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The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16

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Title: The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16

Author: John Dryden

Editor: Walter Scott


        
Release date: February 7, 2005 [eBook #14947]
                Most recently updated: December 19, 2020

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN, NOW FIRST COLLECTED IN EIGHTEEN VOLUMES. VOLUME 16 ***




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Proofreading Team.






THE WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN,

_NOW FIRST COLLECTED IN EIGHTEEN VOLUMES_.

ILLUSTRATED WITH NOTES,
HISTORICAL, CRITICAL, AND EXPLANATORY,

AND A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

BY WALTER SCOTT, ESQ.


       *       *       *       *       *


VOL. XVI.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR WILLIAM MILLER, ALBEMARLE STREET,
BY JAMES BALLANTYNE AND CO. EDINBURGH.

1808.




CONTENTS OF VOLUME SIXTEENTH.


                                                 PAGE.
The Life of St Francis Xavier, of the Society of
  Jesus, Apostle of the Indies, and of Japan, ...   1
     Dedication to the Queen, ...................   3
     The Author's Advertisement to the Reader, ..   8
     Book I .....................................  14
     Book II ....................................  59
     Book III ................................... 116
     Book IV .................................... 191
     Book V ..................................... 288
     Book VI .................................... 408




THE LIFE OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER,

OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS,

APOSTLE OF THE INDIES, AND OF JAPAN.




TO THE QUEEN.[1]


MADAM,

The reverend author of this life, in his dedication to his Most Christian
Majesty, affirms, that France was owing for him to the intercession of St
Francis Xavier. That Anne of Austria, his mother, after twenty years of
barrenness, had recourse to heaven, by her fervent prayers, to draw down
that blessing, and addressed her devotions, in a particular manner, to
this holy apostle of the Indies. I know not, madam, whether I may presume
to tell the world, that your majesty has chosen this great saint for one
of your celestial patrons, though I am sure you will never be ashamed of
owning so glorious an intercessor; not even in a country where the
doctrine of the holy church is questioned, and those religious addresses
ridiculed. Your majesty, I doubt not, has the inward satisfaction of
knowing, that such pious prayers have not been unprofitable to you; and
the nation may one day come to understand, how happy it will be for them
to have a son of prayers ruling over them.[2] Not that we are wholly to
depend on this particular blessing, as a thing of certainty, though we
hope and pray for its continuance. The ways of Divine Providence are
incomprehensible; and we know not in what times, or by what methods, God
will restore his church in England, or what farther trials and
afflictions we are yet to undergo. Only this we know, that if a religion
be of God, it can never fail; but the acceptable time we must patiently
expect, and endeavour by our lives not to undeserve. I am sure if we take
the example of our sovereigns, we shall place our confidence in God
alone; we shall be assiduous in our devotions, moderate in our
expectations, humble in our carriage, and forgiving of our enemies. All
other panegyrics I purposely omit; but those of Christianity are such,
that neither your majesty, nor my royal master, need be ashamed of them,
because their commemoration is instructive to your subjects. We may be
allowed, madam, to praise Almighty God for making us happy by your means,
without suspicion of flattery; and the meanest subject has the privilege
of joining his thanksgiving with his sovereigns, where his happiness is
equally concerned. May it not be permitted me to add, that to be
remembered, and celebrated in after ages, as the chosen vessel, by which
it has pleased the Almighty Goodness to transmit so great a blessing to
these nations, is a secret satisfaction, which is not forbidden you to
take; the blessings of your people are a prelibation of the joys in
heaven, and a lawful ambition here on earth.

Your majesty is authorized, by the greatest example of a mother, to
rejoice in a promised son. The blessed Virgin was not without as great a
proportion of joy, as humanity could bear, when she answered the
salutation of the angel in expressions, which seemed to unite the
contradicting terms of calmness, and of transport: "Be it to thy
hand-maid, according to thy word."

It is difficult for me to leave this subject, but more difficult to
pursue it as I ought; neither must I presume to detain your majesty by a
long address. The life of Saint Francis Xavier, after it had been written
by several authors in the Spanish and Portuguese, and by the famous Padre
Bartoli in the Italian tongue, came out at length in French, by the
celebrated pen of Father Bohours, from whom I have translated it, and
humbly crave leave to dedicate it to your patronage. I question not but
it will undergo the censure of those men, who teach the people, that
miracles are ceased. Yet there are, I presume, a sober party of the
Protestants, and even of the most learned among them, who being
convinced, by the concurring testimonies of the last age, by the
suffrages of whole nations in the Indies and Japan, and by the severe
scrutinies that were made before the act of canonization, will not
dispute the truth of most matters of fact as they are here related; nay,
some may be ingenuous enough to own freely, that to propagate the faith
amongst infidels and heathens, such miraculous operations are as
necessary now in those benighted regions, as when the Christian doctrine
was first planted by our blessed Saviour and his apostles.

The honourable testimonies which are cited by my author, just before the
conclusion of his work, and one of them in particular from a learned
divine of the church of England,[3] though they slur over the mention of
his miracles, in obscure and general terms, yet are full of veneration
for his person. Farther than this I think it needless to prepossess a
reader; let him judge sincerely, according to the merits of the cause,
and the sanctity of his life, of whom such wonders are related, and
attested with such clouds of witnesses; for an impartial man cannot but
of himself consider the honour of God in the publication of his gospel,
the salvation of souls, and the conversion of kingdoms, which followed
from those miracles; the effects of which remain in many of them to this
day.

But that it is not lawful for me to trespass so far on the patience of
your majesty, I should rather enlarge on a particular reflection, which I
made in my translation of this book, namely, that the instructions of the
saint, which are copied from his own writings, are so admirably useful,
so holy, and so wonderfully efficacious, that they seem to be little less
than the product of an immediate inspiration. So much excellent matter is
crowded into so small a compass, that almost every paragraph contains the
value of a sermon. The nourishment is so strong, that it requires but
little to be taken at a time. Where he exhorts, there is not an
expression, but what is glowing with the love of God; where he directs a
missioner, or gives instructions to a substitute, we can scarcely have a
less idea than of a St Paul advising a Timothy, or a Titus. Where he
writes into Europe, he inspires his ardour into sovereign princes, and
seems, with the spirit of his devotion, even to burn his colleagues at
the distance of the Indies.

But, madam, I consider that nothing I can say is worthy to detain you
longer from the perusal of this book, in which all things are excellent,
excepting only the meanness of my performance in the translation. Such as
it is, be pleased, with your inborn goodness, to accept it, with the
offer of my unworthy prayers for the lasting happiness of my gracious
sovereign, for your own life and prosperity, together with the
preservation of the son of prayers, and the farther encrease of the
royal family; all which blessings are continually implored from heaven,
by,

MADAM,
  Your Majesty's most humble,
    And most obedient subject and servant,
                   JOHN DRYDEN.


[Footnote 1: Mary of Este, wife of James II.]

[Footnote 2: The superstitious and, as it proved, fatal insinuation, that
the birth of the Chevalier de St George was owing to the supernatural
intercession of St Francis Xavier, was much insisted on by the
Protestants as an argument against the reality of his birth. See the
Introduction to "Britannia Rediviva," Vol. X. p. 285. In that piece, our
author also alludes to this foolery:
  Hail, son of prayers, by holy violence
  Drawn down from heaven!--]

[Footnote 3: The Reverend Richard Hackluyt, editor of the large
collection of voyages to which Purchas' Pilgrim is a continuation.]




THE AUTHOR'S ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER.


Having already presented you with the Life of St Ignatius, I thought
myself obliged to give you that of St Francis Xavier. For, besides that
it was just that the son should attend the father, it seemed to me, that
these two saints being concerned so much together, the history of the
apostle of India and Japan would give you a clearer knowledge of him
who was founder of the Jesuits. I may add likewise, that many
considerable persons, and particularly of the court, have testified so
great a desire to see a complete history of St Xavier in our language,
that I thought my labour would not be unacceptable to them; and that in
satisfying my own private devotion, I might at the same time content the
curiosity of others.

The writings out of which I have drawn this work, have furnished me with
all I could desire for the perfection of it, in what regards the truth
and the ornaments of this history: for without speaking of Turselline and
Orlandino, I have diligently read Lucena and Bartoli; the first of which
Wrote in Portuguese with this title, "The History of the Life of Father
Francis Xavier, and of what was done in the Indies by the Religious of
the Society of Jesus." He informs us, that he had in his hands the
authentic copies of the informations which were made by order of John
III. king of Portugal, concerning the actions of the blessed Father
Xavier, and the originals of many letters, written from the Indies on
that subject, which are to this day deposited in the archives of the
university of Coimbra. As for Bartoli, who is so famous by his writings,
and who is accounted amongst the best of the Italian authors, he has
extracted from the archives of the Casa Professa at Rome, and from the
acts of the canonization, what he relates of our saint in the first part
of the History of the Society, intitled, Asia.

Though these two historians have in some sort collected all that can be
said concerning St Francis Xavier, I omitted not to take a view of what
others have written on that subject; and chiefly the book of Nieremberg,
which bears for title, "_Claros Varones_, or Illustrious Men;" the
History of India, by Maffeus, and that of Jarrio; the Church History of
Japan, by Solia; the Castilian History of the Missions, which the Fathers
of the Society have made to the East Indies, and the kingdoms of China
and Japan, composed by Lewis de Gusman; and, lastly, the Portuguese
History of the Travels of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto.

But seeing St Francis Xavier himself has written some parts of those
accidents which have befallen him in India and Japan, I have faithfully
copied his letters, and from thence have drawn those particulars which
have much conduced to my information, and clearing of the truth. These
letters have also furnished me with materials to make the narration
appear more lively and moving, when you hear the saint himself speaking
in his proper words, and mixing his own thoughts and reflections with his
actions. I had almost finished this my work, when I received from Spain
and Italy two other lives of St Francis Xavier, which before that time I
had not seen: the one very new, which was written in Italian by Father
Joseph Massei; the other more ancient, written in Spanish by Father
Francis Garcia. I found nothing in those two books which I had not
observed in others; but read them with great pleasure, as being most
exactly and elegantly written, each in their several tongue.

For what remains, amongst all those historians which I have cited, there
is only the author of the new Italian Life, who has not followed the
common error, in relation to the age of St Francis Xavier: for the rest
of them not precisely knowing the year and day of his birth, have made
him ten years older than he was; placing his nativity about the time
when the passage to the East Indies was discovered by Vasco de Gama.

But Father Massei has taken his measures in that particular, from Father
Poussines, that judicious person to whom we are owing for the new letters
of St Xavier, and who has composed a dissertation in Latin, touching the
year of our apostle's birth.

He produces, in the said treatise, a Latin paper, written in all
appearance in the year 1585, and found in the records of the house of Don
Juan Antonio, Count of Xavier. That paper,--wherein is treated of the
ancestors and birth of the saint, and which very probably, as Poussines
judges, is the minute of a letter sent to Rome, where Dr Navara then
resided, to whom it refers you,--that paper, I say, has these words in
it: _Non scitur certò annus quo natus est P. Franciscus Xaverius. Vulgo
tamen invaluit, a quibusdam natum cum dici anno millesimo quadragintesimo
nonagesimo-sexto_: which is to say, the year is not certainly known, in
which Father Francis Xavier was born; but it is generally held, that some
have reported he was born in the year 1496.

But it is to be observed, that these words, _Non scitur certò annus quo
natus est P. Franciscus Xaverius_, are dashed out with the stroke of a
pen. There is also a line drawn over these other words, _Natum eum dici
millesimo, quadragintesimo, nonagesimo-sexto_: and this is written over
head, _Natus est P. Franciscus Xaverius anno millesimo quingentesimo
sexto_. Father Francis Xavier was born in the year 1506. There is also
written in the margin, _Natus est die 7 Aprilis, anni 1506_. He was born
on the 7th of April, 1506.

That which renders this testimony more authentic, is, that at the bottom
of the letter, these words, in Spanish, are written by the same hand
which corrected those two passages of which I spoke: _Hallo se la razon
del tiempo que el S. P. Francisco Xavier naciò, en un libro manual de su
hermano el Capitan Juan de Azpilcueta: la qual sacò de un libro, de su
padre Don Juan Jasso; viz_. "The time when the blessed Father Francis
Xavier was born, is found in the journal of his brother Don Juan de
Azpilcueta, who extracted it from the journal or manual of his father Don
Juan Jasso." 'Tis on this foundation, that, before I had read the Life
written by Father Massei, I had already closed with the opinion of Father
Poussines.

As to the precise day of the father's death, I have followed the common
opinion, which I take to be the most probable, in conformity to the bull
of his canonization. For the historians who have mentioned it, agree not
with each other, on what clay he died. 'Tis said in Herbert's Travels to
the Indies and Persia, translated out of the English, "St Francis Xavier,
the Jesuit of Navarre, died the 4th of December, 1552." Ferdinand Mendez
Pinto, the Portuguese, affirms, that he died at midnight, on Saturday the
2d of December, the same year. A manuscript letter, pretended to be
written by Anthony de Sainte Foy, companion to Xavier for the voyage of
China, the truth of which I suspect, relates, that the Saint died on a
Sunday night at two of the clock, on the 2d of December, 1552. Now 'tis
most certain, that in the year 1552, the 2d of December fell on a Friday;
so that it is a manifest mistake to say, that St Xavier died that year
either on Saturday or Sunday the 2d of December.

I should apprehend, lest a life so extraordinary as this might somewhat
shock the profaner sort of men, if the reputation of St Francis Xavier
were not well established in the world, and that the wonderful things he
did had not all the marks of true miracles. As the author who made the
collection of them has well observed, the mission of the saint gives them
an authority, even in our first conceptions of them: for being sent from
God for the conversion of infidels, it was necessary that the faith
should be planted in the East, by the same means as it had been through
all the world, in the beginning of the church.

Besides which, never any miracles have been examined with greater care,
or more judicially than these. They were not miracles wrought in private,
and which we are only to believe on the attestation of two or three
interested persons, such who might have been surprised into an opinion of
them; they were ordinarily public matters of fact, avowed by a whole city
or kingdom, and which had for witnesses the body of a nation, for the
most part Heathen, or Mahometan. Many of these miracles have been of long
continuance; and it was an easy matter for such who were incredulous, to
satisfy their doubts concerning them. All of them have been attended by
such consequences as have confirmed their truth, beyond dispute: such as
were--the conversions of kingdoms, and of kings, who were the greatest
enemies to Christianity; the wonderful ardency of those new Christians,
and the heroical constancy of their martyrs. But after all, nothing can
give a greater confirmation of the saint's miracles, than his saint-like
life; which was even more wonderful than the miracles themselves. It was
in a manner of necessity, that a man of so holy a conversation should
work those things, which other men could not perform; and that, resigning
himself to God, with an entire confidence and trust, in the most
dangerous occasions, God should consign over to him some part of his
omnipotence, for the benefit of souls.




THE LIFE OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER.



BOOK I.


_His birth. His natural endowments, and first studies. His father
purposes to recal him from his studies, and is diverted from that
resolution. He continues his studies, and sets up a philosophy lecture.
He is preserved from falling into heresy. His change of life. His
retirement, and total conversion. He consecrates himself to God, by a
vow. What happened to him in his journey to Venice. What he did at
Venice. He goes to Rome, and from thence returns to Venice. He prepares
himself to celebrate his first mass. He celebrates his first mass, and
falls sick after it. St Jerome appears to him. He goes to Bolognia, and
labours there with great success. He relapses into his sickness, and yet
continues preaching. He is recalled to Rome by Father Ignatius, and
labours there with great success. The occasion of the mission into the
Indies. He is named for the mission of the Indies. God mysteriously
reveals to him his intended mission to the Indies. He takes his leave of
the Pope, and what his Holiness said to him. He departs from Rome. How he
employed himself during his journey. His letter to Ignatius. Some
remarkable accidents in his journey to Lisbon. He passes by the castle of
Xavier without going to it. He arrives at Lisbon, and cures Rodriguez
immediately after his coming. He is called to court. The manner of his
life at Lisbon. He refuses to visit his uncle, the Duke of Navarre. The
fruit of his evangelical labours. The reputation he acquired at Lisbon.
They would retain him in Portugal. He is permitted to go to the Indies,
and the king discourses with him before his departure. He refuses the
provisions offered him for his voyage. He goes for the Indies, and what
he said to Rodriguez at parting_.


I have undertaken to write the life of a saint, who has renewed, in the
last age, the greatest wonders which were wrought in the infancy of the
church; and who was himself a living proof of Christianity. There will be
seen in the actions of one single man, a new world converted by the power
of his preaching, and by that of his miracles: idolatrous kings, with
their dominions, reduced under the obedience of the gospel; the faith
flourishing in the very midst of barbarism; and the authority of the
Roman church acknowledged by nations the most remote, who were utterly
unacquainted with ancient Rome.

This apostolical man, of whom I speak, is St Francis Xavier, of the
society of Jesus, and one of the first disciples of St Ignatius Loyola.
He was of Navarre; and, according to the testimony of Cardinal Antonia
Zapata, who examined his nobility from undoubted records, he derived his
pedigree from the kings of Navarre.

His father was Don Juan de Jasso, a lord of great merit, well conversant
in the management of affairs, and who held one of the first places in the
council of state, under the reign of King John III. The name of his
mother was Mary Azpilcueta Xavier, heiress to two of the most illustrious
families in that kingdom; for the chief of her house, Don Martin
Azpilcueta, less famous by the great actions of his ancestors, than by
his own virtue, married Juana Xavier, the only daughter and remaining
hope of her family. He had by her no other child but this Mary of whom we
spoke, one of the most accomplished persons of her time.

This virgin, equally beautiful and prudent, being married to Don Jasso,
became the mother of many children; the youngest of whom was Francis, the
same whose life I write. He was born in the castle of Xavier, on the 7th
of April, in the year 1506. That castle, situated at the foot of the
Pyrenean Mountains, seven or eight leagues distant from Pampeluna, had
appertained to his mother's house for about two hundred and fifty years;
his progenitors on her side having obtained it in gift from King Thibald,
the first of that name, in recompence of those signal services which they
had performed for the crown. 'Tis from thence they took the name of
Xavier, in lieu of Asnarez, which was the former name of their family.
This surname was conferred on Francis, as also on some of the rest of
his brothers, lest so glorious a name, now remaining in one only woman,
should be totally extinguished with her.

That Providence, which had selected Francis for the conversion of such
multitudes of people, endued him with all the natural qualities which are
requisite to the function of an apostle. He was of a strong habit of
body, his complexion lively and vigorous, his genius sublime and capable
of the greatest designs, his heart fearless, agreeable in his behaviour,
but above all, he was of a gay, complying, and winning humour: this
notwithstanding, he had a most extreme aversion for all manner of
immodesty, and a vast inclination for his studies.

His parents, who lived a most Christian life, inspired him with the fear
of God from his infancy, and took a particular care of his education. He
was no sooner arrived to an age capable of instruction, than, instead of
embracing the profession of arms, after the example of his brothers, he
turned himself, of his own motion, on the side of learning; and, as he
had a quick conception, a happy memory, and a penetrating mind, he
advanced wonderfully in few years.

Having gained a sufficient knowledge in the Latin tongue, and discovered
a great propensity to learning, he was sent to the university of Paris,
the most celebrated of all Europe, and to which the gentlemen of Spain,
Italy, and Germany, resorted for their studies.

He came to Paris in the eighteenth year of his age, and fell immediately
on the study of philosophy. 'Tis scarcely credible with how much ardour
he surmounted the first difficulties of logic. Whatsoever his
inclinations were towards a knowledge so crabbed and so subtle, he tugged
at it with incessant pains, to be at the head of all his fellow students;
and perhaps never any scholar besides himself could join together so much
ease, and so much labour.

Xavier minded nothing more, than how to become an excellent philosopher,
when his father, who had a numerous family of children, and who was one
of those men of quality, whose fortunes are not equal to their birth, was
thinking to remove him from his studies, after having allowed him a
competent maintenance for a year or two. He communicated these his
thoughts to Magdalen. Jasso, his daughter, abbess of the convent of St
Clare de Gandia, famous for the austerity of its rules, and established
by some holy Frenchwomen of that order, whom the calamities of war had
forced to forsake their native country, and to seek a sanctuary in the
kingdom of Valencia.

Magdalen, in her younger days, had been maid of honour and favourite to
the Catholic queen Isabella. The love of solitude, and of the cross, had
caused her to forsake the court of Arragon, and quit for ever the
pleasures of this world. Having chosen the most reformed monastery of
Spain for the place of her retreat, she applied herself, Avith fervour,
to the exercises of penitence and prayer; and became, even from her
noviciate, a perfect pattern of religious perfection.

During the course of her life, she had great communications with God; and
one day he gave her to understand, that she should die a sweet and easy
death; but, on the contrary, one of her nuns was pre-ordained to die in
strange torments. The intention of God was not thereby to reveal to the
abbess what was really to happen, but rather to give her an opportunity
of exercising an heroic act of charity. She comprehended what her
heavenly Father exacted from her, and petitioned him for an exchange.

God granted to her what himself had inspired her to demand; and was
pleased to assure her, by a new revelation, that he had heard her
prayers. She made known to her ghostly father what had passed betwixt God
and her, and time verified it: for the sister above mentioned died
without sickness, and appeared in dying to have had a foretaste of the
joys to come. On the other side, the abbess was struck with a terrible
disease, which took all her body, as it were, in pieces, and made her
suffer intolerable pains; yet even those pains were less cruel to her,
than those inward torments which God at the same time inflicted on her.
She endured all this with wonderful patience and resignation; being well
assured, that in the whole series of these dispensations there was
somewhat of divine.

For what remains concerning her, from the first years of her entry into a
religious life, the gift of prophecy shone so visibly in her, that none
doubted but that she was full of the spirit of God; and 'tis also
probable, that she left a legacy of her prophetic gifts to her spiritual
daughters. For, after her decease, the nuns of Gandia foretold many
things, which afterward the event confirmed; as, amongst others, the
unhappy success of the expedition to Algier; of which the Duke of Borgia,
viceroy of Catalonia, gave the advertisement from them to Charles V. when
he was making his preparations for that enterprize.

It was six years before the death of Magdalen, that Don Jasso, her
father, writ to her concerning Xavier. After she had received the letter,
she was illuminated from above; and, according to the dictates of that
divine light, she answered Don Jasso, that he should beware of recalling
her brother Francis, whatsoever it might cost him for his entertainment
in the university of Paris. That he was a chosen vessel, pre-ordained to
be the apostle of the Indies, and that one day he should become a great
pillar of the church.

These letters have been preserved for a long time afterwards, and have
been viewed by many persons, who have deposed the truth judicially in the
process of the canonization of the saint.

Don Jasso received this answer from his daughter as an oracle from
heaven; and no longer thought of recalling his son from his studies.

Xavier, thereupon, continued his philosophy; and succeeded so well in it,
that having maintained his thesis, at the end of his course, with a
general applause, and afterwards taking his degree of master of arts, he
was judged worthy to teach philosophy himself. His parts appeared more
than ever in this new employment; and he acquired an high reputation in
his public lectures on Aristotle. The praises, which universally were
given him, were extremely pleasing to his vanity. He was not a little
proud to have augmented the glory of his family by the way of learning,
while his brothers were continually adorning it by that of arms; and he
flattered himself, that the way which he had taken, would lead him onward
to somewhat of greater consequence.

But God Almighty had far other thoughts than those of Xavier; and it was
not for these fading honours that the Divine Providence had conducted him
to Paris.

At the same time, when this young master of philosophy began his course,
Ignatius Loyola, who had renounced the world, and cast the model of a
learned society, wholly devoted to the salvation of souls, came into
France to finish his studies, which the obstacles he found in Spain,
after his conversion, had constrained him to interrupt.

He had not continued long in the university of Paris, before he heard
talk of Xavier, and grew acquainted with him. Our new professor, who
taught at the college of Beauvois, though he dwelt in the college of St
Barbe, with Peter le Fevre, a Savoyard, was judged by Ignatius to be very
proper for the preaching of the gospel, as well as his companion. To gain
the better opportunity of insinuating himself into their acquaintance, he
took lodgings with them, and was not wanting to exhort them to live up to
the rules of Christianity.

Le Fevre, who was of a tractable nature, and was not enamoured of the
world, resigned himself without opposition. But Xavier, who was of a
haughty spirit, and whose head was filled with ambitious thoughts, made a
fierce resistance at the first. The discipline and maxims of Ignatius,
who lived in a mean equipage, and valued nothing but that poverty, made
him pass for a low-minded fellow in the opinion of our young gentleman.
And accordingly Xavier treated him with much contempt; rallying him on
all occasions, and making it his business to ridicule him.

This notwithstanding, Ignatius omitted no opportunities of representing
to him the great consequence of his eternal welfare, and urging the words
of our blessed Saviour, "What profit is it to a man to gain the whole
world, and to lose his own, soul?" but perceiving that he could make no
impression on a heart where self-conceit was so very prevalent, and which
was dazzled with vain-glory, he bethought, himself of assaulting him on
the weaker side.

When he had often congratulated with him for those rare talents of
nature with which he was endowed, and particularly applauded his great
wit, he made it his business to procure him scholars, and to augment his
reputation by the crowd of his auditors. He conducted them even to his
chair; and in presenting them to their master, never failed to make his
panegyric.

Xavier was too vain, not to receive, with a greedy satisfaction, whatever
incense was given him of that kind: applause was welcome from whatever
hands it came; and withal he was too grateful, not to acknowledge those
good offices which were done him, by a person whom he had used so very
ill: he was the more sensible of such a kindness, by being conscious to
himself how little he had deserved it. He began to look with other eyes
on him who had the appearance of so mean a creature; and at the same time
was informed, that this man, of so despicable a presence, was born of one
of the noblest families in Guypuscoa; that his courage was correspondent
to his birth; and that only the fear of God had inspired him with the
choice of such a life, so distant from his inclination, and his quality.

These considerations, in favour of Ignatius, led him to hearken, without
repugnance, to those discourses which were so little suitable to his
natural bent; as if the quality and virtue of him who made them, had
given a new charm and weight to what he said.

While things were passing in this manner, Xavier's money began to fail
him, as it frequently happens to foreigners, who are at a great distance
from their own country; and Ignatius, who was newly returned from the
voyages which he had made into Flanders and England, from whence he had
brought back a large contribution of alms, assisted him in so pressing
an occasion, and thereby made an absolute conquest of his affections.

The heresy of Luther began to spread itself in Europe: and it was an
artifice of those sectaries, to procure proselytes in the Catholic
universities, who, by little and little, might insinuate their new
opinions into the scholars, and their masters. Many knowing men of
Germany were come on that design to Paris, though under the pretence of
seconding the intentions of Francis the First, who was desirous to
restore learning in his kingdom. They scattered their errors in so
dexterous a manner, that they made them plausible; and principally
endeavoured to fasten on young scholars, who had the greatest reputation
of wit. Xavier, who was naturally curious, took pleasure in these
novelties, and had run into them of his own accord, if Ignatius had not
withdrawn him. He gave an account of this very thing not long afterwards
in a letter to his elder brother, Don Azpilcueta, of which Ignatius
himself was the bearer; who made a voyage into Spain, for those reasons
which I have set down in another place. And these are his words, which
well deserve to be related.

"He has not only relieved me, by himself, and by his friends, in those
necessities to which I was reduced; but, which is of more importance, he
has withdrawn me from those occasions which I had to contract a
friendship with young men of my own standing, persons of great wit, and
well accomplished, who had sucked in the poison of heresy, and who hid
the corruptions of their heart under a fair and pleasing outside. He
alone has broken off that dangerous commerce in which my own imprudence
had engaged me; and has hindered me from following the bent of my easy
nature, by discovering to me the snares which were laid for me. If Don
Ignatius had given me no other proof of his kindness, I know not how I
could be able to return it, by any acknowledgments I could make: for, in
short, without his assistance, I could not have defended myself from
those young men, so fair in their outward carriage, and so corrupt in the
bottom of their hearts."

We may conclude, from this authentic testimony, that Xavier, far from
carrying the faith to the remotest nations of idolaters, was in danger to
make shipwreck of his own; had he not fallen into the hands of such a
friend as was Ignatius, who detested even the least appearance of heresy,
and whose sight was sharp enough to discover heretics, how speciously
soever they were disguised.

It was not sufficient to have only preserved Xavier from error, but it
was farther necessary to wean him altogether from the world: these
favourable dispositions which appeared in him, encouraged Ignatius to
pursue his design, and gave him hope of a fortunate success. Having one
day found Xavier more than ordinarily attentive, he repeated to him these
words more forcibly than ever: "What will it profit a man to gain the
whole world, and to lose his own soul?" After which he told him, that a
mind so noble and so great as his, ought not to confine itself to the
vain honours of this world; that celestial glory was the only lawful
object of his ambition; and that right reason would require him to prefer
that which was eternally to last, before what would vanish like a dream.

Then it was that Xavier began to see into the emptiness of earthly
greatness, and found himself touched with the love of heavenly things.
But these first impressions of grace had not all their effect
immediately: he made frequent reflections within himself, of what the man
of God had said to him; and it was not without many serious thoughts, and
after many a hard struggling, that, being overcome at length by the power
of those eternal truths, he took up a solid resolution, of living
according to the maxims of the gospel, and of treading in his footsteps,
who had made him sensible of his being gone astray.

He resigned himself therefore to the conduct of Ignatius, after the
example of Le Fevre, who had already reformed his life, and was inflamed
with the zeal of edifying others. The directions of a guide so well
enlightened, made easy to Xavier the paths of that perfection which were
hitherto unknown to him. He learnt from his new master, that the first
step which a sincere convert is to make, is to labour in the subduing of
his darling passion. As vainglory had the greatest dominion over him, his
main endeavours, from the very beginning, were to humble himself, and to
confound his own pride in the sense of his emptiness, and of his sins.
But well knowing that he could not tame the haughtiness of the soul
without mortifying the flesh, he undertook the conquest of his body, by
haircloth, by fasting, and other austerities of penance.

When his time of vacancies was come, he performed his spiritual
exercises, which his lectures of philosophy had till then hindered. Those
very exercises I mean, which Ignatius, inspired of God, had composed at
Manreze; and of which I have drawn the model, in the life of that holy
founder of the society of Jesus.

He began his retirement with an extraordinary fervour, even to the
passing of four days entire without taking any nourishment. His
contemplations were wholly busied, day and night, on divine matters. And
an ancient memorial assures us, that he went to his devotions with his
hands and feet tied; either to signify, that he was desirous to do
nothing, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, or to give himself
the same usage which was given to the man in the parable of the gospel;
"who dared to appear in the wedding-room, without cloathing himself in
wedding-garments."

By meditating at his leisure on the great truths of Christianity, and
especially on the mysteries of our Saviour, according to the method of
Ignatius, he was wholly changed into another man; and the humility of the
cross appeared to him more amiable than all the glories of the world.
These new insights caused him, without the least repugnance, to refuse a
canonry of Pampeluna, which was offered him at that time, and was very
considerable, both in regard of the profits and of the dignity. He formed
also, during his solitude, the design of glorifying God by all possible
means, and of employing his whole life for the salvation of souls.

On these foundations, having finished the course of philosophy which he
read, and which had lasted three years and a half, according to the
custom of those times, he studied in divinity, by the counsel of
Ignatius, whose scholar he openly declared himself to be.

In the mean time, Ignatius, who found in himself an inward call to the
Holy-Land, for the conversion of Jews and Infidels, discovered his
intentions to Xavier, which he had already communicated to Le Fevre, and
four other learned young men, who had embraced his form of life.

All the seven engaged themselves, by promise to each other, and by solemn
vows to God Almighty, to forsake their worldly goods, and undertake a
voyage to Jerusalem; or in case that, in the compass of a year, they
could not find an accommodation of passing the seas, that they would cast
themselves at the feet of our holy Father, for the service of the church,
into whatever part of the world he would please to send them.

They made these vows at Montmartre, on the day of our Lady's assumption,
in the year 1534. That holy place, which has been watered with the blood
of martyrs, and where their bodies are still deposited, inspired a
particular devotion into Xavier, and possessed him with a fervent desire
of martyrdom.

Towards the end of the year following, he went from Paris, in the company
of Le Fevre, Laynez, Salmeron, Rodriguez, Bobadilla, and three other
divines, whom Le Fevre had gained in the absence of Ignatius, who, for
important reasons, was obliged to go before, and who was waiting for them
at Venice.

Somewhat before their departure, Xavier, who was sometimes too far
transported by the fervency of his soul, had tied his arms and thighs
with little cords, to mortify himself, for some kind of vain satisfaction
which he took in out-running and over-leaping his young companions; for
he was very active; and, amongst all the recreations used by scholars,
he liked none but the exercises of the body.

Though the cords were very straight about him, yet he imagined they would
not hinder him from travelling on foot. But he had scarcely begun his
journey, when he was taken with extreme pains. He bore them as well as he
was able; and dissembled them, till his strength failed him. His motion
had swelled his thighs, and indented the cords so deep into his flesh,
that they were hardly visible; insomuch that the chirurgeons, to whom his
fellows discovered them, plainly said, that any incisions which could be
made, would serve only to increase his pains, and that the ill was
incurable.

In this dangerous conjuncture, Le Fevre, Laynez, and the rest, had
recourse to Almighty God, and not in vain. Xavier waking the next
morning, found the cords fallen down, the swelling wholly taken away from
his thighs, and the marks of the cords only remaining on his flesh. They
joined in actions of thanksgiving to the Almighty, for his providential
care already shewn in their behalf; and though the ways were very rugged,
in the inclemency of that season, yet they cheerfully pursued their
journey.

Xavier was serviceable to his companions on all occasions, and was always
beforehand with them in the duties of charity; whether it were, that,
being naturally officious, and of a warm temper, he was more eager to
employ himself for them; or that his health, miraculously restored,
rendered him more obliging and charitable towards those by whose prayers
it was recovered.

When they were arrived at Venice, their breathings were only after the
holy places. Ignatius, whom they were ravished to see again, and whom
they acknowledged for their common father, was of opinion, that while
they were waiting the opportunity of going to receive the Pope's blessing
for their voyage to Jerusalem, each of them should employ himself on
works of charity, in the hospitals of the town.

Xavier, whose lot fell in the hospital of the incurable, was not
satisfied only with busying himself all day, in dressing sick men's
sores, in making their beds, and doing them more inferior service, but
also passed whole nights in watching by them. But his care and pains were
not confined to the succour of their bodies. Though he was wholly
ignorant of the Italian tongue, he frequently spoke of God to them; and,
above all things, exhorted the greatest libertines to repentance, by
causing them to comprehend, in the best manner he was able, that though
their corporal maladies were incurable, yet the diseases of their souls
were not so; that how enormous soever our offences were, we ought always
to rely on God's mercy; and that a desire of being sincerely converted,
was only requisite in sinners for obtaining the grace of their
conversion.

One of these sick alms-men had an ulcer, which was horrible to the sight,
but the noisomeness of the stench was yet more insupportable; every one
shunned the miserable creature, not enduring so much as to approach him;
and Xavier once found a great repugnance in himself to attend him: but at
the same time, he called to his remembrance a maxim of Ignatius, that we
make no progress in virtue, but by vanquishing ourselves; and that the
occasion of making a great sacrifice, was too precious to be lost. Being
fortified with these thoughts, and encouraged by the example of St
Catharine de Sienna, which came into his mind, he embraced the sick
person, applied his mouth to the ulcer, surmounted his natural loathing,
and sucked out the corruption. At the same moment his repugnance
vanished; and after that, he had no farther trouble in the like cases: of
so great importance it is to us, once to have thoroughly overcome
ourselves.

Two months were passed away in these exercises of charity. After which he
set forward on his journey to Rome with the other disciples of Ignatius,
who himself stayed behind alone at Venice. They underwent great hardships
in their way. It rained continually, and bread was often wanting to them,
even when their strength was wasted. Xavier encouraged his companions,
and sustained himself by that apostolic spirit with which God replenished
him from that time forwards, and which already made him in love with pain
and sufferings.

Being arrived at Rome, his first care was to visit the churches, and to
consecrate himself to the ministry of the gospel, upon the sepulchre of
the holy apostles. He had the opportunity of speaking more than once
before the Pope: for the whole company of them being introduced into the
Vatican, by Pedro Ortiz, that Spanish doctor whom they had formerly
known at Paris, and whom the emperor had sent to Rome for the affair
concerning the marriage of Catharine of Arragon, queen of England, Paul
the Third, who was a lover of learning, and who was pleased to be
entertained at his table with the conversation of learned men, commanded
that these strangers, whose capacity he had heard so extremely praised,
should be admitted to see him for many days successively; and that in his
presence they should discourse concerning divers points of
school-divinity.

Having received the benediction of our holy father for their voyage to
the Holy Land, and obtained the permission for those amongst them who
were not in sacred orders, to receive them, they returned to Venice.
Xavier there made his vows of poverty and perpetual chastity, together
with the rest, in the hands of Jeronimo Veralli, the Pope's nuncio; and
having again taken up his post in the hospital of the incurable, he
resumed his offices of charity, which his journey to Rome had constrained
him to interrupt, and continued in those exercises till the time of his
embarkment.

In the mean time, the war which was already kindled betwixt the Venetians
and the Turk, had broken the commerce of the Levant, and stopt the
passage to the Holy Land; insomuch, that the ship of the pilgrims of
Jerusalem went not out that year, according to the former custom.

This disappointment wonderfully afflicted Xavier; and the more, because
he not only lost the hope of seeing those places which had been
consecrated by the presence and the blood of Jesus Christ, but was
also bereft of an occasion of dying for his divine Master. Yet he
comforted himself in reflecting on the method of God's providence; and at
the same time, not to be wanting in his duty to his neighbour, he
disposed himself to receive the orders of priesthood, and did receive
them with those considerations of awful dread, and holy confusion, which
are not easy to be expressed.

The town appeared to him an improper place for his preparation, in order
to his first mass. He sought out a solitary place, where, being separated
from the communication of man, he might enjoy the privacies of God. He
found this convenience of a retirement near Monteselice, not far from
Padua: it was a miserable thatched cottage, forsaken of inhabitants, and
out of all manner of repair. Thus accommodated, he passed forty days,
exposed to the injuries of the air, lying on the cold hard ground,
rigidly disciplining his body, fasting all the day, and sustaining nature
only with a little pittance of bread, which he begged about the
neighbourhood; but tasting all the while the sweets of paradise, in
contemplating the eternal truths of faith. As his cabin did not unfitly
represent to him the stable of Bethlehem, so he proposed to himself
frequently the extreme poverty of the infant Jesus, as the pattern of his
own; and said within himself, that, since the Saviour of mankind had
chosen to be in want of all things, they who laboured after him for the
salvation of souls, were obliged, by his example, to possess nothing in
this world.

How pleasing soever this loneliness were to him, yet, his forty days
being now expired, he left it, to instruct the villages and
neighbour-towns, and principally Monteselice, where the people were
grossly ignorant, and knew little of the duties of Christianity.

The servant of God made daily exhortations to them, and his penitent
aspect gave authority to all his words; insomuch, that only looking on
his face, none could doubt but he was come from the wilderness to
instruct them in the way to heaven. He employed himself during the space
of two or three months in that manner: for, though there was no
appearance that any vessel should set sail for the Holy Land, yet
Ignatius and his disciples, who had obliged themselves to wait one year
in expectation of any such opportunity, would not depart from the
territories of the republic till it was totally expired, that they might
have nothing to upbraid themselves, in relation to the vow which they had
made.

Xavier being thus disposed, both by his retirement, and his exterior
employments, at length said his first mass at Vicenza; to which place
Ignatius had caused all his company to resort; and he said it with tears
flowing in such abundance, that his audience could not refrain from
mixing their own with his.

His austere, laborious life, joined with so sensible a devotion, which
often makes too great an impression on the body, so much impaired the
strength of his constitution, that he fell sick, not long after his first
mass. He was carried into one of the own hospitals, which was so crowded,
and so poor, that Xavier had in it but the one half of a wretched bed,
and that too in a chamber which was open on every side. His victuals were
no better than his lodging, and never was sick man more destitute of
human succours. But, in requital, heaven was not wanting to him.

He was wonderfully devoted to St Jerome; and had often had recourse to
that blessed doctor of the church for the understanding of difficult
places in the scripture. The saint appeared to him one night, refulgent
in his beams of glory, and gave him consolation in his sickness; yet, at
the same time, declaring to him, that a far greater affliction than the
present was waiting for him at Bolognia, where himself and one of his
companions were to pass the winter; that some of them should go to Padua,
some to Rome, others to Ferrara, and the remainder of them to Sienna.

This apparition fortified Xavier so much, that he recovered suddenly; yet
whether he had some doubts concerning it, or was of opinion that he
ought to keep it secret, he said nothing of it at that time. But that
which then happened to him made it evident, that the vision was of God:
for Ignatius, who was ignorant of what had been revealed to Xavier,
having assembled his disciples, gave them to understand, that since the
gate of the Holy Land was shut against them, they ought not any longer to
defer the offering of their service to the Pope; that it was sufficient
if some of them went to Rome, while the rest of them dispersed themselves
in the universities of Italy, to the end, they might inspire the fear of
God into the scholars, and gather up into their number some young
students of the greatest parts. Ignatius appointed them their several
stations, just as they had been foreshewn by St Jerome; and that of
Bolognia fell to the share of Xavier and Bobadilla.

After their arrival at Bolognia, Xavier went to say a mass at the tomb of
St Dominic; for he had a particular veneration for the founder of that
order, whose institution was for the preaching of the gospel.

A devout virgin, whose name was Isabella Casalini, seeing him at the
altar, judged him to be a man of God; and was led by some interior motion
to speak to this stranger priest when his mass was ended. She was so much
edified, and so satisfied with the discourse of Xavier, that she
immediately informed her uncle, at whose house she lodged, of this
treasure which she had discovered.

Jerome Casalini, who was a very considerable clergyman, both in regard of
his noble blood, and of his virtue, went in search of this Spanish
priest, upon the account which was given of him by his niece; and, having
found him at the hospital, he importuned him so much to take a lodging in
his house, that Xavier could not in civility refuse him. But the holy man
would never accept of his table, of whose house he had accepted. He
begged his bread from door to door according to his usual custom; and
lived on nothing but the alms which was given him in the town.

Every day, after having celebrated the divine mysteries in St Lucy's
church, of which Casalini was curate, he there heard the confessions of
such as presented themselves before him: after which he visited the
prisons and the hospitals, catechised the children, and preached to the
people.

'Tis true, he spoke but very ill; and his language was only a kind of
Lingua Franca, a confused medley of Italian, French, and Spanish: but he
pronounced it with so much vehemence, and the matter of his sermons was
so solid, that his ill accent and his improper phrases were past by. His
audience attended to him, as to a man descended from above, and his
sermon being ended, came to cast themselves at his feet, and make
confession.

These continual labours, during a very sharp winter, threw him into a
relapse of sickness, much more dangerous than the former; as it were to
verify the prediction of St Jérome; for he was seized with a quartan
ague, which was both malignant and obstinate; insomuch that it cast him
into an extreme faintness, and made him as meagre as a skeleton. In the
mean time, lean and languishing as he was, he ceased not to crawl to the
public places, and excite passengers to repentance. When his voice failed
him, his wan and mortified face, the very picture of death, seemed to
speak for him, and his presence alone had admirable effects.

Jerome Casalini profited so well by the instructions and example of the
holy man, that he arrived in a short space to a high degree of holiness:
the greater knowledge he had of him, he the more admired him, as he
himself related. And it is from this virtuous churchman chiefly, that we
have this account of Xavier, that having laboured all the day, he passed
the night in prayer; that on Friday saying the mass of the passion, he
melted into tears, and was often ravished in his soul; that he spoke but
seldom, but that all his words were full of sound reason, and heavenly
grace.

While Xavier was thus employing his labours at Bolognia, he was recalled
to Rome by Father Ignatius; who had already presented himself before the
Pope, and offered him the service both of himself and his companions.
Pope Paul the Third accepted the good will of these new labourers;
enjoining them to begin their work in Rome, and preach under the
authority of the Holy See. The principal churches were assigned them; and
that of St Laurence in Damaso was allotted to Xavier.

Being now freed from his quartan ague, and his strength being again
restored, he preached with more vigour and vehemence than ever.

Death, the last judgment, and the pains of hell, were the common subject
of his sermons. He proposed those terrible truths after a plain manner,
but withal so movingly, that the people, who came in crowds to hear him
preach, departed out of the church in a profound silence; and thought
less of giving praises to the preacher, than of converting their own
souls to God.

The famine, which laid waste the city of Rome at that time, gave
opportunity to the ten stranger-priests, to relieve an infinite number of
miserable people, oppressed with want, and unregarded. Xavier was ardent
above the rest, to find them places of accommodation, and to procure alms
for their subsistence. He bore them even upon his shoulders to the places
which were provided for them, and attended them with all imaginable care.

In the mean time, James Govea, a Portuguese, who had been acquainted with
Ignatius, Xavier, and Le Fevre, at Paris, and who was principal of the
college of Saint Barbe, when they lived together there, being come to
Rome on some in portant business, for which he was sent thither by John
III. King of Portugal, and seeing the wonderful effects of their
ministry, wrote to the king, as he had formerly done from Paris, on the
reports which were spread of them, that such men as these, knowing,
humble, charitable, inflamed with zeal, indefatigable in labour, lovers
of the cross, and who aimed at nothing but the honour of Almighty God,
were fit to be employed in the East-Indies, to plant and propagate the
faith. He adjoined, that if his majesty were desirous of these excellent
men, he had only to ask them from the Pope, who had the absolute
disposition of them.

John III., the most religious prince then living, wrote thereupon to his
ambassador, Don Pedro Mascaregnas, and ordered him to obtain from his
Holiness, six at least of those apostolic men, which had been commended
to him by Govea. The Pope having heard the proposition of Mascaregnas,
remitted the whole business to Father Ignatius, for whom he had already a
great consideration, and who had lately presented to his Holiness the
model of the new order, which he and his companions were desirous to
establish.

Ignatius, who had proposed to himself no less a design than the
reformation of the whole world, and who saw the urgent necessities of
Europe, infected with heresy on every side, returned this answer to
Mascaregnas, that often, which was their whole number, he could spare him
at the most but two persons. The Pope approved this answer, and ordered
Ignatius to make the choice himself. Thereupon Ignatius named Simon
Rodriguez, a Portuguese, and Nicholas Bobadilla, a Spaniard. The first of
these was, at that time, employed at Sienna, and the other in the kingdom
of Naples, as they had been commissioned by the Holy Father. Though
Rodriguez was languishing under a quartan ague, when he was recalled from
Sienna, yet he failed not to obey the summons; and shortly after
embarking on a ship of Lisbon which went off from Civita Vecchia, carried
with him Paul de Camerin, who, some months before, had joined himself to
their society.

As for Bobadilla, he was no sooner come to Rome, than he fell sick of a
continued fever; and it may be said, that his distemper was the hand of
heaven, which had ordained another in his stead for the mission of the
Indies. For sometimes that which appears but chance, or a purely natural
effect in the lives of men, is a disposition of the Divine Providence
which moves by secret ways to its own proposed ends; and is pleased to
execute those designs, by means as easy as they are powerful.

Mascaregnas, who had finished his embassy, and was desirous to carry with
him into Portugal the second missioner who had been promised him, was
within a day of his departure, when Bobadilla arrived. Ignatius seeing
him in no condition to undertake a voyage, applied himself to God for his
direction, in the choice of one to fill his place, or rather to make
choice of him whom God had chosen; for he was immediately enlightened
from above, and made to understand, that Xavier was that vessel of
election. He called for him at the same instant, and being filled with
the Divine Spirit, "Xavier," said he, "I had named Bobadilla for the
Indies, but the Almighty has nominated you this day. I declare it to you
from the vicar of Jesus Christ. Receive an employment committed to your
charge by his Holiness, and delivered by my mouth, as if it were
conferred on you by our blessed Saviour in person. And rejoice for your
finding an opportunity, to satisfy that fervent desire, which we all
have, of carrying the faith into remote countries. You have not here a
narrow Palestine, or a province of Asia, in prospect, but a vast extent
of ground, and innumerable kingdoms. An entire world is reserved for your
endeavours, and nothing but so large a field is worthy of your courage
and your zeal. Go, my brother, where the voice of God has called you;
where the Holy See has sent you, and kindle those unknown nations, with
the flame that burns within you."

Xavier, wholly confounded in himself with these expressions of Ignatius,
with tears of a tender affection in his eyes, and blushing in his
countenance, answered him, that he could not but be astonished, that he
should pitch upon a man, so weak, and pusillanimous as himself, for an
enterprize which required no less than an apostle: that nevertheless he
was ready to obey the commands of heaven; and that he offered himself,
with the whole power of his soul, to do and suffer all things for the
salvation of the Indies. After which, giving leave to his internal joy to
break out, and to diffuse itself, he more confidently said to Father
Ignatius, that his desires were now accomplished; that for a long time he
had sighed after the Indies without daring to declare it; and that he
hoped, from those idolatrous nations, to have the honour of dying for
Jesus Christ, which had been denied him in the Holy Land.

He added, in the height of these transports, that at length he saw that
clearly, of which God had often given him a glimpse, under some
mysterious figures. In effect, Xavier had frequently dreamed by night,
that he carried on his shoulders a gigantic and very swarthy Indian; and
opprest with this strong imagination, he groaned and sighed, in that
uneasy slumber, as one out of breath, and labouring under an intolerable
burden; insomuch that the noise of his groans and heavings waked those
who were lodged in the same chamber; and, one night it happening that
Father Laynez being awakened by it, asked him what it was that troubled
him: Xavier immediately told his dream, and added, that it put him into a
sweat, with big drops over all his body.

Besides this, he once beheld, either in a dream, or in a trance, vast
oceans full of tempests and of rocks, desart islands, barbarous
countries, hunger and thirst raging every where, nakedness, multiplicity
of labours, with bloody persecution, and imminent dangers of death and of
destruction. In the midst of this ghastly apparition, he cried aloud,
"yet more, O my God, yet more!" and Father Simon Rodriguez heard these
words distinctly; but however he importuned him to declare their meaning,
he would discover nothing at that time, till embarking for the Indies, he
revealed the mystery.

Such ideas, always present in his imagination, filled his familiar
discourses with notions of a new world, and the conversion of infidels.
While he was speaking on that subject, his face was on a fire, and the
tears came into his eyes. This was testified of him by Father Jerome
Dominic, who, before he entered into the Society, had conversed with him
at Bolognia, where a strict friendship was made betwixt them.

As Xavier was advertised of this voyage to the Indies but the day before
Mascaregnas departed, he had but time enough to piece up his cassock, bid
his friends farewell, and go to kiss the feet of our Holy Father.

Paul III., overjoyed, that under his pontificate a gate should be opened
to the gospel, in the Oriental Indies, received him with a most fatherly
affection, and excited him to assume such thoughts, as were worthy of so
high an undertaking; telling him for his encouragement, that the Eternal
Wisdom is never failing to supply us with strength, to prosecute the
labours to which it has ordained us, even though they should surpass all
human abilities. He must, indeed, prepare himself for many sufferings;
but the affairs of God succeeded not but by the ways of suffering, and
that none could pretend to the honour of an apostleship, but by treading
in the steps of the apostles, whose lives were but one continual cross,
and a daily death; that heaven had employed him in the mission of St
Thomas, the apostle of the Indies, for the conquest of souls; that it
became him to labour generously, in reviving the faith in those
countries, where it had been planted by that great apostle; and that if
it were necessary for him to shed his blood, for the glory of Christ
Jesus, he should account it his happiness to die a martyr.

It seemed that God himself had spoken by the mouth of his vicegerent,
such impression had these words on the mind and heart of Xavier. They
inspired into him a divine vigour; and in his answer to his Holiness,
there shone through a profound humility such a magnanimity of soul, that
Paul III. had from that very minute a certain presage of those wonderful
events which afterwards arrived. Therefore the most Holy Father, having
wished him the special assistance of God in all his labours, tenderly
embraced him, more than once, and gave him a most ample benediction.

Xavier departed in the company of Mascaregnas the 15th of March, in the
year 1540, without any other equipage besides his breviary. In giving his
last adieu to Father Ignatius, he cast himself at his feet, and with all
humility desired his blessing; and, in taking leave of Laynez, he put
into his hands a small memorial, which he had written, and signed.

This memorial, which is still preserved at Rome, contains, that he
approves, as much as depends on him, the rules and constitutions, which
shall be drawn up, by Ignatius and his companions; that he elects
Ignatius to be their general, and, in failure of him, Le Fevre; that he
consecrates himself to God, by the three vows, of poverty, chastity,
and obedience, in the Society of Jesus, when it shall be raised into a
religious order, by the apostolical authority.

The conclusion of that affair was daily expected; and indeed it was
happily finished, before the ending of the year, in that almost
miraculous manner, as is related in the Life of St Ignatius.

His journey from Rome to Lisbon was all the way by land, and was above
three months. Xavier had a horse allowed him, by order from the
ambassador; but they were no sooner on their way, than he made him
common. The Father often alighted to ease the servants who followed on
foot; or exchanged his horse with others, who were not so well mounted.
At the inns he was every man's servant, even to the rubbing of the
horses, by an excess of humility, which, on those occasions, caused him
to forget the dignity of his character. He resigned his chamber and his
bed to those who wanted them; and never lodged but either on the ground,
or on the litter in the stable. In the rest of his actions, ever
cheerful, and pleasant in discourse, which made all men desirous of his
company; but always mixing somewhat with that gaiety, which was edifying
both to the masters and the servants, and inspired them alike with
thoughts of piety.

They went by Loretto, where they rested at the least eight days; after
which they continued their journey by Bolognia. From thence, Xavier wrote
to Ignatius, in this manner:

"I received, on the holiday of Easter, the letter which you wrote and
inclosed in the packet of my lord ambassador. God only knows my joy in
receiving it. Believing, as I do, that we shall never entertain each
other in this world, by any other way than that of writing, and that we
shall never see each other but in heaven, it concerns us, that little
time we have to live in this place of exile, to give ourselves the mutual
consolation of frequent letters. The correspondence, on my part, shall be
exactly kept; for being convinced, by the reasons which you gave me at
our parting, that a commerce of this nature ought to be established, in a
regular method, betwixt the colonies and the mother country, I have
resolved, that in whatever parts of the world I shall reside, or any
members of our Society with me, to maintain a strict communication with
you, and with the fathers at Rome, and send you as large an account, as
possibly I can, of any news concerning us. I have taken my opportunity of
seeing the Cardinal of Invrea, as you gave me in command, and have
discoursed at leisure with him. He received me with much goodness, and
offered me, with great civility, his interest, for our common cause. In
the midst of the discourse, which we had together, I threw myself at his
feet, and kissed his hand, in the name of all our Society. As much as I
can gather by his words, he extremely approves the manner of our living.

"As concerning my lord ambassador, he loads me with so many favours, that
I should never conclude, if I began to relate them. And I know not
how I could suffer the many good offices he does me, if I had not some
hope of repaying him in the Indies, at the expence of my life itself. On
Palm-Sunday I heard his confession, and after him many of his domestic
servants; I communicated them afterwards, in the holy chapel of Loretto,
where I said mass. I likewise confessed them, and gave them the
communion, on Easter Sunday. My lord ambassador's almoner recommends
himself to your good prayers, and has promised to bear me company to the
Indies. I am more taken up with confessions here, than I was in Rome, at
St Lewis. I heartily salute all our fathers; and if I name not every one
of them in particular, I desire them to believe, 'tis neither from my
want of memory, or affection.

"Your brother and servant in Jesus Christ,
FRANCIS."
_from Bolognia, March_ 31. 1540.

The whole town of Bolognia was in motion at the approach of Father
Xavier: they were wonderfully affected to him, and in a manner esteemed
him their apostle: both great and small were desirous of seeing him, and
most of them discovered the state of their conscience to him; many of
them proffered themselves to go along with him to the Indies; all of them
shed tears at his departure, as thinking they should never more behold
him.

Jerome Casalini, curate of St Lucy, who had lodged him the year before,
was most particularly kind to him at his return: he obliged him to accept
of his house once more; and his church became as it were the public
rendezvous, where Xavier heard an infinite number of confessions.

In the rest of this long journey, there happened two or three passages,
which were sufficiently remarkable. A domestic servant to the ambassador,
who rode before as harbinger, to take up lodgings for the train, a
violent and brutal man, being reprehended by his lord for having been
negligent in his duty, fell into a horrible fit of passion, as soon as he
was out of Mascaregnas his presence. Xavier heard him, but took no notice
of it at that time, for fear of provoking him to any farther
extravagance. But the next morning, when the same person set out before
the company, according to his custom, he spurred after him at full speed.
He found him lying under his horse, who was fallen with him from a
precipice, the man sorely bruised, and the horse killed outright.
"Wretched creature," said the father to him, "what had become of thee, if
thou hadst died of this fall?" These few words made him sensible of his
furious expressions, for which he sincerely asked pardon of Almighty God;
and Xavier alighting, mounted him on his own horse, and walked on foot by
him, to their lodging.

Another time, the gentleman of the horse attempting to pass a small
river, which was very deep and rapid, the current carried away both man
and horse, and the whole company gave him for lost. Xavier, moved with
compassion for the danger of his soul, because, having had a call from
heaven to enter into a religious life, he had not followed the motions of
grace, but remained in the world, began to implore God in his behalf. The
ambassador, who had a great kindness for him, joined in that devout
action, and commanded the whole train to follow their example. They had
scarcely opened their mouths for him, when the man and horse, who were
both drowning, came again above water, and were carried to the bank. The
gentleman was drawn out, pale in his countenance, and half dead. When he
had recovered his senses, Xavier demanded of him, what thoughts he had,
when he was at the point of perishing? He freely acknowledged, that the
religious life, to which God had called him, then struck upon his soul;
with dismal apprehensions, for having neglected the means of his
salvation. He protested afterwards, as Xavier himself relates, in one of
his letters, that, in that dreadful moment, the remorse of his
conscience, and the sense of God's judgments on souls unfaithful to their
vocation, were more terrible to him, than the horrors even of death
itself. He spoke of eternal punishments, with expressions so lively and
so strong, as if he had already felt them, and was returned from hell. He
frequently said, (as the saint has assured us,) that, by a just judgment
of eternal God, those who, during their life, made no preparations for
their death, had not the leisure to think on God when death surprised
them.

The ambassador, and all his people, doubted not, but the safety of this
gentleman was to be ascribed to the merits of the saint: but Xavier
himself believed it to be the pure effect of the ambassador's devotion;
for thus he writes to father Ignatius concerning it--"Our Lord was
pleased to give ear to the fervent prayers of his servant Mascaregnas,
which he made with tears in his eyes, for the deliverance of the poor
creature, whom he looked upon as lost; and who was taken from the jaws of
death by a most evident miracle."

In passing over the Alps, the ambassador's secretary alighting to walk in
a difficult way, which he could not well observe, by reason of the snows,
his foot happened to slip on a sharp descent, and he rolled down into a
precipice: he had tumbled to the very bottom, if, in falling, his clothes
had not taken hold on one of the crags of the rock, where he remained
hanging over the depths without ability, either to disengage himself, or
get up again. Those who followed, made towards him, but the horror of
that abyss stopt short the most daring: Xavier only made not the least
demur; he descended the precipice, and lending his hand to the secretary,
by little and little dragged him up.

Being gotten out of France, and having passed the Pyreneans, on the side
of Navarre, when they were now approaching Pampeluna, Mascaregnas
bethought himself, that Father Francis, for by that name Xavier was
usually called, had not spoken one word of going to the castle of Xavier,
which was but little distant from their road: he remembered him of it,
and was even so importunate with him, as to say, that since he was about
to leave Europe, and perhaps never more to see it, he could not in
decency dispense with giving a visit to his family, and taking his last
leave of his mother, who was yet living.

But all the arguments of Mascaregnas wrought no effect upon a man, who,
having forsaken all things for the love of God, was of opinion, that he
had nothing remaining in this world; and who also was persuaded, that
flesh and blood are enemies to the apostolical spirit. He turned not out
of the road, but only said to the ambassador, that he deferred the sight
of his relations till he should visit them in heaven; that this transient
view would be accompanied but with melancholy and sadness, the common
products of a last farewell, but in heaven he should eternally behold
them with pleasure, and without the least allay of sorrow.

Mascaregnas had already a high idea of Xavier's virtue; but this
wonderful disengagement from the world yet more increased the esteem
which he had of him; insomuch, that before they reached Portugal, he sent
an express to King John III. with no other errand, than to inform him of
the holiness of this second missioner to the Indies.

They arrived at Lisbon towards the end of June; and Xavier retired to the
hospital of All Saints, where Rodriguez, who came by sea, had taken up
his lodging. He found him much weakened with a quartan ague, which had
not left him; and embraced him just at the moment when his fit was coming
on him. But whether it were, that the extreme joy which Rodriguez found,
so unexpectedly to see him, dissipated the humour which caused his
disease, or that the embraces of Xavier had from that time an healing
virtue; certain it is that the fit came not, and from thenceforward the
sick man entirely recovered of that distemper.

Three or four days after, they were both called to court. The king and
queen, who were in company together, received Xavier as a saint, on the
report of Mascaregnas, and entertained him with all imaginable shews of
kindness. They asked them diverse questions concerning their way of
living; by what accident their new Society came to be formed; and what
was the ground and ultimate design of it; and at last desired to be
informed by them, from whence proceeded that strange persecution, which
was raised in Rome against their body, which had made so great a noise
over all Europe. Xavier made answer to all these demands in few words,
but so very pertinently, as much satisfied both their majesties: they
gave great approbation, (as himself relates in his letter from Lisbon
to Ignatius,) to what he said, concerning the discipline of our houses,
the quality of our ministry, and the spirit and model of our foundation.

In the midst of the conversation, the king sent for the Prince of
Portugal, his son Don Juan, and the Infanta Maria, his daughter, that the
two missioners might see them. And from thence his majesty took occasion
of relating to them, how many children he had still living, and how many
he had lost, which turned the discourse on the education of youth; and
before the fathers were dismissed, the king recommended to their care, an
hundred young gentlemen, who were bred at court.

Though an officer of the palace had orders to prepare an handsome
lodging, with good accommodation, for Xavier and Rodriguez, they returned
to their hospital, and there continued. They would not so much as receive
their entertainment of diet, which was assigned them from court, but went
the round of the city begging alms at their appointed hours, and lived in
poverty, according to the manner of life which they had prescribed
themselves.

The fleet not being to set sail till the next spring, and these
apostolical persons not knowing what it was to live in idleness, Xavier
was not satisfied only to instruct those young gentlemen in piety, whom
the king had committed to his charge; he gave himself an employment, and
did at Lisbon what he had done at Venice, Bolognia, and Rome, for the
space of two years and more. But, besides that he assisted the sick in
the hospital day and night, visited the prisoners every day, and
catechised the children many times in the week, he often discoursed
with the principal persons of the court, and engaged them in the
spiritual exercises of Ignatius.

At first he preached not in the churches, judging, that the ministries of
the gospel ought to begin with less public actions; and went not into the
pulpit, without being first requested by the king, who one day sending
for him to the palace, acquainted him with the desire he had to hear him
preach; and told him, "That the Bishop of Lisbon was of opinion, that
they ought not any longer to defer his public exhortations."

Father Simon Rodriguez laboured also on his part, in the service of his
neighbour, according to the same method, and with the same spirit.

In the mean time, Martin d'Azpilcueta, surnamed the doctor of Navarre,
who was uncle to Xavier, on the mother's side, and who was chief
professor of divinity in the university of Coimbra, having heard the news
of his nephew's arrival, wrote earnestly to the king, that it would
please him to send Father Francis to him. He added, that in case the
Father might have leave to remain with him till the departure of the
fleet, he would oblige himself to make two new lectures, at his own
expence, the one in canon-law, the other in mystical divinity. And
farther, that in few years afterwards he would follow Xavier to the
Indies, and preach the gospel in conjunction with him, to the eastern
idolaters.

These letters prevailed nothing; the man, who had refused so much as to
turn out of his way to see his mother, was bent against the taking of a
journey, and forsaking his important business to visit one of his
relations. The king retained Xavier at Lisbon, at the request of Xavier
himself; and the father wrote a letter of excuse to the doctor of
Navarre, who had written two to him full of tenderness and friendship. As
that doct&r was unsatisfied with that kind of life, which his nephew had
embraced, so Xavier resolved him, on that point, in this manner. "For
what concerns our institute, of which so many reports are now raised, I
have but one word, at present, to say of it. 'Tis of little consequence,
illustrious doctor, to be judged by men, especially by such, who will
needs be judging before they understand the matter, and know the merits
of the cause."

As to his intention of going to the Indies, he desired him to think no
farther of it; for thus Navarre relates that passage in his manual: "I
had resolved to have ended my days in those parts, if Xavier, in
consideration of my great age, had not thought me incapable of those
labours which attend his mission: and if he had not written to me at his
departure, that I should comfort myself for his absence, by the hope of
seeing each other in the celestial kingdom."

Our two missioners laboured not in vain at Lisbon. From the very
beginning of their ministry, devotion began to spread amongst the people.
All men ran to the blessed sacrament, which before was never thought on
but in Lent: and this holy custom diffused itself insensibly through all
the towns of Portugal Many, who had deferred their conversion from time
to time, now on the sudden gave themselves up to God, and even renounced
the world. The most inveterate enemies were sincerely reconciled, and the
most impudent harlots abandoned their prostitute way of living.

But this change of manners was most particularly apparent at the court:
the king, who was truly religious, and full of goodness, was the first
to declare himself against those vices which usually infect the palaces
of princes. And that he might introduce a reformation by degrees, not
only into his house, bat also dilate it through his whole kingdom, he
obliged all the young courtiers to confess themselves once a week; for he
said, "That if the lords and gentlemen would accustom themselves, from
their tender years, to the service and fear of God, they would live with
greater Christianity in their riper age: and if persons of quality came
once to give good examples of religion, the commonalty, who form
themselves according to their model, would not fail to regulate their
manners; and therefore the reformation of all degrees in the kingdom
consisted chiefly in the virtuous education of young noblemen."

The example of the prince and the young courtiers drew the rest; and
thereupon Xavier writes to Ignatius in these terms:

"Nothing can be more regular than the court of Portugal: it resembles
rather a religious society, than a secular court. The number of courtiers
who come to confession, and are afterwards communicated, every eight
days, is so very great, that we are in admiration of it," and are in
perpetual thanksgiving for it. We are so taken up with hearing
confessions, that if we were twice so many as we are, there would be
employment more than enough for us. We are sitting on the confession-seat
all the day long, and part of the night, though none but courtiers are
permitted to come to us.

"I remember, that I observed, when the king was at Almerin, those who
waited on him, from all parts of the kingdom, about their own affairs, as
the custom is, were in great admiration at this new court-mode; and when
they beheld the young gentlemen at the sacrament of the altar, every
Sunday and holiday, with great reverence, they thought themselves in
another world. But the greatest part of them imitating that which they
admired, drew near to the tribunal of penance, and the holy table. Had
we confessors enow to attend the crowds that come to court, no man would
venture to apply himself to the king for any business, before he had been
first with God, and were well with him."

The two labourers in God's harvest were so exhausted with their pains,
that at length they were constrained to accept of the diet which was
provided for them by the king's appointment; for they judged their time
was better employed in the service of souls, than in begging their daily
bread about the streets. Yet they omitted not to ask alms once or twice
a-week, that they might not disuse themselves from the spirit of
mortification and poverty. With these considerations, they reserved but
little of what was sent them from the palace, and distributed the rest
among the poor.

On the other side, the perpetual labour of confessions reduced them to
preach but very seldom, for want of leisure. But, all things duly
examined, they thought it of more consequence to God's service, to
administer the sacrament of penance, than to preach the word; because the
court of Portugal was furnished with able preachers, but was much wanting
in judicious confessors; which was the very observation that Xavier made
in the letter above cited.

These visible and wonderful operations caused the two missioners to be
respected as men sent down from heaven, and replenished with the spirit
of the Most High; insomuch that all men gave them the surname of
apostles, which glorious title still remains with their successors in
Portugal. The king, on all occasions, shewed them a most particular
affection; and Xavier, ravished with so many expressions of his goodness
to them, gives this account of it to Father Ignatius.

"Our whole society stands obliged to his majesty, for his singular favour
to us; as well the rest of you at Rome, as we in Portugal. I am given to
understand, from the ambassador Mascaregnas, that the king told him, he
should be very glad, that all the members of our company might be
gathered together, and established here; though on that condition he
employed a good part of his revenue for our entertainment."

"This pious prince," says Xavier in another of his letters, "who has so
tender an inclination for our society, and who wishes our advancement as
much as if he were one of us, has thereby engaged us for ever to his
service; and we should be guilty of a most horrible ingratitude, even to
be unworthy of life, if we made not a public profession of our service to
him, and if every day of our lives we endeavoured not to acknowledge, by
our prayers, as far as our weakness will give us leave, all the favours
of so generous a protector, and so magnificent a benefactor."

The Prince, Don Henry, who was nominated cardinal not long after, and in
process of time came to the crown by the death of Don Sebastian, had not
less affection for them than the king his brother. Being grand
inquisitor, he gave the fathers an  absolute power in his tribunal; and
permitted them to discourse freely with all the prisoners of the
Inquisition.

Some of the greatest quality in the court were so much edified with the
apostolic life of Xavier and Rodriguez, that they were desirous to
embrace their institute; as some learned persons of the city had already
done. In short, every thing succeeded with them so, that Xavier had some
apprehensions concerning this tide of happiness: He bemoaned it sometimes
to himself, and said, that prosperity was always formidable, even in the
most pious undertakings; that persecution was more desirable, and a much
surer mark of Christ's disciples.

The two missioners appointed for the Indies lived in this manner; and
impatiently waited for the proper season of navigation. But the king
weighing in his mind the great good which they had done, in so short a
time, both amongst the nobility and the common people, was desirous to
retain them still in Portugal. It seemed reasonable to him, that the
interest of his own kingdom ought to be dearer to him than that of
foreign nations; and that these new labourers would produce a larger
increase in Catholic countries, than amongst barbarians.

Yet that he might undertake nothing without mature deliberation, he
called a council, and himself proposed it to them. All of them approved
the king's opinion, excepting only the Prince Don Henry; who strongly
urged, that Xavier and Rodriguez having been nominated for the new world,
by the vicar of our Saviour, it was in a manner to disturb the order of
Providence, if he thwarted their intended voyage; that the Indies were
equally to be considered with Portugal itself, since they had been
conquered by the Portuguese, and were annexed to the imperial crown; that
those idolaters had better inclinations towards Christianity than was
generally thought; and that they would come over to the faith of their
own accord, when they should see amongst them disinterested preachers,
free from avarice and ambition.

As the opinions of kings are always prevalent, the reasons of Don Henry
were slighted; and it was concluded in council, that the two missioners
should not depart the realm. This resolution afflicted them the more
sensibly, because they both breathed after those eastern countries; their
last recourse was to write to Rome, and interpose the mediation of
Father Ignatius. He accordingly moved the Pope in their behalf; but his
Holiness refused to make an absolute decision, and remitted the whole
affair to Portugal: insomuch that Ignatius sent word to the two fathers,
that the king was to them in the place of God, and that it was their duty
to pay him a blind obedience. At the same time he also wrote to Don Pedro
Mascaregnas, that Xavier and Rodriguez were wholly at the king's command;
and that they should always remain in Portugal, in case his majesty
desired it. Notwithstanding which, he thought a temperament might be
found, which was, that Rodriguez might be retained in Portugal, and
Xavier permitted to go for India.

The king was satisfied with this proposal of Ignatius; and believed it to
be inspired by God himself. Xavier, transported with joy at the news of
it, gave thanks to the Divine Goodness, which had chosen him anew for the
mission of the Oriental parts, or rather which had executed its eternal
purpose, notwithstanding human opposition.

The time of embarkment being come, he was called one day to the palace:
the king discoursed fully with him concerning the present condition of
the Indies, and recommended particularly to him the affairs of religion.
He likewise gave him in charge, to visit the fortresses of the
Portuguese, and take notice how God was served in them; and withal to
give him an account of what more was requisite to be done for the
establishment of Christianity in those new conquests; and to write
frequently on that subject, not only to his ministers, but to his own
person.

After this he presented him the four briefs, which had been expedited
from Home the same year; in two of which, our Holy Father had constituted
Xavier apostolical nuncio, and endued him with ample power for the
extending and maintenance of the faith throughout the East; in the third,
his Holiness recommended him to David Emperor of Ethiopia; and in the
fourth, to all the princes who possessed the isles of the sea, or the
continent from the Cape of Good Hope, even beyond the Ganges.

John III. had requested these briefs, and the Pope had freely granted
them, with design thereby to make the mission of Father Francis the more
illustrious and authentic. The father received them from the hands of the
king with profound respect; saying, that as much as his weakness was
capable of performing, he should endeavour to sustain the burden, which
God and man had laid upon him.

Some few days before he went to sea, Don Antonio d'Ataida, count of
Castagnera, who supervised the provisions of the naval army, advertised
Xavier to make a note of what things were necessary for him in order to
his voyage; assuring him from his majesty, that he should be furnished to
his own desire. They want nothing, replied the father with a smile, who
have occasion for nothing. I am much obliged to the king for his
liberality, and to you for your care of me; but I owe more to the Divine
Providence, and you would not wish me to distrust it.

The count of Castagnera, who had an express order from the king, to make
a large provision for Father Xavier, was very urgent with him, and
importuned him so strongly to take something, for fear, said he, of
tempting Providence, which does not every day work miracles, that Xavier,
not to appear either obstinate or, presumptuous, demanded some few little
books of devotion, for which he foresaw he should have occasion in the
Indies, and a thick eloth habit against the excessive colds, which are to
be endured in doubling the Cape.

The count, amazed that the father asked for nothing more, besought him to
make a better use of the king's offers; but seeing that all his
intreaties prevailed nothing, "you shall not be master in every thing,"
said he, with some kind of heat, "and at the least you cannot possibly
refuse a servant to attend you, because I am sure you cannot be without
one." "So long as I have the use of these two hands," replied Xavier, "I
will have no other servant." "But decency," rejoined the count,
"requires, that you should have one, if it were but to maintain the
dignity of your character. How shameful would it seem to behold an
apostolical legate washing his own linen on the deck, and dressing his
own victuals?" "I will take upon me for once," said Xavier, "to serve
myself, and others too, without dishonouring my character. So long as I
do no ill, I am in no fear of scandalizing my neighbour; nor of debasing
that authority with which I am entrusted by the Holy See. They are these
human considerations, and false notions of decencies and punctilios,
which have reduced the church to that condition in which we now see it."

This positive answer stopped Castagnera's mouth; but afterwards, he gave
great commendations of Xavier, and publicly said, "that he found it much
more difficult to combat the denials of Father Francis, than to satisfy
the craving desires of other men."

The day of his departure being come at length, and all things in a
readiness to set sail, Xavier went to the port, with his two companions,
whom he carried with him to the Indies; namely, Father Paul de Camerino,
an Italian, and Francis Mansilla, a Portuguese, who was not yet in
priests orders. Simon Rodriguez bore him company to the fleet; and then
it was, that, embracing each other with much tenderness, "My brother,"
said Xavier, "these are the last words which I shall ever say to you:
we shall see each other no more in this present world; let us endure our
separation with patience; for most certain it is, that, being well united
with our Lord, we shall be united in ourselves; and that nothing shall be
able to divide us from the society which we have in Jesus Christ.

"As to what remains, I will, for your satisfaction," added he, "discover
to you a secret, which hitherto I have concealed from your knowledge: You
may remember, that when we lodged as chamber-fellows, in the hospital at
Rome, you heard me crying out one night, 'yet more, O my Lord, yet more!'
you have often asked what that exclamation meant; and I have always
answered you, that you should not trouble yourself about it: I must now
tell you, that I then beheld, (but whether sleeping or waking, God only
knows,) all I was to suffer for the glory of Jesus Christ; our Lord
infused into me so great a delight for sufferings, that not being able to
satiate, myself with those troubles which he had presented to my
imagination, I begged of him yet more; and that was the sense of what I
pronounced with so much fervency, 'yet more, yet more!' I hope the Divine
Goodness will grant me that in India, which he has foreshewn to me in
Italy, and that the desires which he inspired into me shall be shortly
satisfied."

After these words they embraced each other anew, and parted both of them
in tears. When Rodriguez was returned on shore, they gave the signal of
departure, and set sail. This was on the 7th of April, in the year 1541,
under the command of Don Martin Alphonso de Sosa, viceroy of the Indies;
a man of known integrity, and consummate experience in what related to
those parts, where he had formerly lived for many years. He was desirous
of Xavier's company, in the Admiral, which was called the St James.
Xavier went aboard on his own birth-day, entering then on his
six-and-thirtieth year. He had resided eight months entire at Lisbon; and
forseven years, and somewhat more, had been the professed disciple of
Ignatius Loyola.


       *       *       *       *       *



THE LIFE OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER.


BOOK II.


_By what way he passes to the Indies. His employment in the ship. He
arrives at Mozambique, and what he does there. He falls sick himself, and
yet continues to serve the sick. His first prediction Verified by the
success. He arrives at Melinda, and there confers with the Mahometans. He
passes over to Socotora; his opinion concerning that people. He arrives
at Goa. He visits the Bishop of the Indies. The estate of religion in the
India at his arrival. His first work at Goa. The first fruits of his
labours. His industry to gain the Concubinarians. He is told of the coast
of Fishery, and goes thither. This coast is called in the maps La
Pescaria. He works a miracle at Cape Comorin. He labours in the salvation
of the Paravas. His manner of teaching the Christian faith. He
establishes catechists and teachers of the faith to supply ids place. The
fruit of his labours on the coast of Fishery. He makes use of children to
cure the sick. The zeal of the children against idols and idolaters. The
punishment of a pagan, who had despised the admonitions of Father Xavier.
The original and character of the Brachmans. He treats with the
Brachmans. The conference of Xavier with a famous Brachman. He works
divers miracles. He declares himself against the Brachmans. The means
whereby he destroyed idolatry. He returns to Goa, and for what reason.
The beginning and establishment of the seminary of holy faith. The
seminary of holy faith new named the College of St Paul. He returns to
the coast of Fishery; his actions there. He goes to the relief of the
Christians, on the coast of Fishery. He goes to the kingdom of
Travancore, and there labours with great success. God communicates to him
the gift of tongues. He is persecuted by the Brachmans. He goes to meet
the army of the Badages, and puts them to flight. He prevails upon the
king of Travancore to favour the gospel. He raises two from death._


While the Christian religion flourished in Asia, under the emperors of
Constantinople, there were two ordinary passages, and both of them short
enough towards the Indies: the one by Syria, over the Euphrates and the
Persian Gulph; the other by Egypt, over the Arabian Gulph, commonly
called the Red Sea. But after the Saracens had possessed themselves of
those places, the European Christians finding those passages unsecure for
travelling, sought out ways of a larger circuit, to avoid falling into
the hands of their most mortal enemies.

The Portuguese were the first who bethought themselves of coasting all
Africa, and one part of Arabia and Persia; by taking this compass, the
Indies are distant from Portugal about four thousand leagues, and the
passengers are constrained to suffer twice the scorching heats of the
torrid zone, in going under the equinoctial line, which divides Africa
almost in two equal parts.

Don Henry, son of King John I., the most skilful prince of that age in
the mathematics, was he who attempted the discovery of those seas, and
undertook to double the Cape of Good Hope, upon the account of traffic,
which he desired to establish betwixt the crown of Portugal and the
emperor of Ethiopia, commonly called Prester John. This enterprise having
succeeded, the kings of Portugal, Alphonso V., John II., and Emanuel I.,
followed it so happily, that, by little and little, they completed the
passage to the Indies.

This was the course that Father Xavier held with the fleet of Portugal.
He found himself sufficient employment, during the time of the
navigation: his first study was to put a stop to those disorders which
are commonly occasioned by an idle life on ship-board; and he began with
gaming, which is the only recreation, or rather the whole employment,
of the seamen.

That he might banish games of chance, which almost always occasion
quarrels and swearing, he proposed some little innocent diversions,
capable of entertaining the mind, without stirring up the passions. But
seeing that, in spite of his endeavours, they were bent on cards and
dice, he thought it not convenient to absent himself, but became a
looker on, that he might somewhat awe them by his presence; and when they
were breaking out into any extravagance, he reclaimed them by gentle
and soft reproofs. He shewed concernment in their gains, or in their
losses, and offered sometimes to hold their cards.

There were at least a 'thousand persons in the Admiral, men of all
conditions: the father made himself all to all, thereby to gain some to
Jesus Christ; entertaining every man with such discourse as was most
suitable to his calling. He talked of sea affairs to mariners, of war to
the soldiery, of commerce to merchants, and of affairs of state to men of
quality. His natural gaiety, and obliging humour, gained him a general
esteem; the greatest libertines, and most brutal persons, sought his
conversation, and were even pleased to hear him speak of God.

He instructed the seamen daily in the principles of religion, of which
the greater part were wholly ignorant, or had at the best but a
smattering of it; and preached to them on every holiday, at the foot of
the main mast. All of them profited by his sermons, and in little time
nothing was heard amongst them, which was offensive to the honour of God,
or that wounded Christian charity; or touched upon obsceneness, or ill
manners. They had a profound veneration for him; with one word only, he
appeased their quarrels, and put an end to all their differences.

The viceroy, Don Martin Alphonso de Sosa, invited him from the very first
clay to eat at his table; but Xavier humbly excused it, with great
acknowledgments, and during all the voyage lived only on what he begged
about the ship.

In the mean time, the insufferable colds of Cabo Verde, and the excessive
heats of Guinea, together with the stench of the fresh waters, and
putrifaction of their flesh provisions under the line, produced many
dangerous distempers. The most common was a pestilential fever,
accompanied with a kind of cancer, which bred in the mouth, and
ulcerated all the gums; the sick being crowded together, spread the
infection amongst themselves; and as every one was apprehensive of
getting the disease, they had been destitute of all succour, if Father
Francis had not taken compassion on them. He wiped them in their sweats,
he cleansed their ulcers, he washed their linen, and rendered them all
the most abject services; but, above all things, he had care of their
consciences, and his principal employment was to dispose them to a
Christian death.

These were his perpetual employments; being at the same time himself
seized with continued fits of vomiting, and extreme languishments, which
lasted two whole months. For his ease and refreshment, Sosa caused him to
be accommodated with a larger cabin than was first appointed for him: he
accepted of it, but it was only to lodge in it those who were most
desperately ill; as for himself, he lay bare upon the deck, without other
pillow than the tackling.

He received also the dishes which the viceroy sent him from his table,
and divided them amongst those who had most need of nourishment. So
many actions of charity gained him the surname of the Holy Father from
thenceforward, which continued to him all his life, even, amongst
Mahometans and idolaters.

While Xavier employed his time in this manner, the navy following its
course, met with rocks and tempests, and contrary tides. After five
months of perpetual navigation, it arrived at Mozambique, towards the end
of August.

Mozambique is a kingdom situated on the eastern coasts of Africa,
inhabited by negroes; a barbarous people, but less savage than their
neighbours the Cafres, by reason of the trade which they continually
maintain with the Ethiopians and Arabs. There is no port on all the shore
to secure shipping from the winds; only one little island is shaped into
a haven, both convenient and safe.

This isle, which is but a mile distant from the main land, bears the name
of Mozambique, together with the whole kingdom. It was formerly subject
to the Saracens, and a Xeriffe Moor commanded it; but since, the
Portuguese have made themselves masters of it, and built a fort, to
secure the passage of their vessels, and refresh their sea-beaten men,
who commonly stay there for some time.

The army under Sosa was constrained to winter in this island, not only
because the season was far spent, but also because the sick passengers
could no longer support the incommodities of the sea. The place
notwithstanding was not very proper for infirm persons, for the air is
unwholesome; which proceeds from hence, that the sea overflowing the
low-lands of the isle, at the spring tides, the mass of waters there
gathered and inclosed is corrupted by the heats; for which reason, the
inhabitants are commonly short-lived, but more especially strangers;
upon which occasion, Mozambique is generally called the sepulchre of the
Portuguese. Besides the intemperance of the air, at the same time, an
infectious disease was raging in the country.

Being come ashore, Sosa gave immediate orders to carry the sick of every
ship to the hospital, which is in the island, of which the kings of
Portugal are founders. Father Xavier followed them; and, with the
assistance of his two companions, undertook to attend them all. The
undertaking was beyond his strength; but the soul sustains the body of
apostolical men, and charity can do all things.

Animated with this new fervour, he went from chamber to chamber, and from
bed to bed, giving remedies to some, and administering the last sacrament
to others. Every one desired to have him by him; and all acknowledged,
that only the sight of his countenance availed them more than a thousand
medicines.

Having passed the day in continual labour, he watched all night with
dying men, or laid himself down by those who were in most danger, to
steal a short unquiet slumber, which was interrupted almost every moment:
at the least complaint, or even at a sigh, he was awake, and ran to their
relief.

So many fatigues at the length overwhelmed nature, and he fell sick
himself of a fever, so violent, and so malignant, that he was blooded
seven times in a little space, and was three days in a delirium. At the
beginning of his sickness, many were desirous to have withdrawn him from
the hospital, where the contagion was frightful, and offered him their
own lodgings. He constantly refused their offers, and told them, "That,
having made a vow of poverty, he would live and die amongst the poor."

But when the violence of his distemper was somewhat abated, the saint
forgot himself to think on others. Sometimes, not being able to sustain
his body, and burning with his fever, he visited his dear patients, and
attended them as much as his weakness would permit him. The physician
having one day met him, going hither and thither as his charity called
him, in the middle of his fit, after having felt his pulse, plainly told
him, that in all the hospital, there was not one man in more danger than
himself, and prayed him that he would take some small repose, and but
give himself a breathing time until his fever were on the declension.

"I will punctually obey you," replied the father, "when I have satisfied
one part of my duty which calls upon me; it concerns the salvation or a
soul, and there is no time to be lost on such an occasion." Immediately
he ordered to be carried to his own bed a poor ship-boy, who lay
stretched out on a little straw, with a burning fever upon him, without
speech or knowledge. The youth was no sooner placed upon the saint's bed,
but he came to himself: Xavier made use of the opportunity, and laying
himself by the sick person, who had led a most dissolute life, exhorted
him so strongly all that night to abominate his sins, and to rely on the
mercy of Almighty God, that he saw him die in great contrition, mixed
with saving hope.

After this, the father kept the promise which he had made to the
physician, and took a greater care of his own preservation; insomuch that
his fever abated by degrees, and at length left him of itself; but his
strength was not yet recovered, when the navy put to sea again. The
viceroy, who began to find himself indisposed, would make no longer stay
upon a place so much infected, nor attend the recovery of his people, to
continue his voyage. He desired Xavier to accompany him, and to leave
Paul de Camerino, and Francis Mansilla, to attend the sick in the
hospital; where indeed they both, performed their duty as became them.

Thus having made a six months residence on Mozambique, they embarked once
more on the 15th of March, and in the year 1542. But they went not aboard
the St James, in which they came thither, changing her for a lighter
vessel, which made better sail.

It is here proper to observe, that the father, according to the report of
the passengers who came with him from Portugal to Mozambique, began to
manifest that spirit of prophecy, which he had to the end of his days in
so eminent a degree. For hearing those of the St James commend that ship,
as a vessel of the strongest built, and the best equipped of all the
fleet, he said in express words, that she would prove unfortunate. And in
effect, that ship, which the viceroy left behind him at Mozambique, in
the company of some others, pursuing her course afterwards to the Indies,
was driven against the rocks, and dashed in pieces towards the island of
Salseta.

The galeon, which carried Sosa and Xavier, had the wind so favourable,
that in two or three days she arrived at Melinda, on the coast of Africa,
towards the equinoctial line. It is a town of Saracens, on the sea side,
in a flat country, well cultivated, planted all along with palm-trees,
and beautified with fair gardens. It has a large enclosure, and is
fortified with walls, after the European fashion. Though the building is
Moresque, the houses notwithstanding are both pleasantand convenient. The
inhabitants are warlike, they are black, and go naked; excepting only
that they are covered with a kind of an apron of cotton or linen, from
the waist to the mid thigh. And indeed the heat of their climate will
permit them to wear no more; Melinda being distant from the line but
three degrees and some few minutes.

They have always maintained a good correspondence with the Portuguese, by
reason of the commerce established betwixt them. The flag of Portugal was
no sooner seen, but the Saracen king Came down to the port, attended by
the most honourable persons of his court, to receive the new governor of
the Indies. The first object which presented itself to Father Francis
when he stept ashore, drew tears from his eyes; but they were tears of
joy and pity mingled together. The Portuguese having there a constant
trade, and now and then some of them happening to die, are allowed a
burying-place near the town, full of crosses set upon their graves,
according to ihe custom of the Catholics: and above the rest there was a
very large one of hewn stone placed in the middle, and all over gilded.

The saint ran to it, and adored before it; receiving an inward
consolation, to behold it raised so high, and, as it were, triumphing
amongst the enemies of Jesus Christ. But at the same time, he was
sensibly afflicted, that this sign of our salvation served less to edify
the living, than to honour the memory of the dead. And lifting up his
hands to heaven, he besought the Father of all mercies to imprint in the
hearts of the infidels, that cross, which they had suffered to be planted
on their ground.

His next thoughts prompted him to confer of  religion with the Moors,
that he might endeavour to shew them the extravagances of the Mahometan
belief, and gain an opportunity of revealing to them the eternal truths
of Christian faith. One of the principal inhabitants, and wonderfully
bigotted to his sect, prevented him, and immediately demanded of him, if
piety were not wholly extinguished in the towns of Europe, as it was in
Melinda. "For, to confess the truth," said he, "of seventeen mosques
which we have, fourteen are quite forsaken; there are but three
remaining, at which we pay our devotions; and even those three are but
little visited, and by few persons.

"This proceeds, without all question," added the Mahometan, "from some
enormous sin, but what it is, I know not: and whatsoever reflections I
can make, I am not able to find what has drawn upon us so dreadful a
misfortune." "There is nothing more clear," replied Xavier; "God, who
detests the prayer of infidels, has permitted a worship to moulder away,
which is displeasing to him; and gives you thence to understand, that he
condemns your sect." The Saracen was not satisfied with this reason, nor
with any other argument which Xavier used against the Alcoran. While they
were thus disputing, a Caciz, or doctor of the law, joined company with
them, having made the same complaint concerning the mosques, how little
they were frequented, and how cold was grown the devotion of the people.
"I have taken my measures," said he, "and if in two years Mahomet comes
not in person to visit the congregations of the faithful, who acknowledge
him for God's true prophet, I will certainly look out for some other
religion." Xavier took pity on the folly of the Caciz, and endeavoured
all he could to convert him at that instant from Mahometanism; but he
could not prevail upon an obstinate mind, blinded with the opinion of its
own reason; and therefore the father acquiesced in the decrees of that
Providence, which has fixed the times and revolutions for the conversion
of infidels and sinners.

Having left Melinda, where they continued but few days, and still
coasting Africa, they cast anchor at Socotora, which is beyond Cape
Guardafu, and over against the Strait of Mecca. The Moors of that country
call it the Isle of Amazons; and the reason they allege is, because it is
governed by women. The inhabitants believe their isle to be the earthly
paradise; which notwithstanding, there is scarcely to be found in all the
world, a spot of ground less deserving that glorious title. The air is in
a perpetual sultry heat, the soil is dry and barren, and, excepting only
for the aoes which is there produced, and is indeed the best which grows
in those eastern parts, even the name of Socotora would not be mentioned.
It is not certainly known what religion they profess, so monstrous is
their belief. They hold from the Saracens the worship of Mahomet, from
the Jews the use of circumcision and sacrifices, and yet give themselves
the name of Christians. The males bear the name of some or other of the
apostles, the most part of the women are called Mary, and yet they have
no knowledge of baptism. They adore the cross, and hang it in little
about their necks. They chiefly venerate St Thomas; and it is an ancient
tradition amongst them, that this holy apostle, in going to the Indies,
was cast by a tempest on their coast; that being come ashore, he preached
Jesus Christ to those of Socotora; and that from the wreck of that ship
which brought him thither, they built a chapel in the middle of their
island.

The condition of these islanders sensibly afflicted Father Xavier; yet he
despaired not of reducing them to a right understanding of the faith,
because, as barbarous as they were, they still preserved some footsteps
of Christianity amongst them. Having no knowledge of their tongue, which
bears not the least resemblance to any of our European languages, and is
also wholly different from the Ethiopian and Arabic, at the first he was
constrained to testify his sorrow to them by dumb signs, for their
ignorance and errors. Afterwards, whether it were that some one amongst
them understood the Portuguese, and served as interpreter to all the
rest, or that counting from this very time he began to receive from
above, the first fruits of the gift of tongues, which was so abundantly
bestowed on him in the Indies on sundry occasions, he spoke to them
concerning the necessity of baptism, and let them know, that there was no
possibility of salvation without a sincere belief in Jesus Christ: but
that the faith allowed of no mixture, and that to become Christians, they
must of necessity cease to be Jews or Mahometans.

His words made a wonderful impression on the souls and hearts of those
barbarians: some of them made him presents of their wild fruits, in token
of their good will; others offered him their children to be baptised; all
promised him to receive baptism themselves, and to lead the life of true
Christians, on condition he would remain with them. But when they beheld
the Portuguese galleon ready to depart, they ran in crowds to the
water-side, and besought the holy man, with tears in their eyes, not to
forsake them.

So moving a spectacle wrought compassion in Xavier; he was earnest with
the viceroy for leave to stay upon the isle, at least till the arrival of
the vessels, which he had left at Mozambique, But he could obtain no part
of his request: and Sosa told him, that heaven having designed him for
the Indies, it was to be wanting to his vocation if he endeavoured this
exchange, and stopped in the beginning of his race; that his zeal would
find a more ample field, wherein to exercise itself, than in Socotora,
and people of better inclination than those islanders, naturally
inconstant, and as ready to forsake the faith, as they were easy to
receive it.

Xavier submitted to these reasons of the viceroy, which on this occasion
seemed to interpret to him the good pleasure of Almighty God. Instantly
they hoisted sail; but the saint was pierced with sorrow to behold those
poor creatures, who followed him with their eyes, and held up their hands
from afar to him; while the vessel was removing into the deep, he turned
his head towards them, breathing out profound sighs, and looking
mournfully upon them. But that he might leave nothing upon his conscience
to upbraid him concerning the Socotorins, he engaged himself solemnly
before Almighty God to return to them, so soon as possibly he could; or
in case he could not, to procure for them some preachers of the gospel,
to instruct them in the way of their salvation.

This last part of his navigation was not long. After having crossed the
sea of Arabia, and part of that which belongs to India, the fleet arrived
at the port of Goa, on the 6th of May, in the year 1542, being the
thirteenth month since their setting out from the port of Lisbon.

The town of Goa is situated on this side of the Ganges, in an island
bearing the same name. It is the capital city of the Indies, the seat of
the bishop and the viceroy, and the most considerable place of all the
East for traffic. It had been built by the Moors forty years before the
Europeans had passed into the Indies; and in the year 1510, Don Alphonso
de Albuquerque, surnamed the Great, took it from the infidels, and
subjected it to the crown of Portugal.

At that time was verified the famous prophecy of St Thomas the apostle,
that the Christian faith, which he had planted in divers kingdoms of the
East, should one day flourish there again; which very prediction he left
graven on a pillar of living stone, for the memory of future ages. The
pillar was not far distant from the walls of Meliapore, the metropolis of
the kingdom of Coromandel; and it was to be read in the characters of the
country, that when the sea, which was forty miles distant from the
pillar, should come up to the foot of it, there should arrive in the
Indies white men and foreigners, who should there restore the true
religion.

The infidels had laughed at this prediction for a long time, not
believing that it would ever be accomplished, and indeed looking on it as
a kind of impossibility that it should; yet it was accomplished, and that
so justly, that when Don Vasco de Gama set foot on the Indies, the sea,
which sometimes usurps upon the continent, and gains by little and little
on the dry land, was by that time risen to the pillar, so as to bathe its
lower parts.

Yet it may be truly said, that the prophecy of St Thomas had not its full
effect, till after the coming of Father Xavier; according to another
prediction of that holy man Peter de Couillan, a religious of the
Trinity, who, going to the Indies with Vasco de Gama, in quality of his
ghostly father, was martyred by the Indians on the seventh of July 1497,
forty-three years before the beginning of the Society of Jesus, who being
pierced through with arrows, while he was shedding his blood for Christ,
distinctly pronounced these following words: "In few years there shall be
born in the church of God, a new religious order of clergymen, which
shall bear the name of Jesus: and one of its first fathers, conducted by
the Spirit of God, shall pass into the most remote countries of the East
Indies, the greatest part of which shall embrace the orthodox faith,
through the ministry of this evangelical preacher."

This is related by Juan de Figueras Carpi, in his history of the order of
the redemption of captives, from the manuscripts of the Trinity Convent
in Lisbon, and the memoirs of the king of Portugal's library.

After Xavier was landed, he went immediately to the hospital, and there
took his lodging, notwithstanding the instances of the viceroy, who was
desirous to have had him in his palace. But he would not begin his
missionary function, till he had paid his respects to the Bishop of Goa;
whose name was Juan d'Albuquerque, of the order of St Francis, a most
excellent person, and one of the most virtuous prelates which the church
has ever had.

The father having informed him of the reasons for which his Holiness and
the king of Portugal had sent him to the Indies, presented to him the
briefs of Pope Paul III., at the same time declaring to him, that he
pretended not to use them without his approbation and good-liking: after
this, he cast himself at his feet, and desired his blessing.

The prelate, edified with the modesty of the father, and struck with that
venerable air of sanctity which appeared in his countenance, took him up
immediately, and embraced him with great tenderness. Having often kissed
the briefs, he restored them to the father, with these words: "An
apostolical legate, sent from the vicar of Jesus Christ, has no need of
receiving his mission from any other hand; use freely that power, which
the holy seat has conferred upon you; and rest assured, that if the
Episcopal authority be needful to maintain, it shall never be wanting to
you."

From that moment they contracted a most sacred friendship, whose union
was so strict, that ever after they seemed to have but one heart and one
soul: insomuch that Father Xavier undertook not any thing without
consulting the bishop first; and the bishop, on his side, imparted all
his designs to Father Xavier: and it is almost incredible, how much this
holy correspondence contributed to the salvation of souls, and exaltation
of the faith.

Before we pass farther, it is of consequence to know the estate of
religion at that time in the Indies. It is true, that, according to the
prophecy of St. Thomas, they who discovered the East Indies, had new
planted Christianity in some parts of them, where all was in a manner
quite forgotten. But ambition and avarice, in short time after, cooled
the zeal of these new conquerors; instead of extending the kingdom of
Jesus Christ, and of gaining souls to him, they thought of nothing more
than of enlarging their dominion, and enriching themselves. It happened
also, that many Indians newly converted to the faith, being neither
cultivated by wholesome instructions, nor edified by good examples,
forgot insensibly their baptism, and returned to their ancient
superstitions.

And if any amongst them kept constant to his Christianity, and declared
himself a believer, the Mahometans, who were uppermost in many places
along the coast, and very wealthy, persecuted him with great cruelty,
without any opposition on the part of the Portuguese governor or
magistrates. Whether the power of Portugal were not yet sufficiently
established, or that interest was predominant over justice and religion,
this cruel usage deterred the new Christians fom professing Jesus Christ,
and was the reason, that, amongst the infidels, all thoughts of
conversion were laid aside.

But what yet appears more wonderful, the Portuguese themselves lived more
like idolaters than Christians. For, to speak somewhat more particularly
of their corrupt manners, according to the relation which was sent to
King John III. of Portugal from the Indies, by a man in power, and worthy
of belief; some few months before the arrival of Father Xavier, every man
kept as many mistresses as he pleased, and maintained them openly in his
own house, even in the quality of lawful wives. They bought women, or
took them away by force, either for their service, or to make money of
them. Their masters taxed them at a certain sum by the day, and, for
fault of payment, inflicted on them ail sorts of punishment; insomuch,
that those unhappy creatures, not being able sometimes to work out the
daily rate imposed on them, were forced upon the infamous traffic of
their bodies, and became public prostitutes, to content the avarice of
their masters.

Justice was sold at the tribunals, and the most enormous crimes escaped
from punishment, when the criminals had wherewithal to corrupt their
judges.

All methods for heaping up money were accounted lawful, how indirect
soever, and extortion was publicly protest. Murder was reckoned but a
venial trespass, and was boasted as a piece of bravery.

The Bishop of Goa, to little purpose, threatened them with the wrath of
heaven, and the thunder of excommunications. No dam was sufficient for
such a deluge; their hearts were hardened against spiritual threatening
and anathemas; or, to speak more properly, the deprivation of sacraments
was no punishment to such wicked wretches, who were glad to be rid of
them.

The use of confessions, and the communion, were in a manner abolished;
and if any one by chance was struck with a remorse of conscience, and
desired to reconcile himself to God, at the foot of a priest, he was
constrained to steal to his devotions by night, to avoid the scandal to
his neighbour.

So strange a depravation of manners proceeded from these causes. Its rise
was taken from the licence of arms, which permit, and almost authorize,
the greatest disorders in a conquered country. The pleasures of Asia, and
the commerce of infidels, aided not a little to debauch the Portuguese,
as starched and regular as they naturally are. The want of spiritual
directors contributed largely to this growing mischief. There were not
four preachers, in all the Indies, nor any one priest without the walls
of Goa; insomuch, that in many fortified places whole years were passed
without hearing a sermon or a mass.

Behold a draught, not unresembling the face of Christianity in this new
world, when Father Xavier arrived in it.

The author of the relation from whence mine is copied, seems to have had
some kind of foresight of his coming; for, in the conclusion of his
memorial, he prays Almighty God, and earnestly desires the king of
Portugal, to send some holy man to the Indies, who might reform the
manners of the Europeans, by his apostolic instructions, and his
exemplary virtues.

As for the Gentiles, the life they led resembled that of beasts rather
than of men. Uncleanness was risen to the last excess amongst them; and
the least corrupt were those who had no religion. The greatest part of
them adored the devil under an obscene figure, and with ceremonies which
modesty forbids to mention. Some amongst them changed their deity every
day; and the first living creature which happened to meet them in the
morning was the object of their worship, not excepting even dogs or
swine. In this they were uniform, that they all offered bloody sacrifices
to their gods; and nothing was more common, than to see bleeding infants
on the altars, slaughtered by the hands of their own parents.

Such manifold abominations inflamed the zeal of Father Xavier. He wished
himself able at the same time, to have applied remedies to them all; yet
thought himself obliged to begin with the household of faith, according
to the precept of St Paul; that is to say, with the Christians: and
amongst them he singled out the Portuguese, whose example was like to be
most prevalent with the baptised Indians. Behold in what manner he
attempted this great enterprise of reformation.

To call down the blessing of heaven on this difficult employment, he
consecrated the greatest part of the night to prayers, and allowed
himself at the most but four hours of sleep; and even this little repose
was commonly disturbed: for, lodging in the hospital, and lying always
near the sick, as his custom had been at Mozambique, his slumber was
broken by their least complaint, and he failed not to rise to their
relief.

He returned to his prayers at break of day, after which he celebrated
mass. He employed the forenoon in the hospitals, particularly in that of
the lepers, which is in one of the suburbs of Goa. He embraced those
miserable creatures one after the other, and distributed amongst them
those alms which he had been begging for them from door to door. After
this he visited the prisons, and dealt amongst them the same effects of
charity.

In coming back, he made a turn about the town, with his bell in his hand,
and gave a loud summons to the fathers of families, that, for the love of
God, they would send their children and their slaves to catechism.

The holy man was convinced in his heart, that if the Portuguese youth
were well instructed in the principles of religion, and formed betimes to
the practice of good life, Christianity, in a little time, would be seen
to revive in Goa; but in case the children grew up without instruction or
discipline, there was no remaining hope, that they who sucked in impiety
and vice, almost with their milk, should ever become sincere Christians.

The little children gathered together in crowds about him, whether they
came of their own accord, through a natural curiosity, or that their
parents sent them, out of the respect which they already had for the holy
man, howsoever vicious themselves. He led them to the church, and there
expounded to them the apostles' creed, the commandments of God, and all
the practices of devotion which are in use amongst the faithful.

These tender plants received easily the impressions which the father made
on them, and it was through these little babes that the town began to
change its face. For, by daily hearing the man of God, they became modest
and devout; their modesty and devotion was a silent censure of that
debauchery which appeared in persons of riper age. Sometimes they even
reproved their fathers, with a liberty which had nothing of childish in
it, and their reproofs put the most dissolute libertines to the blush.

Xavier then proceeded to public preaching, whither all the people
flocked; and to the end that the Indians might understand, as well as the
Portuguese, he affected to speak that language in a gross and clownish
dialect, which passed at that time amongst the natives of the country. It
was immediately seen what power a preacher, animated by the spirit of
God, had over the souls of perverted men. The most scandalous sinners,
struck with the horror of their crimes, and the fear of eternal
punishment, were the first who came to confession. Their example took
away from others the shame of confessing; insomuch, that every one now
strove who should be foremost to throw himself at the father's feet,
knocking their breasts, and bitterly lamenting their offences.

The fruits of penitence accompanying these tears, were the certain proofs
of a sincere conversion. They cancelled their unlawful bonds and
covenants of extortion; they made restitution of their ill-gotten goods;
they set at liberty their slaves, whom they had opprest, or had acquired
unjustly; and lastly, turned away their concubines, whom they were
unwilling to possess by a lawful marriage.

The saint acted with the concubinarians almost in the same manner as our
Saviour dealt with the publicans and harlots. Far from treating them
severely, the deeper they were plunged in that darling vice, the more
tenderly he seemed to use them. On all occasions he declared himself
their friend; he made them frequent visits, without fear of being
upbraided with so infamous a conversation. He invited himself sometimes
to eat with them; and then, assuming an air of gaiety, he desired the
master to bring down the children to bear him company. When he had a
little commended their prettiness, he asked to see their mother, and
shewed her the same countenance, as if he had taken her for an honest
woman. If she were beautiful or well shaped, he praised her, and said
"she looked like a Portuguese:" after which; in private conversation,
"you have," said he to her master, "a fair slave, who well deserves to be
your wife." But if she were a swarthy, ugly Indian, "Good God!" he cried
out, "what a monster do you keep within your doors! and how are you able
to endure the sight of her?" Such words, spoken in all appearance without
design, had commonly their full effect: the keeper married her whom the
saint had commended, and turned off the others.

This so sudden a change of manners was none of those transient fits of
devotion, which pass away almost as soon as they are kindled; piety was
established in all places, and they who formerly came to confession once
a year, to speak the best of it, now performed it regularly once a month.
They were all desirous of confessing themselves to Father Xavier; so
that, writing from Goa to Rome on that subject, he said, "That if it had
been possible for him to have been at once in ten places, he should not
have wanted for employment." His catechising having had that wonderful
success which we have mentioned, the Bishop Don John d'Albuquerque
ordained, that, from thenceforward, the children should be taught the
Christian doctrine, in all the churches of the town. The gentlemen and
merchants applied themselves to the regulation of their families, and
banishment of vice. They gave the father considerable sums of money,
which he distributed in their presence, in the hospitals and prisons.
The viceroy accompanied the saint thither once a week, to hear the
complaints of the prisoners, and to relieve the poor. This Christian
practice was so pleasing to the king of Portugal, John III, that
afterwards he writ to Don John de Castro, governor of the Indies,
expressly ordering him to do that once a month, which Don Martin Alphonso
de Sosa never failed of doing every week; in short, the Portuguese of Goa
had gained such an habitude of good life, and such an universal change of
manners had obtained amongst them, that they seemed another sort of
people.

This was the state of affairs, when Michael Vaz, vicar general of the
Indies, a man of rare virtue, and wonderful zeal for the propagation of
the faith, gave Xavier to understand, that on the Oriental coast, which
lies extended from Cape Comorin to the Isle of Manar, and is called the
coast of Fishery, there were certain people called Paravas, that is to
say, fishers, who had caused themselves to be baptized some time since,
on occasion of succours which had been given them by the Portuguese
against the Moors, by whom they were cruelly opprest; that these people
had nothing more of Christianity than baptism, and the name, for want of
pastors to instruct them; and that it would be a work well-pleasing in
the sight of God to accomplish their conversion. He concealed not from
him, that the land was barren, and so destitute of the conveniences of
life, that no stranger was willing to settle there; that interest alone
drew the merchants thither, in the season of pearl-fishing, and otherwise
the heats were insupportable.

There could not have been made to Xavier a proposition more according to
his heart's desire. He offered himself, without the least hesitation, to
go and instruct that people; and he did it so much the more freely,
because his presence was no longer so necessary at Goa, where piety was
now grown into a habit, by a settled form of five months standing.

Having received the benediction of the bishop, he embarked about the
midst of October, in the year 1542, in a galiot, which carried the new
captain of Comorin; and took with him two young ecclesiastics of Goa, who
had a tolerable insight into the language of the Malabars, which is
spoken in the coast of Fishery. Sosa offered to have furnished him with
money for all his occasions; but apostolic men have no greater treasures
than their poverty, nor any fund more certain than that of Providence. He
accepted only a pair of shoes, to defend him in some measure from the
burning sands upon the coasts; and, at parting, desired the viceroy to
send him his two companions, who were left behind at Mozambique, so soon
as they should arrive at Goa.

The Cape of Cornorin is at the distance of about six hundred miles from
Goa. It is a high promontory, jutting out into the sea, and facing the
isle of Ceylon. The Father being there arrived, immediately fell in with
a village of idolaters. He could bear to go no farther without preaching
the name of Jesus to the Gentiles; but all he could declare, by the mouth
of his interpreters, signified nothing; and those pagans plainly told
him, that they could not change their faith without consent of the lord
of whom they held. Their obstinacy, however, was of no long continuance;
and that Omnipotence, which had pre-ordained Xavier to the conversion
of idolaters, would not that his first labours should be unsuccessful.

A woman of the village had been three days in the pains of childbirth,
and had endured great torments, without being eased, either by the
prayers of the Brachmans, or any natural remedies. Xavier went to visit
her, accompanied by one of his interpreters; "and then it was," says he,
in one of his letters, "that, forgetting I was in a strange country, I
began to call upon the name of the Lord; though, at the same time, I
could not but remember, that all the earth is equally his, and all its
inhabitants are belonging to him."

The Father expounded to the sick woman the principles of our faith, and
exhorted her to repose her trust in the God of the Christians. The Holy
Ghost, who, by her means, had decreed to save that people, touched her
inwardly; insomuch, that being asked if she believed in Jesus Christ, and
if she desired to be baptized? she answered, yes; and that she spake from
the bottom of her heart. Xavier then read the gospel to her, and baptized
her:--she was immediately delivered of her child, and perfectly
recovered. This visible miracle immediately filled that poor cabin with
astonishment and gladness: The whole family threw themselves at the
Father's feet, and asked to be instructed; and, being sufficiently
taught, not one amongst them but received baptism. This news being blown
abroad through all the country, the chief of the place had the curiosity
to see a person so wonderful in his works and in his words. He preached
to them the words of eternal life, and convinced their reason of the
truth of Christianity; but convinced though they were, they durst not, as
they said, become Christians, without the permission of their prince.

There was at that time in the village an officer, sent expressly from the
prince to collect a certain annual tribute. Father Xavier went to see
him, and expounded so clearly to him all the law of Jesus Christ, that
the pagan presently acknowledged there was nothing in it which was ill;
and after that gave leave to the inhabitants to embrace it. There needed
no more to a people, whom nothing but fear withheld from it; they all
offered themselves to be baptized, and promised thenceforth to live in
Christianity.

The holy man, encouraged by so happy a beginning, followed his way with
more cheerfulness, and came to Tutucurin, which is the first town
belonging to the Paravas. He found, in effect, that this people,
excepting only their baptism, which they had received, rather to shake
off the Moorish yoke than to subject themselves to that of Jesus Christ,
were wholly infidels; and he declared to them the mysteries of our faith,
of which before they had not received the least tincture. The two
churchmen who accompanied him served him in the nature of interpreters;
but Xavier, reflecting within himself, that these churchmen frequently
altered those things which passed through their mouths, and that our own
words, when spoken by ourselves, have more vigour in them, bethought
himself of finding some expedient, whereby to be understood without the
assistance of another. The way he took, was to get together some people
of the country, who understood the Portuguese language, and to join them
with the two ecclesiastics who were knowing in the Malabar. He consulted
both parties for many days together, and, drudging at his business,
translated into the Paravas tongue, the words of the sign of the cross,
the apostles' creed, the commandments, the Lord's prayer, the salutation
of the angel, the confiteor, the salve regina, and, in fine, the whole
catechism.

The translation being finished, the Father got, without book, what he
could of it, and took his way about the villages of the coast, in number
thirty, about half of which were baptized, the rest idolaters.

"I went about, with my bell in my hand," says he himself, "and gathering
together all I met, both men and children, I instructed them in the
Christian doctrine. The children learnt it easily by heart in the compass
of a month; and when they understood it, I charged them to teach it their
fathers and mothers, all of their own family, and even their neighbours.

"On Sundays I assembled the men and women, little boys and girls, in the
chapel; all came to my appointment with an incredible joy, and most
ardent desire to hear the word of God. I began with the confessing God to
be one in nature, and trine in Persons; I afterwards repeated distinctly,
and with an audible voice, the Lord's prayer, the angelical salutation,
and the apostles' creed. All of them together repeated after me; and it
is hardly to be imagined what pleasure they took in it. This being done,
I repeated the creed singly; and, insisting on every particular article,
asked, if they certainly believed it? They all protested to me, with loud
cries, and their hands across their breasts, that they firmly believed
it. My practice is, to make them repeat the creed oftener than the other
prayers; and I declare to them, at the same time, that they who believe
the contents of it are true Christians.

"From the creed I pass to the ten commandments, and give them to
understand, that the Christian law is comprised in those ten precepts;
that he who keeps them all according to his duty is a good Christian, and
that eternal life is decreed to him; that, on the contrary, whoever
violates one of these commandments is a bad Christian, and that he shall
be damned eternally in case he repent not of his sin. Both the new
Christians and the pagans admire our law as holy, and reasonable, and
consistent with itself.

"Having done as I told you, my custom is, to repeat with them the Lord's
prayer, and the angel's salutation. Once again we recite the creed; and
at every article, besides the Paternoster and the Ave Maria, we
intermingle some short prayer; for having pronounced aloud the first
article, I begin thus, and they say after me,--' Jesus, thou son of
the living God, give me the grace to believe firmly this first article of
thy faith, and with that intention we offer thee that prayer of which
thou thyself art author.' We add,--' Holy Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus
Christ, obtain for us, from thy beloved Son, to believe this article,
without any doubt concerning it.' The same method is observed in all the
other articles; and almost in the same manner we run over the ten
commandments. When we have jointly repeated the first precept, which is,
to love God, we pray thus: 'O Jesu Christ, thou Son of the living God,
grant us thy grace to love thee above all things!' and immediately after
we say the Lord's prayer; then immediately we subjoin: 'O holy Mary,
mother of Jesus, obtain for us, from thy Son, that we may have the grace
to keep this first commandment.' After which we say the Ave Maria. We
observe the same method through the other nine commandments, with some
little variation, as the matter requires it.

"These are the things which I accustom them to beg of God in the common
prayers; omitting not sometimes to assure them, that if they obtain
the thing for which they pray, even that is a means for them to obtain
other things more amply than they could demand them.

"I oblige them all to say the confiteor, but principally those who are to
receive baptism, whom I also enjoin to say the belief. At every article,
I demand of them, if they believe it without any scruple; and when they
have assured me, that they do, I commonly make them an exhortation, which
I have composed in their own language,--being an epitome of the Christian
faith, and of the necessary duties incumbent on us in order to our
salvation. In conclusion, I baptize them, and shut up all in singing the
salve regina, to implore the assistance of the blessed Virgin."

It is evident, by what we have already said concerning the instruction of
the Paravas, that Xavier had not the gift of tongues when he began to
teach them: But it appears also, that, after he had made the translation,
which cost him so much labour, he both understood and spoke the Malabar
tongue, whether he had acquired it by his own pains, or that God had
imprinted the species of it in his mind after a supernatural manner. It
is at least probable, that, being in the Indies when he studied any
tongue, the Holy Spirit seconded his application, and was in some sort
his master; for it is constantly believed, that in a very little time he
learnt the most difficult languages, and, by the report of many persons,
spoke them so naturally, that he could not have been taken for a
foreigner.

Father Xavier having, for the space of a month, instructed the
inhabitants of one village, in the manner above said, before he went
farther, called together the most intelligent amongst them, and gave them
in writing what he had taught, to the end, that as masters of the rest,
on Sundays and Saints-days, they might congregate the people, and cause
them to repeat, according to his method, that which they had learnt
formerly.

He committed to these catechists, (who in their own tongue are called
Canacopoles,) the care of the churches, which he caused to be built in
peopled places; and recommended to them the ornament of those sacred
buildings, as far as their poverty would allow. But he was not willing to
impose this task on them, without some kind of salary; and therefore
obtained from the viceroy of the Indies, a certain sum for their
subsistence, which was charged upon the annual tribute, payable to the
crown of Portugal, from the inhabitants of that coast.

It is hardly to be expressed, what a harvest of souls was reaped from his
endeavours; and how great was the fervour of these new Christians. The
holy man, writing to the fathers at Rome, confesses himself, that he
wanted words to tell it. He adds, "That the multitude of those who had
received baptism, was so vast, that, with the labour of continual
christenings, he was not able to lift up his  arms; and that his voice
often failed him, in saying so many times over and over, the apostles'
creed, and the ten commandments, with a short instruction, which he
always made concerning the duties of a true Christian, before he baptized
those who were of age."

The infants alone, who died after baptism, amounted, according to his
account, to above a thousand. They who lived, and began to have the use
of reason, were so affected with the things of God, and so covetous of
knowing all the mysteries of faith, that they scarcely gave the father
time to take a little nourishment, or a short repose. They sought after
him every minute; and he was sometimes forced to hide himself from them,
to gain the leisure of saying his prayers, and his breviary.

By the administration of these children, who were so fervently devout, he
performed divers extraordinary works, even many of those miraculous
cures, which it pleased God to perate by his means. The coast of Fishery
was never so full of diseases, as when the father was there. It seemed,
as he himself has expressed it in a letter, that God sent those
distempers amongst that people, to draw them to him almost in their own
despite. For coming to recover on an instant, and against all human
appearance, so soon as they had received baptism, or invoked the name of
Jesus Christ, they clearly saw the difference betwixt the God of the
Christians and the pagods, which is the name given in the Indies, both to
the temples and the images of their false gods.

No one fell sick amongst the Gentiles, but had immediate recourse to
Father Xavier. As it was impossible for him to attend them all, or to be
in many places at the same time, he sent there Christian children where
he could not go himself. In going from him, one took his chaplet, another
his crucifix, a third his reliquiary, and all being animated with a
lively faith, dispersed themselves through the towns and villages. There
gathering about the sick as many people as they could assemble, they
repeated often the Lord's prayer, the creed, the commandments, and all
they had learnt by heart of the Christian faith; which being done, they
asked the sick, "If he believed unfeignedly in Jesus Christ, and if he
desired to be baptized?" When he had answered "Yes," they touched him
with the chaplet, or crucifix belonging to the father, and he was
immediately cured.

One day, while Xavier was preaching the mysteries of faith to a great
multitude, some came to bring him word from Manapar, that one of the
most considerable persons of that place was possessed by the devil,
desiring the father to come to his relief. The man of God thought it
unbecoming of his duty to break off the instruction he was then making.
He only called to him some of those young Christians, and gave them a
cross which he wore upon his breast; after which he sent them to Manapar
with orders to drive away the evil spirit.

They were no sooner arrived there, than the possessed person fell into an
extraordinary fury, with, wonderful contortions of his limbs, and hideous
yellings. The little children, far from being terrified, as usually
children are, made a ring about him, singing the prayers of the church.
After which they compelled him to kiss the cross; and at the same moment,
the devil departed out of him. Many pagans there present, visibly
perceiving the virtue of the cross, were converted on the instant, and
became afterwards devout Christians.

These young plants, whom Xavier employed on such occasions, were in
perpetual disputations with the Gentiles, and broke in pieces as many
idols as they could get into their power; and sometimes burnt them,
throwing their ashes into the air. When they discovered any bearing the
name of Christianity, and yet keeping a pagod in reserve to adore in
secret, they reproved them boldly; and when those rebukes were of no
effect, they advertised the holy man, to the end, he might apply some
stronger remedy. Xavier went often in their company, to make a search in
those suspected houses; and if he discovered any idols, they were
immediately destroyed.

Being informed, that one who was lately baptized, committed idolatry
sometimes in private, and that the admonitions which he had received were
useless, he bethought himself to frighten him; and in his presence
commanded the children to set fire to his house, that thereby he might be
given to understand, how the worshippers of devils deserved eternal
burning like the devils. They ran immediately to their task, taking the
command in a literal sense, which was not Xavier's intention. But the
effect of it was, that the infidel, detesting and renouncing his
idolatry, gave up his pagods to be consumed by fire, which was all the
design of the holy man.

Another infidel was more unhappy; he was one of the first rank in
Manapar; a man naturally violent and brutal. Xavier one day going to
visit him, desired him, in courteous words, that he would listen to what
he had to say to him concerning his eternal welfare. The barbarian
vouchsafed not so much as to give him the hearing, but rudely thrust
him out of his house, saying, "That if ever he went to the Christians'
church, he was content they should shut him out." Few days after, he was
assaulted by a troop of armed men, who designed to kill him: all he could
do was to disengage himself from them, and fly away. Seeing at a distance
a church open, he made to it as fast as he could run, with his enemies at
his heels pursuing him. The Christians, who were assembled for their
exercises of devotion, alarmed at the loud cries they heard, and fearing
the idolaters were coming to plunder the church, immediately shut their
doors, insomuch that he, who hoped for safety in a holy place, fell into
the hands of murderers, and was assassinated by them, without question by
a decree of the divine justice, which revenged the saint, and suffered
the wretch to be struck with that imprecation which he had wished upon
himself.

These miracles, which Xavier wrought by the means of children, raised an
admiration of him, both amongst Christians and idolaters; but so
exemplary a punishment caused him to be respected by all the world: and
even amongst the Brachmans there was not one who did not honour him. As
it will fall in our way to make frequent mention of those idol-priests,
it will not be from our purpose to give the reader a description of them.

The Brachmans are very considerable amongst the Indians, both for their
birth and their employment. According to the ancient fables of the
Indies, their original is from heaven. And it is the common opinion, that
the blood of the gods is running in their veins. But to understand how
they were born, and from what god descended, it is necessary to know the
history of the gods of that country, which in short is this:

The first, and lord of all the others, is Parabrama; that is to say, a
most perfect substance, who has his being from himself, and who gives
being to the rest. This god being a spirit free from matter, and
desirous to appear once under a sensible figure, became man; by the only
desire which he had to shew himself, he conceived a son, who came out at
his mouth, and was called Maiso. He had two others after him, one of them
whose name was Visnu, was born out of his breast, the other called Brama,
out of his belly. Before he returned to his invisibility, he assigned
habitations and employments to his three children. He placed the eldest
in the first heaven, and gave him an absolute command over the elements
and mixed bodies. He lodged Visnu beneath his elder brother, and
established him the judge of men, the father of the poor, and the
protector of the unfortunate. Brama had for his inheritance the third
heaven, with the superintendance of sacrifices, and other ceremonies of
religion. These are the three deities which the Indians represent by one
idol, with three heads growing out of one body, with this mysterious
signification, that they all proceed from the same principle. By which it
may be inferred, that in former times they have heard of Christianity;
and that their religion is an imperfect imitation, or rather a corruption
of ours.

They say that Visnu has descended a thousand times on earth, and every
time has changed his shape; sometimes appearing in the figure of a beast,
sometimes of a man, which is the original of their pagods, of whom they
relate so many fables.

They add, that Brama, having likewise a desire of children, made himself
visible, and begot the Brachmans, whose race has infinitely multiplied.
The people believe them demi-gods, as poor and miserable as they are.
They likewise imagine them to be saints, because they lead a hard and
solitary life; having very often no other lodging than the hollow of a
tree, or a cave, and sometimes living exposed to the air on a bare
mountain, or in a wilderness, suffering all the hardships of the weather,
keeping a profound silence, fasting a whole year together, and making
profession of eating nothing which has had life in it.

But after all, there was not perhaps a more wicked nation under the
canopy of heaven. The fruit of those austerities which they practice in
the desart, is to abandon themselves in public to the most brutal
pleasures of the flesh, without either shame or remorse of conscience.
For they certainly believe, that all things, how abominable soever, are
lawful to be done, provided they are suggested to them by the light which
is within them. And the people are so infatuated with them, that they
believe they shall become holy by partaking in their crimes, or by
suffering any outrage from them.

On the other side, they are the greatest impostors in the world; their
talent consists in inventing new fables every day, and making them pass
amongst the vulgar for wonderful mysteries. One of their cheats is to
persuade the simple, that the pagods eat like men; and to the end they
may be presented with good cheer, they make their gods of a gigantic
figure, and are sure to endow them with a prodigious paunch. If those
offerings with which they maintain their families come to fail, they
denounce to the people, that the offended pagods threaten the country
with some dreadful judgment, or that their gods, in displeasure, will
forsake them, because they are suffered to die of hunger.

The doctrine of these Brachmans is nothing better than their life. One of
their grossest errors is to believe that kine have in them somewhat of
sacred and divine; that happy is the man who can be sprinkled over with
the ashes of a cow, burnt by the hand of a Brachman; but thrice happy be,
who, in dying, lays hold of a cow's tail, and expires with it betwixt his
hands; for, thus assisted, the soul departs out of the body purified, and
sometimes returns into the body of a cow. That such a favour,
notwithstanding, is not conferred but on heroic souls, who contemn life,
and die generously, either by casting themselves headlong from a
precipice, or leaping into a kindled pile, or throwing themselves under
the holy chariot wheels, to be crushed to death by the pagods, while they
are carried in triumph about the town.

We are not to wonder, after this, that the Brachmans cannot endure the
Christian law; and that they make use of all their credit and their
cunning to destroy it in the Indies. Being favoured by princes, infinite
in number, and strongly united amongst themselves, they succeed in all
they undertake; and as being great zealots for their ancient
superstitions, and most obstinate in their opinions, it is not easy to
convert them.

Father Xavier, who saw how large a progress the gospel had made amongst
the people, and that if there were no Brachmans in the Indies, there
would consequently be no idolaters in all those vast provinces of Asia,
spared no labour to reduce that perverse generation to the true knowledge
of Almighty God. He conversed often with those of that religion, and one
day found a favourable occasion of treating with them: Passing by a
monastery, where above two hundred Brachmans lived together, he was
visited by some of the chiefest, who had the curiosity to see a man whose
reputation was so universal. He received them with a pleasing
countenance, according to his custom; and having engaged them by little
and little, in a discourse concerning the eternal happiness of the soul,
he desired them to satisfy him what their gods commanded them to do, in
order to it after death. They looked a while on one another without
answering. At length a Brachman, who seemed to be fourscore years of age,
took the business upon himself, and said in a grave tone, that two things
brought a soul to glory, and made him a companion to the gods; the one
was to abstain from the murder of a cow, the other to give alms to the
Brachmans. All of them confirmed the old man's answer by their
approbation and applause, as if it had been an oracle given from the
mouths of their gods themselves.

Father Xavier took compassion on this their miserable blindness, and the
tears came into his eyes. He rose on the sudden, (for they had been all
sitting,) and distinctly repeated, in an audible tone, the apostles'
creed, and the ten commandments, making a pause at the end of every
article, and briefly expounding it, in their own language; after which he
declared to them what were heaven and hell, and by what actions the one
and other were deserved.

The Brachmans, who had never heard any thing of Christianity before, and
had been listening to the father with great admiration, rose up, as soon
as he had done speaking, and ran to embrace him, acknowledging, that the
God of the Christians was the true God, since his law was so conformable
to the principles of our inward light. Every one of them proposed divers
questions to him; if the soul were immortal, or that it perished with the
body, and in case that the soul died not, at what part of the body it
went out; if in our sleep we dreamed we were in a far country, or
conversed with an absent person, whether the soul went not out of the
body for that time; of what colour God was, whether black or white; their
doctors being divided on that point, the white men maintaining he was of
their colour, the black of theirs: the greatest part of the pagods for
that reason being black.

The father answered all their questions in a manner so suitable to their
gross understanding, which was ignorant alike of things divine and
natural, that they were highly satisfied with him. Seeing them instructed
and disposed in this sort, he exhorted them to embrace the faith of Jesus
Christ, and gave them to understand, that the truth being made known to
them, ignorance could no longer secure them from eternal punishment.

But what victory can truth obtain over souls which find their interest in
following error, and who make profession of deceiving the common people?
"They answered," said the saint in one of his letters, "that which many
Christians answer at this day, what will the world say of us if they see
us change? And after that, what will become of our families, whose only
subsistence is from the offerings which are made to the pagods? Thus,
human interest, and worldly considerations, made the knowledge of the
truth serve only to their greater condemnation."

Not long afterwards, Xavier had another conference with a Brachman, who
lived in the nature of an hermit. He passed for the oracle of the
country, and had been instructed in his youth at one of the most famous
academies of the East. He was one of those who was knowing in their most
hidden mysteries, which are never intrusted by the Brachmans, but to a
certain select number of their wise men. Xavier, who had heard speak of
him, was desirous to see him; and he, on his side, was as desirous to see
Xavier. The intention of the saint was to try, in bringing over this
Brachman, if he could gain the rest, who were proud of being his
disciples.

After the first civilities which commonly pass betwixt two men, who
mutually covet an acquaintance, and know each other by reputation, the
discourse fell upon religion; and the Brachman found in himself, at the
very first, so great an inclination for Xavier, that he could not conceal
from him those secrets which a religious oath had bound him never to
disclose to any. He confest plainly to him, that the idols were devils,
and that there was only one God, creator of the world, and that this
God alone deserved the adoration of men: that those who held the rank of
wisdom amongst the Brachmans, solemnized the Sunday in his honour as a
holiday; and that day they only said this prayer, "O God, I adore thee at
this present, and for ever:" that they pronounced those words softly,
for fear of being overheard, and to preserve the oath which they had
made, to keep them secret. "In fine," said he, "it is to be read in our
ancient writings, that all the false religions should one day cease, and
the whole world should observe one only law."

The Brachman having disclosed these mysteries to Father Xavier, desired
him, in his turn, to reveal to him what was most mysterious in the
Christian law; and to engage him to deal the more freely with him, and
without the least disguise, swore, that he would inviolably, and for
ever, keep the secret. "I am so far," said the father, "from obliging
you to silence, that I will inform you of nothing you desire to know, but
on condition that you shall publish in all places what I tell you." The
Brachman having given him his word, he began to instruct him by these
words of Jesus Christ; "He who will believe, and be baptized, shall be
saved." This he expounded to him at large; at the same time, declaring to
him how baptism was necessary to salvation: and passing from one article
of faith to another, he placed the truth of the gospel in so advantageous
a light before him, that the Brachman declared upon the place he would
become a Christian, provided he might be so in secret; and that he might
have a dispensation from some certain duties of Christianity.

This so wicked a disposition made him unworthy of the grace of baptism;
he remained unconverted. Notwithstanding which, he desired to have in
writing the apostles' creed, together with our Saviour's words, which had
been expounded to him.

He saw Father Xavier a second time, and told him he had dreamed he was
baptized, and that afterwards he became his companion, and that they
travelled together preaching the gospel in far countries; but this dream
had no effect, and the Brachman would never promise to teach the people,
that there was one only God, creator of the world, "or fear," says he,
"that if he broke that oath which obliged him to secrecy, the devil
should punish him with death."

Thus the master, though convinced, yet not submitting, the scholars all
stood out; and in the sequel, of so great a multitude of idol-priests,
not one embraced the Christian doctrine from the heart. Nevertheless,
Xavier, in their presence, wrought many miracles which were capable of
converting them. Having casually met a poor creature all naked, and full
of ulcers from head to foot, he washed him with his hands, drank part of
the water wherewith he had washed him, and prayed by him with wonderful
fervency; when he had ended his prayer, the flesh of the diseased person
was immediately healed, and appeared as clean as that of an infant.

The process of the saint's canonization makes mention of four dead
persons, to whom God restored their life, at this time, by the ministry
of his servant. The first was a catechist, called Antonio Miranda, who
had been stung in the night by one of those venomous serpents of the
Indies, whose stings are always mortal. The second was a child, who fell
into a pit, and was drowned. The two others were a young man and a maid,
whom a pestilential fever had carried off after a short sickness.

But these miracles, which gave to the father the name of saint among the
Christians, and caused him to be called the God of Nature amongst the
Gentiles, had no other effect upon the Brachmans than to harden their
hearts, and blind their understandings. Xavier, despairing of their
conversion, thought himself bound to publish all their wicked actions,
and bring them into disrepute. And he performed it so successfully, that
those men, who were had in veneration by the people, came to be despised
by all the world; insomuch, that even the children laughed at them, and
publicly upbraided them with their cheats. They began at first to
threaten the people, according to their custom, with the anger of their
pagods; but seeing their menaces turned to scorn, they made use of
another artifice, to regain their credit.

What malice soever they harboured in their hearts against Father Xavier,
they managed it so well, that, to see their conduct, they might have been
taken for his friends. They made him visits; desired him to have some
kindness for them; they gave him many commendations; they presented
him sometimes with pearls and money. But the father was inexorable; and
for their presents, he returned them without so much as looking on them.

The decrying of those idol-priests contributed not a little to the
destruction of idolatry through all that coast. The life which Xavier
led, contributed full as much. His food was the same with that of
the poorest people, rice and water. His sleep was but three hours at the
most, and that in a fisher's cabin on the ground: for he had soon made
away with the mattress and coverlet, which the viceroy had sent him from
Goa. The remainder of the night he passed with God, or with his
neighbour.

He owns himself, that his labours were without intermission; and that he
had sunk under so great hardships, if God had not supported him. For, to
say nothing of the ministry of preaching, and those other evangelical
functions, which employed him day and night, no quarrel was stirring, no
difference on foot, of which he was not chosen umpire. And because those
barbarians, naturally choleric, were frequently at odds, he appointed
certain hours, for clearing up their misunderstandings, and making
reconciliations. There was not any man fell sick, who sent not for him;
and as there were always many, and for the most part distant from each
other, in the scattering villages, his greatest sorrow was, that he could
not be present with them all. In the midst of all this hurry, he enjoyed
those spiritual refreshments and sweets of heaven, which God only bestows
on souls, who regard nothing but the cross; and the excess of those
delights was such, that he was often forced to desire the Divine Goodness
to moderate them; according to what himself testifies in a letter to his
father Ignatius, though written in general terms, and in the third
person.

Having related what he had performed in the coast of the Fishery, "I have
no more to add," says he, "concerning this country, but only that they
who come hither to labour in the salvation of idolaters, receive so much
consolation from above, that if there be a perfect joy on earth, it is
that they feel." He goes on, "I have sometimes heard a man saying thus to
God, O my Lord, give me not so much comfort in this life; or if, by an
excess of mercy, thou wilt heap it on me, take me to thyself, and make me
partaker of thy glory, for it is too great a punishment to live without
the sight of thee."

A year and more was already past since Xavier had laboured in the
conversion of the Paravas; and in all this time, his two companions, Paul
de Camerine, and Francis Mansilla, were not come to his assistance,
though they had been arrived at Goa some months since. The number of
Christians daily multiplying to a prodigy, and one only priest not being
sufficient to cultivate so many new converts in the faith, or advance
them in Christian piety, the saint thought it his duty to look out for
succour. And besides, having selected some young men, well-natured, and
of a good understanding, qualified for the studies of divinity, and human
sciences, who being themselves well modelled, might return with him to
instruct their countrymen; he was of opinion, that he ought to conduct
them himself, without deferring his voyage any longer.

On these considerations he put to sea, on his return, about the
conclusion of the year 1543; and having got to Cochin by mid-January, he
arrived at Goa not long after. For the better understanding of what
relates to the education of those young Indians, whom Xavier brought, it
will be necessary to trace that matter from its original.

Before the coming of Father Francis to the Indies, Christianity had made
but little progress in those countries; and of an infinite number of
Pagans, inhabiting the isle of Goa, and the parts adjoining, scarce any
man thought of forsaking his idolatry. In the year 1541, James de Borba,
a Portuguese preacher and divine, whom king John III. had sent to India,
searching out the cause of so great a misfortune, found, that it was not
only because the Europeans could not easily learn the Indian tongue, but
also, because if an Indian happened to be converted, they exercised no
charity towards him; and that the children of the faithful, who died
poor, were destitute of succour in their wants.

He gave notice of this to the grand vicar, Michael Vaz, to the auditor
general, Pedro Fernandez, to the deputy-governor, Rodriguez de Castel
Blanco, and to the secretary of state, Cosmo Annez, who were all of them
his particular friends, and virtuous men. These being in the government,
considered of the means to remedy the growing evil, the foundation of
which had been discovered to them by Borba; and he himself excited the
people to be instrumental in so good a work. For, one day preaching, he
passionately bemoaned the damnation of so many Indians, and charged it on
the conscience of his auditory, that the salvation of that idolatrous
people depended, in some sort, on them. "I pretend not," said he, "that
you should go yourselves to the conquest of souls, nor learn barbarous
languages on purpose, to labour in the conversion of Gentiles. What I beg
of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, is, that each of you would
contribute something towards the maintenance of the new Christians. You
will perform by that, what it is not in your power to do by the preaching
of the gospel; and gain, by your temporal goods, those immortal souls,
for which the Saviour of the world has shed his blood."

The Holy Spirit, who had inspired his tongue, gave efficacy to his words,
by touching the hearts of those who heard them. Many of them being joined
together, it was resolved to form a company, which should provide for the
subsistence of those young Indians newly converted; and that society at
first was called, the Brotherhood of St Mary of the Light, (or
Illumination,) from the name of that church where the fraternity
assembled, to regulate that new establishment.

It is true, that, as great works are not accomplished all at once, in the
beginning of this, there was only founded a small seminary, for the
children of Goa, and those of the neighbourhood; but the revenues were
increased so much afterwards by the liberality of Don Estevan de Gama,
governor of the Indies, and by the bounty of John III., king of Portugal,
that all the idolatrous children, who turned Christians, of what country
soever, were received into it.

There was also a fund sufficient for the building a fair house and a
magnificent church in a larger plot: and the seminary, over which Borba
presided, was then called, the Seminary of Holy Faith.

Matters being thus disposed, above threescore children, of divers
kingdoms, and nine or ten different languages, were assembled, to be
educated in piety and learning. But it was soon perceived, that these
children wanted masters, capable of instructing and forming them,
according to the intention of the institute. God Almighty had
pre-ordained the seminary of holy faith, for the Society of Jesus; and it
was by a particular disposition of the Divine Providence, that the same
year, wherein the seminary was established, brought over the sons of
Ignatius to the Indies.

Accordingly, when Xavier first arrived at Goa, Borba offered him the
conduct of this new establishment, and used his best endeavours to engage
him in it. Xavier, who found an inward call to something more important,
and who already was conceiving in his mind the conversion of a heathen
world, would not coop himself up within a town, but in his secret
intentions, designed one of his companions for that employment, which was
presented to himself. In the meantime, Borba wrote into Portugal, to
Simon Rodriguez, and earnestly desired from him some fathers of the new
society, "for whom" he said, "the Almighty had prepared a house in the
new world, before their coming."

During these transactions, Paul de Camerin and Francis Mansilla arrived
at Goa, from Mozambique: Borba retained them both in the seminary, by
permission from the viceroy; and that was the reason why they followed
not Father Xavier to the coast of Fishery.

Xavier put into the seminary those young Indians whom he had brought
along with him; and whatever want he had otherwise of his companions,
he gave the charge of the Seminarists to Father Paul de Camerin, at the
request of Borba, who had the chief authority in the seminary. For it was
not till the year 1548, after the death of Borba, that the company
possest it in propriety, and without dependence. It then received the
name of a college, and was called the college of St Paul, from the title
of the church, which was dedicated to the conversion of the apostle of
the Gentiles. From thence it also proceeded, that the Jesuits were called
in that country, the fathers of St Paul, or the fathers Paulists, as they
are called in that country even at this day.

Father Xavier remained but a little time at Goa; and returned with all
expedition to his Paravas, with the best provision of gospel labourers,
which he could make. He was then desirous of sending a missioner of the
company to the isle of Socotora, not being in circumstances of going
thither in person; for he had not forgotten the promise, which he made to
God in behalf of that people, when he left them. But the small number of
companions which he had, was not sufficient for the Indies; and it was
not till three or four years afterwards that he sent Father Alphonso
Ciprian to Socotora.

Besides Mansilla, who had not yet received the order of priesthood, he
carried with him to the coast of Fishery two priests, who were Indians by
nation, and one Biscayner, called John Dortiaga. When they were arrived
there, he visited all the villages with them; and taught them the method
of converting idolaters to the faith, and of confirming those who were
already Christians, in it. After which, having assigned to each of them a
division at his particular province in the coast, he entered farther into
the country; and, without any other guide than the spirit of God.
penetrated into a kingdom, the language of which was utterly Unknown to
him, as he wrote to Mansilla in these, terms.

"You may judge, what manner of life Head here, by what I shall relate to
you. I am wholly ignorant of the language of the people, and they
understand as little of mine; and I have no interpreter. All I can
perform, is to baptize children, and serve the sick, an employment easily
understood, without the help of an interpreter, by only minding what they
want."

This was the preaching by which he declared Jesus Christ, and made the
Christian law appear amiable in that kingdom. For amongst those
barbarians, who reduce all humanity to the notion of not being inhuman,
and who acknowledge no other duties of charity, than forbearing to do
injuries, it was a thing of admiration, to see a stranger, who, without
any interest, made the sufferings of another man his own; and performed
all sorts of services to the poor, as if he had been their father, or
their slave. The name of the country is neither known, nor the fruits
which these works of charity produced. It is only certain, that the saint
continued not there any long time; and that a troublesome affair recalled
him to the coast of Fishery, when it was least in his intentions to
return.

The Badages, who are a great multitude of robbers, in the kingdom of
Bisnagar, idolaters, and enemies of the Christian name, naturally fierce,
always quarrelling amongst themselves, and at war with their neighbours,
after they had seized, by force of arms, on the kingdom of Pande, which
is betwixt Malabar and the coasts of Fishery, made an irruption into the
said coast, in the absence of Xavier. The Paravas were under a terrible
consternation at the sight of those robbers, whose very name was
formidable to them, not daring so much as to gather into a body, nor to
hazard the first brunt of war. They took flight, and abandoned their
country, without any other thought than of saving their lives. In order
to which, they threw themselves by heaps into their barks, some of them
escaping into little desart islands, others hiding amongst the rocks and
banks of sand, betwixt Cape Comorin, and the Isle of Ceylon. These were
the places of their retreat, together with their wives and children,
while the Badages overran the coast, and destroyed their country.

But what profits it to have escaped the sword, when, they must die of
hunger? Those miserable creatures, exposed to the burning heats of the
sun, wanted nourishment in their isles, and on their rocks, and numbers
of them daily perished.

In the mean time, the news of this excursion of the robbers, and the
flight of the Christians, was spread about, and Xavier heard it in the
country where he then resided. The misfortunes of his dear Paravas
touched him in the most tender part. He made haste to their relief; and,
having been informed that they were pressed with famine, he passed
speedily to the western coast, and earnestly solicited the Portuguese to
supply them in this their extreme necessity. He obtained twenty barks,
laden with all manner of provision, and himself brought it to their
places of retreat, where the poor Paravas, as many as were left alive of
them, were languishing without hope of comfort, and expecting death to
end their misery.

The sight of the holy man, whom all of them regarded as their common
father, caused them to forget some part of their misfortune, and seemed
to restore them to life. He gave them all imaginable consolation; and,
when they had somewhat recovered their strength, he brought them back to
their habitations, from whence the Badages were retired. Those plunderers
had swept all away, and the Christians were more poor than ever; he
therefore procured alms for them, and wrote a letter earnestly to the
Christians of another coast, to supply their brethren in distress.

The Paravas being resettled by degrees, Xavier left them under the
conduct of the missioners, whom he had brought for them, and turned his
thoughts elsewhere. He was desirous to have carried the sound of the
gospel into the more inland countries, which had never heard of Jesus
Christ; yet he forbore it at that time, upon this account, that in
those kingdoms where there were no Portuguese to protect the new
Christians, the idolaters and Saracens would make war on them, or
constrain them to renounce their Christianity to buy their peace.

Returning therefore by the western coasts, which were in the possession
of the Portuguese, he travelled by land, and on foot, according to his
custom, towards the coast of Travancore, which beginning from the point
of Comorin, lies extended thirty leagues along by the sea, and is full of
villages.

Being come thither, and having, by the good offices of the Portuguese,
obtained permission from the king of Travancore to publish the law of the
true God, he followed the same method which he had used at the Fishery;
and that practice was so successful, that all that coast was converted to
Christianity in a little space of time, insomuch, that forty-five
churches were immediately built. He writes himself, "That in one month
he baptized, with his own hand, ten thousand idolaters; and that,
frequently, in one day, he baptized a well peopled village." He says
also, "that it was to him a most pleasing object, to behold, that so
soon as those infidels had received baptism, they ran, vying with each
other to demolish the temples of the idols."

It was at that time, properly speaking, when God first communicated to
Xavier the gift of tongues in the Indies; according to the relation of a
young Portuguese of Coimbra, whose name was Vaz, who attended him in many
of his travels, and who being returned into Europe, related those
passages, of which himself had been an eye witness. The holy man spoke
very well the language of those barbarians, without having learnt it, and
had no need of an interpreter when he instructed. There being no church
which was capable of containing those who came to hear him, he led them
into a spacious plain, to the number of five or six thousand persons, and
there getting up into a tree, that he might the farther extend his voice,
he preached to them the words of eternal truth. There it was also, that
to the end the compass of the plain might serve in the nature of a
church, he sometimes celebrated the divine mysteries under the sails of
ships, which were spread above the altar, to be seen on every side.

The Brachmans could not suffer the worship of the pagods to be abandoned
in this manner; but were resolved to be revenged on the author of so
strange an alteration. In order to execute their design, they secretly
engaged some idolaters to lie in wait for him, and dispatch him
privately. The murderers lay in ambush more than once, and in the silence
of the night endeavoured to shoot him with their arrows. But divine
Providence would not suffer their malice to take place; of all their
arrows, one only wounded him, and that but slightly; as it were rather to
give him the satisfaction of shedding some blood in testimony of the
faith, than to endanger his life.

Enraged and desperate for having missed their aim, they sought him
everywhere; and not finding him, they set fire on three or four houses,
where they thought he might possibly be lodged. The man of God was
constrained one day to hide in the covert of a forest, and passed the
following night upon a tree, to escape the fury of his enemies, who
searched the whole forest to have found him. There was a necessity
sometimes that the faithful should keep guard about him day and night,
and to that purpose they placed themselves in arms about the house where
he was retired.

In the meantime, the Badages, who had ravaged the coast of Fishery the
year before, animated of themselves against the Christians, and perhaps
pushed forward by the devils, who saw their empire decaying day by day,
excited also by the desire of glory, and above all things by the hope of
booty, entered into the kingdom of Travancore, on the side of one of
those mountains-which confine on the cape of Comorin. Their former
success had rendered them so haughty and so insolent, that they flattered
themselves with an imagination that every thing would bend before them.
But not having now to do, as they had before, with simple fishers, they
were come in good order, and well armed, under the conduct of the Naiche,
or lord of Modure, a valiant and experienced captain.

The inhabitants of the maritime villages took fright at the noise of an
hostile army; and retiring, for the most part with great haste and
confusion into the inland country, carried even to the court the news of
the invasion.

The king of Travancore, whom the Portuguese call the Great Monarch,
because indeed he is the most powerful of all the kings of Malabar,
collecting his army with all speed, put himself at the head of it, and
marched towards the enemy. The battle, in all appearance, was likely to
be bloody, and the victory seemed assured to those vagabond robbers, who
were more in number, and better disciplined.

Father Xavier, so soon as he understood that the Badages were drawing
near, falling prostrate on the ground, "O Lord," said he; "remember that
thou art the God of mercies, and protector of the faithful: give not up
to the fury of these wolves that flock, of which thou hast appointed me
the pastor; that these new Christians, who are yet so feeble in the
faith, may not repent their embracing it, and that the infidels may not
have the advantage of oppressing those, who repose their confidence in
none but thee."

His prayer being ended, he arose, and inspired with a more than human
courage, which made him incapable of fear, he takes a troop of fervant
Christians, and, with a crucifix in his hand, runs with them towards the
plain, where the enemies were marching in battalia. When he arrived
within distance of being heard, he stopped and said to them, in a
threatening voice, "I forbid you, in the name of the living God, to pass
farther, and on his part, command you to return the way you came."

These few words cast a terror into the minds of those soldiers who were
at the head of the army; they remained confounded, and without motion.
They, who marched after them, seeing the foremost advanced not, asked the
reason of it; answer was returned from the first ranks, that they had
before their eyes an unknown person habited in black, of a more than
human stature, of a terrible aspect, and darting fire from his eyes. The
most hardy were desirous to satisfy themselves concerning what was told
them; they were seized with amazement at the sight, and all of them fled
with a precipitate confusion.

The new Christians who had followed Xavier, ran to declare to the
neighbouring villages this wonderful event. The fame of it was suddenly
spread abroad, and the king, who was marching towards the enemy with
great speed, heard the report of it on his way. He caused Xavier to be
brought into his presence, and embraced him as the redeemer of
Travancore; and after he had publicly thanked him for so eminent a
service, he said thus to him: "I am called the Great Monarch; and, from
henceforth, you shall be called the Great Father."

The saint gave the king to understand, that it was only Jesus Christ to
whom he ought to pay his acknowledgments; and, as for himself, he ought
only to be regarded as a weak instrument, who could do nothing of his own
power. The Pagan king comprehended nothing of his meaning; and the two
vices which are the common obstacles to the conversion of the great, that
is to say, the concupiscence of the flesh, and pride of heart, hindered
him afterwards from embracing of the faith; which notwithstanding, he
caused an edict to be published throughout his kingdom, whereby all men
were commanded to obey the Great Father, as they would his proper person;
and that whoever desired to be a Christian, might be so without any
apprehension of danger to ensue. He went so far as even to call Xavier
his brother; and bestowed on him large sums of money, all which the
servant of God employed in charities on the poor.

An edict so favourable to the law of our belief, made many Christians
even in the court, though contrary to the example of the prince. But the
miraculous actions of Xavier finished the conversion of the whole
kingdom. Besides his curing all sorts of diseases, he raised four persons
from the dead, two women and two men. The act of canonization relates no
more of the resurrection of the women, but the bare matter of fact,
without any circumstances; but the resurrection of the men is related at
large, of which the substance is in the ensuing account.

Xavier preached in one of the maritime villages of Travancore, called
Coulan, near Cape Comoriu. Some were converted by his first sermons; but
the greater party remained in their ancient superstition, after having
often heard him. The most obstinate, it is true, listened to him with
delight, and found the maxims of the gospel to be most conformable to the
light of reason: but the pleasure which they took in hearing, produced
nothing; and they satisfied themselves with admiring the Christian law,
without troubling themselves to follow it.

The father one day finding, that he spoke to them of God without working
any thing upon their hearts, prayed fervently to the Almighty in their
behalf; and, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, his countenance more than
ordinarily inflamed, and with abundance of tears, besought him to take
pity on those obstinate idolaters. "O Lord," said he, "all hearts are in
thy hands; thou canst bend, as it pleases thee, the most stubborn, and
soften the most obdurate; do that honour, on this day, to the blood and
the name of thy beloved Son." Scarcely had he ended his prayer, when he
was assured it was answered: turning himself to his audience, with the
air of one inspired, "Well," said he, "since you will not believe me on
my word, behold that which will make me be believed. What testimony do
you desire from me, of those truths which I have declared to you?" At the
same instant he recalled to his remembrance, that a man had been there
buried the day before. Then resuming his discourse in the same tone that
he began it, "Open," said he, "the sepulchre which you closed yesterday,
and bring out the body; but observe carefully, whether he who was buried
be truly dead."

The most incredulous ran hastily to take up the corpse; far from finding
any the least sign of life, they perceived it began to putrify with a
noisome scent. They took off the linen in which he was wrapped, and laid
the dead man at the feet of the father, who was come to the place of
burial. The barbarians gazed with astonishment on the dead body, and
impatiently expected the event. The saint fell upon his knees, and, after
a short prayer, addressing himself to the dead, "I command thee," said
he, "in the holy name of the living God, to arise, for the confirmation
of that religion which I preach." At these words, the dead arose of
himself, and appeared not only living, but vigorous, and in perfect
health. All who were present cried out, with a loud voice, "That the God
of the Christians was omnipotent; and that the law which the great Father
preached was true." In consequence of which, they threw themselves at his
feet, desired baptism, and received it on the place.

The other dead person whom the apostle raised to life, was a young man,
and a Christian, who died at Mutan, on the same coast, betwixt Carjapatan
and Alicale. He had been dead above four-and-twenty hours, of a
pestilential fever. Xavier met the corpse by chance, as they were
carrying it to the grave. The parents of the dead man, who were of the
greatest quality in all the country, accompanied the funeral pomp, with
all their kindred, according to the custom of that nation. As comfortless
as they were, yet upon sight of the saint, they recovered courage, and,
embracing his knees, implored him to restore their son to life; being
persuaded, that what was not to be effected by the power of nature, would
cost him only a word speaking. Xavier, moved by their affliction, and
excited by their faith, begged the assistance of the Most High, made the
sign of the cross, and threw holy water on the dead, after which he took
him by the hand, raised him up in the name of the Lord, and restored him
living to his father and mother.

To preserve the memory of an action so wonderful and so authentic, the
parents of the man they raised erected a great cross on the place where
the miracle was done; and were accustomed afterwards to go often thither,
and pray to God before it. These resurrections were so famous through all
the country, and made so great impressions on the souls of the
inhabitants, that the people came thronging from all parts to behold the
great Father, and to receive baptism from his hands; insomuch, that the
whole kingdom of Travancore was Subjected to Christ Jesus in few months;
and the king, with some few of his chief courtiers, were the only
remaining idolaters in the land, by a terrible judgment of Almighty God,
who sometimes abandons princes to their unruly passions, and departs from
the great, while he communicates himself to those of the lowest quality.




THE LIFE OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER.


BOOK III.


_He writes into Europe for a supply of missioners. The saint's letter to
the doctors of Sorbonne. Ambassadors from the isle of Manar to the saint.
He sends a missioner to the isle of Manar. The constancy of the
Christians of Manar. A miraculous cross, and its effects. The enterprise
of Xavier against the persecutor. New motives for his journey to Cambaya.
He persuades Michael Vaz to go to Portugal. His letter to the king of
Portugal. The success of the voyage undertaken by Michael Vaz. He
converts a debauched Portuguese. He engages the viceroy of the Indies to
make war on the king of Jafanatapan. Divers predictions of the saint. He
goes to join the Portuguese fleet, and raises one from the dead. He frees
the island of Manar from the plague. The enterprise of Jafanatapan
defeated. He designs the voyage of Macassar, and the conversion of many
kingdoms. He goes to the sepulchre of St Thomas, to consult God
concerning his voyage to Macassar. What happened to him in his passage to
Meliapor. He comes to Meliapor; the monuments which he there finds of the
apostle St Thomas. He is threatened by devils, and afterwards beaten by
them. He learns the will of God concerning his design. The conversions
which he makes at Meliapor. He brings a great sinner to repentance.
Divers wonderful events which encrease his fame. He persuades a rich
merchant to evangelical perfection. The new convert falls from grace, and
becomes suspected to the Saint. His charity to a soldier, who had lost
all his money at play. He arrives at Malacca; a digression concerning it.
In what condition he found the town, and what he did in order to reform
it. He labours with success at Malacca. He revives a dead maid. He
receives letters from Europe by the new missioners who are sent him. He
defers the voyage to Macassar, and designs another. He foreknows, and
foretels the ruin of Malacca. He goes to Amboyna, and what happens to him
in his voyage. He arrives at Amboyna: What he performs there. He converts
the idolaters and Moors of Amboyna. A Spanish fleet arrives at Amboyna.
He assists the Spanish fleet during the contagion amongst them. He passes
into divers islands. He recove

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