heard their prayers, and saved him from the very jaws of destruction by a manifest miracle. The man was Master of the Horse in my Lord’s household. No doubt when he was being carried along by the whirling stream he would much have preferred the inside of a monastery to his present case. And his greatest trouble at this time, as he told me himself afterwards, was the memory of the opportunity he had refused, and which then he would have willingly regained at any price what- soever. He told me that he was much less over- whelmed by horror at the danger he was in at that dreadful moment than by the sting of his conscience, which keenly reproached him with having led a careless life without making provision for death, and he added, that at that critical juncture he was tormented above all by tardy repentance for having put off his entrance into religion, to which he had felt that God certainly called him. He was so full of these thoughts when we recovered him that he fell to exhorting the whole company not to sin in the same way. His face and countenance were all changed, pale beyond expression, and marked with the sense of the danger he had run ; he seemed a man come back from hell, and all this gave great weight to his words. He discoursed long and pathetically upon the torments of the damned, like a man who had experienced them : and he said over and over again that it was very true indeed, that a man who during life had not thought of preparing for death, had no time to remember God when the 4 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . necessity of death was upon him. Such was the discourse of this good man, discourse not gathered from reading books, or from studious meditation, but dictated by his own experience. And when I think this over, I am deeply moved at the very similar carelessness of many whom in various ways we have made acquaintance with and known as friends, whom I see putting off in the same way the execution of good plans and holy desires to serve God, which they acknowledge to have felt. And I fear very much that they, too, may find themselves some day surprised by a time when they may most ardently desire to accomplish what they had deter- mined and will then have no power of accomplishing. The number of persons here who are friendly and well disposed towards us is very great, indeed so great that I am much concerned not to be able, on account of their multitude, to return to all of them, one by one, all due observance in the way of saluta- tions and visits, which it would certainly be a duty to return, if time allowed us to fulfil the obligation, on account of the honourable and conspicuous dignity of the greater part of these persons. I have also observed a great many who are inclined to good things, and desirous of serving God, to whom it would be a most salutary thing to give some of the Spiritual Exercises, in order to help them to form the resolutions of executing at once what they go on putting off de die. in diem. For whatever haste men may make to execute what they know they ought to do, it is not easy for them to escape having some- thing to answer for to God on the ground of overmuch delay, and thus it is well to use great attention in putting to flight the excuses which occur for con- Need of guidance. 5 tinuing to temporize. The full knowledge of this obligation puts very salutary spurs to many men’s sides, which make them feel as if they were roused from a sort of lethargy, so as to see that where there is no peace to be found they will never find it — those men especially I speak of, who against all reason try to draw God whither they wish, and refuse to go where He calls them, allowing themselves to be moved more by their own disordered affections than by the good desires which He breathes into their hearts. Far more worthy, certainly, of pity than envy ! All those whom we see straining themselves to climb up a path so steep and rugged, toiling up hill with continual labour, are seeking after all nothing but the risk of a headlong fall, or rather the certain catastrophe of a miserable ruin. iii. To the Society at Rome, Lisbon, March 18, 1541. [earnest petitions for prayers and guidance.] The ground on which experienced persons of this sort think they may argue well of our success is, that they have thoroughly seen and approved the manner of our Institute and ministrations of which they have had satisfactory specimens here ; and although we on our part are intimately conscious of our own slender stock of virtue and our great weakness, nevertheless we think that all these good wishes and auguries will not come to nothing, for we are animated by the belief that God is now going to take pity on the miserable blindness of all these nations who live destitute of all helps to salvation, and that it seems as if He would therefore make 6 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . merciful use of the service which we, however weak and worthless servants we be, are most ready to render, that those nations who now know not God and worship devils instead of Him may be recalled from the error and deplorable misery in which they now lie. And, to lay our most secret thoughts bare to you, it is only on this foundation of the hope we have of presumably very powerful and efficacious assistance which may probably be expected from God that our whole confidence in undertaking so great a work rests and is supported, and it is this that gives us courage and alacrity, this that feeds our hopes of a happy issue to our exertions, which we mean to strain to the utmost to give help to those most unhappy of men, to draw them to a true knowledge of our holy faith and religion, with no motive for our labours but to show love and do service to God our Lord, Whom we hold it for most certain that we shall please and serve in this work which we undertake. And now we beseech of you in the strongest possible manner, to prepare for us in good time and at full leisure long and very particular instructions, which may be forwarded to us by the ships sailing from Lisbon for India in the March of next year. We desire and most humbly beg of you that they may contain directions written at full length by you and descending to all particulars, explaining minutely, what we are to do there, how we are to do it, with what precautions, and what rule of life and method of working we are to follow among the heathen. For although we are not without confidence that experience upon the spot will instruct and direct us to some extent in all this, still the chief hope we have of discerning what in the whole management of Need of guidance. 7 this matter is most pleasing to God, rests upon your suggestions and advice. We are persuaded that our Lord will inspire and guide you as to what He requires us to do, and to what extent, and that He will deign to declare to us His mind and the good pleasure of His Heart, as to the kind and manner of our life and ministry, by means of you whom He has hitherto made the interpreters of His will to us. And what moves me again and again, and with all the urgency that you see, to beg this of you, is the fear that I have lest that should happen to us which so frequently happens to many in such positions to their very great hurt. I mean that, either by some negligence in considering and examining all the circumstances of place, business, or of duties in which they find themselves, or again, from some pride which makes them trust themselves too much, and so not condescend to consult others in doubtful matters, and to follow the counsels of men wiser than themselves, they displease God, and are de- servedly punished by being deprived by Him of many graces and much profitable knowledge, which He would mercifully have given them had they humbled their own minds and judgments, so far as to confess their own ignorance and weakness by asking the help and assistance of others, more especially of those by whose means God is wont to let us know in what and how He desires to be served by us. We beg of you therefore, dear Fathers, and implore you again and again in our Lord, by that tender and intimate union in Christ Jesus which binds us together, do not think it too much trouble to write out for us diligently and at length, advice, orders, instructions which may teach us minutely and in particular, what is to be avoided, what s Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. followed, what to be guarded against, and what embraced, by men who wish what we wish with all ■our hearts, that is, in our whole life, and above all in the office of promoting the salvation of souls, to conform ourselves exactly to the will of God, which we are confident will be made known to us more by your hints and precepts than by anything else. And we trust also that your prayers will help us, weak as we are, to carry into execution whatever you shall .so prescribe to us. And these prayers we beg you may be made for us in a very special way, besides the usual remembrance which we all make of one another. And surely there is reason enough for this in our necessities, so far greater than usual, in the extraordinary dangers of our long voyage, and in what is to come after that, the continual intercourse we are to have with the heathen Indians, a race of men lost in vices of all sorts, the contagion of which may well hurt men so tepid and ignorant as we are ; and that it may not do so we must strive and fight hard with all the most abundant grace and most efficacious helps from God which we can gain. IV. To the Society at Rome. Goa, September 18, 1542. [EXPECTATION OF CROSSES AND CONSOLATIONS.] All the sufferings of the long voyage, all the charge of bearing the sins of others while one has to bear ’the weight of his own, the having to live a long time together with unbelievers, and the extreme heat of the sun in this climate — all these trials, if borne as they ought to be borne for the love of God, turn out to be very great consolations and the subject of Consolation in guidance . 9 many and intense spiritual delights. I am perfectly persuaded in my own mind that the lovers of the Cross of our Lord Christ consider a life of trials of this sort a blessed life, and that to fly from or to be without the Cross is death to them. For can there be a more cruel death than to live without Jesus Christ, after having once known Him, or to forsake Him for the sake of following our own desires ? I assure you, dear friends, no cross is to be compared to such a cross as that. On the other hand, how blessed it is to live dying a daily death, breaking our own wills, that we may seek, not what is our own, but what belongs to Jesus Christ ! And now, dearest brothers, I entreat and conjure you by God to write to me about every single member of our Society, that as I have no hope that I shall see them in this life, as St. Paul says, facie ad faciem , I may at least see them per (enigma , in a dark manner, that is by means of your letters. Unworthy as I am, do not refuse me this boon. Remember that God has made you such, that I have the right to expect great consolation from you, and to receive it. Give me diligent instructions what method I should pursue in dealing with the heathen and the Mussulmans to whom I am sent, for I look forward to learning from God, through what you write to me, how I am to make them Christians without difficulty, and I expect to come to see, from your instructions, and so to correct, any blunders I may commit while I am waiting to hear from you. Mean- while I don’t despair, that by the merits and prayers of our holy Mother Church, on which I rely greatly, and through the prayers of you and others her living members, our Lord Christ may deign to sow the seed of the Gospel by means of me, wicked servant IO Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. though I am, in the land of the heathen, more especially since, as He uses so poor a creature as I am for so great a work, it will put to shame men who are born with capacities for great things, as well as be a spur to others of weak courage, when they see me, who am but dust and ashes and the vilest of men, made to bear witness from my own experience to the extreme scarcity which here exists of Apostolical labourers. Ah, how gladly would I make myself the slave during my whole life of any who would come out here and devote themselves to labour in the vineyard of the Lord of all ! And thus, then, I end my letter, imploring God, of His infinite mercy, to gather us all one day into that blessed joy of His for which we are made, and here in this life to increase our strength, so that we may labour in His service with the diligence which it deserves, and thus make ourselves entirely and altogether conformed unto His holy decrees and will. v. To the Society at Rome. Cochin, December 31, 1543. [need of missioners.] There is now in these parts a very large number of persons who have only one reason for not becom- ing Christian, and that is that there is no one to make them Christians. It often comes into my mind to go round all the Universities of Europe, and especially that of Paris, crying out every where like a madman, and saying to all the learned men there whose learning is so much greater than their charity, ‘Ah! what a multitude of souls is through your fault shut out of heaven and falling into hell ! ’ Would Use of learning. ii to God that these men who labour so much in gaining knowledge would give as much thought to the account they must one day give to God of the use they have made of their learning and of the talents entrusted to them ! I am sure that many of them would be moved by such considerations, would exercise themselves in fitting meditations on Divine truths, so as to hear what God might say to them, and then, renouncing their ambitions and desires, and all the things of the world, they would form themselves wholly according to God’s desire and choice for them. They would exclaim from the bottom of their hearts: ‘ Lord, here am I; send me whithersoever it shall please Thee , even to India ! ’ Good God ! how much happier and how much safer they would be ! With what far greater confidence in God’s mercy would they meet their last hour, the supreme trial of that terrible judgment which no man can escape ! They would then be able joyfully to use the words of the faithful servant in the Gospel : ‘ Lord, Thou gavest me five talents; behold , I have gained beside them other five ! ’ They labour night and day in acquiring knowledge, and they are very diligent indeed in understanding the subjects which they study ; but if they would spend as much time in that which is the fruit of all solid learning, and be as diligent in teaching to the ignorant the things necessary to salvation, they would be far better prepared to give an account of themselves to our Lord when He shall say to them : 1 Give an account of thy stewardship .’ I fear much that these men, who spend so many years in the Universities in studying the liberal arts, look more to the empty honours and dignities of the prelature than to the holy functions and obligations of which those honours are the 12 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. trappings. It has come to this pass, as I see, that the men who are the most diligent in the higher branches of study, commonly make profession that they hope to gain some high post in the Church by their reputation for learning, therein to be able to serve our Lord and His Church. But all the time they deceive themselves miserably, for their studies are far more directed to their own advantage than to the common good. They are afraid that God may not second their ambition, and this is the reason why they will not leave the whole matter to His holy will. I declare to God that I had almost made up my mind, since I could not return to Europe myself, to write to the University of Paris, and especially to our worthy Professors Cornet and Picard, and to show them how many thousands of infidels might be made Christians without trouble, if we had only men here who would seek, not their own advantage, but the things of Jesus Christ. And therefore, dearest brothers, ‘ pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He send forth labourers into His harvest.’ VI. To the Society at Rome. From the same Letter. [CONSOLATIONS OF THE MISSIONER.] And now I have nothing more to tell you except that so great is the intensity and abundance of the joy which God is accustomed to bestow upon those workmen of His vineyard who labour diligently in cultivating this barbarous part of the same, that for my part I do really believe that if there is in this life any true and solid happiness, it is here. It often happens to me to hear one whose lot it is to Joys of the Missioner . 13 labour in this field cry out, ‘ O Lord , I beseech Thee overwhelm me not now in this life with so much delight , or at least , since in Thy boundless goodness and mercy Thou dost so overwhelm me , take me away to the abode of the blessed. For any one who has once known what it is to taste in his soul Thy ineffable sweetness must of necessity think it very bitter to live any longer without seeing Thee face to face.' It is one of my greatest consolations, dearest brethren, to think often of you, and to call to mind that sweet and tender intercourse with you which God of His immense goodness vouchsafed to me of old. At the same time it makes me think over and feel very keenly, how much precious time I then spent uselessly, and gathered so little fruit from your holy example and conversation, and from your knowledge of the things of God. However, I owe it to your prayers for me that God has given me the blessing, absent as I am from you in the body, of having, by means of your care and intercession for me, the infinite number of my sins shown to me from God, and of having courage and strength given me to cultivate with all diligence the soil of heathen- dom. Endless thanks to God’s goodness, and to your charity ! VII. Life of St. Francis Xavier in India. “ It was a life of very great hardships, courted and even enhanced by his heroic spirit of mortification, and his ingenious love for poverty and humiliation. It was a life of incessant labour, toilsome service in waiting on the sick, instructing the ignorant and the children, burying the dead, settling disputes, listen- 14 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. ing fo questions, and answering difficulties ; but every pain and fatigue was sweetened and gilded by the intense charity which animated every action. It was, as we shall be able to show more fully in the next chapter, a life liable to frequent changes and interruptions, in which sudden dangers had to be met, great exertions were called for, consummate prudence, ready resolution, and rapid decision required to ensure safety and avert calamity, and, as will also be seen from the letters to Mancias, it was a life of great solitude in the midst of crowds and of the busiest occupation, if solitude is to be measured by the absence of true companionship and sympathy. It was a life beset by frequent risks and deadly hostility, and the darling aim of which was constantly and fatally thwarted by persons who ought to have been the first to further it with the utmost devotion. It was made splendid and luminous to the whole populations among whom Francis was moving by the habitual exercise of the gift of miracles, and by a repetition of the external wonders which had astonished and helped to convert the hearers of the Apostles. We are told that in Portugal the name of ‘ Apostle ’ clung to the mem- bers of the Society on account of the impression produced by the life and teaching of Francis and Simon Rodriguez. On the Fishery Coast Francis now came to be commonly spoken of as ‘ the Holy Father.’ A few more words complete what we know of this period. To all these features we must add another, to name which is to name that which to Francis himself was overwhelmingly predominant, and gave its own character to the whole tenour of his existence, and yet which it is given to few, and those only men Joys of the Missioner. 15 like himself, even to understand in any perfect measure. More than once he bursts out in his letters about that which is usually the treasured secret of souls like his, but as to which either he was unable to keep silence, or he thought it well to speak for the glory of God and the encouragement of others to tread in the same path of devotion to the cause of the conversion of the heathen. This feature was the immense overpowering sweetness and consolation with which God so often flooded his whole soul — the joy which he felt too much for him here below, so that he was fain to pray that either that intense rapturous delight might be modified, or he might be taken away to See without interruption or veil the Face of God from Whom it came. The present reward of his share in Apostolical labours was a share also in the incommunicable con- solations which are the peculiar privilege of such ministrations — consolations which none but those who have tasted them can ever distantly imagine, and which reflect, perhaps, in some faint degree the joy of the Good Shepherd Himself when ‘ He rejoiced in the Holy Ghost, and said, I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.’ When we consider that interior and sensible happiness of this kind was probably as habitual to Francis Xavier at this time as the gift of miracles, we are able to see in part how very faint an idea can be formed from without of the conditions and characteristics of an existence such as his. i6 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. VIII To Francis Mancias. Punical, Feb. 22, 1544. [exhortations to patience.] Remember the instructions which I gave you in writing when we parted, and pray to God to strengthen you with great patience, the quality necessary above all others in dealing with the people you have to do with. Make up your mind that what you are to suffer among them is to be to you instead of your Purgatory, and that you are to pay now here and at once the penalty of your faults. And acknowledge how great a favour it is that God grants you, to be able while still breathing the breath of life to make atonement for the sins of youth, while you have the opportunity of gaining grace by it (which could not be in Purgatory), and at the same time have so much less pain than you might have there. To the same. Munahpaud, March 14, 1544. Your letter has given me great comfort. I implore you over and over again to deal with that poor degraded people as good fathers do with bad children. Don’t let your courage give way, however many may be the depraved and wicked things you see them do : for God Himself, Whom they so grievously offend, nevertheless does not kill them, as He might by a single nod. He does not cease to supply them with what they need for their life and support, and yet, unless He were to keep His bountiful hand open to Patience . I? them, all these things would fail, and the poor wretches would perish for want, as indeed they deserve to perish. I would have you consider this example of God, and confirm your mind to greater indulgence by it, casting aside all needless worry and distress of heart. Your labours where you are are more fruitful than you think, and although you may not make all the way that you desire, still, take my word for it, you are doing very sufficient work, and work which you will never repent of. And, after all, whatever may be the success of your labours, you have a sure con- solation in the fact that it was not your doing nor your fault in any way that it has been otherwise than could be wished. To the same . Munahpaud, March 20, 1544. Your letter has given me incredible joy, and done my soul immense good, because it tells me that you are very happy in your mission, and are visited by God with wonderful consolations. And now that you have had experience that God remembers you, do not let yourself ever forget Him. Beware of growing weary of your work, however ungrateful it may be, and don’t let any kind of disgust weaken you so as to relax your keen and unconquerable perseve- rance in the good which you have begun. Keep always a humble and lowly spirit before God, with a meek feeling of internal thankfulness that He has chosen you for so lofty an office as that which you are discharging. You have the paper of injunctions that I gave you ; I have nothing to add to them, nothing new to recommend. c 1 8 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. T o the same. Tuticorin, May 14, 1544. I know what an extreme annoyance it is to be perpetually interrupted, when one is thoroughly absorbed in some work, by persons calling one away to attend to their own business, which is all they care for. Never mind, gulp down their importunities, keep a quiet mind all the time, and lend yourself tranquilly to the occupations which come of them- selves to you from every side. Just do what you can do, and what you can’t do now, let it go or put it off, and, when you cannot give them satisfaction in deed, take care to make it up in word, excusing yourself kindly, saying that you are not as able to help them as you wish, and if you can’t give them what they want, give them some hope of it in the future — a thing which generally softens people when they are dis- appointed as to getting what they desire. You owe great thanks to our Lord God, and I suppose you give them, for placing you where you can’t be idle if you would, where so many affairs surround and besiege you at every moment with something to be done, one upon another, but where — what is the sweetest of all condiments to any toil, however great — everything of this kind which besets you is clearly a call which belongs to the service of God. To the same. Munahpaud, August 20, 1544. Those words of our Lord, He that is not with Me is against Me, will make you understand how destitute we here are of any friends to aid us in bringing this people to Jesus Christ. But we must not despond, Patience. 19 for God at the end will render unto each one accord- ing to his deserts, and it is very easy for Him, when He pleases, to accomplish by means of a few what seemed to require the work of many. I say again and again, I feel far more of compassion for those who fight against God, than of any desire to call down greater vengeance on their heads — they are already miserable enough in the mere fact that they do so fight. Why should we draw down on them God’s vengeance, which will certainly not fail at its own time ? And how severe are the punishments which God at last inflicts on His enemies, we see well enough, as often as we turn our mind’s eye to the inextinguishable furnace of hell, whose fires are to rage throughout all eternity for so many miserable sinners. To the same. Munahpaud, November 8, 1544 I beg and entreat you most earnestly, my dearest brother, to show the people you are with, and especially the grown-up men and old men, very great kindness and charity, and to aim at making yourself beloved by them in return. Be quite sure that if you are beloved by them you will be able to turn their hearts whatever way you wish. So bear with moderation and wisdom all their weaknesses and infirmities, and say to yourself that if they are not yet all that you desire, in time at least they will become so. If you cannot get out of them all the good you ask, take what you can get. You know this is my way. You should make up your mind to be to them what a good father is to bad children, and never give up caring and providing for them, though you see them all the time covered with many vices. 20 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. God Himself, though often offended by them and by us, does not cease to heap His benefits upon us. He might most justly destroy us, but in His mercy He very often seems blind to our sins, and helps us in our difficulties, that He may overcome evil by good. And so you, if you cannot do all you wish, be glad to do what you can, since it is not your fault that all the progress which you might desire has not been made. If you sometimes find yourself so distracted by a number of duties that you cannot manage them all, do as much as you can and be content with that, and even give thanks to God for the particular blessing that He has led you to work in a place where there are so many sacred duties to be per- formed that you cannot be idle, however much you might wish it, for this is in truth one of the greatest blessings that God bestows. Imagine yourself in Purgatory, making satisfaction for your sins : you will think yourself very happily dealt with in that God gives you the troubles of this life instead of the torments of the fires of Purgatory. But if, per- chance, men turn out so wicked that you can do nothing with them by gentleness, then sometimes use severity; for, after all, it is a work of mercy to correct those who are wrong, and be sure that it is a great sin not to chastise sinners, especially when they cause scandal to others. Nevertheless, I do not think you should give these people up now that they are in so much trouble, or indeed ever. At this time more than ever you must bid the children whom you have under instruction to ask of God to defend and help us, for in these countries we have no protection at all, except the protection of God. For if that saying of Him Who is the Truth be true — ‘ He who is not with Me is Responsibility . 21 against Me ’ — any one can see how destitute we are of all human aid when we have so few who are with us to convert those people to the faith of Jesus Christ. But we must not lose heart : God will reward every one according to his merits ; He can bring about wonders however great by means of a few, as well as by means of many. I am much more inclined to grieve for the lot of those who are against God, than to call down punishment upon them. God Himself, of His own accord, will take terrible ven- geance by and by on His enemies, as we see plainly enough in the case of those who are undergoing the eternal pains and punishments of hell. IX. To John III. King of Portugal. Cochin, January 20, 1545. [responsibilities of the king.] I would fain that your Highness may be fully con- vinced, and that the reflections of your own heart may continually tell you, that God our Lord has given to your Highness, before all other Christian princes of the earth, the Empire of the Indies, in order that He might therein test your virtue, and prove with what faithfulness you discharge the work committed to you, and with what active gratitude you answer to His benefits : and that God’s purpose in this was not so much to enrich your royal treasury with the profits of precious fruits from distant lands and the influx of wealth from abroad, as rather to present to you occasions of heroic labours and afford your intense and religious devotion the means of making themselves pleasing to Himself, in bringing by your own burning zeal, and by the work of 22 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier, skilful ministers employed by you, the unbelievers of these countries to the knowledge of Him, the Creator and the Saviour of the world. Although the Bishop is a prelate of all that con- summate virtue which he in truth possesses, yet, as your Highness is aware, he is now bent down with old age, and has besides so much to suffer from diseases, as no longer to possess bodily strength sufficient to undergo the very great labours which are required for the exact discharge of all the duties of the Episcopate out here, however much he abounds in vigour of mind, and, indeed, increases in it daily. There is a reward which God is wont to grant to those who have persevered for many years in His service, spending all their life and prime in under- going great labours for His sake, until they have attained to an almost entire victory over the rebellion of their body against the spirit. To such men God gives in their late old age this victory as a fruit of their continual struggles, and that others their subjects may see their example and imitate their perseverance, that they feel themselves as it were growing young again in the renewal of spiritual strength just at the time when nature gives way under the weight of all the troubles of decrepitude and old age. They have spent their lives in the practice of virtue, and, as strength gradually fails them, the earthly body is changed into a heavenly spirit. So it is with our good Bishop, and the time has come when he needs assistance for the labours which his office lays upon him. I entreat you, my lord King and conjure you for the sake of God’s service, that, as I write what follows with the purest intention and in the most Account to be given. 23 perfectly sincere truthfulness, so also your Highness may be pleased to receive what I suggest with like kindness, favour, and goodwill. It is indeed with the single motive of advancing the service and honour of God, and out of the desire which I feel to deliver your royal conscience from a heavy burthen, that I entreat and beseech you not to be content with recommending to your servants here the interests of religion by letter, but also to make your recom- mendation authoritative and weighty by letting men see examples of just retribution in the punishment of those who have failed in their duty in this respect. For there is danger that when our Lord God calls your Highness to His judgment — which will be when it is least expected, and there will be no hope or method of avoiding it — there is danger, I say, that your Highness may hear angry words from God, ‘ Why didst thou not punish those who owned thy authority and were thy subjects, and who were enemies to Me in India ? Thou wouldst surely have been severe in punishing them, if they had been found negligent in their care of taxes due to thee and in matters of thy revenue.’ Nor do I know, Sire, what weight in excusing you at that moment will be allowed to the answer you may make, and say, ‘ Every year when I wrote to my ministers, Lord, I recommended to them the interests of Thy Divine service.’ For the answer will come at once, ‘ But those who altogether trampled upon those solemn commandments thou didst allow to do so unpunished, and at the same time those whom thou didst find unfaithful and remiss as to their attention to thy own interests, thou didst duly chastise.’ Again, Sire, by all the zeal which burns in you for the glory of God, and by the very great care which I 24 Counsels of Si. Francis Xavier. am sure you have to discharge before God the obligations of your royal office, and to keep your conscience free from burthen, I conjure and beseech your Highness to send to India a special and compe- tent minister, armed with due authority, whose single office it may be to provide for the salvation of the countless souls here which are now in danger of being lost. And let him have for his discharge of this duty powers from you quite independent of all authority or command of your officers whose duty it is to attend to the revenue and management of your government. In this way the troubles and scandals may be avoided which have hitherto so grievously and so frequently disturbed the progress of religion. I would have your Highness take an exact account, and add up the full sum of all the revenues and temporal advantages which, by the goodness of God, you receive from India. Then deduct what you spend here for the service of God and the cause of religion. And then, when all has been fairly reckoned up, make such a division of profits between what is to go to your royal purse and what is to be given to God and His heavenly kingdom as shall seem just and good to your grateful and religious heart, taking care that the Creator of all things may never seem to be repaid poorly and charily by your Highness by too small a portion of the gifts which He has poured so lavishly into your bosom. And let your Highness do this without any delay or pro- crastination, for, however quickly it be done, it will always be later than it ought. What urges me to write is the true and burning charity of my heart towards you ; for, in truth, I seem to hear voices rising to heaven from these countries against your Highness, complaining, on the part of India, that she is dealt Requisites for the Mission. 25 with in a niggardly way by your Highness, since while your treasury is being enriched by immense revenues from her, you barely give in return so very small a pittance in aid of the relief of her most grievons spiritual necessities. x. To St. Ignatius at Rome. Cochin, January 22, 1545. [qualities required in missioners.] Any of our Society who are not fit for hearing con- fessions or preaching, or for discharging the other functions of the Society, would be of great use here after having been duly practised in meditation and spending some months in humble and abject services, if they had good strength of body and virtue of mind. For here, among the heathen, great learning is not needed. It is enough if they are not altogether uneducated, so as to know how to teach children and ignorant persons the usual prayers of the Church ; and to go round the towns and villages to baptize newborn infants. Many of these die without baptism, because we cannot be at so many places, so distant, too, from one another. So any men that you may come across of this sort, who, not well adapted for our Society in Europe, and whom you see to be fit for going about here to baptize newborn children and teach the Catechism to the ignorant, send them out to us, for here they will do a very great deal of good. I want them to be thoroughly strong in body, and well able to bear fatigue. This is a most trying and fatiguing country, both from the excessive heat, the scarcity of wholesome water, and also the poorness of the food. Rice, fish, and milk are what we live 26 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. on, and nothing else : no bread, no wine, none of the other things that you have plenty of. So I want young men and hale men, not weak and old men, that they may bear the fatigue of continual baptizing, teaching, and going about, as they will often have to do, not only to baptize newborn children, but to protect the Christians from the fury and rage of the heathen. Sometimes God gives us here the singular blessing of being obliged to risk our lives for His sake, and of having no way of avoiding the risk without breaking the law of charity. They must remember that we are born mortal, and that for a Christian nothing can be more desirable than to suffer death for Christ. So they must be armed with a brave heart and strength from above. And as I, who have none of this courage and virtue, am now setting off for countries where I shall have the very greatest need of heavenly aid, I conjure you, by God and His holy religion, to remember me by name in your holy sacrifices, and also take diligent care that I may have the protection of the prayers of the whole Society. I am quite persuaded that I have already been delivered by God from many and great dangers by your intercessions and that of the Society. I write this to you that you may under- stand what sort of men we want. However, if you find any strong enough to bear all the labours and inconveniences of which I have spoken, but not very ready or eager to risk their lives, I would have you send them still, for there are many regions here where they may work for religion without any danger of death. Remember always that to catch these heathens there is no need of great learning. Men, such as I speak of, after they have been a few years in these countries, will have added to them from Subjects for India. 27 Heaven strength and courage for greater works. You may also send us men capable of hearing confessions and of giving the Spiritual Exercises, even if they are not able to bear harder work ; for they will reside at Goa or at Cochin, in which towns they will be able greatly to serve religion, and have plenty of everything themselves, just as in Portugal. For these towns are full of Portugues families, and there will be no lack of what is wanted to relieve them in case of delicate health or illness ; in both places there are plenty of physicians and plenty of medicines. In other places where the Portuguese do not live, such as those where we are now going through in our missions, there is no provision or help for the sick. But in both the cities I have named great good may be done by teaching the inhabitants the practice of the Spiritual Exercises. XI. To Simon Rodriguez , in Portugal. Cochin, January 22, 1545. [desire to see him.] Send us all the subjects you can into India. The greater the number the wider will be the extension of the limits of holy Church. I have learnt by experi- ence the mischief occasioned here from the want of men on fire with zeal for the increase of the holy faith and religion of Jesus Christ our Lord, and this is why I so often urge the request that labourers may be sent into the field which is already white for the harvest. God, who sees the inmost recesses of the soul, knows how I long to see you. It would be an incredible joy to me to press you to my heart, and talk with you face to face. It cannot be otherwise, 28 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. considering your virtues and the other gifts that God has so abundantly shed abroad in your soul. The hope of reaping the fruit of these by real and actual intercourse makes me desire so very intensely to see you again. It it were in accordance with the greater advantage, or even the equal advantage, of the service of God, that we should be together again, how I should be penetrated with the sweetest pos- sible joy, and how I should delight in having you here to wait upon, God alone, who sees all the secrets of our hearts, can truly understand. Do not allow any of your friends to be sent to India with the charge of looking after the finances and affairs of the King. To such persons we may most truly apply which is written — ‘ Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let their name not be written among the just.’ However great may be your confidence in any one whom you know and love, trust my experience and oppose him on this point, and fight to the last to prevent him from being exposed to this greatest of dangers. Otherwise, unless he be confirmed in grace as were the Apostles, do not expect to see him perse- vere in his duty or remain constant in innocency. There is here a power, which I may call irresistible, to thrust men headlong into the abyss, when beside the seductions of gain, and the easy opportunities of plunder, their appetite for greed will have been sharpened by having tasted it, and there will be a whole torrent of bad examples and evil customs to overwhelm and sweep them away. Robbery is so public and common that it hurts no one’s character, and is hardly counted a fault : people scarcely hesitate to think that, what is done with impunity, it cannot be bad to do. Everywhere, and at all times, Love for brethren. 29 it is rapine, hoarding, and robbery. No one thinks of making restitution of what he has once taken. The devices by which men steal, the various pretexts under which it is done, who can count ? I never cease wondering at the number of new inflexions, which, in addition to all the usual forms, have been added, in this new lingo of avarice, to the conju- gation of that illomened verb ‘ to rob.’ And when, in the midst of it all, these unhappy men are called out of this world, it is wretched to see in what a miserable state of utter neglect and desperate confusion, as to all that relates to their hopes of salvation, their poor souls have to present themselves before the inexorable tribunal. XII. To the Society at Rome. Cochin, January 27, 1545. [LOVE FOR RELIGIOUS BRETHREN.] God knows my dear brothers, how much more happy I should be to see you, than to write you this letter, which must run its chance as to reaching you on account of the distance which divides us. For in truth the Providence which has put our bodies with an almost infinite space between them, while our minds are all the time most closely united, has not loosed the tie of affection which binds us together. It is true, we are no longer living together as we used to live, but we are almost perpetually looking on one another with the eyes of the mind. Such is the power of true and genuine friendship, that absent friends are present to each other, and enjoy one another’s presence and conversation in heart. I know that I am always thinking of you all, my brethren, 30 Counsels of St . Francis Xavier. and that I do this is a blessing for which I am indebted to you rather than to myself; for your prayers and holy sacrifices which you continually offer for me, a miserable sinner, awake in me all this tender remembrance and longing for you. It is you, my beloved brothers, it is you who stamp on my heart your own images ; and if I am so mindful of you, I am ready to confess that you are still more mindful of me. May God reward you as you deserve: for I can give you no other satisfaction than to con- fess that I can in no way repay your deserts, for I see very clearly how muclfll owe to every one and all of the Society. XIII. To Francis Mancias. Negapatam, April 7, 1545. [dependance on god’s guidance.] May our Lord grant us soon what we so ardently desire, and have been so long waiting for — some certain indication of His most holy will as to the work and the place in which He desires that I should employ myself with the greatest usefulness to the interests of His divine service ! We hang upon His nod, and by His grace are entirely disposed to follow out at once what and whatsoever it may be to which He may show that His will inclines. He has sometimes wonderful means of manifesting His will, — secret touches, which pierce the depths of the soul and flood it with light from heaven, so that the soul which is struck by these divine beams can feel no doubt at all where God desires it to go and what work to undertake. It has been most truly said of mortals such as we are in this life, that, in order to Obedience . 3i acquit themselves of what is required of their state and condition, they ought to be as strangers and travellers, who are entangled by no attachment to place or thing which might prevent them from flitting freely hither or thither, and starting up in all readiness at a moment’s notice whithersoever the purpose of their journey and the object in which their hopes are summed up may 'invite. Just in this way we, first of all, ought to have our minds prepared, to be standing with girt loins, glowing with alacrity for either of different and even contrary occupations or scenes of labour, equally disposed to obey any yet uncertain command, and to fly whither- soever we may be directed by the indication of the will of Him Who sends us. East, west, north, or south, all are the same : the single thing in all that has to be noticed as making any difference in our choice being the consideration which we see of more or less opportunity promising us of advancing God’s honour most usefully and most conspicuously. XIV. To Father Paul Camerino. Malacca, December 16, 1545. [exhortations to obedience.] Now, my dearest Father Paul of Camerino, I pray you very much, for the love you have for Jesus Christ, to watch with the greatest care over the interest and preservation of the College. Above everything, I commend to you over and over again, to show prompt and perfect obedience to all those who have authority of any kind in it. Be sure that in no way can you do a thing more pleasant or sweeter to me than by entire obedience to them in 32 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. all things. I declare, if I were myself where you are, I would do nothing, however small, contrary to or without the authority and pleasure of those who have the government of that holy College ; I should make a point of obeying them most diligently in all that they should command me. I desire and hope that God may be pleased to breathe His holy inspiration into the very inmost core of your soul, that you may be entirely convinced that you can by nothing make yourself more pleasing to Him, or do more for His service and glory, than by denying your own will out of love for Him. To the same. Amboyna, May io, 1546. O my Paul ! what I have so often entreated of you when I was with you, and have so often also begged of you by letter, that same thing I now most earnestly ask and pray, — that in all the affairs of the College you obey sedulously the Superiors. If I were in your place, I should have nothing more at heart than to do all they wished. I want you to believe me, and be convinced, that nothing is so safe, nothing so secures us from going wrong, as to desire to be always ruled by others, and to obey their commands from the heart. On the other hand, it is a perilous and hazardous thing to live as one’s own master, casting off the authority of superiors. For even if you do a thing rightly when you depart from what is prescribed you, yet be sure, dearest brother, that there is more bad than good in it after all. You will therefore accurately obey in all things Father Diego de Borba, whose will agrees with the The Moluccas. 33 will of God, and be altogether under his power. If you will do this, you will do a thing pleasing not only to me, but also to God. xv. To the Society at Rome. Amboyna, May, 1546. [AN ACCOUNT OF THE MISSION IN THE MOLUCCAS.] Nearly two hundred miles beyond Molucco there is a region which is called ‘ Maurica.’ Here, many years ago, a great number of the inhabitants became Christians, but having been totally neglected and left, as it were, orphans, by the death of the priests who taught them, they have returned to their former barbarous and savage state. It is in every way a land full of perils, and especially to be dreaded by strangers on account of the great ferocity of the natives and the many kinds of poison which it is there common to give in what is eaten and drunk. The fear of this has deterred priests from abroad from going there to help the islanders. I have considered in what great necessity they are, with no one to instruct them or give them the sacraments, and I have come to think that I ought to provide for their salvation even at the risk of my life. I have resolved to go thither as soon as possible, and to offer my life to the risk. Truly, I have put all my confidence in God, and I wish as much as is in me to obey the precept of our Lord Jesus Christ : ‘He that will save his life shall lose it ; and he that shall lose his life for My sake shall find it.’ Words easy in thought, but not easy in practice. When the hour is come when life must be lost that you may find it in God ; when danger of death is on you, and D 34 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. you see plainly that to obey God you must sacrifice life, then, I know not how, it comes to pass, that what before seemed a very clear precept is involved in incredible darkness. Not even the most learned men attain to the full force of these wonderful words, but those only whom God, the Teacher Who speaks to the soul, enlightens by a special favour. It is in such matters that we see clearly how great after all our weakness is, how frail and unstable is our human nature here. Many friends of mine prayed me earnestly not to go amongst so barbarous a people. But afterwards, when they saw that they gained nothing by prayers or tears, they brought me each what he thought the best possible antidote against poison of all sorts ; but I have unrelentingly sent them all back, lest after burthening myself with medicines, I should have another burthen which I was before without, that of fear. I had put all my hope in the protection of Divine Providence, and I thought I ought to be on my guard, lest relying on human aid I should lose anything of my confidence in God. So I thanked them all, and earnestly entreated them to pray to God for me, for that no more certain remedy than that could possibly be found. But I must return to my voyage to the Moluccas. We had a very bad time of it ; many dangers from pirates, many more from tempests. The greatest of our perils was this, that we were in a very large vessel, and she was driven by the violence of a storm upon some shallows, and for three miles she went on with the bottom of the rudder perpetually grazing ' the sand. So that if she had come across any hidden rocks, or, what we were perpetually fearing, if the shallows had got still more shallow, we should Dangers at Sea. 35 certainly have been shipwrecked and she would have perished. I saw a great deal of weeping there, and a great deal of trouble and anxiety, for all were in expectation of momentary death. But God did not desire to destroy us, but rather to instruct us by the danger we ran, so that we might understand how poor our strength is when we have only our own forces or human protection to lean upon. For when you have found out how empty your hopes are, and, altogether ceasing to trust to human power, have placed all your hope on the Lord of all, Who alone can easily defend you from any danger which you have come under for His sake, then indeed you will know by experience how God governs all things by His will and word, and that danger to life, however great, is to be despised in comparison with the heavenly joys which on such occasions and at such times it is His wont to impart. Not even death itself is any matter of fear to those who enjoy this divine sweetness. For although somehow it seems to be that when we have escaped dangers we can find no words to express how great they were, nevertheless there remains unfaded the extremely sweet memory of the benefit which God has bestowed. And this recollection is day and night a spur to us either to undertake willingly or to bear bravely to the end other toils for that best of masters, and makes us also have a very great veneration and love for Him all our life long, hoping that in His infinite goodness He will add to us always fresh courage and strength to work diligently and constantly for so good and kind a Lord. Molucco is a region of small and almost number- less distinct islands, and it is not yet certain whether 36 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. any part of it belongs to a continent. Generally, all the islands have many villages of inhabitants. The inhabitants would easily become Christians, but for the want of people to preach to them. If we had somewhere here a house of the Society, the majority would be Christians. So I have made up my mind to bring it about that in these extreme parts of the world there should be a house somehow or other planted for our use : for I can already see in prospect how many nations that step would bring into the fold of Christ. In this island of Amboyna the heathen are far more numerous than the Mussulmans, and there is a bitter hatred between the two ; for the Mussulmans compel the natives either to become Mahometans or to be their slaves, and the heathen, hating even the name of Mahomet more than the yoke of slavery, repudiate altogether the superstition of the Mussul- mans. If there were people here to teach them the true religion, they would join the fold of Christ without much difficulty, for they have much less objection to the name of Christ than to that of Mahomet. It is about seventy years since the plague of Mahometanism invaded this island : before that time all the inhabitants were heathen. The evil was introduced by some Mahometan cacizes (ministers of religion), who came from Mecca in Arabia, where the accursed body of Mahomet is honoured with great superstition, and drew a large multitude of people to their own sect. The native Mussulmans are altogether ignorant, and know nothing of the pestilential doctrine which they profess to follow, so that I am led to hope that they may be easily converted from the Mahometan religion. Conversions easy. 37 I write all this to you at so much length that you may share my solicitude, and conceive, as is only right, an immense sorrow at the miserable loss of so many souls who are perishing daily, utterly destitute of aid. And those who desire to help them, don’t let them delay ; for even if they are not very well furnished with learning and other gifts, they will be quite fit for the work of which I speak, if they have made up their minds to come hither for the sake of Christ alone, to live with the people here, and breathe out their last in earnestly carrying out this resolution. If only a dozen would come out every year, so disposed, there would be an end altogether of this sect of Mahomet, and all would shortly be Christians. And what would result from this would be, that the majesty of God would not be insulted by so many atrocious and impious sins as is now the' case at the hands of this nation, because they are ignorant of the true religion. For the inhabitants of this island are for the most part savage and barbarous men, remarkable for perfidy and wonder- fully ungrateful. The islands have a wonderful climate ; they are full of large and dense trees, and have frequent rains to water them. They are defended on every side by steep rocks, and are so lofty and high that their inhabitants have no need of fortifications to repel hostile attacks. When war comes on, they think themselves quite safe enough if they can betake themselves to these rocks, the paths among which are so steep and so blocked up with stones that they never use horses, nor can use them. Moreover, there are frequent earthquakes among them, so great that mariners sailing by think that their ships have 38 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. met with rocks. There is at the same time such a rumbling in the ground, that every one is frightened beyond all belief. Many of the islands send up fire to a great distance, and the flames burst out with a c rash greater than that made by any brass gun, however large, when firing at full charge. Immense stones are sometimes cast up by the force and impetus of the fire. It would seem that, as these men have no one to warn them about the punishment of the wicked, God has been pleased as it were to open to them the abode of hell, and give them some pictures of the fires in which sinners are to be for ever tormented, so that they may be admonished by that awful sight, and come to understand what punishments will await them unless they abandon their abominable vices and crimes. But now to return to my intended voyage: I beseech you, my dearest fathers and brothers, by Jesus Christ the Lord of all things, by His most holy Mother, and the Saints of heaven who are in eternal glory, I pray and beg of you to remember me, and to pray God continually and most earnestly to be merciful to me. You see in how great need I am of protection. And I have often known that, in many dangers of soul and body, your prayers have been my saving. For my part, that I may not forget you, I carry about with me all your names, as they are written by your own hands as signatures to your letters to me, together with my solemn form of pro- fession ; and for the wonderful pleasure which I receive from that most delightful remembrance I give thanks first of all, as is right, to God, and then to you, my sweetest fathers and brothers, whom God has adorned with so many virtues. Amboy na. 39 And as I have the confidence that some day I shall have far greater pleasure from the enjoyment of your company in life eternal, I now forbear to converse with you any longer for the present. XVI. To the Society at Rome. Cochin, January 21, 1548. [ACCOUNT OF HIS MISSION.] In the year of our Lord 1 546 I wrote to you a long letter about the Molucca islands, which are situated about sixty leagues from Amboyna. In that island of Amboyna, where the King of Portugal keeps up a garrison, a great number of Portuguese reside who frequent the Moluccas, which are exceedingly fertile in all sorts of spices. This is the only place where the clove grows, which we call commonly the girofle. At Amboyna, which contains seven Christian villages, I stayed three months, and during that time I bap- tized a great number of children, whose salvation was in great danger from the want of any priest. The priest who had the charge of the mission died a long time ago. I had visited at leisure all the villages and baptized the children, when there arrived seven vessels, of which some were Spanish. These last came from New Spain, commonly called the West Indies, having been sent out by the Emperor Charles to discover new lands. They stayed at Amboyna about three months, and gave me plenty of occupation. I had to preach on Sundays and feast days, to hear many confessions every day, to appease differences, and to visit the sick. It was quite that kind of work, that, having to do with an unholy and quarrelsome set of people, 40 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. I had very little hope of gaining so much fruit in the way of peace as I did. I give endless thanks to God, Who was so wonderfully good in pouring peace into the hearts of men who, I may almost say, make it a matter of profession to be never at peace either with God or man. After three months the Spaniards sailed for Portuguese India, and I lost no time in passing over to the Moluccas, where I spent another three months preaching on feast days, hearing con- fessions continually, and teaching the Catechism every day to children and converts. On Sundays and feast days, in the afternoon, I gave the converts a full explanation of the Apostles’ Creed ; so that on these days I gave two instructions, one at the hour of mass to the Portuguese, the other in the afternoon to the converts. I have very good reason to thank God for the fruits which came of this work. The converts took up the practice of singing hymns of the praises of God with so much ardour, that the native boys in the street, the young girls and the women in the houses, the labourers in the fields, the fishermen on the sea, instead of singing licentious and blasphemous songs, were always singing the elements of the Christian doctrine. And as all the songs had been put in the language of the country, they were under- stood equally well by the newly made Christians and the heathen. And, by the favour of God, the Portuguese in the country and the rest of the in- habitants, both Christian and heathen, took such an affection for me that I found favour in their eyes. I passed from thence into the islands that are called ‘ of the Moor,’ about sixty leagues from Molucco. There were here many Christian villages unattended to for a length of time, both on account of their great Isles of the Moor . 4i distance from India, and because the natives had put to death the only priest who was among them. In these islands I baptized a great number of children, and in the space of three months, for I remained that length of time, I visited all the Christian villages, and made them devoted to Christ and to myself. All these isles are full of dangers, on account of the feuds which rage among the inhabitants and their civil wars ; the race is bar- barous, totally ignorant of letters, devoid of any written monuments of the past, and without any notions of reading or writing. It is their practice to take away the lives of any whom they hate by poison, and in this way a great many are killed. The soil is rugged and destitute of productions which support life. There is no corn nor wine; the natives scarcely know what flesh meat is ; they have no herds nor flocks, nothing but a few swine, which are rather objects of curiosity than food. Wild boars abound ; good water is very rare ; rice is plentiful ; there are also trees in great numbers from which they get a kind of bread and of wine, and others out of the woven bark of which the clothing which they all use is made. I have written all this to you, my dearest brothers, that you may know how much these islands overflow with heavenly joys. All these dangers and discomforts, when borne for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, are treasuries filled full with heavenly consolations, so much so that one might think these islands were just the places where in a few years one might lose one’s eyesight from weeping so abundantly the sweetest tears of joy. Nowhere do I remember either to have been so flooded with so much of limpid and perpetual spiritual delight, or to have borne so lightly all 42 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. fatigue and bodily trouble, though I was going about islands begirt with enemies, inhabited by not the most trustworthy friends, and entirely destitute of anything that could help in sickness, or could defend or preserve life when endangered. In short, it seems as if these isles should rather be called the Islands of Divine Hope than of the Moor. XVII. To the Society at Rome. Cochin, January 21, 1548. [ST. FRANCIS IN A STORM.] I have been in India a week today, and have not yet been able to see our brothers ; so I can say nothing of the fruits that have been gathered in these countries during my absence. But I suppose that our brothers will themselves have written you an account of their affairs. In returning from Malacca to India I went through some great dangers : for three days and three nights the vessel was at the mercy of a tempest such as I never remember to have seen before. Many on board were already bewailing their certain death, and made vows that if, by the help of God, they escaped this peril, they would never again go upon the sea. The merchants were obliged to ransom their lives by the casting overboard all their goods. In the height of the storm I made supplication to God, calling in as intercessors on earth, in the first place, the men of our Society and its friends, then all Christians, hoping that by the Church, the Spouse of Jesus Christ, whose continual prayers even while she dwells on earth are heard in heaven, we should be most diligently commended to the Heavenly King. Prayers in the Storm , 43 Then I implored the aid in order of all that are in heaven, and I especially invoked Peter Favre and all our brothers there, so as to use both living and dead intercessors to soften the anger of God. Lastly, I called upon all the choirs of Angels and all the different classes of the Saints one by one ; and to obtain more easily the pardon of my numberless sins, I put myself under the patronage of the most Holy Mother of God, the Queen of heaven, who always obtains from her Son without trouble whatever she asks. Lastly, on putting all my hope in the infinite merits of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, I enjoyed, surrounded as I was by so many and so powerful protectors, far greater pleasure while in danger in that horrible tempest than afterwards when I was delivered from the urgent peril. I am filled with confusion, that I, the most wicked of all mortals, should in that last moment of danger have shed so great a flood of tears out of heavenly joy. So then I prayed humbly to Jesus Christ our Lord not to deliver me from this peril unless He reserved me for equal or even greater dangers by and bye for His service and glory. It has often happened that God has made known to me by an interior instinct how many bodily dangers and occasions of spiritual loss have been prevented by the prayers and holy sacrifices of my brothers, partly those who are still militant on earth, partly those already enjoying the rewards of heaven. My object in writing this, my dearest fathers and brothers in Jesus Christ, is that for so many and so great benefits which I have received, you should yourselves repay my debt, both to God and to yourselves, as I am quite unequal to repaying it. When I once begin to speak or write of our 44 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. Society, I know not how to stop ; but the haste of the ships to depart obliges me against my will to leave off and close my letter. I cannot finish better than by making that old declaration : ‘ If ever I forget thee, O Society of Jesus, may my right hand be given to oblivion ! ’ so clearly have I seen how much I owe to all my brethren, and on how many accounts I am their debtor. God has been led by your prayers to grant me this very great boon, that according to my poor capacity I should understand how much I owe to our Society. In me there is no power or strength of mind which would make me at all able to take in the idea of such an accumulation of obligations ; but, that I might in some measure escape the reproach of ingratitude, God in His goodness and mercy has imparted to me some amount, small though it be, of knowledge on this score. But let me make an end. I pray Jesus our Lord, that as He has brought us together in this miserable life by calling us all into His own Society, so He may hereafter bring us together in that eternal blessedness of His by calling us all into the society of those who reign in heaven — especially since in this life for the sake of Him we are so far scattered in body one from another. XVIII. To John III., King of Portugal. Cochin, January 20, 1548. [RESPONSIBILITIES of the king.] Sire, . . . And now for what concerns myself in particular. I have thought long and much, I have long deliberated in my own mind whether I should or should not write a letter to your Highness to set Danger of the King. 45 forth what, as I look round on all that goes on here, and give all my most attentive consideration, it seems to me ought to be done in order to spread our holy faith widely in these parts and establish the same firmly. I felt impelled on the one hand to make the attempt by my desire to serve God and promote His glory, and on the other hand I was deterred from being so bold by my want of hope that the effort would be worth the trouble, feeling no confidence that what I should propose would ever be carried into effect. And yet I seemed to myself not to have the power of keeping silence without neglect- ing my duty, since it was very evident that it was not without the counsel of God that I should have the grace of forming these conclusions so decidedly in my mind. Nor could I imagine any more probable reason why God should have been fain to let me see these things, except in order that I might communicate them to your Highness. And yet again I felt the fear lest, if I were to lay before you what gives me so much anxiety, this letter of mine might perchance accuse your Highness before God, and make more severe for you the terror and risk of that last judgment of His, by taking away from your Highness -the excuse of ignorance. I pray your Highness to believe how much pain all this has caused me. My own inmost conscience bore me witness that I looked or desired for nothing here but to wear myself out with work, and sacrifice my life itself in bringing about the salvation of souls in those regions of India, so to lessen as far as is in my power the weight of that duty which is incumbent on your Highness, and, by discharging a part of that obligation which has been committed to your charge, make the account of your Highness’ conscience more 46 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. easy, and give you greater security in that terrible hazard of the final judgment of God. And indeed your Highness’ great love for the Society well deserves that I should wish to do this for your sake, and that I should think it well purchased at the cost of any exertion or trouble of my own. And to con- fess the truth, Sire, my mind has been wonderfully and very painfully torn and confused by these two heads of anxiety on such contrary grounds ; fearing at one time lest I should increase your danger, I was drawn now to one and now to the other alternative. But at last I have come to make my decision in favour of one, and that one which bade me once for all do my duty and relieve my conscience by pouring out to your Highness the thoughts which I have so long kept back. These, then, are the things which I have discovered from experience, long experience on the spot, in these regions of India, Malacca, and the Moluccas, and which wound my soul and kill me with heart sickness. Let your Highness take for certain what I sa)', that in these parts, as elsewhere also, it is the general rule for many things to be omitted which it would be expedient for the service of God should be done, on account of certain rivalries which, though they are masked under an appearance of what deserves respect, are in truth vicious and hurtful. On account of these, the men who have the manage- ment of affairs out here are set against one another by secret and small causes of offence. One man says, ‘ This is my business, and I will not allow another to have the credit of it.’ Another, on the other hand, says, ‘ I don’t do this, and so I do not like you to do it.’ Then comes another with a different complaint, ‘ I bear the burden of the day Thoughts of Japan . 47 and do the work, while the favour and the fruits of it go to others.’ They get earnest and hot in their bickerings, and then each one works and writes for his own side, so as to gain his own advancement. Meanwhile time is wasted, occasions slip away, and the opportunity for promoting the honour of our Lord God is lost. And from just the same cause it often happens that occasions are neglected which would have brought much honour and great advan- tage to your Highness’ interests in India. And I say again that, as I hardly hope that it will ever be so, I am almost inclined to repent having written what I have, especially when I think that perhaps your Highness will receive a more inexorable judgment at the tribunal of God on account of the very fact that I have given you this warning. I know not whether at such a time the objection that your Highness may perhaps allege, that you are not bound to believe what I write, will be admitted ; and I assure your Highness in the most perfect sincerity and entire truthfulness, that I would by no means have written what I have concerning the Governors or Commandants of these parts, if I had been able in any way to persuade myself that I could keep these things unsaid without sin. I have not yet, Sire, fully made up my mind whether I shall go to Japan ; but a great motive for my inclining to the plan of going to that country is added by this fact, that I am very much without hope that, here in India, I shall find that true and efficient support from the officials which is necessary in order to increase our holy faith and to preserve the Christians already made. 48 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . And now to end, I make this prayer : May our Lord God grant to your Highness to understand most thoroughly and intimately, and also to put in execution at once, all that at the moment of your death you would rejoice to have done. XIX. To St. Ignatius at Rome. Cochin, January 20, 1548. [ArPEAL FOR SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE.] God knows, my dearest Father, how greatly I long to see you in this life as well as in the next, that I may talk over with you a number of things which require help and remedy from you. No distance of place is an obstacle to obedience. I see that there are now many of our Society in these parts, and I see also that we are in great need of some good physician for our souls ; and so, my best of Fathers, I pray and intreat you by our Lord Jesus, to look after us, your children here in India, as well as others, and send us some one of very great virtue and holiness, whose vigour and zeal may stir up my torpor and sluggishness. I am in great hopes, as you under- stand thoroughly, by God’s assistance, the state and inclinations of our minds, that you will take diligent measures in order that the langour in virtue, which has crept over all of us here, may be strongly stirred up, and that we may be roused to the study of perfection. Preachers wanted. 49 XX. To Simon Rodriguez in Portugal, Cochin, January 20, 1548. [needs of the mission.] If there is one thing which, for his very numerous and very great deserts at the hands of our Society, I should like to have the King of Portugal warned about, since it is his business beyond all to provide for the salvation first of his own people and those of the heathen who are in his dominions, I would desire that the King, both for the sake of the service of God and also to discharge a religious obligation of his own soul, should place in all the towns of India which are occupied by his garrisons good preachers, either of our Society or of the Franciscans or the Dominicans, who should be free and disengaged from other cares, to preach on the Gospel in the forenoon of the Sundays and festivals to the Portu- guese, and in the afternoon to explain the Articles of the Faith to their servants and slave girls as well as to the native converts ; they should also once a week preach to the wives and children of the Portuguese on the Articles of the Creed and the sacraments of Confession and Communion : for I have learnt by experience how great necessity there is out here for this kind of instruction. If I thought that the King would not be averse to my most faithful and loving counsels, I would give him a most salutary bit of advice, for a quarter of an hour every day to meditate on that divine saying,. ‘ What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his own soul ? ’ and to ask God to give him a thorough understanding of it, together E 50 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. with a strong interior feeling of its truth, and also to make that same sentence, * What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world,’ and the rest, a kind of conclusion to all the prayers that he says. It is time now to tear away from the King the mistake under which he lies ; for the hour is nearer than he thinks, when the King of kings and the Ruler of rulers is to call him to Himself to give an account, with that terrible call — ‘ Give an account of thy stewardship ! ’ And so do you take care to bring about that he really sends out to India what is necessary for the propagation of the faith in that country. XXI. To the Fathers on the Comorin Coast. October, 1548. [importance of baptizing infants.] The thing which I wish to commend to you above everything else is that you should employ special diligence and watchfulness as to the baptism of little children, so as not to leave any lately born child not regenerated in the saving laver of Christ in any of the villages or farm settlements in which you are either at present labouring or shall hereafter have any charge. I consider that to be the chief and most salutary of all the forms of ministry in which you can be employed in these parts, and therefore I would have you never commit it to another, or trust for it to any one but yourselves. Make search and inquiry for yourselves, and baptize with your own hands all those whom you find in want of that most necessary sacrament. I know that the royal officers who have authority over the natives have received Baptism of Infants. 5i orders, and also that the heads of families have been strictly charged to give information, and to fetch those who are to administer Baptism, as soon as they see their families increased by a new birth. But it is not well to rest upon this as a ground of security. The officials will have other things to do, and the fathers will forget. Meanwhile, the little ones will die without Baptism. So you must go yourselves, make strict search and inquiry, asking from door to door whether, since you have been there, any woman has given birth to a child, and whether for any cause at all there is to be found there a soul which has not yet had the holy water poured upon it. You will very seldom make these inquiries without fruit. The people will bring you their babies, you must make them Christians at once and secure~tHe^ salvation of their souls , which unless you use all this diligence will be in great danger of losing eternal happiness. Trust my experience ; all, of any moment, that we can do among this nation, all that is worth our labour, comes in the end to these two kinds of service, baptizing infants, and teaching the children who have any capacity for learning. So I would enjoin upon you to look after this second with as much diligence as the first, or even greater. I mean, that you take all most efficient care that the instruction of children goes on without intermission. I mean, that you are to take care that this is done by others, for it is quite clear that you cannot do it yourselves. You ought not to have a fixed and permanent home in any one single village, but to be always free and ready to pass to all spots, one after the other, and watch over the increase of the Church in these parts by visiting and making a circuit over the whole 52 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. country, which very much needs such vigilance. Thus 3^ou cannot find time for the attention neces- sary to the holding of schools everywhere, day after day. So you must appoint in each village or station fitting teachers and canacapoli, as we have already arranged, and these must assemble the children every day at a certain time and place, and teach and drive into them the elements of reading and of religion, and the prayers which all must know by heart. And that this may be done with greater exactness, you must never omit, whenever in your circuits you visit any particular village, to have all the children assembled, and to make them give an account, in the presence of their teachers, of what they have learnt, so as to put to the proof their diligence as well as that of their teachers, taking careful notice how much of the sacred prayers each one can recite without fault, and how far each one has got in learning and understanding the catechism. And you must give out that you will soon come back again to measure how far they shall have advanced beyond what they have now attained to, in propor- tion to the interval of time which will have elapsed, and that you will judge from that who has been working hard and who has been idle. The expec- tation of your visit will sharpen the industry both of the teachers and of the scholars. XXII. To Diego Pereira. Goa, April 2, 1548. [exhortation to care of his conscience.] It would have been much more what I wished if I could have seen you before your departure for China, Care of Conscience . 53 instead of having to write to you at a distance ; but the Governor has desired me to come hither to Goa, and I am obliged to do as he wishes. I had a plan of visiting my brethren of the Society on the Comorin Promontory. It would indeed have been a joy to me if it had been allowed me to talk over with so true and faithful a friend as you a good many things which relate to my voyage to Japan, which I hope to undertake in a year’s time from this. I have heard from good authority that a rich harvest of souls can be reaped in those parts, and the Christian faith propagated far and wide. And now I charge you for the sake of the friendship between us to provide yourself before you go to China with a certain ware which is of infinite value, but which the merchants who go to Malacca and China generally don’t seem to care for. The ware I mean is a good conscience, a thing which men of that sort know very little about. The merchants appear to persuade them- selves that it will be all over with their fortune alto- gether if they look to the affairs of their souls and of their consciences. Nevertheless, I have good confidence that, by the .assistance of God, my very dear friend Diego Pereira will take with him a very large supply of this mer- chandize of a good conscience, and that he will gain great riches thereby, though the rest of the merchants by their neglect of these things will be reduced to indigence. I shall certainly never leave off praying God to guide you in safety to China, to bring you back to us in safety and much increased and en- riched in all the good things of the soul, far more .than in those of worldly wealth. 54 Counsels of St . Francis Xavier. XXIII. Description of St. Francis by his brethren. Goa, 1548. Scattered throughout the letters of this time which were sent home by the Fathers newly come to India, are notices of Francis which show the same in- stinctive appreciation of his marvellous and most attractive sanctity. * I wish to tell you about Master Francis,’ writes Enrico Enriquez to Ignatius Loyola in the October of this year. ‘ Give great thanks to God our Lord, with all of our Society. For what St. Paul says, that he became all things to all men, that he might gain all, this Master Francis tries as much as he can et supra quod did potest to accomplish, and no pen can describe to your Reverence what a reputation he has in India, from which result much fruit and great praise to God our Lord, and all the people hold him for a great saint. He is never anywhere where he does not find super- abundant occupations, so much so that a man thinks himself very well off if he can speak to him.’ ‘ He is a true Father,’ writes Manuel de Monies a few months later than this ; * no one, I think, can see him without great consolation, the very sight of him seems to move to devotion : he is a man of middle height, he always holds his face upwards, and his eyes are full of tears, his look is bright and joyous, his words few and exciting to devotion, you hear nothing from his mouth but “Jesus” and “O Most Holy Trinity.” . . . And then he broke out, “ O my brothers and companions, how much better is God to us than we thought of! Consider this and give great thanks and praise to God our Lord, that in Description of St. Francis. 5 5 so short a time as it is since our holy Society was confirmed, being only seven years, it has pleased Him to work in it all that we see, my dearest brothers : that some of us are in Rome, some in Valencia, others in Gandia, others in Coimbra, in the College of Santa Fe at Goa, and in Cape Como- rin, and Socotra, and Malacca, and the Moluccas, and others, whither I am going, in Japan.” These words he said,’ continues Manuel, ‘ with so much devotion, that he moved all of us who were there to tears and devotion, only to hear his words so full of love and charity, said for an example to us and to make us all conceive greater fervour of spirit, and increased desires of suffering ; and to this end, he relates to us the trials and tribulations which he had suffered in the countries whence he came, in which he did such things and left behind him so great a fame of sanctity and virtue, that it is not just to write of it while he lives. So great is the esteem in which he is held all over India, both by great and small, that the man who is most his friend counts himself the most fortunate.’ Another, Paolo Vallez, was sent on straight from Goa after his arrival with Antonio Gomez, and met with Francis at Cochin : ‘ Who can tell,’ he says, ‘ the delight which my soul then received ? I know not how to say it, except in poor words : this is truly a servant of God, and never was any like him ! I do not say his speech, but his very look kindles in men such a desire to serve God as cannot be expressed. His mouth never ceased from saying, “ Praised be Jesus Christ ! ” with so much love and fervour as to enrapture all whom he spoke unto.’ Then he goes on to tell how Francis was never tired of asking about the fathers and brothers everywhere, especially Simon Rodriguez, 56 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . the Provincial of Portugal, but Father Ignatius above all, and also Father Strada. Melchior Gonzalez writes in the same strain. He was one of those who saw Francis at Goa before he left for Cape Comorin. * Francis is all full of divine love, and seems to feel nothing else. It would be impossible to begin to describe his virtues ; there would be no end to it — or to speak of his miracles and holy discourses. He is a man not old, and of good health, he drinks no manner of wine, and seems to feel no privation, because he is wrapped up in the wounds of his Lord. We may all say,’ he adds, ‘ that we have among us a living martyr, and I think he will soon be really a martyr, for he seems to me to seek nothing else.’ XXIV. To Father Francesco Enriquez. Punical, Oct. 19, 1548. [ENCOURAGEMENT TO A M1SSIONER.] I would much rather, dearest brother, talk to you face to face than by letter, and so give you some little consolation for all the toils and discomforts and trials you are bearing for the sake of Christ. You do not ask for consolation of that kind which forms the delight of men of the world who give themselves to all the pleasures of this world that they may live in gaiety and enjoyments. We must needs feel a great compassion for the lot of such. The men whose part we should envy must be those of whom, as the Apostle says, the world was not worthy. Do not grieve, my dear brother, that you make less progress than you could wish in your careful work among these new converts. As you tell me, the nation is addicted to idolatry, and the Rajah himself Baptized infants in Heaven. 57 is hostile to our religion and bitterly persecutes Christians. Well, you do more good than you think, by regenerating in baptism for the kingdom of heaven the infants whom you so diligently seek out and collect. For if you choose to look round you in mind, you will find that of all people in India, whether white or black, very few reach heaven except those who die before they are fourteen years old, and so depart from this life with their baptismal innocence. Do not you see, dearest brother, that you are doing more good where you are than you think ? Surely we can see this in the case of the children whom you have baptized and who are now enjoying the bliss of heaven, which they certainly would not be enjoying if you had left those parts and had not begotten them by baptism unto Christ. In truth the ever- lasting enemy of souls hates you very much and strongly desires that you should go out of the country as soon as possible, so that for the future no one may be called to the kingdom of heaven out of the realm of Travancore. It is one of his snares to hold out to us a hope of greater good for the service of God elsewhere ; he tries to tempt and turn away those who are working usefully for God where they are at present ; and so I am afraid that he may be attacking you with this artifice of his in order to drive you away from that part of the country. But you should remember that during the eight months which you have now spent there, you have saved more souls by baptizing infants at the point of death than in all the years during which you have been in Portugal and in India ; so do not think it wonderful that Satan should give you so much trouble as he does. He does it and fights for it that he may 58 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. draw you out of that country into another where you may look after the salvation of very few instead of many. xxv. To St. Ignatius at Rome. Cochin, Jan. 14, 1549. [choice of a superior.] Any one whom you are to send to be Rector of the College at Goa, where he will rule the native students as well as our own people, must have, besides the other qualities which are necessary in Rectors, two recommendations in particular. In the first place, let him be conspicuous for singular obedience, so as to win by his obligingness and humility the goodwill of the government officials and ecclesiastical superiors. This is a place of all others where superiors of both kinds require the greatest possible degree of attention and obedience from those who are under them. If they see that we observe their wishes and obey their orders, they are wonder- fully kind to us ; but if they see any failing in this, they altogether turn against us. In the second place, he should be very easy and gentle ; affable in behaviour and speech rather than grave or severe, so as both to desire and to be able to bind to himself in every way the hearts of all, and especially of the students and brethren whom he is to rule. On no account let him be a man who would rather be feared than loved, and who would take the line of keeping those of the Society who are committed to him under rule and subjection as if they were slaves. That kind of sourness would make many leave us, and prevent any but a few from joining us. St. Pietro in Montorio. 59 For my part, I think that no force should ever be used, except perhaps that of love and charity, to keep any one against his wish in the Society, and I rather hold that those who dislike the institute of the Society should be sent away, even when they do not wish it ; but, for those who are fit and proper subjects, they should be kept in it by the bonds of charity, and made to increase in virtue and merits, especially since in these parts they have to bear so many sorrows for the sake of Christ our Lord. In truth, as it seems to me, the Society of Jesus is nothing but a society of love and concord, from which all sourness and all servile fear are altogether foreign and alien. I say all this, that you may pick out a man fit and adapted for the burden of the post. He ought, in short, to be such a man as even in giving an order seems rather to desire to do what he is told than to command. I will ask you one thing for myself : that some priest of ours may throughout the year say Mass once a month for me at St. Pietro in Montorio, in the chapel where St. Peter the Apostle is said to have been crucified. I wish also that you would charge some one in the Gesu to write to us regularly and fully concerning the Colleges of the Society, the professed Fathers, their duties, and the work that the Society is doing and the fruit it is reaping. I have given orders at Goa that the letters from Rome be sent to Malacca, and that at Malacca they be copied and sent to me by many different hands to Japan. And now, father of my soul, whom I venerate with all my heart, I humbly pray you on my knees, for so it is that I write this letter, as if I had you here 6o Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. present to look upon, never to cease to implore God for me in your holy sacrifices and prayers, that as long as my life lasts He may give me the grace clearly to know and fully to carry out His own most holy Will. And I ask that the rest of our brethren be entreated to do the same for me. XXVI. To John III., King of Portugal. Cochin, Jan. 20, 1549. [duties of the king.] I pray your Highness to pardon me if I put things as they are, so clearly and without circumlocution ; for I am compelled to do this by my sincere and true love for your Highness, and the desire which I have for your eternal salvation. I seem to myself to hear the sentence of God at the great Judgment Day giving out His decree, or rather declaring then to all what He has before decreed at your last moment, when you die ; the stern necessity of which moment no one however powerful can avoid, no one, either by artifice of his own or the work of any one what- soever, is able to escape. Nor, I beseech you, let your Highness think much of those commands, many and grave as they are, which you piously and with such fair show are in the habit of inserting in your royal letters to the Governor, the Commandants, and the other officials in India, ordering that before all things else care be taken for religion, and favour be shown to the Christians ; for I, Sire, who am on the spot to see things as they really are here, am clearly con- vinced that no hope remains of any true and serious obedience being ever paid to these commands. And on this account it is one, and not the least, of the The Armenian Bishop . 61 reasons why I intend to go to Japan, that I may fly away to those islands in the extreme East, and there labour for God with greater usefulness than has been possible to me hitherto. It is now five-and-forty years that a certain Armenian Bishop, by name Abuna Jacob, has served God and your Highness in this country. He is a man who is about as dear to God on account of his virtue and holiness as he is neglected and despised by your Highness, and in general by all who have any power in India. God thus rewards his great deserts Himself, and does not think us worthy of the honour of being the instruments whom He uses to console His servants. The Franciscan Fathers alone take care of him, and show him kind- ness to which nothing can be added. But for this, the good old man would long ago have breathed out his soul, worn out by affliction. Allow me, Sire, to advise what I think would be well. I would very much recommend your Highness to order a letter to be written in your name to this good Bishop in kind and honourable terms, and to let an order which may be shown to the Governors and Procurators, your officers, be inserted in the same letter, enjoining on them, and especially on the Commandant of Cochin, to show him honour, give him hospitality, and treat him with favour and attention, especially whenever he asks for or is in need of anything. While I have been writing this I have seemed to myself to be serving and doing a favour, not so much to that pious Bishop as to your Highness. For at present, from the charity of the Franciscan Fathers, he wants for nothing, while your Highness is very greatly in want of the goodwill and inter- 62 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . cession of a man very acceptable to God as he is, and this benefit you will be able to earn by such an act of kindness as I mention. The Bishop very greatly deserves such treatment on this account if on no other — that he has spent much labour in attending to the Christians of St. Thomas, and now in his all but decrepit old age he conforms himself most obediently to all the rites and customs of our holy Mother the Roman Church. I know that your Highness is in the habit of writing to the Franciscan Fathers, and this letter to the Armenian Bishop might be inserted in the same packet ; and I would urge your Highness to write it full of all manner of expressions of your favour, esteem, and affection for him. And now may God our Lord impress deeply on the mind of your Highness a clear knowledge of His most holy will, and may He at the same time supply you with strength and give you His holy assistance, that you may fully and perfectly execute the same in such wise as your Highness would rejoice to have done in the final hour of death, when, Sire, you will have to give to God an account of all your life up to that time ! That moment, which will decide on your eternity, will come more quickly than your Highness thinks, and so it is well to take measures in good time that you may go to meet it well prepared. Kingdoms and reigns pass away, and after them will succeed a new and most unexpected aspect of affairs, such as never yet came into the mind of your High- ness, not even in thought or in the first beginnings of suspicion. For you will see yourself despoiled by death of your kingdom, cast out from all your pos- sessions, and thrust forth into other realms, far different from these — realms of terror and darkness, Simon Rodriguez. 63 into which it will be a very hard and a very bitter lot to be banished after having been torn away from those others of your own ; more especially if — what God avert ! — you were to be sentenced to remain outside Paradise, and to be denied all hope of ever entering there. XXVII. To Master Simon Rodriguez. Cochin, January 28, 1549. [hopes to meet hereafter.] So do you, my dearest brother Simon, make it your business to come out hither as soon as possible with great forces of our Society, partly preachers, partly also workers in other ways. Only avoid one thing — not to bring many young men, for out here we want men of from thirty up to forty years of age ; men moreover adorned with all other virtues, but especially with humility, meekness, patience, and above all, purity. You know my old bad habit, that when I write to you I can never leave off. Well, this of itself ought to be enough to make you see what pleasure I take in such an occupation, but especially when I have set myself down to write after having been challenged to do so by letters from you. So now I will end, though it is hard to know where to stop. But I do hope that some day or other we shall see one another again, in China or in Japan, or at all events in heaven, where, as I hope we have alike been called by the singular bounty and gift of God into a share of His celestial kingdom, we shall enjoy God the everlasting Fountain of all good things for ever and for ever ! Amen. 6\ Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. XXVIII. To Master Simon Rodriguez. Cochin, Jan. 25, 1549. [a letter of recommendation.] The person who will deliver this letter to you is a man with whom I have a certain amount of acquaint- ance. He is going to Portugal in order to ask the King for a reward for some service which he has done to the State, and has urgently pressed me to give him letters of recommendation to you as to that business. Now I am quite aware, and I have not concealed from my friend himself, that it would be much more profitable to employ himself in another branch of the art of petitioning — applying, that is, to God, and obtaining from Him the pardon of his sins — than to go supplicating from a mortal king an earthly reward for his merits and good deeds. But it was not possible to persuade him, at least here, to give up his hopes and intentions. I am of opinion that when he lands in Portugal you should try whether the change of scene has changed his mind in this respect ; and if perchance the evils and dangers of the voyage have made him more amen- able to heavenly admonitions, then persuade him rather to stay in Portugal as a monk than to come out here again as a soldier. If you succeed, you will have done the poor wretch a very great kind- ness, and have made gain of a soul that was lost. But if his mind be still fixed on transitory things, and he be not able to rise to such a height of philo- sophy as I mention, then by all means let him have your help in obtaining his just demands, and use your influence, as far as you may, that out of the Methods of the Saint. 65 rewards which he has earned by long service as a soldier he may have at least so much given him as may be enough for him to live on at home. And I beg you again and again, for the love of God, to attempt to get this done for His sake. XXIX. St. Francis Xavier's instructions drawn from his own experience. Francis had soon discerned the great worth of Gaspar Baertz, and though he had wished to place him at the head of the College at Goa, in many respects the most important post in India, he determined to send this his best worker to Ormuz, in the same spirit in which he had himself been given to the Indian missions by Ignatius. The instructions given by Francis to Gaspar are almost the most precious part of all that remains to us of their writer. At first sight they might seem to find their place by the side of his rules for the daily exercise of Christian virtues, or of his long explanation of the Creed. But they are not simple instructions — interesting as such would always be to us, if they came from the pen of Francis Xavier. The reader will find Francis insisting much, in the paper which we are next to insert, on the necessity of a study and familiar knowledge of mankind for the Christian preachers and apostles, on the indispensable need of experi- ence and acquaintance with the human heart acquired by constant and observant intercourse, if any really great effect is to be produced in gaining souls to God. He is almost severe — at least he seems to have felt that what he had said needed F 66 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. some counterbalancing — against the mere study of books, however good and authoritative, as a prepara- tion for the apostolic life and ministry. We may be sure, then, that in his instructions to Gaspar Baertz he has drawn largely on his own experience. It is his own method of dealing with men which he urges on his disciple. We may therefore take a large part of the follow- ing treatise, as it may almost be called, as a sort of unconscious contribution to our knowledge of Francis Xavier given us by his own hand. In many points this is obvious upon the very face of his instructions. The immense importance which he attaches to the care of the missionary’s own conscience as his first and most essential duty, the continual practice of works of humility and charity, which he recom- mends, the prudence on which he insists as necessary in all dealings with men, the attentive humble con- sideration to be paid to the Bishop’s Vicar and the priests of the place, and also to the Governor of Ormuz, the practice of preaching on board ship and on the Sundays and festivals when the place of destination has been reached, the labours which are to be undertaken for the conversion of the heathen, the custom of going round the streets by night to solicit prayer for the holy souls, — these and several other points which are salient in his instruc- tions to Gaspar we already know to belong to the daily practical life of Francis Xavier himself. This being the case, it is easy to see that in other matters he is also relating his own experience and recommend- ing the method pursued by himself. We learn thus what was the staple of his sermons, how he dealt with penitents in the confessional, how he behaved himself with the rough, lawless class of sinners, the His own experience. 6 7 merchants, the soldiers, the seamen, or again with the officers of the revenue and the rich but good- natured voluptuaries who were thrown across his path or drawn to him by that irresistible attractive- ness which was his special gift, the dowry of his holiness and of his close loving imitation of Him who was the friend of publicans and sinners. Ormuz, wicked as it was, perhaps pre-eminent in wickedness, must yet have been a place not different in kind as to its inhabitants or their vices from Malacca, or Ternate, or even Cochin or Goa itself : and we may learn more than we already know of Francis Xavier, in his familiar intercourse with the many men which he reclaimed to God at those places, by these direc- tions which he gives to Gaspar as to the stray sheep at Ormuz. Above all, we may be sure that in the heroic charity which he recommends in the con- fessional, when he says that timid souls, who cannot for shame reveal their sins, are to be encouraged by their confessor’s even revealing to them the worst sins of his own former life, we have a lesson which he would never have given if he had not practiced it himself. The same may be said as to the manner in which novices and postulants are to be dealt with, and the universal rules of prudence, sweetness, and the careful study of men’s characters before attempt- ing to do them good, which are here inculcated. If the letter of instruction to Master Gaspar be read in the light of these considerations, we shall come to understand its value, not only as embodying spiritual counsels of the most exquisite and refined wisdom, but as adding largely to our acquaintance with the character of Francis himself. 68 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. xxx. To Father Gaspar Baertz , going to Ormuz. Goa, March, 1549. [care of his own conscience.] § I. Above all things be mindful of yourself, and of discharging faithfully what you owe first to God, and then to your own conscience ; for by means of these two duties you will find yourself become more capable of serving your neighbours and of gaining souls. Take care always to incline, even beyond moderation, to the practice of the most abject employments. By exercising yourself in them, you will acquire humility, and daily advance in that virtue. For this reason I would have you not leave to any other, but yourself take charge of, the teach- ing the ignorant those prayers, which every Christian ought to have by heart : an employment certainly by no means ostentatious. Have yourself the patience to make the children and slaves of the Portuguese repeat them word by word after you. Do the same thing to the children of the native Christians. Those who behold you thus diligently employed will never suspect you of any arrogance — they will be edified by your modesty ; and as modest persons easily attract the esteem of others, they will judge you more fit to instruct themselves in those mysteries of the Christian religion of which they are ignorant. You must frequently visit the poor in the hospitals and poorhouses, and from time to time exhort them to confess themselves, and to communicate ; giving them to understand that confession is the remedy Care of the poor . 69 for past sins, and holy communion a preservation against relapses — that both of them destroy the causes of the miseries which they now suffer, and which they fear for the future, inasmuch as the ills they suffer are only the punishment of their offences. On this account, when they are willing to confess, you should hear their confessions with all the leisure you can afford them. After this care taken of their souls, do what you can to help the poor creatures in what they want for their bodies ; recommend them with all diligence and affection to the administrators of the establishment in which they are, or else pro- cure them from others who can help them the relief which they need. You must also visit and preach to the prisoners, and exhort them earnestly to make a general con- fession of their lives. They have more need than others to be stirred up to this, because many or most people of that sort have never made an exact confession since they were born. After this, ask the Brotherhood of Mercy to have pity on those poor wretches, and to labour with the judges to look into their causes and to provide daily food for the most necessitous, who oftentimes have not wherewithal to subsist. You must be of all the service you can to the Brotherhood of Mercy, showing yourself devoted to it, promoting it, commending it, and most readily working in every way in your power to help it. 70 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. XXXI. To the same. [HOW to deal as to restitution.] § 2 . If in that great port of Ormuz you have to hear the confession of any rich merchants whom you find to have the possession of ill-gotten goods on their consciences, and who are bound and willing to restore them, but yet cannot make restitution to the persons who have been injured, either because they are dead, or because of themselves they know not who or where they are, even though they force upon you the money for restitution, remit the whole thereof into the hands of the Brotherhood of Mercy, even though you may think of some necessitous persons on whom such charity might be well employed. Thus you will not expose yourself to be deceived by the insidious tricks of wicked men, who affect an air of innocence and poverty ; men full to the throat of imposture and wickedness, but who cannot so easily deceive the Brotherhood of Mercy, to whom it will be much safer and more seemly for you to transfer the invidious and perplexing office of making all due inquiries ; thus the alms will reach those who are truly poor, and the greedy lying of these avaricious impostors will be defeated. And besides, you will gain the more leisure for those functions which in a more especial manner belong to your state of life, which is devoted to the assistance of souls : otherwise this frequent and manifold care of the distribution of alms would deprive you of no small part of the leisure which you will need so much. In fine, by this means you will prevent the Caution. 7 1 complaints and suspicions of men, who from their own common badness, would be ready to think evil of you, as if, under the pretence of serving others, you were cunningly playing a game for yourself, and withdrawing for your own use a part of the money intrusted to you to give away, thus cheating the necessities of the poor and practising a wicked theft upon them. In dealing with those whom in the various inter- course of life you come across, whether in spiritual or secular things, whether at home or abroad, whether it be in the way of speech or of company, whether their familiarity or friendship with you be only ordinary or of the highest degree, always bear yourself as if you had it in your mind that they might one day become your enemies instead of your friends. By this management of yourself, you will never let them be aware of any act or word of yours which, if they were to bring out at any time when in a passion, might make you blush for it as an exposure of yourself, or be sorry for it on account of mischief it might cause to your work and business. This perpetual watchfulness and care is made necessary for us on account of the wickedness of this corrupt world, whose children are continually observing the children of light with mistrustful and malignant eyes. And the same care is due also for the sake of your own spiritual advancement, which will make great progress if you regulate all your words and actions by continual and most attentive prudence. By this same precaution you will guard the inconstant minds of your friends against the danger of change. In any case you will prepare for yourself in their minds many things which will be your defenders, for they will remember the uprightness 72 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. of your conduct, and they will conceive a reverence for you which will put them to confusion if ever they become your enemies. This consideration of the instability of men will also make you look more to God, despise yourself more, and cling to God, Who is ever present to us, with extreme humility and great sweetness of soul : practices which if we omit, we find a number of things stealing upon us which hurt the eyes of people who see us, and gradually alienate from us their goodwill. The examen, which we call particular, will do a great deal as to keeping up this carefulness. Take care never to fail to make it twice a day, or once at least, according to our common method, whatsoever business you have upon your hands. Before all things, devote your first and principal care to cleansing your own conscience and keeping it without stain. Let your diligence in preserving or in cleansing the consciences of others come after this of your own ; for how can a man be of use to others who takes no care for himself? Preach to the people as frequently as ever you can : for the usefulness of preaching spreads far and wide every- where ; and amongst all evangelical employments there is none from which greater fruit for the service of God and the good of men can be expected. xxxii. To the same. [prudence in preaching.] § 3 - In your sermons beware of admitting any doubtful propositions as to which there is difficulty, because doctors are divided. For the subjects of sermons Sermons. 73 should be chosen from clear and unquestionable truths, which tend to the regulation of manners and the reprehension of vices. Set forth the enormity of sin, enlarge on the atrocity of the offence to God’s infinite Majesty which is committed by the sinner. Imprint in souls a lively horror of that sentence which shall be thundered out against guilty sinners at the last judgment. Represent with all the colours of your eloquence those most bitter pains which the damned are eternally to suffer in hell. In fine, threaten them with death, and especially with sudden and unexpected death, those particularly who neglect the service of God, and who, having their conscience loaded with many most grievous sins, think nothing of sleeping on in supine negligence in such a condition. You are to mingle with all these considerations the remembrance of the cross, the wounds, and death of Christ, by which He vouchsafed to atone for our sins ; but you are to do this in as moving and pathetical a manner as possible, by figures and colloquies proper to excite emotions in the mind, such as cause in our hearts a deep sorrow for our sins, on account of the offence done to God thereby, even so as to draw tears from the eyes of your audience, who are then to be led to make resolutions of cleansing their consciences as soon as possible by confession, and of celebrating their reconciliation to God by due reception of the holy Communion. This is the one true idea which I wish you would propose to yourself for preaching profitably. When you reprove vices in the pulpit be careful never to speak against or attack any person by name, especially those who are officers or magis- trates. If they do anything which you disapprove, 74 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. and of which you think convenient to admonish them, make them a visit, and speak to them in private ; or when they come of themselves to con- fession, whisper to them in the secret tribunal of penance, what you have to say to them. But altogether avoid the speaking against them openly ; for they are a sort of people who are commonly difficult and irritable, and they are so far from amending upon such public admonitions that they are stung by them, and become furious, like bulls under a gadfly, and rush headlong to perdition. Moreover, before you take upon you to give even private admonitions take care that you know them a little first, and have some familiarity with the people whom you wish to correct, so to prepare your way : and then make your admonition either more gentle or more strong in tone according to the measure of your favour or authority with the friend you are reproving, so as to be more free and severe with one who is more bound to you, and more sparing and cautious with one with whom you are less familiar. Take care always to temper the sternness of your reproof with the serenity of your air, a smiling countenance, and gentle glances, and much more by the civility of well-mannered words, and the sincere protestation of your love, which is the only thing which forces on you that unpleasant but necessary attempt to deliver a friend from the stain which disfigures him. It is good also to add to the pleasantness of your discourse marks of submissive reverence, with tender embraces, and all other fitting marks of the sincere goodwill and unquestionable respect which you have for the person of him whom you are correcting. These things are the honey and preserves which are mixed with and which season Confession. 75 the bitterness of the dose, unpleasant in itself, and which will turn out of no use if it be administered without some such condiment to men whose stomachs are likely to be turned by it. For if a harsh voice, a rigid countenance, or threatening aspect and a lowering brow should be added to the natural disagreeableness of so unpleasant a matter as a reprehension, I am very much afraid that men of such fastidious delicacy and sensitive ears will not be able to restrain their bile. They have power at their back, they are accustomed to adulation ; and it is more likely, in such cases, that they will shake off all restraint and moderation, and send their inopportune censor about his business, with a good deal of abuse into the bargain. XXXIII. To the same. [instructions for the confessional.] § 4. For what concerns confession, how you are to advise others, and they to practise it, this is the method which I judge the fittest for these quarters of the world, where the licence of sin is very great, and the use of penance very rare. Whenever you find a person who wishes to unburthen in confession a conscience laden with a long accumulation of sin, exhort him in the first place to take two or three days of preparation, to examine his conscience thoroughly, to go back to the first recollections of his childhood, then through all the various stages of age and occupation which he has passed through in all his life up to this time, making up the account of all his sins in deed, word, or thought, and if his 76 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . memory require it, writing it down and reading it over. When he is thus prepared, you can hear his confession, after which it will generally be well that you should not give Him absolution at once, but persuade him to think it over for two or three days, to withdraw his mind from his ordinary occupations, and by means of meditations adapted to excite him to sorrow for his sins, out of love to God Whom he has offended, to prepare himself to gain greater fruit from his sacramental absolution. During those three days you shall exercise your penitent in some of the meditations of the first week of the Exercises, giving him the points, and teaching him the method of meditation and of prayer, and you shall counsel him also to help himself, by means of some voluntary penance, for example, of fasting or disciplining him- self, to conceive in his inmost heart a true detestation for his offences, and even shed tears of repentance. Besides this, you must take care, if the penitents have unjust possession of anything belonging to others, that they make restitution in this interval of time ; or if they have injured the reputation of any one, that they retract what they have said ; or if they are engaged in unlawful attachments and have been living in sin, cause them to break off those criminal engagements, and remove at once the occa- sions of their crime. However solemnly and seriously they may promise to do these things at a future time, it is not safe to trust them without the actual per- formance of their engagement. Let them perform beforehand what they declare that they will do. There is not any time more proper to exact from sinners these duties, the performance of which is as necessary as it is difficult. For when once their fervour and excitement of mind have grown cold, and their Kindness in the Confessional. 77 familiar enticements have begun to drag them back with fatal persuasiveness to the sins to which they have been accustomed and which they have but just left off for the time, it will be in vain to ask them to keep their promise. Before, therefore, you send them away absolved from all their sins, insist by all means on their anticipating these dangers. Other- wise, so frail is human nature, you will have to bewail to no purpose their speedy relapse towards the precipice, from the slippery declivity of which you have not far enough removed them. In dealing with sinners in the sacred tribunal of penance, take heed lest by any hasty severity you frighten away those who have begun to discover the wounds of their souls to you. How enormous soever their sins may be, hear them, not only with patience, but with mildness ; help out their bashfulness when they find it difficult to confess, testifying to them your compassion, and seeming not to be surprised at what you hear, as having heard in confession sins much more grievous and foul than theirs. And, lest they should despair of pardon for their faults, speak to them of the treasures of the infinite mercies of God. Sometimes when they have confessed some crime with great trouble of mind, hint to them that their sin is not altogether so great as they may think ; that by God’s assistance you can heal even more mortal wounds of the soul ; bid them go on without any apprehension, and make no difficulty of telling all. It is necessary to use this motherly indulgence, so to speak, in order to assist these poor souls in bringing forth their sins, for in truth it is a most painful labour which they undergo in bringing to birth the spirit of salvation, until at last they have emptied the whole terrible sink of their conscience. yS Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. You will find some of them whom the weakness either of their age or sex will make them feel more ashamed as to revealing to you the foul lusts with which they have stained themselves. When you per- ceive that, meet them more than half way, telling them that they are neither the only nor the first persons who have fallen into such foul sins, that you have met with far worse sins of that kind than those can be which they want the confidence to tell you. Impute a great part of their offence to the violence of the temptation, the seductiveness of the occasion, and the concupiscence innate in all men. More than this, I tell you that in dealing with such persons, we must sometimes go so far and so low, in order to loosen the chains of this miserable shame in these unhappy persons whose tongues the devil has by his cunning tied up, as of our own accord to indicate in general the sins of our own past lives, so to elicit from these guilty souls the confession of the sin which they will otherwise hide, to their irreparable loss. For what can a true and fervent charity refuse to pay for the safety of those souls who have been redeemed with the blood of Jesus Christ ? But to understand when this is proper to be done, how far to proceed, and with what precautions, is what the guidance of the Spirit and your own experience must teach you at the time in each particular con- juncture. Difficulties as to Faith . 79 XXXIV. To the same . [how to deal with difficulties as to faith.] § 5 - You will sometimes meet with men — and I would that they may be few — who doubt of the power and efficacy of the holy sacraments, and especially as to the Presence of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist. This comes from not frequenting those sacred mys- teries, from their continual intercourse with pagans, Mahometans, and heretics, or from the bad example given them by some Christians, and even (which I speak with shame and sorrow) by some of our own priestly order ; for when they see some priests, whose life is not more holy than that of the common multi- tude, still go rashly and almost as a pastime to the altar, they imagine that it is in vain that we teach that Jesus Christ is present in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, for that if He were there present, He would never suffer such impure hands to touch Him with impunity. The way you should take to set these people right is as follows. First establish yourself in their friend- ship by courteous speeches and kind manners, and then endeavour by familiar questions to elicit their private thoughts. If you find in them the errors I have mentioned, then search out their causes, occa- sions, and beginnings. You will thus understand where to apply your remedy, and then do this with all diligence and vigour, alleging whatever, as the occasion suggests, may seem to be of use ; take great pains to prove clearly the truth of that sacred dogma, and never leave off till you have conquered, 8o Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. and till they protest that they are most firmly per- suaded with a faith certain beyond all doubt that the Body and Blood of Christ our Lord and Redeemer are most truly present under the species of bread and wine duly consecrated. After that it will not be difficult to lead them to cleanse their souls in good faith by confession, and to receive more frequently the sacred banquet of the table of God with due devotion. When in the sacred tribunal of penance you have heard all that your penitents have prepared themselves to confess of their sins, do not at once think that all is done, and that you have no further duty to discharge. You must go on further to in- quire, and by means of questions to rake out the faults which ought to be known and to be remedied, but which escape the penitents themselves on account of their ignorance. Ask them what profits they make, how, and whence ? what is the system that they follow in barter, in loans, and in the whole matter of security for contracts ? You will generally find that everything is defiled with usurious contracts, and that those very persons have got together the greater part of their money by sheer rapine, who nevertheless asserted themselves so confidently to be pure from all contagion of unjust gain ; having, as they said, the true testimony of the conscience that reprehends them in nothing. Indeed, some persons’ consciences have become so hardened that they have either no sense at all, or very little sense, of the presence of even vast heaps of robberies which they have gathered into their bosom. Use this method with particular diligence towards the king’s ministers, commandants, treasurers, the receivers, and other officers and farmers of the Official frauds. 81 revenue, whensoever they present themselves before you in the sacred tribunal — in short, with all who, under any title and right whatever, have anything to do with the charge and handling of the public money and dues. Interrogate all these people by what means they grow rich on the discharge and income of their offices. If they are shy of telling you, search and scent it out in every way, and the most mildly that you can. You will not have been long on the hunt before you come on sure tracks which will lead you to the very dens and lairs of their frauds and monopolies, through which an inconsiderable number of men divert to their own private hordes emolu- ments belonging to the public. They buy up com- modities with the king’s money, and at once sell them again with an enormous percentage for them- selves, raising the price to an immense rate, which has to be defrayed out of the pockets of those who are under a necessity from their business of coming into the market as purchasers of that merchandise. Too often, also, they torture creditors of the treasury with long delays and cunning shifts, that they may be driven to compound with those sharks of the State by remitting a part of their due claim, while the others pocket the remainder, which they call the fruits of their industry, being in reality the booty gained by their most unprincipled robbery. When you have squeezed out of them the con- fession of these monopolies and the like, drawing them out by many and cautious questions, you will be more easily able to settle how much of other persons’ property they are in possession of, and how much they ought to make restitution of to those they have defrauded, in order to be reconciled to God, than if you should ask them in general whether they G 82 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. remember to have defrauded any one. For to this question they will immediately answer that their memory upbraids them with nothing. For custom is to them in the place of law ; and what they see done before them every day, they persuade them- selves may be practised without sin. For customs bad in themselves seem to these men to acquire authority and prescription from the fact that they are commonly practised. You should admit of no such law ; but should declare seriously to such people, that if they will heal the wounds of their conscience, they must restore and altogether give up their unjust possessions, which they have acquired by bad faith. And at the same time point out to them what these wrongly acquired possessions are, using the knowledge gained by their own con- fessions. xxxv. To the same. [obedience to superiors, ecclesiastical and lay.] § 6 . Remember to be especially obedient and docile in all things to the Vicar of the Bishop. When you are arrived at Ormuz, you must go to wait on him, and falling on your knees before him, you should humbly kiss his hand. Neither preach, nor hear con- fessions, nor teach the Christian doctrine, nor exer- cise any other employment of our Institute without his permission. Never have any contention with him for any cause whatsoever, or differ from him. On the contrary, endeavour by all submission, and all possible services, to gain his close friendship in such sort that he may let himself be persuaded by Obedience. 83 you to go through the meditations of our Spiritual Exercises under your direction ; if not all, at least those of the first week. In the same way cultivate the goodwill of all the other priests by every kind of good office and goodwill, and avoid like the face of a serpent every occasion whatsoever of dissension and conflict with them. Pay them all the greatest rever- ence and the most particular marks of respect, so as to win for yourself their love in return. From which it will naturally arise that they may be inclined to trust to you the care of their souls, and accept with- out dislike an invitation to make the Spiritual Exer- cises, if not for the whole month as we do, at least by retiring from the world in their homes during a certain number of days, during which you may visit them daily, and explain to them the subject of their meditations, taking them from those of the first week. Pay a great respect and obedience to the com- mandant, and make it apparent, by the most pro- found submission, how cordially you respect him. Beware of any difference with him, on whatsoever occasion ; even though you should clearly see that he fails in his duty in matters of the highest import- ance. Only when you perceive that your attentions have won for you his favour and good graces, be so bold as to visit him ; and after you have duly declared, in the first place, your love for him, and the concern you have for his honour and safety, then, with all modesty and gentleness of countenance, speak of the deep sorrow which affects your heart to see his soul in danger and his reputation damaged by reports of discreditable doings of his noised about in the world. Then you shall make known to him the discourses of the people concerning him, 84 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. which will probably be put in writing, and go to a far greater distance than he would be willing they should, if he bethinks him not in time of giving satisfaction to the public. Nevertheless do not take this office upon you before you are well satisfied that his disposition to you is such that it appears solidly probable to you that he will take in good part your admonition, and that it will do him real good. You must be much less ready to yield to the requests which many will make to you, that you should act as their ambassador in carrying their complaints to the commandant. Refuse as firmly as you can such an office, giving as an excuse your continued occupation in preaching, teaching, hearing confessions, and in the study and thought which are required as preparation for these duties. These things will leave you no time for the laborious and tedious business of frequenting the antechambers of the great, and spending idle hours in their halls to await the rare moments of obtaining a difficult admission to their presence. You may add that even if you had the time, and if access to an audience was always open to you, you do not well know what would be the use of your interference, for if the commandant be such as they themselves charge him with being, it would be vain to hope that a man who is touched neither by respect to God nor by a due regard to his duty — as they themselves assert — would make any account of you if you were to suggest better things to him. Letters to Goa . 85 XXXVI. To the same. [various counsels.] § 7. The whole time that remains to you after you have •discharged your necessary duties should be spent in the conversion of the heathen to the Christian religion. In choosing between different employ- ments and ministrations, take care always to con- sider that those the usefulness of which is clearly of wider range are to be placed before others. This rule will teach you never to prefer the hearing of a confession to preaching in public, never to omit the catechetical instruction fixed at a certain hour every day for the sake of exhorting any single person in private, or attending to any similar work which will benefit only one. During the hour which pre- cedes the appointed time for the catechetical instruc- tion you or your companion should go through the piazza and streets of the city, inviting all with a loud voice to come and hear the explanation of the sacred doctrine. You must write from time to time to the College at Goa, to tell them what are the ministrations fitted to promote the glory of God you are exercising, what order you follow in them, and what fruit results from them in souls, God preserving your own weak efforts. Take pains that these statements are carefully made, so that our people at Goa may be able to send them to Europe, where they will be a sort of specimen of our work in these parts, and of the favour of God Who condescends to grant some success to the trifling labours of this least Society of ours. Let 86 Counsels of St . Francis Xavier . nothing get into the letter which may give just offence to any one, nothing that may not appear likely to induce the readers at the very first sight of it to praise God and do Him service. You must also frequently write letters on the same subjects (with all due caution as to the person whom you address) to his Lordship the Bishop and to Cosmoz Anez ; imparting to each the happy news of the fruit which by the blessing of God results from the labours devoted to souls in those parts. As soon as you arrive at Ormuz, I would have you go privately to visit the best and most truthful men you can find there, who have also the greatest ex- perience of the manners of the place and of its commerce. Inquire diligently of them what are the dominant vices there, what are the prevalent kinds of fraud in the matter of contracts and loans, and so on. When you have found out these things plainly and certainly, you will be able to prepare for ready use arguments and remarks fitted either to open the eyes or to rebuke the obstinacy of persons who may come to you, whether in familiar intercourse or in sacramental confession, as to the palliated practice of usury, or of dishonestly gainful contracts, or of any other form or shape of the manifold and various wickednesses which are in vogue in that mart of Ormuz which is so full of merchants of every nation. Every night go round the streets of the city, recommending to the prayers of the living the souls of the dead who are suffering for their sins in Purga- tory. Use few words in doing this, but let them be well chosen for moving the compassion of the hearers, and begetting in them some religious feelings. Add some words also to try and rouse them all to pray for souls stained with mortal sin, and to obtain grace Kindness. 87 for them from God to emerge from so wretched a state. At the end of each exhortation give out the recitation of Our Father and Hail Mary , and say the first words of each yourself aloud. XXXVII. To the same. [importance of kindness and diligence.] § 8 . Let it be a matter to which you pay continual and unrelaxed attention, to show yourself to all those with whom you have to do with a kind and calm countenance, getting rid of every sign of severity, overbearingness, arrogance, suspicion, sourness, anger, and threatening. Otherwise, if the people who come to you find that you are set against them by these signs of evil disposition, they will certainly be checked and will turn away from you, without giving you that confidence which is requisite in order that being with you may do them good. You ought much rather to put on an appearance of courteous affability, using the gentlest and most winning smiles, and the like, whenever you have to reprove any one in private on account of some fault of his which requires admonition. At such times you ought to take the greatest pains in every way, that your countenance and look may both breathe all charity and kindliness, through which alone you must give out that you are impelled to make the man whom you reprove your debtor for the great benefit of wiping away a stain which defiles him, and that it is not any aversion or feeling of dislike that makes you break out in reproaches against him. If there are any priests, clerics, or laymen who 88 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. desire to enter the Society and to make the Spiritual Exercises, and whom you think proper persons to do so, you can send them to Goa with a letter stating who they are and what they want. Or even if at Ormuz itself you think that they can profitably help you, you may then admit them to live with you, and put them to the proof, as far as may be* with the usual ‘ experiments ’ of the noviceship. On Sundays and festivals you should preach at two in the afternoon or a little after, either in the chapel of the Confraternity of Mercy, or in the church, explaining the articles of the Creed to the men and maidservants and the free Christians and the children of both sexes of the Portuguese. Before this, send your companion through the streets of the city with a bell, and besides ringing it, let him give an invitation to admonish all to assemble to hear the explanation of the Christian doctrine — unless, indeed, you prefer yourself to make this announce- ment in the streets. Take with you to the place where the sermon is to be the summary of Christian doctrine and the explanation of the articles of the Creed, as well as the rule I have drawn up for passing daily life in a Christian and holy manner, in which is set down the manner and method in which Christians who are desirous of eternal life are to worship and invoke God every day, how' they are to guard them- selves against falling into sin, and to do all those things which conduce to the certain gaining of the end of our being, the grace and happiness which we all desire. Give a copy of this rule to those who come to confession to you, giving them as their penance for a certain number of days to do what is there pre- scribed. They will thus gain a habit, and custom Novices. 89 will make them easily continue of themselves what they have at first taken up at the injunction of their spiritual father. For they will have found out how useful a thing it is, and will be attracted by its pleasantness, for that form suggests short exercises of devotion, which are very good : and we have found by experience that many who have begun to use it after their confessions, have continued to do so to the great profit of their souls. For this cause I think it best that you not only should give it to those who have been to confession to you, but that you should communicate and commend it to any others who are taking some pains about their own salvation, even though they are the penitents of other priests. And as I see that you cannot easily have copies enough of that paper to distribute so largely, I would advise you to post it up in some public place — suppose, the church of our Lady of Mercy — written out on a board, so that any one who wants to use it may be able to write it out for himself. XXXVIII. To the same. [HOW TO DEAL WITH NOVICES AND POSTULANTS.] § 9 - When you have judged any to be fit to help the Society, and have duly admitted them into it, you must give them the Exercises for a month, according to our custom, and after this prove them by trials of such a kind as that there may be no appearance in them of any ridiculous exposure to the laughter of the public. You may tell them, for instance, to wait on the sick in the hospitals, and to shrink from no offices, however humble and disagreeable, which 90 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . belong to such a place, and to attendance upon them in their cure. You may bid them also go to the prisoners in the gaols, and devote themselves with all the sedulity of religious charity to the consolation and recreation of those poor souls. And you may let them practise in public any other similar duties which unite our own humiliation to the work of doing good to others. But do not either order or permit them to make sights of themselves to the public in such ways as would cause men to think them mad. I don’t wish the low mob to laugh at them and to take pleasure in the mimic, and, as it were, theatrical exposure of such men to ridicule. The people are to be reminded by the sight of them of their own duties, and to see in them laudable examples of what is right. It will be so if they never appear in public except in a dress or guise that belongs to some good work, as when they have satchels on their shoulders and go from door to door to beg for the indigent, or when in the sight of all they carry the contributions which they have collected to the asylum of the poor. These are the sort of victories over self and over the world which they should gain ; and the people when it sees them should be moved to good, and the poor should enjoy the benefit of what they do. But even to these trials, which are very disagree- able to nature, you must not expose them all indis- criminately. Find out first what each man’s courage is, and what he can do without trouble. All men have not equal strength — differences of disposition, of education, of progress in virtue, cause a great difference among novices, and this difference must be the first thing to be taken into account by any one who has to rule them, so that he may settle what Prudence . 9i sort of exercise suits each, that is, in what each may be tried in such a way that it may be fairly hoped that he will make profit of the trial, accord- ing to the measure of God’s grace communicated to him. Unless the Master of Novices has the gift of discernment, it will easily happen that some will be burthened beyond their strength, and so will despond, look back, and go away, while the same men, if they had had a more experienced guide, might hereafter have made great progress in religious virtue. There is another evil in this ill-advised enjoining of mortification which exceeds the power and condition of novices who are as yet tender babes in the spiri- tual course — for it causes in them an aversion to their master, and takes from them all confidence in opening to him their inmost hearts. But you, or any other who has to train young souls in Religion, must provide, with all possible care, that when they feel in their minds the suggestions either of depraved nature or of the evil spirit, calling them away from the right path, they should declare them as soon as they arise, and be perfectly ingenuous in confessing them. Unless they do this, they will never free themselves from these snares, they will never make their way through these insidious obstacles to the height of perfection. On the contrary, these first seeds of evil which they have unhappily taken in and fostered by their imprudent silence about them, will gradually grow up into more troublesome disquie- tudes, until at last they will make them become weary of holy discipline, and force their poor conquered minds to look back to the place from which they came, shake off the yoke of Christ, and rush again into their old free way of living. 92 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. If, either from their own confessions or from any other signs, you find any to be violently disposed to vainglory, to indulgence of the desires of the senses, or to any other faults, you may use the following useful way of suggesting to them a remedy which may suit their dauger. Tell them to take a certain time to get together arguments of every sort, which they may think most efficacious to use to some one who is either puffed up by arrogance, or given to self-indulgence, or under the influence of any other disease of the soul under which they may be them- selves suffering, so as either to put him right if he has already gone wrong, or to guard him if he is in danger of doing so. Point out yourself the books or the passages, and be a guide to them in finding matter which may serve their purpose. When they have made their collection, order them to make sermons out of it, as if they were to have to preach them either in the church or in the streets, or to the convalescent in the hospital, or to the prisoners in the gaol. Then make them actually preach these sermons. We may well hope that they themselves will, of their own accord, use the remedies which they have prescribed to others, and that these anti- dotes against what poisons the soul will sooner exert their power on the minds of the preachers, to which they have been so thoroughly applied by the deep study and careful thought which they have spent on the subject, than on the hearers, who only casually take cognizance of the thoughts of others put before them without any preparation on their part. No doubt they will be ashamed to fall into a fault from which they have taken so much pains to deliver other people. You may, with due proportion, use a similar device Difficult Convei'sions. 93 to cure certain sinners of almost desperate perversity. These men say they cannot command themselves, so as to put away from themselves the occasions of their sins, or to restore the property of others which they possess in bad faith. So, of their own will, they remain in a sinful conscience, deprived of the sacra- ment of absolution, and quite aware that they are justly denied it. And yet the disgrace of the sort of voluntary excommunication in which they know themselves to be involved, to the scandal of the public, makes them sometimes feel wearied of their iniquity, and also from time to time, conceive some fears of the danger of eternal damnation in which they live. First of all make these men friendly to you by significations of kindness, and then suggest to them in their good sense to think over what they would say to a friend who was struggling with the same difficulties, in order to cause him to rise up out of the mire and leap out of the ditch into which he had fallen. Ask them pleasantly to make a sort of school exercise of the matter, and to take the trouble in familiar talk with you to see what their own wits will be able to do in inventing arguments to be used in persuasion of this head. Hear what they have to say and approve of it, and then gently retort upon them what they adduce, and beseech them for the sake of the friendship which is between you to do the same kind office to themselves which they have done to others, and to take to their own hearts and apply to their own wounds the medicine which they think to have so much saving power in removing the diseases of their friends. God has created their souls to praise Himself, and so to gain their own happiness, and when He sees them rushing to 94 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . destruction down the precipitous paths of vice, He gives them in His mercy this care for the salvation of others as a sort of handle by which they may be drawn back from death. They ought first to have true charity for themselves in proportion to the love which they bear to others ; and He lets this last remain, so that they may be turned back thereby to take the necessary care for their own salvation which they have neglected so miserably. This same artifice is not to be dispensed with by us, whom it becomes as long as life remains and as the opportunity of doing so is not taken away, to leave nothing untried in the way of bringing souls back to the service of their Creator, and prevent their eternal loss. xxxix. To the same. [boldness and prudence.] § io. There will sometimes come to you in the confes- sional men who are engaged in impure attachments, or who are full to overflowing with booty which they have gained by rapine, over which they gloat with greedy devotion. As to getting them to send their mistresses away from their houses, or to restore to others what they have been despoiled of by their un- just practices, you cannot bring them to this either by love or reverence to God, of which they have abso- lutely nothing left, or by the fear of death or of hell, to all sense of which they are hardened. There is only one way of terrifying such persons, and that is by threatening them with the infliction of the only ills they are afraid of — the ills of this life. To such men therefore you should declare, that shortly, unless Fear of temporal punishment . 95 they make haste to appease the wrath of God, they will find themselves overwhelmed by calamities, their goods lost by shipwrecks, the authorities prosecuting them, by calumnious lawsuits, tribunals condemning them, by long sufferings in prison, incurable diseases in the midst of the greatest poverty and destitution, their miseries mitigated by no consolation, infamy which will brand them and their posterity with an indelible stain, and the public hatred and execration of all, such as they remember well were the lot of such and such persons whom you may name, well known to them, and who deserved such evils no more than they do. Tell them that no one can despise God with impunity, and that His wrath is all the more irrevocably let loose on men in proportion as He has more patiently waited for their repentance. The image of such calamities may well strike them with a first impulse of the fear of God, which may be the beginning of wiser thoughts, instead of the madness in which they have hitherto been involved. Whenever you are preparing yourself to talk with any one concerning the things which belong to the worship of God and the salvation of the soul, put in practice this precaution — not to say a word before you have divined and discovered by any sign you can note what is the interior state of the man’s mind. I mean whether he is quiet or under the influence of some strong passion — whether he is ready to follow the right path when it is shown him, or whether he is in error with his eyes open, irrevocably wedded to low cares and objects, to which he has been hitherto in the habit of postponing his religious duties, and seems likely to do the same for the future ; whether he is the subject of temptations from the devil, or whether he is left to himself and his own nature 96 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. — in fine, whether he is disposed to listen to an admonition, or whether he is rough and irritable to the touch, so that it may be feared that he will break out into a rage if he be handled too incautiously. When you have got some presumptive knowledge on these points, you must adapt your address to the person accordingly. Speak gently to the angry, quietly to the troubled, use some appropriate artifice to insinuate your business into the mind of the pre- occupied ; be more free and expansive with well- disposed persons, who are likely to be docile and easily led to do anything that is good. At the same time, never be foolishly fawning to any one, never stop at mere compliments, always skilfully mix up some wholesome medicine in what you give to the sick man, however much he may turn from it, so that by degrees he may be disposed to a better state. When any one is all on fire with excitement from a keen sense of recent injury, then do you also blame the deed of which he complains. If it be bad in itself, then use what reasonings you can to persuade him that the doer has fallen out of imprudence and not sinned through malice. When you see that your man listens to you, and is not altogether displeased, you may add that God has perhaps permitted this in order to punish him for some similar offence which he has himself committed. Then ask him familiarly, whether he remembers ever to have injured any one in word or deed. Whether, at least, in his youth, he was not somewhat ill-tempered with his parents, disobedient to his teachers, quarrelsome with his companions, and may not have given some one or other just cause to complain of him ? And when he acknowledges this, tell him that he must think it fair that he is now paid off in kind. For now he has Consideration. 97 offered him by God a very precious opportunity of wiping out his former fault. If, on the other hand, his complaint be not just, take him in hand gently, and gradually pull to pieces the false arguments by which he persuades himself of what is so far from being the case. Then increase your boldness little by little, show him a little gentle anger, as he really deserves, and then, at last, when you feel you can do it safely, give him a more severe scolding. These artifices, by the blessing of God, sometimes charm away the ill-humours of men so overwhelmed with troubles, and dissolve the sort of spell by which they have been bound, so as to leave them free and able to do what is right. When you have thus made your way easy, you must go on with confidence, and bring your work to the greatest perfection in your power, spending yourself to the utmost in your desire to do honour to God, and win for Him the love and reverence of the souls which He has created to love and to praise Him. XL. To the same. [study of the circumstances of men.] § ii. The injunction which I have given above — namely, that you shall find out from men who are well acquainted with the matter what are the commercial frauds most common at Ormuz — I would not have confined either to that place in particular, or to those specific heads of which I spoke. Wherever you are, even if it be only in passing and on a journey, always make it a point to try to find out as exactly as possible from good men who know the H 98 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. ways of common life, not only what are the prevalent crimes or customary tricks of cheating in such places, but the whole manners of the people there, the opinions and prejudices of the populace, what the nation is intent upon, what are the peculiar customs of the country, the mode of government, the method of the courts, the forms of suits, the quibbles of lawyers, and whatever has any sort of bearing upon the character of the state or of civil society there. Believe my experience, nothing cif all this is useless for the physician of souls to kno>v, in order that he may at once understand their diseases, may easily provide remedies, and may always have at command a power of readily and quickly meeting all necessities. This will teach you what to dwell upon most frequently in your sermons, and what to insist on urgently with your penitents. This knowledge will arm and prepare you for your promiscuous con- versations with men, and you will be so fortified by it, as never to be amazed at anything as new, never to be put into a ferment at any unforeseen occur- rence : it will make you feel at home in all the variety of questions that will arise one after another, it will make you dexterous in the multiplied business you will have to transact with men of all sorts, and also give you authority with all. When men of the world are admonished of anything by religious persons, they generally despise them, because they think that they have no experience of affairs. But if they find that any one is quite as well versed as they are and has as much experience as them- selves, in the common usages of civil life, they will hold such a one in admiration, trust themselves to him, and will not hesitate when he urges them even Fruits to be gained. 99 to do violence to themselves, and to carry out what- ever he desires them, even though it be arduous. So you see what good fruit may come from such knowledge, and therefore you must now consider that it is your business to labour in acquiring it as much as in old days you laboured to learn philo- sophy and theology. And it must be sought, not from dead books written on paper or parchment, but from living books — that is, from men who have had experience in affairs, and who know well the manners of the people. With this knowledge you will do more good than if you poured forth upon the crowd whole libraries of speculation. Wherever this learning of which I speak has won for you any kind of authority or consideration with some, remember that the first proof of your authority must be to arrange and bring about without fail that they make an examination of all the sins of their whole life, and then confess them in the Sacrament of Penance, and after this endeavour to excite them- selves to a true detestation of these sins in a retreat and by meditations adapted to them, drawing from these reasons for such detestation from the majesty of God and the love which all His creatures owe to Him. You may be sure that this is the foundation of everything good, this is the principal thing, to which all others must be postponed. In the next place take pains to extricate them from the entanglement of legal processes, which are the seed-plots of hatreds and calumnies. Persuade them therefore to put an end to their lawsuits by the arbitration of friends* and so save a great deal of money, of trouble,, and of reputation. If they ask you to be arbiter,, do not refuse. You can find time for the matter conveniently both for them and for ioo Counsels of St, Francis Xavier. yourself on Sundays or days otherwise free from the transaction of business, when you can hear one after another the complaints or demands of the intending litigants, and propose some middle plan of com- promise, on which it may be much better for them to agree than to run the daily risk of falling from their condition and making a sad shipwreck of their honour, with all the expense, the weary delay, the great hazards which they would run through the falsehoods of bribed witnesses, the deceits of im- postors, the numberless snares of the gentlemen of the law, the labyrinthine mazes of cavilling pleadings, the heat and bustle of the tribunals, the perpetual restless battle of alternate recriminations, which will roll on backwards and forwards like the tides of the Euripus. If you dwell on these things you will deliver your friends who are thinking of entering their causes in the courts from the itch for litigation, and it will be still more easy, in the case of persons who have already been acquainted with the air of the lawcourts and have been wearied by the tumultuous contests of the tribunals, to make them entertain the advice of abandoning of their own accord suits which they have begun. I know this will not please the attorneys and advocates and other forensic leeches of various denominations, who get great gain out of the number and length of lawsuits. When such persons com- plain of you on this account, you can partly despise their complaint, partly you should attack in your own way any of them whom you can reach, making them afraid to practise their mischievous tricks of protracting causes by interminable delays, and warn- ing them of the urgent danger in which they lie of losing eternal happiness. And, that they may look Sermons. IOI well to an affair of so much moment, you can invite them to a few days of retreat to be spent in pious meditations. XLI. To the same. [preparation of sermons.] § 12. In your sermons make no display of erudition or of memory, reciting a great number of passages as proofs, or authorities from the old Fathers. Let a few of these, well chosen, be enough. Let a great part of your discourse be taken up with graphic descriptions of the interior condition and disorder of souls in a state of sin. Let your sermon set before their eyes, and let them see in it plainly as in a mirror, their own restless devices, their cunning artifices, their most vain hopes and imaginations, all the deceitful designs which they entertain in their souls. Add also the miserable ends to which all these things lead, unravel the sophisms of the captious suggestions made to them by their deadly enemy the devil, show them the way to extricate themselves from his toils, and heap upon them motives of fear to terrify them if they do not do this. The truth is, that men listen attentively to those things above all which reach their inmost conscience. Sublime speculations, perplexed questions, scholastic controversies, soar not only above the intelligence of those who are creeping along on the ground, but also above their interest. They make a great deal of empty thunder and vanish away without any fruit. You must show men clearly to themselves, if you 102 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. wish to have them hanging upon the words of your mouth. But to set forth what their own interior feelings are, you must first know them ; and the only way to know them is to be much in their company, to study them, observe them, pray with them. So turn over and over again these living books ; it is from these that you -will gain everything — how to teach them with efficacy, how easily to act on and affect and turn and move sinners whither it behoves them to be moved for their souls’ salvation. Do not however neglect the study of dead books on account of this. Holy Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, the sacred canons, ascetical books, and those which treat of moral subjects, duties, rights, and 'their distinctions — all these must be diligently consulted at proper times. It is in them that we find how to remedy temptations, the arguments by which to persuade, the motives of heroic affections, and examples of all that is praiseworthy taken from the lives of the Saints. But after all, these things have no warmth or life, and are of little avail, unless the minds of the audience are first opened so as to admit them into their own depths. And the certain key thus to open them is that picture and represen- tation of each one’s interior state of which I have spoken, skilfully drawn by a preacher who has full knowledge of the ways of men, and set in a good light before the eyes of everybody. Circumspection . 103 XLII. To the same. [circumspection recommended.] § 13 - Since the King in his munificence has ordered that what is necessary for your support at Ormuz should be provided at the expense of his treasury, you should avail yourself of this favour from our excellent Sovereign, and accept from his officials alone the means of which you are in need. What others offer you, even of their own accord, reject ; for it is of signal importance for the authority and liberty of one who has the charge of souls to be under no obligation on the score of the supply of his food, which is in fact to owe his life and breath, to any one of those whom it is his duty to direct in the way of salvation, and to correct and pull up when- ever they go astray. The common saying is very true as to gifts of this kind : ‘ He that takes, is taken ; ’ for he loses all confidence as to finding fault with or using his right of censure with a man towards whom he has allowed himself to take up the humble position of a dependent, and thus bound himself to him by the reverence due to a patron. Hence it is that we are sometimes in such difficulties as to finding words in which to reprove people who feed us when they deserve reproof ; or, if sometimes our zeal and sense of duty impose it on us to do violence to our shyness in this respect, yet still we do not gain much good, for the people look down as with a kind of superciliousness as if they were our masters, and had lawfully purchased that 104 Co tens els of St. Francis Xavier . position, as they think, at the cost of the benefits which they have conferred upon us. This is true in general of all — but more particu- larly is it true of certain persons, concerning whom I think it necessary to put you on your guard. There are men who are deeply plunged in vice, and who will yet affect familiarity with you, and will even vie with one another in seeking to win your friendship by kind offices. It is not that they have any desire of profiting from your conversation and discourse so as to amend their own wicked ways, for they have made up their minds to abide in them to the last. It is that they wish to stop your mouth and tie your tongue, for their own consciousness of guilt warns them to be afraid of your censure. I think you should not altogether repel these persons, nor en- tirely reject their good offices. Do not refuse even their invitations to dinner, or their presents, if they are slight and of little value, such as water, fresh fruits, and the like, to reject which is commonly considered among the Portuguese in the East as an insult to those who offer them. Let them see plainly, and even declare to them freely, that you accept their presents only on the condition that they are ready to take in good part admonitions and exhortations from you ; that you also will promise to come and sup with them on the express under- standing that they will prepare themselves on your invitation to make confession of their sins and approach the Eucharistic Banquet in Holy Com- munion. And those little presents of food and dainties which I said had better not be refused for fear of injuring your friendship, send as soon as ever you have received them to the sick in the hospitals or to the prisoners in the gaols or to other Last advice . 105 indigent persons. The people will see and approve of and applaud the use which you make of the presents that you receive, and will absolve you from all suspicion of liking delicacies or of seeking favours which may turn to your own profit. XLIII. To the same . [the care of himself.] § 14- Fin ally, I earnestly commend to you to take care of yourself beyond everything else. Never cease to remember that you are a member of the Society of Jesus. In all the particular occasions of doing works of various kinds which will present themselves at Ormuz, your own practice and experience on the spot will teach you what is most for the service of our Lord God. There is no better or surer teacher of prudence than experience. Be careful diligently to commend me to Him Who is the Lord of both of us in your own daily prayers, and let those whom you direct in the service of God do the same. And let my last charge in this long exhortation be this — at least once a week read over carefully the whole of this paper, lest at any time you should fall into some forgetfulness of the things which are enjoined to you therein. May God our Lord accompany you on your voyage and lead you safe to your destination : and may He also abide with us who remain here ! Farewell. io6 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. XLIV. To John III., King of Portugal. Malacca, Feast of Corpus Christi, 1549. [RECOMMENDING THE COMMANDANT OF MALACCA.] We, the six whom I have mentioned, arrived at Malacca on the last day of May of the year 1549. The Commandant of the fortress of Malacca has received us with the usual kindness. He at once offered us most readily all the favour and assistance that could be expected from him towards the carry- ing out and promoting this expedition of ours, — undertaken, as it is, with great hopes of serving God and pleasing your Highness : and his sedulous care- fulness in all good offices has gone far even beyond the courtesy of his words. He has put himself to so much pains in seeking for us a comfortable ship, and providing us with every other convenience for going whither we are bound with all safety and ease, as to fulfil most abundantly all the liberal and kind promises which he made to us on the first day of our landing here. Nothing could exceed his extreme courtesy in readily and with full goodwill offering to us whatever was in his own power to give ; and as for what had to be obtained for us from others, by canvassing, influence, and request, he has exerted himself so much in bringing people round to us by every effort in his power, and doing all he can to make them well disposed to us, and he so has worked in our cause in a way that has shown us signally his very tender charity towards us, that we feel ourselves quite unable ever to reward his goodness to us as it deserves. If he had been our own brother we could not have expected from him any greater or more Pedro de Silva. 107 efficient kindness. So that I pray and beseech you, Sire, that, for the love which you have for God your Lord, your Highness will condescend to repay in our stead the very great debt we owe to Don Pedro de Silva on this account. He has commanded that we should be largely supplied with whatever is necessary for us, not only for our support during the voyage from this place to Japan, but also for our expenses and sustenance during a considerable stay in that country, as well as for the building of a chapel in which we may offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass to God. For this particular purpose he has given us thirty measures of the best pepper picked out of the whole quantity that was then at Malacca. He has also given us many beautiful and very costly presents to offer to the King of Japan, that he may be favour- ably inclined to us by means of them, and so be more easy in admitting us into his kingdom and tolerating us there. I tell your Highness all these particulars, that you may understand what benefits and honours I receive from your faithful subjects in the Indies. I really believe, Sire, that I shall speak the simple truth when I say that no one ever came to India who has received so much honour and favour from the Portu- guese who reside there as has been shown by them to me. The whole of this I owe to your Highness, and to your frequent and efficient recommendations of me to those who are the administrators of your Highness’ royal power throughout the countries of the Indies. And as among them Don Pedro de Silva, the Commandant of your fortress of Malacca, has been signally eminent in assisting me, paying me honour, and making me presents, and has bound me to him by a series of benefits which my own want of io8 Cotmsels of St. Francis Xavier. means and power forbid me from ever returning in kind as they deserve, I beg your Highness to allow me to find in your liberality the means of supplying the deficiency caused by my poverty. I shall gain all I want if your Highness will vouchsafe for my sake to show large and bountiful favour to this good officer, and to others who have made me so deeply their debtors, and thus repay back to them that which I owe to them without having the means of rewarding them. May our Lord God of His infinite goodness and mercy fully and thoroughly enlighten the mind of your Highness with the clear knowledge of His holy will, and give you moreover the grace perfectly to execute what you know to be pleasing to Him, exactly as you would rejoice to have done at the moment of your death, when you will be placed before the judgment-seat of God to give an account of all that you have done throughout your whole life. Most strongly do I again and again beseech you, Sire, not to be slow about at once doing, in preparation for that last trial and decisive moment, everything that can now be done in the way of dispatch and anticipation. For at the time of our last sick- ness, and when death is at hand and draws nigh, then the wretched mind of the sick person is so fixed upon what it has to suffer for the moment, the anguish, the bitter and numberless sorrows which then press upon it, as by no means to have time to attend to other cares or thoughts except those which that terrible scene, which then for the first time presents itself to the soul, strikes home to it — thoughts very sad indeed and very tormenting, though to no profit, the images of which no one can form for himself unless he has had experience of them. Charity. 109 XLV. To Fathers Paul of Camerino and Antonio Gomez. Malacca, Feast of Corpus Christi, 1489. [charity to other orders.] And now, Father Antonio Gomez, I urge upon you in the strongest and most urgent manner I can, to show with all diligence to the Reverend Fathers of the Orders of St. Francis and St. Dominic — I had almost said, not only reverend, but to be honoured by us as the blessed in heaven are honoured — the highest possible charity, the most humble veneration and the most obsequious devotion in everything, not only paying exquisite respect to them as a body, but also proving to them each singly, as you have to deal with him, your true and most sincere love by means of ever} 7 kind of courtesy and attention. And make it a rule that every kind of dissension with them, every beginning or appearance whatsoever of rivalry or jealousy, is to be avoided by you and by all of ours as you would avoid a wild beast or a venomous serpent. And as to this matter consider this — that in order to prevent feuds, and in order to extinguish in their very birth the enviousness and the suspicions which are the seeds of discord, nothing can serve more efficaciously than that every one of our Society should show the utmost modesty at all times, modesty not at all put on or false, but founded on that intimate lowliness of heart which induces of itself to all external humility. And I would have you by no means keep shut up in your own minds these your thoughts and affections towards those most honourable religious of those illustrious orders, but show them in action, visiting them courteously 1 1 o Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . from time to time, and as far as may be upon any occasions which you may take advantage of, or even which you look out for, winning their goodwill by all kinds of honour and attention ; and let the public itself see this, so that those who desire to see priests contending with one another, may understand at once that they must hope for no spectacle of the sort from you or on account of you. Moreover you must make it a study to win to yourselves the very popu- lace itself and every human being of whatever kind where you are, and cause all to bear you goodwill, for their own sake. For that is the only way for you to be able to help them for the salvation of their souls. And the principal means and hope of gaining this kind of popularity — popularity not sought for the sake of gain, but in the cause of religion — lies in this, that in all your words and deeds and gestures you show in your daily conversation the perfectly modest composure of a mind that despises itself, true fraternal love amongst yourselves, and towards all others in general the most unfeigned charity, ever ready to show itself in acts. This last matter, I mean as far as relates to love among our own people for one another, I wish you, Father Paul, who are the Superior of the rest, to consider as particularly addressed to yourself. Take it in good part that I pray you here again once more, and that I beseech you to leave nothing undone that can make 3'ou an object of love to our brethren who are under your rule, and to think it a much more important thing that they love you with all their heart than that they obey your very nod. What ' follows now is for all of ours in India. I now give them warning that they should be prepared in mind and ready at a signal, if perchance I should find that Honour to the Bishop. hi there is greater opportunity of working with ease and profit in Japan than where they are, and should call them to come in large numbers to the richer harvest there. I quite expect that I can hardly fail very soon to summon some of them thither, and that the rest will have to follow after no long interval, as soon as the first successes have given us a pledge for further hope. All of you take the most constant care that the Bishop may always have towards you the most lively goodwill and the most hearty favour. I would not have you content yourselves with mere signs of honour and barren declaration of veneration as the proofs of your devotion to his service — you must go beyond even all manifestations of the most sub- missive reverence to him, and as far as he may permit you, take upon yourselves a share of his labours, and by very readily putting on your own shoulders a part of that immense weight of work which is so heavy upon him, of his care of all the Churches, and, in as far as he may be willing, to let you bear the burthen for him, relieve the grey hairs of that excellent old man and father, the supreme ruler of what belongs to the Christian religion in these parts. You must accomplish to the very utmost all his commands, and execute his desires even if they are only hinted to you by a nod, and in this matter I would have you set no limit at all to your obedience except only that which is the utmost limit of your whole strength, strained as far as is possible to you with all the exertions you are 1 1 2 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. XLVI. To the College of Coimbra. Malacca, June 22, 1549. [SENTIMENTS on going to japan.] However, when once I had clearly recognized in myself the intimation and conviction that it was altogether the desire of God, and that it was a matter which His service required, that I should go to Japan, I gave myself up to the plan so entirely and irrevocably, that it seemed to me that, if I were now to desist from what I had begun, I should be more wicked and more detestable than the very idolaters of Japan. I am confirmed in my purpose because I see the enemy of the human race is setting a great many devices in motion in order to make me give up the thought of it, and this makes it by no means obscure that he dreads no small defeat and destruction to his own interests if it is carried out. He may make whatever disturbance and opposition he will, and we shall go on all the same in perfect carelessness as to the empty bugbears he may raise. We have got read) 7 all that is wanting for the cele- bration of the Holy and Unbloody Sacrifice, with which we intend to offer the Sacred Host, and so take possession of those countries and nations in the name of Christ our King. What may be the success attending our first beginnings, you will fully learn next year, if God wills, by letters which you will then receive from me. I have already made up my mind, as soon as ever I disembark, to go to the King of all Japan himself, wherever he may be, and lay before him the message which I have for him from the Supreme Emperor of Confidence . 113 all nations, our Lord Jesus Christ. I am told that the King has always with him a large band of men of letters, who are full of confidence in their own genius, learning, and eloquence. I do not fear much, relying on God, from the opposition of all their learning ; for what good learning can people have who do not know Jesus Christ ? And as we care for and seek for nothing else but the glory of God and the manifestation of Jesus Christ unto the salvation of souls, what kind of loss or danger can there be of which we ought to be so very much afraid ? It is true that we are defenceless and unarmed, yet it is easy for God both to shield us from all harm in the midst of the hostile armies, not only of the large nation we are going to, but also of the devils who are so much irritated against us, and also to help us to be con- querors. And if anything else please Him, we do not count it bitter, whatever it may be that is accord- ing to His will. In such cases as this, it is victory even to fall, provided that the body alone fall, and the mind remain unconquered. There is only one kind of wound at all that is to be feared, and that is when the mind is wounded by giving consent to sin. But as our Lord is wont to give to all sufficient grace to serve Him and to abstain from sin, we trust in the divine mercy that this grace will by no means be denied to us. All that is good or bad in us consists in our using well or using ill the grace of God, and we rest with very great confidence, first on the merits of our holy Mother the Church, the Spouse of Jesus Christ our Lord, and then specially on the merits of all who belong to the Society of Jesus, and of all the faithful of both sexes who are serving God under their advice or direction ; so that, with all these embracing us under their patronage 1 1 14 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . and assisting us by their prayers, we hope to be able to cooperate faithfully with and make good use of the grace which God our Lord will offer us in due time. It is a great comfort to us to know that God, Who judges the inmost feelings of the human heart, sees clearly with what wish, with what aim, with what prayer, and in search of what it is that we are moved to undertake this voyage to Japan. Our own consciences tell us that in that expedition we seek and desire nothing else at all, save only that we may lead the souls of men, created in the image of God, to the knowledge of their Creator, that the Supreme Author of all things may be praised as He deserves by the creatures whom He has made in His own likeness, and the frontiers of the empire of our holy mother Church, the Spouse of Christ, may be advanced and her realm enlarged. And so we go, glowing with vigorous confidence, and we venture to presume and reckon on as a thing certain and as if our hope had received a pledge of its fulfilment, that this voyage of ours to Japan will unfailingly issue in happy and joyful success. There are two things which support me against all the threats and pre- parations of the devil, who is already threatening hostilities and letting us know clearly enough that he means war to the knife, in order to frighten us from our course. The first of these is, as I have just said, the conviction that God knows with perfect clearness the rectitude of my intentions in undertaking the voyage. The second is, the most certain knowledge of the entire and absolute do- minion of the will of God over all created things, so that no one of them can do anything at all except by the permission of God, and that this law binds the Dangers of the Voyage. 1 1 5 devils themselves, and that, however much they may wish to hurt any one, they cannot do so unless they first obtain leave from God, is clearly seen in the history of Job. The Sacred Scripture bears witness, that his most savage enemy Satan could not in the slightest degree harm that holy man without the assent and pleasure of God. I say all this because it is a matter of the greatest ■certainty that the passage from Malacca to Japan, which we have made up our minds to attempt, is beset with very urgent and imminent danger of death of a dreadful kind. There will be all the extreme violence of most furious storms, there will be danger that cannot be detected beforehand from hidden rocks and quicksands, there will also be the risk of fierce attacks from the pirates who infest those seas. The fear of these perils is by no means a vain fear, as is proved by the number of examples, increasing with the number of those who make the venture, in which persons who have attempted this voyage have been shipwrecked or reduced to slavery. It is com- monly said here that it is a matter of experience, and which cannot by any human means be avoided, that out of all the ships which sail from this or any other neighbouring port for Japan, one in every three is lost by one of the three causes of destruction which I have mentioned — storms, rocks or shoals, and pirates. I have often, in thinking of these things, had the fear come into my mind, lest most of the learned men of our Society, when they are sent out here to preach the Gospel, and come to experience for them- selves the severe labours that are requisite, and the very great risk that there is to body and life, which, from the very condition of the enterprize we have in n6 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. hand and the state of affairs as they are here, we are obliged to expose to continual danger, might have a kind of scruple about it, as if we were committing the fault of rashness, and as if all this were in some way to tempt God, which the Sacred Scriptures speak of so severely. But when I have thought over the whole matter at full leisure, I have not found it difficult to get rid of the objection, and to lay aside all fear. For I am confident that the fatherly Providence of God over our Society will in His own sweet way bring about that all those noble gifts of learning and eloquence which the men I speak of have brought to our Society, may be so tempered by our training and the holy discipline of religious life, as to be always under the control of the Holy Spirit, Who will animate these men as He does the other members of the Society. Unless this were to happen, I for my part should have great fears of them, nor should I be able to feel at rest, having before my mind continually what I remember to have heard our blessed Father Ignatius say, that the true children of the Society of Jesus ought to make great exertions in order to conquer themselves, and to seek out means of driving away from their minds those terrors of things that appear formidable, which hinder men from putting their full hope and entire confidence in God. For though a lively hope and faith of that sort be a gratuitous gift of God, which He bestows on those on whom it pleases Him to bestow it, nevertheless for the most part He gives it to those who keep a stern hold over themselves, and who leave nothing undone by means of which they may obtain the full subjugation of all their feelings, out of their love for God, to considerations of His divine service and glory. Detachment from Life. 1 1 7 There is, believe me, a wide difference between those who trust in God while they are nevertheless furnished with all things which are necessary for the support and convenience of life, and those who do the same in extreme destitution and entire want of all the supports of life, into which state they have thrown themselves of their own accord for the sake of imitating Christ. And it follows from this that there is also a great difference between those who place their trust and hope and confidence in God without being in danger of death, and those who trust in God and hope in Him, and at the same time of their own accord and free will expose themselves, in order to give Him pleasure, to evident danger of death, while they have it in their own full power and choice either to avoid such or to encounter them. And to my mind it seems that a man who in this way has made his choice to live in continual danger of death, out of the mere desire to serve God, and casting aside all other motives or aims, will very soon feel a great weariness of this present life and a great desire for death, that he may thereby be graciously removed unto a better life, and may reign with God in heaven ; since this life, as we call it, is rather one long death and a state of exile from that glory, for the enjoyment of which we are intended by our Creator. XLVII. To Fathers Paul of Camerino and Antonio Gomez . Malacca, June 22, 1549. [ZEAL OF THE MISSIONERS AT MALACCA.] As soon as I landed here I was struck with greater wonder than I can easily find words to express, at 1 1 8 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. seeing with my own eyes the immense harvest which in this city of Malacca, as in some large field of rich corn, is gathered into the barn of Christ by the labour and industry of the single evangelical work- man Father Francesco Perez. Every Sunday and feastday he preaches in the morning to the Portu- guese in the largest church in the city. In the afternoon in the same place he diligently expounds the articles of the holy Creed to the less instructed free men or to the slaves of both sexes. Once in the week in the church of our Lady the Mother of God he preaches to a large congregation of the wives both of the Portuguese and of the native Christians a sermon adapted to their capacity and condition. And besides all this, every single day he teaches and explains in the most laborious manner the elements of the Christian doctrine to a very large crowd of boys in the church of the Confraternity of Mercy. Besides these things, which might certainly be enough abundantly to occupy a single man, it would not be easy to count the number of penitents whose confessions he alone hears. Here then is a worker in the Lord’s vineyard who is certainly no sluggard or idler. We see him exert- ing himself so unweariedly and so continuously that he has to cheat himself of the time necessary for eating and sleeping. I certainly hope that he will never hear from our Lord that reproach in the holy parable : ‘ Why stand ye here all the day idle ? ’ for, in truth, no one can ever find him at any hour either of the day or night when he is not intent on the work of extricating souls from the snares of sin, and making them advance in the service of God our Lord, Who made them. When he preaches there Francesco Perez. 119 is such a concourse that the largest churches will not hold the congregation. In familiar intercourse he is wonderfully courteous and affable, so as to attract at once all whom he comes across, and he is singularly popular with all, high and low alike. He is the beloved favourite of the Commandant, and also of all the inhabitants, and is commonly honoured with the reputation of a truly apostolical man, very dear to God on account of his insatiable desire to gain souls to Him. I confess to you, my brothers, that when I saw all this I was ashamed of myself, for I beheld with my own eyes how great a store of rich spoils was being continually added, by the help of God, to the treasuries of the Church, by this one man of weak constitution and continual ill health. The con- sciousness of my own sluggishness smote me in my inmost heart with a feeling of shame and confusion. Just consider — the multitude of men who are being continually aroused to the serious amendment of their lives by the private or public discourses of Francesco Perez is so great, that they would keep at least six priests well practised in hearing con- fessions well occupied all day long, with nothing else to do. And yet this same man, in addition to all these occupations, discharges fully and well all the duties of domestic chaplain, as it is called, in the Confraternity of Mercy, and you know how constant and manifold those duties are. What can I say to this, except confess once more, that I and those like me ought to be covered with shame, that we who are in health and strength do but little, while the weak and the invalids are enriching themselves with the spoil of so many souls snatched from the jaws of hell ? 120 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. Then there is Rocco Oliveira, the companion of Father Perez, who also works as strenuously and as usefully as the Father. He is master of a numerous school of boys. Some of them he teaches to read and write our language, to others he teaches Latin grammar. He has been so long at this that many of them have now finished their schooling, and have gone home again, having gone through the whole course of which they are capable, and at home they show by the simplicity of their manners, and the good examples they give in every respect, to the great joy and thankfulness of their parents, how great the difference is between boys well taught and boys untaught. They read with ease, and under- stand as far as is necessary the common summaries of the Christian doctrine ; they recite the prayers of the Church from book, and this so modestly that all who see them are provoked thereby to give praises and thanks to God, for they carry them- selves with as much recollection and composure of countenance as the novices of religious orders at home. No one can ever hear an oath or an im- proper word from them, not even of the lightest kind, such as is more easily pardoned. Among other edifying things of this kind which our good Rocco has established, is one which is very highly approved of — he often brings his schoolboys out in a long procession, answering one to another by twos and twos, with their eyes fixed on the ground, their walk grave and slow, singing the litanies, or other sacred chants of the same kind. These processions, which are very pleasant sights, are in great demand among the people, especially for the purpose of adding dignity to funerals, whenever one of the Christians here happens to die. The elder lads take The boys at Malacca. I 2 I the bier of the deceased man on their shoulders, and carry it to the place of burial. There is not one of them who does not know perfectly the Our Father , the Hail Mary , and the Creed, as well as some other Christian forms of prayer, and who cannot repeat them at any moment without mistake. They all know how to serve mass reverently, and all hear it every day. They meet at school early in the morn- ing, and after midday, after hearing the explanation of the Christian doctrine, which Perez repeats every day, they go to school again, where Oliveira teaches them. After they have heard and repeated their lessons, and gone through the rest of their school work, they kneel down, and in a loud voice recite, all together, their holy prayers. When I see all this my mind is filled with incomparable consolation. Pray God, I beseech you, to preserve the good that has already been gained, to promote what has been begun, to crown with increase these first fruits, to the praise and glory of His holy Name, and to the more perfect service of His own divine Majesty. XLVIII. To the same. Malacca, Eve of St.John Baptist, 1549. [help for a portionless girl.] Since I wrote to you at such great length, some- thing has happened which has made me think it well to say a few words to you once more. You must understand that I have fallen in here with an old friend of mine. I have very few so dear to me. His name is Cristoval Carvalho. He is unmarried, singularly virtuous, rich, of good family, altogether highly accomplished, and of good parts. In the 122 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . desire which I profess of helping on every one to salvation, I began to urge on my friend, for the sake of the affection between us, and to implore him for the love of God, to make up his mind to give up the rattling, desultory, wandering sort of life which he has been leading, so full of danger to his property and even to his life, and, what is of much more importance, exposing him to the greatest peril of losing his eternal salvation. How long was he to go on passing from place to place, a stranger every- where, never more than a chance guest wherever he happens to be ? would he never have a home of his own to be quiet in ? would he never find an un- occupied moment to recollect his thoughts and put his conscience in order ? and so on. Well, on all this he showed himself by no means inclined to despise my benevolent exhortations. Indeed, he confessed that he was beginning to feel somewhat bored by his perpetual wanderings. He had been afloat long enough, and was now looking with a yearning heart for the port and fixed anchorage of a settled life. In fact, he was minded to plant his home somewhere or other ; to collect under a roof- tree of his own the ample means which he had gained by traffic of so many kinds, in which he had been prosperous enough, and there apply his wealth, which he had no occasion to go on increasing, in whatever way might be required by calls of charity and religion, and of gratitude to God Who had given it to him, as well as by the repose which was suitable to his years, which have now got on to the point at which decline begins, and by the care of his bodily health. While we were talking of all this, there came most happily into my mind the remembrance of that good Diego Froez daughter . 123 lady, whose maternal love for our Society, evidenced as it is by diligent and daily services, has made us dub her with the title of our ‘ Mother.’ So I pro- posed to Carvalho to marry the daughter of this good dame. I spoke, as I could with all truth, of the good disposition, the virtue, the high character of the girl. My man was by no means deaf to what I said ; indeed, he was much moved by the very sincere praises which I gave to that good maiden and her qualities. In short, he promised that he would marry her. Now, I have no doubt at all, that he will be as good as his word ; he has always been a man of such truthfulness, and besides, the unfail- ing and staunch friendship which he has always kept up with me is another security. Especially too, as he quite sees that the step will be a very excellent, useful, and honourable one for himself — one that will enable him to lead a peaceful, happy, and tranquil life. So I have not hesitated to communicate the whole matter to our Mother, in a letter which I have written to her, as if it were quite sure to come off, if she consents to it : and I cannot doubt that she will do so, and think it a great happiness to gain so splendid an alliance with such a man as Cristoval, good as well as rich. The affair is, as you see, in good train ; but never- theless, there are many obstacles that intervene to prevent the execution of such plans, and in this case I see clearly that the affair will not be easily managed, unless you take it up and urge it with all your might. So I pray and entreat you both to remember the great devotion to us which that good Mother of ours has shown ; her acts of daily liber- ality to us ; her immense charity and goodwill ; and then to consider that God now offers you a very 124 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. precious occasion of repaying all her benefits to us by a return and recompense prompted by our grati- tude to her, which is indeed only one favour against many, but which still will be so important in itself as to weigh in the scale as if it were a whole host of acts of kindness. So pray exert yourself to the utmost, both working yourselves, and also asking and using the credit and efforts of the first Treasurer, to the same end, in order that that afflicted family may not lose the benefit of this most happy oppor- tunity. Do, I pray you, all that you can, that, now that Divine Providence, in His care for the lonely state of that most honourable widow, and for the bereaved condition of her orphan daughter, as good and innocent a girl as any in the world, offers this means of relief to each, they may each have the full benefit of it. I don’t think you will have much trouble in bringing Cristoval Carvalho to the necessary point. I know well his constancy and faithfulness, and I can’t fear for a moment that he will recall his word, or refuse to accomplish what he has promised me. As for the Treasurer, in order to get him to do what he can, it will be enough to allege, as you may with perfect truth, that the matter is one which he may most properly use his authority to bring about, for it belongs, above all things else, to the praise and service of our Lord God. And in the next place, it is one in which he ought to feel the highest concern, because upon it depends the good estate and the safety, the whole interests of the peace and hopes, of a family which has been left under his charge, of a lady of the highest character, who is his own relative, and of a young maiden who is really one in a thousand in point of worth, who looks to him as 125 Diego Froez daughter. her guardian for help and patronage. I am in high hopes that when you say this to that good and prudent man, the Treasurer, God will, in His good- ness, aid you, so that you may easily persuade him to what we desire. And now you know very well that our Mother has in her possession a royal rescript, duly signed and sealed, granting her power to transfer the office which her husband, Diego Froez (to whose soul God give glory !), held while he was alive, with all its emoluments, to any one to whom she may choose to give her daughter in marriage, and thus, in fact, to make the post a part of her dowry. This being so, it will be necessary to get the Governor to allow the office to be assigned to some one else, who will pay a sum of money for it, which may be applied to the completion of the girl’s dowry. The reason why this is necessary is that Cristoval Carvalho is too high in rank and too rich not to think it beneath him to have anything to do with that employment, especially as, as I have said, he is tired of troubles and of business, and what he most looks for in his married life is ease and repose from his past labours. I feared from the first that this might be the difficulty in the matter — that perhaps people would be found at Goa to contend that such a rescript should be observed to the letter, exactly as it stands in the text, that thus what his Highness had written should be stuck to against his own intention, and against the manifest equity of the case, and to strive, by this false allegation, to prevent the King’s bene- volence from taking effect, and to shut this orphan maiden and her widowed mother out of their fortune. If anything of this kind should oppose itself, I beg of you to act on the other side, exert yourselves to 126 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. the utmost, and use all the energy in your power, by yourselves, by means of the Treasurer, and by means of any one else whose credit and intercession may seem likely to be of any avail, in order to bring the Governor and the King’s officials, in whose power the matter lies, to put this benignant inter- pretation on the will of his Highness in granting this privilege. Every one can surely see that the King simply intended that the daughter of Diego Froez should have the advantage of the reward owdng to her father. He could not have intended that, if it should chance that she should come to be married to a man who was not fit to administer her father’s office, this poor young lady should be mulcted of a large part of what her father has left behind him. I do hope confidently that God, Who is the Defender of the widow and the Father of the fatherless, will help you to win this most equitable suit. And I am so earnest in desiring you to take it up and urge it so strongly, that I really think that you cannot, without incurring the guilt and shameful stain of ingratitude, which would fall in disgrace upon the whole of the Society, omit any possible industry or diligence in this matter of so much importance to our good Mother, until you succeed in getting rid of all obstacles and bringing to a happy conclusion this marriage, which I am sure God approves ; that so provision may be made for the good condition, com- fort, and dignity of a lady who has conferred such singular obligations upon us, and of that virtuous modest maiden, her daughter. You will find Carvalho himself very easy to manage, and docile in all that may be required of him. As I said, he has promised me, and he is a man of stainless faith, but more than this, he has let Duarte Barreto. 127 me see well that he thinks very highly of such a connection as that I am speaking of, and he has the greatest hopes of finding that this marriage will give him the rest he wants, the tranquil happiness for what remains of this life, which he so much longs for. And now I think I have said enough to explain this desire of mine, and unless I am mistaken, to make you approve it. I shall consider it a most joyful piece of news and a great favour to myself, if I hear from you that I have gained my point. May God unite us in His glory ! for whether we shall ever see one another again in this life is at present very uncertain. Farewell. XLIX. To John III., King of Portugal. Malacca, June 23, 1549. [COMMENDATION OF DUARTE BARRETO.] Since your Highness, in your royal letters from Portugal, has commanded me to give you a written report of those who in these regions of India faithfully and diligently discharge the duty committed to them, I would have your Highness know that Duarte Barreto, who has lately been managing the affairs of your realm at Malacca, has in the discharge of his office left nothing undone which could have been looked for from a man of skill, industry, and faithful- ness. He has taken care of the interests of the revenue, he has done good service to the merchants, by deciding the cases before him justly, without respect to persons, and he has moreover conducted himself in all respects in such a manner, that his ad- ministration as magistrate has done honour to your Highness among the natives in this part of the world. 128 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. For men have taken him as a specimen, and have commonly thought that you are in the habit of send- ing to them as officials of your kingdom men whom you know to be very well furnished with those virtues which you most highly approve, and which you your- self possess in abundance. For my part, I consider that the glory of kings and princes who have widely extended dominions is con- cerned in this, that they commit those parts of their dominions, which they cannot administer themselves, to men to whom it may be honourable for themselves to be thought like, men of whom the people may think, when they have seen them and had experience of their honesty, gravity, and justice, and learnt to honour and value those virtues in them, that they behold and have before them, in the deputies sent to live among them by their sovereign, an express por- trait of the noble and honourable qualities of their absent sovereign himself. Duarte Barreto belongs beyond all others to that most excellent number and kind of ministers, who make their supreme happiness consist in rendering perfect service to their King. On this account he is a man who deserves that your Highness should deign to advance him in substance and in dignity, and whose very distinguished services you should think it well to seek occasion to remune- rate. In order to act as he has done, he has had to undergo a great deal of labour, and, as there are abundance of bad characters out here, to take up a good many quarrels and fight many battles. A Rule of Life. 129 L. To Joam Bravo. Malacca, Feast of the Nativity of St.John the Baptist, 1549. [a rule of life.] I should wish you to follow with the greatest con- stancy every day the following order for your religious life. In the morning, as soon as you are awake, meditate on a mystery of the life of Christ, beginning from His holy Nativity and going on in continuous order to His triumphal Ascension into heaven. You have the matter for these meditations arranged in order in the book of the Spiritual Exercises. You must spend at least half an hour in this holy medita- tion, with the same attention and devotion of mind, and all the observances and rules which you remember that you used when you went through the exercises of your month’s retreat. You must go on every day to a new meditation, so that when, for instance, on Monday you have contemplated the Nativity of Christ, on Tuesday you must consider His Circumcision, and so on in order, until by the end of the month you have gone through all the actions of the Lord Jesus and come to the end of all, that is, the glorious Ascension. After this you should begin again, and go through the same round from the first, proceeding from one mystery to another that comes next to it, and so spend another month in going over the same steps as before. At the end of each of these exercises you must renew the vows which you have once made, especially those chief vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, making them, I say, over again, and offer- ing them to God, reviving and rekindling the same deep fervour with which you made them the first time. J 130 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. Besides other fruits that you will gain, you will by this repetition of your vows blunt the assaults of con- cupiscence and of our infernal enemy, both of which will be always inciting you to evil things, and for this reason I think you should never omit this renewal. After you have dined and rested a little afterwards, you must repeat your morning’s meditation, and spend half an hour upon it, considering again the same mystery, and you must add again at the end the renewal of your vows. This must be a fixed and im- mutable rule for you, always kept up amid all the variety of your actions during the day, and no avoca- tion or occupation must be so important to you as to prevent you from giving a full hour every day to this pious meditation of the most holy life of Christ our Lord. And in this matter the division which I have arranged for you will be convenient, so that you may put aside half an hour out of the morning, and half an hour out of the afternoon for this purpose. It seems to me that the space most free for the last will be the time towards evening when Father Francesco Perez, with whom you live, holds his catechetical school : that will be a time when you will be at leisure to attend to your afternoon prayer. At night, before you go to sleep, you must examine your conscience, inquiring into your thoughts, words, and deeds of the whole day, and also whether you have left out anything of what you ought to have done. Examine all these things as if you were pre- sently going to cleanse your soul in sacramental con- fession to a priest, and then conceive deep contrition for what you have done amiss, or for what you have ' omitted, out of regard to God, Whom you have offended thereby, and Whom you love above all things, and then earnestly pray Jesus Christ to A Rule of Life. 131 prosper you, and promise amendment. After all this, recite the Pater and A ve, and compose yourself to rest in such a way that sleep may steal upon you with your thoughts fixed on divine things, and your mind preparing itself to spend the next day in greater holiness. When you wake the next morning, raise your thoughts at once to heaven, and while you are putting on your clothes and washing your hands and face, call to mind the faults into which you fell the day before, and ask of your Lord grace to avoid them that day. Then make your morning meditation, as you have done the day before, and in the same way go through your other duties in order. Be so constant in this method of life, as never to think it lawful for you to give up the least part of it, except when hindered by illness, and whenever, as long as you are well and strong, you shall, under pretext of any inter- vening cause whatever, either have put off or not fully performed any of these things prescribed to you, make it a matter of conscience and confess your fault before the Fathers, asking of your own accord to have punish- ment given you for your negligence in either omitting, or doing in a perfunctory way, a thing which has been so urgently enjoined upon you by your Superior. For the rest, whatever you may have to do, where- ever you may go, in whatever you may be engaged, whether occupation or relaxation, always be on the alert and endeavour strenuously to exert all your strength in striving to conquer yourself in everything, break your desires, embrace what your feelings shrink from, and especially to beat down your innate appetite for praise and superior excellence, and spare no pains at all until pride be torn out by the roots, and you are able to bear willingly to be put down below every- 132 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. thing and even to rejoice to be despised. Be sure of this, that without this submissiveness, without this command over the evil movements of the soul, you will do no good either to yourself or to others, nor will you be able to please God or to persevere in the Society of Jesus. Obey the Father with whom you live in all things, and execute with the greatest alacrity whatever he may order you, however disagreeable it may be ; never make for any cause whatever any exception to what he orders, and listen to what he says and bend your- self entirely to his word as your director in all things, exactly as if our Father Ignatius were present and were to command the same things. Whatever temp- tations, of whatever sort or manner, you find yourself assailed by, tell them at once with the greatest candour to your Superior, and persuade yourself, as of a matter of the greatest certainty, that there is no other way to avoid yielding to them ; and besides this advantage, there is another great gain for the soul attached to this openness in confessing the secret movements of the heart. For by that means we gain great favour with God, a sort of favour which brings with it a pledge of great reward hereafter, on account of the generally troublesome victory which we win over our natural feeling of shame. Yes, and a great blow is inflicted thereby on the hopes and insidious machina- tions of our hellish foe, whose principal power to hurt us lies in his remaining concealed, and who is dis- armed if he be dragged into light, and then it turns out that all his perverse expectations are dashed to the ground, and he is made the laughingstock of those ' whom he was plotting against, and who are safe and secure against him. Farewell. Dangers at Sea. 133 LI. To the Society at Goa. Cagoxima, November n, 1549. [dangers of the voyage to japan.] It was the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene about vesper time, and as the sea was swelling, and the water became rougher on account of the wind, the ship being anchored off a shoal, Emmanuel the Chinese, one of our companions, fell head foremost, as the vessel rolled, into the sink of the ship, which was open. We all thought he was killed, for he had fallen from a great height, and the sink was full of water. However, by the goodness of God he escaped death. He stuck some time in the well, with his head downwards, and up to his middle in water, and at last with great difficulty and exertion we got him out, badly wounded on the head. He lay a long time without coming to himself, but by God’s great mercy he was at length restored to health. Just as we had begun to attend to his recovery, there came another roll of the ship, and the daughter of the captain was cast overboard into the sea. The violence of the storm was so great that our efforts to help her were all in vain, and she sank in the waves in the sight of her father and of all of us, close to the ship. There was so much wailing and groaning all that day and the night which followed, that everything seemed very mournful and miserable, whether from the grief of the barbarians, or the danger in which we were. For the pagans turned at once to appeasing their idol with sacrifices and ceremonies ; they spent the whole day and night, without taking any rest, in killing birds and placing dishes before the idol. And when 134 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. the captain asked why it was that his daughter had perished ? the lots told him that if our friend Emmanuel had been killed in the sink, his girl would not have come to harm. You see what great danger we were in, as our life depended on the answer given by the devil and on the will of his servants. What would have become of us, if God had per- mitted that most bitter enemjr of ours to deal with us according to his own desires ? For my part, when I saw such great and open insults offered to Christ our Lord by those abominable rites, and yet could in no way hinder them, I prayed many times to God, that before we were lost in that tempest, He would deliver those men whom He had created in His own image from their very great and impious errors, or, if He was to permit them to remain in these same errors,, at least that He would allot very severe torments to the common enemy of man who was the author of all those superstitions, every time that he incited the captain to consult him by lots or to worship him as God. On the same day on which these troubles happened and during the night which followed, it befell me, by the good gift of God, to feel and experience a great many things concerning the very great frights which the devil, when by God’s permission he has the power given him, is wont to inflict upon timid men exposed to danger, as well as concerning the means of defence which we ought to use in such a case and at such a time against the assaults of the enemy. It would not be at all useless for you to know them, but for brevity’s sake I pass them by. The sum of it all, and the most certain safeguard, is this, to have the greatest presence of mind and courage against the enemy, utterly dis- trusting yourself, and entirely relying upon God, so Reliance on God. 135 as to have all your strength and all your hopes placed in Him, and by no means in the world to allow your- self to seem to fear or to doubt of your victory, with a patron such as He is and One so great for your defender. It very often came into my mind that if God had really increased at my prayer the punish- ment and pain of the devil, then it was very likely that the latter might vent his rage and hate upon me, for he very often threatened me and gave me to understand that the time was come when he would avenge on me the increase of his pain. But the devil can never hurt any one at all, except as far as God Himself permits it : so that at such times we ought much rather to fear having any dis- trust in God, than to fear the assaults of our enemy. For God does permit our foe to harass and vex those who are led by their own timidity not to trust in their Creator, who do not seek for strength in Him, and do not place their hopes on Him. This plague of timidity makes many men who have begun to serve God lead a sad and anxious life, in that they bear the sweet yoke and cross of Christ and yet do not advance bravely and constantly. Timidity causes us this evil, a very great, a very fatal and mischievous evil — that having begun to lean only on your own weakness* when there is need for far greater strength and for resources such as God alone can give, your courage fails in difficult matters, so that you do not make good use of the help of Heaven, which invites you to have a good hope of victory. On the other hand, presumptuous men, — who are led by their self-con- fidence to rely more than is right on their own strength, and who despise lesser conflicts with temptation,, although they have never trained themselves in these to victory, — these are even more weak than timid 136 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. men when great dangers and sorrows beset them. For their undertakings have turned out in a way so entirely contrary to their expectations that they lose all heart and are dejected in small matters as well as in great. So that they go into conflicts of this kind with so much repugnance and so much fear, as to Tun a great risk of their salvation, or at all events of losing all tranquillity. For they do not acknowledge their own weakness, and thus they consider the cross ■of Christ too heavy to be borne, and their life must of necessity be anxious and bitter. For how can we expect it to be with us, dearest brothers, at our last moments, unless we have practised ourselves in having a good hope and in confidence in God during our lives ? At that time we shall certainly find ourselves surrounded by far greater dangers, temptations, and sufferings both of mind and body than ever before. For this reason it is right that those who have a desire to serve God should take great pains in little matters, and lower themselves and empty themselves as much as possible, so that they may have an utter distrust of themselves, and an immense trust in God, and thus they may become accustomed, when great dangers of life or •death or great trials present themselves, to have great bope in the goodness and mercy of God. And this they will gain, if they conquer themselves in things, however little they may be, to which they have an aversion, and if they devote themselves altogether to the study of Christian humility, and so are entirely free from self-confidence, while they raise up their hearts to placing the very highest confidence in God. For in truth no man is really timid and weak who knowingly leans upon the assistance of God. How- ever many may be the hindrances to perseverance Preparation for the Mission. 137 and perfection of virtue which the enemy of us all may place in your path, yet after all you will run a far greater risk in great difficulties and troubles if you distrust the aid of God, than if you confront the perils which our deadly foe raises against you. Would that pious men, in the place of those fears and terrors which the devil uses in endeavouring to deter them from the service of God, would substitute the fear they ought to feel of God their Creator in case they should chance to give up what they have - begun for Him ! Would that they would once for all make up their minds that it will be far worse for them to neglect the will of our Divine Master than to brave what is in truth the impotence of the devil ! O good God ! if they would do this, how full of sweetness would their life be, and what progress would they make in virtue, taught by their own experience the knowledge that of themselves they can do nothing, but on the other hand that they can do all things with God to help them ! And how, too, would our foe be broken down and perplexed, seeing himself conquered by those whom he more than once before had overcome ! LII. To the same. [preparation for the mission.] Now my chief reason for writing all this so fully to you is, that you may rejoice and give thanks to God our Lord, for that new regions are thus laid open, in which your own industry may some day find a large field for exertion, and that you may in the meanwhile furnish yourselves with solid virtues and a great desire of suffering many things for Christ. And what I could wish to sink deep into your hearts and always 138 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . remain there is this, that a ready and entire will to practise humility and lowliness, a will by which you devote yourself and your life to the glory of God, is a sacrifice more pleasing and acceptable to Him than even a great number of very important services rendered without a will of that kind. Do you therefore be ready, for perhaps in less than two years I shall write and summon many of you to J apan. In the meanwhile meditate upon and cultivate humility with all diligence ; conquer yourselves in all those things from which our depraved nature shrinks ; and make it your constant work by God’s grace to know yourselves thoroughly. Self-knowledge is the nurse of confidence in God, and the motive of Christian humility. It is from distrust of ourselves that confidence in God is born, true and genuine confidence. This will be the way for you to gain that true inferior lowliness of mind, which in all places, and especially here, is far more necessary than you think. I warn you also not to let the good opinion which men have of you be too much of a pleasure to you, unless perhaps in order that you may be the more ashamed of yourselves on that account. It is that which leads people to neglect themselves, and this negligence in many cases upsets as by a kind of trick all that lowliness of which I speak, and puts arrogance in its place. And thus so many do not see for a long time how much they have lost, and gradually lose all care for piety and all tranquillity of mind, and thus are always troubled and anxious, finding no comfort either from without or within themselves. I do therefore pray and beseech you to cast away all confidence in your own power, in human wisdom and reputation, and keep all your hopes and thoughts continually fixed on God alone. If you do this, then Strength of the humble. 139 I consider that you are sufficiently armed and prepared against all the troubles which may beset you either in the mind or in body. For God lifts up and strengthens the humble, those especially who in the practice of even humble and abject offices keep their eyes, as on a mirror, on their own weakness, and conquer themselves nobly in such practices. These are the persons who in the greatest labours and sufferings will show virtue and constancy, and neither Satan and his ministers, nor the storms of the sea, nor savage and barbarous nations, nor anything else, will be able to separate them from the love of Christ. For they know for certain, from their confidence and hope in God, that nothing can ever have power to hurt them without His permission, that all things are ruled and governed by God’s decree and counsel ; they are shielded by the guardianship of God, and there is nothing that they can fear, save this one thing alone, lest they may offend Him. If sometimes it be that by the permission of their heavenly Lord they are harassed and vexed by the devil or by men, or by anything else, then they feel sure that their virtue is being put to the proof, or their vices or faults are being punished and expiated, and that thus they are either gaining an increase of merit or of humility. And so they give God all due thanks for these great benefits, and, that they may not be wanting in grati- tude to those who furnish them with matter for the exercise of virtue and for gaining reward, they pray with all their hearts to God for peace and pardon for them. Such as these I trust you, by God’s help, will become. For my part, I know a man who, when he had got the habit of placing all his hope and confidence in God, even in the very midst of dangers, was in a 140 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. wonderful way laden with heavenly gifts, which it would be long to give an account of. And as we must suppose that the trials already passed are lighter than those which are to come upon us, I pray and adjure by Jesus Christ those who are hereafter to come to Japan, that they prepare themselves for the hardest things, and break down and tame their own desires, which are the hindrances to such great good. Take heed to yourselves, dearest brothers, for there are many now tormented in hell, who, after having by their discourses opened the way to heavenly bliss to many, have yet themselves at last come to those eternal punishments, because they have been inflated by the false and deceitful idea of their own excellence, and so have wanted this humility of heart. But there is no one at all in hell of the number of those who, when afflicted by the sufferings of this life, have made it their business to fortify their souls with that interior humility of which I speak. Always keep in mind that saying of our heavenly Master, ‘ What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but suffer loss of his own soul ? ’ Take heed lest you have any confidence in yourselves, and, because you are older than others in the Society, therefore prefer yourselves to those who have come later. I should feel much greater joy of heart if (as I hope may be the case) I should hear that any elder one among ours was very often thinking within him- self how little progress he had made, after spending so many years in the Society ; how much time he had lost, not only in remaining still but even in going back — since in the way of perfection not to make progress is to recede. Those who dwell on such thoughts are sure to feel ashamed and to reproach themselves with their indolence and sinfulness, and Sweetness of God's yoke. 141 so, roused up by the spirit rather of interior than of exterior humiliation, gain courage and strength to make up for their losses. And so they will become examples to those with whom they live, both novices and the rest. Come, therefore, — practise yourselves, all of you, assiduously in these meditations, when you feel the desire of being conspicuous soldiers in the armies of Christ our Lord. And believe me, that those who may come here will have their virtue well tried, and whatever extreme diligence you may have used in acquiring virtue of any kind, you will find none that you have not use for. I do not mean by all this to make out that it is difficult and arduous to serve God, for we know that His yoke is easy and sweet. For if you seek God in truth, and enter vigorously the path which leads to Him, you will certainly find so much delight proceed from His service, as will easily mitigate and soften whatever sharpness or bitterness there is in conquering yourself. O good God ! men do not understand what great and pure pleasure they forfeit because they do not resist vigorously enough the assaults of the devil — a thing which deprives our poor weak hearts, not only of acquaintance with all the goodness of God, but also of the consolations of this miserable life — especially when such a life, with- out any of the sweetness which comes from God, is continual death rather than life. I fear that the devil should beset some of you, putting before you certain very great and wonderful exploits which you may achieve for the service of God in other places and occupations. What would he do, I wonder, if he got you into a position more open to his assaults ? All his plans have this aim, to make you solicitous and anxious, so as to be no good 142 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. either to yourselves or to others among whom you work. And so he whispers to you : ‘ What are you doing ? Do you not see that in your attempts here you are spending your work in vain ? ’ This is a thought which tempts most of those who have given themselves to the service of God, and I urgently pray you over and over again to resist it bravely and con- stantly, for in truth this evil is so pernicious to piety and perfection in virtue, that it makes us not only run slowly in the course which we have begun, but also proceed as far as we do with great trouble and anguish of mind. So let each one of you, wherever he may be, study to help first himself and then others in this, and let him make up his mind that he can nowhere do more serviceable work for God than in the place which has been assigned him by his Superiors. And at the same time trust, that when the fit time comes, God will put it into the minds of those who govern you to send you to that particular place above all others where your work will be most fruitful. In this way you will be happy and ready, and make great progress in virtue, and spend all your time well ; and time is a thing the value of which is very great indeed — though many do not know it — since of all our idle time so accurate an account has to be given to God. But men who are anxious and uncertain in mind neither make any progress where they wish to be, because they are not there, nor, where they are, do they do good to themselves or others, because their thoughts are elsewhere. There is also another anxiety which worries me, namely, lest the devil, transforming himself into an angel of light, should deceive some of you by his tricks, setting before your mind the great obligations Vain self-confidence. H3 to God under which you live, and all the miseries out of which He has delivered you by calling you into the Society of His Son, and so lead you into a vain con- fidence and security, so that you ask to be sent out here before the time, reasoning with yourselves in this manner, that if already in so short a space of time God has bestowed on you at Goa so many great benefits, He will certainly give you many more and much greater when you are sent out hither for the conversion of the heathen. And when the devil has cast this thought into your minds, he may easily per- suade you that you are doing nothing where you are. But this attack of the enemy may be repelled in two ways. First, if you consider that there are many wicked men who, if they were to wash off the filth, so to speak, of their former life, and were to be placed in that same school of virtue in which you are, would not only change their manner of living, but would also, to your very great shame, surpass you in virtue and diligence. I say this to put you in mind of what is the truth, that is, that the reason why you abstain from more serious faults is that where you are there are no occasions of offending God, and many of enjoying Him. Persons who do not know whence this very great blessing proceeds are apt to attribute it to their own virtue, and so neglect things that seem small while they are in themselves great, while the persons who despise them so foolishly are small indeed, and themselves worthy of all contempt. In the second place, you must take diligent care to refer all your desires and judgments to your Superiors, having perfect confidence that it will turn out that God will give them in His goodness that mind and purpose in governing you which will be most profit- able to your true interests. 144 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. Moreover, take care never to ask anything of them with importunity. Some do this, and urge their Superiors so much that they extort from them what they desire, however hurtful it may be : and if it be denied them, they complain openly that their life is unpleasant and bitter. Poor men ! they do not understand that all their bitterness and trouble arise and are increased from this — that after having once given and devoted their will to God, they neglect their vow, and endeavour to turn their will the wrong way and regain it for themselves. The more they try to follow their own will, just so much in propor- tion is their life more anxious and their mind more disturbed.’ There are many of these men who are so much their own masters that they hardly ever obey their Superiors willingly — except when they are com- manded to do what they themselves wish. For God’s sake take care not to be of this class. In all matters at home, carry out with the greatest care what your Superiors put upon you to do, and by the help of God, avoid the suggestions of the devil, who tries to persuade you that you can gain more profit in some other office, that so you may not well discharge the business which is given you to manage. This is a kind of artifice with which he is wont to assail those who are employed in letters and educa- tion. I implore you again and again, for the sake of Jesus Christ, endeavour in all humble and abject duties to win great victories over the devil. And in doing what you are set to do, take even much more pains to resist the temptations which relate to your duties, than in making great bodily exertion and labour to discharge what is ordered you. For . there are some who satisfy their duty exteriorly, but not internally, Benefits of dependence on God. 145 because they take no pains at all to keep down the evil movements of the soul, and to get rid of those impediments to the discharge of the duty which the devil puts in the way in order to retard them in the way of virtue. These men generally lead a sad and anxious life, and make no progress in piety and virtue. Let no one deceive himself. No one can ever excel in great things who does not first excel in small. We owe indeed a great debt to God for this, for bringing us into these heathen countries, where we may forget ourselves altogether. Everything here being in the hands of heathens and of enemies to the true religion, we have no one but God to hope in, no one but Him to have recourse to for protection. At home in Europe, where the religion of our Lord Christ flourishes, it somehow or other happens that the people we have to deal with, and created things, such as the love of our parents, our country, our relations, the intercourse we have with our friends r the conveniences of life, the remedies against disease.,, and the like, are so many hindrances to our fixing, and placing our whole and entire hope in God alone.. But here, where we are so far from our home, among, barbarians, utterly destitute of all human defence and resources, it is a matter of necessity for us to rely only on our confidence in God. And the thought of the very great benefits thus conferred on us by God is a source of no common shame and self reproach to us. For we almost see with our bodily eyes the good- ness of God towards us. So that whereas, having come to these parts out of a desire to extend our divine religion, we thought that we were doing some- thing worthy of reward from God, we now clearly K 146 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. see that it was indeed a very special blessing which •God conferred on us that we came. He, by bringing us to Japan, has set us altogether free from that love •of human things, which was a snare and a net to us, so that we had not had much hope in God. I beg •you to help me to give thanks to our Divine Lord for such great favours, that I may not fall into the Jault of ingratitude ; a fault which turns aside the :flowing source of God’s bountiful goodness, and hinders him who has been ungrateful for lesser gifts from receiving others still greater. And moreover we think we ought not to hide from you other blessings which we find granted to us by God out here, in order that you may join us in giving endless thanks to God the Giver. In other places the food is plentiful, and thus it excites the appetites and fosters them, to the detriment of frugality and temperance. Hence there commonly follow many serious evils either to soul or body. Intemperate persons suffer, on the one hand, many things and painful things from their doctors, and, on the other hand, make their life a troublesome one or perhaps even bring it to its end. And when they are under treatment they find their medicines much more disagreeable than they have found their good meals pleasurable. The troubles caused by their medicines are followed perhaps by other sufferings which are far more severe ; for they are often obliged to trust their very lives to doctors, and these make a great many mistakes and apply a number of useless methods of cure before they hit upon what really heals the disease. For this reason I consider it a great benefit God has done us, in bringing us to this place where we .are, which is altogether destitute of delicacies, and Singleness of purpose. H7 where, however much we may wish, we can give our bodies no indulgences at all. People here never kill fowls or eat them. The common food is vegetables and rice; wheat, fish, apples, and other fruits are considered luxuries. Thus it is that on account of their temperance most people here enjoy very good health : you see a great many old people about. This in itself is enough to prove that our nature, which otherwise might seem to be quite insatiable, is really contented with little. For ourselves, we are in excellent bodily health : may God give us the same health in our souls ! We have indeed only one thing in view, which is to bring the Japanese to the knowledge and faith of Jesus Christ our Lord, and we trust that we shall accomplish this by the help of Him Whom we serve. And it does not seem that we have any danger to fear from the people itself, unless perhaps it be roused against us by the bonzes. Not even with them shall we enter into any conflict rashly, but at the same time we shall not be wanting in what is due to the glory of God and the salvation of souls. We know well enough that they cannot hurt us unless God permits it. But if it should be so that we lay down our lives in so pious and good a cause we shall certainly count that among God’s greatest benefits to us, and we shall be grateful to our enemies themselves, for bringing us to the end of this continual death which is now our life, and to the entrance of that life which is blessed and eternal. We are determined not to desist from proclaiming the truth for any threats or terrors of theirs. If God bids us rather lose our own life than give up the salvation of their souls, we are deter- mined to obey His command, with His own good 148 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. assistance, and supplied by Him with strength and courage, for the sake of drawing the Japanese out of all the darkness of their superstitions into the light of the Gospel. I have very great hope that the help of God will not be wanting to us in such a matter, since we entirely distrust our own strength, and have placed all our hopes in the might and supreme power of Christ our Lord, and in the patronage of His most holy Mother, of all the Angels, and especially of the Archangel Michael, the Prince of the militant Church. We also hope much in that Archangel under whose protection and guard the country of Japan is placed, and to him and to other Angels, guardians of men, we daily commend our- selves and our undertaking, that they may not cease to implore God for the conversion and salvation of the Japanese who are under their care. Moreover we continually implore the aid of all the blessed in heaven, in this horrible danger and loss of souls, and we supplicate for the preservation of so many images of God, pleading the merits of all these powerful intercessors to their Creator. And we do not doubt that whatever fault we may commit by negligence or carelessness in this very supplication for the aid of the heavenly host, is made up for by those blessed allies of ours, who offer with the greatest eagerness and diligence to the most Holy Trinity these poor desires of ours to do what is pleasing to God. The protection of so many and so mighty defenders encourages us far more to hope for victory, than do the great and frequent snares and threats of the devil deter us from this conflict. We should certainly do the most foolish thing in the world, if we were to rely on our own power or wisdom. But God in His good Providence allows so many terrors, sorrows, Reliance on Prayer. 149 and dangers to be put in our way by our enemy, that He may break down our spirit, give us lowly hearts, and train us to submissiveness of mind and humility, so that we may never in future feel any trust in our own prudence, but an entire trust in His Divine Protection. And in this He shows at once very clearly His own goodness and how much He remem- bers us, for He continually sends us internal teachings that we may learn how entirely nothing is what we can do in our own strength, suffering our minds often to be molested by small troubles and dangers, in order that we may never trust in ourselves, and so rest on the support and aid of our most loving Father. For if people undertake anything with self- confidence, they often find trifling hindrances more troublesome and more difficult to overcome, than even very great dangers and calamities prove to be to those who distrust themselves entirely, and have placed upon God all their reliance. It is a great matter for our consolation that you should not be ignorant of any serious care or anxiety that besets us, so that you may help us either by your sacrifices or by your prayers. God knows our many and great faults, and we are very fearful that the fair wind of His Divine help may never carry our endeavours to their desired end, unless there be some great improvement in our life and manners. For this purpose we must use the prayers of all the members of our Society and of all that love it, that by their means we may be presented to the universal Church the Spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we trust that she will communicate to us her in- numerable merits and commend us to her Spouse and to our Father Jesus Christ, and to His most holy Mother. And so they in their turn will obtain 150 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. of the Eternal Father, the Source and Author of all goods, that He may always keep us in the path of duty, and, overpowering our faults by His own infinite goodness, may continue ever to heap upon us His heavenly gifts. For in truth for His sake alone it is that we have come to this strange country — and of this He is my best witness, Who sees clearly all our minds and intentions — and from a desire of delivering the souls of men from the long- established bondage of the devil, who aims at being worshipped as God on earth, since he could not attain to that in heaven, whence he has been cast down, and so vents his hatred upon men, and among them upon these miserable Japanese. LIII. To Father Antonio Gomez at Goa. Cagoxima, Nov. 5, 1549. j[AFFECTIONATE advice.] As the letter which I wrote the day before yester- day (common to all of you of the Society of Jesus who are living at Goa) is so long and deals so much in detail with everything, there is hardly anything left for me to write to you in particular except this one : that you are continually present to our mind and memory. Nor does my heart ever cease from ardently wishing for your soul more grace and spiritual progress than perhaps you desire for your- self. I should wish indeed that you should take care of all our brethren scattered over India, whom I have committed to your charge ; but be sure that above all others I recommend to you yourself, and that I have no greater desire, and consider nothing to be of greater importance, than that you should Antonio Gomez . 151 apply all your efforts to be always advancing and urging on to better things your own soul. And if I came to know that in this business you relaxed even the least point from the extreme of vigilance, I should not think you by any means fit to have com- mitted to you the salvation of others, or indeed any affair at all of serious importance. But if, as I rather incline to think and as I pray God that He may grant, you are strenuously and vigorously continuing to press on with relentless speed to the great end ever kept before your mind, of bringing about the greater glory of God by your own perfection, getting rid of all obstacles whatsoever, and if I come to know this for certain, then I should by no means be without hope that the time may come when I may call you out hither, to send you to Meaco or Bandou, that is into the very strongholds and headquarters of the superstitions of Japan, where yo.u may find abundant means to fulfil the holy desires which you have conceived. Father Cosmo Torres, who is very fond of you, is writing to you, and in the vehemence of his affection for you is desiring for you a great many things, which I fear are not quite good for you just at present. No, let what is at present unripe come to maturity, and let us wait for the opportune moment, which will arrive in due time. Meanwhile, be assured of this, that I intend you for greater and nobler things than either you or this good Father who is so devoted to you desires. It will hardly fail to come about, that before three years are over you will have letters from me calling you out hither to go to one of the most famous universities of these kingdoms, where perhaps you will enjoy far greater showers of Divine conso- lations than you imagine, and will gather a very 152 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . much more copious harvest of souls than any that you reap, however large it may be, from your labours in cultivating the Indian mission. But about this at another time. What is now urgent is this. I was fearing that perhaps some rather tender affec- tion might steal over you towards some one of those of the Society whom I am calling out hither, and so, under some specious pretext or other, you might think it lawful to make an exception and keep such a one with you, substituting another in his place. Now I tell you again and again, beware of attempting any- thing of the kind. Be quite sure that if, which God forbid, you were to do such a thing, you would grievously sin against your particular duty in a matter of the greatest importance, against the ex- plicit command of your Superior, and would become guilty of a fault which God would punish by no means lightly. For your own sake, as well as on other accounts, I desire to prevent this ; and so I order you, in virtue of holy obedience, to send off at once every single one and all of those to whom I am writing by name and summoning them hither, leaving out no one and changing no one on any pretext whatever, and to take care that they may be ready for the voyage when the time comes for the ships which are bound for these parts to set sail. By the ships which sail from Goa for Ormuz — usually not before March — send thither a copy of my longer letter written on the day before yesterday, and at the same time the letter which I am writing to Master Gaspar in particular, bidding him come to us as soon as possible, so that he may have it early, and may be able to get himself ready to come out hither in good time before the April of next year, availing himself of the vessels which usually sail to the East Antonio Gomez. 153 about that month. For we ourselves left Goa for our voyage hither in that same month of April. The above has been dictated by me, and what follows I add with my own hand. For the love of our Lord God I beseech you take most diligent pains to make yourself beloved by all and every one of our brethren. You will gain this if you console those who are with you with good and gentle words, and those who are at a distance with frequent and kind letters. I should very much wish you to have a fixed place and time for continually explaining the Christian doctrine to the ignorant, and I should wish you to do this in the cathedral church, and that in the same place you should on Sundays and feast- days preach to the people in the morning, and in the afternoon explain the articles of the Faith to the slaves and to the children of the Christians in the language which they understand, as I used to do when at Goa. I desire this that you may give an example to others. I also pray you most earnestly, write to me minutely about the interior state of your soul. You know how much I should rejoice, if I should learn from this manifestation the things which I so anxiously and solicitously desire as to your progress towards perfection ! Among the many bits of extremely happy news which I might receive, I should count it among the first of all if I were to hear from the concordant witness of many that you were very much beloved by all the brethren of our Society, whether those who are under the same roof with you, or those who are occupied elsewhere, far off or near, in other houses or in the missions. If I hear that they are all dear to you, that will be very pleasant, but it will only give me half the joy I want. In order that it may be full and complete, I must be 154 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. persuaded both that you have a most tender affec- tion for all of them, and also that you in return are extremely loved by them. Farewell. LIV. To Don Pedro de Silva, Commandant of Malacca . Cagoxima, Nov. 5, 1549. [how to invest safely.] Osaka is a maritime city, the chief seat of trade in Japan, two days’ journey from Meaco. With God’s help, it will be easy to obtain that right of domicile in that city should be given to the consuls of the King of Portugal, as well as power to build storehouses where they might keep merchandise from India and Europe, until they might be exchanged at leisure with the precious metals of the country of Japan, with manufactures and produce, but especi- ally with silver and gold, which are brought for sale from nearly all parts of these islands in great quantity to that port, which is the richest that they have. In order that such commerce, which would be very profitable on both sides, may be the more easily established, I shall try and persuade the King of Japan to send an ambassador to India, who might see how great an abundance there is there of things most useful for the convenience of life, yet of which Japan is destitute, and on his return might arouse his countrymen to the desire of such things, and so render them more inclined to agree to conditions of mutual traffic. The result may be, that without difficulty an agreement may be made between the Governor of India and the King of Japan, both as to other regulations of commerce, and also particu- A safe investment. 155 larly as to the establishment at Osaka of a factory and register of the Portuguese revenue. I have great confidence in our Lord Jesus, that before two years are over I shall write to you that we have at Meaco a church dedicated in honour of our most holy Lady the Mother of God, that hence- forth those who sail for these islands may be able, in the terrible storms of the Chinese Archipelago, to invoke the Blessed Madonna of Meaco. Now, if you could trust me so far as to allow me to take the office of your agent in these parts, I would venture to promise that I will manage, whatever portion of your property or money you should like to commit to me in such a capacity, to return you the same increased by an interest of more than a hundredfold, and with your profit quite secure from all dangers of shipwreck or sea voyage. This would be an amount of good fortune in traffic as to which there is no risk, and such as that no Captain of Malacca before you has ever made money more safely or more produc- tively. Would you like to know of what kind of this most rapid and profitable investment I am speaking ? I will tell you without circumlocution. Make up your mind, I beseech you, to give us some- thing to divide among the poor Christians of this country — those who are and those who are to be. This money so invested, I promise you on the security of Christ Himself, will be returned to you in heaven multiplied a hundredfold, without being exposed to the uncertainties of winds and waves, or to the arms and snares of pirates. While I have been writing this I have been rather afraid that I might not find your mind at present ready to run the hazard of this investment which is to have its profit in hope. And yet nothing can be safer. I know, 156 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . however that you Commandants of Malacca have such lofty notions, that although you are generally sufficiently alive to chances of gain in other ways, you usually neglect this most certain method of quick and large returns. LV. To the merchants at the Port of Figi. Amanguchi, Sept. 1, 1551. [asking for news.] The direction of this letter will not, as usual, bear the names of you to whom it is addressed, and you will be the less surprised at this when you learn, what is the truth, that the very reason why I write is to know your names. I pray you to be so kind as to tell me who you are? what is the name of the ship which has brought you hither ? did you leave everything at peace and quiet at Malacca when you set sail ? I beg of you to be so good as to write us a short answer informing us of these things. Mean- while, I beseech you not to take it amiss if I suggest to you to steal a little spare time from the occupa- tion of your business in order to spend it upon the examination of your consciences. Believe me, that, after all, is the one merchandise by far the most profitable of all merchandises, and the profit which comes from it comes very much quicker, and is much more abundant, than that which is the fruit of the exchange of the wares of Europe with the skins or silks of China, although it be true that the profit of that last-named trade is cent per cent, as much as the capital itself. I was thinking, if it so pleased God, of making an excursion hence to salute you, as soon as I receive your answer. May our The Chinese Mission. 157 Lord God in His immense clemency keep us all with His divine Hand ever over us, and preserve us, by His grace, in this life, constant and firm in the service of His Supreme Majesty ! Amen. LVI. To the Society in Europe. Cochin, Jan. 29, 1552. [HOPES FOR THE CHINESE MISSION.] I am beginning to have great hopes that God will soon provide free entrance to China, not only to our Society, but to religious of all Orders, that a large field may be laid open to pious and holy men of all sorts, in which there may be great room for devotion and zeal, in recalling men who are now lost to the way of truth and salvation. I again and again beg all who have a zeal for the spreading of the Christian faith to help by their holy sacrifices and prayers these poor efforts of mine, that I may throw open an ample field to their pious labours. I have nothing to say concerning India : the brothers there are charged to render you an account of what is going on there. I have just returned hither from Japan, bringing back a sufficient amount of bodily strength, but hardly any strength in virtue and spirit ; but I place all my confidence in the goodness of God and the infinite merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, that I may bring to its accomplish- ment, as I have designed it, this most irksome voyage to China. My hair has become quite white, but I am as active and robust as I ever was in my life. The labours which are undergone for the con- version of a people so rational, so desirous to know the truth and be saved,- result in very sweet fruit to 158 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. the soul. Even at Amanguchi, when the King allowed us to preach the faith and a vast concourse of people gathered around us, I had an amount of joy and vigour and delight of heart, such as I never experienced in my life before. I saw how by means of our ministry the spirit of the bonzes was broken down by God, and the most glorious victory over most formidable enemies was gained. I delighted also to see the joy of our neophytes at the defeat of the bonzes, and their evident zeal to attack the pagans and draw them to baptism, as well as their exultation when the battle was won, as they talked over their victories amongst themselves, when the superstitions of the heathens were put to flight. These things made me so overflow with joy, that I lost all sense of suffering. Would to God that these divine consolations, which God so graciously gives us in the midst of our labours, might not only be related by me, but also some experience of them be brought home to our European Universities, to be tasted as well as heard of ! Then many of those young men given up to study would turn all their cares and desires to the conversion of infidels, if they could once taste the delight of the heavenly sweetness which comes from such labours. And if the world knew and was aware how well the souls of the Japanese are pre- pared to receive the Gospel, I am sure that many learned men would finish their studies, canons, priests, and even prelates, would abandon their rich livings, to change an existence full of bitterness and anxiety for so sweet and pleasant a life. And to gain this happiness they would not hesitate to set sail even to Japan. Enlightenment. i59 LVII. To St. Ignatius at Rome. Cochin, Jan. 29, 1552. [qualities required in missioners.] O, my true Father ! I have just received at Malacca, on my return from Japan, the letter of your holy charity. The news which I hoped for, and which it has given me, of the life and good health of one so dear and so venerated, have filled my soul with a joy known to God alone. I have read there many words breathing all your sweetness and piety ; I have re-read them many times for the comfort and the good of my soul. I go over them again in my mind, feeding on them, so to speak, continually ; especially those last words which are, as it were, the seal of charity, and which conclude your letter, ‘ Yours entirely, so that no length of time will ever be able to make me forget you, Ignatius.’ I have read these words with tears of delight, and as I write them I weep at the blessed remembrance of past days, and of the sincere and holy love with which you have always enfolded me, and which still follows me. I consider that God was pleased to deliver me from all those great toils and dangers in Japan, chiefly because your prayers and fatherly intercession in my behalf induced Him to favour me. No words can express all that I owe to the Japa- nese. It is by their means alone that our Lord, by an interior illumination, has penetrated me with a knowledge of my countless sins. Up to this time, wandering outside of myself, I was ignorant of the abyss of miseries which were concealed in my con- 160 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . science ; until, in the labours and trials of that country, the eyes of my soul have been at last opened and the Divine Goodness has allowed me to see clearly, and touch, as it were, by living experience and sensible impression, how very much I require another person to be given to me, to exercise the most sedulous care over me. Consider therefore what your holy charity is doing in putting under my guidance so many holy souls of the fathers and brothers of the Society residing in these countries. Nothing but the Divine Mercy has made me sensible in a manner transcending all evidence how ill pre- pared I am with the most necessary qualities for this ministry of direction. I ought rather to have hoped to be placed under the care and authority of my brothers, than to be charged with directing them. Your holy charity adds that you greatly desire to see me once again before the close of this life. Our Lord, Who reads the depths of my soul, knows the keen and sweet emotion of tender love which this affectionate expression of your precious love has roused in my inmost heart. And as often as I turn over these words in my mind (which is very often) unbidden tears fill my eyes, and break forth gently and irresistibly at this one sweetest image on which my heart dwells, that it is possible I may again clasp you in my arms : a thing difficult enough to bring about, as I see, but nothing is impossible to holy obedience. In the name of the passionate zeal for the service and glory of our Lord God with which you are animated, I ask one favour of you, which if I were in your presence I would implore before your holy feet on my knees : it is that you would send here Learning required. 1 6 r some man thoroughly well known and approved by your holy charity to be made Rector of the College of Goa. Such a man chosen by yourself, and so to ay formed by your hands, is very much required by that College. With regard to Japan, the reason why I am con- vinced that you should send there persons of great excellence and eminent both for virtue and learning, to be sent to the universities of that empire, is this. There are many there, unlearned though prudent men, who possess good judgment, and when they are convicted of their errors they take refuge in the answer that there are a multitude of learned persons in their country also who have devoted their lives to deep research, and to the reading of all kinds of books. These learned ones, they say, deny the truths which we maintain, and must have their argu- ments confuted and be gained over to us, in order that others who rely on their authority may be them- selves converted. Therefore letters and science are indispensable. The most remarkable strength of soul and patience, and indeed all virtues in perfection, are absolutely necessary for those who are preparing for such great conflicts. They will come, a few poor foreigners, to match themselves against the whole glory and repu- tation of a haughty people relying on its pride in itself and its institutions, entirely ruled by the bonzes, the first personages in the country as to dignity and esteem. Their boldness will expose them to a thousand sufferings when the hornets they have irri- tated shall fly upon them. They will find that they cannot do with impunity what is the first and most necessary thing to be done — tear to pieces the sophis- tries of the bonzes, confound their falsehoods, and L 1 62 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. expose the unworthy and secret artifices with which they suck the purses of the credulous people. From my experience when on the spot, I can well imagine how the mad fury of these false priests will break out on seeing before them a man who is able to deny to their face the power of which they boast, of snatching by their secret rites from the flames of hell souls already condemned to them ; and if their ridiculous pretensions are publicly convicted of false- hood, their chief source of gain will cease to exist. And when their shameful and unnatural crimes, the detestable obscenity of which is in their eyes a matter of joke, perhaps even a subject of praise, are branded with just and severe reprobation, then it is only natural that these raging boars, pierced by the spear in their filthy mire, will run in fury and madness on the men who have cast pearls before them. As I have before said, the preachers of the truth on these and other like subjects in this country cannot fail to be violently attacked and severely tried, and they will surely be tasked to the utmost to ‘ possess their souls in patience,’ to use the words of the Gospel ; and this patience they must acquire by practice, and be powerfully armed therewith before they expose themselves to such dangers. I am writing to Father Simon, or in case of his absence to the Rector of the College of Coimbra, to send no one for the Japanese universities who has not been seen, examined, and approved by your holy charity. I cannot repeat too often that our brothers will have to endure conflicts and trials beyond all common expectation. Visited constantly and most unseason- ably, they will not have a moment of the day (often not of the night) free from importunate inquirers ; questions will follow one upon another incessantly; Exposure of popular errors. 163 the nobles will send for them, and it will be im- possible to refuse to go to them. These distractions will rob them of time for daily prayer, meditation, recollection of the soul in God, and other spiritual exercises of the kind. They will not have time to celebrate Mass, at least for some days after they first show themselves, on account of the crowd of visitors ; they will barely have leisure for accomplishing the obligation of Office, or for necessary food and sleep. One of the faults of this people is without any shame to take up the time of foreigners, especially people who come from a distance, whom they generally treat contemptuously and make game of them wantonly, even when they are harmless and in no way trouble- some. But if these foreigners venture to attack and blame openly what the common people reverence and admire, if they lift up their voice against the different sects of false religions, if they satirize and strike with the censor’s rod the public crimes of the nation, and do this thoroughly and earnestly, if they declare obstinately that no one who has gone down into the fires of hell can be delivered from them by any sacrifice or almsgiving or rites performed by their living relations and friends ; then they will certainly have to undergo a violent tempest of ill will. Even the wisest of the natives will be exas- perated at their thinking so hardly as to the souls of persons, dear to them, who are already dead ; they will, for the most part, despise the new religion as imperfect and impotent, as confessing at once its inability to apply any remedy to souls already con- demned. People’s minds here are filled with cares and questions as to this point, because the literature .and the old traditions of the country abound in stories of hell and do not say anything about Pur- gatory. 164 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. Now all this being so, it is self evident that what we want here are powerful intellects, practised in dialectics, gifted with a popular eloquence, quick to follow error in its shiftings and even to anticipate them, able to snatch the mask from lies which plausibly bear the semblance of reality, to unravel sophistical arguments, and to show the incoherence and mutual contradiction of false doctrines. As a matter of fact, these bonzes are wonderfully ashamed and confused if the want of harmony and even the self contradictions of their dogmas are brought to light, or when they are so caught in the bonds of an invincible argument that they cannot escape from it. To these intellectual gifts must be added bodily strength — capable of resisting the severest cold of winter. Bandou, the chief Japanese university, is situated in the most northern part of these islands, and the others are not far off. It is found out here that natives of a colder climate are distinguished beyond others for skill and genius. As to the food, rice is almost the only thing to eat, though there is a little wheat and a few vegetables, greens, and other things of that sort, dry and not very wholesome. The only wine is made from rice (the making is an art) ; it is very scarce, and so extremely dear. But the most troublesome trial of all is the continual anxiety caused by daily perils. Old men are unsuited for the work in this country; they would not have the necessary strength for the labours which are indispensable. Neither are young men desirable, except those in whom the defect of age is supplied by great virtues, proved clearly by severe trials ; otherwise they would rather ruin themselves than be of use to others. All kinds of temptations and occasions of sin abound in Japan. Petition for prayers . 165 Added to this, men’s minds are more delicate here than anywhere else, and are easily scandalized by the very slightest appearance of an imperfect example in persons who claim to teach others. I am writing all these particulars as minutely as they are here set down to Master Simon, or if he should be absent, to the Rector of Coimbra. We have written a book in the Japanese language explaining the origin of the world, and all the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ. We have transcribed this book into Chinese characters, and intend to carry this copy with us when we go into China, so that while we are learning the language of the country we may be able to show the Chinese a sample of the truths we bring to them written in characters which they know. I pray and beseech your holy charity, in the name of your love for God and your zeal for His service, yourself to recommend me earnestly to God in your daily prayers and holy sacrifices, and make the rest of the Society do the same. I ardently solicit (and your holy charity will be my interpreter and mediator in this matter) that the suffrages of all the fathers, especially the pro- fessed, and their powerful intercession with our common Lord, may be procured for me. These prayers, in union with the merits of the whole militant Church, and with the prayers of all the blessed who in their lifetime were of our Socieiy, and the petitions of the whole of the Church triumphant, may obtain for me from our Lord God the grace clearly to know in this life what His holy Will desires of me, and the assistance and strength necessary for accomplishing in all fulness and per- fection whatever it may be His order or command that I should do. 1 66 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. LVIII. To Father Melchoir Nunez . Goa, April, 1552. [advice as to example.] I beg you most earnestly and desire of you that, for the love which you bear to Jesus Christ, and for the desire which you have for the glory of God, you make it your study everywhere to be ‘ a good savour ’ of Christ, to set yourself as an example of all virtues to the city in which you are, and avoid altogether giving any offence to the people. You will succeed in what I say, if moderation and Christian humility shine out in all you do. So at the beginning you must exercise yourself diligently in humble and abject offices, and then the people of the town will be won to you in this manner, and will take whatever you do in good part ; much more, of course, if they see that you persevere as you began with daily increased ardour. Wherefore I earnestly pray you not to forget your own progress in virtue : for you are well aware that one who does not make progress in virtue, goes backwards. I again, then, ask of you and beg of you for the sake of God, let your example excite the people to piety. If you are well furnished with humility of mind and with prudence, I do not doubt that you will both reap good results from your labours and become a really good preacher. Humility and prudence are the parents and teachers of many great deeds. You must visit very often the hospitals and the prisons. These offices of Christian humility, besides that they are pleasing to God and helpful to man, have also the effect of making people esteem highly those who Assistance from men of position. 167 practise them and respect them much, even though they have not the office of preachers nor any facility of preaching. You must diligently gain to yourself and keep as diligently the love of the Commandant, the Vicar, the clergy, the Brethren of Mercy, the King’s magi- strates, and indeed the whole city. This general regard is of great moment to enable missioners to turn in the right direction the wills of men, both by preaching and by hearing confessions, and paying visits. It is my great desire that in your work of cherishing and increasing this new Christian com- munity, you should be aided by the authority and assistance of the Commandant, the Vicar, and the Brethren of the Confraternity of Mercy. Take pains, therefore, that whatever increase may accrue to the worship of God by means of you be all attributed to their exertions. Thus it will be that they will give more help to your endeavours, and hinder them less. You will also gain another thing — that in your diffi- culties and contentions you will have many more friends and protectors, and fewer adversaries, or rather none at all. For who will venture to attack you, when you are known to be covered by the pro- tection of men of such position ? So, if at any time you are writing to the King of Portugal about the propagation of the faith, you must make honourable and grateful mention of their remarkable zeal for Christian interests, and if you think well you may show them your letters, and by all means ask the King to let them know that their good offices towards us and towards religion have been very pleasing to his Highness, and to speak in his letters in approba- tion of their zeal in such a way, as to attribute to them chiefly, after God, all the increase that has 1 68 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. been made in the divine worship and the Christian religion. LIX. To the same. Goa, April 3, 1552. [further advice.] A namesake of yours, Melchior Gonzalez, has given me your letter, which I have read with no small pleasure. May God give you the grace to scatter a ‘ good odour ’ of our Society where you are, now that there is so much feeling of offence against us among the people there. I pray and conjure you with all the earnestness I can, by all the desire which you have to serve and please God our Lord, take the most efficacious means in your power to conciliate people to yourself and to the Society, and to leave nothing undone, however difficult, that comes in your way to do to this end. If you are humble and prudent, I am in great hopes that by God’s help you will gain great fruit there. I send to you from this Francesco Enriquez, that he may stay at Tana with Manuel. Osorio may remain with you for household duties, and Barreto to teach reading and writing ; you yourself, meanwhile, being occupied in spiritual ministrations, and in conversing piously and holily with men of all sorts, as well as in explaining the Christian doctrine and in preaching. As for your sermons, I have been very much pleased with what you write to me as to your system of pre- paration, as to the form and whole method which you have determined to follow in them. I think you should keep to this method, and practise yourself in the manner you suggest as often as possible, for I Offence to be avoided, \ 169 hope with good confidence that the favour of God will not be wanting to you, that if you are humble you will turn out a great preacher. Send Francesco Lopez to this College by the first ship which sails hitherwards from you. Take care often to read over the written instructions I have given you as to the way of carrying on the advancement of the Gospel where you are. You will learn many other things from your own practice and the experience of events, if you are humble and prudent, if you carefully watch what occurs, considering and comparing all with the advice and orders which you have received from hence. Francesco Enriquez is to live at Tana, whither he is now sent, under your authority. I should wish you to give him an order of obedience most diligently to avoid giving offence to any one, and to show himself meek and signally patient on all occasions. You must also inquire from others, by means of watchers whom you can trust, whether he or any one else of ours give to anybody a just cause of offence. If you find that it is so, meet the matter at once without delay, applying some fitting remedy to the evil. Thus it is that I would have you watch first over yourself, and then over others. But if you should find any one of ours guilty of a serious sin which goes so far as to give public scandal, and to irritate the people against us not altogether without reason, then at once dismiss him from the Society ; for I now from this moment consider as dismissed those whom you may dismiss. For I have so much confidence in your prudence, that I am certain that no one will be sent away by you except for just cause. As to the annual income of your College, take care that it is spent rather in the building up of spiritual temples than of those which are sensible and material. i/O Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . Of this second class of sacred buildings, which have to be raised up of wood or stone, you must spend money upon none, except such as are absolutely necessary, such as you cannot refuse to build without the very gravest public inconvenience. If any plans of building are set before you with no other recom- mendation than that they will improve the splendour of decoration or present a more stately outside, decline them on the ground that it is requisite to postpone them to more urgent calls, and they can well be put off to more convenient times. Whatever you may have over and above from your income, spend, as I told you, in educating native boys in wholesome knowledge and good manners. For these are spiritual temples in which God is better honoured than in others, since when these boys have grown up to be men, they will by means of their good example, and by spreading the teaching which has been given them, be instru- ments for God of matters which most greatly concern His glory and the salvation of men. LX. To Father Joam Gonzalez Rodriguez. Goa, March 22, 1552. [charitable reprehension.] God our Lord knows how much I should have liked to converse with you face to face rather than write to you from a distance. There are many things which can be treated much more quickly and more effectually by word of mouth than by letters, always so slow' in themselves, and silent in the event of an unforeseen objection. I was delighted to hear what I did of you from persons who had recently left you, but I should have felt rather more joy if I had received from their Obedience to the Vicar. 1 7i hands a letter from you, telling me of the fruits of your labours at Ormuz, or, to speak more modestly, the fruits which God has vouchsafed to produce through you, as also those which He would produce if He could trust you more fully, but which He is not able to bring about, in consequence of the oppo- sition He meets with from the faults and imperfections by which you oppose His desires. These obstacles on your part hinder Him from manifesting Himself by you. You ought to accuse yourself unceasingly of this impediment to grace, and to grieve in humilia- tion and penance that by your own fault you are not a fitting instrument in the hand of God for the great and glorious works which He had prepared. Hence there is an immense loss, for which you alone are to blame, both of glory, which would have gone back to God were it not for you, and of spiritual fruit in the souls under your charge, for divine graces and bless- ings very great and without number are hindered from falling on them, simply because you are not what you ought to be. Dwell therefore diligently on the thought of the very severe account which will be required of you, at the day of the last great judgment, of all the good things which God was desirous of bestowing and was ready to give, but which you have hindered Him from giving. One thing I command you absolutely — to be very obedient to the Bishop’s Vicar, so as neither to preach, nor hear confessions, nor celebrate Mass without his approbation and consent ; and never forget that this is not my advice only, but my order. You are forbidden (in virtue of holy obedience) to disagree with the Vicar Episcopal from any cause whatever, or even to have any quarrel with him. Labour with all zeal at those occupations which you 172 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . can discharge in peace and harmony with him. I am confident, on account of what I think of his virtue and charity, that if he sees you humble and obedient, he will be more ready to grant you liberally the faculties which you require than you will be to ask for them. You must show great veneration and respect to the other priests ; carefully avoid ever showing a low opinion of any, or giving the slightest offence by contemptuous conduct. Make them all your friends, and give them the example of perfect obedience to the Vicar Episcopal — that so the whole people may learn to emulate the priests in paying that full and entire obedience to the Vicar which is due. I would have you think so much of the fruit of such an example as to be convinced that by showing others this humility you will do them much more good than by a hundred sermons. Be careful to avoid all singularity, showing yourself off to the world, and seeking to catch popular favour ; rather let it be seen that you turn with horror from all aiming at fame and vainglory. A great many members of our Society have suffered very much from this ostentation and vain desire to appear singularly perfect. I have sent away several from the Society since my return from Japan, because I found them infected with this fault amongst others. Take heed to yourself to be diligent to avoid committing such a fault, which might lead to your being dismissed also. In order to live in the Society with those sentiments of humility which are suitable to it, bear in mind how much more necessai^y the Society is to you than you to the Society. Watch then, always, never to forget yourself; if any one forgets himself, can one hope that he will be mindful of others ? I write these lines inspired by my real and tender love towards you, and because I hear Asking pardon for faults. 173 frequent little bits of bad news that you are observed to be less humble, less inclined to obey, than is needful for the example which you should give to the people of Ormuz. So much am I convinced that the interest of God’s greater service requires you to show perfect obedience and submission to the Vicar, that I order you, by virtue of holy obedience, as soon as you receive this letter so enjoining you, to go and kneel down before him, and humbly implore him to forgive you all the acts of disobedience and other faults besides by which you have grieved him up to this time. You must then kiss his hand, declaring that in so doing you do what I have ordered you to do. At the same time let him tell you what he wishes you to do, and you must obey his orders scrupulously. That this perfect unity between you and the Vicar Episcopal may not be of short duration, but remain good and firm always, you must visit him once a week and kiss his hand, as a pledge both of your submission and obedience to him. Take care never to fail in this duty, even if your nature rebels, and though you are obliged to do violence to your judgment and inclination in perform- ing it. For all this must be done, in order to con- found the malice of the devil, the father of discord and disobedience. Be careful in preaching never to attack or wound any one, directly or by allusion, nor to put forth opinions and doctrines with too much refinement or speculation in them, or such as to show off learning. Leave all quibbles and affectation of that kind, and speak of the sins which are most commonly committed in the town ; attack them with an ardent zeal for the divine glory, but with a modesty equal to your zeal. Do not reprove in your sermons even public sinners, 174 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. known to be such, and taking no pains to hide their sins. Seek them in private and give them fraternal advice. In all your conduct consider this, that it will give me more pleasure to hear that you have obtained the very smallest result, even such as that expressed by this line, which does not cross the whole page, without trouble or giving offence to any one, than that you had obtained an immense result, such as may hardly be represented by a line stretching across the whole page, thus : if this great success has to be wrung forth by noise and contention, amid the complaints of many who consider themselves hurt, or even of a single such person. And so persuaded am I that this is a matter of supreme importance, and that on this depends all hope and means of really procuring the advancement of souls for the greater glory of God, that I earnestly beg you to let all this advice sink into your heart, and to practise it, performing all your duties, especially your sacred duties, with calm and love and every sign of charity, with no violence or angry aggression or contention with those opposed to you. I have written to you with so much freedom because you are a man of no common virtue and perfection — one who thinks it a favour to be admonished, and would rather be reprehended usefully than be fed with empty flattery and adulation, because his judg- ment and good sense make him able to distinguish between wholesome bitters and poisonous sweets. I should have used blandishments and expressions meant to please, if I had thought I was addressing a weak-minded and feeble person ; but I have trusted to your strength and solidity, and have not hesitated Charity shown in reproof. ns to throw aside all dissembling, and let you see without disguise into my inmost thoughts. Thank God, I beg of you, for having made you such that I have been able, without imprudence, to put before you the simple truth without any condiment. The wisdom which you have acquired in so high a degree by means of long continued progress renders it easy for you to disdain the flattery which would seduce you to evil, and makes you prefer rather to be scolded, than to be praised to your hurt and insincerely by people who fear to offend your weakness and foolishness. It is well for the children and beginners, but it would be an insult to practised soldiers in God’s service to think that they required pampering with the milk of children or the soft indulgence due to nurselings. Believe me, I have not taken up my pen to write to you so simply and openly without first imploring the light of the Holy Spirit. I have felt His inspiration moving me to write in all confidence in that way which suits men who are perfect, and who have passed beyond the weaknesses of beginners and of those who are but little advanced in their career. As, by the mercy of God, we shall soon see one another in the glory of Paradise, I will not add a word more, save to beg you never to forget with what great love for you, as God is my witness, I have written this letter, and so to receive it with equal tenderness of reciprocal affection. In reading it, look to that same thing on which my eyes were fixed as I wrote it, that is to say, the greater glory of God our Lord, and the greater good of your soul, so very dear 1 76 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. LXI. To Father Alfonso Cipriani. April, 1552. [severe reproofs.] Very ill indeed have you understood the directions which I gave you to be followed in Meliapor. You show clearly what little good has remained to you, — that you have profited very little, — from your inter- course with our blessed Father Ignatius. I blame you exceedingly for having also taken proceedings by legal writs and actions of lawyers against the Vicar. Ah, this is always the way in which you yield to your violent nature, pulling down with the left hand whatever you build with the right. You must know that I have been displeased beyond belief by the rudeness and discourtesy with which I hear that you have behaved at Meliapor. If the Vicar does not act as he ought, most certainly he will not be taught better by such reproofs from you, especially when they are pressed upon him so imprudently as has been the case now. You have been so long accustomed never to cross your own will in the very least degree that wherever you are you offend every one, and give very clear proofs of your intractable and churlish disposition to all who have to deal with you. God grant that one day — even if late — you may repent of these imprudent acts ! I entreat you, by your love for God our Lord, to learn to control that hard and stubborn mind of yours, and to make up by good works in the future for the faults you have hitherto committed. And do not flatter yourself by ascribing these savage move- ments of passion to natural severity of character. Anger profits nothing. 1 77 This is no fault of disposition, but of extreme negli- gence and culpable disregard of your greatest duties, which you c3we to your own conscience and to your neighbours, — those of obedience, moderation, and charity. If you do not believe this on my word, you may assure yourself that you will see it most clearly at the hour of your death. I earnestly entreat you, in the name of our blessed Father Ignatius, to learn — during these few days remaining to you before that last hour — to learn and to practise self-possession, meekness, patience, modesty, and submission. Under- stand that all things are brought about by humility. If you cannot do as much as you wish, do what you can accomplish in quietness and goodness. In these parts of India there is no gaining anything by violence ; and the good which might undoubtedly be done by patience, submissiveness, and moderation is stifled in its very birth by foolish outbursts of anger, quarrelsomeness, and violent passion. Good that is done without offence or disturbance, even though in itself not greater than this little line , is much better and greater than good gained in another way, though it appears ever so much larger, so as to be expressed by a line which reaches across the whole page. I greatly fear that all I have now said may not be sufficient to bring you back into the right path ; but I know, and I wish you too to know, and I tell you beforehand for certain, that when you come to pass from this life to the next you will suffer very sharp stings of conscience for this bad and indiscreet conduct of yours. Francesco Gonzalez Fernandez seems to me like you in everything — harsh, irritable, and impatient; M 178 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. you are both made after the same type, and are in the habit of giving the specious names of zeal and religion to the outbreaks of your unbridled passions. That speech of yours certainly has a very grand sound : ‘ What ? can we endure in silence to see injury done to God’s glory, and obstacles placed in the way of saving souls ? ’ How then ? do you repair that injury, or do you heap fresh mischief upon it, by the storm and tumult of detestable quarrels ? I repeat it — you will never obtain from the Vicar by threats and contentions what you cannot obtain by modesty and humility. By that piety and obedience which you both acknowledge that you owe, and will not deny that you wish to pay, to our Father Ignatius, I beseech both of you, immediately after reading this letter, to go to the Vicar, and, prostrate on the ground before him, each of you humbly to ask his pardon for everything which you have done not pleasing to him ; then kiss his hand ; and if you wish to give me a very great consolation, let me hear that you have both humbled yourselves so far as of your own accord to kiss his feet ; by which you will seal by so much surer a proof your repentance for past faults, and your promise that you will be modest for the future, and do nothing contrary to his will while you are at Meliapor. Believe me that to have done this will be a very great comfort to you at the hour of death. Put your confidence in our Lord God, and do not doubt that if your moderation is known to all men, you will easily obtain whatever you ask which is for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. The manifest error of you two, and of all like you, consists in this : you think that the mere name of the Society of Jesus gives you a sort of hereditary Zeal no excuse . 179 right to great consideration from every one, before you have gained it by great and remarkable proofs of the lowliest humility. Doubtless you remember the great veneration shown by all, both high and low, to our Father Ignatius; and you think it just that you should be treated by all with the same respect yourselves, although you have given no proof at all of those virtues by which he merited such consideration. What you should have done was first to imitate the good works of our Father, and try to win those more excellent graces of his which moved our Lord God to give him such favour in the sight of all men ; for that is a vain and foolish confidence of yours which leads you, who have given little or no public proof of eminent virtue, to expect that these fruits of respect and popular favour, which are the reward of very great self-abasement, will fall to your lot, who are so forgetful of religious humility, as even to be angry if people do not pay you this respect, and show themselves in all things obedient and submissive to your will. I well know that you will be eloquent in excusing these errors, and that you would assure me that if I were with you, I should not consider that there is any fault in all this, since you only engaged in this suit from a motive of pure love of God, and zeal for the salvation of souls. But now from this time forth I give you warning and desire you to be fully convinced, that you will only waste your breath in excusing this fault, however skilfully, to me ; and you may rest assured that in my opinion your cause will be certainly lost, and I add besides that by trying to defend an action which cannot be proved you would cause me great displeasure, in addition to your fault ; and I must confess, on the contrary, 180 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. that nothing would be more delightful to me than to hear that you have freely acknowledged and con- demned the fault you have committed in all this. No — let the past, which is beyond recall, be cor- rected, as far as possible, by penitence, and let every precaution be taken in providing for the future. For the rest, I beg you above all things to take great and continual pains that there may be no more suits or contentions with the Vicar, the priests, the Governor, or any magistrates whatever, no matter how evident and public their faults may be. I would rather that you should apply a gentle remedy, as far as you can in conscience do so ; abstain from all remedies which cause disturbances, and are worse than the disease itself, and do not risk losing by anger and violence all the fruit which you might bring to maturity by humility and meekness. So far this letter has been written at my dictation : in what follows you will recognize my hand and heart. O Cipriani ! if you knew with what love I write those words to you, you would surely remember me night and day, and it may be that you would not be able to restrain your tears in thinking of the most tender and ardent charity, burning with which I take you to my heart. Oh, would to Heaven that the hidden secrets of our hearts could be revealed in this life ! then, believe me, my brother Cipriani, you would clearly see how deeply your name is engraved in the inmost depths of my soul. Farewell. Love to be gained. 18 1 LXII. To Father Antonio Eredia. Goa, April 2, 1552. [general instructions.] Here are the instructions which I prescribe to you to follow in Cochin. First of all, endeavour as far as in you lies, by all industry, and with all your might, to gain to yourself the love of all the people, of the priests, the religious, and more especially the brothers and managers of the Church of our Lady the Mother of God ; using the utmost diligence, and employing all ways and means, to convince them that your only desire is to further their wishes, and to do your part in increasing the devotion and veneration of the people towards that holy temple of the Mother of God. Visit them, therefore, frequently with all courtesy, and in your spiritual necessities, doubts, and troubles, have recourse to them, and consult them with confidence. Make known to the Brothers of Mercy the corporal necessities of the poor who ask your help, pleading the cause of the sufferers before them, and obtaining from that Confraternity the assistance which you are unable to afford yourself owing to our want of means, which you must not conceal. Explain also to the poor, that what you give them is not out of your purse, but that it comes from the liberality of the Confraternity of Mercy. When on such occasions they come to you to make known the penury under which they are, you should take the opportunity of explaining to them that other need of which they are less sensible, and which they take less pains to relieve — of spiritual help for the soul : help which, 1 82 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. if they desired it, they could always have abundantly and at hand ; exhorting them earnestly not to neglect this, but to turn their thoughts to God, to adore and pray to Him, and to obtain His mercy by having recourse to the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. Show them that you are ready to help them in this, and assure them that when they have performed this first duty, you will not fail to obtain them help for their other temporal wants as to food and money in the manner already mentioned. In your promiscuous intercourse with persons of all conditions, take great pains that your behaviour be such that all equally may see in you a modest)’ free from pride. Never speak to any one except kindly and respectfully, showing carefully to both priests and seculars the degree of regard due to each, and remembering the words of St. Gregory, that humility begets love, and pride begets hatred. If any fruit should follow your labours, be careful not to desire any praise for yourself, and if it should be given to you, not to appropriate it, but to attribute it all to those who have advised and assisted you, gratefully and frankly acknowledging that they are the principal authors of those good works. If you desire the good name and credit of our Society to flourish, and if this is the end of your efforts, you must be firmly convinced that you will only help to and attain your object by giving great proof in your intercourse with every one of humility and modesty altogether removed from all appearance of pride. For seeing you truly humble, people will suppose that the other members of the Society whom they do not see are like you who are present before them, and will then form a true idea of the religious of the Society of Jesus, and regard our Institute with that Success comes from God ’ 183 approval and affection which every one readily gives to those who despise themselves. This is the only way to spread abroad a good opinion of our Society, as you will more easily perceive by remembering that those who were the first to make this Order famous by the labours which they undertook for the honour of the Church, did so indeed by the practice of every virtue, but more especially by showing themselves everywhere the brightest examples of the contempt of human glory, and of true humility, which they regarded as the foundation of the other virtues. By imitating them you will show yourself worthy of bearing the name, and will promote the reputation of the Society. In any other way you would go astray, and you would be the means of destroying the work which they have built up. Remember, above all things, that influence with the people, and the favour and applause of the multitude, are the gift of God alone, Who gives it to those only whom He sees to be so well fortified in solid virtue that He may fairly trust them to make good use of a talent so powerful for their own salvation and for that of those to whose advantage they devote themselves. On the other hand, those whom God sees disposed to usurp the credit of any success that may attend their ministration, and to make a boast of it, He is wont to deprive of their gift, not giving them popularity, and not allowing them to be borne along by the fair wind of public favour, lest His gifts should be despised, being ascribed to human efforts, and lest the ignorant multitude, incapable of distinguishing between saints and imperfect persons, should attribute the honour due to true apostolic labourers to tepid men, careless 184 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . in God’s service and decked out by undeserved and false praises with a fallacious appearance of exquisite virtue. Pray, therefore, continually and fervently, that our Lord God may give you grace to know and feel in the inmost depths of your soul of how many and great hindrances to the spread of the Gospel you have been the cause, and how your faults have prevented God from making Himself known as He would wish to the people intrusted to you, and whom you have so ill cared for : since through your own defects you are wanting in the influence essential and fitted to convince them of necessary truths, and that because you have not merited that heavenly gift by the requisite fervour and fidelity. When, at the hour appointed for us by our Society for the daily examen of conscience, you go through all your actions, for the purpose of discovering your faults, do not fail to examine yourself very strictly on your manner of preaching the word of God from the pulpit, of administering the Sacrament of Pen- ance in the sacred tribunal, and lastly on your familiar conversations and daily intercourse with all classes of persons. Look very closely into what you have from negligence omitted to do, or what you have done badly, and resolve seriously on the necessary amend- ment, which you must then carry out with great fidelity. For if as soon as you have perceived your fault you strive to correct it, our merciful Lord will not fail to accompany your repentance with His voluntary gifts, and to turn even your past errors to your great profit by loading you with His graces. I do not, however, wish you to place, as many do, your hope of winning the affection of the people in human arts, or to take cunning measures for getting Good thoughts to be noted. 185 yourself liked and spoken well of by the multitude, so as to act and speak in a way that flatters and pleases them. Such arts are utterly unworthy of a preacher of the Gospel ; and besides that they take with them as an inseparable companion that most dangerous craving for the empty praise of the people, they are also injurious to Christ our Lord, Whose honour we ought to seek and look to before every- thing else. And such preachers prefer their own credit, seeking their own fame as the first thing ; and when once they have obtained it, as if they have obtained all that they want, they relax that fervent zeal which they ought to have, to do their utmost to promote the greater glory of God by a real conversion of souls. I charge you to weigh what I have said most attentively in your mind, and to flood and penetrate its inmost recesses with these good sentiments : and if, in meditating on divine things, our most merciful God should favour you, as is His wont, with some heavenly illumination, do not let it escape from your mind, but note it down in some little book to assist your memory. Believe me, that a great part of the real spiritual profit of God’s servants consists in such observation, and in carefully recalling to mind pieces of knowledge of this sort given to them in mental prayer and meditation. And if any one who has from time to time been favoured with these flashes of divine light writes down the truths revealed by them, he will read them over again after a while, with a very great increase of affection and advantage — that is to say, when he has himself experienced what he had set down in writing. He will then recall to mind those beautiful thoughts, and taste again those keen feelings which had passed from his 1 86 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. memory ; or at least he will gain from their clearer consideration the salutary vigour which will enable him to labour fervently, and to think wisely accord- ing to the needs of his present circumstances. Great indeed is the difference of savour and spiritual sweetness in ordinary readers of those things written by the Saints when fresh from their conversations with God, and in those who read again in them what they have themselves experienced and made their own ! But it is certain that the reading of such things is of small profit to those who have not this sort of remembrance and interior feeling of them. I advise you, therefore, strongly to make a little journal, and to note down carefully in it the secret illuminations with which God has enlightened your mind in your daily meditations. Value them very highly, and esteem yourself unworthy of them, humbling yourself, as you ought, all the more deeply because of these labours with which He exalts you. Take great and practical pains to acquire a good number of wise and faithful friends, even among seculars, who are sharp sighted enough to observe the faults you commit in preaching, in hearing con- fessions, and in all other such functions, and also free enough to point them out to you with all sincerity ; so that, knowing your defects by these means, you may correct them properly, and avoid them for the future. In the administration of the Sacrament of Penance avoid a perfunctory haste, and show a patient atten- tion to your business, so as to urge on your penitents to greater and more certain progress ; and if, in this way, you should have to do with persons requiring and capable of receiving spiritual help, and who are also in tolerably easy circumstances, so that they Exercises before Absolution. 1 87 are both desirous and able to give some time to the affairs of their soul, — then, after hearing their con- fession, persuade them to wait for a few days, and to employ the time in conceiving a real hatred for their sins, and sorrow for having offended a God infinite in power, and supreme in all that attracts love. To this end, you should set them to meditate on death, judgment, and the pains suffered by the lost in hell ; by means of which meditations they will understand in what fearful evils they have entangled themselves by sin, and conceive so great a hatred and disgust of their past transgressions, that they will shed real tears of penitence from a contrite heart, and make a purpose of amendment, such that it may be reason- ably hoped that they will sin no more in future. Especially is this method to be observed with those who are living in occasions of sin, and among hindrances to good works, and who, therefore, con- sidering the frailty of human nature, cannot be safely believed when they promise amendment o life, without some pledge of security. Such are persons who have been at enmity, and have not yet been reconciled to their enemies : those who have not yet so abandoned intercourse with the objects of criminal attachments as to be considered safe from falling when they find themselves on the slippery ground of the recurrence of dangerous occasions : lastly those who are in possession of the property of another, and have hitherto sought pretexts for delay- ing restitution. You should engage all such persons, after confession, in pious exercises suited to their state, and not give them absolution till it seems that they have made satisfaction, and on dismissing them, exhort them to come frequently in future to the sacred tribunal of Penance. 1 88 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. As often as you should happen to hear the con- fessions of persons who, knowing that they are in possession of money unlawfully acquired, bring it to you, to be given at your discretion to the poor, the owners not being to be found, you must not use the very smallest part of it for yourself or for the College, however pressing may be your penury : nor may you even distribute it to needy persons or families at your own discretion : but hand over the whole sum to the Prefects of the Confraternity of Mercy, to be bestowed as they think best. By this means the door will be closed against suspicions, which, besides being dishonourable to you, would lessen the respect in which the promotion of God’s glory demands that you should be held. In familiar interviews and conversations with persons of whatsoever condition, to promote whose spiritual good is your daily labour, behave always with such prudence and circumspection that in talking with them, however much you may trust to their intimacy with you, no word may pass your lips for which you could be justly blamed if they should ever be estranged from you : a thing which is possible, and which you ought to suppose certain. This is a most important caution, not only for your good but also for that of those under your charge. When persons who have made their confession with manifest signs of penitence beg for absolution, you ought not to give it till they have made the requisite satisfaction, especially as to three kinds of sin ; i.e ., enmities, attachments, and unjust posses- sion of the goods of another. Bid them first be publicly reconciled to their enemies, put away every occasion of sinning against purity, and restore ill- Andrew Corvalhez . 189 gotten gains to the rightful owners ; then let them do whatever else may be necessary for greater secu- rity. Do not let them think promises enough, but insist on their fulfilment ; for with these people, who are as ready and liberal in making promises as they are slow and backward in keeping them, one should always make bargains with the earnest money in hand. Endeavour as much as is possible, with the help of God, to defend and increase the good odour and the good name of the Society by great humility, holiness, zeal for souls, and labours under- taken on their behalf : for they who gained for our Society the celebrity which it enjoys did so, with the blessing of God, in the way I have pointed out. I pray that He may be with you always. Amen. LXIII. To Father Simon Rodriguez. Goa, March 27, 1552. [letter of recommendation.] Very soon I shall write to you at length touching the affairs of the Society in this country, but I must send this short letter separately for a particular reason. It concerns Andrew Carvalhez, who will be the bearer of it. I think it necessary to send back to you this excellent young man on account of his health. He was getting on very badly in India, and at his age and with his temperament the doctors hoped that his native air might restore his strength, which is exhausted by illness, and make him once more as strong as ever. On returning from abroad, I found by the concordant testimony of all here that he is equal in intellectual gifts, in progress in studies, and in endowments of grace to 190 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. any one of ours out here. Our older fathers hope much from this youth because of the virtues which God our Lord has already given him, and which in His mercy He will cause to increase. I think it is as they say, and willingly make you a partner in my joy, desiring and praying that this brother may grow into thousands of thousands, and produce for the Society the fruit we expect. I beg of you, therefore, by your love and devotion towards God our Lord, my dearest Brother Simon, to receive Andrew Carvalhez in Portugal with all the love and charity with which I and he also hope that you will receive and tend him. As to the news in these parts, I will write to you copiously and minutely, by the help of God, before setting sail for Cochin. My departure will, I think, take place in a fortnight. May God our Lord unite us in the glory of Paradise, for when in this life we shall be able to meet and embrace I certainly do not see ! Be sure of one thing, my sweetest Brother Simon, — that I carry everywhere your image very deeply engraven on my heart, and that this image makes you ever present to my thoughts. The desire to see you with my bodily eyes, with which I so long felt almost to impatience, has become less hard for me to bear because of the consolation which I have in beholding continually in my heart your much loved person. Farewell. LXIV. To Father Gaspar Baertz. [instruction on humility.] You ask me, my dear Gaspar, that as I am con- tinually recommending humility, and as you yourself understand the great value and importance of that Instruction on Humility . 191 virtue, to go farther, and suggest to you some method of practising it. It is a subject which I take great pleasure in speaking of, both because I would do much to gratify you, and still more because I hear something of the applause of your sermons which sounds in your ears ; and I sometimes fear (love is always full of anxiety and fears), that perceiving how much you please every one, you may begin not to be displeased with yourself. In this letter, there- fore, I will set down what occurs to my mind as likely, if I mistake not, to be of use to you as a sort of talismanic antidote, to hinder the bad effect of the pleasant poison of vainglory, which creeps secretly into unwary souls, borne by the flattering breath of popular applause. Be careful, above all things, to make the very favour which your preaching finds with the people an occasion of continually greater and greater humiliation : understanding clearly, and acknow- ledging, that in this there is nothing of your own ; and faithfully giving the entire praise to God, as the sole Author of whatever ability you may possess, and whatever profit your hearers may derive from it. Farther, you should confess that for all this fruit of your labours you are a debtor to the people : for, in truth, you may and should believe that our Lord God, moved by the devotion of these good folk thirstily craving to learn what concerns religion and the salvation of souls, has bestowed on you, though unworthy of such a favour, the skill and power to instruct them properly, so that they may profit according to their desire. You, therefore, are merely the minister of the bounty of another, which is in no way attributable to you, since all luminous intelligence and vigorous action in you, all docility 192 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . and sensibility in your hearers, are gifts granted by God, not to your merits, but to those of the Church and the pious people to whom you preach. And this should be a motive for your loving the people, and feeling under the greatest obligation to them, because our Lord has, for their sakes, communicated to you eloquence and learning : which if you claim for your own, and ascribe to your merits, you would be guilty of injustice and ingratitude, unworthily forgetting from Whom and for Whose sake you have received these gifts. Besides this, you may well consider that any really valuable fruits resulting from your labours ought to be attributed to the prayers and suffrages of the members of the Society, who, fighting for God in different parts of the world, implore the divine assistance on the endeavours of their brethren fighting elsewhere : and because they do so with exceeding charity and humility, our Lord God deigns to grant their prayers by sometimes using the sons of the Society as the instruments of His glory and of the salvation of souls. If you get this thought well fixed in your mind, you will certainly never let yourself be tickled by the acclamations and praises of those who admire the eloquence of your sermons : but the more highly you are exalted, the more you will abase yourself; knowing most surely that you will one day have to give a very strict account of this talent which has been intrusted to you, with danger to yourself, for the good of others, in the exercise of which talent you will be able to see nothing altogether your own, except very many faults of imprudence, negligence, and ingratitude to God Who gave it to you, to the people for whose good He gave it, and lastly to your mother, the Good hindered by ourselves . 19S Society of Jesus, whose prayers have prevailed with our most gracious Lord to bless your labours with some success. It will also be useful to compare the abundance of the harvest reaped with the far greater abundance which there would have been had it not been hindered by your fault. You should therefore most fervently and urgently implore God to grant your mind a ray of heavenly illumination, which may shine therein so clearly as to show you how continually your defects and daily falls place great obstacles in the way of the goodness of God, so as to hinder it from attaining its end through the fault and imperfection of the instrument He employs ; thus forbearing to reveal Himself more clearly, and to bring about those great things which He had intended to do by your means for His glory and the salvation of men. And when these sentiments are firmly impressed upon your mind, I should like you to manifest them to God, Who reads the heart, rather than to declare them in words to men. They will be, as it were,, goads with which to drive away vainglory, and being pricked by them you will be attentive to yourself and recollected, and not only be preserved from an indo- lent security, but rather forced to set a guard over yourself, watching most carefully on every side that you may not sin by imprudence, never stumble and fall, never be a scandal to the people either in public conduct or private intercourse. For, as I have said, it is right that you should regard them with gratitude and respect as the cause of the grace granted to you by God. In the next place, when you meditate on all these things, I earnestly advise you to write down, as a help to your memory, those heavenly lights, which N 194 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. our merciful God so often gives to the soul which draws near to Him, and with which He will also enlighten yours when you strive to know His will in meditation, for they are more deeply impressed on the mind by the very act and occupation of writing them down. And should it happen, as it usually does, that in course of time these things are either less vividly remembered or entirely forgotten, they will come with fresh life to the mind by reading them over ; the original thoughts themselves will be revived by recourse to these records, and, as though you had again discovered the mine from which you originally got them, you will dig deeper into its veins, and what was before the loftiest height to which your thoughts had risen will serve as the foundation of a new and still nobler spiritual edifice. For thus does the Divine Wisdom, which by a simple instinct of free mercy loves to communicate itself to men, rejoice to lead those who watch for its guidance from light to light, and out of twilight, by ever brightening rays, and through splendours ever increasing, into the full glory of the noon. And as God is wont to give His choicest favours in greatest and most constant plenty to those who seek in medi- tation for -ways of depressing still more and more their own vileness, do not doubt that by perseverance in this holy practice of humility and of an intimate knowledge of your faults you will be enriched with still greater advances, not only as to your own perfection, but also to the procuring of the salvation of others ; and you will know by experience this most certain truth, which is not understood by all, that it is only in his sincere self-contempt that the whole hope lies that a preacher of the Gospel will gain real and great fruit in souls, and that that cannot Ruin caused by arrogance . 195 be abundant or solid fruit which destroys him who reaps it, aiming at the good of others at the cost of ruin to himself. Oh, then, for the love of God, by all that you owe to our Father Ignatius and the whole Society of Jesus (and you well know how much you are indebted to both), I pray and entreat you again, and once more again, as earnestly and forcibly as I can, persevere constantly in these practices of self-abasement. For should you interrupt them (which God forbid !), I should fear that you would lose your soul (may God avert such a calamity !) : as you cannot deny that you have either heard from others of, or yourself seen, many persons who, not being well grounded in humility, have, after having preached to others, become themselves reprobate. I warn you again and again, beware lest you should increase their number ! Never let these most miserable instances, which you have yourself known, pass from your memory. Recall them frequently to your mind, bringing leisurely before it the sad mournful images of so many on whose words, as they preached from the sacred pulpit, far greater crowds hung than now listen to you ; who preached more gracefully, more -eloquently, more admirably than you, by whose sermons many more persons were convinced and converted from idolatry and from sin than you have brought to a better life : and nevertheless (unhappy men !), after God had made use of them as instru- ments to snatch multitudes from the tyranny of the •devil and from the brink of hell, and to bring them into the Kingdom of Christ and to the blessedness of heaven, their own lot was that most wretched one, themselves to be thrust down by a most just condem- nation into everlasting flames, for that they arro- 196 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . gantly attributed to themselves the glory which was due to God alone, for that they caught at the breath of popular favour and empty applause, for that, puffed up by the praise of men, their hearts swelled with self-conceit : and that thus, towering with haughtiness and arrogance, they became the marks of the thunderbolts of heaven, which are hurled against the proud. Let those, therefore, who witness these terrible warnings be struck with a holy fear, and form themselves in humility. Let each look to himself, and carefully examine his own purposes and desires. Whoever fairly balances what he has received and what he has returned will certainly see that he has no cause for boasting, but abundant cause for fear and humiliation. For in this great business of the salvation of souls, however successfully it may have been conducted, what is there that we can justly ascribe to ourselves, or congratulate and honour our- selves upon ? Oh no, there is nothing — nothing whatever of our own, except the many faults of imprudence and disloyalty which we have mixed with our good beginnings. This is our share: for the conversion of souls is the work of God, Who loves to magnify the wonderfulness of His goodness by the weakness of the instruments He uses ; thus choosing us, the meanest of His servants and most worthy of all contempt, to manifest the glory of His Name to men. Lastly, take care that it never enters your mind to compare yourself with other members of the Society whose labours make less show, and in consequence to despise them as obscure, and incapable of great things. You ought, on the contrary, to be firmly convinced that the origin of your distinction is Women to be avoided ’ 197 precisely the lowliness and hiddenness of those who discharge mean offices in the house : for it is certain that these humble brothers of yours, who are engaged in mean employments for His glory, obtain for you from Him Whom they so devoutly serve the strength and power which make you so distinguished ; and you are more deeply indebted to them than they to you. If you are inwardly penetrated with this conviction you will never despise them, but will heartily love them and venerate them, putting your- self far below them, to the great advantage of your own soul. LXV. To Father Gaspar Baertz. Goa, April 15, 1552. [rules for avoiding offence.] As to the manner and method to be followed in intercourse with men so as to avoid all offences, I have thought it right to give you these precepts, which I much wish you to put in practice, and to require of all members of the Society under your authority. None belonging to us should converse with women, whatever may be their age, rank, or condition, except in a public place, such as the church. They should not visit them in their own home unless they are in danger and extreme neces- sity, or on account of an illness which threatens death, for meeting which in a Christian way they require to be prepared by the confession of their sins. Even then they should not be visited save in the presence of their husbands or relations : but if they have no relations at hand, let it be before respectable persons of the neighbourhood, but never without 19S Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. witnesses, such as, in case of need, could give their testimony to what they have seen. If, then, it should happen that a woman who has no husband and has lost her parents has to be visited in her own house, no member of our Society should enter unless accompanied by a respectable man, known as such among the relations and acquaintances of the woman, and among the neighbours and inhabitants of the city or village, so as to prevent all suspicion and to cut short gossip. But they should not be visited, even with these precautions and this company, except in the case I have named, of extreme danger and of very serious illness. And whenever a woman who is not in danger of death may seem able, either then, with some exertion, or after a short time, to go out of her house, she should be waited for at the church. On this point, again, it is necessary to be careful, even with those who are most seriously ill, not to multiply the visits of any beyond what is required by urgent necessity. And altogether you must be severe in this manner, cutting things, as we say down to the quick, so as to suppress and make as rare as possible for our brethren all communications with that sex, these interviews being of little profit and of very great danger, the uncertain hope of a generally moderate . benefit to the divine service being only too often purchased with the doubtful chances of losing innocence and fair fame. I also do not wish our fathers to employ too much time and leisure in instructing even the mothers of families who frequent our churches, however great inclinations they may seem to have to good. The reason for my judgment is that women are generally inconstant in their purposes and full of talk in their conferences ; the result is a great loss of time in intercourse with Work among men. 199 them, and but very little fruit of any sure or solid advantage. How far better it is to give more time to their husbands, and to take pains in instructing and exciting them to all noble deeds ! Men, it is certain, are naturally more able to take in good advice when given ; more constant in their resolutions to follow it. What you accomplish with them is solid and permanent. If they have promised a thing, they will fulfil it. If they are won over to God, they will set in order their wives and families. They should be your chief objects ; and the labourers of the Society ought to spend more time and more dili- gence in cultivating them, for where the seed is sown more thoroughly the harvest is more abundant. This prudence, believe me, is a great destroyer of gossip, nonsense, trifling, and small piques, so insist strongly on its invariable practice by all under your charge. If any quarrel should exist between husband and wife, and charity suggests that ours should interfere to make peace, let these arbiters of conciliation be sure that, for the success of their work, it is far more important to listen patiently to, and admonish diligently, the husband than the wife. Let them set to work on the husbands, and leading them dexterously away from the subject of the moment, persuade them to purify their soul at once by a general confession, for which they may prepare themselves by a short retreat and by medi- tation on some of the subjects of the first week of the Exercises. After our father shall have heard the husband’s confession of all the sins of his life, let him gently lead him to consent that sacramental absolution shall be deferred for a few days, during which he may exercise himself in holy meditations 200 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. and works of penance, and in serious deliberations as to future amendment of life. When in these sentiments, and with strong resolutions to give him- self up entirely to God’s service, he will easily be persuaded to follow advice for the purpose of securing internal peace with his wife. The source of evil once checked, and the causes of resentment removed, you will be surprised to see that in applying a remedy to one person you have cured two at once. Should it happen that when one of ours is occupied in a matter of this kind, the wife comes to him apart and says she has great desires of serving God, but that an impediment to this lies in the necessity of living with her husband, as being bad and dissolute, and of disorderly habits, and that she has legitimate reasons for separating from him, such as she believes could be proved judicially and would suffice to obtain legal authority for a separation — as to all these reasons, and more which such persons are wont so cleverly to bring forward, you must take care not to be moved thereby to approve of this thought of divorce. You should remain firm in advising them to stop with their husbands. These tender longings for religion soon grow languid in their inconstant sex, and later on they will condemn their own design and your advice. Supposing them to be constant, still the danger to the husband and the public scandal, which is almost inseparable from such cases, are evils too serious to be overbalanced by the fruit of the devotional advantage of a single soul, who wishes in married life to anticipate the benefits of widowhood. Again, in these cases, carefully avoid blaming the husband before othes, even when it is clear that he alone is to blame. See him alone, and gently exhort him to make a general confession, and then take Gentleness in blame. 201 occasion, from his own self-accusation, to scold him, but mildly, and so as to make him understand you are sorry for his own sake for the injury he has done to himself by his fault, rather than that you are moved by the accusations of his wife, who has com- plained of him. Consider it a thing above all things to be avoided that the husband should feel or suspect that you rather favour the wife most and care more for her interests, for such an opinion would give a most severe blow to all hope of success. Therefore, however much the fault may be the husband’s, never let him hear you say so ; but when you have led him to make the avowal to you himself, then you may, without difficulty, blame him for that of which he accuses himself. But even then your sentence must be free from all bitterness. Therefore, censure what he himself confesses with sorrow, so as to show him that you rather grieve with him than are angry with him. Let love, kindness, and charity towards the sinner be conspicuous in your words and countenance. Everywhere men require to be treated with gentle- ness, but nowhere more than in India. They are as touchy as glass to offence, any violence makes them recoil and break ; to gentleness they bend, you can turn them as you will. You will obtain everything here by prayer and affectionate manners, nothing by threats or severity. Again I repeat this advice : take heed again and again. If a husband and wife take you as umpire, and plead their cause in person or by advocates in your presence, never let yourself blame the man before others, however nearly his fault may be brought home to him. The passionate minds of women eagerly take hold of such words, and are incredibly inflated thereby. They are always 202 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. on the look-out for opportunities of humbling their husbands, and when they seem to feel that the cause is going in their own favour, if hints of an inclination to their side are allowed to fall from no other than the religious men chosen by themselves as arbitrators, they openly triumph, and let themselves loose with greater freedom for the future in complaints, accu- sations against their husbands, and excuses of them- selves, heaped one on another without end, all to be poured with that mad loquacity of theirs into the ears of the imprudent priests who have encouraged them. I go so far in thinking that the husband should not be blamed in the wife’s presence, that I even think that the priest should not appear to believe the wife’s defence when she relates the domestic quarrels, pleading her own cause and trying to persuade him that no part of the blame is to be imputed to her. Even if her statement be probable and true, it is well that she should not be excused by him who presides at the reconciliation. He should rather warn her seriously of the paramount duty imposed on the wife of honouring her husband and bearing with his ways. This is the law, let him add, which God Himself has laid down for all women, and which in general they unconsciously transgress, led astray by emotions of anger or other passions, too confident of their own innocence, and excessively indulgent to themselves, and so they give their husbands cause for anger, while they ought rather soothe them and conciliate them by their patience, submission, and obedience. They should therefore accuse themselves, even when their conscience seems to acquit them. At the same time they should earnestly endeavour to love and practise serenity Impartiality . 203 of soul, indulgence, obedience, humility, so as to live in submission to their husbands, as the Apostolical Epistles teach Christian women. After having thus cleared themselves with the husbands, against all suspicion of favouring the wives, our brethren must in turn be careful not to offend the wives, by whom they might be suspected of unjust partiality for the husbands. They must not seem to believe in the shame cast by the latter on their wives. But they should observe an equal balance, not letting the scale fall to either side, reserving an ear for the accused, as the saying is, condemning no one unheard, and take the defence always into consideration as well as the accusation. Thus administering their office they will not only avoid offending either party, which would com- promise the termination of the matter, but will also approach nearer the truth. In fact, with disputes of this kind, both parties are generally in fault, one more, the other less ; each in their turn have a share in the fault, so the quietest way is to reprove them both, not entirely absolving either, receiving with hesitation and caution what each alleges in self- justification. This is a simpler method of gaining the end of reconciliation, and at the same time shuts the door against the murmurers and discourses of reckless tongues. After all, when any one finds that he has tried all he can in vain in these matters, let him send the parties whom he despairs of reconciling either to his Lordship the Bishop, or to his Vicar ; and let him do this without exasperating either, or speaking to either harshly. For our human weakness is prone to break out into complaint against those from whom any one seeks what he thinks fair and does not get 204 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. it. So that unless the unsuccessful mediator be very prudent, he may let a sharp word or two escape him which may touch one or both of the litigants, as being averse to reconciliation or unjust. He will get nothing by this but the hatred of the one whom he has hit, or perhaps the contempt of both parties, who will see the imprudence of their chosen arbi- trator, and acknowledge too late their mistake in choosing him. So that in order that you may not lose the friendship of one or both of the dissentients, as well as your own time and toil, endeavour by all show of patient kindness, and by prudently com- plimentary language, to send them both away at peace and goodwill, at least with yourself. And, as a general rule, I entreat you to be always recollected and self-possessed in your intercourse with all kinds of men. Never forget that we are held up as a spectacle before this perverse world, that we are always watched by the assiduous and inquisitive eyes of envy, and of malice always inclined to evil judgment, ready to seize every occasion of thinking and talking ill of us, both from men’s own inclinations, and from the instigation of the evil spirit our restless and watchful enemy : and be convinced that of all the slips of imprudence that is the most fatal which, besides present evil, plants the seed of future mischief. We seem to ourselves to be hurried on by pure zeal for the Divine glory, and yet with our intention directed to good, we fall, and careless of acts and words, so long as we are urging on the work of religion, we do and say what we shall afterwards blush or grieve for under a burning sense of the serious evils which have resulted, which we should have foreseen by circumspection or provided against by moderation, yet which have Reproof without passion. 205 been allowed to take place by our rashness, and furnish us with abundant matter for useless and tardy repentance. Dread especially giving yourself up to the anger which may be provoked by a thousand occasions, at the sight of so many crimes, but which yet causes the headlong fall of over zealous men unless they step very carefully on this slippery ground, unless they restrain their tongue from bitter speeches, by the bridle of a modest gentleness : without which all the keenness of reproof will evaporate in emptiness. How many persons have ever been improved by excited reprehension from a man white with passion ? Never reproach those who must be corrected except with calmness ; let no anger appear in the few words in which you address yourself to the cure of people who have themselves fallen through excitement, otherwise you would give an example of the evil rather than a remedy. The generality of men ascribe all anger to vice : they are so far from being ready to believe that divine charity alone kindles the zeal of religious persons who are intemperately violent against sinners, that they look upon this violence as a proof that these persons are just like other men, and that they let themselves be carried away hither and thither by their own vehement passions as much as the commonest of the people. With religious of other orders, and in general with all priests who for any reason may dispute with you, you will always show yourself full of deference and humility according to the precept of the Apostle, giving ‘ place to wrath ’ and agitation if any sign of it should appear in them, and do this not only in cases where your own conscience reproaches you, but also where you clearly know that you are inno- 206 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. cent and they in fault : nor even then desire any greater revenge on those who trouble you unjustly than a humble silence, which modestly refrains from vindication of its rights, when you perceive that all you could allege would be in vain, because their ears are closed against you by prejudice and anger. Retire into your own hearts at such times, and sigh over the condition of these people hastening to their own fall by violating right and justice ; upon whom God will sooner or later take vengeance more sharply and severely than you or they suspect. Therefore pour forth your prayers for them continually before God, touched at the sight of their weakness and thoughtlessness : above all things avoid giving way to the trouble you feel, revenging yourselves on them beforehand in thought or silent desire of evil you might wish them, or in conversation or word before others, exposing their injustice, and much less by any actions which in turn do them hurt. Regard all those feelings which flesh and blood, with the depraved instincts of our nature, rouse in the imperfect, as infinitely dangerous and injurious to you, unless you banish them. Be certain, without any doubt at all, that God is wont to shed profusely His most precious graces and blessings upon those who, for the love of Him, patiently suffer heavy charges without any wish for revenge, and who overcome by the sweetness of divine charity all inclination to return the injury. Then it is that God, so full of mercy, feels, so to speak, obliged to compensate abundantly for that of which they have been deprived by injustice; to load with honours and benefits those whom calumny disfigures and violence despoils, while their tranquil and peaceful souls remain unmoved by indignation, however great Prudence in disputes . 207 may be the wantonness of the assault. He will take peculiar care to inflict in His own good time the shame and confusion they have merited upon the authors of the mischief, who so unjustly oppose you, who disturb your pious enterprizes. But He will not do all this if you take any part yourselves in the matter, and either by angry feelings in your wounded heart, or complaints put into words, or by doing anything in your power to put your persecutors to pain, endeavour yourselves to inflict vengeance upon them. If it should happen, from which may God preserve us ! that a dispute should arise between you and any other religious, be careful above all things to avoid disputing with them before the Governor or Com- mandant, or in presence of any secular whatever. Laymen are wonderfully scandalized at hearing and seeing such outbreaks in men who are consecrated to God. If these religious have declaimed against you from the pulpit, or have defamed you in public con- versation, you will apply to his Lordship the Bishop, and you will beg him, if he thinks fit, to call them before him, and, after having heard the cause before the two parties, to decide what may seem expedient to make up the quarrel, and put an end to the scandal so mischievous to the people. You will tell his lord- ship that I myself beg him to attend to this work himself, and put an end in good time to any divisions of this nature, lest they should be brought before secular magistrates, or in any way get abroad among the people, which should be avoided if possible. For the rest, even should these religious have de- claimed against you in the pulpit, I absolutely forbid your making in your turn your apology and defence of your own rights from the same place. Let it 2 o 8 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. suffice for you, as I have said, to place the matter before the Bishop, and to prevail on him to summon your adversaries, listen to them in your presence, and, after taking thorough cognizance of everything, to terminate the business in some way or other, checking by his wisdom and authority the scandals which might arise, and which would cause immense harm among the people. On this point, you should observe that the honour of the Society does not consist in energetically defending our rights before the people, in winning our cause by arguments before men, or in gaining the applause of our audience at an unbecoming time and place. The whole affair stands or falls by the judgment of God. If God should disapprove of what we do, the false favour of the world would not efface our real stain before God. Let us look to this beyond all else, that we be at one with God as to our line of duty, that we act by His inspiration, and may truly rejoice that we are approved by Him. Now God would never approve of our prolonging our disputes to the great disturbance of the public. He desires His own to give place to wrath, to appease tumults, to live in calmness, to be peaceable even with those who hate peace. Not only do I earnestly advise you to behave thus under such circumstances, but I prescribe and com- mand it by my authority. I repeat it, you must not plead your own cause, even when publicly attacked, but have recourse to his Lordship the Bishop, and stand by his decision, earnestly imploring him not to hesitate in restoring peace in the land where the enemy has sown discord. Finally, above all, I commend to you yourself; be careful always to remember that you are a member Humility in a Superior. 209 of the Society of Jesus. This thought will suggest to you on all occasions what you ought to do. Fare- well. LXVI. To Father Gaspar Baertz. Goa, April, 1552. [INSTRUCTION for a superior.] In order that you may be able to discharge worthily,, to your own spiritual advantage as well as that of others, the government of the College at Goa and of our brethren in those parts which I have intrusted to you, I think it right, just as I am starting on a very distant journey, to leave you the following precepts in writing, which I entreat you to read very frequently during my absence, keeping them constantly present to your memory. For I think that these suggestions will be a useful guide and counsel to you in all your administration of such matters, so as to direct you profitably towards that end which is our sole aim, the greater glory of God. Above all things, strive to keep your mind firmly- established in the consciousness of your own abase- ment, according to those precepts which, at your request, I have already given you on this subject. Recall them by daily meditation, dwelling on them so that they may sink deeply into your soul, that thus the points I suggested, and the other lights on the subject with which God in His mercy may favour you in meditation, may be indelibly engraved upon your mind. Behave with great modesty, affability, and indulgence towards those fathers who reside with you, as well as those who live elsewhere under your authority, with no severity or sternness, except to o 2io Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. those who might take unfair advantage of your meek- ness or humility. In the latter case, looking to their good alone, and not that you may support your authority, or punish them for despising it, let them feel your power just so far as is necessary, in order that by moderately chastising them you may raise them from their fall by needful correction, and that the scandal given to our brothers who have witnessed the fault may be removed by the wholesome example of its repression. Let every fault against obedience committed by the fathers or brothers be visited by some penance. In this matter no exception is to be made for priests over clerics and lay-brothers. Should any one under you treat you with pride, and if, puffed up by a vain opinion of himself, he should meet your orders with a lofty brow and arrogance and haughtiness, be stern with him, showing him the severity of a master rather than kindness and affability. Impose public penances for daily faults on these rather than on others ; above all, be careful that they do not see any weakness in you, or that you fear them, and so will allow other faults to pass unpunished, but especially those against authority. Nothing confirms contumacious subjects in their boldness and prompts them to rebellion more than any proof they may have seen of weakness on the part of their superiors. If they perceive them to be anxious and timid, hesitating to impose punishment upon subjects who refuse the respect and obedience due to their superiors, there is no end to their inflation, which reaches even insolent audacity. The success of their conduct encourages them to persevere therein, and the evil will continually increase, each step being fraught with great mischief to the common peace. You must therefore carry out with great exactness Gentleness in correction . 21 1 what I prescribe, not allowing any personal considera- tion or fear of the opinion or observations of the world to prevent you from doing as you ought. Among inferiors there are some who, without being self-willed, sometimes neglect the commands of their superiors through weakness and forgetfulness, without any contempt for these orders, but from indolence and carelessness. You should correct these more gently, softening the severity of reproof by a kind countenance and deportment, while, as a penance for their fault, inflicting only a slight punishment. If among the lay-brothers you observe any who set themselves above their rank, with some appearance of arrogance, be most careful to humble them, setting them to the meanest offices in the house ; and as long as you notice in them this vain opinion of themselves, treat them in a grave, severe, or, as it might seem, a con- temptuous manner. This coldness will cure their inflation ; and if it brings about more humility on their part, you can relax your disdainful manner, and when they are reduced to due modesty, you will in- stantly soften the severity of your aspect, as if to thank and rejoice with them ; in order that, by a comparison of the different effects of different conduct, they may learn what is best, and at the same time disabuse themselves of a terrible mistake, by which such persons sometimes delude themselves, fancying they are necessary to the Society. The Society how- ever does not want proud people ; and this, if they are wise, they will learn from the severity shown them by their superior as long as they claim too much for themselves. Take care never to admit into the Society any subjects lacking industry, of poor judgment, limited intelligence, or indifferent strength, men not fit to 212 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . manage anything well. Nor, again, those whom you may suspect to be inclined towards the religious life rather by weariness of their own indigence, than by zeal for God’s service. To those whom either you or Father de Morales may admit, I wish that you yourself should give the month’s retreat, and in this duty do not let any one else take your place. During the whole of this time you will watch them with scrupu- lous attention, studying them until you know them thoroughly. After the Exercises, put them to humble occupations, for example, the care of the sick in the public hospital, domestic work in the kitchen, or other lowly offices of the same kind. Whilst they are making the Exercises, you will make them render you a most exact account of the efforts they have made to acquit themselves well of the usual medi- tations according to the prescribed method. If you find that they do this with sloth and tepidity, you may either send them back whence they came, relieving the Society at once of a useless weight, or, if you have a ray of hope as to their amendment, you may withdraw them for a few days from the practice of these holy meditations, taking away from them, as a punishment, a privilege of which their negligence has rendered them unworthy, so that this humiliation may cover them with confusion, and lead them to desire more earnestly to return to this course with their companions, and persevere with them for the required space. You must be careful never to allow any of ours to be raised to the priesthood if he is not sufficiently learned, and unless the innocence of his life be thoroughly proved to you by the experience of several years. Father Ignatius has forbidden this Order of charity. 213 most expressly. Even had he kept silence, the thing speaks for itself, and the sad remembrance of those serious annoyances which have occurred to us from this source should be enough to make us avoid it. Do not be deceived by the hope of perfection in religion which may be remarkable in an ignorant man, as though that compensated for the defect of knowledge. These hopes are often proved fallacious by experience. Circumstances cause the mask to be dropped, and such persons show themselves what they really are. I wish, therefore, that you should be lynx-eyed in penetrating the secret depths of souls, so as not to be misled at once by a few tears shed in prayer, or by the sighs wrung from some of these in holy meditations. Wait until real experi- ence has convinced you that these subjects practise an active control over the depraved inclinations of nature, over anger, ambition, self-will, and that they have a perpetual horror for every kind of vainglory, before you make up your mind that they deserve the credit of a sanctity perfect in every respect, and, so to speak, consummate. The order of charity requires us to give our care first to persons of our own community, and then to externs. See, then, in the first place, that you fulfil the duties of a genuine father towards our own people, to the native children and orphans who are pupils of this house, providing carefully all that they want either for soul or body. When this duty is accomplished you can expend whatever remains of time and strength in the service of others. I com- mand you this in the name of our Father Ignatius, and I advise it with all the earnestness that I can command. Indeed, I am deeply assured that this counsel is of the utmost importance. It seems to 214 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. me that those who desire only to please men and who are satisfied with a vain appearance, without caring for a moment to be pleasing in the sight of God, Who pierces the depths of the soul, are no worse than those who, taking no heed of complaints at home, seek the favour of the town, falsely thinking that they have fulfilled their duty, whilst they are neglecting its first and principal obligation, in order to devote all their energies in the most preposterous manner to secondary and accessory works. Those who do this are in the most complete error, and lest you should be of the number I desire you recall this advice of mine daily to your memory. I see that the office which is intrusted to you is so manifold and full of detail that it is evident that you can never discharge alone all its duties yourself. As it is necessary that you should use deputies who will take charge of a number of particular matters for you, I wish you to have two rules as to this. First,, in any function only to employ those who you know are competent to fill it. Secondly, to watch vigi- lantly over all, to demand frequently an account of what they have done, and if they have committed any fault not to let it pass unpunished. Consider that you are placed on high to watch over all, and according as in this duty you have been either strict and indefatigable, or careless and negligent, so you will have provided well or badly for your inferiors, and either have fulfilled your duty, or have rendered yourself guilty of bad administration of your power. The greater part of this care of yours should be given to those functions which are of the widest utility. You should, therefore, attend first and principally to the sermons addressed to the people by ours, to the hearing of confessions, to their Avoidance of secular business. 215 familiar conversation and intercourse with those without. Finally, to the handling of charitable works. The preachers you must form to a true idea of their function, and approve or correct them as is needed. Confessors you will admonish and instruct, seeing how they do their business. Then, as far as may be, see that the familiar intercourse of the brothers with people of various conditions shall be fruitful and religious, by giving advice beforehand or by examination afterwards, so as to procure in every point the perfection suitable to our Institute. Never let either yourself or any of ours be en- tangled in worldly business under any pretext what- ever. When such requests are made to you, reply that, after the ministration of God’s Word and the Sacraments, there remains to you hardly the space of time necessary for prayer and study, for preparing yourselves for the holy functions of public preaching, and for deciding cases of conscience in confession. Without inverting the order of charity, you cannot postpone the care of souls and the service of God to the pursuit of earthly advantage or low temporal gains. Thus you must rid yourselves of all troubles of this nature ; unless you do this, you will cause great harm to yourself and to the Society. Be sure that this is the door which gives the world entrance into religious houses, to the immense ruin both of religion and of religious. In intercourse with persons who visit you, pru- dently consider what are the views of each. Some come for the sake of their spiritual progress, others in hope of temporal advantage. We even see people sometimes with whom the Sacrament of Penance is an opportunity of seeking gain, who approach the . 2 1 6 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. ears of God’s minister to recite the secret miseries of their poverty, and to reveal their indigence rather than their sins. I exhort you to avoid persons of this sort with great care ; and, that you may not leave them longer in error, tell them at once that you cannot assist them either by giving them money or by gaining them favour with men. Cut short sum- marily all interviews with these people, for they are full of talk, and if you give ear to them, they will take a deal of your time, to no purpose. Such people have lost all sense of spiritual losses ; their whole mind is simply bent on the desire for the material help for which they are in need. Dismiss people of this kind, whatever their sex, condition, or position, with a few words. Keep them at a distance, as drones who would rob your stores of honey. Their thoughts are all of this earth, and if they get posses- sion of a person, they will much sooner draw him down from heavenly thoughts and make him give up the salutary helping of souls, by their importunate demands for corporal assistance, than will he, with all his efforts, raise them out of that mire of low cares in which they are fast stuck. I urge this advice on you the more earnestly because I am sure it is most absolutely necessary for you. Do not consider a moment the complaints and murmurs which may be made against you by these speculators, who seek worldly advantage out of re- ligion, and who will attempt perhaps to avenge them- selves by accusations against you for your firmness in not yielding to their desires as they wished. Let them feel that you entertain not the slightest fear or anxiety as to their opinion or resentment ; let them never detect in you any softness or apprehension at their empty talk. That would show you are not Last instructions. 217 sufficiently detached from the world ; as if you could deliberate whether you should please and make your- self agreeable to it, or to Jesus Christ, to Whom you are bound by your vows, which would seem a sort of abandonment of the ranks of the Lord’s army — a disgraceful apostacy from your purpose of irrevocably pursuing what is most perfect. LXVII. To Father Gaspar Baertz. April, 1552. [LAST INSTRUCTIONS.] These last counsels I repeat and sum up on the eve of my long and doubtful voyage, as if, dear Gaspar, I could never sufficiently forearm you. You will understand that I do so on account of the extreme solicitude caused by my love for you, and so will take in good part my repeated charges. Above all things, take care for yourself, and watch over your own soul. You know how true it is : ‘ He that is evil to himself, to whom will he be good?’ Always show sincere charity and amiable modesty to the fathers and brothers under you ; banish severity and austerity of manner except towards those who you feel will abuse your kindness. To such you may put out a little sharpness for their own good, not to revenge yourself, especially if it appears that self- esteem has made them proud. For it is to their interest, for their own sake and our neighbours’, to put down their pride. But those who have only sinned through ignorance or weakness, you can often forgive with advantage to themselves, and without hurting discipline; to the arrogant, indul- gence is poison : it makes them wonderfully insolent 2 1 8 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. and ready to upset everything, if they find their rector wanting in vigour and courage. To admit many indiscriminately into the Society is not a help, but a burthen to it. A small number of energetic subjects gifted with superior spiritual or corporal powers would be worth a whole host of others. Do not burthen yourself with a number of useless subjects, but reinforce the body with men of real value. Constantly exercise those who are recently admitted in profound self-abnegation, and in a thorough mortification of their corrupt incli- nations. Set them also to humble avocations outside, to begging from door to door for the poor, to serving the sick in public hospitals, and to all works of this kind, which are generally held in esteem. But, according to my opinion, you should never order them to make a public spectacle of themselves by actions or dress that would make them ridiculous. It often happens that these extraordinary actions cause in the beholders a surprise which borders on scandal, and even in those who have held themselves up to the contempt of the world, a secret sense of the world, a secret sense of pride, as though they had performed something heroic. Take care rather to make them practise mortifications, the good effects of which are well known : such as to make them confess, in presence of their brothers, the faults they have committed in the duties prescribed to them, and to perform the penance after receiving it. Thus the mind is humbled in a salutary manner, and zeal is quickened. But all these trials should not be employed until a previous knowledge has been gained of the disposition and strength of subjects ; for all measures do not equally suit all persons ; what is profitable to one is hurtful to another. The Caution as to the Priesthood \ 219 prudence of a director consists in prescribing to each what suits his nature. You will not let any member of the Society be raised to the priesthood unless he be distinguished by profound knowledge and eminent virtue, tested during several years. Those who are ordained priests without this careful caution will never be what the Institute nor the expectations of men require. And would to God we had seen fewer examples of the results of such negligence ! You should exert yourself to improve strangers as well as our own brothers, but in proper order, remembering that towards persons in the house you are discharging a debt, while to strangers you are doing good gratui- tously. Due order requires us first to satisfy justice, and only afterwards to bestow our care on others. God will hold you responsible for our brothers whom He has intrusted to you. The good you do to others is in addition to your duty, and is only meritorious in one who does not lavish it until after having entirely satisfied all necessary claims. Those are as guilty who neglect the principal work and expend their zeal on accessory labours, as a man w’ho, being depraved in his own interior, should content himself by merely imposing on men by exterior virtue, and who would thus heap God’s anger upon his own head. Such also would be a man who does nothing at home, but in public puts on an air of strenuous activity, through a foolish and fatal ambition. The more widely he scatters his activity, the more greatly will he err. Avoid then this fault, and give your utmost pains, first to what is most important, and in the next place to what is secondary. As to the way of helping our neighbour, the more general it is, the more perfect. So let the most 220 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. important of offices in your eyes be preaching, public instruction in the elements of the Christian religion, and hearing confessions. In hearing confessions examine attentively in what disposition the persons have approached you ; for there are some who seek their own interest under the appearance of piety; they pretend to come and seek remedies for their conscience, when they really have in view to get help for their material existence. In these persons generally I have detected the most imperfect sense of spiritual miseries ; your words are scattered to the winds if they refer to the cultivation of the soul and the hope of a future life. These people are attached to earth, and so they will remain ; they altogether savour of earthly things. Send such people off without delay, and have no fear as to their com- plaints, nor any hope ever to come to an under- standing with them. Your efforts and aims run in contrary directions — they are of the world, and you belong to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Ought not a soldier of Jesus Christ to blush at dreading the murmurs of the profane vulgar ? Should he not be insensible to the judgments of those who prefer earth to heaven ? Follow our Lord to Whom you are vowed, and despise the complaints of men who belong to the opposite camp. I say more : be careful that these men should never see in you any fear of their hostile talk. Bear yourself boldly, so that all may understand that you neither value the praise of these men, nor fear their blame. Hopes for China. 221 LXVIII. To John III., King of Portugal. Goa, April 10, 1552. [on his last departure.] In five days I shall leave Goa for Malacca, on the way to China, with a brother of our Society, and also with Diego Pereira, ambassador to the Emperor of that country. We are taking this Sovereign rich presents, bought by Diego Pereira, partly with your Highness’s funds, partly with his own. But we carry him another present, such as perhaps within the memory of man no king has ever offered to another king — I speak of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If the Emperor of China understands its full value, he will certainly prefer it above all his treasures, however great they may be. I have a hope that God will cast a look of mercy upon this large empire and nation ; that He will open the eyes of those men created after His own image to the knowledge of their Creator, and of Jesus Christ the common Saviour of all. Three of us altogether of the Society start with Pereira for China, in order to set at liberty the Portu- guese who are in captivity there, to obtain the alliance of the Emperor of China for the Portuguese, and lastly to wage war with the devil and his followers. We shall inform the Sovereign first, and then his subjects, in the name of the King of Heaven, that henceforth they must no longer worship the devil, but God, the Creator of men, and Jesus their Redeemer and Lord. It may seem a bold undertaking to go to an unbelieving nation and a very powerful Sovereign in order to reprove them and to preach the truth to them, — a thing in our time full enough of danger even 222 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier . with Christian kings and princes, not to speak of barbarians. But what fills us with confidence is that the design has been inspired by God Himself, Who is the aim and end of all my thoughts, and He has filled us with the happiest hopes, so that trusting to God’s mercy, we doubt nothing as to His divine power, which is infinitely higher than the power of the Chinese King, and of all the kings of the world. As the matter is altogether in the hand and power of God, there is no cause for fear or doubt. W„ certainly ought to fear nothing, except to offend God and so incur the punishment due to the wicked. Therefore it seems a greater extreme of audacity for men, who see most clearly their own sins and crimes, to take up the preaching of His law, than to go to foreign nations to reprove and teach the truth to most powerful kings. That which increases still more my hope and confidence is the thought that for so great a work as the offering of gospel light and truth to a barbarous nation, blinded by vice and superstition, belonging, if I may use the expression, to a different universe, God has chosen men so utterly without skill and without virtue as ourselves. So what is necessary is, that since it has so pleased God to order it, in answer to the prayers and alms of your High- ness, I should have a will ready to correspond to all this courage and confidence, which God in His good- ness has given me, in preaching His holy law. LXIX. Account of Francis leaving Goa. The time was now come for Francis to take leave of Goa. It is said that on parting from his friends he let them see that he knew that, as St. Paul said Farewell of St. Francis. 223 to the priests of Ephesus, ‘ they should see his face no more.’ One of the penitents of Francis, Dona Catalina de Chiaves, began to weep when he told her that this was his last visit, and to comfort her, he added that she should see him again before she died. She survived him for some years, and shortly before her death he appeared to her and filled her with joy. But nowhere was his departure felt so deeply as in the College of Santa Fe. The letter from Goa, to which we have already referred, after speaking of the instructions which he wrote for the fathers who were going to a distance, mentions how he used to exhort the inmates of the College to the service of God and to desires of greater perfection, ‘ as one who was taking his leave as if he should never see or converse with them again, giving us spiritual conferences in which were many doctrines precious and helpful to the soul. . . . And when the time of his departure' was coming, he used at night to give spiritual conferences to the brothers, which much consoled them ; and the last things which he commended to us after his last discourse with many tears, were constancy in our first vocation, most profound humility, which arises in all from knowledge of self, and above all things holy obedience and promptitude in following it out. This last charge he repeated many times, as of a virtue much beloved by God and very necessary in the Society. He made Provincial of the parts of Asia Master Gaspar, to whom he gave all his power, and made him Rector of the College of Goa, to provide from thence for all other parts. And then he put himself on his knees before him and offered him obedience on his own part and on the part of all who were absent, giving us an example of that obedience of which he had just been speaking ; and all the 224 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. fathers and brothers did the same with great consola- tion and joy, because such a pastor had been given them. And having done these things, Father Master Francis departed with his companions on the Maundy Thursday, after the function was over.’ These last words put before us a touching picture. There is no function in all the range of the Offices of the Church more tender and loving than that of Maundy Thurs- day, when the altar puts on again its white festive dress for a short time ; when the Gloria in Excelsis rings through the sanctuary still haunted by the mournful strains of the Tenebrce of the evening before : when but one Mass is sung, and so all the faithful, priests as well as laymen, crowd to the altar to receive the Blessed Sacrament on the day of its first institu- tion from the hands of the Superior of the church. Francis himself would probably say the Mass and give communion to all his brethren, to the students of the college, to the throngs of the faithful to whom he was so dear. Then he would bear in solemn pro- cession, while the Pange lingua was being sung, the consecrated host, which was to be consumed on the following morning of Good Friday, to the altar of the Sepulchre, there amid lights and flowers to be adored without ceasing until the time came for the ceremony of the next day. He would kneel awhile to adore his Lord on the altar, and then depart, with his heart full of love and thankfulness, never to return alive. Consolation. 225 LXX. To Diego Pereira. Malacca, June 25, 1552. [a letter of consolation.] Since it has come about, from the greatness of my faults, that God has not been pleased to employ both of us for the expedition to China, the whole blame must be laid upon my sins ; they have been so many and so great as to have stood in the way not only of myself, but of you, your interests and money, which you had spent on the preparations for this embassy.. However, God is witness of my goodwill for His service and for you ; and were it not for the sincerity of that goodwill, the grief which I feel at this moment would be greatly keener than it is. I am now going on board ship, where I shall wait until' it is time to set sail, so as to be out of sight of your people, who are always coming to me in tears, and who complain that the failure of the embassy is a fatal blow to them. May God forgive him on whom lies the responsibility of so many and such great misfortunes. I only ask one thing of you, and that is, not to come to see me, and so add to my sorrow by the sight of your grief and misfortune. Yet I am confident that this calamity will turn to your advantage ; for I doubt not that the King, to whom I have made the request by letter, will worthily reward your admirable zeal for the religion of Jesus Christ. I have ceased to have any dealings with the Commandant, who has not hesitated to oppose a voyage which would have done so much towards spreading the Christian religion. May God p 226 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. forgive the man ! I grieve for his lot, for he will have to suffer a far severer punishment than he can ever have imagined. May our Lord preserve your health, and direct, guide, and accompany my present endeavours ! Amen. LXXI. To Diego Pereira. Singapore, August i, 1552. [RESIGNATION AND SYMPATHY.] Having so lately seen you who are so very dear to me, and so tenderly loved, I cannot help being torn by a longing regret, and by the thought and picture of the danger in which I have left you, exposed daily to mortal contagion under a sky where the air is poison, and infected by the breath of so many plague- stricken sufferers. This anxiety brings you constantly to my thoughts, and pierces my heart with bitter fear, lest something should happen to you, as is the lot of man, far different from your deserts and my prayers for you. In this ship, all your people, knowing your wishes, treat me with great kindness and honour, supplying me with everything necessary in abundance, not only for myself, who am in good health, but also for my companions who were sick, as you know, when we left. But all these sick by the Divine mercy — for we know that even when God’s hand is raised to strike us, He is merciful, and, coming from His hand, even ills have the virtue of graces — all these sick, by the Divine goodness, are daily getting worse. How sick at heart I am, and what bitter anguish consumes me, is known only to the Lord, Who consoles and afflicts us according to His good pleasure, Whose providence dispenses both joys and sorrows in an Letters to the King. 227 admirable manner ; to Whom be praise and glory from all creatures in heaven and on earth for ever ! I send you, Senor, the letters which I have ad- dressed to his Highness and to the Viceroy of India, open, and with the seal detached, in order that you may be able to read them, and then close them up. Indeed I could have wished, for your sake, that my letter to the King could be taken to Portugal this very year by some confidential friend of yours, who could present it to the King, obtain and bring back the royal decree ; for I am not rash, I think, in taking for granted that this decree will be what it is im- portant to us both that it should be, and you know how necessary it is that it should reach us quickly. You can show this letter to Don Pedro — it will doubt- less be a pleasure to him to see how I have spoken of him to his Highness. You will have observed that I have made two copies of the letter, one sealed, the other open, to be closed by you after you have read it. You will send them in different despatches, and by different ships. I think, if you see no objection, that one of the two might be intrusted to Don Pedro himself, as he is going to the King. I should like the other to be given to the care of some one chosen by you — some very trustworthy friend whom you con- sider will handle most faithfully and prudently a matter so nearly affecting your fortune and honour. But I leave the whole thing to your will and wisdom. I do most earnestly entreat you, Senor, to be careful of your life, your health, and also of your temporal condition ; first of all, keep out of the way of contagion and of all dangerous communication with persons attacked by the pestilence, or with those who serve them ; in the next place be careful of your fqrtune, and do nothing imprudent — regulate all 228 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. things with circumspection and mature judgment ; do not, while accepting the good offices of those who profess friendship to you, confide too readily in any one, or go further than is safe with him till experience has shown you his true sentiments ; lest, as is often the case, a false appearance of goodwill should have been assumed for the purpose of imposing on you. Above all things, Senor, I conjure of you and beg it of you as a special favour, that the more you are pressed by adversity, the more you will turn to God in your heart. This is the only way by which you can gain consolation and courage, now that troubles and storms have fallen on you. In the name of your filial love to God, and of the comfort which you take pleasure in giving me, I entreat and beg of you as a favour, for which I shall be your debtor, that now that your heart is tossed by storms from the keen sense of your great affliction, caused by the recent injustice which has been done you so undeservedly, you will set apart some time to compose yourself, and after cleansing your soul by sacramental confession, go to the sacred banquet of the Body of our Lord in holy Communion, and so submitting every feeling of your soul to the providence of God, accept as good what He has been pleased to permit ; hoping at the same time, as I do myself, not only that this violent storm will not injure you, but that it may be for the whole of your life an abundant and fruitful source even of temporal advantage and of public honour. The Bishop’s Vicar at Malacca has begged me to write on his behalf to his Highness. I am complying with his wish, although I have been told that, in the affair of our Embassy to China, he did not accomplish all that was in his power for our service, or rather for the service of all, and that he sacrificed the interests Pity for Enemies. 229 of God and of the propagation of our holy religion to the favour of Don Alvaro, the Capitan of Malacca, to whom he wished to show himself devoted, for the sake of some worldly advantages which he hopes to purchase by his flattery. It is indeed a great mistake in which any one lives, who neglects God, from Whom all good comes, and hopes to gain what he wants or desires by means of men. Indeed it is my way to revenge myself on those who have offended me by loading them with all the benefits in my power ; for God will infallibly send them the punish- ment they have deserved : and you will see, Senor, by very remarkable instances, that God will punish very severely all who have opposed me when I was labouring in His service. But in truth, Senor, I declare to you, that at this moment I feel a deep compassion for these men, and I tremble lest far heavier punishments than they expect should be hanging over their heads. Be so kind, Senor, as to give into the Vicar’s own hands the letter in which I recommend him to the King, so that he may send it with his own. If God brings me into the empire of China, as I hope from His mercy, I shall inform the Portu- guese who are there of all that they owe you. I shall tell them of all your efforts, all your expen- diture, the object of which was their help and con- solation ; lastly, according to your desire, I will salute them all in your name : and as you intend to continue to help them, I will lead them to hope that if in any way you are able, through God’s help, to overcome the obstacles which have hitherto hindered your pious intention, you will be with them within the next year. I beg you, Senor, for your own sake, often to visit our fathers at Malacca ; I feel sure 230 Counsels of St. Frci 7 icis Xavier. that their society and conversation will alleviate the mental sufferings which agitate and distress you. Once more farewell. LXXII. To Francesco Perez . San Chan, Oct. 22, 1552. [last hopes of china.] However, doubtless by God’s arrangement, we have met with an honest Canton merchant, who has come to an agreement with me for two hundred gold pieces. He promises to take us in a little vessel, which is to carry no one else but his own sons and a few faithful slaves ; so that if the governor of the town ever gets to hear of the affair, he will not be able to find out from the crew who it was who took us to Canton. He has also promised that we shall be in his house for three or four days, with our books and baggage ; and then very early one morning he is to take us to the gate of the town and put us on the road leading to the government house. I shall go straight to the governor, telling him that I am come to announce the divine and heavenly law to the Emperor of China, and then I shall produce the Bishop of Goa’s letters addressed to that monarch. All the Chinese merchants are always glad to see us, and say they shall be very glad if the matter is accomplished. I am aware, as all tell me, of the twofold danger of this enterprize. It is possible that the Chinese merchant after receiving the gold may leave us in a desert island, or throw us into the sea to conceal his crime ; and again, if we reach Canton, the governor may put us to all kinds of unheard of tortures, or Danger of diffidence . 231 make slaves of us for life. It is a capital crime for a foreigner to enter any part of China without a pass- port. But there are other dangers besides, greater and more unknown, all of which I cannot enumerate to you, but I will mention a few of them. The first, then, is mistrust of God’s goodness and providence ; especially when I have only come to this country in obedience to God, and from pure love of Him, to declare to the Chinese nation the most holy law of God, and to preach to them His only Son Jesus Christ, the Author of our salvation* Since He in His mercy has given us this mind, to doubt of His help and protection in the midst of the dangers which are before us would be a greater and more real danger than any that could be brought on us by His enemies. For neither the devils nor their satellites and servants can hurt us, without the permission of Almighty God. If God is our defender, how easily will He dispel all perils ! And besides, we shall follow the precept of the Lord Jesus, 1 He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world keepeth it unto life eternal ; ’ words which are in accordance with those other words of Jesus Christ, ‘ No man putting his hand to the plough and looking hack is fit for the kingdom of God .’ As, then, we see that these spiritual dangers are more serious and more certain than any perils of the body, we prefer to face those of this life rather than incur everlasting death. In truth we have resolved and are positively determined to enter China. May God only prosper our footsteps for the spreading of His Faith ; and then let the devils and their army do their worst ! I care not for them. ‘ If God he for us, who shall he against us ? ' 232 Coitnsels of St. Francis Xavier. LXXIII. To Diego Pereira. San Chan, Nov. 12, 1552. [a last letter of affection.] I have nothing, Senor, to write to you at present, except to repeat over and over again the assurance (which however often it were expressed, would be always inadequate to my obligation) of my gratitude for the daily and hourly kindness which your affec- tion and charity are constantly lavishing on me without end or measure ; you have, even in your absence, thought of means of exercising these virtues through your servants and representatives, who assist and do me services in all ways and at all times. Among them is Thomas Scandelho, your agent, who supplies me so affectionately and generously with everything I ask for, that it is easy to see that he knows and shares the extreme tenderness and goodness which you entertain for me, not only always ready, but always eager and anxious to give me even more than I ask and more than I want. May our Lord God reward you, for He alone can ! I am unable to pay my debt to you, and must owe it for the rest of my life ; but though I can never pay the principal, I will not fail, at any rate while I live, to pay you as it were a daily instalment, and interest according to my ability, by continually praying our Lord God to preserve you from all evil, and never to suffer you in this life to be deprived of His grace, but to keep you always flourishing both in body and mind through all accidents of health and unfavourable chances of fortune, always constant in the faith, diligent in the Prayers of the Society. 233 duties of holy religion and divine worship, so that He may one day crown your merits, and receive your soul to the glory of His Paradise. And as in spite of my endeavours I can never satisfy myself as to this, I call on all my brothers the fathers of the Society of Jesus, who are serving the holy Church in different places in India, to be my helpers and assistants. Certainly all would have performed this duty of their own accord ; nevertheless I have, so to speak, added spurs to their willingness by ordering them to show you all the offices of most friendly goodwill as an eminent patron of our Society, and commend you to God in their daily prayers and sacrifices as a mainstay of the Christian religion in this country, on whom rests the chief hope of seeing the holy law of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, preached in the empire of China, and of spreading His glory to the ends of the earth. Indeed our Lord Himself, Who knows so well your ardent zeal for His service, Who so truly values your labours so profitable for the extension of His kingdom, could not fail, independently of the prayers of His servants, to encircle you and your interests with His constant favour and protection, and to further the accomplish- ment of your desires to this holy end of helping the preaching of the Gospel and the calling wandering souls to the faith of Jesus Christ. If, Senor, the affair of your embassy to the Sovereign of China intrusted to you by the Viceroy of India should be at length successfully arranged next year, I beg of you to deal with Francesco Perez (whom I have ordered to set sail for Goa) so that he may procure from Father Gaspar Baertz, the Rector of the College of Goa, a priest of our Society, whom you may take with you when you embark for China. I 234 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. should wish the valuable vestments which, as you know, we had prepared for that expedition, to be given to him to bring them with him. When our project failed, I left them at Malacca in the care of Francesco Perez ; that father will deliver them to you on seeing this letter, which will sufficiently acquaint him with my intention. I will send the chalice, a part of the same set, which I brought with me, by Thomas Scandelho, so that you may, if you think well, give them all to the father who is to accompany you on your embassy. I add no more, except to say, what is the exact truth, that I so ardently desire to know what you are doing, how your health is, the state of your affairs and hopes, that if I were rich I should not think the news bought too dear with much gold, and would give profusely any most precious gifts as its price, especially as my confidence as to the high favour in which our Lord Jesus Christ holds you makes me hopeful that if the news were true it would be what I most eagerly desire. May our Lord God, if He sees it advisable for the interests of His holy service, grant us to see one another again in the empire of China ! If He has ordered otherwise, may He at least reunite us one day in the blissful abode of Paradise! Farewell. LXXIV. To Father Perez and Father Gaspar Baertz. San Chan, Nov. 13, 1552. [from the last letter.] With regard to myself, I have written this letter in the midst of preparations and anxieties relating to my passage from this island to the Chinese conti- Dangers of the Voyage. 235 nent. The voyage will be most painful under my present straitened circumstances ; it is full of a thousand dangers, of very doubtful issue, and full of terrors. How it will turn out I know not, but I have a firm confidence, and a strong inward assurance, that however things may go, the result will be good. If — which God forbid ! — my hopes of the Canton merchant captain, whom I expect every moment, should fail, I am determined, as I told you, to go by sea to Siam, whence there is some expectation of being able to get to China. Should this hope too come to nothing, through some accident, then I shall return to India. But my mind presages that I shall not be driven to this last resolution, and I persist in believing that my first hopes will be fulfilled, and that I shall have my prayer and place my foot at last on Chinese ground. One truth has been proved to me by the clearest evidence, and I tell it you confidently, and wish you to be fully convinced of it. The devil has an unspeak- able dread of the Society of Jesus entering China, and every effort in this direction seems to wound the very apple of his eye ; it makes him rage with impotent fury, and lash himself up, and boil over with passion. Take my most certain word for it, in this port of San Chan, where fresh obstacles to our passage to China are raised every hour, he keeps contriving them in swarms, one after another, as though he thought the first nothing, and that new ones were always needed ; and if I were to describe them by letter, or by word of mouth, I should never end. I perceive most clearly that the war cry has sounded in the camp of hell, and the spirits of dark- ness, all in consternation, are arrayed against us as if to defend their last entrenchments. But let it be 236 Counsels of St. Francis Xavier. no less certain to you, that I am confident, relying on the unfailing help and grace and favour of our Lord God, that Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer, will expose to the scorn of the whole world the enemy of mankind, disappointing his wishes and making his vain hope void ; and the glory of the Divine Majesty will shine all the more brightly because the instrument of these wonders will be one so mean, because that by means of me, the least and the vilest of men, He will overthrow that insolent spirit, so bold in his pride, and expose him to the most shameful defeat and universal derision. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier . Two vols. ios. 6d. The Preaching of the Cross. Three vols. 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