CHAPTER IV
IGNATIUS had achieved the laborious and almost hopeless-seeming purpose he had set before himself; building upward from the foundations, he had completed the education necessary for his design of founding an apostolic Order, an Order of intellectual and spiritual combatants. Manresa had given him his spiritual panoply: Paris had completed his intellectual panoply. He v^as now ready to go forth about his Father's business.
The Captain, indeed, was ready; but where were his Company, where were his Free Lances, his condottieri of Christ? In Salamanca, where he had left behind the little band that was to prepare itself for the leader's call when that should come? Alack! deprived of their Captain, the little regiment had disbanded. His judgment and his hopes were betrayed in every one of them.
Through a noble Spanish lady, who served him faithfully, he had procured for Calixto a Portuguese bursary at the University of Paris, and money to join him there; but Calixto did not join him. Instead, he made two voyages to the New World, grew rich — and there was an end of Calixto the Jesuit, who never was a Jesuit. Caceres retreated to his native Segovia, turned soldier, and went to ruin. French Jean and Arteaga alone kept to Religion in diverse ways, and did not lose their calling though they forsook Ignatius. But we need not follow them. Paris, as we know, which provided for Ignatius the education which Spain denied him, helped also to provide him with his army. Yet be justice done to majestic Spain, the nation which, Hke her putative child Ireland, fell to ruin through the noble fault of over-loyalty to her past. All but one of these first Jesuits, like their founder himself, though educated in Paris were native to Spain.
First of them was Peter Favre, Ignatius's roomcompanion from the time he entered Ste. Barbe. His brilliant intellectual attainments caused him to be assigned the duty of assisting the new student in his private studies. So there arose an interchange of influence: Favre imparted to Ignatius his mastery of secular science, Ignatius imparted to Favre his mastery of divine science. Neither Spaniard nor Frenchman was Favre: he was a shepherd of Villaret in Geneva diocese, where, as a boy, he used to preach from a rock pulpit to the peasantry. Five years' sheep-tending, and he was placed with a master, at his own urgent request; and finally, backed by the advice of a Carthusian relative who did not live to see his advice thus come to fruit, he was sent to Paris. It was one of the innumerable instances which show the Church as the sole democratic institution of former days, the sole body which off^ered la carrier e ouverte aux talents. At twelve the boy had made a vow of chastity, and in Paris he led an irreproachable life: but he was sore troubled by temptations and scruples, so that he hesitated about the completion of his University course, thought of marriage, or at best of becoming a simple priest. Through two years of this trouble, Ignatius, with the experience behind him of his own terrible Manresan struggle, led him safe. The " Exercises '* crowned the process, and brought Favre to his ordination. When Ignatius saw that the moment had come, he opened to him the design of his Order, and met with instant adhesion. Favrewent home to obtain his father's consent to this new step; and returned with it and nothing else; so that he remained, hke his master, dependent upon alms. Humble, timid, lacking in self-reliance, he gave little apparent promise of the bold and prominent part he afterwards played in the Society. It was the magnetism of his leader and associates which raised him above himself.
The second of the band was the great name of Francis Xavier. He was the youngest son of a poor but noble Navarrese family, his father Don Juan Xavier, and was therefore a Spaniard. His two elder brothers entered the army, but he elected to push his fortunes in the Church. A nature not unlike Ignatius's own in the latter's early days, he was brilliant, devoted to study, generous, full of charm, and full of ambition. He despised the lowliness of Ignatius, as Ignatius himself would have despised it in his worldly period: to his lofty and aspiring soul there seemed nothing in common between them, and — unlike Favre — he scorned the advances of the poor Spanish scholar. After but four years' study (in 1531) he had begun publicly to lecture on Aristotle at the College of Beauvais: applauded on all hands for his remarkable success, he delighted in his reputation, and seemed effectually removed from the Saint's influence. But, true to his Pauline method of being all things to all men for Christ's sake, Ignatius won him as Schiller won the hostile Goethe, by appealing to his pride in himself. He joined in the applauses bestowed on Xavier, spread his reputation and increased his following. Xavier began to incline 81 L to such a very discerning man; nor could his generosity remain insensible to kindness so delicate and unobtrusively friendly. The barrier removed, Ignatius's magnetism soon told on him; and he w^as at last converted (if v^e are to speak of conversion in regard to a life so blameless) by the repeated maxim, " What shall it profit a man if he gain the w^hole w^orld, and suffer the loss of his ow^n soul? " He came finally to share the Saint's room, and a second wras added to Ignatius's new intimates. His work prevented the " Exercises,'' but he listened to the Saint's teachings. There was the usual interior conflict before he bowed himself wholly to the new call; but he achieved the resolution at last. Then came external obstacles. His studies were at an end, and his father recalled him to Spain, where he hoped that preferment in the Church awaited his clever son. Francis's sister Magdalen, a nun in the convent of St. Clare at Gandia, procured his stay at Paris. She begged their father to let him remain till his theological course was completed, for God had chosen him to be His messenger to the Indies, and a strong pillar of His Church. Xavier remained, to be the greatest member of the divine Free Company and Ignatius's most illustrious lieutenant, and to accomplish that dream of evangelising the heathen which the Founder was not himself destined to accomplish.
His own attraction for others was soon evidenced by an incident which came near to ending the career of Ignatius. He had a friend, one Miguel Navarro, whom he had assisted. Jealous, fearing perhaps that he might no longer command Xavier's purse, he attempted to assassinate Ignatius. He scaled the Saint's window by night; but when, dagger in hand, he reached the top of the ladder, a voice — actual or the voice of his conscience — demanded what he did, he was terror-stricken. He leaped into the room, fell at the feet of his intended victim, confessed all, and was exhorted to reform.
Meanwhile Spain sent forward to Ignatius further recruits; yea, that Alcala which had cast him out. To Diego Lainez of Castilian Almazan, to Alfonso Salmeron of Toledo, nineteen-year-old scholar already distinguished in Hebrew and Greek, both students at Alcala, their countryman's Parisian fame was borne. As he passed the door of a Paris inn, two newly arrived young fellows were alighting from their beasts. Lainez recognised the man described to him, the teacher they had come 8,0 far to seek; and Ignatius learned that two more volunteers for his heroic enterprise stood in his presence. They, too, were accepted, and passed the ordeal of the "Exercises." Then one, Nicholas Alfonso Bobadilla, from a village near Leonese Palencia, sought alms of Ignatius. Successful teacher of philosophy in Valladolid, he was come to Paris for his theological course; like Xavier, aristocratic and poor. Individual and bold, he fell under his compatriot's influence. So also did another scholar of noble family, Simon Rodriguez, handsome, graceful, noble, and amiable, with a magnetic attraction for youth, but of a contemplative character, and lacking the strong and active initiative of Bobadilla or Ignatius himself. More Carmelite than Jesuit by nature was this yet distinguished Jesuit. His dying lather had pro phesied to the mother tlie religious greatness of the child in her arms, and he had been trained «3 from infancy for the Church. He shared Ignatius's passionate dream of a mission to the Holy Land; and this dream, which to neither was to be more than a dream, was, nevertheless, of itself a tie between them.
Yet another Ignatius sought to enlist in the growing ranks of his small but elect force: Majorcan Nadal, whose eminent qualities he divined. But Nadal took out a Testament, and, declaring it enough for him, asked what better the Saint had to offer; for otherwise he would not follow him. None the less, Ignatius's now ripened discernment of souls had not been astray, though for ten years it seemed so. At the ten years' end, Nadal became a Jesuit.
But without Nadal, the band of celestial adventurers was already formed when, in that March of 1534, Ignatius's completion of his course enabled him to begin his so long-meditated design. He could look on it with pride and hope. Even now he clung to his old obstinate idea of a Palestinian apostolate. The destined Jesuits, though many of them familiar with each other as followers of a common friend and teacher, had still no inkling of their common future. Privately and severally Ignatius sounded them, found doubts and diverse views, and bade them arm themselves by prayer and meditation for an appointed day of decision. In July 1534, they met him according to their several agreements — each supposing that to him alone the momentous proposal had been made, that he alone had been summoned to announce his decision this day. Astonished they looked round on each other:
Salmeron? Are we, then — is it possible? — all here with the one object? And you — the very man 1 would have asked for a comrade — and you, and you? If it be so (as it would seem) we are indeed stronger than I knew; and this is truly a blessed meeting! '*
Something like to this were the thoughts of each as they gazed one on another, or exchanged brief and glad greeting; then, as assurance gained them, their southern natures found vent in tears, prostration, and prayers of gratitude. The leader began by prayer, and proceeded to address them. He had resolved to devote himself to God by vows of poverty, chastity, and service in Palestine. The indomitable project of converting the Holy Land was the design he unfolded to them, in this he asked their assistance. He promised lifelong fidelity to those who would be faithful to him. When he had finished, there was no longer hesitation; all were of one mind, one heart, and the mind and heart of all were one with his. But what if at Venice they should find it impossible to embark for Palestine? Wait a year, they determined; then, if even then, there should still be no possibility, the vow must lapse; they would then go on to Rome, and hold themselves at the order of the Pope. That resolve, adopted as an alternative, was, in the decrees of God, the sole resolve which mattered.
Even now, the untiring patience of Ignatius delayed the whole enterprise for three years. Some had still to finish their theological course; therefore January 25, 1537, ^^^ fixed for their assembling at Venice. A far trysting-day enough! So they determined to bind and confirm themselves by formal vow before the altar; and the fifteenth of August, the feast of the Assumption, was chosen for the solemn rite. They followed the " Exercises," and on the appointed day (says Favre), " went to the chapel of Notre Dame, near Paris, and each made a vow to go at the time fixed to Jerusalem, and to place ourselves when we returned in the hands of the Pope; and to leave, after a certain interval, our kinsfolk and our nets, and keep nothing but the money necessary for our journey."
That was the birthday of the Society of Jesus, or the Company of Jesus, as its Founder first called it. On the same day, during the next two years, the Httle band returned to the same church and solemnly renewed their vows. It was in the chapel of St. Denis, on the slope of Montmartre hill, that the historic event took place, the sequel of that Vigil of the Armour with which Ignatius began his career at Montserrat. The wheel had come full circle, and the solitary knight who then watched his arms now knelt at the head of his army, which under him was to go forth conquering and to conquer. In that hour, Rainolda of German Arnheim told her relation, James Canisius, that his son Peter should belong to a Society of Jesus, which should arise for the special behoof of their own Germany, and to the gain of the world. That Peterkin, as we all know, became Blessed Peter Canisius, S.J.
The new associates, coming forth from the chapel, sat them down by a spring on the western aspect of the height — a spring, like our white Winefride's Holywell, traditionally stained with the martyrs' blood — and there breaking their fast together, spent the residue of the blessed day in holy and fraternal chat of their immediate plans. The Sacraments, attended with a frequency that shocked by its novelty the pious opinion of the day, weekly Communion, daily meditation and prayer — these were the simple means they adopted to maintain their common fervour unimpaired. Nay, there were two more: and will the proudly exclusive English Protestant credit it?^one was his own patented privilege of Bible-reading! These Spanish Papists had the audacity to make use of the Bible. The other was the reading of the " Imitation," the one book we know Ignatius specially valued besides the Bible.
Beyond these devices, they were to keep in touch by frequent meetings in each other's rooms, even as Newman and his fellows kept in touch during the Oxford Movement. By these methods, faithfully carried out, they held together during their remaining years in Paris. The talents of such a band, fired by such common zeal, inevitably began to make them men of note — laymen of note — in the University; and their sails were filled by the breath of official favour which now blew prosperously on their chief.
But this was a too comfortable good fortune, a too dangerous prosperity, and wholesome hostility soon witnessed to the vitality of their work. The attack came through the very conditions which they were specially combating. Already, in Paris, they had found and skirmished with the enemy whom it was their true task to fight. Not Moslems, not heathen of the East, were for them the enemy; not Palestine the field of their warfare. Their battlefield was Europe, the enemy was close upon them: they had to take the front against the army of the Reformation over-running the North and West, the army of the Renascence triumphantly occupying Italy, and threatening even Rome.
Still blind to this duty, this destiny, the Company of Jesus at its very outset was, nevertheless, involved in the fated conflict. In Paris the outposts and far-flung skirmishers of the Reformation came in touch with the nascent army, lessoning it for its future battle. Under Francis I. the Reformers were beginning what under Henry III. should rend France in twain as the Huguenot movement. To the eyes of gay Francis, who cared for none of these things, save when they meant trouble for himself or his throne, it was at present purely academic. He was a patron of art, letters, the Renascence, and troubled not himself about the opinions of the artists or scholars who flocked to his Court. Greek and Hebrew were at low tide in France, at high tide in Germany; he imported professors from Germany, and with Greek and Hebrew imported the Reformation. If your orthodox professor be ill at his trade, and your unorthodox professor a skilled craftsman, shall the excellence of the former '< theological principles compensate for the villainy of his Greek particles? He professes, not religion, but Greek. It was precisely to remedy this state of things (among other matters) that the Jesuit Society arose. The yfcry ensign of the Society (so to speak) was flown in Ignatius's determination that to be a Saint did not dispense him from being a scholar. Nor were the German professors all. Calvin had studied at Paris, preceding the very footsteps of Ignatius, from the College Montaigu to the College Ste. Barbe: the great Jesuit had trodden the tracks of the great heresiarch. Now Calvin himself followed the professors to Paris, and revisited his old college. Ignatius and Calvin brushed elbows. Rabelais was in Paris, a terrible Renascence force. There, too, was Servetus, shortly to become the adherent of Calvin. The Reformation spread: Marguerite and Renee, sisters of Francis, gave royal patronage to Protestants. Calvin gained the Rector of the University, Kopp. There was an uproar: Calvin fled from Paris to Marguerite of Navarre; Kopp hid, and then also fled. But the new opinions continued to spread. Ignatius, with his followers, was active in encountering them, and gathering back to the Church the seceders, or heartening the waverers. He laboured so fervidly, fasted and did 89 M penance with such disregard of the lesson taught by his Manresan extremes in austerity, that his health once more broke down; again constant pain crippled alike study and prayer. He was, indeed, about to revisit Spain, to fulfil the order of the doctors, and to settle family affairs for some of his disciples, who dreaded the remonstrances and opposition of those at home, should they themselves go thither.
But he was prevented. The assailers of heresy were accused of heresy. The Saint was founding a new sect. The " Exercises " — who could say what heresy this new and unknown book (and by a layman) might contain? An information was laid before the Inquisitor, at this time one Laurent. Ignatius at once met the charge by demanding an inquiry. Laurent behaved with the greatest courtesy. He did not credit the accusation; he said, nevertheless, that it would be well if the " Exercises " were submitted to him. Ignatius complied; and, far from condemning the book, Laurent was so impressed that he begged a copy for himself.
" Let me, then, have an attestation of my innocence,'' said the Saint.
" Not necessary," rejoined the Inquisitor.
But Ignatius persisted, seeing the value of an official absolution. With a notary and certain doctors of the University as witnesses, he went before Laurent, and extorted the formal attestation. It was necessary, for Lutheranism was making head in all directions; the Lutheran sovereigns of Germany were intermittently in revolt against Charles V.; the Turks were menacing Europe and ravaging the Italian coast; Pope Clement VII., in this year 1534, died of grief, anxiety, and enfeebled age. Every new teacher was inevitably suspect to the Church; and, knowing the number and activity of his enemies, Ignatius could not prudently neglect any precaution. Then, having obtained this attestation, and successfully countered this last attempt against the infant Society, he was free to resume his journey into Spain.