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THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 



By the same Author 

PILGRIMAGE 
AND BATTLE 

A Volume of Poems 

Crown 8vo, gilt 
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HEADLEY BROS. 
PUBLISHERS, LTD. 
Kingsway House, W.C. 




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PORTRAIT, OF ST. FfeANGJtS XA VIER 

(From fthcjirit Latin Itytion of ^Tufsellinut' Life) 



THE LIFE OF 

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Evangelist, Explorer, Mystic 



BY 

EDITH ANNE STEWART 



With Translations from his Letters by 
DAVID MAGDONALD, B.D. 



HEADLEY BROS. PUBLISHERS, LTD. 
KINGSWAY HOUSE, KINGSWAY, W.C. 

MCMXVII 



TTENECIDOS los trabaios y acabados de pasar los peligros, no 
JD sabe el hombre contar ny escreuir lo que por el passo al tiempo 
que estaua en ellos, quedando una memoria imprimida de lo pasado, 
para no cansar de seruir d tan buen Senor, asi en lo presente como 
en lo porvenir, esperando en el Senor, cuyas misericordias no 
tienen fin, que le dard fuergas para lo seruir. FRANCISCO DE XAVIER. 

Mementote prsepositorum vestrorum, qui vobis locuti sunt 
verbum Dei : quorum intuentes exitum conversationis, imitamini 
fidem. Jesus Christus heri, et hodie : ipse et in secula. HEB. xiii. 7-8. 




UNIVERSITY 
OF CHICAGO 
UBRAP.Y 



TO 
MY FATHER 

AND 

MOTHER 



DIN/ 



PREFACE 

THE Lives of St. Francis Xavier fall into three main classes- 
the erudite, the popular, and the pious. An addition to 
the first or third of these groups would have been beyond 
the capacity of the present writer, even had they not already 
had abundant attention from the devout and the scholarly. 
But since the original Letters and documents have been 
printed no popular Life of the Saint has appeared in England. 
The present work is an attempt to fill that blank. 

In studying the life of Xavier we turn first of all to his 
Letters. Until a few years ago these were only accessible in 
MS. or in very poor Latin versions, or in translations based 
on these Latin versions. But between 1899 and 1914 the 
Society of Jesus in Madrid published all the existing Letters 
and writings in their original forms, together with numerous 
other relative letters and documents, and the two oldest 
and most valuable Lives, Teixeira's and Valignano's, until 
then only available in MS. This great collection, covering 
about 2,000 pages, is called the Monumenta Xaveriana, and is 
a part of the Monumenta Historica Societatis Jesu. 

A list of subsidiary sources will be found in the Biblio- 
graphy on p. 345, 

In an age that for all but the very wise and the very 
foolish is an age of moral and mental bewilderment, it is 
possible to understand why so many men and women are 
scanning the faces of the saints for help and comfort and 
light. There every disease of faith finds, by universal 
consent, some gift of restoration and healing. For in all these 
sicknesses there is present a blindness to the moral beauty 
and grandeur of man, and the contemplation of the lives of 
the saints, and the inevitable sense of communion with them 
which follows, restore again to the lonely mind and heart 
the far-off morning hours when it was no startling thing to 
catch a glimpse of some passing angel's face. And more 
than that, this contemplative communion recalls us to the 
very Holy of Holies itself : " For both He that sanctifieth and 
they that are sanctified are all of one." 



8 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

How often, in this age of ecclesiastical division and so- 
called " religious " strife, have we found comfort in the 
knowledge that the Church Invisible is greater than the 
churches which are seen, and that we have sat at the table 
of the Lord, if not with the Archbishop of Canterbury, yet 
with Ignatius of Antioch ; if not with the Pope at Rome, yet 
with Francis of Assisi ; if not in the City Temple, yet in the 
Temple of a lovelier city, not made with hands, eternal in 
the heavens ! There we have drunk of the fruit of the vine 
in a company which our own love and reverence are sufficient 
for ever to unite in our hearts. 

And both the homeliness and the wonder of this feast are 
enhanced by every fragment of our knowledge of how those 
saints and prophets and heroes spent their days and nights 
when they lived upon this planet. We wish to know the 
simple and small details of their everyday life, just as lovers, 
when they meet again, ask each other how they spent each 
moment of the time of absence. 

This is a healthy and a helpful curiosity, and certainly 
its satisfaction does not lead to pride. The lives of the 
saints are strangely disconcerting ; their gifts were so like 
our own. Our failure lies, we learn, in a lack of receptive- 
ness rather than in a lack of opportunity. A man's greatness 
does not depend on his circumstances, but on the way in 
which he reacts to circumstance. 

In mediaeval times the glory of the Church was ingathered 
in the aureoles of her saints ; in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries it flamed from the swords of her reformers. In 
those days, outside Italy at least, to be a great man and 
to be a reformer were almost synonymous terms. The 
sickness of religion and morals was so widespread that 
in every department of life the specialist could trace a mischief 
and prescribe a cure. 

Philosophers blamed scholasticism, and cried out for a 
return to the Early Fathers, or for a frank acceptance of 
the New Learning. 

Lawyers, fresh from the perusal of Theodosius and 
Justinian, preached the separation of ecclesiastical and 
civil law. 

Statesmen saw that the modern ideal of national unity 

and independence could never exist alongside of the despotism 

. of a degenerate Papacy. Some of them, such as Cranmer 



PREFACE. 9 

and a number of the German princes, not only refused to 
tolerate a State controlled by the Church, but established a 
Church in subordination to the State. 

Ecclesiastics provided councils and inquisitions, re-estab- 
lished monastic discipline, and founded schools of theology. 

But Francis Xavier was next-of-kin to none of these : the 
name of reformer sits ill on him. To find his fellows we 
must look southwards across the Alps, to the painters of the 
Italian Renascence. In this, indeed, he was one with the 
reformers his permanent contribution is one of character 
rather than of thought, but he has a still deeper affinity 
with the artists. For his genius, like theirs, was a happy 
and positive one. He was intoxicated with the beauty of 
holiness. There is a colour, a tender grace, a naive childlike- 
ness about his life that we associate with the angels of Fra 
Angelico or the bright figures of Botticelli. It was not his 
to pull down and destroy ; he found it difficult even to 
reprimand. We cannot picture him chasing the money- 
changers out of the Temple with a knotted cord. 

Had he been confronted by all the knaves of Europe in a 
body, he would, with that glowing and smiling countenance 
which the old biographers delight to speak of, have rendered 
thanks for so great an opportunity, and instantly have 
begun preaching to them "the Law of Christ our Lord." 
One feels that he simply took for granted that every man 
was a desperate sinner like himself, and as willing as himself 
to find and to serve God. To him the only renascence 
was that of the individual soul. He was therefore peculiarly 
aloof from the circumstances of his time. Had Ignatius 
Loyola never come to Paris, it is likely that the " heretics " 
from whom, Xavier afterwards wrote, he had been " de- 
livered " would have annexed him to Protestantism. They, 
like Loyola, had appealed to him by a great enthusiasm. 
But Xavier as a Protestant would not have been very different 
from Xavier of the Company of the Name of Jesus, The 
greatest of Loyola's disciples was the least of the Jesuits. 
At home or abroad, within the visible Church or without it, 
Francis, after his conversion, knew nothing but Christ and 
Him crucified, and could do nothing but preach Him to the 
Gentiles. 

He had in him the makings of an arch-dilettante, versatile, 
brilliant, so much all things to all men that what for other 



10 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

people would have been acting was to him the only sincerity ; 
he was interested in life, in men, and in things to an extent 
that would have absorbed all the energies of a lesser man. 
But he and this sets the seal on his genius directed all 
this versatility and wealth of self-giving to one single goal ; 
there seems hardly a moment of his experience or an iota 
of his knowledge that is not used, in his favourite phrases, 
" to increase our holy faith " or "to gain much fruit of 
souls." 

The life of Francis was dominated by the greatest of all 
passions, the passion for human souls ; in him we see that 
ardour burning with a splendour rare even among the saints. 
This is his greatest claim to Christliness, that he spent his 
life in seeking to save those that were lost. 



The name of the translator of the Letters is on the title- 
page. But that is not enough : I blush to think what the 
rest of the book would have been without his patient and 
continual aid. He has come to the rescue in every chapter, 
almost, I might say, on every page. To him, and to the 
Rev. Hugh Watt, B.D., of Bearsden, who has read the 
proofs and given much valuable help and advice, I am quite 
hopelessly indebted. 

E. A. S. 



CONTENTS 



FAQK 

PREFACE ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 7 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 15 

CHAPTER I 

MAKERS OP SPAIN 

Spanish independence of Rome reasons for this independence Santiago 
Dominic Raymond Lull opposing influences in the Spanish renascence 
Spanish Inquisition the scope of the Catholic Reaction work of Cardinal 
Ximenes Spanish religious genius focussed in the Society of Jesus ... 17 

CHAPTER II 

CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD 

(1506-1525) 

Traditions of Christian family life \ipheld during the Renascence, both in Italy 
and in Spain history of the family of Xavier the castle of Xavier birth 
of Francis the troubles of Navarre death of Francis' father early 
surroundings of the Saint demolishment of the keep poverty of the 
family siege of Pampeluna Loyola and the brothers of Francis he 
prepares for Paris ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 31 

CHAPTER III 

AT THE COLLEGE OF STE. BARBE 

(1525-1529) 

Decline of the university far advanced in 1525 Fabrian Protestantism pre- 
cedes Lutheranism and Calvinism in Paris Jacques Le Fevre d'Etaples 
a letter to Calvin early days of Francis in Paris the college .of Ste. 
Barbe Francis enrols as a student in arts value of university degrees 
at that time Principal Gouvea fellow-students and professors Peter 
Faber Mathurin Cordier George Buchanan Erasmus Calvin Noel 
Beda letter from a priest at Meliapor about the student days friend- 
ship with the Lutherans love of dress extravagance protests from 
home letter from Xavier's sister Madeline death of his mother-'-his 
brothers marry ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 43 

CHAPTER IV 

THE FOUNDATION OB 1 THE ORDER 

(1528-1534) 

Ignatius Loyola comes to Paris his earlier life he shares a room in Ste. Barbe 
with Peter Faber and Xavier religious strife increases Loyola and La 
Salle Xavier takes his arts degree appointed Professor at Beauvais 
college death of his sister Madeline critical months Faber becomes 
Loyola's first disciple Xavier his second the Company begins to take 
shape the dedication at Montmartre Francis receives the Spiritual 
Exercises ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 59 



12 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

CHAPTER V 

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES PAGE 

Important part which the Exercises have played in Catholic religious life dis- 
appointment of the reader on first examining the book reason of this the 
place of the priest in giving the Exercises summary of text the anno- 
tations the precepts directions for self-examination the first week 
Calvin's criticism the second week meditation of the Two Standards 
note on three degrees of humility note on Decisions the third week 
rules on abstinence the fourth week the three methods of prayer 
summary of the Life of Christ various rules the profound psychological 
knowledge displayed, especially in the later chapters the spiritual cunning 
of the scheme the Exercises not an end in themselves this separates them 
from mediaeval works of contemplation is this their weakness or strength ? 
Gothein's criticism other critics the accusation of " crass materialism " 
is this criticism justifiable ? the confessional quality of the book how it 
was built up Loyola's supreme emphasis on the " end " he fails to 
enunciate the spiritual unity of means and end he reduces religious expe- 
rience to a spiritual technique oriental influence seen here how those 
who are not Roman Catholics can read the book with profit the book 
reveals Loyola's devotion to the Church his attitude towards " faith 
and reason " did the Exercises inspire the early Jesuits, or were the 
Jesuits and the Exercises the products of the same inspiration ? the 
Exercises continued to be given after the death of Loyola, but Jesuitism 
degenerated their strength and weakness ... 75 

CHAPTER VI 

THE LAST YEARS IN PARIS AND THE JOURNEY TO VENICE 

(1534-1537) 

Ignatius and Francis constantly together the Company arouses the suspicion 
of the Doctors letter to his brother the certificate of Francis' nobility 
and the offer of a canonry at Pampeluna arrive on the eve of his departure 
for Venice Tursellinus' chapter on the journey to Venice ... ... 91 

CHAPTER VII 

THE ITALIAN YEARS 

(January, 1537-March, 1540) 

Xavier and his companions meet Ignatius in Venice Xavier goes to work at 
the Incurable Hospital he begins to preach the Gospel Venice at 
that time a city of refuge the Somascenes Gaetano da Tiene Cardinal 
Carafia Loyola's relations with the Theatines Xavier is sent to Rome 
the journey there the interview with the Pope the return to Venice 
retreat in Monselice preaching and teaching in the villages the proposed 
mission to the Holy Land the war between Turkey and Venice Vicenza 
the first mass -illness abandonment of visit to Palestine they call 
themselves the Company of Jesus Francis is sent to Bologna to preach 
illness there his success in preaching return to Rome rest visions 
of work in India the drawing up of the Constitutions of the order 
" Hie est Digitus Dei 1 " difficulty in obtaining the formal consent of 
the Curia Butta Segimini Militantia Ecclesiae, important to note that 
this was all Xavier ever had of the Constitutions text of Bull comparison 
of Bull with final form of the Constitutions Francis acts as Loyola's 
secretary 101 

CHAPTER VIII 

THE JOURNEY TO LISBON 

(March- April, 1540) 

The Principal of Ste. Barbe asks the Company for six missionaries for the 
East Faber's reply neutral attitude of the Pope Loyola promises to 
send two men Francis chosen his sudden departure from Rome the 
three memoranda the parting from Loyola he goes with the ambassador 
letter to Ignatius at Parma misses Faber account of the journey 
by a fellow-traveller of the Saint the last look on the old home ... ... 116 



CONTENTS 13 

CHAPTER IX 

THE WORK IN LISBON 

(June, 1540-April, 1541) PAGE 

Portugal in 1540 Xavier's evangelical ardour the first letters from Lisbon 
description of the court the proposed Jesuit college Xavier's corre- 
spondence with the Doctor of Navarre visiting the prisoners of the 
Inquisition farewell letters to Rome preparations for the voyage 
cheerful departure for India ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 125 

CHAPTER X 

FROM LISBON TO GOA 

(April, 1541-May, 1542) 

The rise of Portuguese power in India Albuquerque da Sousa the voyage to 
the East hardships of sea travelling in those days arrival at Mozam- 
bique letter to Loyola winter in Mozambique Xavier lodges in the. 
hospital leaves for Goa at the end of February Melinda Socotra 
letter from Socotra the Nestorians arrival at Goa ... ... ... 141 

CHAPTER XI 

IN PORTUGUESE INDIA 

(1542) 

The Venice of the East earlier missions to India work among the Portuguese 
and half-castes in Goa letter to Loyola the college of St. Paul Cape 
Comorin ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 160 

CHAPTER XII 

OAPK COMORIN 

(September, 1542-Deeember, 1544) 

The Paravas previous conversions Xavier's methods of baptizing letter 
from Tuticorin to Loyola return to Cochin and Goa, organising work 
at Goa leaves again for Cape Comorin pauses at Cochin writes from 
there to the King of Portugal writes to the Fathers in Rome a full 
account of his work among the Paravas persecutions of the Christians 
by the Badages Xavier organises relief and shelter the journey to 
Travancore the great mission there letter to the Fathers in Rome 
description of the Saint by Joiio Vaz ... ... ... ... ... ... 171 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS (1544) ... 191 

CHAPTER XIV 

CEYLON, NEGAPATAM, AND SAN THOM^ 

Visit to Coulam and Cochin to arrange for the protection of the new converts 
news of the massacre in Ceylon political mission to. Negapatam 
halt at Cochin budget of letters despatched to Europe failure of 
mission to Negapatam letter to Rodriguez letter of advice to Man- 
sillas an inward spiritual crisis the retreat to San Thom6 discovery 
of the will of God Xavier prepares to go to Malacca ... ... ... 215 

CHAPTER XV 

" ISLANDS OB 1 HOPE IN GOD " 

(1545-1547) 

Arrival in Malacca the Portuguese colony in Malacca letter to the Fathers 
in Portugal the question of the education necessary for missionaries 
letter to the Fathers in Goa social reform in Malacca a story from Du 
Jarric -voyage to the Moluccas arrival at Amboina letter giving reasons 
for this mission, and details of the voyage description of the islanders 
rumours of Jews in China letter to Camerino letter to King of Portugal 



14 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

PAGE 

Xavier asks for the Inquisition in India descriptions of work in Ternate 
and of the king of Malucca the Islas del Moro Exposition of the Apostles' 
Creed Xavier leaves the Moluccas success of his mission there return 
to Malacca his habit of prayer the first news of Japan leaves Malacca 
for Cochin (India) ... ... 224 

CHAPTER XVI 

INDIA BEVISITED 

(January, 1548-April, 1549) 

Xavier pauses at Cochin to send off letters to Europe a wave of depression 
letters to Loyola and the King of Portugal and Rodriguez the Paravas 
revisited a flying visit to Ceylon return to Goa visit to the Governor 
at Bassein letter to Diego Pereira affairs at the college at Goa put in 
order persecutions in the south returns to the Cape letter to Enriquez 
returns to Goa to plead for the Christians in the south letter to Loyola 
announcing his plans for a mission to Japan letters to Rodriguez letter 
to the King of Portugal departure for Japan via Malacca letter to Antonio 
Gomez the Saint as matchmaker the Instructions to preachers in the 
forts 256 

CHAPTER XVII 

JAPAN 

(August, 1549-November, 1551) 

Arrival at Kagoshima letter describing the voyage letter describing the 
Japanese people advice to those who may be asked to come to Japan 
letter summoning three of the Fathers from Goa letter to Pedro da Gama 
letter describing the work in Kagoshima Xavier leaves Kagoshima 
arrival in Hirado account of the journey from Frois Yamaguchi 
Xavier's letter about the work there descriptions from the Annalist 
of Macao the journey to Kioto a disappointing entry into the capital 
Xavier's brief account of the failure the journey back via Sakay to 
Hirado Xavier sets out again for Yamaguchi success of the preaching 
there the blind convert Laurence departure from Japan Fernandez 
left there letter to Loyola about the Japanese mission ... ... ... 283 

CHAPTER XVIII 

THE LAST MONTHS IN INDIA 

(January April, 1552) 

On arrival at Cochin begins to arrange for an expedition to China visits the 
college at Goa Teixeira's description of the Saint's personal appearance 
he is appointed Provincial in India other missionaries at work in 
India Xavier reorganises the college at Goa and makes changes in 
many of the mission stations letter of admonishment to Father Cyprian 
letters and notes of advice Rules for Humility left to Father Gaspar 
directions on how to avoid scandals a letter of dismissal ... ... ... 311 

CHAPTER XIX 

THE FINAL VOYAGE 

(April-November, 1552) 

The departure from India arrival at Malacca Alvaro d'Ataide puts an end to 
the proposed embassy to China letter to Diego Pereira Xavier leaves 
Malacca without Pereira arrival at Singapore letters despatched from 
there arrival at Sancian letter to Father Perez arrangements made to 
land at Canton in a Chinese junk the last letter the junk fails to 
appear illness death ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 324 

APPENDICES 
I. THE MIBACLE-STOBIES ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 336 

II. NOTE ON XAVIEB'S PI^BBICA AND LETTEBS ... ... ... ... ... 343 



BlBLIOGBAPHY . . . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 345 

TABLE OP CONTEMPOBABY CHBONOLOGY ... ... ... ... ... ... 350 

MAPS Facing page 360 

INDEX ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 351 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PORTRAIT OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER Frontispiece 

THE HOUSE OF JASSO Facing page 32 

IGNATIUS LOYOLA SETS OUT FOR MONTMARTRE 68 

IGNATIUS LOYOLA AT SCHOOL 61 

" WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN, MASTER FRANCIS ? " 74 

THE CASTLE OF XAVIER 94 

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE CASTLE OF XAVIER , 124 

THE DOORWAY OF XAVIER CASTLE 140 

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER WRITING TO LOYOLA FROM INDIA 271 

SPECIMEN OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER'S HANDWRITING ... , 308 

THE LEGEND OF THE CRAB AND THE CRUCIFIX 342 

MAPS 350 



CHAPTER I 

MAKERS OF SPAIN 

GRADUALLY, as they began to recover from the Moorish 
invasions of the eighth century, the feudal lords of Spain re- 
emerged from their northern fastnesses, and pressed their 
old conquerors ever farther and farther south, each leader 
establishing himself as petty king over the particular area 
which he had captured. In 1481 all Spain, except Navarre 
and Granada, was united by the marriage of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, but nothing seemed so much to cement the national 
unity and establish the monarchy as the successful culmina- 
tion of the seven hundred years' war against the Moors by the 
seizure of Granada in 1492 and their final ejection from 
Spain. From that hour she leapt swiftly forward to her 
short-lived but dazzling European supremacy. 

The ground had indeed been well prepared, for she had 
kept herself clean and strong throughout the " dark ages " 
by her unwavering crusade against the infidels, and by a 
united and national Catholicism which, although loyal in 
attachment to Rome, was never subservient. From very 
early times she had resented any over-interference on the 
part of the Roman Curia. And long before the German 
Reformation had begun to take shape the Spanish Cortes 
had been asserting in every way within their power their 
own legal independence of Rome, and the obligation of the 
clergy to submit to civil law. 

The ordinances of their Kings were used, time after time, to 
counteract the influence of harmful papal Bulls, and to prevent 
the interference of Italian ecclesiastics in the affairs of the Spanish 
church. In the end of the fifteenth century the Spanish Bishops 
had been reduced to a state of dependence on the Crown ; all 
exercise of ecclesiastical authority was carefully watched ; the 
extent of ecclesiastical jurisdiction was specifically limited, and 
clerical courts were made to feel their dependence on the secular 
tribunals. The Crown wrung from the Papacy the right to see 
that piety and a zeal for religion were to be indispensable quali- 
fications for clerical promotion.* 

* T. M. Lindsay, Hist, of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 489. 

B 



18 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

This national attitude of independence towards the Papacy 
was also nourished in another very different way. There was 
no other European people in which certain forms of mysticism 
played such a great part in religious life as in Spain. Spain 
was, indeed, the main channel through which Oriental 
mysticism penetrated into the Church. And to a mystic a 
priest is always more or less superfluous. 

But if the Spanish independence had here something akin 
to Protestantism, the strain was only marked enough to 
lend colour and vitality, when the time came, to a movement 
which was essentially Catholic. The Spanish champions of 
the Church in distress did all the better service to her because 
they served her with their eyes open to her weakness and her 
need. Loyola begged his followers always to show great 
respect to the established Church, and the deliberate and 
anxious expression of this advice betrays his knowledge of 
the Church's shortcomings and his determination to be 
faithful to her in spite of them. This union of aloofness and 
chivalry is a strong trait both of Loyola's character and of 
the national religious genius. 

The independence of the Spanish Catholics really sprang 
from their profound faithfulness to Catholic principles. 
For while between Rome and other European nations there 
had existed, throughout the Middle Ages, much of the 
relationship of servant to master, the Spaniards, because of 
their piety and the good services which they had rendered 
Christendom in their warfare against the Moors, enjoyed 
many of the rights and privileges of children in their father's 
house. 

One cannot look back upon the mediaeval history of Spain 
without being struck by the important place in it which was 
held by the national hero and saint, Santiago (Saint James), 
the Son of Thunder. 

The legend runs that the disciples of the earliest of the 
Apostolic martyrs removed his body from its tomb in 
Jerusalem and bore it to Isia Flavia in north-west Spain. It 
was discovered there in the ninth century and removed to 
Compostela.* And throughout his unending wars against the 
infidels the military imagination of the Spaniard saw in 
Santiago no gentle intercessory saint, but an heroic, titanic 

* The name Compostela is apparently a corruption of Giacomo Postolo 
= ad Jacobum Apostolum. 



MAKERS OF SPAIN 19 

figure, riding upon the thunder clouds which hang over the 
fields of battle, on his white horse, bringing victory to the 
hosts underneath who called upon his name. 

There is probably no other saint or hero in Europe who 
has been so identified in the minds of the people with national 
and spiritual ideals, nor has there been any shrine in Europe, 
except St. Peter's, so popular as the shrine of Santiago at 
Compostela. And the pilgrims to this western shrine were 
exempt, so runs the legend, from all perils by land or water, 
for the son of Zebedee had power from God to keep them. 

Had it not been for the roads which run from every part 
of the continent to Compostela, the Peninsula would for 
centuries have been almost isolated from western Europe. 
Even as it was, Spain was far more in touch with North 
Africa, throughout the Middle Ages, than with Europe, and 
for every man that crossed the Pyrenees a hundred must have 
crossed the Straits. 

Like all the great mythical or semi-mythical figures, 
Santiago is probably rather the poetic vehicle and 
explanation of certain national beliefs and ideals than 
the originator of them. Round the shrine of this 
saint the Spaniards gradually planted all their worthiest 
dreams and aims. Spanish pride, for example, was in 
a very true sense a high virtue. And the Spaniard gave 
as a gracious reason for this the fact that the legendary 
founder of the Spanish Church and the hero of the race was 
no less a personage than one of the twelve Apostles of Christ 
and the first of the martyrs. There was often fear in Rome 
that this cult of Santiago should lead its votaries away from 
their first love. Pope Gregory VII. thought it his duty 
to cut St. James rather severely, and to remind the Spaniards 
that it was St. Paul who had first brought them the Gospel, 
and that this fact ought to bind them more strongly to Rome 
than to Compostela. But his warning fell on heedless 
ears. The greatest religious poet of Spain, Luis Ponce de 
Leon, sings of St. James as the very author and inspirer of 
all Spanish greatness. And he only expressed what others 
believed. This pride, moreover, took for granted the rever- 
ence and devotion of all Europe towards the Saint, and looked 
upon every offer of service from foreign countries in the wars 
against the Moors as natural tributes, at the same time 
regarding outside help as superfluous, and ignoring the part 

B2 



20 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

which crusaders from the North and East often took in 
conquering the enemy. Beneath the banner of Santiago 
Spain could never fail, and it was a kindly condescension 
rather than an acknowledgment of weakness which allowed 
the knights of France and Italy and Germany, and even 
of England and Scotland, to share in those indubitable 
victories. 

Besides those elements of pride and of religious enthusiasm 
the Spanish character is full of traits, or of something far 
stronger than mere traits, which it acquired through its long 
association with Jews and Moors. For though these two 
races kept very much apart from the Spanish people and from 
one another, especially among the preponderating middle and 
lower classes, they could not fail in the course of centuries 
to leave their indelible mark. " The whole development 
of Spanish culture in the Middle Ages, its originality, its 
influence on other nations, is based upon this inter-relation- 
ship between East and West." * 

These qualities of military pride, of religious enthusiasm, 
of half-Oriental passion and mysticism, developing along 
their highest lines and among the highest spirits, contributed 
more than anything else in Europe to all that was best in 
the Catholic Revival. Long before the Reformation even, 
they had found expression in men like St. Dominic and 
Raymond Lull. 

Of Dominic less is known than historians tell us, but even 
that little clearly illustrates the difference between Spanish 
and Italian saintship, and in many points his character is 
far more like that of St. Francis Xavier than that of his great 
contemporary, St. Francis of Assisi. Like Xavier, Dominic 
combined intense sensitiveness of character and tenderness 
towards individuals with a fiery ardour for the Faith which 
sometimes tolerated, or even countenanced, " religious " 
cruelty, while holding aloof from any personal share in it. 
For Dominic did not, as is often imagined, found the Inquisi- 
tion; nor does it appear that he persecuted the Albigenses, 
though he spared no pains in trying to convert them a very 
different matter. Yet his intimate friend, Folco of Mar- 
seilles, the Bishop of Toulouse (1205-1231), treated them 
with notorious cruelty. 

Like Xavier again, and unlike most of the Italian saints, 

* E. Gothein, Ignatius von Loyola und die Gegenreformation, p. 23. 



MAKERS OF SPAIN 21 

Dominic was a man of learning and intellectual power. 
Like Xavier, he was a lover of poverty,* but that was not 
for either of them the central passion of life. That passion, 
for them both, was to teach and to convert. 

In his early thirties always critical and significant years 
for a man of genius Dominic went to France with his bishop 
to arrange a royal marriage, and he saw Languedoc. On the 
return journey, Rome and Montpellier had further tales to 
tell. He had seen the Church as a bride torn from her 
husband, and her children naked, and starved, and desolate. 
To the good bishop, too, the journey had been a revelation, 
and at Montpellier he dismissed all his train excepting only 
Dominic, and resolved henceforth to live in simplicity. 
In his early childhood, Dante tells us, the little Dominic 
had often been found by his nurse, escaped from his cot, 
and upon his knees in prayer. " And soon," the poet goes 
on, leaping lightly over those three decades, "he became a 
mighty teacher." He was entirely disinterested, not seeking 
to gain wealth or position for himself, but only to give light 
to others. Cold and fierce, we have been told, he was ; but 
the few most reliable fragments of his biography which remain 
tell another tale. All men desire most that which lies deepest 
in their own hearts, and Dominic's chief prayer was for the 
gift of love. Once, seeing a captive in distress, he offered his 
own body in exchange to free him ; again, seeing those 
around him hungry, he went and sold his precious books that 
they might have bread. Dante places him along with Francis 
of Assisi as one of the two champions chosen by God for 
His soldiery in peril, a soldiery " laggard, fearsome, and 
thin-ranked," and it was at their doing and saying that the 
" straggling squadron gathered itself together again."t 

Of Raymond Lull far too little is popularly known. And 
although he lived more than two hundred and fifty years 
earlier than Francis Xavier, there are many points of re- 
semblance between the two. For this reason, and also 
because in Lull we have the apotheosis of the half-Eastern 
Spanish genius of the Middle Ages, and the very greatest 
precursor of the religious revival of the fifteenth and sixteenth 

* Well did he show himself a messenger and a familiar of Christ, 

For the first love made manifest in him 

Was to the first counsel that Christ gave. 

Paradiso, xii. 73. 
f Paradiso, xii. 38 seq. 



22 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

centuries, we shall devote a few pages to the story of his 
life. 

Raymond Lull was born at Palma, in Majorca, about 
1235. In his boyhood he refused a scholastic education, and 
at the age of thirty he was a gay and licentious officer 
(" gransenescal ") at the court of Aragon. His conversion, 
like that of so many of the saints, was sudden and dramatic. 
He is said to have seen a vision of Christ upon the Cross, and 
heard the words " O Raymond Lull, from henceforth follow 
thou Me," and from that hour his whole life was given up 
to God.* 

He resolved to devote himself to the conversion of the 
Moslems. He was ill-educated, had no powers of argument 
and no knowledge of the Arabic tongues. But conversion 
expressed itself in him, as in Loyola after him, by a colossal 
reinforcement of will power. He resolved to write a book 
which would convince the infidels of the truth of Christianity. 
He made a solemn vow to God, dedicating to Him not only 
himself, but his wife and chi dren, and all his earthly goods 
except a small piece of land upon which they could live, and 
to which he could retire for periods of study and writing. 
Then, after visiting Compostela and praying at the shrine 
of Santiago, he went to the university of Palma, where, in 
absolute poverty, he began a course of study which extended 
over nine or ten years. He learned Arabic from a Saracen 
slave, who, after nine years' friendship, awakened to the 
fact that he was serving his own religion ill by teaching 
this man. He attacked Lull suddenly, and almost had him 
murdered. 

We see him next in his hermitage on Mount Randa, 
directly inspired, he believed, by God, writing the books 
which he hoped would convert the infidels. It is difficult 
for us to grasp how profoundly original this missionary was. 
Hitherto the Cross had always been held before the Saracens 
with the sword close behind it ; and if Lull put too much 
faith in the power of logic, he was at least far ahead of those 
who armed their faith, or rather their unfaith, with a sword. 
Raymond Lull and here he resembles Dominic could 
not conceive of converting a man's heart to Christ without 

* His own account of his conversion in De Miraculis Mundi is of such a 
vision five times repeated in a very short space of time. But the passage is 
one which has been controverted. 



MAKERS OF SPAIN 

first gaining his intellectual assent to Christian principles. 
God, he reminds his readers, commands us to love Him 
with all our mind. He wanted to reconcile theology and 
philosophy, and have the resulting system grasped by each 
individual who accepted the Christian faith. The fact that 
an Arab held a twofold standard of truth disturbed 
Lull more than the fact that this Arab was a Moham- 
medan. This identification of theology with philosophy 
went beyond the bounds of scholastic propriety, and he was * 
therefore never canonised. For him there was no distinction 
. between faith and reason, nor between natural and super- 
natural truth. " Relying on the grace of God," he says, " I 
intend to prove the Articles of Faith by convincing reasons." 
Thus he gets his title, the Illuminated Doctor. But he was 
no mere writer of books ; and though he published over 
three hundred separate writings, his other activities would 
have filled a score of normally industrious lives. 

In 1276 he founded a school of Oriental languages in 
Majorca. There, and in Paris, he lectured and taught, and 
in the midst of all this work he tried again and again, by 
many ways and means, to found chairs of Oriental languages 
at the various European universities. He was baffled in this , 
endeavour again and again, and at last resolved himself 
to go and preach the Gospel in Africa. When he was 
about to sail from Genoa his imagination painted the terrors 
of the unknown to him in such vivid colours that he allowed 
the ship to sail without him. He was immediately overcome 
with remorse, and soon found his way on board another 
ship. But his friends began to fear for him, and came and 
dragged him back. His shame now made him very ill. He 
could not move, and his friends thought him dying, and 
when he expressed a desire to go to Africa they consented 
with indifference, for they thought his days, in any case, 
were numbered. But no sooner had he set sail than health 
and strength came back. He entered Tunis, not as an 
evangelist, but as a wandering scholar, eager to talk with 
the Arabs, and expressing himself as ready to be con- 
verted to their faith if he could but be persuaded of 
its truth. But he could not keep the light within him 
hid, and he was soon put into prison and condemned to die. 
Ultimately he was banished with a warning that if he ever 
came back he would be stoned to death. He returned to the 



24 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

writing of books, to his lectures, and, above all, to the attempt 
to awaken some sort of missionary interest in the Moors. 
He was continually met by failure, and once more he deter- 
mined to spend his own time in preaching the Gospel to 
the infidels, and for this purpose he withdrew to his 
native Majorca, and there " brought innumerable Saracens 
into the way of salvation." Later he went to Cyprus, to 
" Armenia," and possibly to England, and then he returned 
to Africa, but once more, after being stoned and imprisoned 
for six months in a foul dungeon, he was banished. The 
vessel upon which he was sent away was wrecked off the 
coast of Pisa, and he escaped with one companion, 
naked and exhausted. He was by this time seventy years 
old. The next ten years of his life were largely occupied in 
combating the heresies of Averroism. 

At last, at the Council of Vienne in 1311-12, he succeeded 
in getting an edict passed which ordained that there should 
be schools. of Hebrew and Greek, and Arabic and Chaldean, 
in various universities throughout Europe, including Oxford. 
Had he done nothing else but this, Lull would have 
been entitled to enduring fame. Finally, in his eightieth 
year, the veteran returned to Africa to make his last. " sweet 
and reasonable " appeal for Christ, and there, outside the walls 
of Bugia, on the shore of that sea he had so often crossed in his 
apostolic missions, he was stoned and battered to death. 

Helfferich calls him the most remarkable figure of the 
Middle Ages.* He certainly was one of the most remarkable 
men that Spain ever produced. 

The story of his outward life is that of a hero and a martyr. 
His writings reveal the spirit which lay at the source of all 
he did : 

" He who loves not lives not. He who lives by the Life cannot 
die." 

" He who gives God can give nothing more." 

" The image of the crucified Christ is found much rather in 
men who imitate Him in their daily walk than in the crucifix 
made of wood." 

" Elevate thy knowledge and thy love will be elevated. Heaven 
is not so lofty as the love of a holy man. The more thou wilt 
labour to rise upward, the more thou wilt rise upward." 

* H. Helfferich, Raymon Lull und die Anfdnge der Catalonischer Liter alur, 
1858. 



MAKERS OF SPAIN 25 

" He who would find Thee, O Lord, let him go forth to seek 
Thee in love, loyalty, devotion, faith, hope, justice, mercy, and 
truth ; for in every place where these are, there art Thou." * 

But the same qualities which went to the formation of such 
a great character as Raymond Lull showed themselves capable 
of development along more sinister lines. And a century 
or two later, while Cardinal Ximenes, under the guidance and 
inspiration of Isabella the Catholic, was doing the great 
work which we shall presently study in more detail ; while 
Santa Teresa was preparing to cleanse the nunneries, and 
Ignatius Loyola was founding the Order of Jesus, hordes 
of vicious and unscrupulous pirates and adventurers were 
coming and going from Spain and Portugal to the newly 
discovered lands, drunk all the time with the lust of gold arid 
of pleasure ; the terrific machinery of the Inquisition was 
being set in order, and the boys were at school who were to 
turn the devout and high-minded little Company of Jesus 
into a pack of unscrupulous Jesuits. 

Thus at the very time when Spain was the greatest power 
in the world we can detect the ominous auguries of her 
downfall. For, however immediately successful Spanish 
enterprise abroad might appear, and however effective the 
weapons of the Inquisition proved at the moment to be, no 
national greatness could survive the state of affairs which 
these activities revealed. 

Spain had been accustomed to a religious outlook upon 
life. All she ever did was in the name of religion ; but what 
she began by doing sincerely she ended by doing mechanically. 
She began by giving up everything in order to vindicate 
the cause of the Cross against that of the Crescent. She 
ended by holding the Cross in the van of her own causes, and 
deluding herself into believing that the presence of the 
sacred symbol made all things holy. About 1455 we read 
that 

the Iffante licensed an expedition consisting of six caravels, 
the command being given to Lanzarote, receiver of the royal 
customs at Lagos, and presented each with a banner emblazoned 
with the cross of the Order of Christ to be hoisted as its flag. 
Lanzarote and his companions raided the coast as far as Cape 
Branco, shouting " Santiago ! San Jorge ! Portugal ! " as 
their war-cry, and ruthlessly slaying all who resisted, whether 
* See Raymond Lull, by W. T. A. Barber. 



26 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

men, women, or children. They brought back to Lagos no fewer 
than 235 captives ; the receiver of customs was raised by the 
Iff ante to the rank of knight, and the wretched captives were 
sold and dispersed throughout the kingdom. Large tracts, both 
of Portugal and of Spain, remained waste or half-cultivated as a 
result of the Moorish wars : and the grantees of these lands eagerly 
purchased the human chattels now imported in increasing 
numbers.* 

And the same age which produced these blasphemous 
pirates produced the Spanish Inquisition. This, as distinct 
from the earlier mediaeval Episcopal and Papal Inquisitions, 
did not emerge till towards the end of the fifteenth century, 
during the reign of the Catholic sovereigns Ferdinand and 
Isabella. 

And in the Inquisition, as in the early voyages of discovery 
and adventure, we find the Spaniards taking the name of reli- 
gion in vain. While on the African coast the slave-raiders 
were holding the Cross before them as they ravaged the native 
villages, the same symbol was affixed by the Holy Office to the 
weapons of torture and death which made the Castilian throne 
secure and popular, and brought, through fines and con- 
fiscations, a continual stream of gold into the royal treasuries. 
For the Inquisition in Spain was, strange as it may appear, a 
tremendously popular affair. " Since it was established," 
says the Italian historian Caraccioli, " Ferdinand reigned 
more peacefully, though whether it helped the country or 
not remains an open question." f It was popular chiefly 
, because it spelt ruin and confusion to the Jewish population. 
These were at that time far more deeply hated than the 
Moors, who were but little affected by the Inquisition. 

The aristocracy and the poorer people were curiously 
divided against one another at this time by their relations to 
the New Christians. While the former freely intermarried 
with those converted Jews, and used their influence to have 
their Jewish friends put into high ecclesiastical and political 
positions, the latter disdained all intermarriage ; and while 
on the one hand a famous Jewish bishop was acclaimed as a 
collateral descendant of the Holy Virgin, on the other hand 
the popular preachers, with no uncertain voice, were giving 

* Cambridge Mod. Hist., vol. i., " The Renaissance," p. 14. 
f Tr. Caraccioli, De inquisitione Neapolitana Muratori S.S. rerr. Ital. XX., 
quoted by Gothein, op. cit., p. 34. 



MAKERS OF SPAIN 27 

expression to the indignation of the people at the appoint- 
ment of these Semitic shepherds and rulers. 

Torquemada was the first and one of the most notorious 
of the Spanish Inquisitors -General. He had been the 
confessor of Isabella, and it was he who instigated the 
Catholic* sovereigns to apply for the Papal authority which by 
1483 gave to the Spanish Inquisition such a unique power. It 
is impossible to explain Torquemada's devilries on any other 
ground than that of madness, and in some mysterious way, of 
which this outburst of ferocity is not the only example, this 
kind of madness seems to infect weaker characters who come 
under the influence of the leader. Although statistics of the 
burnings and imprisonments are various and contradictory, 
and modern investigation has been unable as yet to produce 
an unchallengeable estimate, it is manifest from every source 
that the number of those who suffered reaches a simply 
appalling figure .f 

The inquisitors . . . travelled from town to town, attended 
by guards and notaries public. Their expenses were defrayed 
by taxes laid on the towns and districts through which they 
passed. Spies and informers, guaranteed State protection, 
brought forward their information. The Court was opened : 
witnesses were examined, and the accused were acquitted or 
found guilty. The sentence was pronounced ; the secular assessor 
gave a formal assent ; and the accused was handed over to the 
civil authority for punishment. When Torquemada reorganised 
the Spanish Inquisition, a series of rules were framed for its pro- 
cedure which enforced secrecy to the extent of depriving the 
accused of any rational means of defence ; which elaborated the 
judicial method so as to leave no loophole even for those who 
expressed a wish to recant, and which multiplied the charges 
under which suspected heretics, even after death, might be 
treated as impenitent and their property confiscated. The 
Spanish Inquisition differed from the papal in its close relation- 
ship to the civil authorities, its secrecy, its relentlessness, and its 
exclusion of Bishops from even a nominal participation in its 
work. Thus organised it became a terrible curse to unhappy 
Spain, t 

But let us turn now to the brighter side of the Catholic 
Revival in the Peninsula, and see how the spirit of the age 

* The title of " Catholic " was not conferred on the sovereigns till 1494-5. 
t See H. C. Lea, History of the Inquisition in Spain, 1906, vol. iv. p. 525. 
$ T. M. Lindsay, op. dt., vol. ii. p. 599. 



28 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

manifested itself in the loftiest Spanish minds. The Spanish 
Reformation under Cardinal Ximenes, because it was con- 
temporaneous with the German Reformation rather than 
a reply to it, really preceded the Counter-Reformation. 
For in considering this movement we must recognise 
its limits. The Counter-Reformation was a movement 
within the Establishment, and only included those who 
were first and last loyal to Rome, those who looked for a 
reformation not of dogma, but of discipline and practice. 
The term Counter-Reformation cannot, however, include the 
many movements towards reform, arising from within the 
Church, which had preceded the appearance of Luther. 
The two main lines of its activity were interdependent. 
While it aimed at destroying the constructive work of the 
Protestant reformers, it at the same time aimed at destroying 
the morbid growths which had sucked away all strength and 
dignity from the body of the mediseval Church. The Counter- 
Reformers were reactionaries. They admitted no new 
revelation, no possibility of having outgrown the teaching 
of the Fathers. Their task was to lead priests and people 
back to the uncorrupted ideals of mediseval Christendom. 
Thus the term Catholic Revival, or Catholic Reaction, is 
more accurate than Counter-Reformation. It is impossible, 
in any real sense, to have a reformation within the Roman 
Church. To say this is in no way to deny the enormous 
significance of the Revival. " The Catholicism of to-day 
rests upon the Counter-Reformation of the sixteenth century. 
None of the changes which it has since then undergone have 
penetrated below the surface of things ; or if they have had 
any significance, it has been because they have been a carrying 
out of the programme then laid down."* 

The programme had in it a healthy democratic element. 
For this Cardinal Mendoza must get some credit. One of his 
earliest dicta was that if the religious life of the country 
were to be quickened, the grandees must be kept from 
episcopal power. Mendoza, aristocrat though he was, knew 
and trusted the power of the people. It was he, probably 
more than anyone, who made a great career possible for 
Cardinal Ximenes ; and Ximenes was before all things a 
man of the people. "Das wusste und sah man," says 
Gothein, " dass er ein Mann aus einem Gusse war." 

* E. Gothein, Ignatius von Loyola und die Gegenreformation, p. 1. 



MAKERS OF SPAIN 29 

Ximenes' youth was a stormy one. When he was study- 
ing hi Rome, Sixtus IV. promised him the first vacant benefice 
in his native province of New Castile. So when, in 1473, 
Useda fell vacant he produced an " expective " letter from 
the Pope, which he had long treasured, and claimed the 
benefice. The affair is a typical illustration of the relations 
between Spain and the Vatican, for the Archbishop of 
Toledo, annoyed with the Pope for assuming control over a 
Spanish benefice, put Ximenes in prison, and there he 
remained for six years. Four years after his release he 
resigned his position as grand vicar to Cardinal Gonzalez, 
and became a Franciscan of the Friary of St. John at Toledo. 
He accepted the post of confessor to Queen Isabella a post 
offered to him through the influence of Mendoza on the 
condition that he might continue to live in the Friary. When 
he was called to be Archbishop of Toledo he refused for 
six months to take office, and only gave in at last at the 
Pope's urgent command. As Archbishop he continued to 
live the simple life of an ideal Franciscan friar. Alexander VI. m 
reprimanded him for neglecting the exterior pomp demanded 
by his position. But he would never wholly conceal the 
friar's garb beneath the arch-episcopal robes. 

One of his earliest reforms was that of the Franciscan 
order. His reinforcement of the original rules was so strict 
that hundreds of the brothers left Spain rather than obey 
him. Nor did he confine his reform to his own order. In 9 
his capacity of Regent he took advantage of the liberty 
given to the Spanish Crown to confer benefices or to dismiss 
churchmen from their offices. He visited monasteries and 
convents, and purified the Church with such vigour and 
effect that the accusations poured out by the Protestant 
Reformers against the clergy, and against monastic life in 
general, hardly applied to Spain at all. 

In all his work he was guided and inspired by Queen 
Isabella, whose motives were far less tinged with political 
guile than those of her husband. 

Besides restoring discipline and virtue within the Church, 
Ximenes gave great attention to education. It was he who, 
in 1504, founded the university of Alcala. About the same 
time he undertook the publication of the first polyglot | 
Bible, at a cost of 25,000. This version is known as the 
Complutensian Bible, Complutum being the Latin form of 



30 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

j 

Alcala. The Complutensian New Testament was printed, 
though not published, before Erasmus' edition. Erasmus 
rushed through his publication to get before Ximenes ; 
his haste may account for the bad text in some places. 
Ximenes also founded the universities of Toledo and Seville. 

Under Ximenes, who was later made Grand Inquisitor, 
the severity of the Inquisition was modified, and its pro- 
cedure, to a certain extent at least, made less brutal. He 
also made his humanitarian influence felt with regard to 
the slave trade, and in all places under his control he dis- 
countenanced the possession of those African captives 
who were being brought into the country at that time. 

Nothing, perhaps, did more to make a union of the German 
and the Spanish reformers seem at least within the bounds 
of possibility than the work of this great Cardinal. Before 
the Diet of Worms (1521) some such union was seriously 
contemplated, but that Diet revealed a gulf between the two 
religious parties that could not be crossed to the Spaniards a 
General Council was an infallible authority, to Luther it was 
not, and soon, in Spain at least, every other reform, and all 
other reformers, were either merged into or overshadowed by 
the supreme influence of the Society of Jesus. Of this we will 
speak more fully in later chapters. It is enough at present 
to remind ourselves that here were ingathered all the most 
salient features of the Spanish genius enthusiasm, ardour, 
a military spirit, Oriental mysticism, astuteness, unsparing 
devotion. It was this society which, in its unspoiled days, 
cherished the awakening spirit of Francis Xavier, and which, 
after he had gone eastward, was to regain a great part of 
Europe for the Catholic Church. 

The long-mustering forces of the Counter-Reformation 
really took their place and began their great battle under the 
banner of Pius V., but it is not too much to say that the 
battle would never have been fought, nor the lost lands 
recovered, had it not been for the Company of Jesus. 



CHAPTER II 

CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD 

(15061525) 

AMID the dark records of social life in Europe during the 
Renascence one lights again and again upon the histories 
of men and women in places of honour and position who 
upheld the traditions of Christian family life. Even in 
Italy such folk existed side by side with those families whose 
scandalous histories have given them a perpetual notoriety. 
Books such as Domenichi's treatise on household govern- 
ment, and the diary of Landucci and the letters of Ales- 
sandro degli Strozzi, to name but a few, may not be such 
exciting reading as the histories of the Cenci or the Medici, 
but they reveal a side of Renascence life which is apt to be 
forgotten. 

And in Spain such households were even more common 
than in Italy. For there family honour and patriotism, 
soldiery and religion, had become inextricably intertwined ; 
there, if anywhere, the sense of faith had been nourished 
on the fields of battle, and the sense of unity strengthened 
through generations of isolated warfare against an enemy of 
an alien religion. 

The great Spanish families and to one of these Francis 
Xavier belonged had no time to relapse into an effete and 
luxurious leisure. The fathers had hardly come home from 
doing battle with the Moors before the sons had gone forth to 
the ends of the earth on voyages of discovery and exploration. 

It is important that we should recognise that the normal 
channel for the expression of Spanish piety was the sword, 
and the normal sphere of Spanish wit the Church. Many of 
Xavier's biographers detect the aureole round his brow as 
soon as he chooses not to follow, like his brothers, the pro- 
fession of arms, but to become a scholar and a churchman. 
Surely the balance of piety, though not of enterprise and 
courage, in these choosings fell, if anywhere, on the side of the 
brothers. Francis' choice was more of the brain, less of the 



32 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

heart; and it was tinged, we gather from his later letters, 
with personal ambition. 

The history of the family of Francis de Xavier y de 
Jasso trails far back into the mediaeval records of Navarre. 
At the end of the fourteenth century his father's people 
quitted their original home in Jasso, and settled in a little 
village of some fifteen fires which lay in the midst of the vast 
forests on the southern slopes of the western Pyrenees. As 
the century wore on the family of Jasso for they had 
adopted the name of the place from which they came grew 
in importance, and the road to the village of San Juan 
became worn with the hoofs of couriers' horses as the king's 
messengers came to and from the Court of Navarre with 
papers of state. It was because of these long generations 
of faithful and intelligent service to their kings that at the 
time when Francis Xavier was born his father's people were 
recognised as noble. 

About 1445 the grandfather of the Saint was made auditor 
of the royal accounts. He earned popularity at court and 
married into an old Navarrese family. In 1471 he is spoken 
of as the king's counsellor, arid he has become wealthy and 
important. The father of Francis was sent to the university 
of Bologna, and there he took the degree of Doctor of Laws. 
Immediately afterwards he was employed at the court, and 
quickly won both respect and affection, as we may see from 
the following extract from a document in the possession of 
the Duke of Granada : 

June 10th, 1478. 

Don Johan (i.e., King John of Navarre) . . . bears in mind 
the good, continual, and kind services which our illustrious, 
faithful and well-beloved counsellor and treasurer Don Juan de 
Jasso has up to the present time rendered, in many ways, to us 
and to the Crown of Navarre, and continues each day to render 
with great and intense faithfulness. Estimating that in the 
future he will do no less, desiring to remunerate and recompense 
him in some manner, and seeing that we recognise him as worthy 
of every recompense and favour, we give to him and his heirs for 
all time the civil jurisdiction of Ydocin, which lies in the valley 
of Ybargoiti, with all the homicides,* demi-homicides, sixantenas, 
calonyas,f and civil rights which obtain in the said district of 

* " Homicide was the ancient tribute paid by localities when they refused 
to give up a murderer" (Lopez and Recalde, Diccionario). 
j- Fines for libel. 













I 



HOUSE OF JASSO 

ST. JEAN-PIED-DE-PORT 



CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD 33 

Ydocin which belonged to us. He and his successors shall have 
the right to create mayors, judges, bailiffs, and other officials 
in the above jurisdiction, and we desire that the auditors of the 
royal accounts shall deduct from the amount due to our trea- 
surers and receivers those sums. ... * 

During the childhood of Francis, Ydocin was probably a 
second home ; to-day there is nothing left of it but a ruined 
tower. 

The Saint's mother came of an older and more aristocratic 
strain than did his father. The ancestors of Maria de 
Azpilcueta y Xavier had been for many generations lords 
of the manor and patrons of the Church, and, above all, 
distinguished soldiers.f Francis' uncle, the Doctor of 
Navarre, a noted Spanish authority on Canon Law, says : 

Francis' ancestor, Martin de Azpilcueta, was a man whose 
personal qualities outshone even the glory acquired by his house. 
These personal qualities, indeed, were his only possession. The 
family was poor, and he remained almost the sole representative 
of bygone generations. It was then that Providence united him 
to the heiress of another house, of equal nobility but greater 
wealth, the house of Xavier. J 

Such was the stock from which Francis Xavier sprang, 
but mingled with this brave blood was a yet older and 
prouder strain. On more than one occasion Xavier declared 
himself a Basque, as a child he spoke in Basque, and when 
he lay dying on the island of Sancian all the other tongues f 
that he had acquired were forgotten, and he is said to have 
murmured his last words in the language of his earliest days. 

This aboriginal people were the last race to accept the 
Roman yoke, and they alone of all the peoples of the South 
kept their language pure from the romantic influence. It 
was this invincible tribe which originally held the kingdoms 
of Navarre and Aragon separate from the rest of Spain. 

* Cros, Documents Nouveaux, p. 50. 

t Among the forbears of the Azpilcueta was the Duke of Eridon Aznar, 
who was also the common ancestor of the kings of Navarre and Aragon. 

$ Cros, Documents Nouveaux, p. 71. 

" Let us note then, before going further, that the Apostle of the Indies, 
although he bore the name of Xavier, is more Jasso and Azpilcueta than he 
is Xavier or Aznar. The genealogy of the Aznars shows us that they were 
already supplanted at Xavier by the Artieda, a century before Francis came 
into the world, a grandson of the Azpilcueta, and himself a supplanter of the 



ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Xavier stands far from the beaten track, high up among 
the rocky moorland passes which lie around the source of 
the Ebro. Behind it rise the Pyrenean mountains, beneath 
its walls the young river Aragon sings, and to the south and 
east and west lie vineyards and olive gardens and wide 
pasture lands. A few miles off is the town of Sanguessa. 
Half a league from Xavier there still stand the ruins of the 
ancient monastery of San Salvador de Leyre, and there the 
bones of the kings of old Navarre are gathered to the dust. 

At the beginning of the sixteenth century the castle of 
Xavier must have been an imposing edifice. It was sur- 
rounded by a moat and by a wall with turrets and battle- 
ments. Outside the drawbridge stood a castelet. The main 
building was flanked by four towers. The entrance door, 
over which the arms of Xavier were blazoned, was guarded 
by a portcullis, and within this door was another tower. 
The place was a donjon rather than a home. Instead of 
windows there were loopholes, and the inhabitants had to 
climb from storey to storey by dark and tortuous passages. 
In the thirteenth century the king of Navarre had presented 
this fortress to the maternal ancestors of Francis, and the 
boy, after an old Spanish custom, inherited his mother's 
name as well as that of his father. 

Francis' mother, Maria de Azpilcueta, had married when 
she was at most fifteen, and probably not more than twelve 
years old. She brought to her husband, Doctor Juan de 
Jasso, the castle of Xavier as part of her dowry, and they 
made this*place their home. 

Artieda. The blood of the Jassos, or of the Eeheberria, united to the blood 
of the Azpilcueta, is then that which flowed in the veins of Francis ; what he 
inherited from the Aznarez is rather a reflexion of earthly glory, an illustrious 
connection : and as the Jasso and the Azpilcueta were both pure Basques, 
the Jasso-Echeberria French-Basque, and the Azpilcueta Basques from the 
Navarrese side of the Pyrenees, one is not able, it would seem, better to 
answer the question so often raised as to the nationality of Francis Xavier 
than by saying he was a Basque. At the time of the birth of Francis, Jasso 
and Azpilcueta belonged to the kingdom of Navarre, as did Xavier ; the last 
word then on the nationality of the Saint might run he was Basque-Navar- 
rese. The Doctor Navarro, himself on both sides a Basque, writes : ' They 
reproach me because I am a Basque. ... I confess it is for me a subject of 
rejoicing, and I hold it to be a great honour to be a Navarrese and a Basque.' 
The two roots of the doctor's joy and noble enthusiasm must have been 
shared by Francis also ' Navarrese and Basque,' wrote Navarro, ' two 
peoples famous for their faithfulness to their kings . . . thus, too, they have 
been faithful to God and to the Church ' " (Cros, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, 
vol. i. p. 23). See also Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 279. 



CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD 35 

Francis was born on Thursday of Holy Week in the year 
1506. At the hour of his birth the priests in the chapel 
adjoining his mother's room were chanting the sacred offices 
of the Passion of Christ. Therefore, when the time of his 
baptism came, his parents resolved to call him after 
St. Francis of Assisi, who had borne on his hands and his feet 
the marks of his crucified Lord. When the ceremony was 
over the baptismal robe was taken olT and hung up in the 
chapel beside the five little robes of his elder brothers and 
sisters Juan's and Miguel's still white and fair, the others 
beginning to grow dusty and grey and blending with those 
of the children of bygone centuries. 

The old biographies are singularly devoid of any but vague 
and pietistic details of Francis' boyhood. Yet, by recon- 
structing his environment from the numerous available 
documents and histories, we can at least gain some knowledge 
of the background of his early days. 

The year of the Saint's birth was one of the most troubled 
of all those troubled years. 

Since Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic sovereigns, had 
by their marriage in 1469 joined the kingdoms of Castile and 
Aragon the days of the independence of Navarre had been 
numbered. In 1492 they conquered Granada, and their 
dream of a united Spain seemed then nearer than ever to 
fulfilment. But when, in 1504, Isabella died, a period of 
anarchy began which only ended with the establishment 
of the Emperor Charles V. in 1523. Isabella's son-in-law, 
Philip of Austria, the husband of Juana, whom Isabella had 
named as her successor, tried, and with a strong following, 
to drive Ferdinand from the throne. But in 1506 Philip 
died suddenly, and all Spain was left in confusion. Juana, 
who for long had been subject to fits of madness, wandered 
from village to village at the head of a procession which bore 
her dead husband's body. She would take no interest in the 
affairs of State. Ferdinand became dominant once more. 
It was a fatal hour for Navarre when he gained control of the 
eastern passes of the Pyrenees. From then until the final 
annexation in 1515 the little kingdom struggled in its death 
agonies, and Francis' father, the Doctor Juan, spent body 
and soul in the attempt to maintain a lost cause. The crisis 
came when the Emperor, the Venetians, the Pope, and 
Henry VIII. of England joined in the Holy League against 



36 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

France, and King John of Navarre, across whose lands troops 
had to pass on their way from Spain into France, allied 
himself to Louis XII. The Duke of Alva marched on 
Navarre, probably bearing with him the General Papal Bull 
against all the opponents of the Holy League. John fled to 
Bayonne and Pampeluna surrendered. France gave no help 
to her ally, and in 1515 Navarre was formally annexed to 
Castile. 

Till near the end the optimism of Doctor Juan had been 
unshaken. But the failure of all his hopes, added to the 
effects of the toil and anxiety of those last six years, proved 
too much for this ardent patriot, and a few months after 
Ferdinand had annexed Navarre Francis became fatherless. 
He can never have known his father well, and the event must 
have meant to the nine-year-old boy chiefly the sorrow of his 
mother, a strange hush, the subdued rustle of the funeral 
arrangements, a tolling bell, slow music, mystery. 

Although the castle stood alone on the hillside, it held 
within its gates a large and varied community. From his 
mother's tapestried chamber, or the wide rooms where his 
married sister's boys and girls played when they came to 
visit the uncle who was younger than themselves, Francis 
could stray through galleries hung with the helmets and 
breastplates of his ancestors, till he came to the chapel where 
the priests were chanting the holy offices of the day. Or if 
the altar were deserted, he could go and look at the mysterious 
crucifix which had been found in the thirteenth century in a 
crevice of the castle wall. Before his intellect was disturbed 
by the problems of sin and pain his imagination had become 
stored with the symbols of war and suffering and death. 

Nor was it only in silent gallery or chapel that he learned 
of these things. In the dungeon beneath the great tower lay 
the civil prisoners of the locality. Francis could stand on the 
outer wall of the moat and see their faces peering through the 
bars, while he shouted innocent greetings to them, or chanted 
to them fragments of his nursery rhymes. 

But there were more sinister figures lurking beneath the 
walls than these. From time immemorial the place had been 
a sanctuary for all hunted and persecuted sinners. Unlike 
the old Hebrew cities of refuge to which only those who 
had killed any person unwittingly might flee, these mediaeval 
asylums opened their gates even to those " who thrust their 



CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD 37 

enemies out of hatred, or hurled at them, or lay in wait for 
them, or in enmity smote them." 

And it is surely hardly fanciful to trace at least some of 
the young mountain sources of the ultimate great river of 
the pity and compassion of Francis Xavier to the hours 
which followed his boyish conversations with those robbers 
and murderers, when, looking deep, he saw "the thorns 
which grow upon this rose of life " hours when he learned 
that there were wild worlds on the yon side of those sheltering 
hills of Xavier, and wild sins whose names had never even 
crossed his mother's lips. 

But the pervading atmosphere of the castle was not a 
sombre one. There were long, sunny afternoons when the 
old fortress rang with children's voices, and gay winter 
nights when soldier cousins and uncles and brothers came 
home from the wars unhurt, and raised the sounds of revelry 
among the rafters of the banqueting hall. Francis himself 
was a notable athlete ; this passion was to cost him some- 
what in later years, when, drunk with the elation produced 
by the Spiritual Exercises of Loyola, he tied cords round his 
calves and spoiled his powers of jumping for ever, because 
he had gloried too much in the legs of a man. Tennis was a 
favourite game pelota, or jeu de paume, they called it, 
because, instead of using a racquet, they wore heavy gloves 
and hit the ball with the palms of their hands. To-day the 
Basques still play in this way. The French and Spanish 
soon took to stretching cords across their great gloves, and 
from that the transition to a racquet was natural. 

Many a day of wild sport and adventure must the boy have 
passed among his native mountains, bracing his nerves and 
hardening his frame for the labours of his manhood, climbing the 
cliffs to find the eagle's nest, tracking the wolf by torchlight 
over the blood-stained snow, fishing for his Lenten fare in the 
dark lakes that lie in the heart of the hills, or rambling on 
some long summer day by pine forest and winding stream, 
even to where the rocky ramparts of France are cleft as with 
Titan sword at the far-famed Breche de Rolande, or scaled by the 
sacred pass of Roncesvalles.* 

The freedom of this out-of-door life was complemented by 
a routine within the family of unwavering piety and devo- 

* Francis Xavier, by M. H. MacLean, 1895, p. 2. 



38 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

tion towards the Church. We know nothing of the personal 
religious life of any member of that household, but we know 
that outwardly, at least, the people were good and devout. 
The year immediately before the birth of Francis had seen 
the reconstruction and enlargement of the private chapel, 
the foundation of a clergy house, and the presentation of 
numerous lands and increments for the upkeep of the clergy 
and of the services. Pious biographers, indeed, are prone 
to regard the gift of the future Apostle of the Indies as a 
reward for this generosity on the part of his parents. 

Every day, in this chapel enlarged and restored by the chate- 
laines, one of the priests from the clergy house chanted the grand 
mass. On Saturday it was in honour of our Lady, and on 
Monday for the dead. Every day vespers were sung. On 
special feast days tierce was added before mass, on Saturdays 
and Sundays, and on solemn feasts and vigils, compline, and a 
dozen times a year matins. Every evening the Salve Regina 
was sung. 

When he had learned to read Francis would be able to turn 
over the pretty little volume, bound in leather, with a clasp, 
where on nineteen pages of vellum the ordinances of Santa 
Maria of Xavier were inscribed. 

Here his parents had vowed never at any time to break these 
rules, enjoining their sons and successors, under pain of dis- 
obedience and of losing their blessing, to praise and approve of the 
present donation, and never in any way to go against it, because 
it was made for the service of God and of the said church, for the 
help and support of those who are buried there, for the discharge 
of the souls of their ancestors, lords of this place, and of their 
successors, and in order that the divine service might be held in 
the church in such a manner that God should be better served 
there than He had been hitherto. 

... it, the abbadia, was almost more of a monastery than a 
clergy house. At every mass there was confession ; women under 
sixty years of age were not allowed within the walls; at table 
there was silence, and books were read ; for recreation there were 
gardening and fishing, but no games or hunting. " All the 
advantages of the Apostolic life are offered to you," they said. 
" You have a safeguard against the perils of the world in the 
church and abbadia of Santa Maria de Xavier, and you lack 
nothing which is necessary in order to traverse the present life 
and gain life eternal." Such were the singularly ascetic ideas 
which were held at the castle of Xavier. If all these prescriptions 
were observed, the young Francis must have always had before 



CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD 39 

him the spectacle of priestly lives which were reserved, austere, 
and edifying.* 

All round him were good and gentle people. He had to 
travel far before he got beyond the neighbourhood of one or 
other of his virtuous relatives. 

If he went into the church of San Nicolas at Pampeluna, 
he would see there the tombs of his maternal ancestors ; he 
would see altar-cloths embroidered, by womipn of the kindred 
house of Atonda, and arches and mosaics renewed through 
the generosity of the same family, and the priests who stood 
before the altar chanted prayers for the peace of their souls. 

Francis' uncle, Pedro, lived in Pampeluna, too; but a 
mysterious shadow had fallen over that household. All 
that the boy knew was that it was something to do with his 
cousin Juan's affection for the beautiful Maria Periz de 
Herice. Francis probably thought her wonderfully lovely 
when he saw her on fete days in her low-bodiced dress, her 
long sleeves flying behind her.; and doted, as young boys do, 
on her embroidered ruff and the bands of jewelled velvet 
round her hair. She was the prettiest lady in Pampeluna. 
It was not surprising that his cousin Juan loved her so well. 
But his parents told him that both Juan and Maria were very 
wicked, and so was Juan's brother, Cousin Esteban, who had 
had to run away in order to escape being put into prison. 
These three, and the prisoners in the castle dungeon at home, 
were the only people he knew who were not good. 

Francis' elder brother Miguel was his senior by eleven 
years, and Juan was two years younger than Miguel. All 
the three sisters were much older. Before Francis was born 
Madeline was a lady-in-waiting at the court of Isabella the 
Catholic. She was noted for her beauty and her virtue and 
her charm, but while still young she retired to a convent. 
The present Duke of Feria traces his parentage back in the 
direct line to another sister, Maria Periz. The remaining 
sister died a grandmother in 1535, while Francis was just 
about to leave the university of Paris. 

In the nursery, in the kitchen, in the hall, the talk was 
always of battles and campaigns. As Francis grew older 
he used to sit out in the garden, under the shadow of the 
olives, with his book on his knees, and often he must have 

* Brou, Vie de S. Frangois Xavier, vol. i. pp. 10, 11. 



40 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

lifted his eyes from some favourite tale perhaps that of 
the brave knight Amadis of Gaul to scan the long white 
road for messengers bringing tidings of his brothers and 
uncles and cousins who were out at the wars. One spring 
day, when he was ten years old, a horseman galloped up the 
hill with the news that Ferdinand was dead; that Navarre, 
in the desperate hope of regaining her independence, had risen 
again ; that the troops of Jean d'Albret had been surprised 
in the Val de Roncal ; and that, among others, four soldiers 
of the house of Jasso had been taken prisoner. His brothers 
were safe, but any day might bring tidings of fresh disaster. 

And while the household at Xavier waited for the news 
of life or death, there clattered one day into the courtyard a 
troop of horsemen, bearing orders from the Governor of 
Spain to demolish the fortifications of the castle. From 
their high window Francis and his mother watched them 
day after day as they smashed the outer walls, and the 
watch-towers, and the drawbridge, and destroyed the battle- 
ments. Then they entered the interior and broke open the 
loopholes. There were no gateways left, and all the great 
doorways of wood were burned, and the outer stairways and 
the tower of SanMiguel entirely demolished. The well-ordered 
garden was a desert of broken stones and charred beams and 
trampled flowers. 

The glory of Xavier was departed, but Maria de Azpil- 
cueta still lived there with her youngest son. We know 
nothing of his schooling, but he most likely had as a tutor 
one of the priests from the abbadia or clergy house, which 
adjoined the private chapel. If he went at all to school at 
Sanguessa or Pampeluna, it was only for a year or two before 
going to the university. His mother's cousin, Martin de 
Azpilcueta, who came to live at Xavier after the death of 
Doctor Juan, may have been his teacher. He appears to have 
been a man of great intelligence. He had, we read, " a 
faithful heart, a beautiful character, a pliant humour : one 
always loved him after having learned to know him, and 
to see him again was a fete." * The description has a special 
interest for us when we remember that this man was Francis' 
guardian from his tenth till his nineteenth year. 

The family at Xavier was no longer wealthy. The fortune 
as well as the life of Doctor Juan had been spent for his 

* Cros, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, vol. i. p. 68. 



CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD 41 

king. In 1519 his widow asked the King of Castile for an 
indemnity for the damage done to the castle, and at the same 
time she asked for the payment of moneys which had been 
due to her husband from the treasury of Navarre at his 
death. She was promised certain sums, but the money was 
never given to her. The collection of the numerous dues 
and taxes, which formed a great part of the family income, 
had been neglected during the last arduous years of Doctor 
Juan's life, and many who had ceased to pay refused to begin 
again. The following is one typical little story out of many 
in existence that treat of these troubles, and it gives us a 
fleeting glimpse of Francis himself : 

About 1519 the chatelaine of Xavier was Dona Maria de Azpil- 
cueta, and with her was her sister Dona Violante, and the three 
sons of Dona Maria Miguel, Juan and Francisco. I was keeper, 
and I gathered in the dues on the flocks which traversed our 
lands. Now one day several herds of cattle came up, and the 
shepherd, instead of sending them to the place where they should 
be counted and the dues taken, drove them on without saying 
anything ; but I and the three sons of the Senora of Xavier, and 
other companions, ran after them, and brought back all the herd 
to Xavier. We turned the cattle into the court of the clergy 
house. I took the dues from the shepherd. There was three 
hundred head of cattle for the Senora, but then Pedro de Tudela, 
the proprietor of the cattle, and old Miguel, who did the bargaining 
for him, made some negotiations and transactions with the lady, 
and I do not know what arrangement they came to.* 

It was when Francis was fifteen years old that Ignatius 
Loyola had his leg smashed by a cannon ball at the siege of 
Pampeluna. 

It is possible that Francis' brothers may have shot 
the ball, which did a bigger stroke of business for the Roman 
Church that day than many a Pope did in a lifetime. Loyola, 
lieutenant and a faithful subject of the Emperor Charles, 
was defending the town against the insurgents, who, under the 
inspiration of Henri d'Albret, the son of Jean d'Albret, late 
king of Navarre, had again taken to the field. Francis I. 
of France encouraged them ; but although they took Pampe- 
luna, their victory was short-lived. 

While Loyola lay suffering agonies in the attempt to have 
his leg elegantly set for these were the days of his vanity 

* Cros, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, vol. i. p. 80. 



42 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

the insurgents were defeated at Noain, but even then the 
patriotism of some of them was unquenched. Francis' 
brothers were among those who refused to surrender, and in 
the general pardon of 1523 their names were in the list of 
those who were excepted from grace, and they were con- 
demned to forfeiture of all their possessions and to death ; 
but they were not caught. For two years, helped by the 
French, they held out in the garrison town of Fuenterrabia. 
At last both sides became weary, and the patriots were given 
permission to return to homes and lands with honour, if 
they would take the oath of allegiance to the Emperor. 
This they did. 

When Miguel and Juan came back to Xavier, they found 
that their little brother Francisco had grown into a tall lad 
of eighteen years, of that sunburnt, bookish, athletic type of 
youth which is so familiar to us to-day. He had no hanker- 
ings after a soldier's life, but he was full of eager talk of Paris 
and the students and professors there, and of the fine positions 
that were open to well-educated young ecclesiastics of good 
family. 



CHAPTER III 

AT THE COLLEGE OF STE. BARBE 

(15251529) 

IN October, 1525, Francis Xavier found himself in Paris. 
The university of Paris had been organised since the be- 
ginning of the thirteenth century, and not many years after 
that she had been " the brightest glory of mediaeval France." 

But that was in the far-off days of Abelard, of Albertus 
Magnus, of St. Thomas Aquinas, of St. Bonaventura. 

Abelard used to lecture to great crowds of students in 
the open meadows which lay upon the slopes of Mont 
Ste. Genevieve. 

There was in those days no medieval sage who had not studied 
or taught in Paris subtle doctors, seraphic doctors, angels of the 
schools, Italians, Spaniards, Germans. At one moment the 
souls of the students would be prisoned in the hard armour of 
scholastic argument, and the next caught up into the third 
heaven of mysticism.* 

But as long ago as the days of our Edward III., Richard 
of Bury had written : " The zeal of that illustrious school 
has become lukewarm nay, even frozen whose rays once 
illumined every corner of the earth." This decline syn- 
chronises with the gradual growth of despotism within the 
university, and with the refusal on the part of the dominant 
faculty to progress, to change, to be born again. 

By the sixteenth century Paris, as a centre of learning, 
deserved all the ridicule which was flung at her from writers 
such as Montaigne and Rabelais and Erasmus. In the 
sixteenth chapter of the second book of Pantagruel there is 
a picture of student life so appalling in its utter folly and 
soddenness that most people feel it to be beyond the limits 
of caricature. But a study of contemporary letters and 
writings proves the picture to be almost photographic in its 
accuracy. A depraved moral tone among the students was 
the inevitable fruit of the depraved intellectuality among the 

* Doumergue, Vie de Jean Calvin, vol. i. p. 50. 



44 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

masters and doctors. To the doctors, scholasticism seemed 
bound up with their very existence. It was the foundation 
upon which the whole academic structure rested, and they 
dreaded and fought against the influence of the New Learning 
because they knew that a force lay there which would under- 
mine their authority. To this day Roman Catholic historians 
A boast that the theological faculty in Paris was the first to 
detect the link between heresy and humanism. 

The earliest taint of " heresy " appeared in Paris before 
either Lutheranism or Calvinism had taken to the field. 
Doumergue gives it the name of Fabrian Protestantism, 

after Le Fevre (Faber Stapulensis). 

Jacques Le Fevre d'Etaples was born about 1455, and he 
was finally driven from the university in the same year that 
Francis Xavier entered it. He was the first man in Paris to 
criticise the versions of Aristotle then in use.* His criticism, 
founded on his study of the MSS. in Italy, could not be 
expected to please the theologians who gloried in Albertus 
Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. " By liberal and intelligent 
handling of Scripture," says Hume Brown, " he did more 
than any other Frenchman, except Calvin himself, to induce 
a critical attitude towards the traditions of the Church."f 
Unfortunately, he still more quickly induced a critical atti- 
tude towards himself. His commentary on the Epistles of 

St. Paul has been called the first Protestant book. In it is 
found the principle of the sovereign authority of the Word 
of God. And elsewhere he enunciated most clearly the 
doctrine of justification by faith. But the theological 
faculty was determined to keep Scriptural truth in its naked 
simplicity from the people. In that same year (1525) " the 
books of the Holy Scripture," the Sorbonne announced, " are 
approved in the Latin language, and ought thus to remain." J 
During his later years Etaples began, in exile, the transla- 
tion of the Bible which became the foundation of the later 
French versions. 

There is a letter written in 1519 by Olivetan to his young 
cousin, John Calvin, then a schoolboy of ten years old, which 
gives us not only a delightful description of Le Fevre himself, 

* Graf, La Vie et Us ecrits de Jacques Le Fevre d'Etaples, 1842. 

f P. Hume Brown, Life of George Buchanan, 1890, p. 18. 

J J. M. Cros, Documents Nouveaux, p. 277. 

See Ranke, " FranzOsische Geschichte " (Werke, Band 8), p. 111. 



AT THE COLLEGE OF STE. BARBE 45 

but also a simple yet vivid impression of the dawn of the 
religious renascence in Paris : 

. . . They [the doctors of the Sorbonne] so hate all new ideas 
that they prefer the old wrong way to the new right way. What 
is strange is that the priests hate good grammar more than they 
do bad lives. ... I must tell you of a dear old man who is one 
of our teachers. His name is Doctor James Le Fevre. I am 
proud of him because he is a Picard. He was once a poor boy 
in the village of Etaples, where he was born about 65 years ago. 
Perhaps there is some hope for us Noyon lads if we will be as 
studious and pious as he has been. He is a small man of a mean 
appearance, but his great soul, his vast learning, his deep piety, 
and his powerful eloquence make him the most charming man in 
the university ... we all know that he reads and talks about 
the Holy Scriptures as few others do in our day. A child can 
understand him when he preaches. Some of the students are 
beginning to make an uproar about the Gospel that he preaches. 
They think he is fighting against the Church. But I am sure 
that he tells iis more about Jesus Christ than we ever heard 
before. ... I want your father to be ready to study a book 
which I will soon send him. It was written by Le Fevre. I do 
not yet know whether the lovely old man is right or not, but he 
says if we become as little children and simply believe in Jesus, 
we will be saved.* 

It was in the same year that this letter was written that 
the Sorbonne clearly showed its front with regard to the 
doctrines of Martin Luther. Thenceforward the official 
attitude towards the German reformer was one of fierce 
opposition. Yet all the time, especially in quarters like 
Ste. Barbe, where Humanism had made some advance, the 
followers of Luther were becoming more numerous. But 
they lacked a leader.^ So from the noise ajid tumult of 

* Quoted by W. M. Blackburn in The College Days of Calvin, p. 8. 

t " For the absence of such a movement [i.e., of religious reform] no 
reason can perhaps be given but the non-appearance of the men to lead it. 
However the fact be accounted for, the university of Paris never did see 
within its college walls the growth of a really religious movement at all com- 
parable to the Wycliffite movement at Oxford, to the movement of which Hus 
was the product rather than the author at Prague, or even to the quieter 
religious revival inaugurated in the sixteenth century by men like our Oxford 
Tyndale and the Cambridge reformers. The complete isolation of the intel- 
lectual life of Paris from contact with the stronger currents of popular re- 
ligious feeling outside is one of the strangest facts of her history " (Hastings 
Rashdall, The Universities of Mediceual Europe, vol. -i. p. 557). The 
omission in this passage of any reference to the movement which resulted in 
the formation of the Society of Jesus strikes one as remarkable. 



46 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Navarre at war Francis had escaped, only to find himself 
engulfed in this maelstrom of religious and intellectual strife. 
The lad was now nineteen dark, athletic, and very 
pleasing to look upon. We can well imagine with what 
eagerness the young freshman flung off his Spanish cloak, 
donned the long black cape and pointed hat of the Parisian 
student, and set out to explore the place which for the next 
eleven years was to be his Alma Mater. 

I was the Dreamer, they the Dream ; I roamed 
Delighted through the motley spectacle ; 
Gowns grave, or gaudy, doctors, students, streets, 
Courts, cloisters, flocks of churches, gateways, towers : 
Migration strange for a stripling of the hills. . . .* 

During his earliest days in Paris Francis doubtless found 
himself besieged by such companions as were always ready 
to befriend the bejaunes.'\ Eagerly they would show him 
the sights of the town, and assist him to spend his full purse. 
One of the chief expeditions was to the towers of the 
church of Notre-Dame, whence lacking a Baedeker the 
newcomer could gain the best idea of his surroundings. Let 
us ascend those narrow spiral stairs with Francis and his 
fellows, and look down upon sixteenth-century Paris. The 
great trefoil, city, university, town, lies before us, inter- 
penetrating yet distinct. On the old shields of the Cite 
there is blazoned a ship. Sauval explains the origin of the 
device in these words : " The island of the city is made like a 
great ship, stuck in the mud and run aground in the current, 
near the centre of the Seine." Near the prow stand the 
delicately poised spires of the Sainte Chapclle, and close by, 
from the water's edge, where the laundresses wash and beat 
their linen and laugh and sing, rise the towers of the Palace 
of Justice. The river is hardly visible, for every bridge is 
laden with houses. We can picture Francis' companions 
showing him the boundaries of the city ; within its walls he 
could distinguish more than twenty churches. " There," 
says Victor Hugo, " on the right and the left to east and west, 
within the walls of the city, which was yet so contracted, 
rose the bell-towers of its one and twenty churches, of every 
date, of every form, of every size, from the low and worm- 

* Wordsworth, Prelude, book iii. line 30. 
f Bejaune, bec-jdune : yellow bill : freshman. 



AT THE COLLEGE OF STE. BARBE 47 

eaten belfry of St. Denis du Pas to the slender needles of St. 
Pierre aux Bueufs and Saint Landry." 

And there, to the west, the autumn foliage reddens in the 
king's gardens, and the falling leaves begin to reveal the 
He du Passeur. The king is a prisoner in Madrid, but the 
gardens are not quite deserted. His mother, the Queen 
Regent, at this time more devoted to the Pope than to the 
reformers, takes her pleasure there, after anxious days 
and weeks. The trial against the Lutherans has been so far 
successful ; the worst of the heretics are in prison. With 
the preachers of Meaux she and her friends had been less 
fortunate. Briyonnet certainly had accepted defeat, and 
forfeited for ever a place either at the right hand or the 
left of Luther ; but the more fervent members of the group 
has escaped, and were at this moment hiding in Capito's 
house in Strasburg.* Le Fevre's New Testament which she 
and her daughter, Margaret of Angouleme, had, in another 
mood, urged him to undertake was safely in the fire. But 
it would be on the university, and not on the king's gardens, 
that the gaze of the young Navarrese would rest longest. 
Did he look down on that unbroken mass of houses and 
colleges with a feeling of ownership, of boyish pride ? 
Did wistful ambition surge through heart and mind as he 
stood there, a little apart from his gay companions ? Down 
among the colleges he could see the abbeys of the Mathurins, 
the Bernardins, the Augustihs. There rose the square tower 
of Ste. Genevieve, and yonder stood the Sorbonne itself. 
The old dreams of ecclesiastical honours, which, realised, 
must justify him in the eyes of his house for having renounced 
a life of soldiery, surely seemed nearer fulfilment now. There 
lay the abbeys. What if up here, on the pinnacle of the 

* Brigonnet, Bishop of Meaux, and his more worthy followers are known 
as the " group of Meaux." Among them were Le Fevre d'Etaples, the bishop's 
old tutor ; Vatabie, the Hebrew scholar ; Facel ; Roussel. They were separate 
from the Lutheran party, and although d'Etaples had anticipated, in his 
commentary on 1 Corinthians, Luther's teaching on faith and works, and 
had, in his commentary on Hebrews, denied the doctrine of Transubstantiation 
while admitting the Real Presence yet the group were more independent of 
doctrine than the German reformers, and expended their energy chiefly on 
"preaching Christ from the sources." For some years they preached un- 
disturbed, and then, most naturally, but apparently somewhat to the chagrin 
of the Bishop, the theological faculty at Paris began to identify their religion 
with Luther's. Meaux issued a decree against Lutheranism, while continuing 
his work of reform, but in 1525 he gave up the difficult struggle. (See Ranke, 
Werke, Band 8, p. 111.) 



48 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

temple, one should be standing now hush, you boisterous 
boys we will go down presently to the cabaret and drink at 
my expense one, Francis Xavier, who will in time be 
abbot, cardinal, Pope ? . . . 

" What is that ? " he cries, as his impatient guides drag 
him towards the staircase. He has seen a strange white cliff, 
so high, so wrapped in the October mists, that it seems 
almost to be hung, like a drifting cloud, in the sky a mass of 
turrets and windmills but so soft, so dreamlike, that he 
fears it will be gone before they answer him. 

" That is Mons Martyrum. There, in the crypt of the 
church of Our Lady, lie the bones of good Saint Denis. 
Come away down to the tavern, sefior." 

Yes, Francis, that is Mons Martyrum. And there, at the 
close of your student life, you will take the cup of salvation 
and pay your vows unto the Lord. 

If the afternoon on the towers of Notre-Dame was a 
delight to eye and mind, the hours in the college class-rooms 
must, on the contrary, have been a hard trial to one whom 
we know to have been fastidious in his manners and tastes. 
The college itself was dark and ill-ventilated, and bounded 
by narrow streets that reeked with offal. The lectures 
began at 5 a.m. In 1452 benches had been prohibited, and 
scholars bidden to sit on the floor for humility's sake,* 
the authorities said, being too proud to confess that they 
were short of money. So on the floor Francis sat, on straw 
in winter, and on mown grass in summer, while the regent, 
rod in hand, lectured from his solitary chair. Here and 
there a lamp reeked, and round it clustered a knot of students 
who took notes, or wrote letters to their mothers or their 
sweethearts. In 1491 an order had been issued advising 
that one of the morning lectures each day should be devoted 
to dictation. Each student was to be given an allowance of 
three sheets of paper per week.t Some of the students 
were not half-way through their teens ; others were middle- 
aged men. Some were there to learn, many to rest, to 
write, to read, or to fool. From time to time the professor 

* " They shall sit in the presence of the masters on the ground, not on 
benches or seats raised above the ground as in time past, when the study of 
the said faculty was more flourishing." (Bulaeus, vol. iv. p. 390, and vol. v. 
p. 573. " Bulaeus was perhaps the stupidest man that ever wrote a valuable 
book," says Rashdall.) 

f Quicherat, Histoire de Ste. Barbe, p. 87. 



AT THE COLLEGE OF STE. BARBE 49 

would rise, thread his way through the black cloaked figures, 
and single out a special offender for punishment. Montaigne, 
with good reason, pitied these poor young students : 

It is a verie prison of captivated youth, and proves dissolute, 
in punishing before it be so. Come upon them when they are 
going to their lesson, and you heare nothing but whipping and 
brawling, both of children tormented, and masters besotted 
with anger and chafing. How wide are they, which go about to 
allure a child's mind to go to his bopke, being yet but tender and 
fearf ull, with a stearne -frowning countenance, and with handsfull 
of rods.* 

Vives, the great educationist, has very severe things 
to say about the education in the university of Paris in those 
days. " One discusses before dinner, during dinner, after 
dinner, in public, in private, in all places, at all times. One 
ends by discussing as to whether the pig is led to market by 
the man who is taking it, or by the string he holds." In his 
Dialogus qui Sapiens inscribitur he portrays a scene which 
is supposed to have occurred in one of the class-rooms in 
Ste. Barbe : 

MASTER : Boy, tell me in what month Virgil died ? 

PUPIL : September, sir. 

MASTER : In what place ? 

PUPIL : At Brindisi. 

MASTER : On what day of the month ? 

PUPIL : Ninth of the month. 

MASTER : Idiot, do you wish to make a fool of me before these 
gentlemen ? Reach me my rod, pull back your sleeve and hold 
out your hand for having said the ninth instead of the tenth. 
Try to pay more attention. You all see, gentlemen, that this is 
a boy who knows a lot. Did Sallust at the beginning of his 
Catilina write omnies homines or omnis homines ? 

PUPIL : The general opinion is that he wrote omnis, but I 
think he wrote omnies, and that so it was necessary for the printer 
to break the customary rule, and spell it with an " ie " and not 
with a simple " i." 

MASTER : What was the brother of Remus called, and how did 
he wear his beard ? 

PUPIL: Some, my master, say that he was called Romulus, 
others Romus, whence the name of Rome, and, as a term of 
affection, the diminutive Romulus. When he went to the war he 

* Montaigne's Essays, book i. chap. xxv. (Florio's translation). 

D 



50 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

had no beard, but he had a long one in times of peace. It is 
thus that he is represented in colour in the Livy printed in Venice. 

MASTER : How did Alexander raise himself when he fell on 
the earth in touching for the first time Asiatic soil ? 

PUPIL : By leaning on his hands and raising his head.* 

Surely Francis was recalling such hours when, years after- 
wards, he wrote from India that he often had a mind to 
come to Europe, to Paris, above all to the university, and 
" shout aloud like a madman who had lost his senses " to the 
students, reminding them of the things that really mattered .f 

Ribadeneira, Loyola's contemporary biographer, has given 
us a succinct account of a normal day at college : 

Rise at four, at five lecture, followed by mass, and breakfast 
composed of a roll. From eight to ten lecture ; at eleven masters 
and pupils dine together, while parts of the Bible or the Lives 
of the Saints were read aloud. Then, for recreation, the reading 
of poetry and questions on the preceding lesson. Another 
class from three to five ; at six supper, repetition, salut du Sainct- 
Sacrement, and to bed.t 

This probably gives a -fairly accurate description of the 
tenor of Xavier's first four years at the university. He 
was enrolled as a cameriste-portioniste that is, he paid both 
for food and for lodging, and boarded with the principal, 
who was required " diligently to hear the lessons of the 
scholars studying in the Faculty of Arts, and faithfully to 
instruct them alike in life and in doctrine." There were 
various other kinds of students. Bursars were taught, 
lodged, and fed free of charge. Cameristes fed themselves, 
but were provided with lodging under charge of certain 
regents known as pedagogues. Besides all these, there was 
a large body of outside students known as martinets, ,|| who 
attended the classes if they had time or inclination, or any 
special mischief in hand. These men formed the hooligan 
element, which at that time made up a considerable part of 

* Joannes Ludovicus Vives, Opera Omnia (Valentia, 1783), vol. iv. pp. 23 
and 24. 

f Mon. Hist. Soc. Jesu, Mon. Xav., vol. I., p. 285. 

J Vida de P. Ignatius de Loyola (French Edition, Paris, 1891), p. 133. 

Bulaeus, vol. iv. p. 93 (quoted by H. Kashdall). 

|| In 1463 the Faculty of Arts ordered all students who did not board with 
relatives, or in the house of some responsible member of the university, to live 
inside the colleges or pedagogies. See Bulaeus, vol. v. p. 658. Those who 
evaded this rule were the martinets birds of passage. Cf. the Chamber- 
dekyns of mediaeval Oxford. 



AT THE COLLEGE OF STE. BARBE 51 

university life. To the inner ring of this group belonged the 
galoches. They trailed their noisy sabots through the 
colleges at all seasons, a lazy unkempt crew, never taking 
any examinations, grey-haired parasites and loafers. A few 
of them, however, hired themselves out to the wealthier 
students as servants. Such was Miguel the Navarrese, 
Francis Xavier's man, " a sad person of low birth and an 
evil life." There was yet another class, the serviteurs, 
sons of the poorest citizens, and they, in return for washing 
and scrubbing the floors and doing the humblest work of the 
house, were allowed to attend any of the classes they chose. 

Francis, like all students with serious ambitions, elected 
to take the Arts course, which led up to the protracted 
theological studies. To gain the degree of Master of Arts, 
the student had first an examination in Greek, history, 
grammar, and Latin versification. One or two years, 
mostly occupied with logic, followed, and then came the 
examination for Bachelorship. A year later* the student 
submitted himself for the licentiateship examination. This 
examination passed, there followed a sort of minor gradua- 
tion ceremony, a diploma was publicly given, and the 
chancellor, in his robes of state, bestowed the Apostolic 
blessing. Towards the end of the same year it was in order 
for the student to ask for the " bonnet," and to be officially 
and publicly designated Master. " Placet ne vobis talem, 
licentium biretari ? " said the professor. " Placet," replied the 
other masters. So the graduation ceremony was called Placet. 

Thus the student became a magister novus. He was not a 
full Master, or Master Regent, until he had been appointed 
as professor in one of the colleges. These posts were nearly 
always occupied by youths on their way to graduate in one 
of the higher faculties, and they were only held from year 
to year.f 

The value of university degrees in those days is very 
uncertain. The registers at Paris show that candidates 
were hardly ever rejected. On the other hand, the students 
appear to have been weeded out by various processes before 
they took the actual examinations. Rashdall computes J 

* The intervals between these different examinations appear to have 
varied considerably, and by the sixteenth century the whole curriculum, 
which had originally occupied 4J years, was reduced to 3J years. 

t H. Rashdall, Universities of Mediaeval Europe, vol. i. p. 457 ff. 

J Ibid., p. 462. 

D2 



52 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

that only half, at the outside, of the students who matricu- 
lated in Arts took their Bachelor's examination, and that 
of these only a small proportion became Masters. If a 
student was rejected by the examiners, it was generally on 
moral grounds.* 

The college of Ste. Barbe was informally founded in 1460 
by Geoffrey Lenormant. Colleges were usually called after 
their founders, but this man appears to have been graced 
by an unusual modesty, and gave it the name of a saint. 
Ste. Barbara, like St. Catherine, is supposed to have confuted 
the pagan doctors. But we have here as well a characteristic 
mediaeval double-entendre, for Barbara is the name of a form 
of syllogism. 

There was no college in Paris at that time with such a 
high reputation as Ste. Barbe. It had been compared to the 
wooden horse of Troy, because it had within itself such a 
number of great men. Francis was very probably advised 
to go there by his uncle, the scholarly Doctor of Navarre. 
Between the Doctor and his nephew, as will be seen from 
later letters, there existed a deep affection. He may simply 
have gone there because it was a favourite college among 
Spaniards and Portuguese. 

Jacques de Gouvea, the principal, was a Portuguese, and 
one of the most progressive members of the university ; to 
him, indeed, his college was largely indebted for its high 
position at this time. He saw, almost before anyone else, 
the crying need for young men who would go out to the 
notoriously lawless and demoralised new colonies as priests 
and missionaries, and he used all his influence with his kings 
to get them to provide education at Ste. Barbe for that pur- 
pose. About a year after Xavier's arrival in Paris, Gouvea 
succeeded in renting the college in the interests of John III., 
and fifteen bursaries were given by Portugal for missionary 
students. Yet, in spite of the large proportion of Iberians, 

* On this point Rashdall says : " It must be remembered that the degree 
was not a mere certificate of having passed an examination, but the admission 
to an official position (i.e., that of regent). Thus at Vienna we find that in 
1449 out of 43 candidates for the licence seventeen were rejected, one for 
having spoken uncivilly to a master, another for irregularities in the matter 
of academical dress, another for going out to see an execution in the midst 
of an examination, another for going about disguised, and for the heinous 
offence of wandering by the Danube, another for gambling, another for 
taking part in a knife fight with certain tailors, none apparently for failure 
in the literary part of the examination" (op. cit. I. p. 461). 



AT THE COLLEGE OF STE. BARBE 53 

the college was the most cosmopolitan in the university. 
It had the best of both the Scottish and the French students. 
And, most portentous fact for Francis, Loyola the Basque 
was soon to be there, lucerna ardens el lucens. Only Germany 
was ill-represented. For most of her sons Paris had become 
a dead branch. 

During the whole of Xavier's first winter session the king, 
Francis I., was a prisoner in Spain, and the discipline, both 
in town and university, was even more lax than usual. 
Orders were issued and reissued, but the authority of the 
university could no longer cope with the rising tide of life, 
nor with its inevitable froth of lawlessness and folly.* 

We have but little direct evidence as to the life of Francis 
during those first college years. His earlier biographers 
have paid but scant attention to that part of his life. That 
he worked well is evident. It is evident, too, that he had 
that usual quality of genius, a power of friendship with widely 
different types of men. The closest of his friends was 
probably Peter Faber. With something of the same love 
and wonder which some of the best men of his time betray 
when speaking of George Meredith, we find Faber's lovers 
and friends speaking and writing of him. He and Francis 
found themselves freshmen together, sharing the same 
room. And when the young hidalgo from Xavier was not 
following, albeit with reluctant feet, the dubious ways of 
his more turbulent companions, he often sat and talked far 
into the night with the wise and gentle-souled shepherd lad. 
Faber had been born in the same year as Francis, but in 
very different circumstances. He grew up to tend his 
father's sheep on his native heights of Savoy. He was neither 
the first nor the last shepherd lad to turn saint and scholar. 
Among his writings is the beautiful Memorial, an auto- 
biography of part of his life. In it we find these words : 

I went to Paris to the College of Ste. Barbe in the year 1525. 
I was nineteen. ... I pray to God that He may ever keep ine in 
grateful remembrance of the good things He gave to me, both 
bodily and spiritually, by various means, during those three 
and a half years. I put among the foremost of my mercies 
that I had such a master, and that I found in the room of his 
college in which I was installed such good companionship : I 

* See Crevier, Histoire de Vuniversitt de Paris, vol. v. p. 191 ; see also 
Journal d'ww Bourgeois de Paris, p. 272. 



54 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

speak above all of Master Francis Xavier, who is of the Company 
of Jesus.* 

Many years afterwards, when he was in Cochin, in 1548, 
Francis writes of Faber as the dearest of all the departed 
souls of the Company.t 

Mathtirin Cordier, to whom Doumergue, the biographer of 
Calvin, gives a place of honour as among the most potent 
influences of the great reformer's student days,t was almost 
certainly one of Xavier' s professors. Cordier did not join 
the reformers till about 1528, though long before that time 
he himself had been, in the deepest sense of the word, a re- 
former. His orthodoxy probably gave him a greater influ- 
ence over Francis than he would otherwise have had, and 
there are passages in the letters from India curiously akin 
to the following passage from the writings of Cordier : 

In the schools of this city Christ is so neglected ! There is so 
little care for the Word of God ! How many of the masters are 
there who lead their pupils, in their rooms or at the lectures, to 
the love of God, or the study of things divine ? How many of 
them prefer a student who is virtuous and honourable to one 
who is learned and clever with his pen ? What teacher is there 
who places love above gain ? . . . Why do you force the students ? 
Why do you struggle with them ? Why do you torture them ? 
Do you wish to teach them easily ? Begin with principles. 
Begin with speaking of God and of the things of heaven. Teach 
these boys ; do not leave them to themselves ; but by divine grace, 
lead them, I say, to love the Christ, to breathe the Christ, to have 
the Christ on their lips. Pour it, as it were, drop by drop on the 
souls of your pupils : make it enter and penetrate into them. 
Inculcate them so assiduously with the Word of God that they 
shall be at least touched with some spark of the Love Divine. 

Another great man whom Xavier must often have met was 
George Buchanan, who had arrived in Paris for the first time 
in 1520, and was more or less connected with the university 
for many years. It was he who, along with Mathurin 
Cordier and Strebee, achieved the classical revival at 
Ste. Barbe. There, in 1529, he was regent or professor, and 
therefore in the same house with Xavier and Loyola. One 

* P. Faber, Fabri Monumenta, Memoriale, p. 493. 

t Mon. Xav. y vol. i. p. 436. 

J See Calvin's preface to his book on Thessalonians, Opera xiii. p. 525. 

Quoted by Doumergue, Vie de Jean Calvin, vol. i. p. 60. 



AT THE COLLEGE OF STE. BARBE 55 

wonders if that most astute fisher of men, the great founder 
of the Order of the Jesuits, ever set his nets for George 
Buchanan. Did Loyola know the measure of his power, 
and shun defeat ; did he weigh the Scottish humanist and 
find him wanting in that which he required, or was he in this 
instance blind to what lay, perhaps, within his grasp ? For 
Buchanan was in these days of the stuff of which the Counter- 
Reformers were compact: intellectual, a man steeped in 
affairs, a seeker of truth, a malcontent, yet no Lutheran. 

Erasmus had been in Paris some years earlier, but the 
study of Greek had then scarcely begun, and the fare and 
lodging disgusted one whose fastidiousness was in advance 
of his times. " I carried nothing away from Paris," he says 
in his Icthophagia, " but a body infested with disease, and a 
plentiful supply of vermin." 

Scholars passed and repassed across the Channel. While 
Erasmus came to Oxford, John Major and Florence Wilson 
and a host of lesser stars followed in the train of Buchanan 
to Paris. Some of those Scotsmen most likely saw, if they 
did not meet, the theologian who has since become almost the 
special property of their race. Although Quicherat * and 
Ribadeneira f claim Calvin for Ste. Barbe, the colleges 
associated with his early university life are la Marche and 
Montaigu, which latter he left about the same time as Loyola 
arrived.^ It is curious to think of Calvin's remaining in 
this extreme conservative atmosphere for so long, while 
Loyola only went there for a short period, and then gravitated 
to the more liberal Ste. Barbe. The college of Montaigu 
had at that time the most reactionary man in the university 
as principal. This was Noel Beda ; Erasmus said that in 
one Beda there were three thousand monks. He seems to 
have combined intellectual mediocrity with a vast conviction 
of the Tightness of his own opinions. Even his friends 
disapproved of his excess of retrogressive zeal, and Francis I., 
after making various complaints, finally ordered the univer- 
sity to expel him because he had condemned a book written 
by Margaret of Navarre. The college itself seems to have 
been even more disagreeable than the principal. It was 

* Quicherat, Histoire de Ste. Barbe, vol. i. p. 204. 

t La Vie de S. Ignatius de Loyola, apres Ribadeneira, p. 138. 

$ Doumergue, Jean Calvin, vol. i. p. 59, note ; T. M. Lindsay, History of 
the Reformation, vol. ii. pp. 93-4 ; and H. Y. Reyburn, John Calvin, London, 
1914, p. 10. 



56 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

famous for its exaggerated asceticism, its ceaseless punish- 
ments, its indescribable filth, and its unrelenting studies.* 
And Erasmus writes of it : 

the beds were so hard, the food so meagre, the labours so exacting 
that many youths of splendid promise, after the first years of 
their sojourn in this college, became mad or blind or leprous, if 
they did not die. Some of the bedrooms, because they were 
close to the lavatories, were so dirty and infected that none of 
those who lodged there came away alive, or without the germ of 
some grave disease . . . Oh, how many rotten eggs I ate there, 
and how much mouldy wine I drank ! f 

There is a letter extant which, as if to make up for the 
singularly rare glimpses possible into the youth of Xavier, 
gives us a picture both intimate and sad. It shows to us, 
too, that the repulsive physical surroundings in the university, 
of which Erasmus has given us so vivid a picture, were 
matched by the moral atmosphere of the colleges. This 
letter is written after Xavier' s death by a priest near Melia- 
por, to whom the Saint- had given one of his few personal 
confidences : 

Talking to me, he told me the story of his life from his earliest 
years until that time. He spoke of his native land, of his father 
and mother, of the age at which he went to Paris, and of what 
happened to him there. And d propos of the students' way of 
living, he told me that they and the professors too were very 
dissipated. Often they went out at night from the college and 
led him with them. But Francis was seized with such a dread 
of sharing in their physical ruin that he did not dare to behave as 
they did. This fear sustained him for one or two years. Then 
the Professor died as a result of his excesses, and was succeeded 
by a pure and virtuous Master (Juan Pena), whose good example 
Francis followed, so that never, from that day onward, had he 
such acquaintances as these were.J 

At this time Francis' sympathies lay with the Lutherans, 
and he frequented their society. To do so implied either 
great bravery or great recklessness, for the martyrs had 
already begun to burn. The following extract gives but one 
story among many of its kind : 

* See Doumergue, Vie de Jean Calvin, vol. i. p. 69. 

f Quoted by Doumergue, op. cit., vol. i. p. 72. 

J Delplace, Sel. Ind. Epist. (Florence, 1887), p. 180. 



AT THE COLLEGE OF STE. BARBE 57 

In the said year 1526, on Tuesday, August 28th, a young man, 
a beneficed scholar, not yet in priest's orders, but a Master of 
Arts . . . native of Theronne in Picardy, because he was a 
Lutheran, saying that the Virgin Mary had no more power than 
any other saint, with several other follies, and who persisted, 
although he was warned, and counselled by the chief confessor 
of Paris, M. Jean Merlin, Doc.Theo., died in this error. ... He 
had, on the previous Christmas Eve, made honourable repentance, , 
a burning torch in his hand, naked but for his shirt, before the 
Church of Notre-Dame, begging God and the Virgin to have mercy 
on him, for the many errors and follies which he had held and 
taught, and which he repented and deplored. Thereupon he was 
condemned to seven years' imprisonment in the prison of St. 
Martin des Champs, in Paris, living on bread and water, by order 
of the court. But having entered the said prison, he returned to 
his errors and follies. So that, finally, the said court, advised by 
the prior of St. Martin and others, tried and condemned him, as 
before, to be burnt.* 

And while he read the writings of Luther, and loved the 
Lutherans, and loved still more the shepherd lad who had 
vowed perpetual celibacy and had dedicated himself to 
the priesthood, while he passed all his examinations and 
associated with the best and the worst men of his college, 
Xavier still found ample time to devote to his tailor. Old 
Tursellinus says: "Francis, desirous, as usual, to maintain 
his nobility and estimation among his equals, fell into extra- 
ordinary expense, for which cause his fatherf began to think 
of calling him home." And his biographer goes on to relate 
how his sister Madeline, a nun, wrote : " Do not do this ; rather 
help my brother Francis with his studies, for I am sure that 
he will become a great servant of God and a pillar of the 
Church." t 

When we know that the family of Xavier was now ex- 
tremely poor, that Francis' mother had exhausted all her 
resources in the law courts in the attempt to get hold of the 
sums which had been promised to her, we can understand 
the desire on the part of his family to see the youngest son 
at home and making money, and their reluctance to pay for 
his education and his extravagances. But this advice from 

* Journal (Tun Bourgeois de Paris, p. 292. 

t His father, Tursellinus had forgotten, or had not known, was long 
since dead. He had probably confused him with the eldest son of the family, 
who bore the same name. 

J See Tursellinus, Book I., cap. 2 j also Cros, Documents Nouveaux, p. 266. 



58 



ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 



Madeline the nun appears to have been taken, and Tursel- 
linus says that in his day the prophetic letter was still to be 
seen among the family treasures at Xavier. 

About this time both Francis' brothers married, and in 
1529 his mother died, and the old home was broken up. 

It was just during those months, which must have been the 
loneliest of his life, that he found himself beginning to stir 
beneath the supreme fascinations of Ignatius Loyola. 




SIGNATURE OF LOYOLA. 



;. e ^ ;; ; ^J^HIV ^ 




'< V ' j-, 



I , 



SE?ES ot 

' ' 



, . ,, 

,'- 1 .;^ .; ;\ 

-' ." ., xi ,'*-,-,-.',, A, 
?.<'''?'. - 



58 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Madeline the nun appears to have been taken, and Tursel- 
linus says that in his day the prophetic letter was still to be 
seen among the family treasures at Xavier. 

About this time both Francis' brothers married, and in 
1529 his mother died, and the old home was broken up. 

It was just during those months, which must have been the 
loneliest of his life, that he found himself beginning to stir 
beneath the supreme fascinations of Ignatius Loyola. 




SIGNATURE OF LOYOLA. 



IGNATIUS LOYOLA SETS^OUt 
MONTSERRAT 



' 1 J . -' L ^ ; 



araa AJOYOJ 





coma&one JIM, exit,recttuxut 
Vtrqinis tetnvlwn, -nmutis- veawe^ 
Serrakun conteiutok. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER 

(152815,34) 

ONE February day in 1528 there entered Paris, driving 
before him an ass laden with books, the radiant knight of 
the Church in distress who was to win Francis from his 
earlier dreams.* 

On the face of it there was small likelihood that Ignatius 
Loyola and Francis Xavier would become friends. Eight 
years ago Miguel and Juan, the brothers of Francis, had 
gone up against Loyola at the fateful Pampeluna. Since 
then the God-intoxicated cripple had made of himself a 
laughing-stock to all but a few, and the whole world of his 
ambitions was strange to such as Francis was. Yet they 
had in common a language rarely heard, and high traditions 
which they had both once dreamed of carrying on, and did 
still hope to honour, each in his own way. In Loyola the 
iron endurance of the Basque was blended with the old 
mediaeval Spanish qualities the quasi-religious mysticism, 
the fantastic chivalry which were the web and woof of 
such romances as his favourite Amadis of Gaul.t His 
youthful hopes of military and knightly glory were not to 
be easily broken, and since he could no longer serve his 

* Ribadeneira, Vita, torn. i. cap. xvi. " Alone, driving an ass loaded 
with books, he turned into the way from Barcelona that he might take ad- 
vantage of the studies of Paris." 

f There are qualities both in Xavier and in Loyola which can hardly be 
sympathetically understood, unless one had read one or other of those old 
romances. Perhaps Southey, the translator of Amadis, was too unmeasured 
in his criticism when he said : " Amadis of Gaul is among prose what Orlando 
Furioso is among metrical romances, not the oldest of its kind, but the best." 
Yet there is no book which gives us a finer picture of the combination of 
chivalry and mysticism which was so characteristic of Spain at that time. In 
other countries this mediaeval quality had been more or less uprooted by the 
influences of the Renascence, which had as yet hardly penetrated to Spain. 
But by a curious evolution of circumstance the enthusiasms which the 
crusades against the Moors had kindled were fanned into new life at the * 
very moment when they might, easily have died. For the final expulsion of 
the Moors from Spain was coincident with the discovery of America and the 
opening up of the New World, and once more Spain was to hold up the Cross 
at the head of her armies. To colonise was to Christianise. This national 
ideal probably played a larger part in the inspiration of both Loyola and 
Xavier than we are accustomed to think. And, in their sincere and enthu- 
siastic youth, they must have heard and read with anger of the way in which 
these sacred traditions were being carried out. 



60 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

country in the field, nor his " lady more high than duchess 
or countess," he bethought himself of the great reputations 
of the saints, and was glad to think that after all he might 
not find the gates of fame shut upon him. It did not matter 
how poor or crippled the soldiers were who fought about the 
walls of Jerusalem or Babylon. The Virgin Mary would 
be his Oriana ; he could already hear her say, like the lady 
whom Amadis was bidden to serve, that it pleased her. Yes, 
there she stood, with her Child in her arms, and with one 
long look she rapt his soul from his earth to her Heaven. 
This vision inspired him to leave his father's castle and go up 
into the mountains. It was a difficult j ourney . His wounded 
leg was still helpless. But he took with him two servants, 
and the faithful ass upon which his brother had mounted him 
carried its strange burden carefully up the passes, till, high 
among the naked rocks, they found the church of Our Lady 
of Montserrat. 

There the cripple hobbled from his beast, and, like Amadis, 
the Child of the Sea, " he armed himself all save his head and 
his hands, and made his prayer before the altar, beseeching 
God to grant him success in arms, and in the love which he 
bore his Lady." 

At dawn on the third day, his prayers and vigils over, 
the future founder of the great militant order took off his 
sword and his spurs, exchanged his knightly dress for the 
coarse garb of a hermit, and descended the rocky path on 
foot. He was determined to go to Jerusalem, but, afraid 
that his friends would find him at Barcelona and detain him, 
he made first for the Dominican convent of Manresa. 

From this time he no longer called himself Inigo Recalde 
de Loyola, but Ignatius, because of his love for the martyred 
bishop of Antioch. 

At Manresa his soul weathered a storm that has reminded 
many historians of that storm which had come upon Luther 
twenty years before in the convent at Erfurt. In both 
cases there was the same prolonged and anguished struggle, 
the same despairing resort to all the machinery of the mediaeval 
Church, the same sense of alienation from God through sin, 
the same hopeless effort to keep a law which unaided human 
effort cannot keep. 

It has, strange to say, surprised many that the same peace 
came to both alike. But Luther's vindication of the doctrine 




anmonwi Jahitem i 
vnmo, Gmmmatiaz elenwnfo annos Ires, & tri - 

ffinta, natus awisdt; wrentz ac nmpentt re 

VN ' ' i -r 7 *, ' 

Dcmone , ffiu wporhans renwi codestiimi aou- 

1" * H /* /r K 

S auocare mo aus ammm jrunra. conatur. 



J J 



Loola/ ])k^ ! jU^t 



i;^:''^ .. 

'-' '". ;''". i "', -!'.''.-,' -. ''I,-'' /-, . > . -J (",,' .' ' ' \ fjfU ..'.';. 

:>j,!;, .::;.':;;; SO.: -.: ..'".' . :-;, J --V':v ..'';'' ^;.-.-'-; v ^<.c!' ^*C L : f 'iiStJ'O^' i'.Tlil I F-.'^IV.*?.-: "' fi 

HYY-^YV^lYvY,---':;;:-^')-'-^ of tlie Jesuits built 'up toe SpiiiU^i' 
Y ;; YYv,Y -YY\;^.^ Yi*^-d sx.perienees.. too* came 'a fresh r'usY 
-;Y :; ;-YYf'Y : ' ; - : Y.- :I V ' j'o;yf^lne-ss. From the liour \v!:K-'hc' 
;Y."Y i " 'Y ; --'Y,:,Y ' : -; seH-c}uistifjerr!.en!..s and lasting aiul sleep- 1 
^-'^Y^'^^.^'iled- to bring Mm nearer God, ho distrusted 
Y-vr^ ; -v . "svwis of ' asceticism, -He put aft his kermit ? ?i 
7.Y-Y V ' ; ;xH^i ; dtC'l liis iieiK'i aiifi washed !na .mee a ttd. ';r.i.n.i.rne<l 
>YYY;,:- The Children in.tli.e streets no lon/xer leered -at; 
lie .had y ?v fc to renounce word>y poverty,: ' 'He ^e^ed 
/yfn^ v/i lYilestiiK:., but-liiK enhhusia-sm? and' hip* .learleiw;-- 
'fl^^^uuJ tl^'o Cb.TKstla.o pop;nlntio:n in Jens sal era, n.^:i- be 
! :,a: ; rftu;'i<lf:;d to .^tun*;, -I'^rb bs luiU V1 seen '" oiaetb,Ivig afc 



, 

i 'm.i..ie boy9, ; fo jeanf !.?>ixiv AIUJ to 



ie ovs /a'j.^e/ ; at '' 



. . 

-t -lie uonk; :>ot kcsip to ibims^f tlii;-r -vvidcli ivy,;-; tlnr :?o-;>'t 
^ovi^i: ol ; -a-U UK eu;Jf:/i^ : oaTv. Alter scbool hours b.e . wtsit- ,. 
i^-f> tl>c sto^cts aju! .preached., aiul tjuiglit ,tb cbndrv^i ' - 
'' '''^w;'^'-:^'^?^ Hie CjvareK setiag .hisn so 'e^KiatiivEilly-.^ 
'Y^, i;'*.c^v*ct:^-d. Isun 'cf iHriwngmf.; to the Tierelin-ia) gnostic- 
.iuK*w:?t atrtuf; AttiW&rCfdos** It "vvMa. co;;,;^tv nidg^-eiift ;,, 



i-- ^^^H-knitied' foJk, yet one can in.Kierstat;.d. the mistake, 
-:' ^ ti^c^r-df'v-i r'^Ii^'loii has no 'worse enemy to Tear -IhanY 
:' v - ; -;yi ---'ho claims ic? bo able to COIBHUI^IC wifii liU Uod- 
o:::Y tbe jaiervcntYyn of a >:deGt, 



Who c&ufjov. tell !VhMt 1 '-;tck, 




Barcuumt yk se ai mimonim* Jalubm injb>uak 
vnma, Qrammatica elerrwrtfa awws ires, et tri - 

i *7 *f /^ 

^inta naius aMisdt ;jurente ac rumpmte re 

Daemone.qw vnporhmis rerum cadestwn aau-- 

1- * it r a C-L 

Civs auoctxre mo ems ammum mutrci comber. 



IGNATIUS LotOLA AT SCHOOL 



THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER 61 

of justification by faith does not necessarily appropriate 
that experience for Protestantism. Loyola, like Luther, 
found rest in resting on the mercy of God. 

It was from these experiences at Manresa, and from his 
ardent perusal there of Garcia de Cisneros and Thomas a 
Kempis, that the founder of the Jesuits built up the Spiritual 
Exercises. From these experiences, too, came a fresh rush 
of enthusiasm and joy fulness. From the hour when he 
discovered that his self -chastisements and fasting and sleep- 
less vigils had failed to bring him nearer God, he distrusted 
the severer forms of asceticism. He put off his hermit's 
dress, and anointed his head and washed his face and trimmed 
his nails. The children in the streets no longer jeered at 
him. He had yet to renounce worldly poverty. He begged 
his wav to Palestine, but his enthusiasms and his fearless- 

V ' 

ness alarmed the Christian population in Jerusalem, and he 
was persuaded to return. But he had " seen " something at 
Manresa, and he was not to be baffled. He put himself to 
school. The man of thirty-three sat on the benches of the 
school at Barcelona with little boys, to learn Latin and to 
prepare himself for the university. The boys laughed at* 
him. His brain, long unused to study, was slow to learn. 
But his will was of steel. 

Yet he could not keep to himself that which was the root 
and flower of all his endeavour. After school hours he went 
out into the streets and preached, and taught the children 
their catechism. The Church, seeing him so ecstatically 
happy, suspected him of belonging to the heretical gnostic 
sect known as the Alumbrados.* It was a coarse judgment . 
which placed this most astute of mystics on a plane with 
these unbalanced folk, yet one can understand the mistake. 
And a sacerdotal religion has no worse enemy to fear than 
the man who claims to be able to commune with his God 
without the intervention of a priest. The writings of the^ 
great mystics have all a Protestant ring : 

Oh, who can heal me ? 

Give me perfectly Thyself : 

Send me no more a messenger 

Who cannot tell what I seek.f 

* The Alumbrados, or Spanish Illuminati. See Ranke, Die RomischenPapste 
in den letzten vier Jahrhunderlen, Bd. i. p. 123 ; see also Gothein, Ignatius von 
Loyola und die Gegenreformalion, pp. 61-4. 

f St. John of the Cross. 



THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER 61 

of justification by faith does not necessarily appropriate 
that experience for Protestantism. Loyola, like Luther, 
found rest in resting on the mercy of God. 

It was from these experiences at Manresa, and from his 
ardent perusal there of Garcia de Cisneros and Thomas a 
Kempis, that the founder of the Jesuits built up the Spiritual 
Exercises. From these experiences, too, came a fresh rush 
of enthusiasm and joyfulness. From the hour when he 
discovered that his self-chastisements and fasting and sleep- 
less vigils had failed to bring him nearer God, he distrusted 
the severer forms of' asceticism. He put off his hermit's 
dress, and anointed his head and washed his face and trimmed 
his nails. The children in the streets no longer jeered at 
him. He had yet to renounce worldly poverty. He begged 
his way to Palestine, but his enthusiasms and his fearless- 
ness alarmed the Christian population in Jerusalem, and he 
was persuaded to return. But he had " seen " something at 
Manresa, and he was not to be baffled. He put himself to 
school. The man of thirty-three sat on the benches of the 
school at Barcelona with little boys, to learn Latin and to 
prepare himself for the university. The boys laughed at 
him. His brain, long unused to study, was slow to learn. 
But his will was of steel. 

Yet he could not keep to himself that which was the root 
and flower of all his endeavour. After school hours he went 
out into the streets and preached, and taught the children 
their catechism. The Church, seeing him so ecstatically 
happy, suspected him of belonging to the heretical gnostic 
sect known as the Alumbrados.* It was a coarse judgment 
which placed this most astute of mystics on a plane with 
these unbalanced folk, yet one can understand the mistake. 
And a sacerdotal religion has no worse enemy to fear than 
the man who claims to be able to commune with his God 
without the intervention of a priest. The writings of the 
great mystics have all a Protestant ring : 

Oh, who can heal me ? 
, Give me perfectly Thyself : 

Send me no more a messenger 
Who cannot tell what I seek.f 

* The Alumbrados, or Spanish Illuminati. See Ranke, Die Rb'mischen Papste 
in den letzten vier Jahrhunderten, Bd. i. p. 123 ; see also Gothein, Ignatius von 
Loyola und die Gegenreformation, pp. 61-4. 

f Si. John of the Cross. 



62 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Overcarefulness on the part of the Church was therefore 
pardonable. Ignatius was ordered to study theology for 
four years before dogmatising again in public. 

For most men of his age this would have meant giving 
up and going down. But Ignatius, after proving his inno- 
cence of any taint of heresy, and his entire faithfulness 
towards the Church, only went on the more doggedly with 
his studies. He became a prominent figure in Alcala and in 
Barcelona, and he did not lack for means or for friends. 
Some devoted ladies financed him liberally. But he never 
spent more than a small proportion of these moneys on his 
own personal needs. 

After spending a short time at the college of Montaigu, 
possibly just before Calvin left there, Loyola entered Ste. 
Barbe. 

Perhaps they [Calvin and Loyola] passed one another in some 
street of Mont Sainte Genevieve : the young Frenchman of 
eighteen on horseback, as was his custom, the Spaniard of thirty- 
six on foot, his purse furnished with gold which he had begged, 
before him his ass, laden with his books, and in his pocket a 
manuscript called the Spiritual Exercises. These two repre- 
sented the two opposing worlds which were then separating. 
Each of them was preparing himself for the formidable contest 
which was about to shake Christianity to its foundations Calvin 
the Reformer, Loyola the counter-Reformer : Calvin the father of 
the Huguenots, Loyola the father of the Jesuits.* 

Faber tells us in his Memorial that Francis, Loyola, and 
himself shared the same room in Ste. Barbe. It is not 
likely that it held much furniture ; it was unusual for the 
students even to have beds in those days. In one corner, neatly 
arranged, we fancy, stood the books which the good ass had 
borne across the Pyrenees. Among them would be the 
manuscript Loyola had written and illuminated himself, a 
quarto volume of three hundred pages, containing a record 
of the lives of Christ and the saints, the words and acts of our 
Lord in red and gold, those of Mary in blue, and those of the 
saints in other colours. Beside it, a Latin Bible surely, and 
his missal, and a copy, perhaps, of Garcia de Cisneros' Manual 
of Devotion. But the dearest possession of all was a copy of 
the Imitation of Thomas a Kempis, called in the editions of 
those days The Ecclesiastical Music, and supposed to be 
* Doumergue, Vie de Jean Calvin, vol. i. p. 126. 



THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER 63 

written by Gerson. Among his school and college books 
may have been the Dialogues of Vives, which were beginning 
to be very popular, the Summulce Logicales of Peter the 
Spaniard, the Sentences of Peter Lombard, Lebrija's Latin 
dictionary perhaps, and one of his grammars. Beside them 
lay the MS. of the Spiritual Exercises, which he had been 
working upon since 1522. 

Xavier's library was probably more eclectic. There was 
some jovial literature in circulation at that time, which we 
fancy would appeal to the gay and sharp-witted young 
Navarrese. He probably could not afford to possess many 
books, but there was an extensive system of lending libraries 
in the town. La Celestina, written by his fellow-country- 
man, Ferdinand de Rojas, had been published in 1499, and 
was one of the earliest and most important models of the 
modern drama. There were popular comedies, too, about, 
such as those of Torres de Naharro and Gil Vicente ; these, 
for Spaniards, were the literary talk of the hour. On a 
higher level, and almost certainly among Xavier's treasures, 
was the Coplas de Manrique (published in 1477), a gem of 
Spanish poetry, and one of the supreme elegies of literature. 
It is familiar to many of us through Longfellow's translation. 
The satires of Rabelais, which a few years later were to enjoy 
such a colossal popularity, were not yet published. Who 
knows had they appeared but a little earlier where 
this supreme and compelling and destructive humour would 
have carried the gay Francis ? Would it have undermined 
his devotion to the Church, a devotion that had been faith- 
fully tended at home throughout his childhood, and was 
about to receive its determining direction from the finger of 
Loyola ? It must have been very difficult ever to feel quite 
the same again towards the ecclesiastical systems of the day 
after reading the story of Gargantua and Pantagruel. 

But, Rabelais apart, there was food enough for fear on 
Loyola's part for this disciple-elect of his. 

"What is that in the corner there, Master Francis ? " 

" That, Sir Pilgrim, is a copy of some most interesting 
writings by Martin Luther you have heard of him; they 
appeared ten years ago, I believe, but have only lately come 
to my notice." 

" Yes, I have indeed heard of him. Tell me, what do you 
think of him ? How does he appeal to you ? " 



64 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 



Jt 



Xavier had no affection for Ignatius yet. The " Pilgrim, 
as they called him, was, in spite of his smouldering beauty, 
too unconventional, too strange and disconcerting a figure 
to love without a prelude of fear. But Ignatius, looking on 
Francis, had loved the laughing boy, so cleanly built and 
unspoiled, so fluent with his Latin, so keen with his wit. 
" I shall win him" said Ignatius. He did not talk much ; 
his policy was rather to listen and sympathise, to under- 
stand his prey, to win trust and affection, and then cast the 
net. Francis and Peter Faber did most of the talking ; 
talking is always so easy in the presence of those whose very 
presence is a caress. And Loyola, listening, prepared his 
big guns. 

While within the little room the founder was beginning 
to learn the amazing power of his personal magnetism, the 
rank and file of the armies where his battle was to be waged 
were tuning up in the street below. Down in the rue 
St. Symphorien the students were shouting : 

Prions tous le roi de gloire 

Qu'il confond ces chiens mauldicts, 

Afin qu'il n'en soit plus memoire, 

Non plus que de vielz os pourris. 
Au feu, au feu I c'est leur repere 
Fais-en justice ! Dieu Pa permys ; 

and their enemies flung back the taunt : 

La Sorbonne, la bigotte, 

La Sorbonne se taira ! 
Son grand hoste, PAristote, 
De la bande s'ostera ! 
Et son escot, quoi qu'il coste 
Jamais ne la soulera ! 

La Sorbonne, la bigotte, 

La Sorbonne se taira I 

La sainete Escriture toute 
Purement se prechera, 
Et toute doctrine sotte 
Des hommes on oublira ! 

La Sorbonne, la bigotte, 

La Sorbonne se taira ! * 

* Bulletin de la Socitte de Phistoire de Protestantisme fran$ais, vol. xii. 

g. 129, quoted by T. M. Lindsay, History of the Reformation, vol.ii. p. 536. 
ee also, for another version of these words, Herminjard, Correspondence des 
Btformateurs franf ais, torn. iii. p. 59. 



THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER 65 

Ignatius apparently entered Ste. Barbe some time before 
the beginning of the autumn term which was to see Xavier 
then only in his twenty-fifth year established as a lecturer in 
Greek in the college of Beauvais. There is one curious 
incident on record of Loyola's college days at Ste. Barbe ; 
whether it made his conquest of Xavier easier or harder we 
can only guess. Loyola, who had been talking of heaven 
and hell on the house-tops as only saints and madmen do, 
had been allowed to enter Ste. Barbe on the condition 
that he would leave the consciences of the other students 
alone. But even the nucleus-ideas of the scheme which 
was to leave its mark on European history were too much 
to be contained, if only for a few hours on end, in the 
mind of their originator. Among the restless group of 
men and boys sitting and lying on the straw floor of 
his lecture room, Professor Pena knew none so tiresome* 
as Master Ignatius. Again and again he besought him 
to leave his fellows alone, and at last he reported him to the 
Principal, Jacques de Gouvea, who said that this scholar of 
forty would be punished as he had not been since he was 
sixteen. He was ordered to submit next day to La Salle : 

One gave this name to a punishment more infamous than 
painful, which was administered in the following fashion. After 
dinner, all the students being present in the refectory, the masters 
and the scholars, each armed with a whip, ranged themselves in a 
double row. The delinquent, stripped to the waist, had to pass 
between them, and got from each of them a lash on his back.* 

The masters and pupils were assembled for this affair, but 
Loyola did not appear. He was in the Principal's room. 
Presently they came out arm-in-arm, and Gouvea made, not 
an abject apology, as many of the old biographers love to 
relate, but a short speech, explaining that he had seen 
Ignatius to be a man of a holy life, albeit apt to be overcome 
with too much zeal, that he had promised to be more discreet 
in future, and that in his, the Principal's, name he renewed 
this promise before the college and received pardon. 

One recalls that among that waiting row of students and 
masters stood, doubtless, the brooding figure of George 
Buchanan. "It is certainly odd to think that Buchanan, 
afterwards the co-churchman of Knox, should so nearly 

* Quicherat, Hist, de Ste. Barbe, vol. i. p. 193. 

E 



66 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

have missed the privilege of laying his ferule on the bare 
shoulders of the founder of the Society of Jesus." * 

In 1530 Xavier took his Arts degree and was free to 
teach " Arts, here and over all the earth." As we have seen, 
he was by no means opulent, and he supported himself 
during his theological course by obtaining a post as lecturer 
or regent at the college of Beauvais, where, as Tursellinus 
says, he " explicated Aristotle publicly and not without 
praise." Although Le Fevre d'Etaples, who had taught 
Greek, as he taught the Gospel, " from the sources," had come 
and gone, the mediaeval Aristotle still held its place in 
the schools of Paris, and it is not likely that Francis 
Xavier got behind the treatises of Albertus Magnus and 
Thomas Aquinas. These scholastics had rendered an 
unforgettable service to the Church by giving her, for 
the first time, a version of the master in keeping with 
her own teaching. For the earliest translations of 
Aristotle had been taken from the Arabic versions of the 
exiled Caliphs among the Nestorians, and these versions 
emphasised the anti-Christian side of the philosopher, the 
unitas intellectus, the indestructibility of matter, the nega- 
tion of personal immortality. The result was that in 1215 
Aristotle had been prohibited by the Sorbonne, and the 
prohibition was not withdrawn until the labours of the great 
Dominicans had produced an orthodox philosopher. This, 
then, was the Aristotle upon which Xavier founded his 
lectures. 

Meanwhile his old dreams of ecclesiastical distinction were 
not forgotten, and the preparation for the first step towards 
their fulfilment, the Doctorate in Theology, along with his 
own lectures, must have kept him hard at work. Although 
the theological course extended over so many years, the 
range of works studied was surprisingly small. Beyond the 
, Bible and the Sentences of Peter Lombard, no other text- 
book was used. 

How completely the Sentences were placed side by side with the 
Bible as the very source and fountain-head of all theology is 
illustrated by Albert the Great's disquisition on the knowledge 
possessed by the Mother of Christ. After demonstrating in 
detail that the Jewish peasant woman must have been acquainted 

* P. Hume Brown, George Buchanan, p. 63. 



THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER 67 

with the Trivium and Quadrivium* the Doctor proceeds to 
discuss the extent of her attainments in the Faculties of Medicine, 
Civil and Canon Law, and Theology ; in the latter he holds 
that she must have had a summary knowledge of the Bible and 
Sentences. (Beatissima Virgo Bibliam et sententias in summo 
habuit.)t 

Yet, in spite of these crudities of thought and expression, 
there was then, as always, the possibility of devout and 
profitable study. Robert Sorbonne himself, with a greatness 
which ought to have shamed many who taught in the place 
which was called by his name, had said that knowledge had 
no worth if it did not raise the soul toward God. " There 
are," he said again, " scholars who work ceaselessly in sharpen- 
ing the sword of the Word of God, and thus put it to use. 
Others amass thick volumes of argument, and bind them in 
grand covers painted with red, and go home very proud of 
their booty, their bags full, their spirits empty." 

Xavier's bag was getting full, but his spirit was restless 
and unsatisfied. The whole atmosphere of life in the 
company of Ignatius, during those portentous months, was 
charged as it were with fire. The founder had not openly 
chosen his soldiers, nor formed his constitutions. Yet, with 
all his faculties strained to their utmost use, he was in his 
own mind picking his men and constructing his Order. 

Faber and Xavier, his most intimate companions, were 
alternately repelled and attracted. Both began to see 
that their ambitions ran counter to those of Loyola, and 
both nursed their imperilled hopes with ardent yet flickering 
zeal. Francis took clerk's orders. Then he sent to Navarre 
for a formal title of his nobility and honourable descent. 
These things did not count for nothing in the Church. But 
even while he dictated his claims to the notary the words 
that Loyola loved to quote were ringing in his ears : " What 
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his *. 
own soul?" 

Faber has recorded his own struggles at this time : 

Without being able to fix on anything I wished now to be 
a doctor, now a lawyer, now a professor. One day I wished 

* The two subject-groups of the Arts curriculum. 

t Rashdall, Hist, of the Med. Univ., vol. i. p. 465 quoted from Peter 
Lombard, Opere (Lugdino, 1651), torn. xx. p. 80. 

E2- 



68 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

to be a doctor of theology, the next a simple clerk. At one point 
I even thought of becoming a monk.* 

MeanwhileXavier's supplies of money from home had entirely 
ceased, and he was poor to the point of suffering and actual 
privation. But Ignatius soon saw his wants. " It was a 
door," says Brou, " which God had opened to him, that he 
might enter this soul." So the Pilgrim gave him of the alms 
he had received from the Spanish ladies or during his vaca- 
tion tours in England and Flanders. At the same time he 
highly praised the young professor's lectures on Aristotle, 
and brought numbers of students to his classes. Master 
Francis became very popular. 

Xavier began to love this man who knew so well how to 
appreciate him, and, encouraged by his success, he would 
pour out his plans to him as they sat at night in their little 
room in Ste. Barbe. Ignatius listened with all his immense 
natural tact and charm and sympathy, fortified by the real 
knowledge and scholarship which had been so hardly acquired. 
Yet always, the old biographers tell us, these talks ended with 
the words, " What shall it profit a man, Master Francis, if 
he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? " 

And Francis could not forget those words, and could not 

answer them. Months passed. Polanco said he had heard 

" our great moulder of souls say that the hardest block he 

ever had to do with was the young Francis Xavier in those 

early days." 

He was a young man of a great spirit, with froward and over- 
thwart answers ; he oftentimes of set purpose carped at Ignatius 
and his words ; yea, and sometimes, also, in very reproachful 
manner scoffed at his excellent piety ; but he, on the other side, 
used all the sweet means he could to reclaim him from his in- 
solency. And not in vain. For Patience at last overcame 
Pertinacity. And Xavier, being little by little made tractable 
by that so gentle and courteous usage, began to bear some respect 
towards him, and at last, touched by God's divine Spirit, let 
himself be wholly ruled and guided by him.t 

In order to earn the love wherewith to draw him away 
from the congenial work at Beauvais College, Loyola 
first established there the success and popularity of his 

* P. Faber, Memorial, p. 13, Fr. ed. 

f Tursellinus, Life, English edition, p. 8. 



THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER 69 

disciple-elect. It was a bold game to play, but it answered 
admirably. Further, he who originally attended the lectures 
as one of the oldest and most backward scholars soon made 
it appear that he conferred an honour on Francis by going 
there, and he discussed the lectures with the kindly con- 
descension of a master towards a brilliant pupil. 

Meanwhile the old links which bound Francis to his early 
surroundings were falling away one by one. With his 
mother's death his home had been broken up and his youthful 
ambitions shaken. And now came the news of the death 
of his sister, the Abbess of Gandia, "a true spirit, who 
excelled in the practice of humility, love, prayer, gentleness, 
and silence." * It was this sister who had watched over 
his career with such affection, and without whose interven- 
tion, at the time when he was recalled home, he would have 
had to return to Navarre and would never have met Loyola. 

Once again, perhaps, alone, and in a graver mood than 
before, he climbed the spiral stairs of Notre-Dame, and looked 
down upon Paris. 

It was more than eight years since he had stood there first, 
fresh from school, the spurs of undaunted ambition pricking 

his ardent spirit. And now ? Life had grown very 

complex. What arid stretches of experience it held, what 
absurd laughter, what fruitless tears ! And the wise doctors 
of the Sorbonne, amongst whom, in his dreams, he had once 
seen himself, were mostly fat old men with heavy eyes and 
stubborn mouths. And the bishops were busy burning 
students whom he used to think good and wise. It was not 
worth being a bishop for that. During all these years he had 
never been home, and now he had no longer a home. The 
trophies that had once seemed valuable to him because 
he might lay them at his mother's feet had now a new and 
a harsher worth. Personal power, riches, authority, had 
acquired for him an attraction of their own. And in the 
Church it seemed as if ever since that night in May, 1527, 
when the Imperialists had burst into Rome it was doubly 
easy for his fellow-countrymen to attain distinction. It 
was a fine thing to be a Spaniard. They were gaining the 
whole world ! Ah, " What shall it profit a man ? What shall 
it profit a man ? " These were the words Ignatius had 
teased him with night and day, day and night. Did 

* Letter from Sor Ana. See Doc. Nouv., p. 311. 



70 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

that inscrutable gargoyle-face of stone beside him not 
suggest the same question, as, chin in hand, with gentle 

brows and mocking mouth, it fixed its great blank eyes 
on Paris ? 

Paris had gained the worlds of philosophy and theology 
for scholars, once all the roads of Europe had converged 
there ; but where was the soul of that fair city now ? Francis 
knew that the wisest men were turning to other centres of 
learning, that the Latin texts from which he expounded 
Aristotle were out of date. Thought was difficult and con- 
fused. But he could not blind himself to the fact that in 
Paris, at least, there was some real bond between the 
Humanists and the religious reformers, between the new 
passion for truth from the " sources " of things and the new 
contempt for the Roman Curia. Luther was shouting that 
it was the Bible and not the Pope to which they must turn : 
Pico had lifted his head from his newly found manuscripts to 
say: "Philosophy seeks truth, theology finds it, religion 

. possesses it," and had turned again to the tales of the gods 
of Greece. But such men were despicable. This " truth " 
of the Protestants and the Humanists was a cold thing ; men 
should seek not an idea but a person, serve not Humanity 
but the Church, the Bride. The most sacred traditions of 
life could not be held in a printed book, but only in the 
living hands of the Vicar of Christ. If Pico had put " God " 
in place of " truth," he would have done better. Religion 
possesses God that was what Francis believed. And it 
was religion that Paris lacked. But where was this religion 
to be found ? Not surely in those burning piles where the 
Lutherans screamed out their last moments in anguish, nor 
yet God grant in the hands that held the torch to the 
faggot, nor in those " tomes bound in grand covers and painted 
with red " that Robert Sorbonne had laughed at, but that 
the old doctors down there loved so well. What if it was 
religion which was carrying those heretics to their death ? 
Loyola had said that all reform must begin in the individual 
heart, that the only life that mattered was the life of the soul. 
Had Luther not said something like that too ? And was this 
zealot from Guipuzcoa, perhaps, after all, just leading them 
by another road to the same fire ? He would leave this 
fanatical cripple before it was too late. And yet how he 
loved him ! Could he leave him ? His father and mother 



THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER 71 

had died, and Loyola had taken him up. Loyola was 
praying for him continually. How kind he had been, and 
how generous ! How sympathetic he was ! Did Francis 
wonder how he could ever have scorned this knight of Christ, 
who had sprung from as noble a house as his own, and who 
had achieved a military glory that he, Francis, had never 
achieved, who had sacrificed infinitely more than he had 
sacrificed ? He thanked God that He had given him this 
man for a friend nay (the subjugation was almost complete), 
for a Master. 

At this time Faber had gone home to Savoy to bid his 
father and friends farewell. He had offered his whole life 
to Loyola. 

For seven months Francis and the founder were alone. 
When, at the beginning of 1534, Faber returned from 
Switzerland, Ignatius had won his second disciple. 

Francis wished to fling up all his collegiate duties at once. 
Ignatius bade him to go on with his teaching, and to take 
his theological degree. He did not even give him the Spiritual 
Exercises. That Xavier was the last of the original members 
to undergo this discipline has been held by some to indicate 
that Ignatius thought it imprudent to harness the high spirit 
of the young hidalgo to those stern hours until he was entirely 
sure of his devotion. But the delay may simply have been 
caused by the fact that Xavier' s time was fully occupied 
with his work. 

Just at this time a curious incident took place, which in 
its own bizarre way witnesses both to Xavier' s devotion to 
Ignatius and to the devotion, however distorted, which 
Xavier had inspired towards himself. 

Miguel the Navarrese, Xavier's wicked servant and protege, 
was made wildly jealous by his master's devotion to Ignatius : 
the poor fool went to Loyola's window, by night, with a 
dagger in his hand. The future of the Society hung in 
the balance. But a voice, the biographers tell us, turned 
him back from this deed, and he fell down at the bedside, 
confessing his sin and begging forgiveness. 

Ignatius appears at this time to have had, or at least to 
have expressed, no definite plan of action : 

There was no question of the foundation of a new religious order, 



72 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

nor of one definite enterprise. Nothing was defined except 
certain ascetic principles, the same which formed the foundation 
of the Exercises: a certain indifference of will towards every- 
thing except God : the need of linking oneself to Jesus Christ, 
winning souls, and working for their salvation, yet working as 
Christ did, by poverty and the Cross.* 

Thus tentatively, slowly, with a curious blending of 
calculation and fervour, the Company began to take shape. 
The members of this society were to bridge the gulf between 
the Crusaders and the modern missionaries. Its earlier 
dreams were of the Holy Land and the Sepulchre of our 
Lord : its finest result was the Apostle of the Indies. 

Ignatius talked over the future with his disciples indi- 
vidually, and one by one, unknown to the rest, they were 
asked to go aside alone for some days and seek the guidance 
of God, and then to return at a stated time to his rooms. 
One day Francis, Faber, and four others all found themselves 
there together with Ignatius, and when he, with his magnetic 
skill, began to question them, they found, with delicious 
astonishment and wonder, that they were all of one mind 
and one purpose. 

Rodriguez, who was one of them, says that at this point 
they took the triple vow of poverty, chastity, and pilgrimage 
to Jerusalem. But nothing was to be done till the theo- 
logical studies were ended. A day was fixed (January 25th, 
1537) when they should all meet for conference at Venice, 
and, if possible, proceed from there to the Holy Land. In 
Jerusalem they would once again ask God to give them 
special direction. But if anything were to hinder their 
leaving Italy, they were to present themselves to the Pope 
and put themselves at his disposal. 

A few days after this informal conference Ignatius and his 
six followers met as a Company for the first time. They 
had still to obtain the Pope's sanction before they could 
constitute themselves as an Order. They assembled at the 
cathedral church of Notre-Dame, and from thence, banner- 
less, trumpetless, and unnoticed, the little black-robed band, 
led by Ignatius, made its way to the heights of Montmartre. 
The citizens of Paris, who loved gay flags and banners, 
robes of silk and cramoisie and velvet, gaily-trapped horses, 

* Brou, Vie de <9. Francois Xavitr, vol. i. p. 43. 



THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER 73 

shouting, singing, the noises of drums and tambours, would 
have jeered if you had told them that this was the most 
portentous procession that had threaded their streets for 
many a year. Yet so it was. 

In the van limped Loyola, with swift, determined steps, 
his eyes burning, his brows inscrutably caliru Behind him 
came* those who were, in varying degrees, his devotees, and 
God's. Faber, with the loose gait and far-focussed eyes 
of a shepherd, Xavier, of medium height, dark, eager- 
limbed, his eyes meekly dropped, and a reverent gravity 
veiling, for this great occasion, the wayward mouth that 
laughed so lightly and so well. Salmeron and Bobadilla 
were there, too, both of them restless, energetic, impatient, 
full of fire, and of desire to go one step farther than their 
master ; Salmeron was to prove a great preacher, and was to 
discharge the duties of Papal theologian at the Council of 
Trent. In the same Council Lainez, " a young man with 
the brain of an ancient sage," the most learned of this strange 
procession, was destined to be the dominating and fatal 
influence. And lastly there was Rodriguez, the Portuguese, 
who was to leave written records of the Company, and to be 
one of their most outstanding diplomatists.* 

The story of how the first Jesuits went to Montmartre has 
been told again and again, but there is probably no such 
accurate account of that day as that given in the simple 
words of Peter Faber in his Memorial. 

This same year, 1534, on the day of the Assumption of the 
Holy Virgin, all those of us who at that time shared in the designs 
of Loyola, and who had undergone the Spiritual Exercises (except 
Master Xavier, who had not yet received them), rendered our- 
selves at Notre Dame of Montmartre, and there we made a vow to 
serve God and to depart on a certain day for Jerusalem, to give 
up relatives and all the rest, taking with us only the viaticum. 
Besides, we resolved to go, after our return from the Holy Land, 
and put ourselves at the disposal of the Pope. Now those who were 
present at this first re-union at Notre Dame de Montmartre were, 
Ignatius, Master Francis Xavier, I, Faber, Master Bobadilla, 
Master Lainez, Master Salmeron, Master Simon Rodriguez. For 
Le Jay, though in Paris, had not yet resolved to follow us, and 
neither Master J. Codure nor Master Paul Brouet were yet taken. 

* Simon Rodriguez, author of the Commcnlarium de origine el progres su 
Soaetalis Jesu, Lisbon, 25 Juli 1577. 



74 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

The two following years, 1535-36, we returned there on the 
same day, to the same altar, to confirm the determination we 
had then taken, and each time we found there great help for our 
spiritual life.* 

Rodriguez adds that Faber, who was the only priest 
present, celebrated mass. After this consecration before the 
altar, " 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 martyr's blooc! and there breaking their 
fast together, spent the residue of the blessed day together in 
holy and fraternal chat."f " And in the evening, at set of 
sun," says Rodriguez, " they went homeward, praising and 
blessing the Lord." 

A few days later the term ended, and Francis employed 
the month of September in taking the Spiritual Exercises. 
He has left no record of his experiences during those days. 
But the way in which he henceforth speaks of the Exercises, 
and his continual recommendation of them to others, shows 
that he believed they had done much for himself. Possibly 
he over-estimated how much. It is often difficult to differ- 
entiate between the results arising from the state of mind 
which leads a man to a remedy, and the results of the remedy 
itself. At the same time it is most probable that the Exer- 
cises influenced him enormously. Beside the old sense of 
individuality, and the desire for personal development, there 
was awakening at this time a sense of social unity, a desire 
to live as a worthy part of the whole. This enlightenment 
came to some through the channels of Humanism : to many 
devout Catholics it probably came, in part at least, through 
the military discipline of the Spiritual Exercises, combined 
with the general influence of Loyola's genius. There Francis 
Xavier learned that religion and personal culture and social 
serviceableness could go hand in hand, and with this new 
programme in his possession he ceased to gaze wistfully 
toward the more or less forbidden fruits of classicism which 
had heretofore seemed to him the only food for thoughtful 
and progressive minds. 

* Peter Faber, Memorial, pp. 14 and 15. 
f Francis Thompson, Ignatius Loyola, p. 86. 



, , , 



tf >. /i^ 



*' ; 



,.' t 



IT PROFIT A MAN, 



i>( - , r From an dld^dqdcut of Loyola andjXavier ' > 1 

"^ - H " ' K VS 



^ - , 

"The Fatlier/M aster Francis V?s i 3-little^ ! <iifficult and ^obstSnate^/or though he 
ioved fff^atlv'the rnnvprR.Ttinn.s'nrl frienduMn n'f , Tirnatiiis. vVet he'did not dare to 




74 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

The two following years, 1535-86, we returned there on the 
same day, to the same altar, to confirm the determination we 
had then taken, and each time we found there great help for our 
spiritual life.* 

Rodriguez adds that Faber, who was the only priest 
present, celebrated mass. After this consecration before the 
altar, " 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 wiLh the martyr's blooc! and there breaking their 
fast together, spent the residue of the blessed day together in 
holy and fraternal chat."f " And in the evening, at set of 
sun," says Rodriguez, " they went homeward, praising and 
blessing the Lord." 

A few days later the term ended, and Francis employed 
the month of September in taking the Spiritual Exercises. 
He has left no record of his experiences during those days. 
But the way in which he henceforth speaks of the Exercises, 
and his continual recommendation of them to others, shows 
that he believed they had done much for himself. Possibly 
he over-estimated how much. It is often difficult to differ- 
entiate between the results arising from the state of mind 
which leads a man to a remedy, and the results of the remedy 
itself. At the same time it is most probable that the Exer- 
cises influenced him enormously. Beside the old sense of 
individuality, and the desire for personal development, there 
was awakening at this time a sense of social unity, a desire 
to live as a worthy part of the whole. This enlightenment 
came to some through the channels of Humanism : to many 
devout Catholics it probably came, in part at least, through 
the military discipline of the Spiritual Exercises, combined 
with the general influence of Loyola's genius. There Francis 
Xavier learned that religion and personal culture and social 
serviceableness could go hand in hand, and with this new 
programme in his possession he ceased to gaze wistfully 
toward the more or less forbidden fruits of classicism which 
had heretofore seemed to him the only food for thoughtful 
and progressive minds. 

* Peter Faber, Memorial, pp. 14 and 15. 
f Francis Thompson, Ignatius Loyola, p. 86, 



"WHAT SHAIi IT PROFIT A MAN, 
MASTER f RANCID ? >V 

- From an old woqdcut of Loyola and. Xavier 

"The Father Master Francis was a little : dirEcuIt and obstinate, for though he 
enjoyed greatly the conversation and friendship of Ignatius, yet he did not dare to 
change altogether the estate of his life, as he was naturally inclined to the honour 
and pomp of. the world, as some who at this time were very intimate with him 
afterwards told us" (Teix., Vita^ Man. Xav., vol. H. p. 818). 



A Tl-IOOT T! J.lAlria TAU7/" 



. 

oo'^" * 




U}a forza, 
1 



aa* vna, vita 




~y& /?/ / ^\ . 

Caaa forza, 01 




xp/ 

act vn<& vita -wzr/etfo ea 






CHAPTER V 

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES 

No account of the Order of Jesus, nor of the life of Francis 
Xavier, is complete without some notice of the " Spiritual 
Exercises." " Most of us," says Lainez, the second general, 
" received with the Exercises the spirit of vocation, so much 
so that we might truly say that our Society has been founded 
and united and developed chiefly by their means." To all 
who wished to join the Company, Ignatius administered this 
discipline ; it was given, too, to hundreds who found them- 
selves at the cross-roads, and such were almost invariably 
added to the ranks of the Society. Francis of Sales remarked 
that the little book had converted more souls than the 
letters it contained, and it has often been said that the famous 
meditation of the Two Standards (see p. 79) has peopled 
monasteries. To this day the Jesuits honour it as a revela- 
tion from God, and find in it the apotheosis of the spirit of 
their Order ; Loyola himself had such unbounded faith in 
this discipline, that if it ever failed to produce the desired 
effect he blamed only the manner of giving or receiving it.* 

To hear such reports of its fame, and then to turn to the 
book itself, is inevitably to be disappointed. The first 
thing which strikes you, especially if you expect to find here 
a work of devotion, is the dryness and reticence of the book. 
It is like a school text-book, small, precise, divided into 
portions and headings. Here is no mystical rapture, no 
poetic beauty. The personality of the author never appears. 
Dates, hours, subjects of prayer and meditation, physical 
environment, a confessor or adviser, all are arranged for, and 
then the soul is to be left alone with God, until the director 
again demands its confidence. For between the pupil and the 
director, who represents the Church, there can be no veil 
drawn. Ignatius did not put this book into the hands of 
Christians that they might keep it on their shelves and read 
it now and then, or at stated intervals, as they would their 
Bibles or their books of devotion. For the mere reader the 
book is a door of which he can only see the outside. It is 

* Cartas, No. 6. 



76 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

primarily for the use of priests, and without the help of a 
priest the layman has nothing to gain from it except a half- 
satisfied curiosity. 

Thus, by always keeping the priest between the soul and 
God, Ignatius attacked at the same time the sentimental 
mysticism of certain Catholics, and the independent Pro- 
testantism of the reformers, who claimed direct access to 
God through Jesus Christ. How far, in the case of the 
Exercises, the director interfered between man and his 
Maker, and how far he was merely a friend and a counsellor 
is a point on which Romanists and Protestants must be 
divided. But our study of the Annotations, with which the 
book opens, may lead us to think that originally the Director 
was meant to play a humbler part than later he came to do, 
and the question arises whether, in this usurpation of a right 
that was not really theirs, the later Jesuits failed to carry 
out the will of their Founder, and thus brought the 
Exercises into a disrepute which they do not deserve. * 

Let us look first, then, at these " Twenty Annotations for 
Obtaining some Knowledge of the Spiritual Exercises which 
Follow, and for the Help as Well of Him Who is to Give as of 
Him Who is to Receive Them." 

These Annotations begin by defining spiritual exercises as 

every method of examination of conscience, of meditation, of 
contemplation, of vocal and mental prayer, and of other spiritual 
operations, as shall be afterwards declared ; for as to go for a 
walk or a journey, and to run, are bodily exercises, so is the 
name of spiritual exercises applied to any method of preparing 
and disposing the soul to free itself from all inordinate affections, 
and after it has freed itself from them, to seek and find the will 
of God concerning the ordering of life for the salvation of one's 
soul. 

The second annotation advises the priest who gives the 
exercises to keep himself in the background, going through 
the points briefly and with a short explanation, in order that 

* Most of the references and extracts which follow are taken from the 
1908 English version. (The Text of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola, 
Burns & Gates, 1908.) The Spanish autograph copy was first approved by 
Pope Paul III. in 1548, and the book was printed in Latin in the same year. 
The first English version appeared in 1736, but it is far from accurate. In 
1847 and in 1870 other editions were published ; that of 1870 was specially 
arranged for the use of the Anglican communion. 



THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES 77 

the pupil may " understand and savour the matter interiorly, 
for that fills and satisfies the soul." 

The third declares that there are degrees of reverence 
required by the pupil, a less degree during intellectual opera- 
tions than during those " acts of the will," when the soul 
converses vocally or mentally with God. 

The fourth allows that the formal time-limitation of one 
week for each of the four divisions of the exercises may be 
lengthened or shortened according to the needs of the pupil, 
so long as the whole is concluded in about a month.* 

The fifth advises " him who is receiving the exercises to 
enter upon them with a large heart and with liberality 
towards his Creator and Lord, offering all his desires and 
liberty to Him, in order that His Divine Majesty may make 
use of his person and of all he possesses according to His 
most holy will." 

After that come various precepts for the benefit of the 
administrator of the Exercises. He is especially warned not 
to allow the pupil to make any rash vows under the impetus 
given him by the discipline. 

he who gives the exercises must not incline him who receives 
them more to poverty or to a vow than to their contraries, nor to 
one state or manner of life more than another . . . but keeping 
as it were in equilibrium, like a balance, allow the Creator to act 
immediately with the creature, and the creature with its Creator 
and Lord. 

Number XIX. outlines a modified course for those taken 
up with private affairs and necessary business. 
Number XX. runs as follows : 

To him who is less occupied, and who desires in every possible 
way to profit, let all the Spiritual Exercises be given in the order 
in which they follow ; and in these generally he will derive all the 
more profit, in proportion as he separates himself from all friends 
and relations and from all earthly cares, as for example, by leaving 
the house he dwells in and choosing another house or room, there 
to dwell in as great privacy as possible, in such a way that it be in 
his power to go daily to Mass and to Vespers, without fear that 

* Ignatius himself, in his later years, modified the limitations of time and 
circumstance to such a degree that he recommended lay people, if they desired, 
to go daily to church for one hour, and in this way go through the Exercises 
with a confessor ; see Gothein, Ignatius von Loyola und die Gegenreformation, 
p. 242. 



78 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

his relations will put any obstacle in his way. And, among many 
other advantages, three principal ones will result from this 
separation. The first is, that when a person separates himself 
from numerous friends and acquaintances, and disengages himself 
from many ill-ordered concerns, in order to serve and praise God 
our Lord, he gains no little merit in the eyes of His Divine Majesty. 
The second is, that when a person has thus withdrawn himself, as 
his understanding is not divided on many subjects, but all his 
solicitude is placed on one thing only, namely, on the service of 
his Creator and the profit of his own soul, he enjoys a freer use of 
his natural powers in seeking diligently what he so much desires. 
The third is, that the more our soul find itself alone and in soli- 
tude, the fitter it renders itself to approach and unite itself to its 
Creator and Lord ; and the nearer it thus unites itself to Him, 
the more it disposes itself to receive graces and favours from His 
Divine and Supreme Goodness. 

After these annotations come directions for the self- 
examinations which are to be made thrice daily. The pupil 
* is to keep diagrammatic notes or charts of his sins, in order 
that his progress or decline may be easily evident from day 
to day, and week to week. After retiring, if possible, com- 
pletely from the outer world, closing doors and windows, he 
is to meditate for a week upon sin and punishment, especially 
in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and at midnight. 
At the end of the First Week he is advised to make a general 
confession, and to receive the Holy Sacrament. 

John Calvin's criticism of the Exercise of the First Week 
is interesting, as coming from so great a contemporary of 
Loyola's, but some of us will think it unreasonable and over- 
harsh : 

There is no semblance of reason in the absurd procedure of 
those who, that they may begin with repentance, prescribe to 
their neophytes certain days during which they are to exercise 
themselves in repentance, and, after these are elapsed, admit 
them to communion in Gospel grace . . . such are the fruits 
which their giddy spirit produces, that repentance, which in 
every Christian man lasts as long as life, is with them completed 
in a few short days.* 

The Second Week the meditations are taken from selected 
events in the Life of our Lord, up to the Sabbath before His 
Passion. Amid these meditations, on the Fourth Day of the 

* J. Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book III. cap. ii. 



THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES 79 

Week, is inserted the Meditation on Two Standards. As the 
Jesuits have always considered this one of the most efficacious 
passages in the writings of Loyola, we will quote it in full. 

The meditation on Two Standards, the .one of Christ, our 
sovereign Leader and Lord ; the other of Lucifer, the mortal 
enemy of our human race. 

The usual preparatory prayer. 

The first prelude is the history ; it will be here shown how 
Christ calls and desires all under His banner Lucifer, on the 
contrary, under his. 

The second prelude is a composition of place, seeing the spot ; 
it will be here to see a vast plain of all the region round Jerusalem, 
where the Supreme general Leader of all good is Christ our Lord ; 
and to imagine another plain in the country of Babylon, where 
the chief of the enemy is Lucifer. 

The third prelude is to ask for what I want ; it will be here to 
ask for knowledge of the deceits of the wicked chieftain, and for 
help to guard against them ; and for knowledge of the true life 
which our Sovereign and true Leader points out, and for grace 
to imitate Him. 

The first point is to imagine the chieftain of all the enemy as 
seated in that great plain of Babylon, as on a lofty throne of fire 
and smoke, in aspect horrible and fearful. 

The second point is to consider how he summons together 
innumerable devils, how he disperses them some to one city, some 
to another, and so on throughout the whole world, omitting not 
any provinces, places, or states of life, or any persons in particular. 

The third point is to consider the address which he makes, 
and how he warns them to lay snares and chains ; telling them 
how they are first to tempt men to covet riches (as he is wont to 
do in most cases), so that they may more easily come to the vain 
honour of the world, and then to unbounded pride ; so that the 
first step is riches, the second honour, the third pride ; and from 
these three steps he leads them to all other vices. 

In the same way, on the other hand, we are to consider the 
sovereign and true Leader, Christ our Lord. 

The first point is to consider how Christ our Lord, in aspect fair 
and winning, takes His station in a great plain of the country 
near Jerusalem on a lowly spot. 

The second point is to consider how the Lord of the whole 
world chooses out so many persons, Apostles, disciples, etc., and 
sends them throughout the whole world diffusing His sacred 
doctrine through all states and conditions of persons. 

The third point is to consider the address which Christ our 
Lord makes to all His servants and friends, whom He sends on 



80 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

this expedition, recommending to them that they desire to help 
all, by guiding them first to the highest degree of poverty of spirit, 
and even to actual poverty, if it please His Divine Majesty, and 
He should choose to elect them to it ; leading them, secondly, to 
a desire of reproaches and contempt, because from these two 
humility results ; so that there are three steps : the first, poverty, 
opposed to riches ; the second, reproaches and contempt, opposed 
to worldly honour ; the third, humility, opposed to pride : and from 
these three steps let them conduct them to all other virtues. 

A colloquy to our Lady to obtain for me grace from her Son 
and Lord that I may be received under His Standard. And first, 
in the highest degree of poverty of spirit, and not less in actual 
poverty, if it please His Divine Majesty, and He should choose 
to elect and receive me to it. Secondly, in bearing reproaches 
and insults, the better to imitate Him in these, provided only I 
can endure them without sin on the part of any person, or dis- 
pleasure to His Divine Majesty ; and after this an Ave Maria. 

To ask the same from the Son, that He obtain for me this grace 
from the Father ; and then to say an Anima Christi. 

To ask the same from the Father, that He grant me this grace ; 
and to say a Pater nosier. 

This Exercise will be made at midnight, and again early in the 
morning ; and two repetitions of it will be made at the hours of 
Mass and Vespers, always finishing with the triple colloquy to our 
Lady, the Son, and the Father ; and the meditation on the Classes, 
which follows, will be made during the hour before supper. 

There is also included in the Second Week a note on the three 
degrees of humility. The first when God's will is man's law, 
the second when God's will is man's will, the third when 
God's will is specially pleasing to man when it involves him 
in the sufferings and poverty of Christ. 

This note is followed by a disquisition on the making of 
choices or decisions in life. Here are one or two extracts : 

In every good election, as far as regards ourselves, the eye of 
our intention ought to be single, looking only to the end for which 
I was created, which is, for the praise of God our Lord, and for 
the salvation of my soul. And thus whatever I choose ought to be 
for this, that it should help me to the end for which I was created ; 
not ordering and drawing the end to the means, but the means 
to the end. As, for example, it happens that many first choose 
to marry, which is a means, and secondarily to serve our Lord 
God in the married state, which service of God is the end. In the 
same way there are others that first desire to possess benefices 
and then to serve God in them. So these do not go straight to 



THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES 81 

God, but wish God to come straight to their inordinate affections ; 
thus they make of the end a means, and of the means an end ; so 
that what they ought to take first they take last. For first we 
ought to make our object the desire to serve God, which is the 
end ; and secondarily to receive the benefice, or marry, if it is 
more profitable to me ; and this is the means to the end. Nothing 
then ought to move me to take these or other means, or to deprive 
myself of them, except only the service and praise of God our 
Lord and the eternal salvation of my soul. 

The first rule is that the love, which urges and causes me to 
choose such or such a thing, descend from on high from the love 
of God ; so that he who chooses, feel first in himself that the love 
which he has more or less for the thing he chooses, is solely for 
the sake of his Creator and Lord. 

The second rule is to place before my eyes a man whom I have 
never seen or known, and to consider what I, desiring all perfec- 
tion for him, would tell him to do and choose for the greater 
glory of God our Lord, and the greater perfection of his soul ; 
and acting so, to keep the rule which I lay down for another. 

The third rule is to consider, as if I were at the point of death, 
what would be the form and measure which I should then desire 
to have observed in the proceeding of the present election ; and 
regulating my conduct according to this, I must make my decision 
in all things. 

The fourth rule is, viewing and considering what I shall find 
myself at the Day of Judgment, to think how I shall then wish 
to have decided in regard to the present matter ; and the rule 
which I should then wish to have observed, I will now observe, 
that I may then find myself full of joy and pleasure. 

During the Second Week and thereafter the pupil is advised 
to read occasionally out of the Imitation, the Gospels, and 
the Lives of the Saints. 

The whole of the Third Week is occupied with the contem- 
plation of the Passion of our Lord. There are added to these 
meditations some Rules for regulating oneself for the future 
in the matter of food. 

Abstinence is more suitable with regard to drink than with 
regard to eating bread .... abstinence may be observed in 
two ways, first, by accustoming oneself to eat coarser food ; 
secondly, by taking delicacies in smaller quantities . . . while 
eating let one consider that he sees Christ our Lord eating with 
His disciples, and how He drinks, and how He looks, and how 
He speaks, and endeavour to imitate Him. . . . Let him, above 
all, guard against his mind being completely engrossed in what 

F 



82 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

he i's eating ... it is very profitable after dinner or after supper, 
or at some other time when one does not feel any desire to eat, 
to determine the amount which it is fitting to eat, and not to 
exceed this amount. . . . 

The attitude of Loyola towards ascetism was clearly 
defined : he never regarded it as an end in itself, and he recog- 
nised that there was a point at which it was apt to defeat 
its own ends. It was his servant, not his master, a servant 
to be discarded as soon as self -con quest is reached. 

The Fourth Week is occupied with the Resurrection and 
the Contemplation for obtaining Love. In this final contem- 
plation the stern reticence of the Founder begins at last to 
break. " For after winter followeth summer, after night the 
day returneth, and after a tempest a great calm." * 

The windows, according to the directions, have been opened, 
the sunlight streams into the cell, the Lord is risen, the 
disciple is bidden " to rejoice in the exceeding great joy and 
gladness of Christ our Lord ... to bring before the memory 
and think of things that cause pleasure, cheerfulness and joy, 
as about Heaven ... to avail himself of light, the beauties 
of the season, as in Spring and Summer of refreshing coolness, 
and in winter of the sun or a fire." In this joyous mood the 
following prayer is to be said, " with great affection, as one 
who makes an offering " : 

Take, O Lord, and receive all my liberty, my mettrory, my 
understanding, and all my will, whatever I have and possess. 
Thou hast given all these things to me : to Thee, O Lord, I restore 
them all : all are Thine, dispose of them all according to Thy 
will. Give me Thy love and Thy grace, for this is enough 
for me. 

There follows a chapter on Three Methods of Prayer. The 
first method is an examination or testing of conduct in its 
relation to the ten commandments, the seven deadly sins 
and their contrary virtues, and the five senses of the body. 
The second method advises you to pray word by word, 
pausing at each word and dwelling on its significance so long 
that, for example, the repetition of the Lord's Prayer will 
occupy about an hour. The third method is that 

at each breath or respiration, prayer be made mentally, saying 
* The Imitation of Christ, cap. viii. 



THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES 83 

one word of the Lord's Prayer or of any other prayer that is being 
recited, so that only one word be said between each breath, and 
in the length of time between each breath let attention be specially 
paid to the signification of the word, or to the person to whom 
the prayer is directed, or to one's own lowness, or to the distance 
between that person's great dignity and such lowness of ours. 

Next there comes an annotated summary of the Life of 
Christ, chiefly in the words of the New Testament, various 
rules " for the discernment of spirits," by which the disciple 
may detect what is real and what is false in his spiritual life. 
There are added Rules for giving alms, Rules on scruples, and 
the much discussed Rules for thinking with the Church. 
The knowledge of the inner machinery of the human heart 
and mind displayed in this book, and specially in these later 
chapters, is profound. Nowhere else, perhaps, outside 
William James' Varieties of Religious Experience, have we 
such an attempt at a precise and scientific systemisation of 
the soul. Yet, like all genuine scientific writing, the book, 
for youthful spirits, glows with romance. Xavier, we feel 
sure, found nothing cold or indecent in this searching psycho- 
logy. That discovery has been left to the modern student 
and critic. 

There must be a deep aesthetic as well as religious delight 
in shutting oneself within the bare and austere walls of this 
discipline, and then, after seeing and hearing and feeling the 
terrors of hell, finding oneself gradually surrounded by all 
the splendours of this magical architecture ; and Francis, with 
his genius for joyousness, must have benefited to the full by 
this design of spiritual cunning. But Ignatius never allows 
the discipline or delights of these Exercises to be an end in 
themselves ; his aim is self -discipline, and the discipline of 
the regiment of Jesus. 

It is this quality which separates the Exercises from most 
mediaeval works of contemplation and meditation. And it is 
when we come to this point that the question forces itself 
upon us : Should a man study and contemplate the mysteries 
of the Christian faith in order to add to the stature of his 
soul ? " Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit 
to his stature ? " said Jesus. " If then ye are not able to do 
that which is least, why are ye anxious concerning the rest ? 
. . . Seek ye His kingdom and these things shall be added 
unto you." Loyola's supreme aim was indeed the Kingdom 

F2 



84 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

of God, but he missed, like so many of us, that view of the 
Divine economy which shows us that the pursuit of that end 
will in itself sufficiently educate and discipline the soul. 
When we compare Ignatius with the mediaeval mystics we 
incline to admire the practicality of his devotions ; and the 
older mystics we condemn, because they set as their utmost 
goal an experience of rapture which was something between 
themselves and God and no other, an experience which they 
could attain to in the isolation of their own cells. But if 
that kind of religion was unpractical, at least it was not 
passionless, and sometimes one is inclined to think that the 
Spiritual Exercises must tend to expurgate religious passion 
from the soul. " This book," says Eberhard Gothein, " is 
not a work of passionate reverie, as has often been believed : 
rather it is a process of inoculation against that quality." 
The same writer goes on to suggest a comparison between the 
influence of the Exercises and the influence of tragedy as 
defined by Aristotle. Tragedy, Aristotle tells us, is a repre- 
sentation (literally an imitation) which produces through pity 
and fear the purification or KoiOapo-is of emotions of that nature. 
" Is this world-drama but a great tragedy for Loyola, from 
the Creation to the Day of Judgment, with the central tragic 
episode of the Redemption ? " * 

Perhaps the quality which suggests this comparison to 
Professor Gothein is the same quality which is condemned 
by most other Protestant critics under the heading of " crass 
materialism": 

Materialism of the crudest type mingled with the indulgence 
of a reverie in this long spiritual journey. At every step the 
neophyte employed his five senses in the effort of intellectual 
realisation. Prostrate upon the ground, gazing with closed 
eyelids in the twilight of his cell upon the mirror of imagination, 
he had to see the boundless flames of hell and souls encased in 
burning bodies, to hear the shrieks and blasphemies, to smell 
their sulphur and intolerable stench, to taste the bitterness of 
tears, and feel the stings of ineffectual remorse. He had to 
localise each object in the camera obscura of the brain.f 

* Eberhard Gothein, Ignatius von Loyola und die Gegenreformation, p. 235. 

f J. A. Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy, " The Catholic Reaction," 
Part I. p. 288 ; see also, for an exactly similar criticism, Dr. T. M. Lindsay's 
History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 548. The passage quoted by Symonds 
is, with the addition of comments and italics, taken from the Fifth Exercise of 
the First Week ; see p. 27 of English edition (1908). 



THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES 85 

If this criticism is just, we are forced to ask : What, then, 
is the orthodox Protestant state of mind and imagination 
on reading, say, the last few verses of the ninth chapter of 
St. Mark or the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew ? It would 
take a most accomplished theologian to read these words of 
our Lord without the most vivid and, to use Dr. Lindsay's 
phrase, " crassly material " pictures invading his mind. 
What is the purpose of the Parables, of all imaginative art 
and literature, if not just to make us see and hear and feel, 
and thus to minister to those experiences of the imagination 
which bridge the life of sense and the life of ultimate reality ? 
We dwell in a house of shadows and semblances ; the things 
we can touch and handle, and see and hear, are, just because 
of these physical qualities, the things that we know have no 
permanent place in a life which is eternal. Knowing this, 
the ascetic goes on to say that because the material world 
is not an end in itself, because it is a shadow, a symbol, 
therefore it is to be despised, to be, as far as possible, ignored. 
He has seen the supreme value of the life of the imagination, 
of the soul, but he has forgotten that God created the world, 
and that the " Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." 
On this chill ground extreme Protestants and extreme 
Catholics meet. But it is the unique quality of Christianity 
that it realises the link between the world of tangible shadows - 
and the world of invisible realities. The Christian has to 
learn to live in the world and yet separate from it. There 
is no created thing which cannot help to lift the soul to God. 
When Paul says, " Henceforth know we Christ no longer after 
the flesh," he surely does not altogether condemn that earlier 
knowledge ; when he was a child he thought as a child. 
Does the history of the Christian disciple not always show a 
progression from a knowledge of Christ after the flesh 
onward to a deeper knowledge ? Through the words and 
actions of our schoolmasters who bring us to Christ, through 
the Scriptures, through the material images which the 
Scriptures conjure up in our minds, through Nature, which 
is the garment of God, through all these " material " ways 
we enter into the kingdom of heaven and of the things unseen. 
And the power of the Spiritual Exercises lies in their use of 
the lower experiences to serve the purposes of the higher. It 
is the same power which gave distinction to the whole life 
of Loyola, On the one hand he saw the Church absorbed 



86 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

in material things, in the cleansing and decorating of the 
outside of the cup and platter, worshipping the customs 
themselves, forgetful of the reason which lay behind the 
custom ; and on the other hand he saw the " mystics " and 
ascetics, despising reason and custom alike, and trying to 
escape from the senses which God had given them. Surely 
Protestants should be the last to condemn this inward eye. 
In their impatience of outward symbol and ceremony the 
early Jesuits savoured far more of Scotland or of the English 
Puritans than of Rome. George Tyrrell made no ill compari- 
son when he likened Ignatius Loyola to John Bunyan. 
Bunyan himself says : " It began to be rumoured up and down 
that I was a witch, a Jesuit, a highwayman, and the like." 
Both men were making a bee-line for God, and folk who make 
bee-lines across rough land carry few superfluous goods. 
The greatest Protestant saints have yet a holy frenzy in their 
behaviour, the greatest Catholic saints a naked simplicity, 
and these qualities bring them very close to one another. 
Ignatius' pages, like John Bunyan's, had been lived before 
they were written. 

And though spiritual exercises were common enough in 
those days, the confessional quality of this book gives to it 
an essential originality and an incalculable power. Loyola 
lived, like all artists, a double life. Every crisis of his 
experience, all times of light and darkness, of joy and sorrow, 
of ease and difficulty, have, in the full tide of their arrival, 
been analysed and reduced to a sort of spiritual psychological 
system. " After this," says Gongalvez, " I asked the 
Pilgrim about the Exercises and Constitutions, that I might 
understand how he had written them. He replied : * I did 
not compose them all at once. As through my own expe- 
rience a thing appeared to me useful to others, I noted it 
down. So, for example, the plan of marking on lines the 
result of a particular examination, and other things of this 
kind.' " This habit he had begun at Manresa in 1522, and the 
Exercises were not published till 1548. Apart from his own 
experiences, the sources of the book are not numerous. But, 
as befits the chef-d'oeuvre of the great cosmopolitan Order, 
they are representative of many countries. 

Spain is represented by Ignatius himself and by Garcia de 
Cisneros (the author of a book of exercises which Loyola found 



THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES 87 

at Manresa) ; the Low Countries and Germany by Ludolf of 
Saxony, Mauburnus, Gerard van Ztitphen, and the author of the 
Imitation; France at least by the director of St. Ignatius at 
Montserrat, D. Chamines ; Italy by St. Bonaventura.* 

By far the most influential of those books was undoubtedly 
the Imitation, and in the letters and writings of St. Francis 
Xavier we can see that he, too, was deeply, probably directly, 
influenced by Thomas a Kempis. 

The great motto of the company, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, 
was meant to recall the Church to reason, and the mystics 
and ascetics to a purposeful life. We cannot question the 
nobility of the phrase. It embodies one of the truisms 
of Christianity. Ignatius, in taking this for his motto, 
only echoed the words of St. Paul : " Whether therefore ye eat 
or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." He 
anticipated the first answer of the Shorter Catechism : " Man's 
chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." By 
this motto, then, the Spiritual Exercises must be judged. 
In so far as the author's conception of the glory of God is 
inadequate, they fall short. 

But the words Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam may have 
many interpretations ; and although the ideals of the greatest 
saints may be much alike, the little spark of difference is 
what flashes into flame in the lesser lives of those who 
follow them. For the passing experience in itself Ignatius 
never shows anything more than the respect one shows to a 
good tool. And this supreme emphasis which he puts upon 
the " end," the lofty disregard of moral or physical damage 
involved in the struggle, degenerated, because he had never 
clearly enunciated the spiritual unity of means and end, 
into the notorious immorality of the later Jesuits. 

And although the accusation of materialism may not be 
convincing, there yet remains, in the way in which Loyola 
here approaches the sublimest events of history, something 
which is open to criticism. For while our only approach to 
spiritual things is through created things, while the Christian 
religion is the religion of the Incarnate God, yet there is 
an instinct, at the least, which rebels against the reduction 
of the highest experiences to a sort of spiritual technique.. 

* " Etudes religieuses," Les Ori&ines des Exercises Spirituels, par P. Watri- 
gant, S.J., May, Oct., 1897. 



88 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

This tendency, however original Ignatius' application of 
it may have been, is only the expression of something which 
had taken firm root in the Spanish character. Here we 
trace the Moorish influence : here we see signs of the highly 
artificial mysticism of the East. Through Spain, which 
fathered the Counter-Reformation, this Oriental tendency 
crept into the Roman Church. 

On the whole, it is difficult to approach these pages without 
prejudice, and to read them without searching for " Jesuitry " 
between the lines. And the book has that quality of genius, 
it gives us that for which we seek. But above and beyond 
every other impression is the impression that the whole 
composition is Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, and that the glory of 
God and of the Roman Catholic Church is for Loyola identical. 

The only way for Christians outside the Roman Communion 
to read this book with any degree of sympathy or profit 
though, after all, it is not a book to be read, but a set of rules 
for exercises to be done is for them to substitute for Loyola's 
conception of the Church their own conception of a Church 
Catholic whose glory might be identified with the glory of 
God, and then to give to that Church, throughout the book, 
their full allegiance. Thus when the Sacrament is referred to, 
they may think of the Holy Communion as they receive it ; 
when confession is recommended, they may, if they choose, 
understand the Confessor to be Jesus Christ. Hell and 
Purgatory may be something very real, and yet very different 
from mediaeval conceptions, and there is nothing in the vivid 
personifications of good and evil spirits which is peculiarly 
Roman Catholic. When we are here bidden to call upon Mary 
or Michael, we may fortify ourselves with the recollection and 
the practice of the Communion of Saints. 

Yet though few except Roman Catholics have used, or will 
use, this discipline, we must not imagine that it has been 
confined to members of the Order of Jesus : 

Among a hundred persons who have undergone, undergo, or 
will undergo the Spiritual Exercises there are perhaps not five 
Jesuits . . . the Exercises have built up the characters of 
doctors and soldiers, artists and priests, mothers of families 
and workmen. And it is not M. Maurice Barres who has had the 
" first inkling that the method of the Exercises is susceptible 
of adaptation to another end than that of the monastic life."* 
* P. Suau, in Etudes, 5 March, 1905. 



THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES 89 

Perhaps the most attractive feature of the Exercises is 
the revelation in them of Loyola's passionate devotion to 
the Church. There is something very beautiful about 
his faithfulness towards her. There was probably no man 
in Europe in those days who saw her faults more plainly, 
and yet for the sake of that heavenly ideal of her which was 
in his heart, and in the hope of happier days to come, this 
great man was content to lick the dust from off her defiled 
feet. 

" To attain the truth in all things we ought always to 
hold that we believe what seems to us white to be black, if 
the Hierarchical Church so defines it ; believing that between 
Christ our Lord the Bridegroom and the Church His Bride 
there is one and the same spirit." These words have been 
so often taken as representing Loyola's attitude to the Church, 
and so persistently misunderstood, that it is worth while 
to examine them more closely. What are they, after all, 
but the quintessence of Roman Catholicism ? There is 
nothing in them which should be peculiar to the Jesuits. 
They formulate, for example, the process by which one comes 
to believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation, or the 
doctrine of an unchangeable God, Who at the same time 
became Man. I quote from a luminous article entitled 
" Philosophy Among the Jesuits," which bears on this point : 

St. Ignatius does not take a contradiction of faith with reason 
as his example, but a contradiction of the senses versus faith. 
He does not say, for instance, that supposing 2 plus 2 equalled 5 
were to be decided by a Council, he would have to believe it. 
Nor is this contradiction of the senses an absolute one. It would 
be so if he said : You must believe that what is black is white, if 
the Church tells you that it is : or you must believe that what 
you see to be black you see to be white, if the Church decrees it. 

He does not affirm either of these two contradictions, but only 
says that what we see to be black may be white that is, may not 
be in itself, what it is subjectively, as preconceived.* 

In these Exercises, then, we find nothing which is not 
consistent with orthodox Roman Catholic belief, but there 
is no doubt that Loyola emphasised those very points of 
doctrine with which Protestants have the least sympathy. 
For example, a Protestant is able to come to ethical con- 
clusions, and to live up to certain ethical standards, without 

* Mind, vol. xii. p. 234. 



90 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

the aid of such an elaborate imaginative reconstruction of 
the material side of the Gospel narrative as the Exercises 
prescribe : and to a Protestant mind the ethical results are 
safer if too much time is not spent over such reconstructions. 
Yet when the Protestant historian comes to illustrate this 
theory, he finds that he must except the results which the 
Exercises produced on the early Jesuits, or else say that 
these men were fired by an inspiration which transcended 
all the minor practices of faith. For there did unquestion- 
ably follow upon the receiving of these Exercises, in the early 
days of the Order, lives of unparalleled devotion and sanctity. 
Upon these Exercises were nourished the men who stemmed 
the tide of the , Reformation in Europe, from this discipline 
there rose up the greatest educationalists of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries, and the most ardent missionaries 
of the Roman Catholic Church. " Francis," says Brou,* 
" emerged from the Exercises changed into another man. 
From this time onward it is the life of a saint which we 
write." 

But after the death of the founder, Jesuitism became 
something far less lovely than it was at the beginning, in 
spite of the fact that the Exercises continued to be given. 
So we are inclined to believe that it was when the original 
impetus given by the sanctity and genius of Loyola and his 
first disciples died out, that the Exercises underwent the 
real test and failed. " Before all things," says a Jesuit 
writer very truly, " the Exercises are a school for the reason 
and the mind, a school to form self-mastery." If their 
greatest strength lies here, here also lies their greatest 
weakness. Loyola may have sighted the Mystic Goal, 
but surely he set out to reach it by the wrong road. The 
true mystics have not striven to attain to an ideal, by any 
mere self-discipline or spiritual technique, or imitation, they 
have submitted themselves to a Life-force. With the pro- 
foundest utterances of St. Paul or St. John, for example, 
the tone of this marvellous book is hardly in tune. 

* Brou, Vie de S. Frangois Xavier, vol. i. p. 4,5, 



CHAPTER VI 

THE LAST YEARS IN PARIS AND THE JOURNEY TO VENICE 

(1534-1537) 

THE order of the Jesuits had as yet no formal existence, 
but during the year which followed the solemn day of con- 
secration on Montmartre, Ignatius and his disciples were 
constantly together. They supped in one another's 
rooms, compared their college notes, and discussed plans 
for the future. Once a week they confessed and com- 
municated. It was during those months that Francis 
Xavier cemented the strongest and tenderest friendships 
of his life. The expression of this great affection for the 
fellow-members of his company, and above all, for Ignatius, 
runs like a thread of gold through his letters from the 
East.. 

But meanwhile the group began to attract the attention of 
the watch dogs at the Sorbonne. 

This frequent intercourse, these meetings, those unusual 
methods of devotion, this change of life, could not pass unnoticed. 
Everyone was talking of the heretics (i.e. the Lutherans), whose 
conventicles were multiplying, and the government, provoked by 
their excesses, felt forced to be severe. The theological faculty 
allowed nothing to escape them. Naturally the little group of 
friends was suspected. " They will end by coming under the 
Inquisition," people said. It seems they had enemies. We do 
not know who these were, but Ignatius was censured once more. 
The Inquisitors, who knew him as a converter of heretics, shrugged 
their shoulders. But bad reports of the Company were abroad 
and the echoes of these reached as far as Navarre.* 

When, in March 1535, Ignatius left Paris for Spain, he 
carried with him a letter from Francis to his brother, and 
in this letter we hear something of those troubles. This is 
the earliest of the Saint's writings in existence. 

* Brou, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, vol. i. p. 46. 



92 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

" Paris, 

" 25th March, 1535. 

" Seiior. 

" During the last few days I have written to you by 
various routes and for many reasons. What chiefly moved 
me to write you so often is the great debt I owe, since I am 
your junior and you my Lord, as well as on account of the 
many favours I have received. 

" And that you may not hold me for unthankful and 
ungrateful for such extreme favours, every time that I 
find a messenger I shall be sure to write to you ; and if, as 
the road is so long, you do not get my letters as often as I 
write them, I beg you to blame the many mischances between 
Paris and Obanos ; for when I do not get your letters as 
often as you write to me, in reply to the many I write, I lay 
the blame on the long road on which many of your letters and 
mine are lost. So on your part there is no lack of love, but 
rather the contrary, since you at home where you have in 
plenty what is needed feel the miseries and hardships of my 
student-life, no less than I do in Paris where the necessary 
is always lacking. Yet this lack is only because you do not 
really know about my hardships, and I suffer them all in the 
very certain hope that when you know assuredly about them, 
your great liberality will end my miseries." 

We have seen from the accounts of student-life in Paris 
in those days how real those miseries were. 



tc 



Sir, lately the Rev. Father Friar Vear was in this 
university and he gave me to understand certain complaints 
which you have made about me, which he related to me 
at great length ; and if it is as he gave me to understand, 
your feeling them so much is a sign and very great proof of 
the love and warm affection you have for me. What I felt 
so much on hearing this news was the thought of the great 
pain which you suffered through stories from worthless and 
bad men whom I desire much to discover in order to give 

o 

them the pay they deserve. But since everyone here appears 
very friendly, it is hard for me to know who it is (who has 
slandered me). God knows the pain I suffer in having to 



THE LAST YEARS IN PARIS 93 

defer punishing them, as they deserve. This alone comforts 
me : what is divulged is no longer a secret" * 

The next part of the letter suggests that Francis' wrath 
was specially roused because Ignatius had been involved in 
the slanders. 

" And so that you may know clearly how the Lord has 
favoured me in making me acquainted with the Sefior Maestro 
Inigo, I here give you my word that in my whole life I can 
never make up all I owe him, both for his having helped me 
very often with money and with friends, and for his having 
been the cause of my withdrawal from bad companions, 
whom I, in my inexperience, did not recognise. And now 
that these heresies are exposed, I should not wish to have 
been associated with them for anything in the world. 
For this alone I do not know when I shall be able to pay 
Senor Maestro Inigo, that he brought to an end my con- 
versation and intercourse with persons who outwardly 
appeared to be good, but within were full of heresies, as has 
now been shown." 

One Jean Calvin, Xavier might have added, was the ring- 
leader of those wicked persons. 



(C 



Therefore I beg you to receive him as you would me, 
myself, since with his good works he has put me under such 
obligation. And believe that if he were such as they told you, 
he would not go to your house and put himself in your hands. 
For no evil-doer puts himself in the power of him whom 
he has offended, and by this alone you can know that all 
they told you about Senor Maestro Inigo is false. 

" I beg you very earnestly too not to fail to commune and 
converse with Senor Inigo, and to believe what he may say 
to you, for his counsels and conversations will help you, he 
is so much a man of God, and so good. . . . give him, to do 
me a favour, as much credit as you would give to me myself : 
and from him better than from anyone else in the world 
you will be able to learn of my needs and hardships. . . . 

* The earlier collectors of the Letters, who felt it their duty to show a 
saint flawless from the cradle, have omitted these spirited sentiments. 
This passage is in Latin in the original, and therefore is printed in italics. 
This method is adopted throughout the Letters. 



94 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

" And if you wish to do me the favour of alleviating my 
great poverty, you will be able to give what you send to 
Senor Inigo, the bearer of this, for he has to go to Almazan, 
and carries certain letters from a student, a great friend of 
mine who is studying in this University, and is a native of 
Almazan, and is very well looked after by a very safe 
route. He writes to his father that if Senor Inigo gives him 
any money for certain students in Paris, to send it with 
his own, and in the same coin. And since so safe a way is 
offered, I beg you to remember me. 

" I do not know what more to tell you, except that our 
dear cousin has fled this universitv, and that I went after 

*/ ' 

him as far as Notre Dame de Clery, which is thirty-four leagues 
from Paris (102 miles). I beg you to let me know if he arrived 
at Navarre, for I much fear me for him, that he will never 
be any good. Senor Maestro Inigo will tell you how affairs 
have turned out about these heresies, as much as I could 
write by letter. 

" So I finish, and kiss the hands of yourself and of the 
lady (of your wife) a thousand times. May our Lord increase 
your lives by many years, as for your very noble hearts is 
desired. 

" Your very sure servant and younger brother, 

" FRANCIS DE XAVIER."* 



It is most likely that Francis over-estimated his brother's 
financial resources at this time. Political complications had 
certainly told very severely upon the exchequers of the 
Navarrese patriots. Whether the Captain of Azpilcueta 
fulfilled all those requests remains unknown. In the same 
year, as Rodriguez relates, and almost at the hour of his 
departure for Venice, Francis got the news that the 
Chapter of Pampeluna was about to appoint him to a 
Canonry in the cathedral. This was no greater an honour 
than a man of his family and attainments might expect as 
a matter of course, but it must have summed up for him, 
as it were, the things which he was leaving behind him as he 
left the gates of Paris for the last time. About this time the 
certificate of nobility which he had demanded a few years 

* Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 201. 



THE LAST YEARS IN PARIS 97 

earlier was drawn up in Spain, but it is doubtful if Francis 
ever read it.* 

Behind him lay twelve years of college life of a kind of 
college life of which Montaigne and Rabelais and Erasmus have 
left such pitiful and burning records. He had in turn starved, 
caroused, fasted, frozen. He had studied, talked, quarrelled 
and made friends in at least five different languages Latin, 
French, Spanish, Portuguese, Basque. He was, according 
to the standards of the Church, a cultured philosopher and 
an expert theologian. The constant perils of cold and 
pestilence, of rope and faggot had left him unharmed. But 
above all, it was here that Ignatius had led him to God. 
No wonder that those old streets and colleges haunted his 
imagination throughout the remaining sixteen years of his 
life. It was for Paris, more than for the high plains of 
Navarre, that he longed in exile. And it was to Paris that 
he would fain have returned, and " gone shouting up and down 
the streets like a madman," telling the students to give up 
their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the Gospel 
of Christ. 

Old Tursellinus' chapter on the journey from Paris to 
Venice is typical and quaint, and gives perhaps as good a 
picture as exists of that hard journey. I quote from the 
English version of 1632.f 

FRANCIS GOETH TO VENICE WITH EXTREME PAIN OF BODY 

He had now almost finished his course of Divinity, when 
presently he was to depart for Italy. For the Fathers had agreed 
among themselves that upon a set day, to wit the 24th of 
January, 1537, they would meet all together at Venice, with 

* The certificate runs as follows : 

We declare that the said Don Francisco de Jasso y Xavier has duly proved 
that he was and that he is by ancient origin and descent in direct and legitimate 
line through parents and ancestors, according to the four branches of his 
paternal and maternal ancestry, an hidalgo, nobleman, and gentleman, 
legitimate brother of Don Miguel de Xavier to whom belong the estates and 
palacios of Xavier, Ydocin, and Azpilcueta. Therefore We, the Emperor, 
King and Queen, declare that we hold the said Francisco de Jasso and Xavier 
for a nobleman, hidalgo, and gentleman, and that he and his sons and 
descendants may and shall use and enjoy all the prerogatives, exemptions, 
honours, liberties, and privileges which the other gentlemen and hijosdalgo use 
and enjoy in our kingdom of Navarre. (See Mon. Xav., vol. ii. p. 83.) 

t The original Latin version of Tursellinus' life was published in Antwerp 
and in Rome in 1546. 

G 



98 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

St. Ignatius, who was gone thither before upon certain occa- 
sions. In the meantime, before the appointed day of their 
journey came, France was all up in arms, by reason of Charles V. 
his war made upon the Frenchmen * : which accident made them 
hasten their determined journey by setting aside all care of 
ending their course of studies. Xavier was, indeed, much 
grieved by this hindrance,! but yet carried it discreetly, esteeming , 
it as good to leave his studies for God's sake, as to follow them. 

Therefore upon the thirteenth day of November, a most 
unseasonable time of the year, having according to their vows 
given all they had to the poor, except their writings and some 
little thing to help them on the journey, he, together with his 
other company, setteth forth on the way. Their manner of 
travelling was this : they were clothed in coarse and old habits, 
every one with a staff in his hand, and a short leather mantle upon 
his shoulder like poor pilgrims : about their necks they hung their 
beads to be known for Catholics as they travelled among heretics, 
their writings they carried at their back in a little bag. 

They used every day to communicate, being the only comfort 
of all their labours, thereby both to renew their forces, and to 
revive their spirits, being wearied with painful travail. When 
they departed from their lodging, they always commended them- 
selves to God, and when they came into it they gave Him thanks. 
Being upon the way, they first spent some time upon meditating 
upon heavenly matters : then they used some pious discourse 
together, and now and then they lightened the labour and 
weariness of their journey with singing of hymns, psalms, and 
spiritual canticles. 

In this manner, for the most part taking his way through 
Lorraine and Germany, to avoid the troubles of the war, he 
endured the autumn showers of France, and the winter colds of 
Germany, and though he were not accustomed to travel on foot, 
yet he cheerfully undertook and performed this long and tedious 
journey, being loaden with his writings, and this in the dead of 
winter, and through most foul ways many times encumbered 
over with snow and frozen up with ice, especially as he passed 
the Alps. And beside the weight of his bag, and badness of the 
way, he voluntarily used another mortification which put him to 
intolerable pains. 

Here follows an inaccuracy on Tursellinus' part. In 

* The war between Francis I. and Charles V. regarding the inheritance of 
Francis Sforza, Duke of Milan. 

f There is a great difference of opinion as to whether Xavier did actually 
take the final Doc. Theol. examination or not. See note jn Brou's Vie fa 
S. Franfois Xavier, p. 50. 



THE LAST YEARS IN PARIS 99 

common with Bartoli and Lucena he tells us that Francis 
nearly killed himself, on this journey, by tying cords round 
his legs. But Rodriguez, who was one of the Company at 
that time, is a more reliable historian, and he dates this 
indiscretion earlier. It was during the summer vacations 
of the previous year, while he was taking the Spiritual 
Exercises, says Rodriguez, that he 

macerated his body, carried away with his fervour, with too little 
prudence. With hard and tightly-bound strings he tied his 
arms and his legs so that the flesh swelled and broke, and almost 
entirely covered the cord. It seemed impossible to cut them. 
His friends, in great sorrow, prayed for him. He endured two 
days of terrible suffering. We feared that his arms, which were 
the worst, would have to be amputated. But, by a singular 
providence of God they healed completely, and I am quite ignorant 
of how this sudden recovery came about. 

Tursellinus' account is exactly similar to this, and unless 
we are to believe that Francis submitted himself twice to the 
same ordeal, which is extremely unlikely, we must accept 
the earlier version of Rodriguez.* 

. . . Then they presently set out again to their travel, most 
joyful for that good success, inciting one another to employ 
all their labours in the service of so sweet a Lord. And Francis 
throughout the whole journey (as he was always before wont to 
do) applied himself with such diligence and alacrity in helping 
and serving his companions as was wonderful. For as they all 
strove to the uttermost this being the one emulation among 
them to excel one another in courtesy, he, either out of fervour 
of spirit, or natural civility, far outwent the rest. And this care 
and desire of his was no greater to help his companions than to 
procure the salvation of others. Whensoever occasion was given 
him of helping his neighbours, either with counsel, advice, or 
example, he with great zeal made his commodity thereof, and 
enhanced the same as opportunity served. And herein his 
labours were not in vain, for many Catholics were thereby 
reclaimed to a good life, and some heretics also reduced to the 
wholesome way of truth. Which way soever they passed they 
left behind them tokens of sanctity, for all to behold, and Catholics 
to imitate. And so it happened oftentimes that even heretics 
themselves, taken with admiration at their sanctity, would 
courteously show them their way, tell them what difficulties 

* See Brou, Vie de St. Frangois Xavier, p. 45, note. 

G2 



100 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

they were to pass, and, when need was, would themselves freely 
conduct them on their journey. Thus true and kindly virtue 
sheweth itself, and putteth even savage people in mind of 
humanity. 

Francis, therefore, by the aid both of Heaven and earth, 
having waded through all the incommodities and dangers of the 
way, upon the tenth of January the year following, arrived safe 
with his companions at Venice. There he found Ignatius Loyola 
with the greatest desire expecting his dearest sons and com- 
panions. Then, according to the custom of the Society, they 
salute and embrace one another most joyfully, with the greatest 
demonstration of love that might be imagined. And this joy 
made them forgetful of all their toilsome past labours.* 

* Tursellinus, Life, English edition, Book I. chap. iv. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ITALIAN YEARS 

(January, 1537 March, 1540) 

" These first Jesuits were mirrors reflecting holiness, pure 
doctrine, a singular prudence and a profound humility." 
CERVANTES. 

WHEN Francis and his companions sailed into Venice, they 
found that their leader had arrived almost a year before them. 
He had passed the time between the study of theology, the 
care of the sick and destitute and the administration of the 
Spiritual Exercises. The members of this long-planned 
Conference found a very different programme awaiting them 
from that which is put into the hands of the twentieth-century 
patron of Congresses. Exhausted with the cold and hard- 
ships of the journey, they were immediately divided into two 
groups ; one group went with Ignatius to work in the hospital 
of SS. John and Paul, the other, which included Xavier, 
went to serve the Incurables. And there, indeed, the bread 
was bitter and the stairs were steep. Francis was apparently 
even more sensitive than the others to the physical loathsome- 
ness of his surroundings. The story of how he inured himself 
to the sights and smells which he could hardly bear reminds 
us of the account of how Goethe by walking in the Strasburg 
churchyard at midnight rid himself of fear, and by standing 
on the pinnacle of the cathedral cured himself of giddiness. 
And the saint was no less successful than the poet. 

It is in Venice that we first hear of Francis preaching the 
Gospel. His Italian was uncertain, but he talked boldly, 
catechised, and while he nursed the sick he read and prayed 
with them. " You would have thought," says Tursellinus, 
" that he had seen Christ with his eyes in those poor sick 
persons, and employed all his labours in serving of Him." * 

There was no city in Europe more fitted than Venice to be 
the theatre for the early and heroic enthusiasms of the 
Jesuits. It was at the same time the city of refuge, and the 

* Life, p. 22. 



102 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

hospital, of Northern Italy. Rome was sacked, the patriots 
of Florence exiled, Milan little else than an army. Venice, 
insulated, apart, became a spot where men retired ; from 
whence they gained, as it were, a bird's eye view of the 
turbulent arena of their life. There, serious thought became 
common, and religious enthusiasm inevitably followed. And 
there none had to look far in order to see Christ naked and 
sick and in prison. The story of the foundation of the 
Somascenes * gives a typical impression of this revival, and 
shows us that the conduct of Xavier and his companions 
must have appeared less extravagant to the citizens of 
sixteenth-century Venice than it would to the citizens of 
twentieth-century London. ( 

Xavier's headquarters in Venice, the Incurable hospital, 
was founded in 1523. Next to the Jesuits themselves, the 
Theatines were the most important of the non-monastic orders 
which are so characteristic a feature of this period. The 
founders of this order, Cardinal Caraffa and Gaetano da Tiene, 
were members of the Oratory of Divine Love. This was an 
association of about fifty pious and cultured Italians, who 
had been united by the earnest desire to bring about a reform 
in the Church neither by sword nor dogma nor knotted cords, 
but by personal piety and intellectual earnestness. Gaetano 
himself, one gathers, was of a timid and sentimental disposi- 
tion, one of those who believe in being " good to the poor," 
and living a holy life in order that they may beautify and 
save their own souls. Added to this was an extreme modesty. 
It was said of him that he would " like to reform the world 
without his own existence being known." $ Caraffa, after- 



* " A Venetian senator, Girolamo Miani, gathered together the children 
who were fugitives in Venice, and received them into his house, seeking 
them out through the islands and the city. Without paying much heed to 
the scolding of his sister-in-law, he sold his plate and the handsomest tapestry 
in his house, to procure for the children lodging, food, raiment, and instruc- 
tion. By degrees he devoted his whole energy to this vocation. His success 
was particularly great in Bergamo. The hospital which he founded there was 
so strenuously supported, that he was encouraged to make similar experi- 
ments in other towns. By and by hospitals of the same kind were estab- 
lished at Verona, Brescia, Ferrara, Como, Milan, Pa via, and Genoa. Finally, 
he entered with some friends of like sentiments into a congregation of regular 
clergy, modelled on that of the Theatines, designated by the name Di Somasco. 
Their main object was education. Their hospitals received a common 
constitution " (Ranke, History of the Popes, Book II., " New Ecclesiastical 
Orders " ; see also Cocquelines, Bullarium, vol. iv. p. 173). 

f This passage was written before the European war. 

j Caracciolus, Vita S. Cajelani Thienaei, cap. ix. p. 101, quoted by Ranke. 



THE ITALIAN YEARS 103 

wards Pope Paul IV., was of a very different mould active, 
violent, business-like, " a builder and a destroyer." But 
the stormy soul of the future Pope saw as clearly as the con- 
templative Gaetano that his only peace lay in submission to 
God and in a life of communion with Him. So these two 
members of the Oratory of Divine Love united in founding 
an institution whose members were to cultivate prayer and 
contemplation, and at the same time to return to the old 
Apostolic ideals of preaching the Gospel and ministering to 
the sick and the unhappy. 

It was with these men that Loyola associated in Venice, 
and it was in their convent that he awaited the coming of 
his disciples. Had either he or Caraffa been less original, or 
of a less autocratic temper, it is probable that the Jesuits 
and the Theatines would have merged into one common 
order. For here Ignatius saw many of his dreams in practice. 
Hier bin ich Mensch, hier darf ictis sein, he might have said 
with Faust. In so congenial an atmosphere all his charms 
unfolded, and during the first months of his stay Gaetano 
found him the gentlest of doves, and Caraffa knew him for 
the wisest of serpents. But their ideals were not precisely 
alike; those of Ignatius were larger and more ambitious, 
and when he tried to impose them upon Caraffa, the almost 
inevitable rupture came about. 

Scarcely had Xavier and his brother pilgrims recovered 
from the hardships of their fifty days' march across the Alps, 
when they had again to take to the road. This time Rome 
was the goal. Ignatius divided them into three bands and 
sent them southward, to obtain the Papal permission to 
preach in the Holy Land, and to make arrangements for their 
ordination. He himself remained in Venice. The accounts 
of this expedition are, as far as outward circumstances go, 
lugubrious in the extreme. It was Lent, " a very incom- 
modious time for religious men to travel in," they fasted 
rigorously, and ate only what the chances of begging put in 
their satchels. They had neither horse nor ass. Often they 
spent the night with the cattle, and if they did find other 
shelter, the beds were such that it took more courage to lie 
down in them than to share the rush floor with the rats. 
The rain was continuous and the country so flooded that 
they had at times to walk in water up to the waist. The 
best historian of this journey, Rodriguez, who was with them, 



104 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

has an annoying habit of withholding the names of his com- 
panions while he tells of their adventures. Brou thinks it 
is Xavier whom we see in his picture of " one in the market 
place, bare-footed, his gown kilted up to the knee, asking 
the merchants for a vegetable, or a little fruit, and taking 
it with great humility. And then," Rodriguez goes on, " I 
compared the poverty of this abasement of my companion 
with his great learning, his talent and deep wisdom, and all 
those qualities which might have made for him, had he chosen 
it, earthly fame, and I felt profoundly moved, beyond all 
expression." 

But Francis seems to have shown no signs of self-pity. 
In the midst of all these privations, we read, his soul over- 
flowed with joy. The spirits of the company were so high 
that they could take but little sleep.* 

At last Francis stood in the Vatican, and found himself 
by the command of the Pope, and in his presence, arguing 
with the Papal theologians, in order to prove his ability to 
preach the Gospel. 

Kings rode from Far, with Splendid Retinues, 
And found their Young Lord Cradled in a Mews : 
Poor Pilgrims came, a naked, sorry Clan ; 
They found Christ's Vicar in the Vatican. 

Francis and his friends passed the theological test satisfac- 
torily, and the Pope gave them his permission to go abroad. 
The interview did not last long, and no sooner had the pilgrims 
quitted the Vatican than they prepared to return to Venice. 
In May they were once more with Ignatius, and on June 
24th Francis was ordained. Immediately afterwards he 
retreated, along with Salmeron, to Monselice, a quiet spot 
at the foot of the Euganean Hills, between Padua and Rovigo. 
There they found a deserted roofless cottage, which they 
thatched themselves and made " a little sorry habitation." 
In this still place they passed forty days in prayer and serious 
thought. Then, as their leader had not yet recalled them, 
they went out into the villages, preaching and teaching. 

jAnd this^was his (Francis') manner of preaching : remembering 
that Christ was wont to preach in thejjfields, upon mountains and 

* Letter of Father Brandao, Rome, February 1551, EpislolcR Mixtce, vol. ii. 
p. 515, quoted by Brou, Vie de S. Frangois Xavier, vol. i. p. 56. 



THE ITALIAN YEA&S 106 

on the sea-shores, whenever he saw any hope of doing good, there 
he would put himself among assemblies of people to preach, and 
especially would he teach such as never used to come to sermons, 
. . .gathering together people in crossways and streets, and 
borrowing a stool out of some shop, standing thereon he would 
speak of virtuous and godly life with more fervour of spirit than 
flourish of words, to such as either stood there idle, or else were in 
their plays or pastimes ; insomuch as some who came to his sermon 
only to get something to laugh at, being moved by the weight of 
his speech, and the divine force wherewith he spoke, instead of 
laughing, went away weeping. Nothing caused him to be more 
admired, or helped on his business better, than refusing to take 
money, a token of sanctity most pleasing to all men. For when 
all saw that he neither asked anything of the people about him, 
nor would take anything which was offered him, they could not 
but think that he sought the salvation of others more than his 
own commodity.* 

The proposed mission to the Holy Land was still impossible. 
Venice and Turkey were at war, the Sultan's ships blocked 
the Adriatic, peaceful transit was out of the question. But 
wherever the future Apostle of India found himself, he found 
also souls to be saved. 

In the autumn Ignatius recalled Francis and the other 
members of the Company to Vicenza. They found their 
leader in a half-ruined and deserted convent, doorless, 
windowless, unfurnished. There they ate and slept and 
prayed, and they took their recreation among the poor and 
sick and ignorant folk in the town. 

It was here that Xavier offered his first mass. " To look 
upon him," they said, " one would have thought, not only 
that he believed, but that he saw with his eyes that which 
is hidden in this most holy mystery." f 

Nor did he ever lose this fresh ardour. It was " as if 
coming every day like a new priest to the Altar, he had tasted 
the first sweetness of those sacred mysteries." 

About this time Francis was seized with one of those 
violent attacks of fever to which he was liable, and to which he 
probably in some measure owed his early death. Rodriguez 
writes : 

Soon after this, Francis and I both fell ill. They admitted us 
to the hospital, but we had to share between us one narrow bed, 

* Tursellinus, Life, p. 31. f Ibid., Book I. cap. vi. 



106 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

and that was a great occasion of discomfort to us. When, for 
example, the one was shivering and wishing a dozen blankets, the 
other was burning with fever and wished none at all ; we both 
profited by this affair in the practice of patience and charity. 
Further, the room where we lay was open to all the winds of 
heaven, and we received from the hospitaller hardly any of the 
attentions which our illness demanded.* 

When they had recovered and returned to the ruined 
convent, where they had the benefit of open-air treatment 
again during their convalescence, they found hope of an 
expedition to the Holy Land finally abandoned. Ignatius 
was about to go to Rome with Lainez and Faber, and the 
others were told off in couples and sent out on preaching 
tours to the university towns of Northern Italy. Xavier and 
Bobadilla were put down for Bologna. 

And they began to ask what they should call themselves. 

They prayed about this matter, and wondered what name 
would be best. They remembered that they knew no name but 
Jesus Christ, and that they served Him alone. And so it appeared 
to them that they might take the name of their Leader, and that 
they should call themselves the Company of Jesus. 

In October, 1537, Francis and Bobadilla arrived in Bologna. 
Gon9alvez's and Teixeira's accounts of this visit are probably 
the most accurate. 

Francis' first act was to visit the tomb of St. Dominic, for he had 
a great admiration for the founder of the Preaching Friars. There, 
the day after his arrival, he said Mass. There was present that 
day a holy woman called Isabel Casilini, who, on seeing his 
devotion before the altar, took him for a great saint. She spoke 
to him after Mass, and, she records, " this interview inspired me 
greatly towards a better life." 

Isabel had an uncle, Jerome Casilini, a learned and noble canon. 
... At the request of Isabel, Francis visited him, and the canon 
offered him the hospitality of his house and table. Francis 
accepted the lodging, but he desired to beg his bread each day. 
After early Mass and the recitation of the hours, he occupied 
each day until evening with works of charity towards the prisoners 
and the afflicted. Besides this, he ran through the streets waving 
his hat in the air and crying : " Come and hear the Word of 

* Rodriguez, Commentarium de origine el progressu Soc. Jesu, Lisbon, 1577. 



THE ITALIAN YEARS 107 

God ! " The first seat that he came upon served as a pulpit, 
and he preached in a jargon composed of several languages, 
because he did not at that time know much Italian. He advised 
all his hearers to frequent the sacraments of confession and 
communion, which are of great help against sin. From his time 
the custom of communion after the manner observed in the 
Primitive Church was revived in Bologna, and in this town, 
from that time, there was, among great numbers, a notable change 
of life. Jerome Casilini said of Francis : " He spoke little, but 
his words had a marvellous effect. In his sermons, such was 
his ardour that it quickly communicated itself to his audience. 
. . . One might well say of him that he was a man of great 
prayerfulness, and, like Daniel, a man of desires."* 

In Bologna he was again stricken down with a violent 
fever, but he hardly allowed himself any rest. Before the 
ague had left him he was out again in the squares and arcades 
calling to the students and townsfolk to come and hear the 
Word of the Lord. 

Francis and Bobadilla had this rule between themselves. Each 
week one obeyed the other. He who obeyed had the duty of call- 
ing the people in the streets to the sermon, and when the people had 
gathered he would get the loan of a bench and put it in the middle 
of the square, and the one who was superior that week would 
mount it and preach to the town. The concourse of people who 
gathered to the sermon on account of this novelty was great, 
great the fruit which the Lord made by them, and great the 
alms offered them. ... If they saw someone moved by the 
sermons, they spoke to him apart, and instructed him as to what 
was necessary for salvation.t 

In March, 1538, Francis rejoined the rest of the Company 
in Rome. His friends were horrified by his appearance. 
" He seemed to me," says Rodriguez, " more like a corpse 
than a living man, he was so pale and thin and disfigured by 
his long privations and illnesses. When I saw him so unlike 
himself, so scarred and sorry and worn-out a figure, I could 
not help feeling that he would never again regain his old 
strength, and that his working days were at an end."t 

* Sebastien Gongalvez, Historia da Companhia na India, written in Goa 
between 1593 and 1619, Lisbon, Ajuda MSS. 26/30. I am indebted to 
Cros, Vie de S. Frangois Xavier, vol. i. p. 144, for this extract. 

t Teixeira, Vita, Man. Xav., vol. ii. p. 824. 

j Rodriguez, in op. cit. 



108 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Apparently Francis gave up active work for some little 
time, for neither Ribadeneira nor Polanco mentions him as 
being among those who preached in Rome at this period.* 
But in his weakness there came to him " visions and revela- 
tions of the Lord." In remote regions of his soul, he now 
heard the call from the East. 

Even in Bologna, he had spoken of India continually to 
his friends. And one night in Rome, Rodriguez, who was 
sleeping in the same room, was awakened by hearing his 
companion call out in his sleep, More ! More ! More ! Long 
afterwards, just before he embarked for India, he said to 
Rodriguez : 

You remember, my brother Simon, how one night in the hospital 
at Rome I woke you with my repeated cries, More I More ! 
More ! You asked me at the time what it was, and I said it was 
nothing. But I will tell you now that I had seen myself in great 
labour and peril for the service of God, and at the same time His 
grace sustained me so marvellously that I could not help calling 
out for more to do. I hope that the hour will soon come when 
that which was foreshown me will be realised.t 

But now Ignatius and his disciples thought that the time 
had come for the definite and official formation of the Order. 
" They unanimously decided," says Polanco, " to give them- 
selves up to prayer, to offer the holy sacrifice of mass and each 
to devote himself specially to serious thought on the subject, 
in order the better to know God's will for them." These 
evening and midnight conferences, in the little room in the 
Piazza Margana in Rome, lasted for three months.! They 
would use none of their working daytime for this business. 
Every question, as it came under review, was submitted to 
three stages, study, discussion, vote. For the first stage 
each man went apart alone, and prayed and thought over 
the matter in silence ; secondly, they had an open debate, 
and lastly the question was put to the vote. The proceedings 
remind one of a modern study-circle. 

The first subject which came under discussion was one 
which intimately concerned Xavier's future work. Were 

* Tursellinus, however, on I know not what authority, affirms that Xavier 
and Faber were bidden to preach by turns in the Church of St. Lawrence, 
and that their sermons changed many lives ; see Tursellinus, Life, p. 48. 

t Cros, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, p. 148. 

J See Fouqueray, Histoire de la Companie de Jesus, vol. i. p. 72. 



THE ITALIAN YEARS 109 

those of the Company who might be sent to the Far East 
to be bound by the same discipline as the members at home ? 
There was a long discussion, for some thought that these 
men should be more or less free and independent. It was 
finally decided that if it pleased God and the Pope the bond 
should be equally close, however far apart the brothers 
might be. 

Secondly, it- was debated as to whether the vows of obedi- 
ence should be added to the vows of poverty and chastity. 
We have no record of what Francis said, but probably the 
construction of an outward rule on this matter was of little 
concern to him. His friendship and devotion for Loyola 
and the brethren transcended all literal commands or dis- 
obediences. He was "theirs in Christ," as he was wont to 
sign himself in his letters. And one feels that if his life had 
not so nearly realised his words, his indomitable and naturally 
autocratic temper would often have made thunder and 
lightning in the Company. But if he was really theirs in 
Christ he could transcend all rules and yet break no laws. 
Here the man of moral genius stands on the same ground as 
the great artist. And thus, though Francis Xavier was one 
of the original Jesuits, we can fancy that he looked upon that 
dread master-word of the Constitutions with something of a 
child-like innocence. Sometimes, as we think of a certain 
friend, while we walk through crowded streets, we seem to 
see him in the distance again and again, and though we are 
deceived, we do not regard those who deceive us, but go on 
communing with our friend. So Francis saw Christ in- Loyola 
and his brother Jesuits, and if their orders were not always 
compatible with the Divine Voice within, he still, with dreamy 
eyes of love, saw Christ in them, and obeyed that inner 
Voice. 

And as the stranger in the streets may wonder sometimes 
at the smile which greets him because he has unwittingly 
fed the memory of a friend, so the friends of Francis may 
have wondered perhaps at the tender words he wrote to 
them from the East, at his undying faith in their goodness 
and in their prayers. 

At last a document was drawn up, and on the twenty-fourth 
of June, 1539, presented to Pope Paul III. (Alexander 
Farnese). He is said to have exclaimed, on reading the 
document, Hie est digitus Dei ! And when we recall the 



110 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

position of the Papacy at this time, his exclamation of joy 
does not surprise us. 

In Germany, heresy was extending with an unheard-of rapidity. 
In France, Poland, in Spain, in Italy itself, Luther had gained 
numerous partisans. Scandinavia and England had already 
quitted the yoke of the Roman Church. The Catholics, even 
those who were still faithful, were violently hostile to the Papal 
See and its abuses. The Emperor was energetically demanding a 
complete reform, and threatening to despoil the Papacy of a 
great number of its most profitable privileges. From the Papal 
point of view the situation seemed truly desperate. And just 
at this point came a troop of men, ardent, belligerent, devout, 
offering a blind obedience to the Sovereign Pontiff, and ready to 
fight to the death for his greatness and his authority.* 

But the custom of the Papal Court demanded that the 
document should be read and approved by three Cardinals 
as well as by the Pope, and although Paul and two of his 
Cardinals were ready to welcome the new Order with open 
arms, there remained Cardinal Gia, who would not even look 
at the papers. There were too many orders already, he said, 
and he was for suppressing with one or two exceptions 
all those which were then in existence. It was not until 
Ignatius, with consummate patience, utilised the influence 
of John of Portugal, of Margaret of Austria, of Carpi and 
Contarini, that Gia at last consented to the official formation 
of the Company. 

For the student of the life of Francis Xavier, the Bulla 
Regimini Militantis Ecclesice has a peculiar interest. For 
besides giving the authority of the Pope and the Apostolic 
See to the Jesuits, it contains the nucleus of the famous 
Constitutions of the Order, and this nucleus is all of these 
that Xavier ever possessed. They were not completed until 
many years later, nor were they put into the hands of members 
of the Society till 1553, a year after Xavier's death.f The 
revised edition, with large additions and introduction by 
Lainez, was not published till 1558, after the death of Loyola 
himself. 

Therefore, the Constitutions as they now stand have little 

* La Contre-Rdvolution rttigieuse du I6e si&cle. Martin Philipsson, p. 55. 

f See Brou, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, vol. i. p. 67 ; also Philippson, op. 
cit., p. 104, who quotes from Orlandino, Hist. Soc. Jesu, Book III. cap. v., 
and Book X. cap. 48 seq. 



THE ITALIAN YEARS 111 

to do with Xavier, but the version of them contained in this 
Bull was the fruit, in part at least, of his own mind and soul. 
The later edition is a very different and, to many of us, a much 
less beautiful affair. 

I have thought it worth while to reproduce this formula in 
full. It was the only Rule which the Saint had with him in 
India. After a preliminary paragraph the document pro- 
ceeds : 

Whosoever in our Society, which we wish to call by the Name of 
Jesus, wishes to become the soldier of God under the banner of 
the Cross, and to serve God alone, and His Vicar upon earth, the 
Roman Pontiff, shall, after a solemn vow of perpetual chastity, 
agree in his own mind to become a part of this Society. It is 
instituted for the perfecting of souls in Christian life and doctrine ; 
the propagation of the Faith by public teaching, by the ministra- 
tion of the Word of God, by spiritual exercises and works of 
charity, by the instruction of boys in the Christian doctrine, by 
giving spiritual comfort to the faithful through the Confession. 
A member of this Society shall strive to keep God first of all before 
his eyes, and then the method of this institute which leads to 
Him. With all his energies he shall aim at this object which is 
set before him by God, each one according to the grace given him 
by the Holy Spirit, and the demands of his position, lest he have 
a zeal which is not according to knowledge. The appointment of 
each member's special position, and the fixing and complete 
arrangement of his duties, shall be in the hands of a General or 
Head, to be chosen by us (i.e., the Society), that a convenient 
order may be observed, such as is needful in every well regulated 
community. 

This Head, with the advice of his associates, shall have authority 
to draw up constitutions to help the formation of the object pro- 
posed to us, the larger number of votes always having the rights 
of determination. The Council shall be understood to be the 
greater part of the whole society which can conveniently be called 
by the Head, if an important or permanent matter is to be settled. 
But for lighter or more transient cases, it is enough to call all 
those who happen to be present in the place where the General 
shall reside. The whole right of issuing commands shall be in 
the General. 

Let all the association know, not only at their entrance into pro- 
fession, but so long as they live must they bear it in remembrance, 
that this entire society and all its members become God's soldiers 
under the faithful obedience of the most sacred Lord the Pope, and 
the other Roman Pontiffs his successors. And although we are taught 
in the Gospel, and in the orthodox faith acknowledge and firmly 



112 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

profess, that all Christ's faithful people are subject to the Roman 
Pontiff as their Head, and as the Vicar of Jesus Christ, yet, for 
the greater humility of our Society, and the perfect mortification 
of every member, and for the denial of our own wills, we have 
deemed it very good, that each one of us be bound by a special 
vow, beyond that general obligation, so that whatsoever the 
present or other Roman Pontiff for the time being shall ordain, 
pertaining to the advancement of souls, and the propagation of 
the faith, and to whatever province he shall ordain to send us, 
we are straightway bound to obey, as far as in us lies without 
any evasion or excuse whether he send us among the Turks, or 
to any other unbelievers in existence, even in those parts called 
India, or to any heretics or schismatics, or likewise to any be- 
lievers. So they who wish to join us should, before they begin 
this work, consider long and carefully whether they are rich 
enough in spiritual goods to finish their tower, or not, according 
to the counsel of God that is, whether the Holy Spirit Who 
guides them promises to them so much grace that they may hope 
with His assistance to bear the burden of their calling. And 
when, by the inspiration of God, they have enrolled their name 
for this warfare of Jesus Christ, their loins should be girded day 
and night, and they should be ready for the discharge of their 
great debt. 

And that there may be no seeking or refusing among ourselves 
of missions or provinces of any kind, let each profess that he will 
never, directly or indirectly, ask anything of the Pope touching 
such missions, but put all this care upon God, and the Pontiff 
as His Vicar, and upon the General of the Society. The General, 
too, shall profess like the rest, that he will not ask of the Pope 
touching his own mission into any part, except with the concur- 
rence of the Society. 

All shall vow that they will be obedient to the Head of the 
Society in all things which tend to the keeping of this our Rule. 

And the General shall do whatever he thinks good in order to 
gain the things asked of him by God and by the Society. And 
in his own high place, he shall always be mindful of the blessedness 
and gentleness and love of Christ, and of the examples of Peter 
and Paul, and both he and his council shall diligently regard this 
rule. They shall, too, be specially advised to teach to boys the 
Christian doctrines, the ten Commandments, and other like 
rudiments as they shall deem fit, according to the state of the 
people, the place, and the time. It is most necessary that the 
General and his council pay heed to this business, seeing that the 
building up of faith cannot be done without a foundation. There 
is here a danger, that we, because of our own learning, may try 
to avoid this duty, irksome at first sight, but in reality more 



THE ITALIAN YEARS 113 

fruitful than any other towards the edification of our neighbours, 
and the exercise of charity and humility. 

Also, that this all-important humility may be diligently 
practised, as well as for the advantages of order, inferiors must 
always obey the Superior in all things that have to do with the 
Institute of the Society. The inferior must see Christ in the 
Superior, and, as far as is seemly, worship Him there. 

And since we know by experience, that a life far from the con- 
tagion of avarice, and as near as possible to evangelical poverty, 
is the happiest, the purest, and the most helpful to our neighbours, 
and since we know that our Lord Jesus Christ will give us all we 
need of food and clothing if we seek first the kingdom of God, 
so each and all shall vow perpetual poverty, declaring that they 
cannot acquire, either separately or in common for the main- 
tenance or use of the Society, any civil rights to any real property, 
or to its proceeds or incomes, but that they shall be content to 
receive only the use of what is given them to provide things 
needful. 

But they may have in the universities a college or colleges 
holding revenues, estates, or possessions, to be applied to the 
wants or necessities of the students, the government or super- 
intendence of the said colleges and the said students as touching 
the election of rectors and students, their admission, discharge, 
reception, inclusion, the appointment of statutes for the instruc- 
tion, erudition, edification, and correction of the students, the 
manner of supplying their food and clothing, and all other govern- 
ment, regulation and care being always secured to the General of 
the Society, yet so that the students shall not abuse the aforesaid 
goods, nor the Society convert them to their private use, but 
minister to the necessity of the students. And these last also may 
be admitted into our Society when their progress in the Spirit 
and in learning has been ascertained, and after sufficient pro- 
bation. 

All associates whatever in this order, though they hold no 
ecclesiastical benefices, nor incomes therefrom, shall nevertheless 
be bound each one privately and separately, and not as a body, 
to say the services according to the ritual of the Church. 

These are the matters which, with the allowance of our said 
Lord Paul, and the Apostolic See, we can in some manner explain 
of our profession. We have now done so, that by our writing we 
may briefly inform not only those who question us by touching 
our manner of life, but our successors also, if by God's favour we 
shall have followers in this way. And since we have found many 
and great difficulties in it, we have thought it right to say that no 
one will be taken into this Society, unless he has been long and 
carefully tried, and when he shall be found prudent in Christ, 

H 



114 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

learned, or conspicuous in purity of Christian living, then at 
length he may be admitted into the army of Jesus Christ, Who 
will vouchsafe to favour those humble beginnings of ours to the 
Glory of God the Father, to Whom be praise and honour for ever. 
Amen. 

Then follows the assent of the Pope and the Apostolic See, 
and the advice to draw up Constitutions.* 

We see in this document the germs of the later Constitu- 
tions, the beginnings of that distrust of the free exercise of 
personal judgment which is the vitiating element in Roman 
Catholicism. The fresh vigour of Francis Xavier was, 
however, proof against this comparatively mild edition of 
the Constitutions. And the fact that they were partly of his 
own devising made the yoke easy to him. The harm only 
really began to show when the scheme grew and developed 
along its worst lines, while at the same time the enthusiasm 
and genius of the originating spirits no longer existed. The 
initiators of the Order possessed high gifts of individuality, 
independence, and creative imagination, and these qualities 
saved their obedience from servility. Ignatius, with all his 
astuteness, never perhaps foresaw that the Rules which were 
good for those whose whole natures had had free exercise on 
the making of them, might not be good for those who had 
merely to step into the machine. The founders of the Order 
had such a supreme confidence in their own individual 
conception of life that they did not see that the worth of that 
conception lay, not in the special form which it had taken, 
but in the fact that it was original, and had been beaten out 
with the hammer of sincere self-expression. 

Yet we must not forget that the idea of unswerving 
obedience to a superior was not peculiar to the Jesuits, 
although the fact that this was, above all things, a military 
order t means that it laid a very special emphasis on that 
virtue. 

St. Basil had told his monks to be in the hands of the 
superior as an axe in the hands of the butcher. The monks 
of the Chartreuse were to give up their wills as sheep led to 

* C. Cocquelines, Buttarium Prwilegiorum ac Diplomalum Romanorum, 
Rome 1739 ; also Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, translated from the 
Spanish, London, 1839, Appendix. 

f " I do not consider myself," says Loyola, " to have quitted military 
$ervice, but only to have transferred it to God." 



THE ITALIAN YEARS 115 

the slaughter. For the Carmelite disobedience was a mortal 
sin. St. Francis of Assisi and Bonaventura both compare 
the obedient man to a corpse. Ignatius may have borrowed 
this figure from them when he wrote, some years later, the 
often quoted words : 

Let everyone be persuaded that those who live under obedience 
are obliged to allow themselves to be moved and directed by 
the divine providence working through their superiors as if they 
were a corpse, which allows itself to be carried about at will, and 
to be treated it matters not how ; or like an old man's staff, which 
serves him who holds it, in every place and in every way as he 
will. 

The formal proclamation of the Bull did not take place 
till September 27th, 1540, more than six months after Francis 
had left Rome. 

But on September 3rd, 1539, the Pope gave his oral appro- 
bation, and within a few weeks the Jesuits were preaching 
all over Italy under his orders. 

A close correspondence was kept up between Loyola and 
his followers. He required them to send him full details of 
all their work, and he on his side sent them constant advice 
and encouragement. During this autumn of 1539, and until 
he left Rome in March of the following year, Francis Xavier 
was kept at Loyola's side as his private secretary. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE JOURNEY TO LISBON 

(March April, 1540) 

MEANWHILE Gouvea, the old principal of the College of 
Ste. Barbe, had not lost sight of his former students. The 
reader will remember that he was a Portuguese, and an ardent 
advocate of missionary work in India, and that he had 
under his care a number of Portuguese students, holding 
special bursaries to enable them to qualify as missionaries. 
While Ignatius and his disciples were in Rome he wrote to 
them, asking them if they would accept a mission to India, 
if it were offered to them by John III. of Portugal. Faber 
replied in the name of the Company as follows : 

A few days ago your messenger arrived here with your letter. 
And with his own voice, he has given us some news of you. By 
your letters, we can see in what kindly remembrance you hold 
us. We see, too, how ardent is your desire to save the souls 
of your Indian subjects, and to gather in this perishing harvest. 
Our hearts share your zeal, and we would gladly fulfil your wishes 
which are ours too but there are so many other demands 
upon us that it is difficult at the moment to reply. But you 
will pass on the following statement: 

All of us who are bound together in this society have made 
our vows to the Sovereign Pontiff, as to the master of all the 
harvests of Jesus Christ. In offering ourselves to the Pope, 
we have declared that we are ready for anything which he may 
have for us to do in the name of Christ. If then he send us 
himself to the place where you have called us, we go rejoicing. 
We determined to submit ourselves thus by a vow to the will 
of the Pope, because he, we know, is better informed than anyone 
else as to what is most expedient for Christianity as a whole. 

Several of us have already besought His Holiness, that he 
would send us to those other Indies which the Spaniards are 
from day to day bringing under the Emperor's flag : in their 
name the proposal has already been made by a Spanish bishop 
and by the ambassador of the Emperor ; but they understand 
that the Pope does not wish to send us away from Rome, for the 
harvest there is great. 

The distances which separate us from India and the difficulty 



THE JOURNEY TO LISBON 117 

of learning their languages would not daunt us. To do anything 
which will help Jesus Christ, that is our business. Pray to Him 
then that He may make us His ministers to preach the word 
of life so that we may not be self-sufficient as if sufficient of 
ourselves, for our Hope is in His abundance and His riches. 

As for ourselves and our own affairs, you will be fully informed 
by letters which we have written to our intimate friend and 
brother in Jesus Christ, Diego de Caceres, Spaniard. He will 
show you these letters. You will see there that we have, even 
up to the present time, suffered many things for Jesus Christ, and 
how we have won through without harm. There are many people 
even in Rome who hate the truth, and the enlightenment of the 
Church. It is for you, then, to watch, and to send out into the 
world Christian men, who, by the example of a holy life, as well 
as by the other means which you have put at their disposal for 
the defence of the faith and of sound doctrine, may instruct 
Christian people, for how are we to believe that God will keep us 
in the integrity of the faith if we neglect a holy life ? There is 
good reason to believe that the chief errors of doctrine proceed 
from evil lives, and that the former can do no harm if the latter 
is corrected. But enough of this subject.* 

The letter was forwarded by Gouvea to the King, who 
then wrote to his ambassador at the Papal court, asking him 
to inquire secretly into the lives and qualifications of these 
young men, and, if the results were satisfactory, to ask the 
Pope to allow some of them to go to India. 

The ambassador made his investigations, and found that 
the half of their virtues had not been told him. They said 
they would willingly go wherever the Pope should send them. 
The Pope replied that such a long and dangerous voyage 
ought to be undertaken voluntarily, he would command 
none of them, but if any of them decided to go, he would 
give them his blessing. 

Then a difficulty arose. Although Ignatius could say that 
all of the Company were ready to go if called upon, most of 
them were at the moment engaged elsewhere. King John 
wished four men, but out of the twenty members who now 
composed the Society, only two, besides Ignatius, were then 
in Rome, Francis Xavier and Salmeron. Salmeron was 
destined for Ireland, and Francis appears at first to have 
been put on one side ; why, we can only guess. Probably 
his shattered constitution had not yet recovered ; probably, 

* Cros, Vie de S. Frangois Xavier, vol. i. p. 150. 



118 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

also, Loyola was loth to lose his secretary and one of his 
best-loved disciples. It was impossible to find four men, 
but Loyola promised that he would send two, and the Pope 
thereupon gave formal command that two should go. Rodri- 
guez arrived in Rome, and was immediately despatched by 
boat to Lisbon, as he was not well enough to go by land 
with the ambassador. With him went a young priest who 
had volunteered at the eleventh hour, Micer Paulo Camerino, 
of whom we shall hear later, but he was so young and inex- 
perienced that he hardly counted, and Ignatius still sought 
his second man. Bobadilla, who was not far away, was 
ordered to return at once. He came, but he was so ill that 
for him India was out of the question. 

The time passed and no one was found. At last there 
were only twenty-four hours left before the date fixed for the 
ambassador's return to Portugal. And Ignatius had pro- 
mised that one of the Company would go with him, en route 
for India. 

Francis had not hidden his desires from the founder. 
He could say no more. Loyola must decide. 

*' All at once," Rodriguez tells us, " Ignatius, who was ill 
in bed, called Father Francis Xavier, and said to him, 
* Master Francis, you know how, by order of His Holiness, 
two of us must go to India, and that we had chosen Master 
Bobadilla for this mission, and now because of his illness he 
cannot go. The ambassador cannot wait till he is better. 
There now is something for you ! ' And at once the blessed 
Father Francis, with great joy and promptitude, replied, 
c Well, then, forward ! Here I am ! '" * 

There was no time for elaborate preparations or for long- 
drawn-out farewells. Next morning the traveller must 
leave Rome. His kit was simple, he rolled up three or four 
well-worn garments and put them in his little bag, then he 
put in two books, and that was all. One of these books was 
his breviary, the other may still be seen in a convent in 
Madrid, and is largely composed of extracts from the New 
Testament. You will look in vain for any underlinings or 
marginal notes, for before he left Europe Francis seems to 
have learned the rule of the Order that there was to be no 
marking of books. 

* Ribadeneira, Scripta, p. 881, quoted by Brou, Vie de S. Frangois Xavier, 
vol. i. p. 78. 



THE JOURNEY TO LISBON 119 

On the day of his departure he wrote the three following 
memoranda, and left them in charge of the brethren in Rome : 

Ihus. I Fraacis declare this. When His Holiness approves 
of our plans I shall agree to what the Society shall ordain with 
regard to all the constitutions, rules, and manner of life, by 
the assembly of those Fathers in Rome who are able at that time 
to go there : and because His Holiness is sending many of us 
beyond Italy who will not be able then to be present I now 
declare and promise that I will agree to whatever is ordained 
by those who are able to be there, be they two, or be they three, 
or however many they be. I declare and promise to agree with 
all that they decide. Written in Rome in the year 1540, on the 
15th of March. FRANCISCO. 

Also I Francis declare and affirm that, in no way persuaded 
by man, I judge that he who ought to be elected as the Superior 
in our Company, and to whom we must all show obedience, 
seems to me, as I judge by the voice of my conscience, our old 
and true Father Don Ignatio, who brought us all together with 
so much labour, and who, still not without labour, knows best 
how to keep us, rule us, and lead us on to better things, for he 
knows us all. And after his death, according to the counsel of 
my inmost soul, and as I should declare if I were about to die, 
I say that the Father, Master Peter Faber, should be chosen ; 
and here God is my Witness that I speak no other than what I 
think, and to witness this, I sign it with my own hand. 

Written in Rome in the year 1540, the 15th of March. 

FRANCISCO. 

And so also, when the Company shall have met and have 
chosen a Superior, I Francis promise now for then, perpetual 
obedience, poverty, and chastity : and so, my Father in Christ, 
dearest Lainez, I beseech you in the name of God our Lord that 
in my absence you will offer for me this my will, with my three 
religious vows to the Superior who will be elected. For from 
now, as from that day I promise to keep them, in witness whereof 
I have drawn up this declaration, and now sign it with my own 
hand. 

Written in Rome in the year 1540, on the 15th of March. 

FRANCISCO.* 

Nothing now remained to do but to go to the Vatican to 
receive the Papal blessing, and to bid his friends, and above 

* Mon. Xav., vol.i. pp. 812-14. 



120 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

all Loyola, a long farewell. These two were never to meet 
again. Of that hour we have no record ; but he may well 
have been thinking of this moment when years afterwards 
he wrote those words : 

" It may be easy to understand the Latin,* and the general 
meaning of this saying of the Lord, but when dangers arise, 
where the life about which you wish to decide will probably 
be lost, and when, in order to prepare yourself to decide to 
lose your life for God's sake that you may find it in Him, you 
get down to details, everything else, even this clear Latin, 
begins to get hazy. And in such a case, however learned 
you may be, you can understand nothing, unless God, in 
His infinite mercy, makes your particular case plain.' 



He had entered the capital in abject poverty, but now, 
though against his will, he had to keep state with the ambas- 
sador, in whose train he travelled. But even thus he found 
ample occasion for service. 

In his journey he gave no less sign of modesty than of sanctity. 
For although he were given to the contemplation of heavenly 
things, yet being not altogether unmindful of hunian, he showed 
himself so courteous unto all, that when he came to the Inn he 
would leave the best chambers and beds to other of his company, 
contenting himself with the worst things. And when the servants 
neglected to look unto their master's horses, or discharge other 
inferior servile offices, he would himself do them all, showing 
himself therein rather a servant indeed, than a companion. 
Yet none was more pleasant in conversation than himself, nor 
more ready in all kinds of courtesies. . . . But, which is hardest 
of all, he kept such a mean in these things, that, tempering 
courtesy with gravity, both his actions and words savoured all 
of sanctity. 

Tursellinus goes on to relate how he talked seriously of 
religious matters with his companions, " and the wholesome 
bitterness of these discourses he always allayed with the 
sweet sauce of many courteous offices." t 

* Whosoever would save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for 
My sake the same shall save it. 

f Mon. Xav. t vol. i. p. 400. See p. 281. 

I Tursellinus, Life, p. 48 ; see also Teixeira, Vita, Mon. Xav., vol. ii.p. 832. 
Teixeira adds that he got his details, which are the same as those of Tursellinus, 
from the secretary of the Ambassador when he afterwards met him in India 
as Secretary of State. 



THE JOURNEY TO LISBON 121 

By way of Loretto they went to Bologna, where Francis had 
preached two years earlier. From there he wrote to Igna- 
tius. This is the second of his existing letters. 

" On Easter Day I got some letters from you with a mail 
which came for the Lord Ambassador, and with them our 
Lord knows what joy and consolation. And since only by 
letters I suppose that we shall see each other in this life, and 
in the other face to face,* with many an embrace, then in this 
little time left us of this life, let us see each other by frequent 
letters. So I will do as you have commanded me about 
writing often, keeping the order of the hijuelas."f 

" I had a long and pleasant talk with the Lord Cardinal 
Ivrea, according to your instructions. He received me very 
kindly, making great offerings to favour us all he could. 
The good old man on my taking leave began to embrace me, 
and I to kiss his hands, and in the middle of the speech I 
made him, I knelt, and in the name of all the Company, I 
kissed his hands. By what he answered me I think he is 
very pleased with our way of doing things. 

" The Lord Ambassador made me so many presents that I 
could not come to an end of writing them. And I don't 
know how I could stand them if I did not think and hold 
almost for certain that in India they may have to be paid 
with no less than life. 

" In Our Lady of Loretto on Palm Sunday I confessed and 
communicated him with many of his household, and in the 
Chapel of Our Lady I said Mass, and the good Ambassador 
arranged that all of his household within the Chapel should 
communicate along with him. The chaplain of the Ambas- 
sador commends himself much to the prayers of all, and has 
given me his hand to go with us to the Indies.t 

Give my greetings to Madona Faustina Ancolina. Tell 



cc 



* " Videtnus . . . per speculum incenigmate : tune autem facie adfaciem " 
(1 Corinthians xiii. 12). Although iheMon.Xav. gives the spelling as fatie, 
it is almost certainly only a copyist's error. The sixteenth-century " t " was 
very similar to the*" c." We may see this in the reproduction of Francis's 
signature ; see Cros, Vie de S. Frangois Xavier, vol. ii. p. xxx, note. 

f The word hijuda means little daughter, also a patch of cloth joined to 
another which is too short. Ignatius had given instructions that if members 
of the Company had anything private to say, apart from the main burden of 
the letter, it was to be put on a separate sheet ; see Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 208, 
note. 

$ He did not keep his promise. 



122 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

her I have said a Mass for her Vicentio and mine, and that 
to-morrow I will say another for her, and that she may be 
sure that I shall never forget her even when I am in the 
Indies. And in my name, Micer Pedro my very dear brother, 
remind her to keep the promise she made me to confess and 
communicate, and that she let me know if she has done it, 
and how often. And if she wishes to please Vicentio, hers 
and mine, tell her in my name to forgive those who killed 
her son, for Vicentio prays much for them in heaven. Here 
in Bologna I am more engaged in hearing confessions than I 
was in St. Louis. 

" Commend me much to all, for truly it is not through 
forgetfulness that I fail to name them. 

" From Bologna the last of March 1540. 

" Your brother and servant in Christ.' 9 * 

From Bologna they went on by Modena and Reggio to 
Parma. There Francis had planned to meet his beloved 
Peter Faber, with whom he had been so closely associated 
throughout his student life, but they missed one another by 
a few days, and they never saw one another again. 

In Gongalvez's MS. there is an account given by a fellow 
traveller of his conversion by Francis during this journey. 

I was an hidalgo, young and rich, and I was out to see the 
world. I visited France, Germany, Italy, and finally I reached 
Rome in 1540. I visited Don Pedro Mascarenhas, the ambas- 
sador of John III., and he asked me to accompany him on his 
return voyage to Portugal. I had many things on my con- 
science, as often happens when a rich youth roams at large in 
strange countries, free from all surveillance. On the way, I 
made the acquaintance of Master Francis, and he showed great 
kindness to me. He sought out my company, and warmed my 
heart by his honest gaiety, as side by side we travelled onwards. 
Gradually, he came to speak of general confession, and persuaded 
me to make it. I made it to Francis himself, and with great 
satisfaction, in a church which we passed by the way. From that 
time I became, thanks to God, another man. It is true that 
Master Francis had a notable gift for impressing the fear of God 
on men's souls : I felt this fear grow within me even as I con- 
fessed. It was then, for the first time in my life, that I under- 
stood what it was to be a Christian.! 

* Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 207. 

f Quoted by Cros, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, vol. i. p. 161. 



THE JOURNEY TO LISBON 123 

During this journey Xavier is said to have saved, on 
different occasions, the lives of three of his fellow travellers. 
The following account of one of these incidents is from 
Tursellinus. 

Afterwards they travelled over the Alps where, not being able 
to take sure footing by reason of the driving of the snow, and the 
craggy rocks and paths, their horses being tired, with no small 
danger to their masters, the ambassador's secretary fell by chance 
from his horse, and was suddenly swallowed up in a huge mass 
of snow. The place was upon a slippery and steep rock, under 
which ran a swift torrent. The greatness of the danger stroke all 
his companions into such a fear that none durst undertake to assist 
him ... so they, being all amazed, stood 'still looking upon one 
another. As they thus stood, on cometh Xavier, and regarding 
another's life more than his own, leapt presently from his horse 
and by main strength drew him up out of the snow and delivered 
him from manifest danger with no small peril to his own life.* 

After crossing the Alps the travellers went through the 
South of France and thence up one of the northern passes 
of the Pyrenees. 

Some of the old biographers tell an elaborate and pathetic 
tale of how the company passed close to the castle of Xavier, 
and the ambassador asked Francis to go and bid farewell 
to his mother. The Saint refused, and thus provided the 
historians with a rapturous passage on his other-worldliness, 
and some readers, at least, with a text for the inhumanity 
of Roman Catholicism. But Francis' mother had been 
dead since 1529, and the old home was long since broken 

up.f 

Nevertheless the folk of these parts still show the spot 
where Francis, they say, paused to look down upon the 
scenes of his early youth, and to say good-bye to his old 
home. And they have given to that place the name of 
the Farewell Rock, la Pena del Adios. 

Nothing, indeed, can be more likely though the sensa- 
tional tale of the biographers is disproved than that on one 

* Tursellinus, Life, p. 51. 

t Teixeira's account, the oldest of all, is very sober, and makes no mention 
of his mother. " Passing through to the kingdom of Navarre very near his 
native place, and his relatives, they could not get him to visit them nor to 
turn aside a little from the road to see them." Vita, Man. Xav., vol. ii. 
p. 833. 



124 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

of these lonely heights above the ancestral keep, the worn- 
out youth, clad in a battered cloak, which contrasted quaintly 
with his handsome mount, drew in the reins, and allowed his 
eyes to linger for a little while on those walls which had 
once held all that was most dear and sacred, whispering, as 
he turned away, tender adieux. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE WORK IN LISBON 

(June, 1540 April, 1541) 

PORTUGAL, when Francis arrived there, was at the height 
of her brief day. She had drunk of the mysterious and 
reviving wine of the Renascence, and her renewed vigour 
had found outlet shut off as she was by Spain from the 
rest of Europe in the only way which was left to her. The 
sea was her open door< Other lands were giving the world 
reformers, artists, poets, scholars ; her greatest gifts were 
Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco da Gama and the Navigator 
Prince. But her glory did not last long. The best of her 
population was pouring out east and west to the new colonies, 
and comparatively few ever came back. If the children of 
the emigrants returned they were often half-caste and of low 
moral and physical stamina. Then the Inquisition was doing 
its deadly work, and the fine Jewish population had been sent 
out of the country. And the best men among those who were 
left at home devoted themselves rather to the Church than 
to their country, with a blind devotion which did Portugal 
small service. 

It has often been said that the early thirties are critical 
years of life. If a sensitive man reaches that age without 
having chosen his path, he is, indeed, apt to find himself in 
a mental and spiritual maelstrom. But Francis Xavier 
came to Lisbon serene and joyful, and the whole town seems 
to have been astonished and captivated by the spectacle 
of one whose life not only recalled the meekness and poverty 
of Jesus, but also reflected something at least of an aspect 
of Him which was still dearer to the Iberian temperament, 
His authority and princeliness. And. it is not to be wondered 
at that those who saw him marvelled. For Francis was 
experiencing in those months the pristine ecstasy of the 
spiritual marriage ; in Paris he had been wooed, and had 
responded to the call, and made his solemn promises, but 
now at last all preparations were completed, and the old 



124 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

of these lonely heights above the ancestral keep, the worn- 
out youth, clad in a battered cloak, which contrasted quaintly 
with his handsome mount, drew in the reins, and allowed his 
eyes to linger for a little while on those walls which had 
once held all that was most dear and sacred, whispering, as 
he turned away, tender adieux. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE WOIIK IN LISBON 

(June, 1540 April, 1541) 

PORTUGAL, when Francis arrived there, was at the height 
of her brief day. She had drunk of the mysterious and 
reviving wine of the Renascence, and her renewed vigour 
had found outlet shut off as she was by Spain from the 
rest of Europe in the only way which was left to her. The 
sea was her open door. Other lands were giving the world 
reformers, artists, poets, scholars ; her greatest gifts were 
Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco da Gama and the Navigator 
Prince. But her glory did not last long. The best of her 
population was pouring out east and west to the new colonies, 
and comparatively few ever came back. If the children of 
the emigrants returned they were often half-caste and of low 
moral and physical stamina. Then the Inquisition was doing 
its deadly work, and the fine Jewish population had been sent 
out of the country. And the best men among those who were 
left at home devoted themselves rather to the Church than 
to their country, with a blind devotion which did Portugal 
small service. 

It has often been said that the early thirties are critical 
years of life. If a sensitive man reaches that age without 
having chosen his path, he is, indeed, apt to find himself in 
a mental and spiritual maelstrom. But Francis Xavier 
came to Lisbon serene and joyful, and the whole town seems 
to have been astonished and captivated by the spectacle 
of one whose life not only recalled the meekness and poverty 
of Jesus, but also reflected something at least of an aspect 
of Him which was still dearer to the Iberian temperament, 
His authority and princeliness. And. it is not to be wondered 
at that those who saw him marvelled. For Francis was 
experiencing in those months the pristine ecstasy of the 
spiritual marriage ; in Paris he had been wooed, and had 
responded to the call, and made his solemn promises, but 
now at last all preparations were completed, and the old 



126 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

life left behind, and now he was dead to all save his life in 
Christ, and the preaching of the Gospel. In all his letters 
of this time, there is no trace of any regret, no wistful turning 
toward the glories he had renounced ; though there is a 
blending, to English eyes most strange, of rapturous love to 
Jesus and serpentine cunning, of evangelical ardour and 
suave urbanity, that perhaps none but a Spaniard could in 
himself contain. 

His inward joy must already have been very real, and the 
new life very satisfying. For in wild spring months on that 
lovely Portuguese coast, in the dazzling and seductive 
environment of the Court, where he was soon persona grata, 
there must have been much to lure and disturb a heart 
not firmly fixed elsewhere. And there, too, he would learn, 
probably for the first time, from the seafaring folk about 
the harbour, and the travellers at the Court, of the terrible 
dangers of a voyage to India. Only a small proportion of 
the ships ever returned to port. And on every ship, and in 
every Eastern town, disease took heavy toll of those who 
escaped shipwreck. But Francis took no account of these 
things, for his treasure was in heaven, and on earth he had 
nothing to lose. 

From the first moment of his arrival he plunged into work. 
A smaller man would complacently have viewed the sacrifice 
he was about to make of himself, and have taken a good 
holiday before embarking. Not so Francis. He was already 
on active service, and henceforth always would be, so long as 
there was within a day's journey of him one soul who did 
not know Christ Jesus. For he was, above all things, an 
evangelist. As the architecture of the Church has ever 
sprung from the minds and hearts of simple laymen, so 
her inner life has always been fostered, not by an esoteric 
hierarchy, but by men of a spirit too Catholic to be ecclesiastic. 
Such were Origen, Augustine, Francis of Assisi, Luther, 
Xavier. Lisbon was stirred because a living evangelist 
had come to her. 

But although Francis had little care for ecclesiastical 
concerns, and spent small time on theology, he was, like most 
great evangelists, an uncompromising dogmatist. His 
evangelical genius taught him that if a man is to preach at 
all he must preach passionately nay, aggressively. We 
cannot, by any means, always agree with his opinions about 



THE WORK IN LISBON 127 

the nature of God, but neither can we quench our admira- 
tion for the impatience with which he bids his converts 
repeat the Credo, and be baptized, and proceed to more 
practical business. There is no doubt he left Lisbon a better 
city than he found it. 

Simon Rodriguez, who had gone up with him to Mont- 
martre, was there to welcome him. Old biographers weave 
a miracle from the story of their meeting, but Francis' 
own words about it throw light on many miracles. " On 
the day I got to Lisbon," he says, " I found Master Simon 
just coming under a fit of ague. My coming was such a 
joy to him, and seeing him such a joy to me, that the two 
joys added expelled the fever. That is a month ago, and it 
has not come back since. He is very well and making much 
fruit." 

The same letter continues : 

" There are many good persons here who long to serve 
our Lord if there were anyone to help them, and to give them 
some Spiritual Exercises to help them to put into practice 
the good which from day to day they put off doing. For, 
however promptly men begin to do the good they know, 
they will find in fact, if they look well into it, that they are 
too late in putting it into practice. This full knowledge 
[given by the Exercises] helps many to awake, and keeps 
them from finding peace where it is not, chiefly those who, 
against all reason, try to lead our Lord whither they desire, 
and do not wish to go whither God our Lord calls them, but 
allow themselves to be guided by their inordinate affections 
rather than by the good desires that are in them. Toward 
such one must have compassion rather than envy, seeing 
they go so uphill, and by so difficult and dangerous a road 
and for payment of such labour come to so hard an end.' 

" Three or four days after our arrival in this city the 
King sent for us, and received us very kindly. He was 
alone with the Queen in a room where we were with them 
more than an hour. He asked many details about our 
manner of life, about the way in which we came to know 
each other and unite, what were our first desires, and of 
our persecutions in Rome.* ... All here are edified that 

* In the summer of 1538 Ignatius and his companions had been accused 
of being fugitive heretics. In November of the same year the " slander ' 
was publicly and formally declared to be false. 



128 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

we carried on the affair to a decision, so much so that it 
seems to them that if it had not been settled as it was, we 
should never have gained any fruit, and in the opinion of 
those here we never did a better thing than carry it to a 
decision and let the truth be seen. The King and Queen 
were delighted to be so well informed about all our affairs. 
At the end of all the talk His Highness called his daughter, 
the Infanta, and his son, the Prince, that we might see them, 
and told us of the sons and daughters whom our Lord had 
given him, both of those who were dead and of those who 
live. And so the King, as well as the Queen, showed us much 
love. 

" That same day on which he talked to us His Highness 
recommended us strongly to confess the young gentiles 
hombres of his Court, for the King has made a rule in his 
Court that all these should confess weekly, and he strongly 
recommended us to look after them. He said to us that if 
the young men know God and serve Him, then when they 
are grown they will form sound judgement, and if they 
turn out as they ought, the humbler people will take example 
from them, and the laymen of the kingdom will be reformed. 
For he holds it for certain that if the nobles are reformed 
the great part of the kingdom will be reformed too. It 
is a matter for wonder and for thanks to our Lord to see 
how zealous for the glory of God the King is, and how 
inclined to all pious and good things ; and all we of the 
Company owe him much for the good will he has to us, both 
for those with you, and for us here. The ambassador told 
me that he had spoken with the King after we had spoken 
with him, and that the King told him he would be delighted 
to have all of us here, even though it cost him part of his 
revenue. 

" A number of the people here that we know are trying to 
keep us back from going to India. It seems to them that 
we will gain more fruit by confession, private conversations, 
spiritual exercises, the ministry of the sacraments, exhorting 
persons to frequent confession and communion and by 
preaching, than if we went to India. ... It is marvellous 
to hear tell of the fruit we may gain in India. Those who 
have been there many years tell us this, because they have 
seen the people well prepared to receive the faith of Christ our 



THE WORK IN LISBON 129 

Lord. They say that if we maintain out there our present 
remoteness from any kind of avarice in our way of living, they 
have no doubt but that in a few years we shall convert two or 
three kingdoms of idolaters to the faith of Christ, when these 
idolaters recognise in us that we seek nothing else but the 
salvation of their souls. . . 

" We are trying hard to find here some clerics who for 
the service of God alone, and for the salvation of souls, will 
go to India with us. It seems to us at present that we 
cannot serve the Lord in anything better than in seeking 
some companions, for if there were even a dozen clerics all 
of one mind and will, we should gain much fruit. We are 
finding some ; a cleric whom we knew in Paris has promised 
to come with us, and live and die with us, and to go out 
with the same aims as we have. We believe that he will 
be very true, for he has given many securities. There is 
another in minor orders who will soon be a cleric and who 
has freely offered, and there is a doctor of medicine, well 
known to us in Paris, who has promised to come with us, 
and to use his art only as he sees it will help him to save 
souls. . . . We always strive to get men to join us who are 
separate from all avarice, and we are not even content 
that they should be separate from avarice, but from all 
appearance of it, to such a degree that none may be able 
to suspect that we seek the temporal more than the 
spiritual. 

" The King said to his confessor, and to a bishop who is 
greatly attached to us, that we ought to preach : we put it 
off for some days, in order to apply ourselves to humble 
affairs, and showed no desire to preach, though all who 
know us desire nothing else. His Highness sent for us one 
day, and after talking for a little said he would be delighted 
if we preached, and so we offered freely to do it, as well to 
obey him as for our hope in Christ our Lord that He would 
favour us and allow us to gain some fruit of souls. We begin 
the Sunday after next, and we shall surely gain some fruit, as 
the people here are well-disposed to us. We pray much to 
our Lord that He may increase their faith who have any hope 
or good opinion of us. And because of the good opinion they 
have of us we trust much in God that if we do not look to 
ourselves but to the faith of those who wish to hear us He 



130 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

will give us savour and grace that we be able also to console 
them and to say whatever is either necessary or useful to the 
salvation of souls. 

" Lisbon, 13th July, 1540, 

" For all of you most dear in the Lord" * 

A few days later, on July 26th, he wrote the following 
letter : 

" To Ignatius Loyola and Peter Codacio, Rome. 
" The grace and love of Christ our Lord be always in our 
help and favour. 

" After having written of everything here at great length 
some things which we had forgotten to write came to 
mind, among which are the following. If the Brief which 
concerns all the Company is despatched, send the copy, for 
the King and those who favour us will be delighted to see 
it, and the decision which the Governor gave in our favour. 
The King asked for the Exercises, and wanted to see them. 
. . . We have got two letters, both very short, one written 
on the 8th of June, and the other on the 1st May. The 
Ambassador would be delighted to get a letter from you. 
Some which you had written and he got on the road coming 
from Rome to Portugal just think, he treasures them ! 
If you are not able to write, arrange that we can show the 
letters Estrada writes, and speak of him (the Ambassador) 
in them. 

" We are going to give the Exercises to two licentiates in 
theology, the one a very famous preacher, and the other a 
tutor of the King's brother, the Infante Don Ennrique, 
and we are making some other persons of quality desire them, 
believing that the more they wish to do them, the more 
they will profit in doing them. ... To see the numbers 
who confess and communicate is a matter of praise to 
God our Lord. 

4 ' See what you think about Francisco de Strada's coming 
to the University of Coimbra, for here what is necessary 
for their studies will not be lacking for him nor for others. 
... In the course of time we will not fail to speak to the 
King about a house for students, and for this we will need 
to know your intention as to its style, and as to who should 
govern it, and the order they ought to have, that they may 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 211 ff. 



THE WORK IN LISBON 131 

grow in spirit rather than in learning so that when we speak to 
the King we may tell him about the way those who study in 
our colleges must live. Of all this write us fully. We see 
no difficulty about building a college here, and the people 
here would be delighted to put us up houses if there were 
anyone to live in them. 

" The bishop, our friend, has told us that the King is not 
quite determined about sending us to India, he thinks we 
should serve our Lord here no less than there. Two bishops 
urged that we ought not to remain here, but go to India, 
thinking that we were bound to convert some kings. 

" We are always at it to find companions, and I believe 
that they will not be wanting, as they keep on turning up. 
If we stay here we shall found some houses, and it will be 
easier to find men who will stay here than go. And if we 
go, and God our Lord give us some years of life, we shall, with 
His help, found some houses among Indians and negroes. 

" If the Brief which concerns all the Company is not 
dispatched arrange that they may give us licence to found 
houses of our profession among unbelievers. Whether we 
shall remain here or go to India, for the love and service of 
God our Lord, write to us the way and order which we ought 
to pursue in organising our Company, and write very fully, for 
you know well what few talents we have, and if you do 
not help us the greater service of God our Lord will suffer for 
want of our knowing how to manage. 

" Lisbon, 26th July, 1540. 

" For all of you. " FRANCISCO." * 

It is possible that when Francis suggests in the above 
letter that it may not be so easy to fill the proposed college 
as to build it, he betrays some of the disappointment which 
he already must have felt in the rather rococo piety of the 
Portuguese Court. While the new Order owed to John III. 
its missions in India, Africa, South America, as well as 
colleges at home, and while Francis had, at first, as we 
have seen, been carried away by this King's full-blown 
enthusiasms, one could not live long in Lisbon and be ignorant 
of the gigantic exploitations which were taking place in the 
new colonies. Xavier soon suspected that a bad conscience 
was, in part at least, the source of John's devotion, and when 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 219. 

12 



132 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

this became, in India, quite plain to him, he was at no pains 
to express what he thought. 

Meanwhile the Saint was now, as always, equally at home 
in palace or pot-house, dining with the King, or binding up 
some wretched beggar's sores. Although they were offered 
rooms at the Court, he and Rodriguez lodged in the hospital, 
where they spent much of their time. They began by 
begging their food in the streets, although the King offered 
them supplies from his table. But this begging interfered 
with their other work, and they soon gave it up save twice 
a week to keep them humble and accepted what the King 
sent. Of these meals, we are told, they ate but a small 
portion, and gave the rest to the patients at the hospital.* 

At the Court Francis' class for pages and their friends, 
begun by the special request of the King, did livelier work 
than perhaps John had intended, for it turned some of the 
young courtiers into monks, and others into missionaries. 
Of this work we will hear more from Francis himself in one 
of his letters. 

About this time the Saint's uncle, the Doctor of Navarre, 
began a correspondence with his nephew. The Doctor was 
now a professor at the University of Coimbra, and he begged 
Francis to come and visit him, since they were so near one 
another. He also wrote to King John, promising to deliver 
two extra courses of lectures if the Royal approval were 
given for his nephew to come to see him. Francis' replies 
to this invitation reveal a singular mingling of deep and 
simple affection towards his uncle, with priestly admo- 
nitions and warnings. These letters show that he really 
wished and meant to see his relatives before leaving for 
India, and so contradict all that is implied of his nature 
in the story of his refusing to go to see his mother, though 
passing near her home. That story was invented to exhibit 
his holiness, but has often been read as betraying his heart- 
lessness, and even if we had not had proof that his mother 
was dead at the time he is said to have passed her by, these 
letters would have made us doubt the tale. " May it please 
God . . .," he says,t " that in this life we may see each other 
before my companions and I depart for India : and then 

* Polanco, torn. i. p. 87 if., quoted by Brou, Vie. de S. Francois Xavier, 
vol. i. p. 91. 

f Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 224. 



THE WORK IN LISBON 133 

I shall be able to give you the whole story of what you ask 
me in your letters." 

A little later he writes again to his kinsman : 

" My soul received such joy and comfort with your letter 
of the 25th October that nothing but the sight of you, longed 
by me for so many days, could have given me more rest. . . . 
I do not pity you as I would if I thought that you did not 
use that very ample talent which Christ our Lord gave you, 
as a faithful servant, who holds for certain that the reward 
of the toil will be greater than the fatigue involved. For 
then he will be made ruler over many things who has been 
faithful over a few things." . . . 

" I shall write to the Prior of Roncesvalles, as you command 
... as for the rest, I wait till we see each other, which will 
be when you least think ; for the love which you show me 
in your letters obliges me to be obedient to you in this " 
(i.e., in arranging that they should meet). " I say indeed 
nothing of the love that links me to you, the Lord, who alone 
searches out the innermost secrets of both of us, knows how dear 
you are to me. Farewell, illustrious Doctor, and love me as 
you are wont." * 

During the time when Francis was in Lisbon, there was a 
great fracas going on between the Vatican and the Portu- 
guese Court, as to the conduct of the Inquisition. Our 
Saint, instead of entering into the dispute, visited the victims 
who crowded the prisons, and, though he gave them the 
Spiritual Exercises of the First Week, which, as the reader 
may remember, are largely occupied with meditations on 
Heaven and Hell, he seems to have cheered and encouraged 
them marvellously. We find him writing : " Numbers of 
them tell us that God has done them great favour in bringing 
them to the knowledge of many things necessary for the 
salvation of their souls." t 

Amazing spectacle ! If Xavier had been a worldly-minded 
priest, eager for the promotion which would bring greater 
opportunities for ease and self-indulgence, one could easily 
imagine his visiting those cells with complacency, and 
admonishing the prisoners to think on their sins. But that 
Francis, the tender-hearted, the sensitive, the pitiful, should 
go there, day after day, with no word, as far as we know, of 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 234. t Ibid-, vol. i. p. 232. 



184 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

protest against the tyrants, how do we account for this ? 
How did he dare to bid the victims think on their sins, and 
moreover, how did he win their love and gratitude for 
having done so ? How could he bid them rejoice that 
they were cast into prison ? He had, indeed, a different 
sense of proportion from most of us, and did not use his 
powers along the average lines. One of the first conditions 
of the development of genius is specialisation, and the 
genius of Francis had to specialise in its own ways. He had 
faith in the Church. He was a good Roman Catholic. 
Therefore, it followed that he believed that there were 
those who were inspired by God to arrange ecclesiastical 
affairs, persecutions, and the rest. That was not his affair. 
His affair was to bring outsiders into the Fold, for that he 
must answer before his Church and before God, and if the 
Church called a man a heretic, it was not for him to argue 
with the Church, but to give the man more light. After all 
no doubt they were heretics, the Church was right enough 
there. And the kindest as well as most consistent thing, 
according to her lights, which the Roman Catholic Church 
can do to heretics is to cleanse them of their heresy, whatever 
the gruesome cost may be. But we can imagine how Francis 
would rejoice and sing, when he was brought into contact 
with those unhappy creatures, that he happened to have 
been ordained not to hurt but to heal, not to torture their 
bodies, but to comfort their souls. There is nearly always 
peace in one's own point of view. 

Later on, as we shall see, in India, a very different side of 
his character appeared. There, emancipated from the 
immediate authority of the Church, his personal sense of 
justice and of responsibility for the administration of justice 
burst forth again and again in fiery splendour. And it was 
nothing less than his passion for justice which led him, near 
the end, to make the fatal mistake of asking for the Inquisition 
in India. But of that more anon. 

A few months later, on September 27th, 1540, by the Bull 
Regimini Militantis Ecclesice, the full text of which we have 
already seen,* Pope Paul III. formally established the Society 
of Jesus as a religious Order. The text of the Bull was not 
actually published until April, 1541, just after Francis had 
left for India. 

* See p. 111. 



THE WORK IN LISBON 135 

On March 18th he wrote two farewell letters to his friends 
in Rome. The first is addressed to Ignatius Loyola and 
John Corduri, and we give it almost in full : 

" We have your letters, which we were longing for. The joy 
they gave our souls was as great as our thankfulness for them, 
for they told us both of the good health of all the Company, 
and of the holy and pious occupations of you all, in building 
spiritual as well as material houses, so that the living and 
those to come, having the needful means for working in the 
vineyard of the Lord, may be able to carry on what is begun 
in the service of God our Lord. May it please the Lord that 
to us also, absent in the body, though never more present in the 
spirit than now, He may give His holy grace to imitate you, 
seeing that you showed to us the way to come to Christ our 
Lord. 

"As to things here, I may tell you that our way of pro- 
ceeding pleases the King, for he sees the spiritual harvest, 
and is also hopeful that it would be greater if there were 
more [workers]. So he is thinking of founding a college and 
a house for us, that is, for the Company of Jesus. Three 
men are to stay here to build them, Master Simon [Rodriguez], 
Master Gonzalo, and another priest learned in canon law. 
Many others are being discovered who think of entering the 
Company. The King has taken the making of these houses 
very much to heart, and sincerely. Always, when we have 
visited him, he has spoken to us about it without our ever 
having spoken to him, neither ourselves nor by third parties, 
but he has been moved to wish to build them by his sheer 
and pure goodwill. He will put up the college this summer in 
the University of Coimbra, and the houses, I think, in the city 
of Evora. I believe he is going to write to His Holiness to 
send him some, or one, of the Company to help Master Simon 
for these beginnings. The King loves our Company, and 
desires its increase like one of ourselves, and solely for the 
love and honour of God our Lord. He puts us under an 
obligation, /or God's sake, to be his perpetual servants. . . . 

" Micer Paulo [Camerino], and another, a Portuguese 
[Francisco Mansillas], and I leave this week for India. . . . 

" The King is sending us away loaded with favours. He 
has commended us warmly to the Viceroy * who goes to 

* Xavier makes a mistake in referring to Sousa as a Viceroy ; there was no 
Viceroy at this time, and Sousa was only a Governor. 



136 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. 

India this year. We go in his ship, and he shows us much 
love, so much so that he does not wish anybody but himself 
to be concerned with our embarkation and the things needed 
at sea, and he has taken charge of providing everything, 
even to having us at his table. 

" I send you these details just that you may understand 
how much fruit we may gain among those heathen kings 
through the great credit enjoyed by a Viceroy in these parts. 

" The Viceroy who goes this year has been there many 
years. He is a very fine man. He has a good name in the 
Court here, and is beloved by all in India. He told me the 
other day that in an island of India, where there are no 
Moors or Jews, but only heathen, we are sure to gain a great 
harvest, and he sees no difficulty in our making the king of 
that island and all his kingdom Christian. 

"... By the love and service of God our Lord we pray you 
to write next March when the ships leave Portugal for India. 
Tell us what, in your opinion, ought to be our method with 
the unbelievers. Although experience will teach us partly 
how we ought to go about it, yet for the rest we hope in God 
our Lord that it will please His Divine Majesty to make us to 
know through you the best way in which to serve Him. He 
has done so until now, but we are afraid of what often happens, 
and has been the fate of so many. By carelessness, or by 
not being willing to ask others and take advice from them, 
they are denied many things by God. . . . So we pray you. 
Fathers, and beseech you again and again in the Lord by 
that friendship which has so united us in Christ Jesus, write 
and tell us how you think we ought to proceed. What 
counsels have you ? What means shall we use for the 
better service of God our Lord ? We do wish to have the will 
of Christ our Lord made clear to us through you. Again we 
ask you have us in your prayers beyond the usual remem- 
brance. This long voyage, and the new dealing with heathen, 
and our ignorance, ask for much more favour than usual. 

" From India, with the first ships that leave, we shall write 
fully, and tell you all about everything. The King said to 
me when I took my leave that I was to write very fully for 
the love of our Lord about the opportunity there is there 
for the conversion of those poor souls. He takes their 
misery hard, and was very anxious that their Creator and 
Redeemer might not be perpetually shamed by the creatures 



THE WORK IN LISBON 137 

made in His image and likeness, and bought with such a 
price. Such is the zeal of His Highness for the honour of 
Christ our Lord and the salvation of his neighbours . . . that I 
could not believe what I have seen if I were not an eye- 
witness. . . . 

" Let me tell you that this court is greatly reformed. So 
much so that it is more like a religious house than a court. 
It is a matter for thanks and praise to God that so many 
make their confession and take communion every week 
without fail. We are so engaged with confessions, that if 
our numbers were doubled, there would still be penitents. 
We are engaged the whole day and part of the night, and this 
with courtiers alone without others. When we were in 
Almerin those who came to do business at the Court were 
astonished to see the multitude who communicated every 
Sunday and feast day. Seeing the good example of the 
courtiers they did the same. So that if there were many of 
us, there would be no one with business who would not search 
to do business with God before doing it with the King. We 
have no time for preaching on account of the number of 
confessions, as we judge it a better service to our Lord to be 
taken up with confessing than with preaching. There are 
plenty of preachers in this Court, so we have given it up. 

" There is nothing else to tell you but when we are to embark. 
In concluding, we pray Christ our Lord to give us grace to see 
each other, and to bring us together in the other life bodily. 
For in this life I do not know if we. shall see each other again, 
both because of the great distance from Rome to India, and 
because of the great harvest, which is there without going 
to seek it elsewhere. And let the first (of us) who goes to the 
other life, and does not find his brother whom he loves in the 
Lord, pray Christ our Lord to join us all there in His glory. 

" Lisbon, 18th March, 1541. 

" For all of you beloved in the Lord, 

" FRANCISCO DE XAVIER." * 

The next letter to Jay and Lainez, sent along with the 
previous one, is of a more personal and confidential character, 
and reflects not a little of Loyola's discretion and careful 
sagacity. 

"... Don't neglect to write to Don Pedro Mascarenhas, 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 237 seq. 



138 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

for he gets more pleasure and comfort from your letters than 
I can express. I assure you that he loves you much in the Lord, 
he keeps your letters carefully, and reads them often, and 
not without great comfort and joy of soul. Seeing how much 
he is yours, I feel bound to be entirely his all the days of my 
life. It seems to us here, unless you have a better plan, that 
it would be useful if you wrote to the King, thanking him for 
the College and House which he means to build for the 
Company, for here they think a lot of compliments, and I 
know by what Don Pedro has told him about you, that the 
King would be pleased with a letter from you. You could 
say in the letter how we write to you about the College and 
House which he means to build in the name of the Company. 
This, too, will be useful in getting on toward putting them up, 
and I know that a letter will be seen by many here. 

" As to Francisco Mansillas, I wish you to know that he 
has no orders. There is a bishop in India ; we hope in God 
that it will be possible to have him ordained there. The 
good man has a larger share of zeal and goodness and great 
simplicity than of learning. If Don Paulo [Camerino], with 
his wide learning, does not go with him, we shall be in a 
quandary about ordaining him there in India if God our Lord 
does not help us. He is very anxious, that if by chance they 
should not ordain him there, you should send him a dispen- 
sation so that extra tempora in three feasts* it might be possible 
to ordain him ad titulum of voluntary poverty, and most abound- 
ing simplicity, and his great goodness and holy simplicity may 
make up what he does not reach by learning. ... 

" From India we shall write at great length, when we have 
had experience of things there. The Viceroy's favour will 
do much to help us, for he has great credit with those kings 
who keep the peace with the King of Portugal. . . . 

" When you write to us to India, write us by name of 
everyone, since it has to be only once a year. And write 
at great length, so that we shall have what will take us eight 
days to read. And we shall do the same. 



Some of those biographers who make his life a peg upon 
which to hang their ragings against Roman Catholicism talk 
of the gorgeous state in which Xavier departed for the East, 

* The sub-diaconate, diaconate, and priesthood are usually conferred on 
three different days. 
f Mon. Xav., vol. i, p. 243. 



THE WORK IN LISBON 139 

and contrast his journey with that of good Protestant mission- 
aries to-day. Spleen and ignorance are the parents of this 
kind of eloquence. The oldest and probably the most 
authentic account of his send-off is that of Goncalvez.* 

When the time of departure was near John III. commanded 
Don Antonio de Ataide, the Count of Castanheira, to find out 
from Master Francis the things which he would need during the 
voyage, and procure them for him. All that the Count could do 
was to get the Father to accept, for himself and his companions, 
a rug of coarse wool, as a protection against the cold weather at 
the Cape of Good Hope, and several religious books which were 
not obtainable in India. He would accept no provisions of food. 
Still less would he accept a servant which Don Antonio offered 
him. " Your position demands it," the Count said to him, 
" you can't wash your own linen, nor busy yourself over the 
stock-pot." To this, with a grave and modest air, Francis 
made answer, " Sir, this care for an imaginary dignity, this ' 
anxiety to fulfil unreal obligations, has put Christianity into 
the deplorable state in which we now see it. As for me, I mean 
to wash my own clothes, and watch my own soup-pot, and look 
after other people's as well, and by doing these things I hope I 
shall not lose any authority." 

The Count remained much struck with these words ; often later 
on he recalled them, and would add, " Entrusted with providing 
for the passengers on those ships who were in the service of the 
King, my great trouble was usually with those who asked too much, 
or even took more than they were given, but the hardest task 
I ever had was with Father Francis, when I tried to persuade 
him not to refuse absolutely everything, but to consent to accept 
some small gift from the King." 

The departure of the ships for the East was at that time 
one of the great events of the year in Lisbon. A small 
proportion of those who went away ever returned, but those 
who did often came laden with fabulous wealth, and full of 
wonderful tales of the new lands. Before the travellers 
embarked, they used to meet in the Church of Our Lady of 
Nazareth, where they were publicly commended to the care 
of God. And all the year round, in the convents near by, 
they chanted the Mass of the Angels for those at sea. The 
place of embarkation was known as the Place of Tears. 

There is a tradition in Lisbon that Francis, before going 
on board the ship, preached to the crowds that had come to 

* Quoted by Cros, Vie de S. Francois Xavicr, vol. i. p. 188. 



140 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

bid him farewell. A movable pulpit, it is said, was brought 
from an adjoining monastery, and the Place of Tears rang 
with the cheerful adieux of the most joyful of saints, the 
gayest of missionaries. 

This man was off to preach the Gospel, because he could 
not for an hour keep the good news to himself, nor even to 
Europe, now that the opportunity had come to go farther 
afield. 

Many missionaries have sober faces, and speak often of 
taking up the Cross, and setting their faces steadfastly to 
go to Jerusalem. Xavier, because One had gone there 
already, could see no more darkness in that direction, and 
to him the Cross which a human back can bear was so small 
that other Cross in view that he did not talk much of it. 
Yet, like all the gayest souls, he had known well the taste 
of tears. From his boyhood on he had quitted the easier 
and more obvious battlefields, and sought the harder. He 
had left the knightly company of his brothers and cousins, 
and become a poor student in Paris ; after eleven years of 
hard study and teaching, he had found the Church waiting 
for him with open doors, and the road to fame free before 
him ; but instead of accepting a canonry, he had gone on 
^foot to Venice the Swanwick of the first Jesuits and from 
that time on to now, and it was to be the same henceforth, 
his life was one steady crescendo of love and devotion to his 
neighbour and his God. He was fastidious and sensitive : 
he spent his spare moments nursing the sick and diseased, 
and visiting those in prison, and reading to them and praying 
with them. He was a lover of books and all lovely things, 
but he had left his Alma Mater, and what she might still 
have given him, far behind. He was a philosopher, and had 
" explicated Aristotle publicly, and not without praise," but 
all that he had now put by. All the superb possibilities, 
social, intellectual, political, ecclesiastical, for which his 
genius had held the key, he was content to see now, hid with 
Christ in God : hid there, too, the still dearer and more 
intimate treasures of family life and love, which few, indeed, 
dare willingly forgo for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake. 
For a man so eager, so ardent, so miraculously sympathetic 
and tender as Francis, this last sacrifice, of which he never 
spoke or wrote, is perhaps the fullest witness of all to the 
largeness and simplicity of his faith. 




DOORWAY OF XAVIER 



CHAPTER X 

FROM LISBON TO GOA 

(April, 1541 May, 1542) 

THE sea route to India had been open to Europeans for less 
than half a century before Francis Xavier sailed for India. 
Until then only an occasional adventurer from the West had 
penetrated the lands of the Orient by other ways than the 
old overland routes from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. 
Pliny speaks of Roman merchants voyaging from Egypt to 
the coasts of Malabar (Barace) in seventy days, their ships 
manned with archers as a protection against pirates, and, 
of course, the Indian Ocean was familiar to the Arab traders 
from immemorial times, but the first voyage to the East 
via the Cape of Good Hope was made by Vasco da Gama 
in 1498.* That intrepid adventurer struck a bigger blow 
at Mohammedan power in the East by that one voyage* 
than did many hundreds of missionaries. It was, indeed, 
a more effective retaliation against the followers of Islam 
for their having closed the overland routes to the Christians, 
than they can possibly have foreseen. Hitherto the afore- 
said Arabs, or Moors as the Portuguese called them, had 
been practically the sole voyagers across the Indian Ocean, 
and the very names of the cities of their merchandise, such 
as Bagdad, Venice, Ormuz, Damascus, still breathe an odour 
of fabulous splendour and wealth. A curious and inte- 
resting characteristic of these sea-traders was that they 
never made any attempts to colonise on the Indian coasts, 
as the Portuguese immediately did. Political ambition 
they had none. Commerce was to them an all-absorbing 
art, loved for her own sake, or for the sake of the voluptuous 
beauty and luxury with which she could surround them. 
This may account for the atmosphere of glamour which still 
hangs over the merchants of the East. Very different 
are our typical Western merchants, and they get rich for 
other and much more complicated reasons. But when the 

* The Cape had first been rounded in 1487 by Bartholomew Diaz. 



142 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Muslim wished to establish himself in India these Arab 
sea-traders did not put themselves at his disposal ; they 
were too much artists, perhaps, to be warriors, and the 
Mohammedan armies had to do without their help, and go 
by land. 

Vasco da Gama had landed near Calicut, and had been 
received by the Emperor of the twelve Rajahs of Malabar, 
or Zamorin, as he was called, with great courtesy and for- 
mality. One piece of information which they brought 
back to Portugal was that all the Indians, except the 
Mohammedans, were Christians, only they were in need of 
teaching. This mistake may have been accounted for by 
an incident which took place on their landing. They were 
taken into a temple to be purified, and found it dedicated 
to a goddess named Mariamma Mari, for short, the natives 
called her. This they at once took for the Virgin Mary, 
and said their prayers to her. 

From the first the Portuguese were unhappy colonisers. 
They did not know the language, took little pains to learn it, 
and the social and religious customs of the East were a con- 
tinual occasion of stumbling to them, while their high-handed 
methods of introducing themselves were certainly an occasion 
of stumbling to India. Further, they came determined to 
oust the Mohammedan traders. This purpose the Moham- 
medans were aware of immediately, and they took full 
advantage of the impression which the ungracious manners 
of da Gama and his friends had made on the natives, to 
maintain their own favour at the cost of that of the new 
competitors. But the deep-rooted instincts of hospitality 
were not easily to be overcome, and the first receptions 
given to the Portuguese were on the whole friendly. 

The second expedition left Portugal in 1500, a fleet of 
thirteen ships, of which only six arrived in India. In spite 
of fighting both with natives and Arabs, and of innumerable 
misfortunes, five of these ships returned to Portugal so 
richly laden that all loss of goods and boats was many times 
covered. This journey is specially notable because of the 
discovery of Cochin harbour, which was far superior to Calicut, 
, and opened upon a richer country. Cabral, the commander 
of this expedition, was able to disillusion the Portuguese at 
home with regard to the " Christianity " of the natives. 

In 1502 da Gama set out again, and by means of brilliant 



FROM LISBON TO GOA 143 

determination and courage, fortified by the most unscru- 
pulous deeds of injustice and robbery, revolting and often 
wholesale acts of cruelty, and artillery far superior to 
anything which either the natives or the Mohammedans 
possessed, Portuguese power in India soon established 
itself all along the western littoral. Impregnable fortresses 
were built in place after place, churches and monasteries 
were put up inside the forts, and priests and soldiers were 
shipped out in the desired proportions. 

In 1510 Albuquerque, then Governor of India, and the 
real founder of the Portuguese Empire in the East, captured 
the island of Goa, and made it the capital of the new colonies. 
Under his brilliant administration some sort of solid success 
was more nearly achieved than at any other time, but his 
policy, although in many ways large and statesmanlike, 
had fatal weaknesses. 

He was like most men of his age, pitiless and cruel, but he had 
a keen love of justice. He kept no doorkeeper, and his door 
was never closed save for a short time when he slept after dinner. 
It was his maxim that, though the Mohammedans had been 
conquered, having once submitted, they should be treated with 
more than even justice, to attach them by love. ... he was 
both sagacious and wily, and he was able to foil Orientals with 
their own weapons. The value of downright honesty in dealing 
with the Eastern peoples had not yet been recognised, and 
Albuquerque's successors, imitating his methods, but not posses- 
sing his abilities, lost heavily in the game of intrigue. He, too, 
had limitations which many of them did not recognise, for though 
he certainly acted on standards of truth and honesty which are 
not now acknowledged, he saw clearly enough the value of both 
of these qualities, and in this very few of his successors followed 
him. " I am known alt over India," he tells the king, " as a 
man of my word. If I send for a Mohammedan from anywhere, 
he comes and demands no security. India, sire, in my time, is 
governed by truth and justice, though it is true the people of 
these parts speak little truth to us, but we must not treat them in 
the same way. ..." He was a man with the true imperial 
instinct the personality the Oriental follows blindly ; clear- 
headed, always accessible, he did his work himself; he might 
inadvertently be unjust, but he never allowed subordinates to rob 
or oppress, he knew his own mind, and he never let his judgment 
be warped by fear or favour.* 

* Whiteway, Rise of Portuguese Power in India, p. 167 ff. 



144 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

He was confronted by immense difficulties, and perhaps 
the considerable measure of his success was due rather to 
the inevitable influence of a powerful and noble character, 
working from hour to hour on the events of each day, than 
to his general policy or statesmanship. 

One of his chief weaknesses of judgment was the small 
respect he showed for the Mohammedans ; although he 
never obeyed the urgent calls of the King to massacre them 
wholesale, yet he never realised that there was plenty of 
room for both Mohammedan and Portuguese under just 
conditions. Again, in the face of the practical insolvency 
of his government, he had no adequate financial policy to 
propose. The enormous loss in ships and cargoes, the 
salaries and extravagances of the officials, the cost of buildings 
and garrisons, had to be met by plunder, prize-ships, sudden 
deals of fortune, or by the whole capital of some ambitious 
and desperate governor. 

Nor was Albuquerque's scheme for maintaining and 
increasing the European population, and manning the navies, 
practical or wise. He encouraged the colonists to marry 
native women, and only saw the racial degeneration which 
that involved when it was too late. He had some scheme 
in his mind to counteract this error, under which all the 
children were to be sent to Portugal for education and 
training, but, of course, this was never carried out. 

Albuquerque was followed by a succession of far inferior 
men, and soon the lurid series of episodes which never 
really had enough of unity or dignity to merit the title of 
government lost even the brilliance and " dash " that, 
from the first, had taken the place of more enduring 
qualities. 

The self-deception on the part of the Portuguese about 
the success of their new conquest was on a vast scale, and 
was apparently devoid of any conscious insincerity. It 
has, indeed, a certain bizarre and lurid grandeur of its own. 
Never were the Cross and the sword more blandly or shame- 
lessly identified than in those days. And if for a moment the 
clouds of conquest and of battle shifted from the sacred 
Symbol, the dizenry of ecclesiastical pomp still hid its glory, 
and put its message to shame. 

The Popes, in far-off Rome, had the vaguest notion 
of what was happening. They poured out indulgences and 



FROM LISBON TO GOA 145 

pardons of every variety to those " who went to India, 
stayed there, returned from there, those who died in the 
fighting there /or the spread oj thejaith." * 

Colossal raiding expeditions set out again and again with 
formal and public episcopal blessing, cheered across the 
harbour bar by the chanting of choristers and the waving of 
sacred banners. Indian temples were desecrated and 
despoiled, and their priests slaughtered, in the name of 
Jesus. Francis Xavier writes enthusiastically of the charm 
and piety of da Sousa, and we know from other reliable 
sources that he used regularly to visit the sick in Goa, 
and that he spent much time and money over charitable 
and " religious " affairs there. One extract from an equally 
reliable historian shows us another side of his character, 
and the two pictures give us a typical impression of 
Portuguese character in those days : 

On this coast between Cochin and Quilon, the Portuguese had 
been settled for over forty years, and they depended upon the 
goodwill of the residents for the supply of merchandise which 
was the bait that drew them to the East. This did not prevent 
da Sousa from leading an expedition to attack the temple of 
" Tebelicare," a few miles inland, which local information 
reported to be full of gold. There were two jangadas attached 
to this temple, but one with almost all the guards had gone to 
the south when the movements of the Portuguese had first 
attracted attention. An offer of 12,000 down failed to turn the 
Governor from his intention, and before nightfall the temple 
was reached. The building was of the common design, surrounded 
by a wall, with a few straw huts outside. The Governor and 
his immediate following went inside the temple and shut the door ; 
those outside the building passed a miserable night enough, a 
prey to every imaginable horror the fall of a shield nearly 
caused a stampede. Inside the Governor and his friends spent 
the time in torturing the Brahmins of the temple, and in digging 
up the floor. It was never known exactly what was found 
a gold patten worth 50 was all that was ever shown but as 
two barrels of matchlock powder were emptied, and the barrels 
passed in, and as afterwards they each required eight slaves in 
relays to carry them, scandalous tongues were busy. When in 
the morning they started on their return journey, a Nair, dressed 
with scrupulous care with all his ornaments, followed by ten or 

* Rehello da Silvas, Corpo Diplomatico Port., quoted by Brou, Vie de 
S. Francois Xavier, vol. i. p. 127. 

K 



146 ST. FRANCISjFXAVIER 

twelve others, flung himself on the Portuguese ranks. It was the 
remaining jangada with the relatives whom he could collect who 
thus tried to wipe out by their deaths the stain upon their honour. 
During the retreat the Portuguese were harassed by the country 
people and suffered a loss of thirty killed and 150 wounded, but 
on the way they sacked another temple, whence was obtained 
some small amount in silver coins to distribute among the 
soldiery.* 

Barros, the official Portuguese historian of the period, 
interprets to the people the teaching of the Church on 
Eastern affairs in the following words : 

It is true that there does exist a common right to all to navigate 
the seas, and in Europe we acknowledge the rights which others 
hold against us, but this right does not extend beyond Europe, 
and, therefore, the Portuguese as lords of the sea, by the strength 
of their fleets, are justified in compelling all Moors and Gentiles 
to take out safe conducts under pain of confiscation and death. 
The Moors and Gentiles are outside the law of Jesus Christ, 
which is the true law that everyone has to keep under pain of 
damnation to eternal fire. If, then, the soul be so condemned, 
what right has the body to the privileges of our laws ? It is 
true they are reasoning beings, and might, if they lived, be con- 
verted to the true faith, but inasmuch as they have not shown 
any desire as yet to accept this, we Christians have no duties 
toward them.t 

The victims of this alien civilisation were in many respects 
not far from the kingdom of God, and in Malabar, at least, 
would quickly have responded to a happier gospel. The 
Hindoo rulers were gentle and tolerant, and had more 
advanced ideas of justice than their conquerors. A Persian 
traveller of the fifteenth century has left us his impressions 
of Calicut : 

Security and justice are so firmly established in this city that 
the most wealthy merchants bring thither from maritime countries 
considerable cargoes, which they unload, and unhesitatingly 
send to the markets and the bazaars, without thinking in the 
meantime of any necessity of checking the account or keeping 
a watch upon the goods. The officers of the custom-house take 
upon themselves the charge of looking after the merchandise, 

* Whiteway, Rise of Portuguese Power in India, p. 284. 
f Quoted by Whiteway, Rise of Portuguese Power in India, p. 21. The 
sentiments here expressed are worthy of most modern daily papers. 



FROM LISBON TO GOA 147 

over which they keep a watch night and day. When a sale is 
effected they make on them a charge of one-fortieth part ; if 
they are not sold they make no charge on them whatsoever.* 

There is no place in all India says Pyard de Laval, writing of 
Calicut] where contentment is more universal than here, both on 
account of the beauty and fertility of the country and of the 
intercourse with the men of all religions who live there in free 
exercise of their own religion. ... It is the busiest and most 
full of traffic and commerce in the whole of India ; it has mer- 
chants from all parts of the world, and of all nations and religions, 
by reason of the liberty and security offered to them there ; for 
the king permits the exercise of every kind of religion. f 

Strange and confusing, indeed, is the tapestry which the 
historians of that period have woven for us. Da Gania 
embarks from Lisbon, the crowd shouting, " To what mad 
enterprises covetousness can lead men ! " while King Manuel, 
with great piety and solemnity, puts a far other interpreta- 
tion on the " mad enterprise " by placing a banner emblazoned 
with the Cross in the hands of the great Admiral. And 
the accusations of the crowd, and the solemn charges of 
the king, have both a certain relevancy. Da Gama sallies 
out from the shadows of his gorgeous banner to torture 
innocent fisher folk ; Albuquerque, the best of all the 
Portuguese governors, cuts off the noses of Arab women ; 
Almeida, another governor, gratuitously tears out the 
eyes of a Nair in a mood of suspicion. Sousa secretly rolls 
his barrels of gold out of the temples ; sailors fling dead 
bodies of their captives into the sea, and then watch the 
shore to extort ransoms from the friends who come to take 
home the corpses ; soldiers kill by torture, or sell into slavery, 
the prisoners whom they cannot ransom. And again and 
again those Indians, whom the Portuguese said they were 
going out to civilise and convert, put their would-be teachers 
to shame. Malik Aiyaz sought for Don Lourenco's body 
on the battlefield, that he might give it honourable burial, 
and wrote to Almeida, the governor, that when the enemy 
was conquered he should be treated as a brother. A poor 
native tribe, suddenly disturbed on their rustic green by 
Portuguese slave-hunters, gave their enemies food and drink, 
and then went off on parole, such of them as could, to gather 

* India in the Fifteenth Century, by Abdu-r-razak, p. 13, quoted by White- 
way, op. tit., p. 26. 

f Pyard de Laval, vol. i. pp. 366 and 402, quoted by Whiteway, p. 27. 

K2 



148 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

together enough money for their ransoms, and brought it 
back at the appointed time as they had promised, when 
they might easily have escaped. But within a few miles 
of these gentle folk were others who tortured the hours of 
darkness with their profane and obscene rites, while by 
daytime their young men hunted for human heads to offer 
to the maidens they courted, and their womenfolk dressed 
human bodies for the oven : beyond the next range of 
hills it was a crime to kill a fly. Upon the edge of this vast 
and mysterious and chaotic continent the Portuguese 
colonists had settled with about as much disturbance as a few 
gnats would make upon an elephant's back. 

But Francis Xavier, as he looked upon the fading coasts of 
Europe for the last time, and turned his face towards the 
sunrising, saw no clouds there, but only eager hands held 
out to receive the things he was taking, and dark eyes full 
of grateful tears. 

The ship in which the new governor sailed, with Xavier 
and his two companions on board, was called the Santiago. 
The immense clumsy vessel, which housed in her dark and 
unhealthy crevices about a thousand souls, had hardly loosed 
her moorings before Francis had become the minister of all. 
There were, indeed, in that motley crowd, many to care 
for, and few to care. Most of them were poor, not a few 
desperate. There was no more reckless gamble open to men 
in those days than a voyage to the Orient. They might 
return with a fabulous fortune, they might just as likely 
perish before ever they reached the new lands. Many of 
the travellers went simply because they were unemployed 
and hungry, and this voyage, thanks to the self-interested 
generosity of the Portuguese Government, would provide 
them with maintenance .till they were beyond the help of 
Portugal, and not likely ever to have either health or courage 
to return. Contrasting with these were the sharpest-witted 
merchants of the day, or their representatives, and, lastly, 
there were the real simple lovers of adventure for her own 
wild sake," and with these our Saint had probably more in 
common than with any of the others. For all saints love the 
spirit of adventure. Are they not themselves the greatest 
adventurers of all ? 

Since Vasco da Gama had embarked in 1497, the conditions 
of travelling had not much improved, although the expedition 



FROM LISBON TO GOA 149 

had now become an annual one, and consisted always, at 
the start at least, of a goodly number of ships. This little 
fleet of five was probably the smallest that had ever set 
out. The dangers and discomforts of the expedition were 
legion. Except for the richer travellers, there were no 
cabins, no sleeping accommodation, no shelters of any kind 
at all ; and the few cabins which did exist had about as much 
space and ventilation as coffins. The food was scarce, 
and soon much of it became bad. The water was scarcer 
still, and was presently so putrid that one historian tells 
that it could only be drunk in the dark, because of the 
numbers of distracting creatures in it. Another writer 
describes how the passengers put a handkerchief across the 
mouth before drinking, in order to catch the filth. Disease 
was, of course, rampant, and there was little provision made 
for its prevention or cure, or even amelioration. There was 
one official box of medicine, which in a few days was empty. 
Added to these perils and sufferings within were the terrors 
of the uncharted seas. Little was known of the times or 
regions of storms or calms, and the ships were unfitted to 
combat even with what was known. 

The old chronicler Valignano draws a pitiful picture of the 
gay and ignorant travellers setting out on this journey, 
bound to be so terrible even at the best, as if they were going 
for a day's pleasure trip on the Tagus ; their only raiment 
the shirts on their backs, their luggage just what they carried 
in their hands a couple of rolls of bread, a cheese, and 
perhaps a little marmalade. 

Of the ships that left Portugal between 1497 and 1579, 
90 per cent, returned in safety. A far larger number were 
lost in the next forty years, when the ships were bigger and 
less navigable, and never lasted more than two or three 
voyages at best. The Portuguese had no natural gifts of 
seamanship, and Couto, the Portuguese historian, who went 
out to India in 1556, writes : 

Both the Dutch and the English, the very first time they went 
there [i.e., Surat River] found anchorages between shoals and 
banks where they stay as securely as if they were at home from 
our fleet, which cannot injure them. Our fleets which go in and 
out every day know of them (the shoals) what the English have 
taught us.* 

* Couto, Decadas, vol. ix. pp. 24 and 25, quoted by Whiteway, p. 42. 



150 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

On the English ships the taking of the altitudes was a 
much encouraged and popular diversion ; on the Portuguese 
ships it was done by the pilot only, and he did it in secret. 

But it was the conditions on board the ship, more than 
actual shipwreck, which took the heaviest toll of life. Less 
than 60 per cent., on the average, of those who left Portugal 
reached their goal. In 1576 the ship carrying the Viceroy 
and 1,100 men arrived in India with only 200 men alive. 

Xavier, though officially a first-class passenger in the suite 
of the new Governor, did not keep to his quarters. Remem- 
bering, and interpreting in his own matchless way, Loyola's 
counsel to be all things to all men, remembering it so well, 
doubtless, because the words echoed the deepest counsel 
of his own heart, he was immediately ship's doctor, steward, 
nurse, evangelist, playmate, tutor, cook, in swift and 
bewildering succession. Of course, it took a man of genius 
to do this as he did it, but the sincerity and unselfishness, 
nay, more, the rapture of personal devotion to Jesus with which 
this tour de force was carried through, earned for him on the 
spot the title of Saint a title so often only acquired through 
the gracious or even flattering hand of tradition. A ship's 
boy who was on board used afterwards in India to tell how 
this amazing man used to occupy himself in doing all the 
humblest services possible to the other passengers, how he 
washed their linen for them, and how he gave up his cabin 
to one who was sick, and slept himself on the coil of a rope. 
He appears soon to have become the most popular man 
on board, and to have had an immense influence on those 
around him. First and last he was evangelist. "I let 
things go in at their door, but I take care they come out at 
mine," he is reported to have said, and as he spoke he may 
have been recollecting the words of Loyola, " A good hunter 
of souls ought to pass by many things in silence, as if he 
did not see them ; later, when the will is mastered, he will 
be able to direct the disciple as he please towards virtue." 
" Very plain is it," said Francis Thompson, writing of 
Xavier, in his Life of Loyola, " where he learned his divinely 
unprincipled sleights, his heavenly cunning." He played 
cards with the young rakes on board, and soon became their 
boon companions, and, for the time at least, brought them 
on their knees before the beauty of holiness ; their ribald 
songs died down, and many years later we hear of the 



FROM LISBON TO GOA 151 

hymns still being sung on the Portuguese ships which Francis 
Xavier had them all singing before they passed Madeira. 
A curiously modern trait which we discover at this time 
is his absolute refusal to drink wine. " A priest," he said, 
*' should drink nothing but water ; this beverage does not 
excite evil passions, nor defile speech, nor reveal that which 
should remain hid." 

His place during the journey was at the table of the 
Governor, but he chose rather to eat with the crowd. His 
portion was sent to him from the high table ; he gave away 
all but the most meagre remnant to those who were sick. 
He himself became ill, but, as old Tursellinus puts it, with 
premonitory hints of a very modern point of view, " The 
divine virtue which was in him overcame the weakness of 
his nature, and his noble and constant courage held in the 
troublesome vomiting of his stomach, and so, when he was 
not able to help himself, he failed not to help those who 
were sick." The same writer goes on to give us a vivid 
description of Xavier's life on board ship, which is carefully 
founded on contemporary letters and histories. 

This tedious and laborious navigation, as commonly it happeneth, 
had so extremely worn out the marines and other passengers, 
that now many fell sick in the ships, and their victuals greatly 
increased the same. For they fed continually on salt meats 
and oftentimes on musty biscuits, besides, they had, for the most 
part, no other drink but stinking and corrupted water, which, 
by reason of the nature of the liquor, and small quantity thereof, 
did rather increase than allay the extreme thirst which the salt 
meat caused in them, so that the bad humours of such unwhole- 
some diet being dispersed through their veins engendered in them 
diseases no less gruesome than deadly. For their gums swelled 
after a loathsome manner, breaking out into horrible ulcers, 
and did not only put the sick men to great torment, but also 
(which was most miserable) made them that they could not eat. 
And this contagion, by little and little increasing through their 
grief of mind and want of necessary commodities, began to spread 
itself over the whole multitude, who were much thronged up in 
strait places for want of room . . . so the sick, being destitute both 
of physic and attendance, died not more through the contagious 
diseases than for hunger, which was a worse plague. Besides 
the filth of the ship did most extremely annoy those poor wretches, 
and was far more troublesome and loathsome unto them than 
unto the others who were in health. 



152 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Xavier, therefore, when he saw the ship wherein he sailed full 
of sick persons, calling to mind what he had accustomed himself 
unto at the beginning of his conversion, gave an evident proof 
of his benignity and virtue. That which hastened him on would 
have made another afraid. He saw the hatches of the ship stowed 
not only with sick bodies but also with half-dead : he knew the 
disease to be very infectious, he saw death's grisly look before 
his eyes. Yet for all this, turning fear into charity, and knowing 
it was a kind of martyrdom to hazard his life by such contagion 
for the saving of souls, he resolved to help the said sick as best he 
could, and so he presently began to hear the confessions of those 
who lay a-dying, he cleansed the sick men's bodies, he washed their 
linen, he dressed their meat, minced it small and fed them with 
his own hand. He ministered physic to the weak, he most 
lovingly cheered up those who were sad, and put them that were 
out of heart in hope of recovery both of body and soul.* 

Through ignorance and inexperience on the part of the 
navigators, the ships were becalmed in tropical waters, and 
the accounts of that part of the voyage are just as frightful 
as the tale of the Ancient Mariner, if a trifle less artistic. 
It was many years since there had been such a terrible 
passage. But every horrible circumstance only served 
Xavier as a new occasion of devotion. Camerino supported 
him loyally ; perhaps his other companion hardly rose 
to the occasion, probably he was too ill to do so ; one does 
not know. But it is noticeable that Francis in his own 
letter does not dwell on the terrors of this voyage, and gives 
but a brief account of his own doings. 

At last, after being becalmed for forty days, the wind rose, 
and soon in storm and tempest they swept round the Cape. 
Had it struck old Tursellinus he would, no doubt, have 
drawn a touching picture of the Saint wrapping that one 
coarse woollen rug of his, which he had accepted with such 
reluctance, around some poor shivering invalid, while he 
himself ached with cold. And no doubt the biographer's 
imagination would still have fallen short of the truth. 

From Mozambique, which they reached on September 3rd, 
Francis writes a letter to Loyola. 

" Mozambique. 

" From Lisbon I wrote you on my departure of all that 
happened there. We left on the 7th April, of the year 

* Life, English edition, p. 71 ff. 



FROM LISBON TO GOA 153 

1541. I was sea-sick for two months, and suffered much 
annoyance forty days on the coast of Guinea through great 
calms. The weather was against us, but God our Lord was 
pleased to show us great grace and bring us to an island, 
where we are to the present day. 

" . . . Immediately on our arrival here we took charge of 
the poor sick who came in the armada. My time has been 
spent in confessing them, communicating them, and helping 
them to die well. I made use of those plenary indulgences 
which His Holiness granted me for those parts. Almost all 
died contentedly when they saw how fully I could absolve 
them at the hour of death. Micer Paulo [Camerino] and 
Micer Mansillas occupied themselves with the temporal. All 
of us did everything for the poor, according to our small and 
feeble capacity, engaging ourselves with temporal things as 
well as with spiritual. As for the fruit, God knows about 
that, for He does it all. 

" It is no small comfort to us that at last the Governor 
and all the nobles who have come out in this armada are 
quite convinced that all we do is for God's sake, and that 
we do not seek any human favour. For there were such 
difficulties that in myself I would not have dared to face 
them a single day for all the world. ..." 

These are very vague complainings, but from our knowledge 
of what was happening at the time we can be fairly sure 
of their origins. There was in command of one of the ships 
of this outgoing fleet a son of Vasco da Gama, Alvaro 
d'Ataide. It was his brother who was about to be superseded 
by the new Governor, Sousa, on whose ship Xavier was sailing. 
Suddenly at Mozambique Sousa suspected, with what founda- 
tion it is difficult to say, that Alvaro was sending on word 
to his brother in advance that his rival was about to appear. 
He at once deprived Alvaro of his ship, and kept him a 
prisoner till long after they arrived in India. This was the 
same Alvaro d'Ataide who afterwards treated Xavier so 
cruelly and unfairly on the eve of his last voyage, in 1552. It 
is easy to imagine that his conduct then may have been partly 
at least inspired by his associating Xavier in his mind with 
the Governor Sousa, who had dealt him such a hard knock 
at Mozambique. For we can see by Xavier's letters that 
he was on close and friendly terms with Sousa. Xavier's 



154 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

overflowing admiration for this man shows us how he was 
too easily imposed upon by outward professions of piety. 
For Sousa was in reality a rascal and a scoundrel, and became 
the most notorious of all the Portuguese Governors in 
India. We will hear of him again later. 
The letter continues : 

" We ask you all by the love of our Lord that in your 
prayers and sacrifices you will specially remember to pray 
God for us, since you recognise and know of what poor metal 
we are. 

" One of the things which gives us much comfort and a 
very strong hope that God our Lord will favour us is the full 
knowledge we have of ourselves. We see how we lack all the 
things needful for the duty of declaring the faith of Jesus 
Christ : and since what we do is only to serve God our Lord, 
our hope and confidence keeps growing that God our Lord 
will give us, when the time comes, everything that is necessary 
for His service and glory, in great abundance. . . . 

" During the voyage I preached every Sunday, and here 
in Mozambique as often as I could. ... I would like much 
to go on writing, but at present sickness will not allow it. 
To-day they bled me for the seventh time, and I am middling. 
Praise God. 

" Give my remembrances to all our acquaintances and 
friends. 

" Mozambique, 1st Jan., 1542. 

" FRANCISCO." * 

The King's ships were that year forced to winter in Mozam- 
bique, so late had they been in arriving there. The place 
was known in these days as the Portuguese cemetery a title 
which tells its own tale. 

Just after they had arrived, a young man, one of Xavier's 
fellow passengers, suddenly died. Had he known Jesus 
Christ ? asked Francis. No, he was told. And those 
present were astonished at the sight of him completely 
overcome with sorrow. " But you did not know him," 
they said. " That is what distresses me," he replied. " If 
I had known him I would have taught him. To think," 
he added, " that I should have been in the same ship with 
him all those months and not have told him of Christ ! " 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 247. 



FROM LISBON TO GOA 155 

In Mozambique, as on board ship, his devotion to the 
sick was incessant, and while he nursed and comforted, he 
taught and prayed. He himself was soon attacked by 
fever, but one who saw him * tells how when they tried to 
persuade him to give in he asked for one more night's freedom 
so that he might pass it with a brother who was very ill and 
in need of spiritual help. Next morning they found the 
dying sailor on the Saint's bed, rid of his delirium, and at 
peace with man and God. 

Francis himself was soon at the point of death. A doctor 
who attended him afterwards related f that he was three 
days delirious, but that there was interspersed with his 
ravings, throughout the whole time, a vein of clear and 
coherent talk about things divine. Be that as it may, his 
mundane sanity was soon restored to him, and he was 
hard at work once more. 

Toward the end of February he sailed for India with 
Sousa, leaving his two companions at Mozambique to 
follow on with the next ships from Lisbon. A letter, written 
a little later from Goa, gives, in his own breathless, vivid, 
yet so often inchoate and incoherent style, pretty full accounts 
of this journey, but, as usual, does not dwell on his own good 
works. Of this part of the voyage others have put on record 
that Francis in whatever he did was gentle and full of good- 
ness towards others, but hard and stern with himself, that he 
gave up his bed to the sick, and found for himself a nest within 
the hollow of an anchor cable for pillow, the anchor itself . 
It was a hard resting-place. Yet we may well believe that 
the mystic imagination of the Saint soon wove its own 
dreams and delights about this lovely Christian symbol, and 
that in these dark starlit hours on the open sea he found the 
angels of Hope and Faith ministering to him in unforgettable 
ways. 

The journey from Mozambique to Goa took rather over 
two months. The first pause was at Melinda, then under 
Portuguese suzerainty. Xavier tells in his letter of a con- 
versation he had with a thoughtful Mohammedan there, 
who wished to know if Christianity was declining in 
Europe to the same extent as the faith of Islam was in 

* " Enquiry at Goa," 1556, in Mon. Xav., vol. ii. p. 212. 

f Ibid., vol. ii. p. 188. 

j Teixeira, Vita, Mon. Xav., vol. ii. p. 840. 



156 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Melinda, where out of seventeen mosques only three were 
now in use, and even these were almost empty. Xavier, 
instead of giving him an account of the state of the Church 
in Europe, which at that particular moment would have been 
rather an undertaking, pointed out to him that the state of 
affairs in Melinda was only the natural result which must 
follow on the acceptance of the false teachings of Mahomet. 
He seems to have regarded this man as typical of the more 
thoughtful among the inhabitants. He also tells of another 
who confessed that he had given the Mahdi two more years 
in which he might come to the rescue, failing which he was 
going to renounce the Faith. " It is the fate of infidels and 
of great sinners," Xavier concludes, " to be ill at ease." 

From Melinda they proceeded to the island of Socotra. 
The Saint, as in duty bound, sends home descriptions of the 
island and the people, but we feel that as a letter-writer he 
has hardly yet found himself. 

" From this city of Melinda, coming on our way for India, 
we got to a great island of twenty-five leagues, called 
Socotora (sic), a land shelterless and poor ; and in it is 
grown neither wheat, rice, nor millet ; no wine nor fruit ; it 
is very sterile and dry ; there are a lot of dates ; the bread 
there is made of dates ; there are plenty of cattle, and the 
people live on milk, dates, and meat. It is a windless place. 
The people of this island are Christians in their own opinion ; 
so they regard themselves ; they boast a lot of being Chris- 
tians ; in their names they show it ; they are a very ignorant 
folk ; they can neither read nor write ; they have no books 
nor writings . . . they have churches and crosses and 
lamps. Each place has its caciz, he is like a cleric among us ; 
these cacizes can neither read nor write, and have neither 
books nor writings. They know numbers of prayers by 
heart. They go to church at midnight and in the morning, 
at the hour of vespers, and in the afternoons at the hour of 
compline four times a day. They have no bells, they call 
the people with wooden clappers as we do in Holy Week. 
Even the cacizes do not understand the prayers, for they are 
not in their own language ; I believe they are in Chaldean. 
I wrote down three or four of the prayers that they use. I 
was twice in this island. They are devoted to St. Thomas ; 
they say they are come from the Christians which he made 



FROM LISBON TO GOA 157 

in those parts. In their prayers these cacizes sometimes 
say Aleluya, aleluya; they pronounce it almost as we do. 
They do not baptize, nor do they know what baptism is. 

"... I was at vespers said by a caciz ; he took an hour 
to say them, and never did anything but cense and pray. 
Those cacizes are married, great fasters ; when they fast they 
do not eat fish nor milk nor flesh they would rather die. 
Although there is plenty of fish on the island, they keep 
themselves on dates and herbs. They fast two lents, and 
one is for two months. Those who are not cacizes do not 
enter the church if they are eating meat in these lents, nor 
do the women go there. 

" There was a woman in that place, a Moor, who had two 
small sons : I wished to baptize them, not knowing they were 
of Moorish descent. They went fleeing from me to their 
mother, and told her how I wished to baptize them, and she 
came weeping to me, not to baptize them, for she was a Moor 
and did not wish to be a Christian, still less did she wish her 
children to be so. The native Christians told me certainly 
not to baptize them, even if their mother did wish. This 
was because they did not hold Moors worthy of becoming 
Christians, nor would they consent that they should become 
so. As a people they are very inimical to the Moors." * 

These Christians of Socotra were Assyrian Christians, or 
Nestorians, as their opponents called them. Nestorius was 
Patriarch of Constantinople in A.D. 428. The great theo- 
logical discussion of that hour was as to whether Mary should 
be called Mother of God or Mother of Man. Nestorius then 
said she should be called Mother of Christ, and a tremendous 
controversy followed, culminating in the Council of Ephesus 
in A.D. 431. The site of the Council was possibly an unfor- 
tunate one for Nestorius. It may be that the people there, 
deprived of the worship of Diana, the virgin of Light and Life, 
were not content to call her successor in their hearts by 
any lesser name than that of " Theotokos," the Mother of 
God. That is mere speculation. The immediate cause of 
his condemnation was the sharp practice of his enemy, Cyril 
of Alexandria, who rushed through the business of the 
Council before the friends of Nestorius appeared. When 
they did appear they held a rival Council and condemned 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 254 ff. 



158 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Cyril. The Emperor impartially deposed both. But Cyril, 
through his astute diplomacy, got his own sentence removed. 
Nestorius, condemned and deposed, died in exile. And by 
the end of the fifth century the persecution against him and 
his disciples had begun to bear fruit. Dishonoured in their 
own country, his followers went farther east, and Persia, to 
which Christ's teaching had already penetrated, received 
them. Settling there, they spread out eastward and west- 
ward with all the missionary zeal of believers whose faith has 
been bought and held at a high price. By the thirteenth 
century, before the great persecutions of Tamerlane, they had 
twenty-five bishops scattered throughout Eastern Europe 
and Asia. Most of them were then ignorant of their origin, 
and believed that they were descended from the converts of 
St. Thomas the Apostle, who was supposed to have pene- 
trated far into Asia. To this day they are often referred to 
as the Thomists, or Christians of St. Thomas. 

It is interesting to notice that Xavier says in the above 
letter : " They do not baptize, nor do they know what baptism 
is." It is possible that he may have been mistaken, but his 
other information about them is so accurate that it is more 
likely that they had by that time given up the rite of baptism 
in Socotra. That the sect originally used to baptize is certain, 
for in 1908 Professor Pelliot discovered a very beautiful 
Nestorian baptismal hymn at Sha-Chou in China.* 

The word caciz, which Xavier uses, is a form of the Syrian 
word for priest, and he is quite right when he says he thinks 
the prayers are in Chaldean. The form of worship in Socotra 
must have been very similar, according to this description 
of Xavier's, to that of the other branches of the Nestorian 
Church, both then and now. " They call the people with 
wooden clappers," says Francis. On the Nestorian monu- 
ment in China, erected in 781 A.D., the following words 
occur : " (His ministers) carry the Cross with them as a 
sign. They travel about wherever the sun shines, and try 
to reunite those that are beyond the pale i.e.., those that 
are lost. Striking the wood, they proclaim the Glad Tidings 
of Love and Charity." 

The little picture which Xavier gives us in the above 
letter of the Moorish woman and her Nestorian enemies is a 

* A translation of this hymn is to be found in The Nestorian Monument 
in China, by Professor P. Y. Saeki, London, 1916, p. 66. 



FROM LISBON TO GOA 159 

tragic comment on those last words. These Christians had 
been cruelly persecuted, almost exterminated, by the Moors, 
and the bitter hatred between persecutors and persecuted 
had long ago drowned the message of glad tidings, so that 
now the Striking of the Wood was become nothing more 
than a meaningless noise. The remembrance of what he 
had seen in that island made more than a mere sentimental 
impression on the traveller's mind. He never rested till he 
had sent them further light. In 1549 he writes to Loyola that 
they had four missionaries there. 

The ships left Socotra at the end of January, and reached 
Goa on May 6th, 1542. Francis was thirty-six years old, 
battered and worn with continual hardship and frequent 
fever, but with ardour undiminished and eagerness un- 
bounded. Between him and the horizon of his days there 
lay now but ten brief years, but their brevity was to be 
enriched by a stronger hand than that of time, and this last 
decade of his life was to burn with an imperishable flame. 



CHAPTER XI 

IN PORTUGUESE INDIA 
(1542) 

ALL that Xavier ever saw in perspective in this vivid and 
complicated maze of life was the vineyard of souls. 

Oft when the word is on me to deliver, 
Lifts the illusion and the truth lies bare : 

Desert or throng, the city or the river, 
Melts in a lucid Paradise of air, 

Only like souls I see the folk thereunder, 

Bound who should conquer, slaves who should be kings, 

Hearing their one hope with an empty wonder, 
Sadly contented in a show of things.* 

These lines are as true of Francis Xavier as they are of 
St. Paul. Take, for example, Xavier's first descriptions of 
Goa. They are summary, and quite uninforming. He was 
much too busy, the moment he set foot on the land of his 
evangelic dreams, baptizing and confessing and teaching, 
to play the descriptive traveller and historian. We have 
perhaps a little more leisure than he had God forgive us 
and can pause for a moment to look upon the strange pageant, 
the grotesque and tragic background of the Saint's earliest 
labours in India. Although by no means so imposing a city 
as it became a hundred years later, Goa was already, in the 
middle of the sixteenth century, beginning to make a fine 
Show. So long as four months after his arrival Francis had 
not penetrated the sheep's clothing to the ravenous wolf 
within. 

" It is a city wholly of Christians," he writes, " a sight for 
sore eyes. There is a monastery with a large number of 
Franciscan monks, and a cathedral, very fine, and with 
plenty of canons ; and numerous other churches. One has 
reason to give many thanks to God our Lord that the name 

* F. W. H. Myers, Saint Paul. 



IN PORTUGUESE INDIA 161 

of Christ flourishes so in such distant lands, among so many 
heathen." * 

Descriptive historians of the period call Goa the Venice of 
the East, but the town can only have had the shallowest 
pretensions to that title. Exterior brilliance and even 
splendour were there surely enough, and, as in Venice, the 
colours and contours of East and West were combined and 
interspersed. New churches had been built, and the pagan 
temples had been seized by the Portuguese and their altars 
redecorated with the symbols of the Christian faith. There 
were a Governor's palace, gardens, villas ; wide streets, where 
the richest merchandise of India lay exposed for sale ; market- 
places, where Portuguese adventurers, drunk with their 
sudden wealth, bought for themselves silks and jewels and 
beautiful slave girls. The churches were well attended for 
churchgoing was, then as now, a common form of social 
parade. The favourites of the rich colonists were carried 
there in litters, surrounded by slaves and admirers ; in one 
dim corner the priests performed their unobtrusive tasks, 
while in the centre of the church the riff-raff of Portugal 
in their silken hose and feathered hats (" le Cap de Bonne 
Esperance les avail tons enoblis," says one writer) laughed and 
talked with their latest flames. When the bell rang, and the 
Host was elevated, there was a moment of pious silence, 
hands were raised, " Good Lord, have mercy on us ! " they 
cried, and crossed themselves, as they resumed the broken 
thread of their chatter. 

At the moment of Xavier's arrival the titanic famine to 
which we have already referred was sweeping over the 
Eastern world. The poorer quarters of Goa were a morass 
of destitution. But the hideousness of the contrasted social 
circumstances in so small a space was unnoticed except by 
a few. Still, men and women alike had an inkling of the 
desperate brevity of those hours of sensuous splendour. The 
new colonists demanded a fair exchange of goods. Had 
they not brought the Cross to India? And if they gave 
India a new religion, had they not a right to take from India 
a new morality ? Climate and custom encouraged them ; 
there were no Western wives near enough to be jealous, and 
had not the great Albuquerque encouraged them to mate 

* Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 252. 



162 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

with the native women, and thus loyally provide garrisons 
for the fortresses and navies of their king ? Francis found 
when he came that the Portuguese harem was a common 
institution, and he found a large and pitiful population of 
half-castes, many of them slaves, and all of them ignorant 
and uncared for. These half-castes fraternised with the 
lowest native class, the pariahs, who had nothing to lose by 
coming into contact with strangers. There were not many 
Brahmins in Goa at this time, and the artisan class was 
chiefly composed of Hindoos. The Arabs still retained a large 
part of the trade. This racial and religious confusion, whose 
only tended growth was the desire for gain, bore in itself from 
the first the seeds of decay. 

The whole scene recalls one of those stagnant pools we 
sometimes see in summer-time, seething with grotesque and 
hideous forms, that reek and accumulate, and finally dis- 
appear as the water sinks to mud, and the mud cakes into 
clay. 

There were those in the city who foresaw the inevitable 
doom and called out. In 1552 the judges of Goa sent this 
real cri de caeur to the King of Portugal : 

There is no more any justice in India, neither from the 
viceroy [i.e., Don Alphonse of Noronha] nor from those who are 
supposed to dispense it. They think of nothing but getting 
rich, and that by any means. Sire, we remind you of the death 
of the king of Coulam, and of the king of Pyllor [?], and of cruelties 
such that the credit of the Portuguese is lost. There is not a 
single Moor who has any faith in us. The king of Ceylon has 
been killed, and his treasure seized. The Moors speak of nothing 
else. Sire, we ask you for pity, pity, pity ! Help, sire, help ! 
we are perishing. . . . Destroy this letter. * 

Still more striking than the above letter are the words 
with which Correa, who had come to India in 1512, and had 
been Albuquerque's secretary, concludes, in 1556, his Lendas : 

The present evils are caused by cruelty and cupidity ; the 
prosperity of the early days has turned to public calamity. . . . 
I hoped that my work would have a happy conclusion. It seemed 
to me that some of the ills which I saw growing up would disap- 

* India Office, London, MSS., Portuguese Records, vol. ii., quoted by Brou, 
Vie de S. Frangois Xavier, vol. i. p. 350. I have not been able to trace this 
passage in the numerous Port. Records at the India Office, but that is no doubt 
only due to the fact that the reference given by Brou is insufficient. 



IN PORTUGUESE INDIA 163 

pear in the face of punishment. But . . . here murderers go 
back to the kingdom without the least fear that justice, .either 
human or divine, will punish their crimes or their robbery of 
Christians, Moors, natives, and foreigners. How many offences 
against God and incredible crimes have I seen ! The guilty ones 
would appear before the king, but there was no punishment. . . . 
The evil is that the governors live with nothing to fear ; also 
captains of fortresses, judges, administrators . . . are reckless 
and go to great excesses. ... I have seen those who are deep 
in guilt and clearly condemned arriving in Portugal and being 
honoured there because they came back with great wealth. . . . 
As for the robbers, they give the judges part of the stolen money 
and keep the rest and triumph and have the favours of the court 
just like honest men. 

Rewards are due to those who conquered India at the beginning. 
. . . They have never received anything. They have grown old 
and gone to die in the hospital. 

Francis Xavier was by no means the first genuine evange- 
list to set foot on this continent. Legend has it that it was 
the doubting Apostle who led the way thither. History does 
not countenance that tale. It is only known that Nestorian 
missions flourished as early as the seventh century, and that 
in the thirteenth century, before the overland routes were 
closed by the Turks, Franciscan and Dominican friars had 
penetrated India. 

In 1500 eight Franciscans went out with d' Alvarez Cabal, 
and in 1503 a few Dominicans arrived. Some of these did 
noble work, but the religious situation was an impossible one. 
Only a saint that is to say, only a genius could make any 
impression on Portuguese India in the sixteenth century. It 
is usual to marvel at the meagreness of the results of Xavier' s 
works. For those who know anything of the circumstances 
the amazing thing is, not how little he did, but how much. 
There is a phrase in one of his later letters that gives the 
key to his work : " I must go to open a way." When we * 
discover that he opened many doors, and each at the peril 
of his life and at the price of untold privation and suffering, 
we begin to realise that those who say that he was restless 
and lacking in perseverance and patience have not under- 
stood him. There were more men willing to follow him, and 
to continue the work he inaugurated, than there were men 
capable of opening up new fields and seeking out the waiting 
tribes. 

L2 



164 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

He only stayed in Goa for a few months, although the con- 
dition of that town, had he been called to work there, would 
have given his genius ample scope till the end of his days. 

One man writes in 1547 : 

The population here is corrupt, and one would say that people 
have lost the use of reason. Those who are Christians are so 
solely because of their temporal aims, and very often bad aims 
at that. It cannot be otherwise in any place where slavery is 
the custom. Slaves of Mussulmen or idolaters become Christians 
in order to get emancipated, or to get protection against their 
tyrants ; others turn Christian for the sake of a new hat, or a 
shirt, or some trifle, or to save themselves from hanging or to 
marry a Christian wife.* 

But though Francis was soon to leave Goa, he poured out 
all his strength while he was there, in the tasks he loved. 
His first step was to report himself to the episcopal palace 
and present his official papers the papers announcing his 
privileges and powers as Papal Nuncio, to the Bishop. " I 
will use none of these powers without your authority," he 
said, with a seductive humility which gained for him the 
affection of his bishop from that time forth, f Immediately 
afterwards he went to the Portuguese hospital which stood over 
the harbour, and which was chiefly used to' shelter the stream 
of sick and dying travellers who disembarked from the 
European ships. There he found a lodging, and began to 
nurse the patients and minister to their needs. Teixeira tells 
us that when he was there he used to sleep on the floor at the 
foot of the beds of those who were dangerously ill, so that he 
might reach them quickly if they called.^ 

The awful contrasts of wealth and poverty provoked him 
to go from villa to villa, begging for the lepers and the desti- 
tute and the prisoners, and Gongalvez says he gained much 
help by this means, and that before the end of 1542 the 
city showed some change for the better, thanks to his zeal. 
We imagine that this begging from door to door for those 

* Selectee Indiarum Epistolce, quoted by Brou, Vie de S. Francois Xavier 
vol. i. p. 133. 

f See Tursellinus, Book II., cap. 2. 

J " Such was his charity that it is told of him that commonly he had his 
bed at the foot of the bed of the sick man who was most needy and danger- 
ously ill, so as to be able to help him at night . . . and this we were told by 
D. Lewis de Tayde, Ex- Viceroy of India, who was then Mayordomo of the 
hospital " (Teixeira, Vita, Man. Xav., vol. ii. p. 842). 



IN PORTUGUESE INDIA 165 

in need was not quite the old simple mediaeval proceeding, 
but had already in it something of more modern methods, 
that Xavier made a reasonable and intellectual appeal 
to the richest citizens for large sums of money, and laid 
it out with care and precision on various charities. There 
is much in that isolated poorly-clad figure, with its meek 
celestial gestures, of the spirit with which the primitive 
Italian painters have made us familiar, but there are also 
tones in his voice and hints in his manner, foreshadowing 
Arnold Toynbee or Mrs. Sidney Webb. 

During his first few weeks in India Francis still wore the 
old gown which he had had when he left Europe. Then he 
decided to dress like the native priests, and he begged the 
major-domo of the hospital to supply him with one of those 
cheap sleeveless garments which were worn there by the 
lowest class of native priest. The steward gave him instead 
a handsome coat of silk, but Francis refused to wear it, 
and insisted in getting what he wanted.* His shoes soon 
wore through, and the kindly major-domo, " seeing them to 
be worn out and broken, and the upper leather and soles 
clownishly sewn together, brought him a new payre. But 
he, being everywhere like himself, would by DO means be 
entreated to change his old shoes for new." f The black 
cotton tunic, too, wore quickly through, for it was not often 
still, but Francis paid no heed. At last some of his Portu- 
guese friends stole it away by night, and replaced it by a new 
one. In the morning Francis put on the new one, and wore 
it all day without noticing the change. Then at night his 
friends asked him to supper. Dryden, in his translation of 
Bouhours' Life, quaintly tells what happened : 

" 'Tis perhaps to do honour to our table," said one among them, 
" that you are so Spruce to-day in your new habit ! " 

Then casting his eyes upon his clothes, he was much surprised 
to find himself in so strange an Equipage. At length being made 
sensible of the Prank which they had plaid him, he told them 
smiling that it was no great wonder that this rich cassock, looking 
for a Master in the dark, could not see its way to somebody who 
deserved it better.]. 

It is now that for the first time we hear of his favourite 

* Teixeira, Vita, Mori. Xav., vol. ii. p. 843. 

t Tursellinus, Book II., cap. 2. 

J Bouhours, Life, translated by J. Dryden, p. 741. 



166 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

plan of carrying with him. a little bell, to gather his sheep 
together : 

He went up and down the streets, a little bell in his hand, 
crying, " Faithful Christians, send your boys and girls and slaves 
to the Santa doctrina, for the love of God ! " At this summons, 
a crowd of people of all sorts would gather round, and he would 
put them in rows, and lead them to the Church of the Rosary. 
There all that he did delighted his hearers and the onlookers. 
As he raised his eyes to heaven, he seemed to raise their souls. 
Making the sign of the Cross, he spoke to them in a loud voice, 
with such devotion that the people, and, above all, the children, 
fell into complete sympathy with him. To these he taught 
hymns which contained the holy doctrine, and thus he fixed the 
teaching on their minds. Then, with outstretched arms, he 
intoned a kind of Litany, of which each verse held very briefly 
one point of the teaching of the Church, and that was followed 
by a chanted response, explaining an act of faith. Master 
Francis finished the service by an explanation of an article of 
the Creed, or one of the Commandments. In this explanation 
Master Francis suited his words to the intelligence of the least 
of his listeners, using a kind of Portuguese patois, the only language 
which these folk understood.* 

On September 20th, 1542, the Saint wrote to Ignatius 
and the Fathers at Rome some account of the work in Goa : 



Cl 



Here in Goa I have lodged in the hospital. I confessed 
and communicated the sick who were there. So many came 
to be confessed that if I had been in ten places I should have 
had to confess in them all. After I finished the sick I con- 
fessed in the morning the sound folk who came to seek me, 
and after noon I went to the jail to confess the prisoners. 
... I took a hermitage of Our Lady which was near the 
hospital, and there I began to teach the prayers, Creed and 
Commandments to the boys. Well over three hundred 
often came to the Christian teaching. The Lord Bishop 
ordered that the same should be done in the other churches, 
and so it goes on now, and in this way the service which is done 
to God is greater than many think, . . . On Sundays and 
feast days after dinner I preached in that hermitage of Our 
Lady on an article of the faith to the native Christians. So 
many came that they could not get into the hermitage. After 

* Cros, Vie dc S. Frangois Xavier, vol. i. p. 216, quotes Gonalvez. 



IN PORTUGUESE INDIA 167 

preaching I taught the Paternoster, Ave Maria, Creed and 
Commandments. On Sundays I went out of the city to say 
mass to the sick of St. Lazarus evil (leprosy). . . . 

" Now the Governor is sending me to a district where 
everyone says many Christians ought to be made. I am 
taking three natives with me, two are in deacons' orders. 
They know Portuguese very well. ... I believe that much 
work has got to be done there for God. . . . The district 
where I am going is called the Cape of Comorin. Please God 
our Lord that with the favour and help of your devout 
prayers (God our Lord not looking at my infinite sin), He will 
give me His most holy grace so that there I may serve Him 
well." 

There follows a page, happy and obscure, almost impossible 
to translate. Grammar is flung to the winds. He writes in 
haste, yet his hand lags far behind his thought. He is 
confident that his friends will understand. He turns back to 
the time he left Europe and reviews the inner pilgrimage of 
which the outward journeyings are only a shadow. Faith, 
indeed, 1 sees the Guiding Hand, yet Loneliness cannot 
altogether keep silence. 

" If the labours of so long a voyage, the care of so many 
spiritual illnesses, this life in a land so subject to sins of 
idolatry, and because of the great heat so hard to live in 
if all this is undertaken for Whom it ought to be undertaken, 
it brings great refreshment, and many and great comforts. 
I believe that for those who delight in the Cross of Christ our 
Lord such labours are rest, and the ending of them, or the 
fleeing from them, death. What death is so great as after 
having known Christ to leave Him, and go on living in the 
pursuit of one's own opinions and likings ! There is no toil 
like that ! But what a rest to live dying every day by going 
against our own will, seeking not our own but the things which 
are Christ's. By the love and service of God our Lord, I pray 
you, dearest brothers, write at great length about all of the 
Company, for now I do not hope in this life to see you any 
more face to face, but, at least, darkly, that is, by letter. Do 
not deny me this grace, tho' I am unworthy of it. Remem- 
ber that God our Lord made you worthy, so that I, through 
your great merit and refreshment, may hope and attain. 



168 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

" Write me fully of the methods I ought to use with these 
heathen and Moors where I am now going, for by your means 
I hope that the Lord will teach me to understand how I 
have to do to convert them to His holy faith. . . . Thus by 
the merits of the Holy Mother Church, in whom I have my 
hope, whose living members ye are, I trust in Christ our 
Lord that He will hear me and grant me this grace to use this 
my useless instrument to plant His faith among the heathen. 
If His Majesty makes use of me, great confusion will come 
upon those that are mighty, and increase of strength upon 
those who are weak. And seeing that I, being dust and ashes, 
and even more worthless, am fit to be an eye-witness of the 
need here of workers, I would be perpetual slave to all who 
may wish to come out here to labour in the Lord's great 
vineyard. 

" So I finish, and pray God our Lord that by His mercy 
He may unite us in His holy glory, since for it we were 
created. And may He in this life increase our strength, that 
in all and for all we may serve Him as He commands, and 
may fulfil His holy will. 

" Your useless brother in Christ, 

" FRANCISCO DE XAVIER."* 

On the same day Xavier wrote to Loyola some details about 
the proposed college at Goa. It was to be twice the size of 
the chapel of the Sorbonne, and they had already enough 
money to keep 100 scholars. The funds had been mainly 
supplied by the revenues of the Hindoo temples in the neigh- 
bourhood. (These buildings had, by a royal edict, been 
forcibly taken over by the Portuguese Government and 
converted into Christian churches.) In six years' time, 
Xavier hopes, there will be 300 scholars of all tongues and 
nations. The Governor, the mercurial Da Sousa, is throwing 
himself into the business and proving of great help, and the 
Saint asks that he may have the prayers of the Company in 
Europe. The line along which he suggested these prayers 
should run betrays perhaps a deeper insight into Sousa's 
character than we are apt to give him credit for. " Pray," he 
says, " that God may give him grace to govern this great 
India well, and that he may so use temporal advantages as 
not to lose eternal"^ 

* Mon. Xav., Vol. i. p. 256. f Ibid., vol. i. p. 262. 



IN PORTUGUESE INDIA 169 

Already a beginning has been made with the teaching, 
and Diogo de Borba has a class of 60 native scholars. Xavier 
begs for men of good education and a good preacher to be 
sent out to train the young priests, and he also begs for a 
various assortment of indulgences for the Governor and his 
wife and others. It is singularly disconcerting to hear Francis 
beg for indulgences. What would he himself have done with 
such things ? He must have felt somewhat like an over- 
indulgent godparent ordering toys and sweets for the children 
who " would some day grow out of those childish desires." 

There are some pictures of the Saint at this time, during 
what might be called, for lack of a better name, his leisure 
hours, that we must not altogether pass by. " Where is 
this wonderful Xavier ? " a Spanish newcomer demanded. 
He was pointed out, seated on the sea-front at a gaming table, 
playing cards with a notorious libertine. " That a saint ? 
Why, that's just a priest like the rest ! " But a little later 
Xavier left his companions, and he was followed by the 
grandee's servant, to see where he would go next. This 
servant tracked him to a quiet palm grove, and there he was 
on his knees, his uplifted face lit with a burning ecstasy of 
adoration, lost in joyful communion with God. And from 
other tales of the same kind we know that the notorious 
libertine would leave the gaming-table with some words 
singing in his ears that were not very easy to forget. 

He made many friends among the colonists and was a 
popular guest in their houses. But there always came a day 
when the head of the house, thanks to Francis, grew dis- 
contented with the social irregularity of his mknage, and 
finally, we are told, the Saint himself would administer the 
sacrament of marriage to his chastened host and the most 
worthy female member of his household. So consistently did 
Francis pursue this course in the many houses which he 
visited that the moral tone of the city is said to have altered 
visibly during those summer and autumn months of 1542 : 
this was, of course, not solely due to his own efforts ; his 
energy and enthusiasm shamed the listless local clergy into 
some sort of imitation of his ardour, and a genuine revival 
of morals appears to have taken place. Five years later 
Juan de Beira writes : 

Francis Xavier 's methods are followed here. It is a matter 



170 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. 

of thankfulness to God to see the children twice a day gather 
together to hear and repeat the Christian doctrine. And every 
Saturday the women, and every Sunday the men, spend half an 
hour in the church in pious exercises.* 

But Xavier's duties as Apostolic Nuncio in the largest 
diocese in the world called him farther afield. He did not 
even wait for the two companions of the earlier part of his 
voyage, Camerino and Mansillas, to arrive from Mozambique. 
In the end of September 1542 he set out for Cape Comorin. 

* Sd. Indie. Epist., p. 29, quoted by Brou, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, 
vol. i. p. 171. 



CHAPTER XII 

CAPE COMORIN 

(September, 1542 December, 1544) 

FOE each journey Xavier seems to have allowed himself one 
luxury : the last had been a travelling rug ; this time, in 
addition to some sheets of paper, a few books, and a bit of 
leather to mend his shoes with, he is reported to have carried 
a parasol. He sailed down the whole length of Malabar, and, 
landing somewhere near Cape Comorin, proceeded on foot up 
the Piscarian coast. His only companions were three native 
Christians from Goa. The Fishery coast to the north of 
Comorin is a burning and inhospitable desert. But it was no 
random whim which had drawn Francis Xavier thither. He 
had heard in Goa how eight years ago they had been " con- 
verted," and then forsaken, and pity had brought him to 
their succour. 

The story of the earlier mission is a curious one. This mild 
and harmless race of pearl-fishers had been suffering much at 
the hands of extortionate Arab traders, and had at last been 
goaded into serious warfare with them. The immediate cause 
of the war was the cutting of a Parava's ear by a Moor, a 
deadly affront. While this struggle was at its height, a 
Malabar prince or nobleman, Juan de la Cruz, who had come 
into touch with the Portuguese, and had become a " Chris- 
tian," volunteered to show the Paravas a way out of all 
their troubles. " You must change into Christians," he 
said, " and then the Portuguese will come to your help, 
and you will see no more of these Mussulmans." So a 
deputation was sent up to Cochin, and all turned out as 
Juan de la Cruz had prophesied. The deputation was 
baptized, and a Portuguese fleet and some Franciscan monks 
went off immediately to the rescue. At the first boom of 
the cannon the Arabs fled, and the Franciscans came on 
shore and celebrated the occasion by baptizing twenty 
thousand natives on the spot. 

In this way [concludes Teixeira] from a cut ear our Lord drew 
the salvation of many souls ; for it is His custom and of His 
infinite goodness from our small ills to draw for Himself great 



172 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

goods, and this was the origin and cause of the Christianity and 
conversion of the Fishery coast and Cape Comorin.* 

But the climate and the food were not to the liking of the 
Franciscans, and very soon they left the neophytes if they 
even might merit that title to their fate and to the coming 
of Francis Xavier a few years later. The Government officials 
were more attentive. They sent ships at regular intervals to 
ward off any Arabs who might be threatening to return, and 
for this protection they took handsome payment in pearls. 
The episcopal conscience at Goa, however, was not quite at 
rest about this distant corner of the diocese, and there were 
several young Paravas, at the time Xavier went to the 
Fishery coast, in training in Goa and in Lisbon, who were to 
be sent back later on to tell their fellow countrymen why they 
had been baptized. Meanwhile the hamlets and villages 
along the coast were startled by the visitations of a white man, 
dressed like their own native priests, and carrying in one hand 
a little bundle, and in the other a parasol ; young, fearless, 
gay, singing, as he walked with his three companions, strange 
songs in a strange tongue. Soon he was gathering round him 
all the babies and little children he could find, and sprinkling 
their faces with water and chanting over them some mys- 
terious incantation, as he made the sign of a cross on their 
foreheads. This was what the white men had done eight 
years ago, and since then the Arabs had never come near, so 
the people brought their children to Xavier gladly. 

No missionaries have spent so much time and pains over 
the mystic nay, to them often magical rite of baptism, as 
the early Jesuits. In this they showed their real belief in 
the teaching of their Church, for according to that teaching a 
priest who baptized an infant saved it, in the event of its 
death before it reached maturity, from Limbo. More than 
that, he actually, by the rite, switched it on to powerful 
currents of grace. Francis Xavier baptized to an immense 
and unprecedented extent, but he was far more careful to 
follow up this work, and t6 keep his converts in touch with 
the origins of their faith, than has often been supposed. 

As far as infant baptism was concerned, his untiring and 
indiscriminating zeal was of course perfectly orthodox, but 
the expedition with which he baptized older persons was and 

* Man. Xav., vol. ii. p. 848. 



CAPE COMORIN 173 

this is admitted by the Jesuits themselves * not in keeping 
with the teaching of the primitive Church. In their dis- 
regard for this procedure Francis Xavier and the earlier 
Jesuit missionaries to India stand almost alone. Their 
methods are more akin to those first adopted in the reign of 
Constantine, when heathen converts began to pour swiftly 
into the fold. It was then that the training which had in 
earlier days preceded baptism began to be given after the 
rite. This training was known as discipline, and was 
regarded in itself almost as a sacrament.f 

But there was a certain degree of reasonableness, as 
well as much of danger, in their method. An adult savage 
of a low type would probably learn as much doctrine in a 
fortnight as he would in two years. Was it right, these 
missionaries said, to hold back from him for so long a time 
as two years, or even two months, after he had been moved 
and attracted by the new teaching, the sacramental grace 
which baptism bestowed ? No human teaching, they be- 
lieved, could advance him so much as could the mysterious 
ray from heaven which lighted upon everyone who partook 
of this sacrament. 

There were other reasons for hastening on the ceremony. 
By baptism the native of India became a subject of Por- 
tugal. A sudden break was made in his life, which it was 
very difficult to go back upon. His name was changed, his 
manner of dress, sometimes, perforce, his occupation. Out- 
wardly, at least, he had become a new creature. Hence 
the inward change may have been made more easy, the 
old temptations crippled of some of their power, and, above 
all, the old fears exposed and defeated. For the brief phrase 
" perfect love casteth out fear " is a beautiful summary of the 
effect of Christian teaching upon the heathen mind. In India, 
and especially among the lower castes, the people have always 
been under the spell of spiritual terror. The Eastern mind is 
more sensitive to the Prince of the power of the air and his 
legions than the Western, and often, while we are ignoring 
those powers, the Oriental is constructing a fantastic and 
gruesome system of defences against them. Xavier found 
those primitive Paravas living in a state of perpetual terror, 
haunted and harassed by demons, night and day. He gave 

* See Brou, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, vol. i. p. 135. 
f See A. G. V. Allen, Christian Institutions, p. 409. 



174 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

them a perfunctory enough version of the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ, and a version with many defects. Most fatal of all 
errors, he did not put into their keeping the Gospel writings 
themselves. But one thing he undoubtedly did, he brought 
an immense peace and joy to the generation who knew 
him personally, he came to them like a friendly voice and a 
friendly hand to children lost in a dark night. 

Francis Xavier, of course, knew nothing of Comparative 
Religion, nor had he studied the psychology of the Oriental. 
And for some time, at least, he did not know a word of Tamil. 
But his transcendent faith and imaginative sympathy 
opened up channels of communication between him and his 
fellow creatures that are closed to lesser men. Not that 
he had earned his saintship lightly, or kept the fire of his 
genius burning without effort. The moral and spiritual 
discipline which he had unceasingly imposed upon himself 
since first he had come under the influence of Loyola in Paris 
was the rightful and exacting homage which genius must 
ever pay for its true heritage of saintship. 

His letters refer to his linguistic troubles. Xavier appears 
to have had a great talent for languages, and to have been a 
patient and hard-working student. Many of the old bio- 
graphers assert that he had a miraculous power which allowed 
him to speak in the language of whoever he happened to be 
addressing. There is absolutely no historical justification 
for this assertion. But before he arrived in India he was 
already proficient in at least six or seven languages, and it is 
well known that every new tongue acquired makes the next 
one easier to learn. From Xavier's letters one gradually 
gathers that, like the Portuguese colonists, he used inter- 
preters freely, but that, unlike the colonists, he picked up 
a great deal of the native languages as he went along. It is 
not at all a miraculous thing for a talented linguist to be 
able to converse fairly fluently in a new tongue after living 
in the country for a few weeks, and it is easy to believe that 
Francis, aided by his Latin versatility and subtlety of 
gesture, and by his intense sympathy and splendid imagina- 
tion and well-trained mind, was able to pursue a course which 
accounts for pages both of Roman Catholic credulity and of 
Protestant criticism. 

On the 28th of October the Saint wrote to Loyola from 
Tuticorin : 



CAPE COMORIN 175 

" On our way here we came through some villages where 
the people had become Christians eight years ago. There are 
no Portuguese living there now, as the country is extremely 
sterile and very poor. As they have no one to teach them 
our faith, the Christians of these villages know no more of it 
than to say that they are Christians. They have no one to 
say Mass, still less to teach them the Creed, Pater nosier, 
Ave Maria, or the Commandments. When I arrived in these 
places I baptized all the children who were not baptized, so 
that I baptized a great multitude of infants who could not 
distinguish between their right hand and their left. When I 
came to these places the children would not let me read my 
office nor eat nor sleep, but made me teach them some 
prayers. I began to understand then that of such is the 
kingdom of heaven. As I could not refuse such a holy petition, 
I taught them, beginning with the confession of the Father, 
Son and Holy Spirit, with the Creed, Pater noster, Ave Maria. 
I recognised great gifts in them, and if there were anyone to 
teach them the holy faith, I am very sure that they would be 
good Christians."* 

The sentences about the children are delightful : they would 
neither let him eat nor read his office nor sleep, and so was 
there ever a more charming climax penned ? he began to 
understand that of such is the kingdom of heaven ! 

Between this letter of October 1542 and the next existing 
letter there is an interval of fourteen months, and probably 
Xavier never accomplished so much as in that time, though 
it is impossible to follow all the journeys he made from village 
to village. But when we think of the circumstances under 
which he worked, and when we remember how largely, 
humanly speaking, he was his own master, and how easily he 
might at any moment have made a good excuse for returning 
to easier fields of labour, we know this at least, that these were 
months of unlimited heroism. He travelled continually 
backwards and forwards over a large district, across burning 
sands, on foot, in tropic sunshine or in tropic rain. He had 
no provisions against the countless pestiferous creatures 
that haunted earth and air in those regions. The drinking 
water was drawn from the same wells in which the natives 
washed themselves and all their possessions. The food was 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 273. 



176 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

scarce and monotonous a little rice, a little fish, or, for a 
change, a bowl of soup made with rice and peppercorns, and 
on Sundays a croquette made of rice. As we know, he was 
an abstainer on principle, and in those parts he quenched his 
thirst with sour milk. He took but one meal in the day. During 
this meal, we read, he was always surrounded by a crowd of 
the little children whom he loved so well. Of the details of 
his missionary work his own letters give the best account. 
But of his personal habits or circumstances these letters say 
little. From other letters, and from native testimony, it 
would appear that he usually slept no longer than two or 
three hours each night, and that all the time that was not 
spent in travelling, or in preaching and teaching and bap- 
tising and in works of mercy, was spent in prayer. We may 
say that it is impossible that he slept so little as these his- 
torians say. But perhaps there is a state whether in the 
body or out of the body God knoweth when the servant of 
God is caught up into Paradise and given to feast of the 
heavenly manna to the rest and refreshment of the body as 
well as to the nourishment of the soul. Perhaps in these 
hours of still rapture the unsleeping body may yet mysteriously 
reap the fruits of sleep. God knoweth. 

We cannot tell how long he prayed by night, but by day 
he worked both hard and long. At one of the Enquiries before 
his canonisation a witness who had known him said that at 
Cape Comorin Francis worked hard : he drank no wine, nor 
ate bread ; but when he went to the homes of Portuguese he 
ate and drank what they gave him. His common food was 
this : badly cooked rice and fish badly seasoned, and some- 
times some milk with rice, and a rice dumpling. And 
however tired the Father came home he always had a lesson 
with the boys. 

Another witness on the same occasion says : " All his life 
he was very humble and plain, without any show. And if he 
went to a house and they gave him food he ate ; and if they 
jested with him he jested . . . and when he left he always 
gave some spiritual comfort, "f 

Those simple Paravas had many amazing tales about this 
great teacher who had sojourned with them, who had been so 
like a brother, and yet so like a god. Their attempts to pass 
on their impressions of a life which was, in truth, a sustained 

* Man. Xav., vol. ii. p. 372. 



CAPE COMORIN 177 

miracle, are interesting. A half-blind man describes other 
men as " trees walking," a half -awakened soul describes a 
saint at his prayers as " one raised from the ground." A man 
who is physically dumb conveys his meaning by grotesque 
gestures, a man who is spiritually dumb by strange figures 
of speech. 

The primitive way of picturing a man in whom God dwells 
is to paint him in the act of performing in the material world 
what God does in the spiritual world, to paint him healing 
the sick and raising the dead. These Paravas described 
Francis in those terms, and in doing so they were only 
struggling to express the truth which they so dimly appre- 
hended. The method was not confined to the natives. 
Wherever Xavier went there were simple souls who used this 
language in speaking or writing of him. 

After he had worked for over a year in the pearl-fisheries, 
and had established some sort of system of native supervision, 
Francis left his new converts for a few months and visited 
Goa and Cochin. He took with him to Goa a number of 
young Paravas, to be trained in the new college there. He 
found this college in a flourishing state. Besides a number of 
other priests and teachers, the two companions of the earlier 
part of Xavier's voyage out, Francisco Mansillas and Paulo 
Camerino, were working there. They had arrived in Goa a 
few days after Xavier had gone south. Camerino was fairly 
efficient, perhaps ; Mansillas appears to have been a lovable 
but feckless youth. He was no use in the college, and Xavier 
arranged that he should go back with him to Cape Comorin. 

The visit to Goa was a brief one, full of consultations, 
inspections, reports, and plans for the future. There was a 
letter waiting from Loyola, written two years before, and 
announcing that he had been elected General of the Society 
on April 9th, 1541. 

Already in January 1544, a few weeks after leaving the 
Paravas, we find the Saint on his return voyage, making a 
halt at Cochin. From here the Portuguese ships were about 
to sail for Europe, and Francis paused to write several letters 
for the mail. 

He wrote to the King of Portugal : the letter is lost, but 
it is known to have contained a special appeal for the people 
on the island of Socotra, that they might have the protection 
of the royal fleet against the Moors. He wrote to the Queen, 

M 



178 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

and this letter is lost too. Tursellinus tells us that the Saint 
had remembered how that lady received annually the sum of 
four hundred crowns to buy slippers with, and bethought him 
that some of it might well go to the children of the Fishery 
coast. And while they were saying in Geneva that the boys 
there could give a reason for their faith as well as any doctor 
in the Sorbonne thanks to Calvin and his children's 
catechism Francis Xavier was writing to the Queen of 
Portugal 

so pleasantly and piously, that she could have no better shoes or 
pantoffles to climb to heaven than the children of the Piscarian 
coast, and their instructors. Wherefore, he humbly entreated 
her to bestow her shoes and pantoffles, as a tribute, unto their 
teachers and instructors, thereby to make herself a ladder to 
heaven, for she might be glad of such an occasion.* 

We know that the Queen agreed to this suggestion, possibly 
at the same time making others on her own behalf to the 
royal treasury. For many years the sum was sent out 
annually, and after Xavier's death we find Portuguese 
officers trying to defraud the native churches of this chief 
source of their revenue. 

Besides these two lost letters to the King and Queen of 
Portugal, there is a very long letter written to the Fathers in 
Rome giving a full account of the work in Cape Comorin. 

Viewed in the light of modern missionary methods, 
this letter is deeply interesting. We are accustomed to 
accept, without questioning, some very severe criticisms of 
Xavier's work : this letter is, in some details, antipathetic 
to a Protestant reader, but it proves too that the teaching of 
the great Jesuit missionary was not so misguided as our 
ignorance may have led us to suppose. 

A study of the Report of the World Missionary Conference 
in Edinburgh shows us what an important place the Apostles' 
Creed has occupied, and must occupy, in the work of evan- 
gelisation. Professor MacEwent says : 

In the Conference Reports you will discover an item simple 
but grand, repeated by many missionaries Episcopalian, Baptist, 
Wesleyan, Presbyterian that the statement of faith which they 

* Tursellinus, Book II. cap. 8. 

f Report of the World Missionary Conference, vol. ix. p. 205. 



CAPE COMORIN 179 

find to have most value, and on which they lay most stress, is 
that same Apostles' Creed. In the seventeen centuries that 
have passed since it was shaped, the Holy Spirit has taught the 
Church much. He will teach us more if we listen to His voice, 
but the foundations of the kingdom stand, although the things 
that were shaken have been removed. The central beliefs which 
our missionaries teach were the central beliefs of the men through 
whose mission Christianity first expanded. 

Again we read : 

The choice and arrangement of catechetical subjects may, on 
the whole, follow the example of the ancient Church Bible 
History, Old and New Testament lessons on the life of Christ, 
the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Sacraments.* 

The great Apostolic teachers, from whose midst this Creed 
emerged, were specially fitted, both by outward circumstance 
and by inward inspiration, to present Christianity in a form 
which, by its simplicity and its universality, would appeal to 
East and to West alike. 

Outwardly, by their geographical position, they were in 
touch with the three essential sources of modern civilisation, 
Judea, Greece, Rome, and they were among these peoples 
at the very time when they were undergoing a process of 
fusion. 

Inwardly, the makers of the Apostles' Creed had the 
greatest and, indeed, the only reason for authority. They 
were convinced that they had in themselves no wisdom, that 
they were entirely taught of God, " God hath spoken unto 
us." " This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him," " I that speak 
unto thee am He," " Lo, I am with you alway," " If any 
man speak, speak as it were oracles of God." These men did 
not master a faith, a faith mastered them it was the faith, 
Paul said, in an amazing phrase, " to which ye have been 
delivered." 

And while Calvin was proving to the Romanists in Europe 
that, tested by this Creed, they were not such true children of 
the Church as the Protestants were, Francis Xavier, the 
greatest missionary of the Roman Church, was teaching this 
Creed in all simplicity, far away from the noise and clamour 
of the religious wars. It is but another illustration of the 
truth which is being emphasised to-day as never before, that 
* Report of the World Missionary Conference, vol. ii, p. 60. 

M2 



180 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

it is above all in missionary work that the Church must 
discover the secret of unity. 

" . . . I sought some people who knew both Malabar 
and our language. Then after many meetings and great 
travail we drew up a form of worship. First, the Sign of 
the Cross, acknowledgment of the Three Persons in the 
Godhead. Then the Creed and the Commandments, Our 
Father, Ave Maria, Salve Regina and the General Confession 
from Latin into Malabar. After . having translated them 
into their language and learned them by heart, I went all 
through the place with a bell in my hand, gathering all the 
boys and men that I could, and after having gathered them 
I taught them twice each day ; and in the space of a month 
taught these prayers, arranging so that the boys should 
teach their fathers and mothers and all the household and 
neighbours what they had learned in the school. 

" On Sundays I gather together all the folk, men and women, 
old and young, to say the prayers in their language ; they seem 
very happy, and come with great joy. We begin with the 
Confession of One God, Three in One, with loud voices 
repeating the Creed in Malabar, I saying it first, and then 
they all repeating it. When the Creed is said, I by myself 
go over it again article by article, treating each of the twelve 
separately. I make them see that to be a Christian is 
nothing if it is not to believe firmly and without hesitation 
the Twelve Articles : then, when they confess themselves 
Christians, I ask them concerning each of the Articles if 
they firmly believe it. ... I make them repeat the Creed 
oftener than the other formulas, because only if he believes 
the Twelve Articles can a man call himself a Christian. 

" I teach them the Commandments . . . the Creed, 
and the Our Fathers, and the Ave Marias said, we recite 
the Commandments in the following way : to begin with, 
I say the first Commandment, and all repeat it with me, 
that done we say together, 'Jesus Christ, Son of God, grant 
us grace to love Thee above all else.' When we have asked 
this grace, we all recite Our Father. This done, we say 
' Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, obtain for us grace 
rom Thy Son that we may be able to keep the first Com- 
mandment.' ... In this way we go through the remainder 
of the Commandments. These are the favours which I 



CAPE COMORIN 181 

teach them to ask in prayer, saying to them that if they 
obtain these graces from God, in addition He will grant to 
them all for which they themselves do not know how to 
ask. . . . Those who are about to be baptized say the 
General Confession, then the Creed. At each Article I ask 
them if they believe it firmly, and when they answer yes, 
and when I have explained to them the law of Christ which 
must be kept unto salvation, I baptize them. . . . 

" I hope in God our Lord that the children will be better 
than their fathers, for they show much love and desire 
toward our Law, and toward learning the prayers and 
teaching them. . . . 

"... Crowds come to me, asking me to go to their 
houses to say prayers for their invalids, and the sick have 
come to me themselves in such numbers, that to read a 
portion of the Gospel to them, apart from anything else, 
had fully occupied me, and to teach the children, baptize, 
translate the prayers, answer questions, bury the dead, 
respond to the devotion of those who send for me, and those 
who come to me for help it is an endless occupation. . . . 
I could not reject any of these sacred calls upon me, without 
endangering their faith, yet it became impossible for me to 
satisfy everyone, little jealousies arose, everyone wanted 
me first, so I made use of this expedient : I ordered the 
children who know the prayers to go to the houses of the 
sick, to bring together the whole household and the neigh- 
bours, to repeat with them the Creed, and tell the 'sick to 
believe and they shall be made sound, and then say the other 
prayers. In this way we get them all visited, and the 
Creed, the Commandments, and the Prayers, are taught in 
the houses and in the streets ; and besides, toward the sick, 
through the faith of their households, their neighbours and 
themselves, God our Lord has had great pity, giving to 
them both spiritual and corporal healing. God used much 
mercy towards those who were ill, in leading and constraining 
them through their infirmities into the Faith. 

"... Many are the potential Christians in those parts, 
they lack only those ready to occupy themselves with devout 
and holy things. Often I have had a mind to go to your 
Universities and shout aloud, like a man who has lost his 
senses above all to the university of Paris, and tell in Sor- 
bonne those who have more learning than will to make use 



182 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

of it ; how many souls, through their negligence, fail to go 
to glory and are going to hell. If, while they studied letters, 
they would study too the account which God our Lord 
will ask of them, and of the talent which He has given them, 
many would say : ' Lord, here I am : what wilt Thou have 
me to do? Send me where Thou wilt, if even to India' ... I 
fear that many University students only want, with the aid 
of letters, to gain dignities, benefices, bishoprics, and that 
they only conform to rules because it is necessary, to get 
those posts. It is common to hear a student say, ' I only 
wish to study in order to get a benefice ; that attained, I 
will serve God.' So their calling in life is determined by 
their disordered inclination : they fear God's will may not 
be their will, and refuse to leave their calling to Him. . . . 
So great is the number of those who have turned to the 
Christian faith that often it happens to me to have my arms 
tired with baptizing, nor have I any voice left, so often I 
have repeated in their language the Creed, the Command- 
ments and Prayers, and have taught also in their language 
what it is to be a Christian, the meaning of heaven and hell 
. . . chiefly I repeat the Creed and the Commandments. . . ." 

"... Among the heathen here are certain men called 
Bragmens. It is they who maintain all the heathenism. 
They have charge of the idol-houses. They are the most 
perverse people in the world. They make one understand 
the Psalm, 4 Deliver me from an ungodly nation and the 
deceitful and unjust man."* They never tell the truth ; 
they are always thinking how to lie subtilly aiid deceive the 
simple and ignorant poor^ saying the idols order them to 
bring an offering of various things the Bragmens are simply 
pretending ^-and these are the things they need for the 
upkeep of wives, children and houses. They make the 
simple people believe that the idols eat, and many of these^ 
before they dine or sup make an offering of so much money 
for the idol. They eat twice daily, with a great palaver of 
kettledrums, and make the poor creatures think that the 
idols are eating. Rather than want, the Bragmens tell the 
people that the idols are very annoyed with them for not 
sending what was demanded. And they warn the people 

* The Psalm Xavier here quotes (Ps. 43) is the first Psalm of the Ordinary 
in the Mass. 



CAPE COMORIN 

that if they don't provide these things the idols will kill them, 
or cause diseases, or send devils to their houses, and the 
wretched, credulous people believe it will be so, and out of 
fear that the idols will harm them, do what the Bragmens 
wish. 

" These Bragmens are men of little learning, and what 
they lack in virtue they make up in iniquity and evil. The 
Bragmens of this coast where I am travelling are greatly 
annoyed because I keep on exposing their wickedness. They 
confess the truth to me when we are alone, and how they 
deceive the people. In secret they confess to me that they 
have no other means of living but those stone idols, on which 
they live by manufacturing lies. They admit that I know 
more than all of them put together. They ask me to visit 
them, and are annoyed that I will not accept the presents 
they send nte. They do all this so that I may not disclose 
their secrets. 

" They say they know very well there is but one God, and 
that they will pray God for me. In pay of all this I tell them 
what I on my part think of them, and then I show their 
miserable deceits and mockeries to the wretched, credulous 
creatures who from sheer fear are their devotees, till I am 
weary. As a result of wha^t I say many lose their devotion to 
the devil and become Christians. If there were no Bragmens 
all the heathen would become converted to our faith. The 
houses where the Bragmens and idols are are called pagodas. 
None of the heathen of these parts have much learning, but 
they are learned enough in evil. Since I came here only one 
Bragmen has become a Christian. This young man is a very 
fine fellow. He has taken up the work of teaching the boys 
Christian doctrine. 

"As I go visiting the Christian villages I pass numerous 
pagodas. I once passed one where there were more than 
200 Bragmens. They came to see me, and among other 
things we discussed I asked one question, What did their 
gods and idols whom they adored command them to do in 
order to go to glory. There was a great to-do among them 
as to who was to reply. One of the oldest of them was 
chosen. The old man, who was over eighty, told me to say 
first what the God of the Christians commanded to be done. 
I understood his meanness, and would say nothing till he 
had spoken. So he was forced to exhibit his ignorance. He 



184 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Av; 

replied that the gods commanded them to do two things in 

order to go to where they (the gods) are : the first was not to 
kill cows, whom they adore ; the second was to do alms, giving 
these to the Bragmens who serve in the pagodas. When 
I heard this reply it grieved me that the devils could so lord 
it over our neighbours as to make themselves, instead of God, 
adored by them. So I rose, and telling the Bragmens to be 
seated, I said the creed and commandments in a very loud 
voice in their language, and explained the nature of heaven 
and hell, and told them who go to the one, and who to the 
other. When this discourse was ended all the Bragmens rose 
and embraced me and told me that truly the God of the 
Christians was the true God, since His commandments were 
so conformable to natural reason. They asked me if our 
souls died along with our bodies, like those of the brutes. 
God our Lord gave me arguments so suitable to their capacities 
that I clearly explained to them the immortality of the soul, 
and they seemed to be thoroughly pleased and satisfied. The 
arguments which you must give to this simple people [este 
genie idiota] must not be so subtle as those written by very 
scholastic doctors. They asked me whence the soul issued 
when a man died, and when a man was sleeping and dreamed 
that he was in a land with his friends and acquaintances 
(which often happens to me, that I am with you, dearest), if 
his soul, going there, ceases to inhabit his body. Moreover, 
they asked me to tell them if God were black or white, 
according to the diversity of colour seen among men. As all 
the people here are black and approve of the colour, they say 
that God is black. Most of the idols are black. They anoint 
them often with oil and they stink frightfully. They are so 
ugly that the sight of them frightens you. In the Bragmens' 
opinion I gave satisfactory answers to all the questions they 
put. When I wound up by saying that since they knew the 
truth they should become Christians they answered like so 
many among ourselves what would the world say of us if 
we made this change in our way of living ? They were also 
kept back by the thought that they would lack the necessities 
of life. 

" I came across a solitary Bragmen in a village on this 
coast who had some education, and I was told he had studied 
in some famous places of learning. I tried to see him, and 
took advantage of an opportunity of meeting him. He told 



CAPE COMORIN 185 

me as a great secret that the first thing those who teach in 
those places of learning do is to take an oath from the 
pupils never to tell certain secrets which they are taught. 
Because of some friendship he had for me this Bragmen told 
me those secrets as a grand secret. One was this : never to 
tell that there is but one God, creator of heaven and earth, 
and that this God should be adored, and not idols, who are 
devils. They have some scriptures, in which they have the 
commandments. The language taught in these places of 
learning is like what Latin is among us. He told me the 
commandments very well, each one with a good exposition. 
Those who are learned keep the Lord's days an incredible 
thing. The only prayer they say on the Lord's day is this, 
and they say it very often, Oncerii naraina noma, which means 
I adore Thee, O God, with Thy grace and help for ever. They 
say this prayer very slowly and quietly, so as not to break 
their oath. ... 

" This Bragmen . . . wanted me to tell him the principal 
tenets of the Christian religion and promised me to make them 
known to no one. I said to him that I should not tell him 
if he did not first promise to me not to keep those principal 
tenets hidden. So he promised me to publish them. Then 
I said and expounded, much to my delight, these important 
words of our religion, who believes and is baptized shall be 
saved. He wrote them in his language with their exposition, 
and I told him all the creed. He told me that one night he 
had dreamed with great delight that he had to become a 
Christian and be my companion and go with me. He asked 
me to make him a Christian secretly, and moreover with 
certain conditions. As these were not honourable and 
permissible, I refused to do it. I hope in God that he will 
have to be a Christian without any of them. I bade him teach 
the simple folk to adore one God. . . . He was not willing to 
do it because of his oath, and for fear lest the devil should 
kill him. 

" I don't know what more to write to you of these parts, 
except that such are the consolations which God our Lord 
communicates to those who go among the heathen and convert 
them to the faith of Christ, that if there be contentment in this 
life, it means this. 

"I often happen to hear a person who goes among those 
Christians say : O Lord, give me not such consolations, and 



186 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

now that of Thine infinite goodness and mercy Thou dost give 
them, take me to Thy holy glory, because after Thou dost give 
such a rich inward communion, it is a pain for Thy creatures 
to go on living without seeing Thee.* 

" O if those who studied learning would only devote as 
much labour towards the enjoyment of it as they spent 
toilsome days and nights in acquiring it ! (He means that 
the true joy of learning is to use it to teach others.) A 
student seeks contentment in understanding what he studies : 

if he sought that contentment in telling his neighbours 
what they need in order to know and serve God, how much 
more consoled they would be, and how much more prepared 
to give an account when Christ said to them, Render now an 
account of thy stewardship. 

" . . . So I finish, praying God our Lord that since in His 
mercy He united us, and in His service separated us so far 
from one another, He may again unite us in His holy glory. 

" And to attain this let us take as intercessors and advocates 
all those holy souls of these parts where I am, taken by God 
to His holy glory after they were baptised by my hands and 
before they lost the state of innocence, the number of which 

1 believe to be more than one thousand."! 

This sounds as if Xavier were glad that these children had 
died and become advocates for the Company, instead of being 
sorry that human stupidity and carelessness had deprived 
them of life. The words are indeed the feverish utterance of 
a fine imagination, hurt and bruised with the sight of over 
much sorrow. The mystical mind of Francis was normally 
accustomed to dwell' on the borderland regions between the 
psychical and the physical worlds, and to think comparatively 
little of physical death ; and in moments of abnormal feeling 
that death was entirely disregarded. 

In February 1544, after an absence of only about two 
months, we find Francis once more on the Fishery coast. 
Besides Francisco Mansillas he had with him a few obscure 
helpers, native and European, of whom the most useful 
appears to have been Francisco Coelho. But " the early dew 

* This passage is probably the origin of the Latin phrase on the portrait in 
our frontispiece, " Satis est Domine, satis est" The phrase in its Latin form 
is one of the most often quoted of his sayings. 

t Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 278 ff. 



GAPE COMORIN 187 

of morning has passed away at noon." Difficulties of all 
kinds besieged the missionary during this spring of 1544. 
"It is the morrow of conversions," a French writer has well 
said, " which is the hardest time both for converts and 
teachers." And this mission was hopelessly understaffed. 
The letters of Xavier to Francisco Mansillas, which begin in 
February and cover a period of several months, show us that, 
though this missionary should have been the Saint's right 
hand, he was but a broken reed to lean upon. But, worst of 
all, Portuguese soldiers and traders, of whom up till now we 
have heard nothing in this part of the country, began to 
mingle with the natives on their own errands, which were not 
those of Francis Xavier. 

The situation must have been an intolerable one for the 
missionary. Hardly had he impressed upon these childish 
tribes the simplest rudiments of Christian teaching, when his 
own brothers, professing his own faith, came into the same 
villages where he was working and perpetrated the vilest acts 
of cruelty and dishonesty. The natives were incensed, and 
no wonder, and after a particularly scandalous slave-raid at 
Punicale, a wild tribe of horsemen from the north, the 
Badages,* fearing probably that the raiding would spread 
into their own territory, swept down upon the innocent 
Paravas, and hundreds of them were killed or put to flight 
because they had accepted the religion of those " Christians." 
There is a story, probably authentic,! of how a troop of these 
wild horsemen one day rushed upon a Parava village in 
which the Saint happened to be working. The villagers fled 
in terror, but Francis, after kneeling a few moments in prayer, 
rose, and himself alone confronted them with such an air of 
gravity and authority that in confusion they turned their 
horses' heads, and went back the way they came. 

In July he went alone on foot to the Cape, throughout this 
wildly disturbed country, at the imminent risk of his life, in 
order to organise relief for the hundreds of poor fisher-folk 
who, in want and sickness, were sheltering in the caves and 
holes of the earth. In the letters of Xavier to Mansillas, 
which are given in the next chapter, many of the troubles of 
this tragic spring and summer are reflected. 

* Also known as the Vadakars, or Baddaghars. 

t See Tursellinus, Book II., cap. 11 ; also Man. Xav., vol. ii. p. 598 ; also 
Acosta, Lucena, etc. 



188 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

In the middle of November the Saint set out for Travancore, 

the urgent invitation of the Rajah there. He made this 
long journey, as usual, on foot, attended this time by two or 
three faithful natives. These, we read, kept guard over him 
every night while he slept, for the country was still disturbed 
and full of enemies. They were several times attacked, and 
once, it is said, he was wounded by an arrow. Another time 
they set fire to his bed, says one of the fanciful biographers, 
but he was praying, and noticed nothing until he was sur- 
rounded by a little heap of cinders instead of a mattress ! 

The visit to Travancore was, in the eyes of the Rajah at 
least, probably largely political. Portugal was a dangerous 
enemy, but a most helpful ally. In coming here Francis was 
responding to a series of pressing invitations. The Rajah 
knew that the Saint was out for souls, and the acute old 
diplomatist dangled his unconverted subjects before the 
missionary's eyes, much as a European king might dangle his 
pretty daughter before some desirable prince. And Francis 
was only too pleased to pay the price of " favourable recom- 
mendations to the Governor," and no doubt thought he had 
the best of the bargain. For he was publicly proclaimed the 
Great Priest, and all faithful subjects were told to show him 
the same obedience which they showed to the Rajah, the 
Great King. 

The Rajah himself, and the Brahmins and Nairs who con- 
stituted the upper castes, must have looked on the whole 
movement with indifference, if not with scorn. Xavier's 
message was nothing to them. It neither touched them nor 
moved them. But a change of religion could do the poor 
outcast Macuas no harm, or even if it did them a little harm 
the protection of the Portuguese cannon was cheap at the 
price. 

So, for one month, Francis ploughed and sowed, with 
unprecedented and titanic energy. It was the rainy season, 
and he went barefoot from village to village, his tunic in 
tatters and his old black hood a lamentable thing to see. 
Before the month was ended he had baptized ten thousand 
persons, and to each one he baptized he gave a new name, 
written on a piece of paper. This piece of paper came to 
have a political as well as a spiritual significance. It was 
a kind of passport, and gave the bearer the rights of protec- 
tion due to a Portuguese subject. One can believe that the 



CAPE COMORIN 189 

Rajah scanned these little tickets with a smile of satisfaction, 
and told himself that the Great Priest was playing a fair game. 
And the Great Priest smiled, too, as he looked upon the little 
tickets and remembered the words of Jesus : "Be ye wise as 
serpents and harmless as doves." Enthusiastic crowds 
destroyed the idols and the temples. Churches were hastily 
built, and rude crosses placed there. The Macuas spoke the 
same language as the Paravas, so Xavier had no difficulty in 
teaching them the catechism and the creed. 

One can hardly explain this tremendous conversion. But 
the contrast between the outward authority of the representa- 
tive of Portugal and of Western civilisation, and the personal 
appearance and bearing of the Saint, must have been a 
strangely moving one and may account for much. The 
astonishing result of this mission appears almost to have 
frightened him. Let us look at his letter of January of the 
next year to the Fathers in Rome, where he describes what 
had happened. The letter opens with a passage of heavenly 
wisdom on the love of friends : 



" God our Lord knows how much my soul would be com- 
forted by the sight of you instead of having to write these 
letters, letters so uncertain because of the great distance from 
here to Rome. But since it is God our Lord Who has sepa- 
rated us so widely, tho' we were so united in love and spirit, 
the bodily distance, if I am not deceived, does not occasion 
any lack of love or care, in those who love one another in the 
Lord. For we see each other almost always, to my mind, 
tho' we don't converse familiarly as once we did. But the 
memory of the past, when it is founded on Christ, has this 
virtue, that it almost makes what the mind sees a reality." 

He goes on to speak of his mission work : 

" I have to tell you how God our Lord moved many people 
in a kingdom where I work [i.e., Travancore] to become 
Christians. ... In a month I baptized more than 10,000 per- 
sons. . . . Here is how I baptize : I give to each his [Christian] 
name in writing. Afterwards these men go home and send 
their wives and families, whom I baptize in the same way as 
I baptized the men. When the baptisms are finished I 
command that the houses where they have their idols 



190 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

are to be thrown down, and I arrange that after they are 
Christians they are to break the images of the idols into the 
smallest pieces. ... In each place I leave the prayers 
written in their language, ordering that each day they shall 
teach them once in the morning, and again at the hour of 
vespers. When this is finished in one place, I go to another, 
and so I go from place to place making Christians, and this 
with many comforts, greater than I could write you by letter, 
or explain to you if you were here."* 

The licentiate Joao Vaz, who returned to Lisbon this same 
year, has left an interesting account of Francis as he knew 
him in Travancore. 

I lived six months with the Father Master Francie. He 
went bare-foot, with a poor torn gown, and a kind of hood of 
black stuff. Every one loved him dearly. He so gained the 
heart of a king, that this sovereign made a proclamation that the 
people were to obey his brother, the Great Father., as they did 
himself: he permitted all his subjects to become Christians 
if they wished to do so, and he gave him large sums for the 
succour of the poor. 

The Great Father, that is the name which has been given to 
Father Master Francis in these lands. He has caused forty- 
four or forty-five churches to be built along the coast where the 
new Christians are. . . . He speaks the language of the country 
very well. Often in that flat countryside, followed by two thou- 
sand, three thousand, six thousand people, he would stop, climb 
up a tree, and from there preach to the people.t 



* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 366. 

f Cros, Documents Nouveaux, p. 405. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS 

(1544) 

IN this chapter are gathered together the simplest and in 
some ways the most interesting of all Xavier's letters, 
those which he wrote in 1544 to Francisco Mansillas. Only 
as great a man as Xavier could have given to a creature so 
evidently insignificant as Mansillas such a wealth of love 
and care as these letters reveal. It was probably a love 
which had been born of pity, but it was none the less real for 
that. 

Francisco Mansillas, as we know, was one of the two 
companions who had left Lisbon along with Xavier. He 
was a Portuguese, and no scholar. Later, Xavier had to dis- 
miss him for disobedience. There are no records left which 
bear witness in any way to his worth or charm, if we except 
the never-despairing commendations of the Saint.* And if 
Xavier himself at last despaired, he held his own counsel on 
the subject, and has left us no bitter words about benefits 
forgot, or man's ingratitude. 

Most of these letters explain themselves, and need little 
comment. Cros has called them a " sort of journal of Apos- 
tolic solicitudes," Brou says of them that they are " precious 
above all the others." Mansillas had at least the grace to 
treasure them, and leave them to the Company of the Name 
of Jesus. 

These letters belong, of course, chronologically, to the 
preceding chapter, but we have followed Cros' example, 
and collected them together by themselves. 



cc 



May the grace and love of Christ our Lord help and 
favour us always. 

" Most Dear Brother, 

" I am very anxious to know your news. Do by the 

* One might add that his evidence at the process before the canonisation 
of Xavier has more sobriety and reality than most of the others (see Mop. 
Xav., vol. ii. p. 366). 



192 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

love of Jesus Christ give me very lengthy news of yourself 
and your companions. When I arrive at Manapar, I will 
let you know. Remember those things which I gave you in 
writing, and pray God that He may give you plenty of patience 
to deal with your people ; and reckon that you are in Pur- 
gatory purging your sins, and that God does you a great favour 
in purging your sins here in this life. 

" Tell Joao d'Artiaga that the Captain has written me 
that he gave him 10 crowns for me, and that I have written 
to the Captain that neither you nor Joao d'Artiaga nor I 
need money till he comes from Piscaria, and that he must 
return the money to the Captain, for I have written to the 
Captain that it would be returned at once. And if the 
Captain has a money-order for you from the Governor, 
d'Artiaga could buy an interpreter with the money : but 
if the money is not sent officially, tell him to return it at once 
to the Captain. 

" Our Lord give you grace to serve Him, and as much as 
I wish for myself. 

From Punicale, 23rd Feb. 1544. 

" To Joao d'Artiaga I don't write, for this letter goes for 
you and for him. 

" Your very dear brother, 

" FRANCISCO." 

The Joao d'Artiaga referred to above had formerly been 
a soldier, but at this time he acted as one of Xavier's assistants 
in Cape Comorin. His enthusiasms, unfortunately, did not 
last long. 

From the Saint's suggestion that d'Artiaga might buy an 
interpreter, we see that he was untroubled by the problem 
of slavery. In another letter he advises the College in Goa 
to buy a slave to help the lay brothers to keep the garden. 
Some of his contemporaries had already seen that the system 
was a disastrous one. See p. 164. 

" Very dear Brother in Christ, 

" I am very pleased with your letters. I beseech you to 
behave toward your people as a good father with bad sons. 
Do not weary on account of the many evils you see. God, 
though they so greatly offend Him, does not kill them, 
although He has the power to kill them, nor let them be 



THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS 193 

deprived of all needful for their maintenance, although He 
has the power to remove the things that maintain them. 

" Do not weary. You are gaining more fruit than you 
think. And if you do not do all you wish, be content with 
what you do, for the fault is not yours. I am sending you a 
bailiff who will serve till I come. I will give him a fanuo for 
every woman he catches drinking arrack. And more, she 
may be imprisoned three days. Have this proclaimed all 
over the place. Tell the village headmen that if I know 
that more arrack is drunk henceforward in Punicale, they 
will have to pay dearly for it. 

" Tell Matthew [a young native interpreter who accom- 
panied Mansillas and helped with the singing] to be a good boy, 
and I will do him more good than his own relatives would. 
Before I come, make these village headmen change their ways. 
Otherwise I shall have to send them all prisoners to Cochin, 
and they will not return to Punicale. They are the cause of 
all the evils done there. 

" Be very diligent in baptizing new-born children. Teach 
the children as I have recommended, and on Sundays teach 
the prayers to all, with a little preachment. Forbid the 
pagodas [this word is used for images as well as for temples] 
to be made. Keep that letter which Alvaro Fogaza sent 
me till I come. God our Lord give you as much comfort 
in this life and in the next as I desire for myself. 

" Manapar, 14th March, 1544. 

" Your very dear Brother in Christ." 



" Very dear Brother in Christ, 

" I was much comforted that you wrote how comforted 
you were [text is defective here] .... Since God remembers 
you, remember Him, and do not weary of going on and 
persevering in what you have begun. Give thanks always to 
God, because He chose you for so great a task as yours is. 
I do not wish to burden you with any more than I gave 
you in that Memorandum. Remember me, for I never forget 
you. Tell Matthew to be a good boy, and I will be a good 
father to him. Watch him well. Tell him to speak out 
on Sundays what you say to him, that all may hear him, 
loud enough for us to hear him in Manapar ! Let me know 
the news of the Christians in Tuticurim, if the Portuguese 
who stayed there did them any injuries, and if there is 

N 



194 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

news of the Governor if he is coming to regulate things at 
Cochin. 

" Here a great thing for the service of God is coming out. 
Pray to the Lord God that this may develop. I pray you 
earnestly to behave very lovingly with these people, I mean 
with the most eminent people, and then with all the folk. 
If the folk love you and get on "well with you, you will do 
great service to God. Learn to forgive their weaknesses very 
patiently. Put it to yourself that if they are not good now, 
they will be some day. And if you don't accomplish with them 
all you wish, be content with what you can. I do so. 

" The Lord God be always with you, and give us His grace 
that we may always serve Him. 

" March 20th, 1544. 

" Your Brother in Christ." 

" Very dear Brother in Christ, 

" I could never finish writing of my desire to go along 
your Coast. I assure you that the truth is that if I could 
find a boat to take me to-day, I should go at once. Just 
now three heathen came to me, men of the king, with com- 
plaints that in Patanao a Portuguese had seized a messenger 
of the Prince, Iniquitibirim,* carried him a prisoner to 
Punicale, and said that from there he must take him to 
Tuticurim. When you know the facts, write to the Captain 
about it. If the Portuguese is there, whoever he may be, 
he is to let him go at once. If this heathen owes him any- 
thing, let him [the Portuguese] come before the Prince to 
demand justice. He must not stir up the country more 
than it is stirred up. It is because of things like this that we 
are not making more progress. If not [i.e., if the man is 
not released], in my opinion I cannot go to see the king. 
The people are angry that they are thus dishonoured and 
seized in their own land. This was never done in the time 
of the Pulas [the native princes]. I do not know what to do 
except that we should not lose more time in living among 

* Iniquitibirim, the Rajah of Travancore. His real name was Udaya- 
Marthauda-Varna, but Xayier, hearing him called " Ennaku-tamburan," 
i.e., " our King," thought this his proper name and wrote it out Iniquitibirum 
(with many variations). The kings of Travancore were at this time among 
the most powerful of the Indian rulers, and were known as the Grand Rajahs. 
Their dominion extended over Tinnevelly, from Cape Comorin to Punicale or 
Tuticorin. 



THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS 195 

people [that is, the Portuguese] who take no heed. All this 
is from want of punishment. If those who went to steal that 
little boat had been punished, the Portuguese would not 
do what they are doing now. It will not be surprising if 
the Prince does some harm to the Christians because his 
servant has been seized. 

" Write to the Captain how much I have suffered about the 
seizure of the Prince's servant. I will not write again, for 
these people say they h a v e to do ill, and that no one must 
say an ill word or hinder them. If the man whom the Portu- 
guese seized is in Tuticurim, go at once for the love of God to 
wherever the Captain is, and get him set free. And let the 
Portuguese come here to demand justice. For just as it 
would seem bad if a heathen went to where the Portuguese 
are, and then seized a Portuguese, though the Captain was 
there, and brought him to terra firme [the Portuguese forts 
were generally on islands], so it seems bad to them that a 
Portuguese should seize a man in their district and carry him 
to the Captain, when they have courts of justice of their 
own, and we are in a state of peace. If you are not able to 
go, send Paulo Vaz with your letter to the Captain. 

" I assure you that the suffering I have endured has been 
such as I do not know how to describe. May our Lord give 
us patience to put up with such unreasonable injustice. You 
must write me at once what happens about this servant of 
the Prince, and if it is true that a Portuguese seized him, and 
why, and if he took him to Tuticurim. And write about the 
servants and how much this people resent this seizure in their 
own country ; and what is said about us. For if this be the 
truth, I have made up my mind not to go to the king Iniquiti- 
birim. 

" In order to get out of earshot of such things, and also to 
go where I desire, to the Land of the Priest [Prester John, 
i.e., to Abyssinia], where you can serve God our Lord without 
anyone to persecute you, I have a great mind to get a native 
boat in Manapar here, and go to India without more delay. 

" Our Lord give you His help and grace. 

" Manapar, 21st March, 1544. 

" Your very dear Brother in Christ." 

There are usually just one or two friends at most to whom 
a man writes in this mood of simple abandon, and the choice 

N2 



196 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

is often, as here, arbitrary and inexplicable. Why did 
Xavier reveal himself to Mansillas in these moods of de- 
spondency as to no one else? We cannot tell. Only we 
are not surprised that he was disheartened : the knowledge 
that a man's worst foes are of his own country and his own 
faith is hard to bear. 

" Very dear Brother, 

44 1 am greatly pleased with your news and with your 
letter, and to see the fruit you are gaining. God give you 
force always to persevere from good to better. 

44 1 cannot stop feeling within my soul the injuries which 
heathen and Portuguese alike are doing to the Christians, 
and no wonder. I am already so accustomed to see the 
wrongs done to the Christians, and yet not be able to help 
that it is a bruise, which I have always with me. I have 
already written to the Vicar of Coulam, and to the Vicar 
of Cochin about the slaves whom the Portuguese stole at 
Punicale (see previous chapter, p. 187), that they may learn 
by means of the great excommunications who the thieves 
were [i.e., that the vicars might by use or threatening of the 
greater excommunication come to know who were the 
thieves]. I sent this message three days ago, as soon as I 
got the headman's letter. 

44 Give Matthew everything necessary for his clothing. 
Be hospitable to him that he may not leave you, now that 
he is freed. Treat him very lovingly, for so I did when he 
was with me, that he might not leave me. 

44 In the Creed, when you say enquevenum, instead of 
-venum say -vichuam, for venu means I will, and vichuam 
means / believe. It is better to say I believe in God than to 
say / will in God [quero in Port, means I will, I desire, love, 
like]. Do not say vao pinale, because it means by force, and 
Christ suffered voluntarily, and not by force. 

" When you come from Piscaria visit the sick, making 
some of the children say the prayers, as in the Memorandum 
I gave you. And finish up by reading part of a Gospel 
yourself. Always deal very lovingly with your people, and 
do your best that they may love you. I should be greatly 
pleased to know that they do not drink arrack, nor make 
pagodas [or images], and come every Sunday to the prayers. 
If at the time they became Christians there had been anyone 



THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS 197 

to teach them, as you now teach them, they would have 
been better Christians than they are. 

"27th March, 1544." 
" Very dear Brother, 

" I was greatly pleased with your coming to visit the 
Christian villages, as I told you, and I am more pleased with 
the great fruit which everybody tells me you gained. I 
expect to-day or to-morrow a message from the Governor. 
If it is as I expect, I will not fail to arrive. I will direct 
myself toward you, for I am most anxious to see you, though 
I see you always in spirit. 

" Joao d'Artiaga goes, dismissed by me, full of temptations 
without knowing them. He does not take the road to know 
them. He says he will go to Combutur6 to teach that 
village, so as to be near you. I believe little in his plans, 
for, as you know well, he is very fickle. If he comes near 
you, don't waste much time with him. 

" I have written already to the Captain to provide you 
with what is necessary. I also told Manoel da Cruz to lend 
you money as often as you have need, and he has promised 
me to do so, with very good will. 

" Take good care of your health, since with it you serve the 
Lord God so well. Tell Matthew from me to serve you well. 
If you are content with him, he has in me father and mother. 
If he is not very obedient to you, I don't wish to see him nor 
watch over him. Give him what is necessary for his clothing. 

" In the villages where you go, make the men meet one day 
in one place, and the women another day in another place. 
And make them say the prayers in every house. Baptize 
those who are not baptized, children and adults alike.* 

" Our Lord help and guard you always. 

" Manapar, 8th April, 1544." 

" Very dear Brother in Christ, 

" I am most anxious to see you. Please God that it will 
be soon. Yet every day I do not fail to see you in spirit, 
which you do also. So we are continually with each other. 
By the love of God write me your news of all the Christians, 

* The rest of the sentence is obscure and untranslatable : fazendo esta 
conta : que se alguma nova for ao moling que va ao molindo donde ha esta agoa. 
Ihe words in italics seem to be a corruption of a proverb, which some reader 
may recognise and elucidate. The Editor of the Mon. Xav. says this part 
ot the sentence " nullum sensum habet." 



198 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

how you are. Write very circumstantially. I expect the 
chief of Travancore this week without fail, for so he has 
written to me. I hope in God that some service to God will 
be done. I will let you know all that happens that you may 
give thanks to the Lord God. I have already written to the 
headmen about the ramada.* It seems that it would be well 
for the women to go to Church on Saturday mornings, as they 
go at Manapar, and the men on the Sundays. Do about this 
as you think best. When you need to write to the Captain, 
let it be in time that he may provide you. 

"Let me know where Joao d'Artiaga is, and if he serves 
God, for I fear me much that he will not persevere in serving 
Him. He is very mutable, as you know. The Father and 
I are well. Tell Mathew to be a good boy, and to speak 
loud, and to say in good style what you say. When I come, 
I will give him something that will greatly please him. Write 
me if the children come to prayers, and how many know 
them. Write me at length about everything by the first 
messenger who comes. 

" Livar, 23rd April, 1544." 



tc 

It 



Very dear Brother in Christ, 

To-day, the first of May, I got a letter from you, which 
brought me such comfort I could never finish writing how 
much. For let me tell you that I had constant fever for 
four or five days. I was bled twice. Now I am better. I 
hope in God to go to see you in Punicale next week. I hope 
that the chief of Treminancor will come to-day or to-morrow. 
When I get to you, we shall talk of what is going on here. 
Please God some service will be done with which He may be 
pleased. 

" Father Francisco Coelho sends you two hats. And 
since we shall see you soon, I say no more, but that God our 
Lord give us His holy grace with which we may serve Him." 

" Nao, 1st May, 1544." 



" Very dear Brother in Christ, 

" God knows how much better I should be pleased to be 
a few days with you than to stay on in Tuticurim. But it is 

* A church made of ramos, i.e. branches, a wattle-built church. See 
Mon. Xao., vol. i. p. 945. 



THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS 199 

necessary to be here for some days to pacify the people. 
Since this is so useful to our Lord, I console myself with 
being where I can best serve God our Lord. 

" I beseech you not to fret yourself with those trouble- 
some people on any account. When you have a lot of 
engagements, and can't discharge them all, comfort yourself 
by doing what you can. And give many thanks to the 
Lord that you are in a place where the many engagements 
come to you, and all in the service of the Lord God, and keep 
you from being idle, even if you wished to be. 

" I send you Peter. And as soon as Antony is well, which 
may be in six or eight days, I will send him. I am writing 
to Manoel da Cruz begging him to build the church soon. 

" Send me my little box by the first boat that comes. 
When I finish affairs here, I will come to see you at once, 
for I am more anxious to be with you for a few days than 
you think. Always when you have need of anything, write 
me by those who come from there. Do always as much as 
you can to carry on with your people very patiently. When 
they do not care for good, exercise the work of mercy which 
says, Punish him who needs punishment. Our Lord help you, 
as I desire Him to help me. 

" Tuticurim, 14th May, 1544." 

" Very dear Brother in Christ, 

" Yes, with the Lord God's help, I am very well. May it 
please Him Who gave me my health to give me grace to serve 
Him with it. Let me know your news and of the Christians 
constantly, and hasten to build the church, and when it 
is finished let me know. Those letters which I send to the 
Captain you must send on by some safe and sure hand. I 
recommend to you earnestly the teaching of the children. 
Baptize very diligently the new-born. Since the adults 
neither for good nor for evil wish to go to Paradise, at least 
let the babies who die after baptism go. Commend me 
much to Manoel da Cruz. Let Matthew be a good boy, I 
mean, a good man. Treat your people always lovingly, both 
them and the Adigars [agents of the king of Travancore]. 

" Viranao, Dianpatarnao, 

" 22nd June, 1544."* 

* This date is almost certainly a mistake for June llth. See Mon. Xav., 
vol. i. p. 966, and Brou, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, vol. i. p. 254, note. 



200 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

" Very dear Brother in Christ, 

" I arrived on Saturday afternoon at Manapar. In 
Combuture they gave me a lot of bad news about the Cape 
Comorin Christians. The Badages captured them, and the 
Christians, to save themselves, made for those rocks which 
lie out in the sea. There they are dying of hunger and 
thirst. To-night I leave with twenty boats from Manapar 
to relieve them. Pray to God for them and us. Make the 
children especially pray to God for us." 

These Badages or men of the north were a wild marauding 
tribe, noted for their swift raiding expeditions on horse- 
back. 

" They promised me at Combuture to put up a church : 
Manoel de Lima promised to give 100 fanoens to help the 
cost. Go to Combutur6 and give orders how this church is 
to be built. You can go on Wednesday or Thursday. Next 
week, God willing, you must visit the Christians of Punicale 
as far as Alendale. Baptize those who are not baptized. 
Visit the Christians from house to house. Baptize babies 
with all diligence. Observe if those who teach the children 
and those who assemble them do their duty well. 

" Charge Manoel da Cruz, who is at Combuture, to watch 
carefully over those two villages of Carean Christians, both 
as to concord between enemies, and that they do not make 
images. Also that they don't drink arrack, and that on 
Sundays the men meet in the afternoon and the women in 
the morning, to say their prayers. If Francisco Coelho is 
there, tell him that I say he is to come soon. God be your 
guard. 

" Manapar, Monday, 20th June, 1544.* 

" I have paid the man who takes this letter of mine what I 
promised him to go to Vacarapatam." 



t( 

II 



Very dear Brother in Christ, 

On Tuesday I arrived at Manapar. God our Lord knows 
the troubles I had on the voyage. I went with twenty boats 
to relieve the Christians who had fled from the Badages to 

* This letter also is wrongly dated. The 20th of June, 1544, fell on 
a Friday, and the date evidently should be 16th June (see Brou, Vie de 
St. Francois Xavier, vol. i. p. 254) P 



THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS 201 

the rocks of Cape Comorin. They were dying of hunger and 
thirst. The wind was so contrary that neither by rowing nor 
by towing could we reach the Cape. When the wind fell I 
went back again, and did what was possible to help them. 
It was the most pitiful thing in the world to see those wretched 
Christians in such trouble. A lot of them come each day 
to Manapar. They arrive robbed and needy, and have 
neither food nor clothing. I wrote to the headmen of Com- 
buture, Punical, and Tuticurim to send some alms for the 
unhappy Christians, but not to take anything from the poor. 
Let the small ship-masters who wish to give of their own will, 
give. But nobody is to be forced. Do not allow anything 
to be taken from the poor, for so I write to the headmen. I 
don't expect any virtue from them. Do not allow any alms 
to be taken forcibly from anyone, poor or rich. Hope is in 
God rather than in the headmen. 

" Do, I beseech you, write at length, if the church at 
Combuture is now made, if Manoel de Lima gave the 
100 fanoens, and how you got on in your visitation, and if the 
children are taught in those villages. I paid all, and do not 
know what is done in my absence. Write me of everything 
very fully, for I wish to have news of you and of your village. 
I was eight days at sea, and you know well what it is to be in 
those small boats with such strong winds as we had. 

" Manapar, 30th June, 1544." 

With a good wind they should have made the journey in 
one day. Mansillas said later in the Cochin Process that the 
most wretched of the victims were gathered together at 
Manapar, and that Francis himself went from village to 
village begging help for them. During the whole of July he 
does not seem to have found time even to write to Mansillas. 
The next letter is dated August 1st. 



c< 
t 



Very dear Brother in Christ, 

Our Lord be continually your guard and give you 
abundant strength to serve Him. I was greatly pleased 
with your letter which they gave me . . . [words wanting 
in MS.] . . . your diligence in watching over these people 
that the Badages may not catch them napping. 

"I went the Cape road by land to visit those unhappy 
Christians who came fugitive and robbed from the IBadages, 



202 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

It was the most pitiful thing in the world to see them. Some 
had nothing to eat, others, old men, could not walk, numbers 
of the women were confined on the road, and many other 
moving sights there were. If you had seen them, as I saw 
them myself, you would have more pity. I sent those poor 
people to Manapar, and now there are a lot of needy folk 
here. Pray the Lord God to move the hearts of the rich that 
they may have pity on these poor people. 

" I hope to go to Punicale on Wednesday. Watch care- 
fully over your people till those Badages go to their own 
country. Tell Antonio Fernandez the Fat, and the other 
headmen of Old Gael, that I command them not to rebuild 
Old Gael ; if they do, they will pay me dear for it. Remember 
me to Manoel da Cruz and to Matthew. 

" Manapar, 1st Aug., 1544." 



" Very dear Brother in Christ, 

" God always with you [sic]. I was very pleased with 
part of your letter. I was pleased to see the comfort you 
had in your visitation. But I was very sorry about your 
tribulation. I shall be sorry till the Lord God frees you to us 
[by delivering them from the Badages]. Tribulations are not 
lacking to us. Praised be God. 

" I have sent word to the Father [one of the auxiliary 
priests] to launch the boats in the sea, all through these 
villages, and to embark before it is too late. For it seems 
to me certain that they [the Badages] must surprise you and 
capture the Christians, as we are told that they will certainly 
come to the shore. I got this news from a judge who is 
friendly to the Christians. I sent a man to this judge, 
who is a favourite of the king Iniquitibirim, with a letter 
to the king. I wrote that since he was friendly with the 
Governor he should not allow the Badages to do us harm, 
for the Governor would be very displeaesd if any harm came 
to the Christians. The judge, who is my friend, and who 
loves me because I am so friendly to the Christians of the 
coast, came to see and help me, as he has a lot of Christian 
relatives. I wrote to him that he might advise me as to 
what was happening, and let me know when they come to 
the shore, that we might have time to withdraw together 
to the sea. 

" I have written already to the Captain to send a small 



THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS 203 

warship to guard your people and you. Make your people 
keep a strong watch on the mainland. The Badages come 
at night, on horseback, and take us before we have time to 
embark. Look carefully after the people, for they have 
so little sense that to save two fanoens they would give up 
setting a watch. Make them launch all the ships at once, 
and put their goods into them. And make the women and 
children say the prayers, now more than ever, for we have 
none to help us but God. 

" Send me the paper which remains in the box. I have 
nothing to write on. Send this to me at once by a coolie 
(culle). Let me know any news ; if the boats are launched, 
and the goods placed in them, and how they get on with this. 
Tell Antonio Fernandez the Fat from me to watch carefully 
for the people, if he wishes to be my friend. These people 
[Badages] do not make the poor wretches prisoners, except 
those who can be ransomed. Above all, make them keep 
good watch at night, and have their spies on the mainland. 
I have great fear that with this moonlight they may come 
by night to this shore and rob the Christians. Therefore 
command them to watch carefully at night. Our Lord be 
your guard. 

" Manapar, 3rd Aug., 1544." 

" Very dear Brother in Christ, 

" This morning I wrote you that you should strengthen 
your people in that tribulation, and have so much charity 
as to let me know any certain news from Tuticurim. I'm 
afraid that some harm may come to those poor Christians 
from the cavalerias from Tuticurim." 

This reference to the cavalerias from Tuticurim is a dark 
one. The Portuguese Captain, Cosmo de Pavia, had just 
come from Tuticurim, officially to protect the Paravas, 
but really to look after his own interests, which were inti- 
mately bound up with the Badages. He was in the habit 
of buying and selling their fine horses for the increase of his 
private fortune. These are evidently the cavalerias to which 
Xavier here refers, and to which he refers more explicitly 
in a later letter (see p. 208). 

" This people is more afraid than I can say. It never 
struck me as a good plan to forsake them, so do not go away 



204 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

with Joao d'Artiaga till the country is free from those 
Badages persecutions. Do let me know at once when you 
have certain news. 

" Iniquitibirim sends a Brahmin with the Captain's 
interpreter to settle [terms of] peace with your people. I do 
not know what they will do. They are here in Manapar, 
and leave at once by sea. Please write me very detailed 
news of the Portuguese of Tuticurim, as soon as you know, 
to relieve my great anxiety. Tell me if any Portuguese are 
wounded or killed, and also about the Christians. As for 
your going, we shall see, or I shall write you after this fury of 
the Badages is past. Our Lord be always with you. Amen. 

" Manapar, 19th Aug., 1544. 

" Just now I have got a letter from Guarim, in which your 
very dear brother lets me know that the Christians have fled 
into the jungle, and that the Badages have plundered them. 
They have killed a Christian and a heathen. From all parts 
we have bad news. Praised be the Lord God for ever." 

" Very dear Brother, 

" God be with you always, Amen. By the saying of the 
Lord, He who is not with me is against me, you can see how 
many friends we have in these parts who help us to make this 
people Christian ! Let us not despair. God gives to each 
his pay at last. If He please, He can be served by few as 
by many. For those who are against God I have rather 
pity than any desire for their punishment, for at the last 
God punishes His enemies heavily, as we can see by those 
who are in hell. This Brahmin goes with a dispatch from the 
Badages to king Betibumal. For the love of God order a boat 
at once to take him to Tuticurim. Let me have the news of 
Tuticurim, of the Captain and the Portuguese and the 
Christians, for I am very anxious. Commend me much to 
Joao d'Artiaga and to Manoel da Cruz. Tell Matthew not to 
weary, that he is not working in vain, that I will do better for 
him than he thinks. Our Lord be always with you. Amen. 

" Manapar, 20th Aug., 1544. 

" For the love of God, help this Brahmin with everything 
for his journey, and say to the Captain, at least to do him 
honour. 

" Your very dear brother in Christ." 



THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS 205 

" Very dear Brother in Christ, 

" God help you always. Amen. Let me know when 
your district will be safe from the Badages, so that without 
harm to your people I can send them Francisco Coelho in 
your stead. Then you could go and do great service to 
God by baptizing those of the village of Carea, and the 
Careas of Beadala,* and the Mundaliar [native magistrate]." 

At this point in the correspondence we are just beginning 
to think that things are going to settle down a little at last, 
when suddenly a new motif is heard ; the fame of the Saint 
has been spreading quickly throughout the islands, and he 
is preparing now to answer a new call from the oppressed 
subjects of the Rajah of Jafnapatam, in Manar, near Ceylon, 
who like the Macedonians of old had sent a messenger, 
saying, " Come over and help us." The letter goes on : 

" The Captain of Negapatam has great influence with the 
Rajah of Jafnapatam to whom the islands of Manar belong. 
He will have the duty of helping their relations with the 
Rajah. When your district is safe from the Badages, 
send the boat to me at once that I may send you at once 
Francisco Coelho with money and letters and a note of what 
you have to do in Manar. I commend our Brother JoSo 
d'Artiaga greatly to you. Write me of all of which he has 
need that I may provide it, as that is only right. Here I 
am going alone among this people without interpreter. 
Antonio remained in Manapar ill ; Rodrigo and Antonio 
are my interpreters. So you can see the life I am leading 
and the sort of exhortations I can make. They do not under- 
stand me. I understand them less. [The gift of tongues 
with which Xavier has so often been accredited would have 
been handy here.] Here you can see the discourses I make 
to these people. [Does this last sentence mean that he 
gesticulated so much that his preaching was seen rather 
than heard ?] I baptize the new-born babies, and others 
whom I find ready for baptism. There is no need of an 
interpreter for this. The poor make me understand their 
needs without an interpreter ; and I by seeing them under- 
stand without an interpreter. For the chief things I have 

* These people are now known as the Kadeyers or Karaiyans, a class of 
Tamil fishermen or boatmen. 



206 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

no need of one. The Badages who were in these parts are 
already gone to Cabrecate. This district is now secure 
against them. The people of the land are doing what harm 
they can till things are settled by Iniquitibirim. 

" Punical, 31st Aug., 1544. 

" I leave to-night for Tale, where there are many poor 
people." 



By the " people of the land " Xavier probably means the 
Adigars, agents of the king of Travancore, to whom he refers 
again in the next letter. Mansillas has evidently been 
complaining of them. 

" Very dear Brother in Christ, 

" This Prince of Tale, a nephew of Iniquitibirim, is so 
much our friend that at once, when he heard of the wrongs 
which the Adigars had inflicted on the Christians, he sent 
off his servant with a letter which commanded them to allow 
all the victuals to go from the mainland, and ordering these 
Adigars to show kindness to the Christians, and that they 
should tell him the names of the Adigars and give them to 
me, so that if I went to the king I could tell him the truth of 
what happened there. 

" As this servant of the prince goes for the good of the 
Christians, see that the headmen do him great honour and 
pay for his trouble, for that is just. What they spend on 
women-dancers is wasted money, and would be much better 
spent on such things, for it is right and supplies all the folk. 
Give you him something, too, so that with the better will he 
may tell the Adigars not to do them more harm, but to do 
them good. 

" Let me know if it is true that a Portuguese carried off 
a servant of the Prince prisoner to Tuticurim, and why. I 
wrote you before at length about this case. If it be true, it 
seems to me that it would be better to remain than to go 
to see the king. The people make the case look very ugly. 
They resent greatly the taking of the prince's man. He did 
much honour to Father Francisco Coelho, and did his best 
for the advantage of these Christians. To do them more 
honour, he made four men of Manapar headmen, without 
imposing any tax on the folk, as used to be customary in the 
time of the Pulas [native princes]. From other villages he 



THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS 207 

made three headmen, without anything. To do honour to 
the Father, who went to see him, he brought a great proces- 
sion from those villages. 

" For the love of God write to the Captain from me that I 
pray him earnestly to do me the favour, throughout all this 
month of September, not to command, nor allow, any harm 
to be done to the heathen of the Great King's country. They 
are all very much our friends. As far as the Christians are 
concerned, it is superfluous to ask them to do no harm. If 
I have to go to see this king, I should accomplish the going 
and coming and leaving for Cochin all in this month, and I 
wish that during this time there should be no complaints 
to the King about any thing against us. 

" Write me by your own hand why you wrote that you 
could not write without our seeing each other. If there is any- 
thing of great importance and service to God, which I could 
remedy, whether affairs of the Captain and the Portuguese 
or of the Christians, I would not for anything go to Iniqui- 
tibirim, at Cochin, without trying, if possible, to put your 
troubles right. 

" Manapar, 2nd Sept., 1544." 

In the above letter the references to the miserable Portu- 
guese Captain are dark and inexplicit, but in the following 
letter Xavier's wrath is more thinly veiled. " Do not allow 
those poor people to die for Betibumal and his horses," he 
says. 

The position of the native Christians in these districts 
had become an almost impossible one. The unconverted 
heathen looked on them very often with hatred and sus- 
picion, because Christianity was the religion of the Portu- 
guese invaders, and the Portuguese, in whom the converts 
naturally expected to find friendship and sympathy, were 
represented by such men as this Captain. 

" I am very anxious about the Christians of Tuticurim, 
as they are destitute of anyone to look after them. For the 
love of our Lord, let me know at once what happens. If 
you see that it will serve God, go with a lot of the Combuture 
and Punical boats, and take the people from those islands 
to Combuture, Punical and Trincantur. At once when you 
get this, leave with all the Punical boats, ordering those at 
Combuture' to come after you at once. 



208 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

" Don't allow those poor people to die of hunger and thirst 
for love of Betibumal and his horses. It would be reckoned 
better to the Captain, if he looked after the Christians and not 
after Betibumal and his horses. From here I send a letter to 
the headmen of Punical and Combuture, in which I order 
them to make themselves and their boats ready at once to go 
with you to fetch the Christians of Tuticurim, who are dying 
of hunger and thirst in those islands. 

" If you think it will be needful for you to go and send for 
those people, give the letter to the headmen, and go to 
relieve them. But if you think it is not necessary, do not 
go ; I remit it altogether to your judgment. If you do go, 
see that the boats take water and victuals. 

" Our Lord be always with you. Amen. Let me know 
how Manoel da Cruz and Matthew are, whom I left dis- 
consolate. 

" 5th Sept., 1544." 



In the following letter we see how Xavier treats his enemy 
in distress : 

" Sad news they give me of the Captain. They have 
burnt his ship and houses. He has withdrawn to the islands. 
For the love of God, go at once with all your people from 
Punical, taking all the water that all the boats can carry. I 
write very strongly to the headmen to go at once with you 
to see the Captain, and to take plenty of water, and plenty 
of boats to carry the people. 

" If I thought that the Captain would like my going, I 
would go, and you could remain at Punical. But he wrote 
me a letter in which he told me that he could not write without 
making a very great scandal, of the harm I had done him. 
God and all the world knows what he could not write with- 
out scandal I don't know how he would be pleased to see 
me. For this and for other reasons I don't go to him. 
I write to the headmen of Combuture and Vunbembar to 
go at once with all the boats, and carry water and victuals. 
For the love of God do it quickly, for you see the Captain and 
all those Christians are in great distress. For the love of 
God do it very very quickly. 

" Alendale, 5th Sept., 1544." 



THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS 209 

" God give us His most holy grace, for in this country we 
have no other help but His. I was in Tiruchendur on my way 
to Varivandiao to visit the Christians, as I did in Alendale, 
Pudicurim, and Trichantur. They have great need of being 
visited. When on the point of leaving I got news that the 
country was rising because the Portuguese had carried off a 
brother-in-law of Betibumal, and so they [the natives] may 
carry off the Christians of Cape Comorin. 

" I am writing to Father Francisco Coelho that I am on the 
point of leaving for the place where the Cape Comorin Christians 
are, for if I am not there much harm is likely to come to 
them. Besides, he has written to me that a prince, nephew 
of Iniquitibirim, had arrived (to settle) about those miserable 
people, and would be doing them a lot of harm if I was not 
there. He wrote further that Iniquitibirim was sending me 
a letter with three or four of his servants who remained worn 
out at Manapar. In his letters he asked me to go there to see 
him. He is very anxious to talk with me about things very 
important to him. It seems to me that he has great need of 
the Governor's favour, inasmuch as the native princes are 
very prosperous and have plenty of money. And it seems 
to me that it is feared that the native princes do not give so 
much money to the Governor in order that he may help 
them. 

" Iniquitibirim writes me further : that the Christians 
are safe in his lands, and that he will show them hospitality. 
I am leaving at once to-night for Manapar, and from there, 
for love of the Christians of Tuticurim and Bembar, and that 
they may be safe in the country of the Great King, I will go 
to see Iniquitibirim and arrange with him how they may be 
safe in his country. 

" Set the right way about getting those Christians of 
Tuticurim who are dying on yonder islands to come to 
Combuture and Pumcal. Write me full details of their 
affairs, and especially how the Captain and the Portuguese 
are. If you can find time to visit the Christians of Com- 
buture and the Careas and those of Thome da Molta village, 
and those near Patanoa, I should be greatly pleased. I 
know they are in great need of being visited. I should like 
much to visit those places. 

" Borrow 100 fanoens from your friend Manoel da Cruz of 

o 



210 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Punical, for teaching the children. Spend it in paying for 
those who teach the children, inquiring from them what I 
used to pay them. In this you will do great service to God. 
A man is coming to you from here a fine fellow, I think, 
and anxious to serve God. Show him hospitality, till I 
return from Iniquitibirim. If you think he will serve God, 
leave him there. Write fully at once by a barber about your 
affairs, for I am very anxious about both Portuguese and 
Christians. Our Lord give us more rest in the other life than 
we have in this. 

" Tiruchendur, 7th Sept., 1544." 



" Dearest Brother in Christ, 

" I could never end writing how pleased I was with your 
letter, for I was very anxious about the Captain and all the 
other people. Our Lord be always with them, as I wish 
that He may be with me. On Tuesday, two hours before 
morning, I sent Father Francisco Coelho to speak with the 
prince at Talla, two leagues from Manapar. The prince, 
Iniquitibirim's nephew, received him very well. It seemed 
to me necessary to send him to visit so that this district 
might be left in peace, as it was almost half in insurrection. 
He says that Betibumal goes by sea in great haste to the king 
to fight against Iniquitibirim. 

" I sent him also to order the Adigars to allow the fetching 
of rice and victuals. On Tuesday after midday I got your 
letters, and at once sent a man with a letter to Father Fran- 
cisco Coelho, who is with the Prince, bidding him send 
letters ordering the Adigars of this country to allow victuals 
to go to Punicale, and that the Christians should show them 
hospitality." 

The unfortunate Parava Christians are no sooner begin- 
ning to recover from the Badagar invasion than those tax- 
gatherers of the Rajah of Travancore, the Adigars, begin to 
put cruel pressure on them again. Whether they did so 
with the approval of their master, to whom Xavier refers as 
the Great King, and who always professed much friendship 
towards the Saint, or not, is impossible to say. But we can 
see from these letters how Xavier himself, as the most dis- 
interested representative of justice in the southern districts 



THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS 211 

of Portuguese India, was acquiring a very considerable 
authority of his own. 

As for the next phrases in this letter, we might hardly 
notice them, but they are very significant, for they record 
Xavier's forgiveness of the Portuguese Captain, and his 
desire to be on friendly terms with the man who had caused 
him so much suffering and bitter disillusionment, and had 
wrecked the happiness of so many of his hard-won converts. 
Here we see a great saint very meekly forgiving a great 
sinner. Later letters show that the Captain had disregarded 
those approaches. They were pearls flung in a pig-stye. 

" I should like to leave this shore in peace somehow or 
other before quitting it to go to Iniquitibirim, and from there 
going prudently to oppose the Adigars. I will write to the 
Captain to-morrow. I cannot just now on account of this 
man's great haste. 

" I expect Francisco Coelho to-night. To-morrow I will 
write you more fully. Remember me to Paulo Vaz. Tell 
Matthew that I am writing to Manoel da Cruz to give him 
twelve fanoens which he asked me for his father, and a poor 
brother he has. When the Father Francisco Coelho comes, 
I will write you very fully. 

" Our Lord unite us in His kingdom. 

" Manapar, 10th Sept., 1544." 

" Very dear Brother in Christ, 

" Antonio is still ill, and cannot serve me. Send me at 
once Antonio Parava to Manapar, for I need him to do the 
cooking [obviously this means the cooking for the refugee 
Christians]. When I arrive at Iniquitibirim's . . . [text 
defective]. Pray God for me. Tell the children to remember 
in their prayers to pray God for me. 

"I will write Manoel da Cruz a letter to give you a hundred 
fanoens for the instruction of the children. 

" Tuticurim, 20th Sep., 1544." 

" When I arrived in Manapar, and was just leaving to go 
to Aleixo de Sousa's, two Nairs arrived [men of the ruling and 
military caste] with a letter from a Portuguese. He writes 
me that he is waiting in Bearime and has a letter from a 
Comptroller of Revenue and certain dispatches for me. So 

02 



212 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

I am forced to go and see Iniquitibirim. ... I go the Cape 
Comorin road by land. I shall visit the Christian villages 
and baptize the babies. 

" On Monday, or when you think best, I should be pleased 
if you visited Tuticurim Christians . . . [text defective]. 

" I commend me to your prayers and those of the children. 
With such help I have no fear of the fears these Christians put 
into me. They say not to go by land, for all who wish ill to 
these Christians wish much worse to me. I am so sick of life 
that I count it more worth while to die in the attempt to 
help our religion \ley~\ and faith than see such wrongs as I 
have seen without being able to help or prevent them. I 
am sorry for nothing but that I was not in a better position 
[to deal with] those whom you know, who so cruelly injure 
God. 

" Manapar, 10th Nov., 1544. 

" I leave at once for Pudicare and Father Francisco Coelho 
goes to visit the Christians at Atapanoa." 

In November two native priests were sent to Xavier by the 
Bishop of Goa, and he was able to leave them at the Cape and 
go on to Travancore, as we have seen in the previous chapter. 
On the 18th of December he writes to Mansillas : 

"On Dec. 16th I arrived in Cochin. Before I arrived I 
baptized all the Machuas fishermen who live in the kingdom of 
Travancore. God knows how pleased I should be to go back 
at once to finish baptizing the rest. But the Vicar-General 
thinks it is a greater service to God to go to the Governor to 
deal with the punishment of the Rajah of Jafnapatam (see 
pp. 216-18). 

" I shall leave here for Cambay in two or three days in a 
very well fitted brigantine. I hope to return very quickly 
with all the dispatch consistent with the service of the Lord 
God. 

" The Lord Bishop will not go to Cochin this year. The 
Vicar-General [Miguel Vaz] leaves this year for Portugal. 
I hope in God that he will return very quickly. Diogo is in 
St. Paul's [the college]. He was very anxious to go. He 
and Micer Paulo are well, and all at the College. I got news 
from Portugal from a number of letters which came to me 
from there. I see your licence to be ordained a priest, with- 



THE LETTERS TO FRANCISCO MANSILLAS 213 

out your having a patrimony or benefice. It seems to me 
that you have no need of this licence, for the Lord Bishop will 
ordain you without a licence as he ordained the Fathers 
Manoel and Caspar. They are in Cochin so that they may 
go on to you, to join in the work there. Neither the ships 
nor two of our companions [text bad] have arrived up to now, 
I think they will be wintering in Mozambique or have put 
back to Portugal. One of them is Portuguese and the other 
Italian. The king writes very highly of these two Portuguese 
of ours. Please God that they reach you safely. I know 
neither of them. They were not among those we left. There 
are more than 60 students of our Company in the University 
of Coimbra. The many good things they write to me of 
them is a matter of great thanks to God our Lord. Almost 
all are Portuguese, which pleases me greatly. Of the Com- 
panions of Italy I hear very good news, but. as I hope we shall 
see each other within a month, and I shall show you all the 
letters, I say no more. 

" Whenever you get this letter, for the love and service of 
God our Lord I pray you earnestly to make yourself ready 
to go and visit the Christians of the Travancore shore whom 
I have just baptized. In each place set up a school to teach 
the boys [bad text] ... up to 150 fanoens. In all these 
places of the coast leave pay for those who teach the boys 
up to Pescaria Grande. Ask the Captain for money for your 
expenses. 

" In Manapar take a boat up to the village of Carea. Go 
to Momchuri, where there are Machuas : they are not bap- 
tized : the place is about a good league from Cape Comorin. 
Baptize them, for they have asked for it repeatedly, and I 
could not go. Antonio Fernandez, a Malabar Christian, will 
go in a brigantine and try to find you and remain with you 
till the baptism of those who remain is finished. He is a 
very fine man, and zealous for God's honour. He knows the 
people. He knows well how we ought to deal with them. 
Do what he tells you, without hindering him in anything. I 
did so, and I always got on well. I beseech you that you do 
the same. 

" Take Matthew with you, and^the bailiff who went with me 
from Viranoa to Patanoa, and your ' boys ' [servants] and a 
canacapole, -y?ho can write, that the written prayers may be 
left in each place . . . [text defective]. Pay this canacapole 



214 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

with the king's money, which the Captain will give you for 
this purpose. * 

" Give Father Joao de Licano the charge of baptizing and 
teaching. 

" Francisco Mendez is in a hurry, so I do not write you more. 
May our Lord always help you, as I wish that He may help 
me. 

" Cochin, 18th Dec., 1544. 

" Your very dear Brother in Christ. "f 

* Teixeira (Vita, Mon. Xav., vol. ii. p. 852) explains who were the canaca- 
poles : " He (Xavier) then and here gave a beginning to the order of the 
Canacapoles, who are in that coast, and by whom our Lord is so well served, 
and souls so helped, and who, if it were possible, were a necessity in all new 
Christianity. . , . Seeing himself alone almost, in that great coast, where 
there were so many Christian villages, to which he could not go ... he chose 
in each village one or two Christians of the most intelligent in matters of the 
faith, of the best life and conscience, and taught them the form and mode of 
baptizing, giving them orders to baptize when necessary . . . these are those 
who now in each village have charge of the church, and are as sacristans of it, 
and baptize in extreme need, and teach the doctrine twice daily, in the morning 
to the boys and in the afternoon to the girls, and publish the banns . . . they 
keep a list of the births, etc., etc." 

f The text o! these letters is in Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 310 ff. 



CHAPTER XIV 

CEYLON, NEGAPATAM AND SAN THOMlS 
(1545) 

IN December, 1544, Xavier went north to Coulam and 
Cochin to arrange with the authorities there for the official 
protection and favour which he had promised to his new 
converts. He evidently meant to return to the Cape as 
soon as those arrangements were made, but in Cochin 
he got news of a great massacre of native Christians in 
Ceylon. The situation was difficult and complicated, but 
Xavier tackled it immediately. His first step was to inter- 
view the Governor of India, who was at that moment far 
north in the Gulf of Cambay. The Saint embarked in a catur, 
a swift native boat, and, after a short pause at Goa, in order 
to arrange for missionaries to carry on his work at the Cape, 
he reached the Governor, and gave him a rtsumt of the state 
of affairs in Ceylon. It is difficult, if not impossible, to get a 
clear idea of the details of the situation, but we can trace 
abundant material for tragedy, and we know that the tragedy 
was enacted. 

When, in 1518, the Portuguese first landed in Ceylon, they 
unconsciously invaded a region sacred alike, though for 
different reasons, to Hindoos, Brahmins and Mussulmans. So 
from the first they had been particularly unwelcome there. 
Nor were they the only invaders. Tamils had already 
crossed from the mainland, the island was divided up into 
petty kingdoms, and there was a constant competition for 
these little thrones, and perpetual war between Mussulmans, 
Cingalese and Tamils. Politically, the moment of their 
invasion was an opportune one for the Portuguese, for they 
came upon a country divided against itself. A fort was built 
at Colombo, and Franciscan monks preached the Gospel of 
peace. It would take an experienced reader of the detective 
school of literature to follow the tale of intrigue between the 
various petty kings and their rivals and the Portuguese 
government. Commonly, the native bribe was the promise 
to become a Christian, made by the intriguing king on behalf 



216 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

of himself or the heirs for whom he wished to secure the 
protection of the white men. 

In 1545 the king of Jafnapatam emerges before us, a 
sinister and hated figure, a man who had succeeded to his 
crown by murdering his master, and who kept himself in 
affluence by secret and illegal tradings with the Portuguese 
commander at Negapatam, over on the mainland. He was 
especially loathed by his subjects on the island of Manar. 
This tribe had heard rumours of the coming of the Saint to 
the Paravas, and of his life among them, and they sent over 
messengers who came to the new disciples like the Greeks of 
old, saying : " We would see Jesus." Xavier had sent them 
a native priest, and he had made six hundred converts. But 
the king of Jafnapatam feared that open dealings with the 
Portuguese would spoil his secret dealings with the Portu- 
guese commander, so he gave the six hundred converts their 
choice between a return to idolatry and martyrdom. They 
chose the latter. A few months earlier neither they nor their 
teacher, who died with them, had ever heard of the Christian 
faith. It is a striking incident.* 

In the passion of his righteous anger, Xavier allowed him- 
self to be caught into the whirlpool of local intrigue. The 
brother of the murderer, who had himself brought the story 
to Xavier, offered to become a Christian if the Portuguese 
would place him on the throne. The promise appealed to 
Francis, who was always anxious to be as wise as the children 
of this world. But he failed, as the children of light are so 
apt to do when they tread the debatable ground between 
religion and politics. He forgot, or was ignorant of, a more 
reasonable claimant who was already a Christian. Sousa 
seems also to have been ignorant of this other prince, and he 
sent Xavier off to Negapatam with full authority to put the 
offending rajah to death, and establish this new Christian 
brother in his place. Xavier set out cheerfully on his mission, 
and in full confidence he wrote that the prayers of the martyrs 
of Manar would bring their murderer to a sense of his 
sins, and to true penitence, before he laid his head on the 

bloek.f 

And the Saint's hopes for this new field, so richly sown 
with the blood of the martyrs, was immense. With lightning 

* See Tursellinus, Book II., cap. 12. 
f Mow. Xav., vol. i. p. 869. 



CEYLON, NEGAPATAM AND SAN THOME 217 

speed he returned from Cambay to Cochin, wrote his letters 
for the home-going mails, and proceeded round the coast to 
Negapatam. 

This batch of letters was to produce a great impression in 
Europe. The news they carried was sensational enough. 
At Travancore, in a few weeks, ten thousand converts ; in 
Ceylon, hundreds of native martyrs. The rector of the 
college at Coimbra wrote : " The letters of Master Francis 
have just come in. We are all deeply touched. If I could 
send every man in this college out to India I would do it at 
once." * King John commanded that twelve new mission- 
aries should be sent out that year. It was after all but a 
small response on his part to the solemn and prophetic 
charges which Francis had made to him. 

The letter to Loyola is one long appeal for more helpers 
in the fields that are so heavy with harvest. And Francis 
is so eager for help of any kind that he too carelessly, as he 
afterwards realised, discounts high intellectual and religious 
qualifications. 



c 



Men who have no talent for confessing, preaching, or 
doing the like for the Company could, after having completed 
their Exercises and having served some months in humble 
duties, do much service in these parts, if they had bodily 
strength as well as spiritual. For in these heathen districts 
learning is not necessary, except to teach the prayers and 
visit and baptize the children. ... I say that they must 
have bodily strength because this district is very trouble- 
some on account of the great heat and the lack of good 
water. There is little for bodily sustenance ; indeed, only 
rice, fish, and fowls. . . . They [the men who come out] 
must be healthy and not delicate, able to stand the constant 
labours of baptizing, teaching, walking from place to place 
. . . but they must go through dangers, remembering they 
were born to die for their Redeemer and Lord, and therefore 
they must have spiritual strength. And because I have not, 
and walk where I have much need of it, I pray you to have 
special remembrance of me. And those who have talent 
either for confessing or for giving the Exercises, though 
they have not the physique to bear other troubles, you 

B * Epislolos Mixtce, vol. i. p. 231, quoted bv Brou, Vie de S, Francois Xavier, 
vol. i. p. 296. ' 



218 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

should send too, for they can go to Goa or Cochin, where 
they will do much service to God. . . . 

" It is four years since I left Portugal. All this time I 
have got only a few letters from you from Rome, and two 
from Master Simon from Portugal. I wish every year to 
know your news and of all the Company in detail. I know 
well that you write each year as I do, but I fear me that as 
I do not get your letters, you may not get mine." * 

Meanwhile, the open door in Ceylon which the Manar 
massacre so abruptly slammed had been locked and bolted. 
Xavier arrived at Negapatam with dispatches from Sousa, 
authorising the overthrow of the wicked Rajah of Jaf napatam, 
to discover that the whole matter was evidently being hushed 
up as effectively as possible. Instead of finding the Portu- 
guese commander eagerly waiting for him with a fleet pre- 
pared and ready to avenge the martyrs, as he had expected, 
he found himself coldly received, and all his proposals and 
those of the Governor pushed aside. What had happened ? 
An incident which Thomas Hardy would call one of the 
ironies of fate. A Portuguese ship, richly laden with cargo, 
had run ashore on the Ceylon coast, and the Rajah of Jaf na- 
patam had seized it and announced that he would keep it 
for a surety, in case of any revenge being taken upon him for 
the murder of the Christians. The Portuguese commander 
at Negapatam had evidently a good share in this valuable 
cargo, so he found it convenient to forget the martyrs. 
Xavier was hopelessly baffled ; the arduous work of many 
weeks had come to nothing, and all chances of establishing 
the faith in Ceylon blotted out. It must have been one of 
the most bitter and humiliating moments of his life. 

None of his letters evince such strong disgust toward the 
Portuguese Government as that written at this time to 
Rodriguez : 

" Do not allow any friend of yours to come to India in the 
employment and service of the king, for it can truly be said 
of them (i.e., the king's officers) : 

** Let them be blotted out of the book of life, 

" And not be written with the righteous. 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 862. 



CEYLON, NEGAPATAM AND SAN THOME 219 

" . . . . Wrong-doing has become so usual that no one 
is at all troubled by it. Everyone takes the same road 
rapio, rapis. And I am terrified to see how many moods 
and tenses and participles of this wretched verb those who 
come here can invent." * 

It is not likely that he blamed himself for having used 
the dubious weapons of political diplomacy. He had done 
so before, and he would do so again. But these weapons 
were sharpened to other uses than his. It was that which 
revolted and angered him. He thought it possible to have a 
political organisation whose sole end would be the coming of 
the kingdom of heaven. To the last this great Saint was 
also a man of the world and a diplomatist. These may have 
been the stains upon his garments, but he never washed them 
out. Later, from Japan, we find him writing a singular 
letter to Simon Rodriguez in Lisbon. The Spaniards had 
been coming from Nueva Espana to Japan. Apparently he 
thinks this is not for the greater glory of God. So he wishes 
them to be told that the voyage is very dangerous on account 
of reefs in the sea, and that all the Spaniards have been lost. 
Even if they got there it would do them no good, as the 
Japanese were very bellicose and covetous, and would take 
them all. And the country was sterile, and they could not 
be supplied, and so would die of starvation. And the 
Japanese would kill them all. 

Xavier says all this to Simon in Portugal, who is to tell the 
King and Queen, and they are to discharge their conscience 
by telling the Emperor Charles not to send ships to Japan. 
Besides pleasing his Portuguese friends in the East, he must 
have known it would please the Court in Portugal to see this 
letter, and might bring him some helpers and money. Other- 
wise he could just as well have sent the letter direct to 
Spain. And, of course, the voyage was dangerous, and the 
Spanish route may have been especially so. And, of course, 
it is possible that some of Xavier's commercial friends got him 
to write this letter for their own interests, and he did it 
without thinking much about it.f 

But let us return to Negapatam. The account he gives of 
the fiasco is restrained to a degree : 

" 1 was some days in Negapatam. Jafnapatam has not 
* Mon. Xav. t vol. i. p. 375. f Ibid., vol. i. p. 730. 



220 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

been taken, nor -was that king who was to become a Christian 
put into possession : it was not done because the king's ship 
which came from Pegu went ashore, and the king of Jafna- 
patam took the cargo, and until they get back what he took, 
what the Governor commanded is not done. May it please 
God that it will be done, if it be to His service."* 

One might have expected that at this point Xavier would 
have returned to his new converts in the South : he would 
probably have done so, but the winds prevented him. These 
were for him days of perplexity and uncertainty. " I do 
not know what will become of me," he writes to Mansillas. 
" May God our Lord grant us at the right time knowledge 
of His most holy will, and make us always ready to fulfil it 
whenever it is clearly revealed and made known to us. For 
to be good we have to be pilgrims in this life, ready to go 
wherever we can best serve God our Lord."t 

He did not forget his new converts, though he did not go 
back to them. 
The same letter proceeds : 

" I beseech you not to tire of working with these people. 
Preach continually in all these places, baptize the babies 
diligently, arrange that the prayers shall be taught. You 
will get 2,000 fanoens from Juan da Cruz, which have been 
collected in this Fishery coast for teaching the children . . . 
do not settle in any one place, but go continually from place 
to place, visiting all those Christians as I did when I was 
there, for in that way you will best serve God. 

" And also make an account of the expenses incurred in the 
church at Manapar, for I have remitted 2,000 fanoens to 
Diogo Rebello, which Iniquitibirim gave to make churches in 
his district. Father Coelho knows what has been spent. 
Spend what is over in teaching the children. Visit those who 
become Christians on the coast of Travancore, and distribute 
these Malabar Fathers all over the country as seems best to 
you. Be a very careful overseer. . . . 

" I commend two things to you specially : the first that 
you go pilgriming from place to place, baptizing the new- 
born and seeing that the prayers are very diligently taught : 

* Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 382. f Ibid., p. 377. 



CEYLON, NEGAPATAM AND SAN THOME 221 

next, that you inspect those Malabar Fathers who are not 
[words missing] and punish them. . . . Help Cosmo de Paiva 
[the Captain referred to in the other letters to Mansillas] to 
clear his conscience of the many robberies he has committed 
on this coast, and of the evils and homicides his greed wrought 
in Tuticurim. More, counsel him, as a friend of his honour, 
to return the money which he took from those who killed 
the Portuguese, for it is a most ugly thing to sell Portuguese 
blood for money. I do not write because I have no 
hope of any improvement [this is what Xavier says, but 
from the context he would appear to mean : "It is not 
because I am hopeless of his improvement that I do not 
write"], and so tell him from me that I must send a written 
notice to the Governor that he may punish him, and to the 
Infante Dom Henrique that by means of the Inquisition he 
may punish those who persecute the converts to our holy law 
and faith. And so let him amend ! 

"... Welcome Vasco Fernandez who brings my letter, for 
I hope in God our Lord that he will join our Company. He 
seems to be a very fine lad and anxious to serve God, and it 
is right to favour him. Write me fully about yourself and 
your Christians and about Cosmo de Paiva, as to whether he 
makes amends and restores what he took from the Christians. 

" Our Lord help you always, as I wish Him to help me. 

" From Negapatam, 7 April, 154-5. 

" Your Brother in Christ, 

" FRANCIS." * 

But the days of darkness and perplexity were not ended. 
Francis had come to one of the great spiritual crises of his 
life, and yet the still small voice had not spoken. For the 
first time since his conversion we see him hesitating, uncertain, 
tentative. For days he waited, but no light came. Then he 
felt the need for complete loneliness and silence. " I was 
obliged," he writes, "to go to St. Thome." 

So the Saint went on furlough for five months. He set out 
for Meliapor by sea ; but the ship was driven back by tempest, 
and he had to go on foot. Close by Meliapor, according to 
the Nestorian traditions, were buried the actual bones of the 
doubting Apostle. A little heap of ruins marked his legendary 
tomb, and the Portuguese had built a church upon the spot, 

* Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 377. 



222 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

where pilgrims might come and pray. And here they were 
told how St. Thomas had lost his life. One day when he was 
in his hermitage in the wood, and while he was praying to God, 
surrounded by a great flock of peacocks, an idolater passed 
by, and, not seeing the Saint, sent an arrow from his bow 
towards one of the peacocks. But, instead of hitting the 
bird, the arrow lodged in the side of St. Thomas, who there- 
upon very sweetly adored his Creator and gave up the ghost. 

Francis lodged in the little clergy house adjoining the 
church, and the priest in charge has left a written account of 
the visit. They ate at the same table, he tells us, and often 
talked together. But St. Francis spoke only of spiritual 
things. It was not a formal retreat nor a complete holiday. 
Xavier could not keep himself back, even then, from doing 
his Master's work. His teaching and his holy life, this priest 
tells us, made a great change in the town of Meliapor. He 
turned away many from mortal sin, and married a great 
number of people. The social life in this Portuguese colony 
was very much like that in Goa. It was his habit, Coelho 
goes on to say, to go out of the house every night secretly, 
cross the little garden and enter the church. Legends of 
resounding blows with the devil heard in there, and of 
miraculous illuminations received, suggest that here was 
Xavier's Penuel, and that the record of the struggle and the 
victory were somehow visible upon his body, and thus 
childishly interpreted by the uninitiated, as these things so 
often are. 

But we must turn to his own letter, which is written after 
his discovery of the will of God. 

" In this holy house (of San Thome") I took it as a duty to 
occupy myself in praying to God our Lord to grant me to 
know in my soul His most holy will, and to give me the 
firm resolution to fulfil it, and the firm hope that He who has 
given the will will give the power to fulfil it. It pleased God 
to remember me with His accustomed mercy, and with much 
interior comfort I felt and knew that it was His will that I 
should go to those parts of Malacca where Christians have 
lately been made. ... if Portuguese ships do not go this 
year to Malacca, I will go in some Moorish or heathen ship. I 
have such faith in God our Lord, dearest brothers, for Whose 
love alone I make this journey, that though no ship at all left 



CEYLON, NEGAPATAM AND SAN THOME 

this coast this year, and a catarmaran (a small and rudely 
built native boat) was leaving, I would go in it confidently, 
with all my hope placed in God. Dearest brothers in Christ, 
I pray you by the love and service of God our Lord, that you 
remember me a sinner in your sacrifices and continual 
prayers, commending me to God. 

" At the end of August I hope to leave for Malacca, for 
the ships which have to go are waiting for that monsoon 
(monQom). I am writing to the Governor to send me a patent 
for the Captain of Malacca that he may give me a boat and 
everything necessary for going to the islands of Maquaca. 
For the love of our Lord see that you get it from his Lordship, 
and send it on with this patamar.* 

" Send me with him a small Roman Breviary. . . . From 
Malacca I will write you at length, giving you accounts of 
the Christians that are made, and of the opportunities, so 
that you may provide men who may increase our holy faith. 
For since your house is called Holy Faith (the college of St. 
Paul at Goa was also known as the college of the Holy Faith), 
it is necessary that the deeds and name should correspond. 
. . . May our Lord unite us in His holy glory, for I do not 
know if we shall see each other again here. 

" Meliapar, 8th May, 1545. 

" Your least brother, 

" FRANCISCO."! 

* A native messenger. f Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 382. 



CHAPTER XV 

" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 

(15451547) 

AT the end of September 1545 Xavier arrived in Malacca. 
His fame had preceded him. " When I was a child," an 
old man said at the process of 1616, " I saw Father Xavier 
with my own eyes land for the first time in Malacca. The 
people ran out from the harbour to receive him. They 
shouted with joy, l The Holy Father is here ! ' " 

The Portuguese had established themselves in Malacca in 
1511. Albuquerque captured the town from the Moors, 
erected forts and churches, and made it a base for his military 
operations in the East Indies. But the town was not held 
without a bitter struggle. It was too valuable a fort to be 
easily lost or gained. Through Malacca most of the trade 
from the Far East came westward ; it was the Singapore of the 
sixteenth century. Before the Western invasion it had been 
the headquarters of a powerful Malay dynasty which had 
adopted the faith of Islam. 

The harbour was immense, and, when Xavier arrived there, 
was the rendezvous of many hundreds of trading vessels 
Indian, Arabian, Chinese, Levantine, Portuguese. Already 
the spires of Christian churches rose from among the Eastern 
mosques and domes. But hitherto Christianity had been 
little more than a part of the political equipment of Portugal. 
It was not a religion which the invaders from the West could 
easily proclaim with any dignity or sincerity as their own. 
In 1521 the Spaniards, arriving from the East, had annexed 
the Philippines. Since then it had been difficult to decide 
where their property ended and that of the Portuguese 
began. Added to this, there was a constant intrigue going on 
between the native sultans and one or other of the newcomers. 

On November 10th Xavier wrote to the Fathers in 
Portugal : 

"... I preach every Sunday in the Cathedral, and I 
am not so content with my sermons as those who have the 
patience to hear me. Every day, for an hour or more, I 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 225 

teach the children the prayers. I stay at the hospital, 
confess the poor sick, say mass and communicate them. I 
am so importuned with confessions that it is not possible to 
take them all. My chief occupation is to translate the 
prayers from Latin into language that can be understood in 
the Macaeares : not to know the language is very trouble- 
some. . , . 

" While waiting in San Thom6 for weather to go to Malacca 
I met a merchant, who had a ship with his merchandise, with 
whom I talked of the things of God, and God taught him 
that there is other merchandise, in which he had never 
dealt, so that he left ship and merchandise, and came with 
me to the Macacares, determined to live all his life in poverty, 
serving God our Lord. He is a man of 35. He was a soldier 
all his worldly life, and now is a soldier of Christ. He 
commends himself to your prayers, he is called Juan d'Eyro. 

" When I got to Malacca a number of letters from Rome 
and Portugal were given me, from which I got, and do still 
get, great comfort. I read them so often that it seems to me 
that I am there, or that you, most dear brothers, are here, 
and if not in body at least in spirit. ... 

" Above all, most dear brothers, I pray you by the love of 
God to send out a number of our Company every year, for they 
are needed, and for going among the heathen scholarship is 
not necessary, but that they should come very well drilled 
in the Exercises. So I conclude praying that our Lord may 
grant us to feel within our soul the power to fulfil and put 
into practice His will. 

" Malacca, 10th Nov., 1545. 

" Your least brother and servant, 

" FRANCISCO." * 

" In going among the heathen scholarship is not necessary," 
Xavier writes in this letter. With regard to this, experience 
was to teach him a lesson which is still needed. 

When in Lisbon he had urged Loyola to send him men 
even if they had not much letras, and he repeats himself 
continually along these lines till after his return from the 
Moluccas. The collapse of Francisco Mansillas had probably 
modified Xavier's views on the subject. For the Saint had 
commanded him to go out to the Maluccas, and Mansillas had 

* More. Xav., vol. i. p. 387. 

P 



226 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

refused. We have seen the wealth of the outpouring of love 
which Xavier had lavished upon this candidate of " holy 
simplicity." 

When we come to the documents of 1552 we see how he 
expresses several times the need of more than holy simplicity. 
For instance, in a letter to Caspar Barzee* he says : " Beware 
that you never receive [i.e., take into the Company] persons of 
little ability, judgment and reason, persons weak and worth- 
less." Again, in the same document, he says : " And don't 
receive men who have not great parts " [that is the word he 
uses, just as the Scots talk of a " lad o' pairts "] " and ability 
for our Company, especially when they lack learning." And, 
again : " Take care that you never make any of them priests ; 
since our Father Ignatius forbids it so strictly, unless they have 
learning and a life approved many years. Look how many 
scandals result from the imperfect and unlearned who are 
made priests. Therefore take care not to make anyone a 
priest unless he has sufficient learning. For a man at last 
shows what he is made of." And to Caspar also he says 
the same again ; he tells him to take into the Company 
few and good, " for we see that they are worth more, and 
do more, who are few and good, than many who are not." 
And, again, " Never ordain into the Company persons 
without knowledge " [sem sciencias].t The Saint's ten 
years' experience in the East had convinced him that he 
could not have too good men. 

There is another interesting remark in his first letter from 
Malacca. " My chief occupation," he says, "is to translate 
the prayers from Latin into a language that can be understood 
by the Macaceres ; it is very troublesome not to know the 
language." Even if there were not other similar passages 
scattered throughout the letters, which the reader will notice 
for himself, this sentence would demolish with one stroke 
the theories of one group of writers who affirm that Xavier 
possessed the gift of tongues, and the jibes of another group 
who maintain that he never took the trouble to learn the 
native languages or to translate anything into them. Some 
missionaries of the Roman obedience who teach the prayers 
to their converts in Latin might here with profit take a page 
out of their great predecessor's book. 

* Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 914, doc. 161, par. 5 
t Ibid., doc. 159, p. 907. 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 227 

A month later, while still in Malacca, Francis writes to his 
friends in the college at Goa. He has evidently had news of 
some sort of rebellion on Micer Paulo Camerino's part, and 
sends him some personal advice. 

" Malacca, 

" 16th Dec., 1545. 

" To the Fathers Paulo Camerino, Juan de Beira and others 
at Goa, 

"... Micer Paulo, I pray you earnestly, for the love of 
Jesus Christ, to hold your House in much regard, and, above 
all, I charge you to be obedient to those who govern it ; your 
doing this will give me the greatest pleasure, for if I were 
there myself I should do nothing against the will of those 
in charge, but obey them in everything that they might 
command me. For I hope in God that He has given you to 
feel within your soul that in nothing can you serve Him more 
than to deny your own self-will for love of Him." 

In this same letter he tells those men who are working in 
the college at Goa that he is about to set out for the Moluccas, 
still farther eastward. This journey, like so many of his other 
journeys, was a tour of exploration. He had learned now, he 
says, what could be done at Goa and in Cape Comorin, and 
soon he would be able to see what could be made of the 
Moluccas. 

Xavier's work in Malacca was probably almost altogether, 
as it had been in Goa, among the Portuguese and the half- 
castes. 

" I did not lack spiritual occupations, both in preaching on 
Sundays and feast days, and in confessing many the sick in 
the hospital where I stayed as well as numbers of sound folk. 
All this time I taught the Christian doctrine to the children 
and to those newly converted to the faith. With the help of 
God our Lord I made peace between many soldiers and 
citizens, and at night I went through the city with a bell, 
commending the souls in purgatory, and taking with me a 
number of the children to whom I was teaching the Christian 
doctrine."* 

One of Xavier's converts here in Malacca was a Jewish 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 398. 

P2 



228 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

doctor. This Jew went often to hear him preach and to 
mock him, and spent some pains in warning other Jews 
against the missionary. But Francis got into personal touch 
with him, talked with him, dined in his house. Soon he was 
converted, and kept the faith to the end of his days. He had 
been so clever and so obstinate that his conversion made a 
great impression.* 

Accounts of how the Saint went about in the vicious 
colonial quarters of Malacca and reformed the morals of 
those whom he made his friends are very like the accounts of 
his work in Goa. His manners here, as there, were always 
joyful, and full of affection and sympathy. When some 
soldiers put away their cards deferentially at his approach he 
told them to go on with their game ; soldiers, he said, need 
not behave like monks. But neither, he said to himself, 
need they behave like beasts, and he used the popularity he 
knew so well how to gain for the furtherance of the Gospel. 
For that end he made himself, as the old historian says, " a 
soldier to the soldiers and a merchant to the merchants." 
Du Jarric tells us with what sweet skill he had converted "a 
man of very loose life " on the way to Malacca : 

The pilot of the ship in which he embarked was a man of very 
loose life, and not one, but many misfortunes had come to him 
because of this. The Father, seeing the life of this man, .vet 
himself to meet him, and went often to the helm of the ship, 
where he stayed talking with him about the things of his profession, 
always letting fall, without seeming to do so, some word which 
touched his heart, and taking care to avoid any subject which 
might annoy him. The pilot, seeing the great gentleness, and 
meekness of the Fatherj began to open himself to him, telling 
him that he was a great sinner and that he wished to make his 
peace with God by making a good confession, if he would be 
pleased to hear him as soon as they arrived in port. The Father 
replied that he was very glad to hear this, and meanwhile enter- 
tained him with good and holy talk. Now, when they had landed 
the pilot did not seem to remember his promise any longer, but 
put off his confession from day to day, and avoided the presence 
of the Father as much as possible. 

But one day as Francis was walking along the sea-shore, his 
eyes cast up towards heaven as was his custom, they met each 
other by chance, or rather by divine providence. The pilot, 

* Process, 1556, Goa (see Mon. Xav., vol. ii. p. 236). 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 229 

seeing that he could neither hide himself nor fly from the Father, 
who had already seen him, said to him in jest, " Well, Father, 
when will you hear my confession ? " The Father, smiling, 
replied thus : " Jesus, my good friend, when will I hear you ? 
Now at once if you wish, and here in this place if you will, walking 
together on this shore " ; and as soon as he had said this he 
began to make the sign of the Cross, in order to begin the 
confession. The pilot, making a virtue of necessity, followed, 
saying the Confiteor, although at the beginning he was quite put 
out, like a man seized suddenly, who does not know what he does ; 
at first he advanced a few steps and then halted, but soon his 
spirit quite changed, and he took courage, so that what he had 
begun half perforce, or from shame, he continued with good 
will and devotion. The Father, seeing this, took him to a little 
chapel which was quite near by the shore ; . . . when they were 
there alone, the Father, who had heard him say before that 
he suffered with his knees, brought him a mat to sit upon, not 
asking anything but that he should have sorrow and repentance 
for his sins ; and the pilot had these in such great measure that 
he could not continue his confession for the abundance of his 
tears and sobs, which came from the bottom of his heart. Then, 
having thrown himself upon his knees and violently beat his 
breast, he asked forgiveness from God for all the sins he had 
committed. But desiring to make a. general confession of his 
life he asked the Father for a few days in which to prepare himself. 
During these he did many acts of penitence and restitution ; 
among others he put away from him his occasions of stumbling, 
and from that time on gave himself up to virtue and especially 
to frequenting the sacraments of confession and communion, 
in such a manner that at the end of his life, full of divine 
succour, he departed this life in peace, having lived an exemplary 
life after this change. This he attributed, after God, to the 
gentleness which Father Francis had had towards him in his 
weakness.* 

Valignano says that Malacca was much reformed by 
Xavier's visit. But here, as elsewhere, we see him to have 
been a mighty torrent, ever rushing onward to a further goal. 
All those conversions and reforms were rather a kind of 
inevitable accompaniment of his torrential personality 
than, as those who know him vaguely are apt to think, the 
first-fruits of harvests which he too soon wearied of reaping. 
And as Papal Nuncio in the East it was his duty, as his 

i du Jarric > Histoire des Choses plus m6morables, Bordeaux, 1610, vol. i. 
p. 122. 



230 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

French biographer says, " to visit, one after the other, all 
the districts where the faith had already been planted, and 
to see with his own eyes what ought to be done, what mistakes 
should be rectified, what activities established, what mis- 
sionaries sent out." * 

On the 1st of January, 1546, he left Malacca for the 
Moluccas, and on the 14th of February he arrived a,t Amboina. 
During the whole of that and the following year he journeyed 
from island to island, searching out natives who had already 
been baptized and then forsaken, doing social work among 
the Portuguese colonists, and preaching and teaching and 
baptizing wherever he went. 

Soon after his arrival in Amboina an armada from New 
Spain sailed into the port. He writes : 



" 



I was very busy during the three months those eight 
ships were here in preaching, confessing, visiting the sick, and 
helping them to a good death, which is very difficult to do 
with persons who have not lived in great conformity with 
the law of God, because they lived confidently in continual 
sins without wishing to break the habit of them. With God's 
help I reconciled many soldiers, who never live peaceably in 
this island of Amboina. They [the ships] left for India in 
May, and my companion Juan d'Eyro and I left for Malucco, 
60 leagues from here." 

The same letter goes on to tell why he had come to these 
islands, and describes the voyage eastward from Cape 
Comorin. 

" On the coast of Malucco is a place called Moro, 60 leagues 
away. In this island many years ago a great lot of people 
became Christians, but by the death of the clerics who 
baptized them they have been left abandoned and without 
teaching. The land of Moro is very dangerous, because its 
people are very treacherous a,nd put poison in food and drink. 
So the people who should have looked after the Christians 
stopped going there. On account of the need of those 
Christians of Moro for spiritual doctrine, and their need of 

* Brou, Vic de S. Francois Xavier, vol. i. p. 371. 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 231 

somebody to baptize them for the salvation of their souls, and 
also on account of the need (necessidad) I have of losing my 
temporal life to succour the spiritual life of my neighbour, I 
determined to go myself to Moro to help the Christians in 
spiritual things. Ready for any danger of death, with all my 
hope and confidence in God, I wished to be conformed, in my 
own small and weak way, to the saying of Christ our Redeemer 
and Lord : He who would save his soul shall lose it ; but he 
who has lost his soul for My sake shall find it. It may be 
easy to understand the Latin, and the general meaning of 
this saying of the Lord, but when dangers arise, in which the 
life about which you wish to decide will probably be lost, 
and when, in order to prepare yourself to decide to lose your 
life for God's sake that you may find it in Him, you get down 
to details, everything else, even this clear Latin, begins to 
get hazy. And in such a case, however learned you may be, 
you can understand nothing, it seems to me, unless God 
our Lord, in His infinite mercy, makes your particular case 
plain. In such cases we know our flesh, how weak and infirm 
it is. Many of my devoted friends tried to persuade me 
against going to such a dangerous land, and, seeing that 
they could not keep me back, they gave me a number of 
antidotes against poison. I thanked them for their love and 
good will. But I omitted to take the antidotes which, 
with such love and tears, they gave me. I did not wish to 
load myself with fear which I did not have, and still more, 
I wished to lose nothing of all my hope which I had placed in 
God ; so I besought them to remember me in their prayers, 
which are the surest remedies against poison that can be 
found. 

" In this voyage from Cape Comorin to Malacca I was in 
many dangers, both from storms at sea and from enemies. 
I remember one especially. I was in a ship of 400 tons. We 
sailed more than a league in a strong wind with the rudder 
scraping the ground all the way. If we had touched any 
rocks during that time the ship would have gone to pieces. 
If we had found low water anywhere we would have been 
stranded. I saw then many tears.* God our Lord wished to 
prove us by those dangers, and to make us know how little we 

* The literature of the sixteenth century makes plain to us that the shedding 
of tears in those days was by no means regarded as so unmanly a proceeding as 
it is nowadays. 



ST. F&ANCIS XAVIE& 

are worth if we hope in our own strength or trust in created 
things ; and how much we are worth when, getting out of 
these false hopes and distrusting them, we hope in the Maker 
of all things, in Whose hand it is to make us strong when 
dangers are encountered for His love. Those who find 
themselves in such dangers, and face them for His love alone, 
believe without any doubt that all creation is in obedience 
to the Creator, and know clearly that the consolation at such 
a time is greater than the fear of death, since man must 
complete his days. And of these experiences, when the work 
is done and the danger past, a man can neither write nor speak. 
But an impression of what has been gone through remains 
on the memory, and forbids us, now or ever, to weary in the 
service of so good a Lord, and bids us hope in the Lord that He 
will give strength for His service, for His mercies have no end.* 



" I give you this detailed account that you may keep in 
special sorrow and remembrance this great loss of souls which 
is due to the lack of spiritual help. Men whose learning and 
gifts are not enough to be useful to the Company have more 
than enough knowledge and gifts for those parts, if they 
have the will to come and live and die with these people. 
If every year a dozen of them would come, in a short time 
this evil sect of Mahomet would be destroyed. All would 
become Christians, and thus God our Lord would not be dis- 
pleased so much as He is displeased now by there being no one 
to reprove the vices and sins of infidelity. 

" I pray you, my most dear brothers and fathers, by the 
love of Christ our Lord and of His most holy Mother and of all 
the saints that are in the glory of Paradise, to have special 
remembrance of me and to commend me to God continually, 
for I am in great need of your favour and help. Through this 
great need of your continual spiritual favour I have come to 
know by many experiences how God our Lord has aided and 
favoured me in many works both bodily and spiritual, 
through your invocations. Let me tell you what I have 
done, so that I may never forget you. From the letters 
you wrote me, I have taken [cut out], dearest brothers, as a 
continual and special remembrance, and for my great com- 
fort, your names, written by your own hands, and these I 

* This is the passage quoted on the title-page. 



" ISLANDS OP HOPE IN GOD " 233 

always carry about with me, together with the vow of pro- 
fession I made,* for the comfort I get from them. To God 
our Lord I give thanks first, and then to you, most sweet 
Brothers and Fathers. For God made you such that to 
carry your names comforts rne much. Now, since soon 
we shall see each other in the next life more restfully than 
in this, I say no more. 

" Amboina, 10th May, 1546. 

" Your least brother and son"~\ 

To this letter he adds the following vivid postscript, or 
hijuela : 

" The people of these islands are very barbarous and full of 
treachery. They are baser than the black tribes an utterly 
thankless people. There are islands here in which men eat 
one another. This is those who are killed in battle when there 
is war^ and not otherwise. The hands and heels of those 
who die naturally are eaten at a great banquet. The people 
are such barbarians that in some islands a man who wishes 
to have a great feast will ask his neighbour for the loan of his 
father, if he is very old* for eating, and promises to give his 
Own father when he is old and the neighbour wants to have 
a banquet* I hope within a month to go to an island where* 
those killed in war are eaten, and in it also men lend their 
fathers when they are old for banquets. The inhabitants 
wish to be Christians, and this is why I am going there. There 
are abominable fleshly sins among them that you could not 
believe, nor do I dare to write. 

" The islands are temperate, with great and thick woods 
and plenty of rain. They are so mountainous and difficult 
to travel that in war the people go up them for defence, so 
that they are their forts. There are no horses, nor could 
riding be possible. Land and sea often quake. When the 
sea quakes those who are sailing think the ship has struck a 
rock. To see the earth quake is frightful, and still more the 
sea. Many of the islands cast out fire with a greater noise 
than any discharge of artillery, however heavy. In the 
places where the fire comes out, very large stones are carried 



wa the vow Xavier made, probably in Goa, when in December 
1543 he heard from Loyola that he (Loyola) had been appointed General of 
the Society. 

t Mon. XCLV., vol. i. p. 399. 



234 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

with it by the great impetus with which it comes. For 
lack of anyone to preach in these islands the torments of 
hell, God permits hell to open for the confusion of the infidels 
and their abominable sins. 

" Each of these islands has a language of its own, and there 
is an island where nearly every village has a different language. 
The Malay language, which is spoken in Malacca, is very 
general here. When I was in Malacca, I translated with 
great labour into this language the Creed, with an exposi- 
tion of the articles, the General Confession, Paternoster, Ave 
Maria, Salve Regina, and the Commandments, so that they 
may understand when I speak to them of matters of import- 
ance. There is one great lack in all these islands : they have 
no writings, and very few can write. They write in Malay, 
and the letters are Arabic, which the Moorish cacizes (priests) 
taught, and teach at present. Before they became Moors 
[Mohammedan] they could not write. . . . 

" I met a Portuguese merchant in Malacca, who was 
coming from a busy country called China [this is Xavier's 
first mention of China]. This merchant told me that a very 
honourable Chinese who came from the King's Court put 
many questions to him. Among other things, he asked 
if Christians ate pork. The Portuguese merchant answered 
' Yes/ and asked why he wanted to know. The Chinese 
replied that in his country there are many people who live 
among mountains, separate from the others, who do not 
eat pork, and keep many feasts. I do not know what 
people this is, whether they are Christians who keep the old 
and new law, like those of Prester John, or if they are the 
tribes of the Jews of whom nothing is known. They are not 
Moors, as all say. 

" Every year a number of Portuguese ships go from 
Malacca to Chinese ports. I have charged several to learn 
about this people, advising them to get information about 
their ceremonies and customs, so that we may be able to 
know if they are Christians or Jews. Many say that St. 
Thomas the Apostle went to China and made many Christians, 
and that the Greek Church, before the Portuguese mastered 
India, used to send bishops to teach and baptize the Christians 
whom St. Thomas said his disciples made in these parts. 
When the Portuguese gained India, one of these bishops 
said that, after coming from his country to India, he heard 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 235 

the bishops he met in India say that St. Thomas went to 
China and made Christians. If I learn anything certain 
about these parts of China or others, or what I myself may 
have seen and known by experience, I will write to you." 

These speculations of Xavier's about the people who live 
among the mountains and keep many feasts and do not eat 
pork are very interesting. It is possible that they may have 
been Jews ; last century there were Jews discovered in China 
who had been settled there from time immemorial, and who 
had lost all their Scriptures, and had no Rabbis, and barely 
a tradition left, but who still " ate not of the sinew that 
shrank."* 

They cannot have been the Nestorian Christians who came 
to China in A.D. 635, for there were no Nestorians lef t in China 
after the great persecutions of Tamerlane in the fourteenth 
century ; but there were and are still traces of the Nes- 
torians left among the quasi-Christian secret sects, and 
especially in the widespread society in Northern China known 
as the " Religion of the Pill of Immortality." The real name 
of the great teacher of this society is not disclosed, but his 
period is that of Jesus Christ, and his symbolical names are 
" The Warning Bell, which does not trust physical force," 
" The Quiet Logos," " The King of the Sons of God," " The 
First Teacher of the True Doctrine of Immortality," " The 
Teacher from Above."! 

Again from Amboina he writes to the recalcitrant Paulo 
Camerino : 

" Amboina, 10 May, 1546. 
" Micer Paulo, Brother, 

" Many times, both personally and by letters, I have prayed 
you by the love of God our Lord, and again now once more 
another time I ask you as strongly as I can, that you try in 
everything to do the will of those who have the rule in your 
holy college. For if I were there in your place, in nothing 
would I take so much trouble as in obeying those who were 
in charge of my holy house. And believe me, my brother 
Micer Paulo, it is a very safe rule for hitting the mark in 

* See A Bishop in the Rough (Diary of the Bishop of Norwich), London 
1909, p. 256. 

t See P. Y. Saeki, The Neslorian Monument in China, pp. 54 ff. 



236 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

everything to wish always to be commanded by him who 
commands you, without contradicting him. And on the 
contrary, it is very dangerous for one to do his own will 
against orders. And even though you hit the mark when you 
do the contrary of what is commanded you, believe me, my 
Brother Micer Paulo, the miss is greater than the hit." 

To both Beira and Paulo he adds : 

" I beseech you much by the service of God our Lord, that 
you try to draw into your Company some men of good life who 
will help us to teach the Christian doctrine throughout these 
islands. Let each of you try to draw in at least one com- 
panion. If he is not a priest, let it be some layman who 
desires to be avenged on the world, the flesh, and the devil, 
who have injured him and dishonoured him before God and 
His saints. 

" May our Lord of His infinite mercy unite us in His holy 
kingdom. More pleasure and rest will be there than we 
have in this life. 

" Your least brother." * 

There is yet another letter from Amboina. On May 16th 
Xavier wrote to John III. of Portugal : 

" I have already written to your Highness about the great 
need India has of preachers. ... I can say this after the 
great experience I have had in going through the forts. We 
have such constant dealings with the infidels and our devo- 
tion is so small that men concern themselves about getting 
rich quickly more than about the mysteries of Christ our 
Redeemer and Saviour. The native wives of the married, 
and the half-caste sons and daughters, are content to say that 
they are Portuguese legally, and not religiously [portugeses 
de jerapao e nao da lei. These native women, this means, 
acknowledged that they were Portuguese as distinct from 
subjects of the native princes, but did not consider themselves 
therefore as Christian. If asked if they were Christians, they 
would have said, " Yes," because they were subjects of the 
king, but not otherwise]. The cause is the lack of preachers 
to teach the religion of Christ. 

" The second need which India has in order that those who 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 419 ff. 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 237 

live in it may be good Christians is that Your Highness 
should send the Holy Inquisition. For there are many who 
live by the Mosaic religion and the Moorish sect, without 
any fear of God or shame of the world. As there are many of 
them, and they are scattered among all the forts, the Holy 
Inquisition and many preachers are needed. Let Your 
Highness provide your loyal and faithful vassals of India 
with those so needful things." * 

Xavier estimated, we see here, that preachers alone could 
not cope with the Moors and Jews who overran that part of 
the world. Here he made a fatal mistake, and though the 
greatness of his life and character overshadowed this mistake, 
yet we read in it a portentous sign. Here, and elsewhere in 
this letter, we see that tendency to trust secular and political 
power and influence which developed after Xavier's death, 
and made so much of the so-called missionary work in * 
Portuguese India despicable. It is not in its doctrines that 
the greatest weakness of Roman Catholicism lies, but in its 
trust in temporal power. If everyone concerned had as 
single an eye for the glory of God as Francis Xavier, then 
Church and State and courts of law and Inquisitions and 
governments and armies and navies would all be but 
synonyms for the arm of the Lord, and the kingdom of heaven 
would soon come. But Francis estimated the ideals of those 
institutions too highly, and so, in time, the vineyard was 
wasted. 

Meanwhile, thanks very largely to the fact that he was 
separated so much, both by distance and difficult transit, 
from Goa and all that Goa meant, Xavier appears at this 
period to be developing a greater air of authority, a new 
certainty of himself, a more constant serenity. The change 
can already be felt in some of the letters quoted in this 
chapter. 

Joyfully he went on from island to island, amid almost 
unparalleled scenes of squalor and savagery. In the little 
seaport towns there drifted hither and thither the wreckage 
of humanity, of every race and colour, directed only by 
avarice and animal desire ; and farther inland the native 
tribes had hardly yet emerged from the level to which their 
brothers in the ports, having traversed the long road of 

* Mon. Xav. } vol. i. p. 421. 



238 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

civilisation, were now so surely returning. Xavier had 
entered one of the most stinking backwaters of the world ; 
but here, more than anywhere else even, he comes and goes 
with laughter and singing, and only weeps when he has to 
leave his friends, and when he sees them weeping at having 
to part from him. 

Of Ternate, where he arrived in July, 1546, he writes : 

" We owe thanks to God for the fruit He has produced 
through imprinting on the hearts of His creatures chants in 
His praise and honour among those lately converted to our 
faith. It was the custom in Malucca for the boys in the 
streets and the girls and women in the houses, day and night, 
the farmers in the fields, and the fishers at sea, to sing, instead 
of vain songs, holy chants, such as the Creed, Paternoster, Ave 
Maria, Commandments, the Deeds of Mercy and the General 
Confession, and many other prayers, and all in a language 
that all could understand, both those lately converted to 
our faith and those who were not."* 

Of these same times Gaspar Lopez, at the Process in Goa 
in 1556, said : 

I saw myself in Malucca how the Malay natives, while carrying 
goods to the ships, sang the Paternoster and Ave. Formerly, 
before the coming of the Father, they sang quite other things. 
And more, in the evenings I could hear those same prayers being 
sung in all the houses.! 

These descriptions remind us of the Bishop of Nola's 
descriptions of Niceta's missionary work. Niceta wrote the 
Te Deum, and was " a pioneer spreading abroad the Name of 
Christ throughout the earth and in the depth of the sea." 
" O for the wings of a dove," says Nola, " that I might listen 
to those choirs." And he goes on to describe how Niceta had 
taught the sailors so that as they rowed they filled the sea- 
breezes with their godly strains, and the whales heard the loud 
Arnen.t 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 425. 

f There is a hymn beginning " O God, I love Thee, not because" which is 
popularly ascribed to Xavier. There is no foundation for this supposition, 
though it is very likely that the Saint had made a copy of the Spanish sonnet 
on which the hymn is based, and carried it about with him. For an exhaustive 
study of the question see the Revue Hispanique, vol. 1895. See also Mow* 
Xav., vol. i. pp. 934-940. 

J A. E. Burn, D.D., Niceta o f Remesiana, 1905, p. 142, infra. 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 239 

The king of Malucco, Xavier writes, was a Moor, and he 
gives us a humorous little portrait of him. He was very 
proud of his vassalage to the king of Portugal, and always 
spoke of him as " The King of Portugal, my Lord." 

" He speaks Portuguese very well. If he does not become 
a Christian it is not because of his devotion to Mahomet ; 
the sins of the flesh hold him captive. . . . This poor king 
shows me such signs of affection that the Moors of his court, 
important men, are jealous. He wanted me to be his friend, 
and assured me that in time he would become a Christian. 
He besought me to love him, though he was a Moor. ' Chris- 
tians and Moors,' said he, ' we have the same God ; the time 
will come when we shall be all one.' He took great pleasure in 
my visits, but I could not persuade him to become a Christian. 
He promised me to make one of his numerous children a 
Christian, with an express understanding that he should be 
the one to succeed him."* 

In October of 1546 the Saint passed on to the Islas del Moro. 
It was the tale which he had heard of the sufferings there 
which, as we have already seen, had drawn him out to the 
Moluccas. The Gospel had been preached in these islands, 
but the inconsistence of the Portuguese manners with the 
doctrines they preached had made the Gospel of none effect. 
The story of the career of the Portuguese commander, 
Don Jorge de Menezes, who went to the Moluccas in 1526 is 
typical. He landed amiably, bringing with him as a present 
to the chief a tapestry representing the marriage of the Prince 
of Wales with Katherine of Aragon. When this was hung 
up the chief trembled and bade them take it down and put 
it away, for he believed the figures were enchanbed, and 
would come to life in the night and kill him. Don Jorge, 
however, took the rebuff smiling, and proceeded to more 
important business. This was the clearing of the Spaniards 
out of the Moluccas, which, according to Portuguese inter- 
pretation of the Papal division of the New World, did not 
belong to Spain, and therefore belonged to Portugal. When 
he had done this successfully he poisoned this native king 
of Ternate and shut up his heirs in prison. He also im- * 
prisoned a near relative of the murdered king's, because he sus- 
pected him of having stolen his favourite Chinese pig. The 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 430. 



240 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

native population revolted, and the King's relative, who was a 
favourite with the people, had to be released. But naturally 
the ill-will had not subsided. Natives attacked the colonists ; 
Don Jorge replied by seizing three of them, cutting off the 
hands of two, and tying up the other alive to be worried to 
death by savage dogs. Next he captured and beheaded the 
native regent, and thereupon all the islanders left the island. 
Don Jorge was then considered to have failed in his office, and 
was recalled and banished to the Brazils. Missionaries came 
to Ternate, and some converts were made. In 1536 the 
imprisoned king was sent to Goa, where he purchased a clean 
bill at the price of declaring himself a Christian. He died on 
the return journey, leaving his island by will to the king of 
Portugal. His late subjects, in disgust, abandoned the 
religion of their persecutors and reverted to the faith of their 
fathers. 

The sordid tale of Portuguese government in the Moluccas 
has one bright page, the page which records the administra- 
tion of Antonio Galvao. Of him Whiteway says : " He broke 
up the league of the natives against the Portuguese by dint of 
sheer hard fighting, and then he won over his defeated 
opponents by his justice." This man spent the last seventeen 
years of his life in his native land in an almshouse, because 
he had behaved honestly and generously d.uring his term 
of office. But it is said that he was never made haughty by 
his success in the Moluccas, nor soured by his neglect in 
Portugal, He is called by Jesuit historians the soldier- 
missionary, for he himself toured about the islands visiting 
and encouraging the Christians, and establishing missionaries. 
But even this man could not atone for all that had happened. 
Shortly before Xavier arrived in the Islas del Moro the 
missionaries had all been poisoned, and the natives had, for 
the second time, reverted to their old religion. 

These were the islands which Francis, with that remote and 
mystic humour which is so characteristic of him, called the 
Islands of Hope in God : 

" I never remember having had so great and so continual 
spiritual comfort as in these islands, nor so little sense of 
bodily troubles, though I was going constantly across islands 
surrounded by enemies, and peopled with not very certain 
friends, and in lands where all remedies for bodily sickness 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 241 

were wanting, as well as all aids of secondary causes, for the 
preservation of life. Islands of Hope in God, it would be 
better to call them, than Islas de Moro." * 

The material aspect of those equatorial islands is strange 
and terrifying enough. By day the air is heavy with smoke, 
and by night the ocean is lit by fire, from the burning 
volcanoes. 

" When they asked me," Xavier says, " where that was, I 
told them it is the hell to which all those who worship idols go."f 

Besides working on the coasts of the islands, Francis 
made at least one expedition into the wild interior. No 
journey could have been more perilous or more difficult. 
He went on foot through forests and jungles where to-day a 
European only ventures in a palanquin hung from long 
bamboo poles. The natives were not easy to reach. Partly 
from choice, and partly out of fear of their Mohammedan 
enemies, they hid themselves in the very depths of the 
forests. If a traveller approached, they all fled within 
doors, and the village became silent and lifeless. Even 
to-day, a modern traveller says, a visitor to those villages 
produces the same effect. Xavier passed along the silent 
rows of huts, singing hymns as he went, till gradually 
the doors were withdrawn a little, and the natives peered 
out, and came toward him, like wild birds to a bird-charmer. 
And then he smiled on them and touched them and caressed 
them, " as a father does his children," says old Pere Jarric. 

Of his success among those people Xavier does not say 
much. Valignano says, " Francis believed that the seed of 
the word of God then sown in that sterile land was so powerful 
that it would bring forth fruit and be reaped in abundance 
by his sons, as it was reaped afterwards."! And Xavier, 
when he went onward, did not leave this difficult field, into 
which he had cut his perilous way so bravely, without help. 
Father Beira and others were put in charge, and seven years 
later we hear of persecutions and martyrdoms at the hands of 
neighbouring native tribes. In 1569 we read that in the Islas 
del Moro are the most flourishing missions of all the Moluccas. 

In January, 1547, Xavier returned to Ternate, on his way 
back to India. His plan was to go straight on south to 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 427. f Ibid., vol. i. p. 428. % Ibid., vol. i. p. 76. 

R 



242 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Amboina, and there join the fleet which was shortly going 
westward via Malacca. But his friends in Ternate surrounded 
the ship on which he was about to embark, and would not 
let him go. They promised if he would wait with them a 
little while to send him on to Amboina in a fast boat in time 
to catch the fleet. So he stayed with them for three months. 
During those months, besides his usual labours, Valignano 
tells us that he preached every Wednesday and Friday to 
the native women belonging to the colonists. He spoke in 
the patois, half-native, half-Portuguese, which they could 
most 'easily understand. After the preaching he questioned 
them and taught them till they were able to embrace the 
" law of God." 

It was probably at this time that Xavier composed and 
wrote down in the Malay tongue the following exposition. 
It was designed, Teixeira says, for the newly converted, 
for children and for simple folk. He repeated it and taught 
it to those islanders, and explained one part or other of it to 
his hearers every day. This document is more characteristic 
of Xavier than anything else he has left except the Letters, 
and is very valuable in helping us to gain an idea of his 
missionary methods. 

EXPOSITION WHICH THE BLESSED FATHER FRANCIS MADE 
OF THE APOSTLES' CREED. 

1. Christians, rejoice to hear and know how God in creation 
made everything for the use of men. First He created heaven 
and earth, angels, sun, moon and stars, birds and beasts that 
live in the land and the rivers, and the fish that live in the waters ; 
and when all things had been created at last He created man in 
His likeness. 

2. The first man whom God created was Adam, the first woman 
Eve ; and after God created Adam and Eve in the terrestrial 
Paradise, He blessed and married them, and commanded them 
to have children and to people the land ; and from Adam and 
Eve we, all the peoples of the world, come ; and since God did 
not give Adam more than one wife, clearly it is in opposition to 
God that Moors and heathen and bad Christians have many wives. 

3. And also it is true that fornicators live in opposition to 
God, since God first married Adam and Eve before He commanded 
them to increase and multiply having legitimate children [sons 
of blessing]. And thus those who adore idols as the unbelievers 
do, and those who believe in witchcraft, in lots and in diviners, 
sin greatly against God, for they adore and believe in the devil 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 243 

and take him for their lord, forsaking the God who created them, 
and gave them soul and life and body and all they have. These 
miserable creatures by their idolatries lose heaven, which is the 
place of souls, and the glory of Paradise, for which they were 
created. 

4. But the true Christians and loyal to their God and Lord 
believe and adore willingly and heartily the one God and Lord, 
true creator of heaven and of earth. And well they show it when 
they go to the churches and see the images which are the reminders 
of the Saints who are with God in the Glory of Paradise. 

5. So Christians put their knees on the ground when they are 
in the churches, and lift their hands to the heavens where is the 
Lord God, who is all their good and comfort, and confess in the 
words of St. Peter, " I believe in God, Father Almighty, Creator 
of Heaven and earth" God created the angels in the heavens 
before the men in the earth. St. Michael, chief of all, and the 
greater part of the angels at once adored the Lord God, giving 
Him thanks and praises that He had created them : Lucifer, 
on the contrary, and many angels with him, were not willing 
to adore their Creator, but said with pride, Let us go up and be 
like God who is in the high heavens ; and for the sin of pride 
God thrust Lucifer and the angels with him from Heaven to 
hell. 

6. Lucifer, in envy of Adam and Eve, the first human beings 
who were there created in grace, tempted them with the sin of 
pride in the terrestrial Paradise, telling them they would be as 
gods if they ate of the fruit which their Creator had forbidden 
them. Adam and Eve, desirous of being as gods, consented to 
the temptation of the enemy, and conquered by the demon 
they forthwith ate of the forbidden fruit, and so lost the grace 
in which they were created, and for their sins the Lord God 
thrust them out of the terrestrial Paradise. Outside it they 
lived nine hundred years in trouble, doing penance for the sin they 
had committed ; and so great was their sin that neither Adam 
nor his sons could satisfy it, nor again gain the glory of Paradise, 
which they had lost by their pride of wishing to be as God ; 
so the gates of Heaven were shut upon Adam and his sons because 
of their sin. 

7. Oh, Christians, what will become of us the wretched ? 
If the demons for a sin of pride were thrust from the heavens to 
hell, and Adam and Eve for another sin of pride from the terrestrial 
Paradise, how shall we, miserable sinners, ascend to the heavens 
with such sins, and we so clearly lost ? 

8. The High God, sovereign and powerful, moved with pity 
and compassion, seeing our great misery, sent the angel St. 
Gabriel from the heavens to the city of Nazareth, where was 

B2 



244 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

the Virgin Mary, with a message which said : " God hail thee, 
Mary, full of grace, the Lord be with thee : blessed art thou 
among women : the Holy Spirit will come over thee, and the 
virtue of the highest God will lighten thee, and what will be 
born of thee will be called Jesus, Son of God." The Virgin 
St. Mary answered the angel St. Gabriel : " Behold the servant 
of the Lord ; be His will done in me." In the same instant that 
the Virgin St. Mary obeyed the message which St. Gabriel brought 
her from God, the Holy Spirit formed in the womb of this Virgin 
a human body of her virgin blood ; together He created a soul 
in the same body, and the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, 
God the Son, in that instant was incarnate in the womb of the 
Virgin Mary, thus uniting and joining that soul and the so holy 
body ; and from the day that the Son of God was incarnate 
until the day of His birth nine months passed. 

9. At the end of this time Jesus Christ, Saviour of all the 
world, being God and true man, was born of the Virgin Mary, 
remaining virgin in the birth and after as before it : And St. 
Andrew confessed it, saying, / believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, 
our only Lord ; and after him at once St. John said, / believe that 
Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin 
Mary. In Bethlehem, near to Jerusalem, Christ our Redeemer 
was born : then the angels and the Virgin His mother, with her 
spouse Joseph, and the three [Kings inserted in one MS.] and 
many others, adored Him as Lord. 

10. But Herod, who was evil, being king in Jerusalem, with 
the covetousness of reigning, desired to kill Him. Joseph was 
advised by an angel to flee from Bethlehem to Egypt, and he 
took Jesus Christ and the Virgin His mother, because Herod 
desired to kill Jesus. St. Joseph went to Egypt with Christ and 
His mother, where he was until Herod died of an evil death ; 
for he was so cruel that in Bethlehem and its neighbouring 
villages he killed all the men children from two years down- 
wards, thinking that he would kill Jesus Christ among them. 
After Herod died the Virgin and St. Joseph with the Child Jesus 
returned to their own country, to the city of Nazareth, by command 
of the angel. 

11. When Christ was twelve years He went up from Nazareth 
to the Temple of Jerusalem, where were the doctors of the law, 
and He expounded to them the Scriptures of the Prophets and 
Patriarchs, who spoke of the coming of the Son of God, and all 
were astonished when they saw His wisdom. Returning to 
Nazareth, He was there until the age of nearly thirty years ; 
and then He went to the river Jordan, where St. John Baptist 
was baptizing many people : and in this river Jordan St. John 
baptized Jesus Christ ; and from there Christ went to the wilder- 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 245 

ness, where for forty days and forty nights He did not eat. The 
demon in the wilderness, without knowing that Jesus Christ 
was Son of God, tempted Him with three sins that is to say, 
gluttony, covetousness, and vainglory. 

12. And in all the temptations Christ conquered the demon. 
And from the wilderness with victory He descended to Galilee 
and converted many people, and commanded the demons to 
come out of the bodies of the people, and the demons obeyed 
the command of Jesus Christ, coming out of the bodies of the 
men where they were ; and the people who saw this were 
astonished and said : " Who is this, whom the demons obey ? " 
So the fame of Jesus Christ grew greatly among the people, 
because they saw that the demons obeyed Him, and that He did 
many miracles. The men who heard the holy preaching of 
Jesus Christ and saw the great power which He had over the 
demons began to believe in Jesus Christ, and brought Him the 
sick : He cured all of whatsoever infirmity they had. 

13. And afterwards Christ called the twelve Apostles and the 
seventy-two Disciples, and took them in His company around 
the districts where He was teaching the mysteries of the Kingdom 
of God. Christ preached to the people, and did miracles which 
proved the truth of what He preached. In the presence of the 
Apostles and Disciples Christ gave sight to the blind, speech to 
the dumb, hearing to the deaf, and life to the dead : He healed 
the lame and the maimed. The Apostles and Disciples who saw 
this each time believed more and more in Jesus Christ. Christ 
gave them such wisdom and virtue that they preached to the 
people, though they were fishers who had no learning except 
what the Son of God taught them. In the name and virtue of 
Jesus Christ the Apostles did miracles, healing many infirmities, 
casting the demons from the bodies of men in sign that what they 
preached of the coming of the Son of God was the truth. 

14. Such was the fame of Jesus Christ and His Disciples among 
the people that the principal Jews agreed to kill Him, in their 
envy of Him and His works, for they saw that all followed and 
praised the teaching of Jesus. 

15. When the Pharisees recognised that they were losing the 
honour and credit which they formerly had among the Jews 
before Jesus Christ was manifested to the world, moved with 
envy, they took Jesus Christ, insulted Him freely, carrying Him 
from one house to another, scorning and making a mock of 
Him. 

16. And because of the great hate the Pharisees had of Jesus 
Christ they carried Him to the house of Pontius Pilate, where the 
Pharisees accused Him with false witnesses, and Pilate, to please 
the Jews, scourged Jesus Christ so cruelly that from the feet to 



246 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

the head all His holy body was wounded ; and, thus cruelly 
scourged, Pilate handed Him to the Jews to crucify Him. 

17. And before they crucified Him they put on the head of 
Jesus Christ a cruel crown of thorns, and a reed in His right 
hand ; and the soldiers, to make a mock of Jesus Christ, placed 
themselves on their knees before Him, saying, " God hail You, 
King of the Jews," and spitting in His face and buffeting Him ; 
and with a reed He carried they struck Him on the head, and, 
finally, on Mount Calvary, near Jerusalem, the Jews crucified 
Jesus Christ, and thus Christ died on the Cross to save sinners ; 
so that the most holy Soul of Jesus Christ was truly separated 
from His most precious and most holy body when He expired on 
the Cross, the divinity being always united with the most holy 
soul of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, the same divinity remaining 
with the most holy and precious body of Christ on the Cross and 
in the sepulchre. 

18. And at the death of Jesus Christ the sun was darkened, 
ceasing to give its light; the whole earth trembled, and the 
rocks divided, striking one another ; the monuments of the 
dead opened, and many of the holy men rose and went to the city 
of Jerusalem, where they appeared to many ; and those who 
saw these signs in the death of Jesus Christ said, " Truly Jesus 
Christ was Son of God " ; and because this is so the Apostle 
James said : / believe that Jesus Christ suffered under the power of 
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, and dead and buried." Jesus Christ 
was God, since He was the second person of the most Holy 
Trinity, and also He was true man, since Pie was son 
of the Virgin Mary and has a rational soul and human body ; and 
inasmuch as He was man, truly He died on the Cross when 
He was crucified ; for death is nothing else but a separation of 
the soul, leaving the body to which it gave life, and the most 
holy soul of Jesus Christ was separated from the body when He 
expired on the Cross. 

19. Then, having expired, the most holy soul of Jesus Christ, 
being united to the divinity of God the Son, as it had always been 
from the instant when the Lord God created it, descended to 
Limbo, which is a place below the ground, where were the Holy 
Fathers, Prophets, and Patriarchs and many other just men, 
waiting for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was to withdraw 
them from Limbo and take them to Paradise. 

20. In every time, beginning with Adam and Eve until now, 
were men good and bad ; the good, being friends of God, reproved 
with words of truth the evil for their vices and sins, because 
they offended God, their Lord and Creator ; and the bad, being 
slaves and captives of the demon, persecuted the good, friends of 
God, taking them, and exiling them, and wounding them, and 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 247 

killing them, and doing them many evils : so that when the good 
died their souls went to Limbo ; and the Limbo because it is 
below the ground is called inferno [hell]. 

21. Lower than Limbo is a place called Purgatory : to this 
Purgatory go the souls of those who, when they die, are without 
mortal sin, and on account of the past sins, which they did in 
their life, and for which before their death they had not made 
complete penance, go to Purgatory, where are very great torments 
of fire, in order to pay the evils and sins done in their life ; and 
when they have paid the penance of their sins, they issue from 
Purgatory, and go at once to Paradise. 

22. The last place which is below the ground is called the 
infernal hell [inferno infernal], where are great torments of fire 
and miseries : if men would think on this for an hour daily, and 
if they knew the troubles of the infernal hell, they would not sin 
as they do : in this hell is Lucifer, and all the demons who were 
thrust out of heaven, and all who die in mortal sin. Those who 
go to this hell have no remedy of salvation [nenhum remedio de 
salvagao], but for ever and ever and without end of ends have to 
be in it. 

23. Oh, brothers ! how is it that we have so little fear of 
going to hell, since every day we do the greatest sins ? It is a 
sign that we have little faith, since we live like men who do not 
believe in the inferno infernal. The Church and the Saints who 
are with God in Heaven never pray for those in hell, for these 
have no remedy to go to Paradise ; but the Church and the Saints 
pray for the dead who are in Purgatory and for the living. 

24. Jesus Christ died on Friday, and the most holy soul of Jesus 
Christ, always united with the divinity, descended to Limbo, 
and drew all the souls which were then in Limbo waiting for 
Him. Then on the third day, which is the Lord's Day, He rose 
from among the dead, His most holy soul again taking the same 
body which it left when He died on the Cross. After that Jesus 
Christ rose again in a glorious body, he appeared to the Virgin 
Mary, His Mother, and to the Apostles and Disciples, and to His 
friends, who were sad for His death; and with His Glorious 
Resurrection He consoled the sad and disconsolate, pardoning 
sinners their sins ; and many believed in Jesus Christ, after they 
saw Him rise again from among the dead, who formerly were 
not willing to believe that He should die and rise again. And 
St. Thomas affirmed that this is true when he said : / believe that 
Jesus Christ descended to the hells, and on the third day rose again 
from the dead. 

25. And after Jesus Christ rose again He was forty days in this 
world, teaching the Disciples what they had to believe and do 
and teach the world in order to go to Paradise ; and in this time 



248 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

He showed His Holy Resurrection to be true, and those who 
doubted in His death, that He would not rise again : and in those 
forty days He appeared to the Apostles and Disciples, and to 
many other His friends, who doubted that He would not rise 
again when they saw Him die on Mount Calvary on the Cross. 
And in these forty days those who did not believe during the 
Passion and Death of Jesus Christ that He was to rise again on 
the third day completely believed without ever doubting that 
He was true Son of God, Saviour of the whole world, since He 
rose to life from death. 

26. At the end of the forty days Jesus Christ went to the 
Mount Olivet, whence He was to ascend to the high heavens, 
and with Him went the Virgin Mary, His Mother, and His Apostles 
and Disciples, and many others ; and from this Mount Olivet 
Jesus ascended to the high heavens in body and in soul, and 
carried in His company to the glory of Paradise all the souls of 
the Holy Fathers whom He drew from Limbo. The gates of 
the heavens opened when Jesus Christ ascended to the high 
heavens ; the angels of Paradise came to accompany Jesus Christ 
to carry Him with great glory to God the Father, whence to 
save sinners He descended in the womb of the glorious Virgin 
Mary, taking human flesh to pay in it our debts ; so that Jesus 
Christ, Son of God, for sins became man, was born, died, rose 
again, ascended to the heavens, where He is seated at the right 
hand of God the Father. And since this is truth, James the Less 
said : I believe that Jesus Christ ascended to the heavens, and is 
seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. 

27. And since this world had a beginning, it is bound to have 
an end, and so it will finish, and thus as Jesus ascended to the 
heavens so He will descend to give each one what he deserved ; 
and so it is true that all who believe in Jesus Christ and keep 
His commandments will be judged that they may go to the glory 
of Paradise ; and those who would not believe in Jesus Christ, 
such as the Moors, Jews, and heathen, will go to hell with- 
out any redemption. Bad Christians who would not keep the 
ten commandments will be judged by Jesus Christ to go to 
hell. 

28. At the end of the world all then living will die, for every 
man is born with this condition that he must die : since Jesus 
Christ our Redeemer died and rose again for sins, we all must die 
and rise again. Besides this, the bodies of good men who may be 
alive at the end of the world will not be holy and glorious, or ready 
to ascend with them to heaven ; therefore they must die ; and 
in their resurrection they will take the same bodies, yet not subject 
to suffering as formerly. So when Jesus Christ descends from 
heaven on the day of judgment to judge the good and the bad, 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 249 

all will rise again, beginning from the first to the last who died. 
And as this is truth, St. Philip said : I believe that Jesus Christ will 
come from Heaven to judge the living and the dead. 

29. When we Christians bless ourselves we confess the truth 
as to the most Holy Trinity, that there are three persons, one God. 
The first is the person of God the Father, and the second person 
of God the Son, and the third person of God the Holy Spirit ; and 
all three persons are one only God, threefold and one. God the 
Father is not made nor created nor begotten. The Son of God 
the Father is begotten and not made nor created. The Holy 
Spirit proceeds from the Father and from the Son, not created, 
nor made, nor begotten. When we make the sign of the Cross 
we show this order of proceeding, placing the right hand on the 
head, saying in Name of the FatJier, in sign that God the Father 
is not made nor created nor begotten; and then placing the 
hand on the breast, saying and of the Son, in sign that the Son 
was begotten of the Father, and not made nor created ; and then 
placing the hand on the left shoulder, saying and of the Spirit ; 
and passing the right hand by the head to the right shoulder, 
saying Holy, in sign that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son 
and from the Father. 

30. Every good Christian is obliged to believe firmly, without 
doubting, in the Holy Spirit and in His holy inspirations, which 
protect us from doing evil, and move our hearts to keep the ten 
commandments of God, and the commandments of the holy 
universal Mother Church, and to fulfil the works of mercy, cor- 
poral and spiritual. And as this is truth, the Apostle St. Bartho- 
lomew said : I believe in the Holy Spirit. 

31. All we faithful Christians are obliged to believe, without 
doubting, what the Apostles and Disciples and Martyrs and all 
the Saints of Jesus Christ believed of Jesus Christ concerning all 
that is necessary to believe for our salvation, as to His divinity 
and humanity, for Jesus Christ was God and true man. Also 
in general we are obliged to believe firmly, without doubting, 
in all that those who rule and govern the universal Church of 
Jesus Christ believe, for they are inspired and ruled by the Holy 
Spirit in what they have to do as to the government of the 
universal Church in the matters of our holy faith, in the which 
they cannot err, because they are ruled by the Holy Spirit. We 
must also believe Scriptures of our religion [ley], and of Jesus 
Christ ; and further we are obliged to believe such of the holy 
canons and councils as are ordered by the Church, and the 
ordinances made by the Pope, Cardinals, Patriarchs, Arch- 
bishops, and Bishops, and Prelates of the Church, when in all 
these things, without doubting, we believe all that those who rule 
and govern the universal Church of Jesus Christ believe. This 



250 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

is what the Apostle Evangelist St. Matthew charged when he 
said : / believe in the holy Catholic Church. 

32. And so we true Christians believe that the good works 
and merits of Jesus Christ are communicated to and profit all 
other Christians who are in a state of grace : and as in the natural 
body the works of one member profit all the body, so it is in the 
spiritual body (which is the Church). 

33. And as chiefly from the head there descends to the members 
and is communicated to them their sustentation, so from Christ 
our Lord, only begotten Son of God, who is Head of all the true 
faithful, there is communicated spiritual sustentation by means 
of the seven sacraments of the Church that is to say, by baptism, 
by confirmation (which we call chrism) by the Most Holy Sacra- 
ment of the altar, by the sacrament of penance, by the extreme 
unction, by the sacrament of the orders, by matrimony. For 
whoever takes duly any one of these sacraments is granted 
grace by which his soul lives spiritual life, which Christ our 
Lord, only begotten Son of God, merited by the most holy works 
He did in this world, labouring and suffering injuries and the 
death of the Cross to free sinners from the captivity of the demon, 
and to turn them to the true knowledge of their God, commu- 
nicating to them His own merits. And not only are the merits 
of the Son of God communicated, as from the head to the other 
members, but further those of the other saints are communicated 
to all the faithful, who are in grace, as the goods of one member 
of the body are communicated to the other members of the same 
body. 

34. Christians further confess and believe : that God our Lord 
has power to pardon the sins by which the sinners separate 
themselves from Him, and lose the grace which He had before 
communicated to them : and that this power He gives and 
communicates to the priests of the Catholic Church, by which 

. communication they now have power to absolve from sins those 
whom they find worthy to be absolved before God. 

35. And accordingly men must so prepare to do what they 
are obliged for the safety of their soul, so that the priests may 
judge them (in conformity to what God commands) as worthy to 
be absolved ; and having done this and having confessed at the 
obligatory times, and being absolved by the priest, they again 
gain the grace of God, and are pardoned their sins. And this is 
what St. Mathias said : / believe the communion of Saints and the 
remission of sins. 

36. And because it is a just thing to believe in the goodness 
of our Lord and His infinite mercy which will not leave without 
reward those who serve Him in this life, nor without chastisement 
those who offend and break His precepts : we believe in the 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 251 

resurrection of the flesh, which is to say, that we all have to rise 
again in the body, the very same as we are now, after we have 
passed temporal death, and that it is certain that our Lord, 
according to His justice, will then give for ever the reward to the 
bodies which in this world for His love suffered troubles and per- 
secutions, and were afflicted for not consenting in sins ; and since 
their souls shared in trouble, they also may enjoy glory and 
rest. 

37. And on the contrary (we believe) that the bodies of the 
bad, who in this life cared to do their own will and fulfil their 
appetites rather than keep the law of God our Lord, should be 
eternally chastised in the hells, since they offended the eternal 
Lord God, their resurrection will be made in the day of final 
judgment, when all born in this life must rise in body and soul : 
the bad to be cast into hell for their sins, and the good to enter the 
glory of Paradise with God our Lord. And this is what St. 
Thaddeus said : / believe the resurrection of the flesh. 

38. And as our soul is like God almighty and eternal in so far 
as it is spiritual, and in the powers which God Himself gave it 
that is to say, will, understanding and memory and the desire 
of men is to last for ever, it is meet that a creature, so excellent 
as is man, should fulfil this longing, and so all we Christians 
believe that it will be fulfilled ; and therefore we believe in the 
life eternal, which we confess will never have end ; rather after 
the resurrection of the flesh, wherein the soul, which never dies, 
has again to take its body, will live together with it, as they 
are now united, and by a much better mode, eternally with God, 
and will enjoy in the heavens, together with the angels, the Presence 
of their Creator and Lord, and of all the celestial benefits, the 
which are so great that, however much one may in this life think 
of them and imagine them, it is not possible to reach or understand 
their grandeur. 

39. There the Saints rest, without any opposition ; there 
nothing is lacking of all they can desire ; there no evil is found, 
nor can it be found nor exist, nor is there lacking, nor will ever 
be lacking, all good, which the blessed will enjoy eternally. And 
this is what St. Matthias said : I believe in the life eternal.* 

Many copies were made of this composition, and it soon 
became well known throughout the Maluccas. After Xavier's 
death it used to be read aloud on feast days in places where 
there were no priests, and those who understood it explained 
it to the others, while the boys and girls learned it by heart. 
It was printed in Goa in 1556. 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. pp. 831-44. 



252 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

At last, in mid-April of 1547, just after Easter, the moment 
came when Xavier had to leave Maluceo. We have his own 
description of the parting : 

" When I left Maluceo I embarked about midnight to 
avoid the weeping and mourning of friends men and women 
devoted to me. This was not sufficient, for I could not hide 
from them. So the night, and the separation from my 
spiritual sons and daughters, suggested to me that perhaps 
my absence would make for the salvation of their souls."* 

This, in the original, is one of Xavier's most elliptical and 
obscure sentences, but it seems to mean that as he himself, 
in the darkness and hour of separation, had felt himself 
thrown back upon God, so these poor folk, left in the dark 
without him, might feel the same, and be given what they 
sought. 

" Before 1 left Maluceo I had ordered the Christian doctrine 
[i.e., teaching] should be continued in a church, and a com- 
mentary which I made shortly on the articles of the faith to be 
learned by the new converts instead of the prayers. 

" . . . During this time I was very much occupied in recon- 
ciling people to each other, for the Portuguese are very 
quarrelsome."! 

The Saint took back with him twenty young natives to be 
educated in the college at Goa. During the few days which 
he spent at Amboina on his westward journey he revisited 
the seven Christian districts there, and had a little chapel 
erected in each of them. Not long afterwards many of these 
Christians suffered martyrdom. From 1558-62 they were 
constantly persecuted by the Moors. But they had for 
leader one especially brave soul, a former native guide of 
Xavier's called Manoel. Gongalvez tells us that when they 
threatened him he replied : 

I am a poor Amboinese with no learning : I don't know what 
it is to be a Christian, and I don't know what God is, but I know 
one thing which Father Francis taught me, that it is good to die 
for Jesus Christ. Because the Father said this I can't become 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 429. f Ibid., vol. i. p. 432. 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 253 

a Mohammedan. If he had not said it, perhaps I would be 
fallen like some others, but thanks to that saying, my heart is 
so fixed that it cannot accept any other faith or any other law 
but that of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Soon after this some villains got hold of him and were 
about to shoot him dead. Manoel asked for one instant 
longer, and pulling out a cross which was planted in the 
ground, he stretched out his arms upon it, saying, " Father 
Francis said that a Christian ought to die on a cross. Fire 
now." But the murderers, abashed before the sacred symbol, 
lowered their guns.* 

A year or two later the persecutions began again, and six 
hundred converts were tortured to death or burnt alive. 
One of them whom Francis had baptized is said to have died 
saying these words : " I love my faith better than life. I am 
a Christian. If the Moors let me go I will live a Christian, and 
I will die a Christian if they slay me." 

In July, 1547, Xavier was back in Malacca, and he stayed 
there until December of the same year. In September 
he was joined by three members of the Company Beira, 
Nunez, and Ribeiro. 

" During the month we were together," he writes, " I 
received great consolation in seeing that they were servants of 
God, very well suited to do good work in the Moluccas . . . 
helped by the experience I gained there I have been able to 
instruct them as to how they would have to manage, "j" 

The student of his life begins now to have a growing 
impression of Francis as a man to whom prayer has become 
a dominating passion. As we get on intimate terms with 
him through the study of the Letters, we instinctively weed 
out many of the old traditions upon which our impression 
of his character used to be so largely based. But there are 
some stories which remain, beautiful and stately and, we 
cannot but see, deeply rooted in truth. Among these are 
the simple accounts belonging chiefly to his later period 
of his innumerable trysts with God. 

* Quoted by Cros, Vie de S. Frangois Xavier, vol. i. p. 351. 
f Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 431. 



254 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

During this visit to Malacca he usually slept in the sacristy, 
and often, by night, he was seen to enter the empty church. 

Frequently, while he and his friends were sitting talking 
together, he would unobtrusively slip away. More than 
once they followed him at a distance, only to find they had 
intruded upon a secret and sacred communion. 

It was at this time that Francis first heard of Japan. 
Of the Japanese Yajiro, to whom he refers in the following 
letter, we will hear more fully later. 

" When I was in the city of Malacca some Portuguese 
merchants gave me great news. They are trustworthy 
men. Some very large islands were discovered, a little 
time ago, called the islands of Japon. There, according to 
the Portuguese, much fruit might be gained for the increase 
of our holy faith, more than in any other parts of the Indies, 
for they are a people most extremely desirous of know- 
ledge, which the Indian heathen are not. A Japon, called 
Yajiro, came with these merchants to look for me, as the 
Portuguese who went there from Malacca had talked so much 
about me. . . . He had told the Portuguese of certain sins 
done in his youth, and had asked them how God might pardon 
him. The Portuguese advised him to come with them to 
see me. He did so, coming to Malacca with them. When 
he came I had left for Malucco. When he found out that 
I had gone there, he embarked again to go to his own country 
of Japon. When within sight of the islands of Japon they 
were surprised by such a storm of wind that they were like 
to perish. Then the ship returned again to Malacca, where 
he found me, and was delighted. He came to seek me with 
a great desire to know about our religion [ley]. He can 
speak Portuguese pretty well, so he understood all I told him, 
and I what he said to me. 

" If all the Japanese are like this, so eager to learn as 
Yajiro, I think they are the most inquiring people in all the 
lands hitherto discovered. This Yajiro wrote down the 
[teaching on the] articles of faith which I have made, 
when he came to the class. He went very often to the 
church to pray. He asked me numerous questions. He is a 
man who is very anxious to know, and that is the mark of 
a man who will profit greatly, and will quickly come to a 
knowledge of the truth. 



" ISLANDS OF HOPE IN GOD " 255 

" . . . I asked Yajiro whether the Japanese would become 
Christians if I went with him to his land. He answered that 
his countrymen would not become Christians straight away. 
First, they would ask many questions, and would see what 
I answered and what I knew, and, above all, whether I lived 
in accordance with what I said. If I did these two things 
spoke well, satisfying their questions, and lived without their 
finding anything to blame me, then half a year after they 
knew me the king, the nobility, and all the other people of 
discretion would become Christians. He tells me they are a 
people who rule themselves only by reason. 

" . . .1 think by what I am feeling within my soul 
that I or some one of the Company will go to Japon within 
two years, although it is a very dangerous voyage, both 
because of great tempests and of Chinese thieves who sail 
that sea to rob. Many ships are lost there. Therefore 
pray to God, my very dear Fathers and Brothers, for those 
who may go thither, for it is a voyage on which many are 
lost. Meanwhile Yajiro will learn the Portuguese language 
better, and see India and the Portuguese there, and our 
style and way of living. And at the same time we must 
catechise him. And seeing that Yajiro can write very well 
in Japanese, we shall translate all the Christian doctrine into 
that language with a commentary on the articles of the 
faith which will treat fully of the coming of Jesus Christ our 
Lord. ..." * 

In December 1547 the Saint left Malacca for Cochin. 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 433 ff. 



CHAPTER XVI 

INDIA REVISITED 

(January, 1548 April, 1549) 

ON January 12th, 1548, Francis was once more in India. 
On reaching Cochin he found the ships almost ready to sail 
for Europe, so he paused there for some days to get his 
letters written and sent off. At this time there seems to have 
surged over him a great wave of depression. There are 
passages in all the letters from Cochin witnessing to it. And 
there are words in a letter to Loyola which record that his 
faith and ardour were flagging beneath the strain. 

" I do beg of you, for the Lord Jesus' sake, to look on those 
children of yours in India, and send out some man pre- 
eminent in virtue and sanctity whose vigour and ardour may 
arouse my torpor." * 

There is a similar note of profound depression in the 
following letter to the King of Portugal. The preamble is a 
curious impressionistic record of a mind that has evidently 
been in great misery and uncertainty. 

"... I have been wondering whether it would be well to 
write to your Highness what I feel within my soul to be the 
best means for the increase of our holy faith. On the one 
hand it seemed to me to be a service to God ; and on the 
other hand I judged that it ought not to come to light, even 
though I wrote it. Not to write seemed to me a burdening 
of my conscience. Since God our Lord was revealing it to 
me for some purpose, I did not imagine it could be for any- 
thing else than to write to your Highness, so I write what I am 
painfully feeling within my soul. What I write of ought not 
to be done. And now, if your Highness is accused by my 
letters at the hour of your death before God, the excuse that 
you did not know of these things cannot be accepted. 

* Only a Latin version of this letter has, so far, been discovered (see Mon. 
Xav., vol. i. p. 448). 



INDIA KEVISITED 257 

" Let yotir Highness believe that this gives me great pain y 
since I wish for nothing else but to live and die here, so that 
I may help to clear your conscience^ seeing you have such a 
great love for the Company. So, Sire, in coming to the 
conclusion that I ought to write to you, I found myself in 
great confusion-. At last I determined to clear my conscience 
by writing what it tells me as a result of the experience I 
bave gained out here,> in India> Malacca, and the Moluccas. 

" Your Highness must know that here, as elsewhere^ 
holy jealousies often prevent much service being done to God 
our Lord. One says, ' I will do it ' ; another says, ' No, but I 
will ' ; and others, ' Since I don't do- it I'm not pleased that 
you should'; others, ' I do all the work, and another gets all the 
thanks and advantage ' ; and in this way the time is passed. . * . 

" If there are to be many Christians made here, and if 
those who are Christians are to be much favoured, and to be 
free from being harmed or defrauded by anyone, either 
Portuguese or unbelievers, I know of only one remedy " : 

The remedy which in his misery and disheartenment he 
proposes, both in this letter and in the next one to Rodriguez, 
makes rather painful reading. Of course we must remember 
Xavier was experiencing what nearly all missionaries do, 
that their greatest hindrance is the godless life of their 
fellow-countrymen ; he had seen the injustices done by, 
Portuguese to the natives ; he knew the abuses everywhere 
among Government officials, and he felt the king was re- 
sponsible for his officers, as, indeed, under such absolute 
monarchy, he was. 

" Let your Highness inform the governor who is here, or 
whom you send from home, that you entrust him, above all 
religious persons here, with the increase of our holy faith in 
India, naming all of us here, and saying that you trust in 
him alone, after God, for the unburdening of the heavy 
conscience which you carry, because owing to the fault of 
the governors so few Christians are being made in India. 
And direct the Governor to write to your Highness about 
the Christians made, and the opportunities for making 
more . . . and if he do not greatly increase our holy faith, 
assure him that you are determined to punish him, and say 
with a solemn oath that you will hold all his estates as forfeit 

s 



258 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

for the works of the Santa Misericordia, when he comes to 
Portugal, and further, that you will keep him in irons for 
many years, giving him plainly to understand that no 
excuses will be accepted. I cannot here say all I know, it 
would hurt your Highness so grievously, and I dare not think 
of all I have suffered and suffer, and with no remedy that 
I can see. 

" If the Governor understand as a certainty that you 
mean what you say, and will fulfil your oath, the whole 
of Ceylon will be Christian in a year, and many kings in 
Malabar and Cape Comorin and many other places. But 
so long as the governors have pot this fear before them of 
being dishonoured and punished, you need not count on any 
increase of our holy faith 

" And because I have no hope that this will be done, I 
am almost sorry I have written. ... I certify that I would 
not have written this about the governors if I had thought 
that with a good conscience I could satisfy my soul in keeping 
silence. 

" I, Sire, am not quite determined to go to Japan, but I 
am thinking that I will, for I quite despair of any real chance 
in India for the increase of our holy faith." 

The letter goes on to implore the king to send out more 
workers, and then Xavier gives a report of his work in 
Malacca, to show, as he says, what room there is for more 
missionaries. He signs himself " Your Highness' useless 
servant."* 

He writes at the same time, and on the same subjects, to 
Rodriguez. He literally clamours for more workers. 

"It seems to me," he says of the king, "that at the hour 
of his death he will find that he has fallen very far short with 
regard to India. I am rather afraid that in heaven God and 
all His saints will say of him, ' By letters the king shows a 
friendly interest about the increase of My honour in India, 
since it is only in My Name and for this cause that he possesses 
it ; yet, while he apprehends and punishes those in charge 
of his temporal profit, if in any way they do not increase his 
rents and revenues, he never punishes those who do not 

* Mow. Xav-., vol. i. p. 451 ff. 



INDIA REVISITED 259 

comply with his letters and commands [about spiritual 
things].' 

" If I were convinced that the king perfectly understood 
the sincere love I have for him, I would ask him ... to 
pray every day for a quarter of an hour to God to give him 
to understand well and feel better within his soul that saying 
of Christ's, What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, 
but suffer the loss of his own soul ? .... It is time, very 
dear brother Master Simon, to undeceive the king. The 
hour is nearer than he thinks when God has to call him to 
give account, saying to him, Give an account of thy steward- 
ship. Therefore see that he provides India with spiritual 
fundamentals." 

Xavier goes on to say the same things that he had said 
to the king about forcing the governors to give the Gospel 
to India. The force, we have in fairness to Xavier to observe, 
was not to be used towards the converts he knew well 
enough that, with those southern tribes of which he was 
thinking, the Gospel had only to be preached in order to be 
received it was the authorities who were to be forced to give 
opportunities of hearing the Word. 

The letter concludes : 

" In this way the injustices and robberies towards the poor 
Christians will cease, and those who are ready to become 
Christians will get good courage to do so. For in this matter 
of making Christians you need expect no fruit if the king 
makes anyone else but the Governor responsible. I know 
what I am saying, believe me, and am telling you the truth." * 

To understand these letters, we must recognise the intense 
emotion which lies behind them, and the eagerness and 
earnestness with which every line is surcharged. Not many 
will think these proposals practicable or wise, but there are 
few who would care to say so very loudly in the presence of 
such prophetic passion as this. Portuguese India was in an 
abominable state, and Xavier was at the same time a man of 
vision and a man of action. Desperate measures were called 
for. In the light of calmer days desperate measures often 
seem more absurd than at the time they really were. We 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 457 ff. 

S2 



260 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

dare hardly judge this scheme. Its aims were after all very 
simple. Here stood a man with a single eye for the glory of 
God. And if, from the vast armoury of political and 
ecclesiastical intrigue in which he stood, he chose a weapon 
or two, saying, " These will help me in my battles," we 
condemn his judgment rather than his ideals. These, as 
outlined in this letter, were three : an end to the persecution 
of the native Christians by the native heathen, justice and 
liberty for the native Christians from the Portuguese, and 
opportunities for every man and woman in India to embrace 
the " Law of God." 

We have no evidence, at this or at any other time, of 

Francis' inward sorrow telling upon his outward bearing. 

On the contrary, when, some years later, a pre-canonisation 

enquiry was held here in Cochin, nearly all the witnesses use 

the same expression. They say " He was very candid in his 

conversation, and always with his mouth full of laughter."* 

But Xavier did not stay long in Cochin. Towards the 

end of January he set out to visit the Christians in the 

south. In the country of the Great King, where he had 

baptized whole populations three years earlier, he found 

things going badly. Francisco Enriquez, the missionary in 

charge, had given up in despair. The Great King had not 

maintained his former good will toward the Christians. Probably 

he found that his patronage of the Western religion had not 

brought him all the advantages which he had hoped for. 

Francisco Enriquez's versions of the persecutions were highly 

coloured and pitiful, but that may have been partly due to 

his desire to have a good excuse to quit an uncongenial field. 

In any case Xavier promptly sent him back to the work he 

had deserted. 

He then proceeded to the Fishery coast, and gathered the 
workers together at Manapar for review and counsel. Brother 
Manoel de Moralez wrote from there : 

During the fifteen days which he spent with us there he 
talked with each of us alone, asking us about all those things 
which were in our minds, from a spiritual point of view, and 
talking of everything which might help to keep together and 
increase our converts. When he left us to go to Goa, he gave 
us some written instructions, that some things which were unsatis- 

* Mon. Xav., vol. ii. p. 270 : see also p. 319. 



INDIA REVISITED 261 

factory might be improved, and that we might know how to 
proceed in the future.* 

These written instructions begin by bidding the mis- 
sionaries baptize infants whenever possible. After baptism, 
nothing, he goes on, is more important than the instruction of 
the children. Each village is to have a teacher of its own. 
The women are to meet on Saturdays, the men on Sundays, 
and the great truths are to be preached in simple language. 
The missionaries are to make a point of reconciling enemies. 

When Coelho has finished his translation of the Articles of 
the Faith into Malabar a copy is to be given to each village. 

The people are to be instructed to tell the missionaries 
when anyone is ill, that he may be visited, taught, and have 
the Gospel read to him. At funerals they are to address 
those who are present, reminding them that they too have to 
die, and that if they wish to go to Paradise they must live a 
good life. 

The missionaries are not to get mixed up in law cases if 
they can avoid it. And they are most earnestly urged to try to 
keep on good terms with the Captain, and to live in peace and 
friendship with all the Portuguese, and return them good for 
evil, and only speak with them about the things of God, 
exhorting them to confess and communicate, and to keep the 
Ten Commandments. 

They are to help the native priests in every way, and never 
to write down an ill report of any. They are to take special 
care never to run down the native Christians in the presence 
of the Portuguese, but always to defend them, and speak 
generously of them. With the natives themselves they are 
always to deal as lovingly as possible, and punishment is only 
to be given with the sanction of Father Antonio Criminale, 
who was the senior missionary. They are to be very slow 
even when they think they, deserve it in punishing the 
children, to beware of offending them, and to " show them 
much love." 

Each man is to keep to his own district, unless with the 
special permission of Antonio Criminale. 

Finally he says : 

" Again I charge you earnestly to strive to make yourselves 

* Cros, Vie de S. Frangois Xavier, vol. i. p. 373. 



262 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

loved wherever you go or are, doing kind deeds to all, and 
always leaving loving words behind you if possible, for thus 
you will produce much fruit in their souls. The Lord grant 
this, and abide with all. Amen."* 

After spending about a fortnight on the Fishery coast, 
Xavier paid a flying visit to Ceylon. Of this visit he says 
nothing in any of his letters ; he was probably ordered to go 
by the Bishop, and found the task little to his taste. The 
King of Kandy appears to have become a " Christian " some 
time previously, from political motives, and to have been 
making a disturbance because he had not been given all that 
he had been promised. In March the Saint was once more 
in Goa, and had brought back with him an ambassador from 
the discontented king to treat with the Governor, de Castro. 
He was on the eve of a journey, and received Xavier and his 
friend coldly. He could do nothing for Kandy just then, and 
the other affairs about which Xavier wished to talk to him 
were pushed aside. 

Xavier waited eight days in Goa, and then set out after 
the Governor, for both the affairs of Kandy and his own 
business were urgent. By the end of March he was in 
Bassein, and de Castro was there too. It was Lent, and the 
Saint, instead of going straight to interview the Governor, 
began to preach in the town, before resting an hour from his 
journey. De Castro saw and heard him, and, for Xavier, 
the rest appears to have been easy. 

They met, and the ambassador's requests were granted. 
Kandy was to become a tributary of Portugal, and in 
return was to receive Portuguese protection and favour. 
The foundation of a Jesuit college at Malacca was approved, 
and the Governor gave his blessing on the proposed voyage 
to Japan. The old man was dying, and knew it, and would 
fain have kept Xavier with him till the end came. But 
Francis was in haste to return to Goa. De Castro made him 
promise at least not to leave Goa during the next year, so that 
he might come to him and give him the last rites of the 
Church. This Xavier promised. 

From Goa he wrote to his friend, Diego Pereira : 

"... God our Lord knows how pleased I should have been 

* Mon, Xav,, vol. i. p. 853. 



INDIA REVISITED 263 

to have seen you before taking the road to China, but the 
Governor ordered me to winter here in Goa, and I could not 
do anything but obey, though I wanted to go to Cochin, and 
from there on to Cape Comorin, where my companions are. 
Arid I would have liked so much to have had a talk with you, 
as with my real soul's friend, about my plans for a voyage and 
pilgrimage to Japan which I hope to make within a year. For 
I have got a lot of information about the amount of fruit 
which may be gained there for the increase of our holy faith. 

"... I am most anxious to see you before leaving for 
China in order to recommend a very rich merchandise 
to you. Those who trade in Malacca and China take little 
stock of it. This merchandise is called the soul's conscience. 
It is so little known throughout these parts that all the 
merchants think themselves lost if they use it much. I hope 
in God our Lord that my friend Diego Pereira will gain in 
carrying a good conscience where others are lost for want of it. 
I continually ask in my poor prayers and sacrifices that God 
our Lord may take and draw him to a safe haven with greater 
profit in soul and conscience than in estate." * 

The letter goes on to ask help for a certain Ramirez, who 
wishes to get back to his native country, but has no money 
to take him there. " I would have helped if I could," 
Francis writes, " but I am so poor that I do not see how that 
is possible." 

In June the old Governor died, and Francis, as he had 
promised, was at his bedside. Nothing now detained him any 
longer in Goa, except the affairs of the college. But these 
occupied him for some months. The college of St. Paul must 
have been a unique and curious institution in those days. 

Twelve or thirteen different languages were spoken here. 
Besides Indians froin every province, there were Africans, Malays, 
Chinese, men from the Moluccas, Bonzes from Pegu or Siam, 
and several young Ethiopians. The preceding year an Abyssinian 
bishop had died at the college . . . among the catechumens 
were Cingalese refugees, the ambassador of the king of Kandy, 
and the three Japanese recently arrived from Malacca.t 

The Father of the college sent, about this time, a bright 
account of the life there to the King of Portugal. 

* Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 460. 

t Brou, Vie fa t. Francois Javier., vol. i. p. 35, 



264 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Every day, teachers and scholars, after dinner, go in procession 
from the refectory to the hermitages at the top of the garden, 
and there make most special prayers for the Queen our lady, 
for the Prince, and for the Governors of India. It is a beautiful 
spectacle to see them thus piously advancing, first the Fathers, 
then the oldest pupils who are already grammarians, then those 
who are learning the psalter, then the younger ones. Thus 
well ordered, two by two, they arrive at the hermitage, and kneel 
down and respond to the prayers which the Fathers recite, and 
then go on, in the same order, to the next hermitage. After 
this they separate into groups in the garden, in times of great 
heat or of rain under the shelters, at other times on the benches 
in the allees. Each group is formed of boys of one race ; they 
talk in their own language or discuss what they have heard in 
class, that they may not forget it. There are in the college four 
very clever lads who preach to the native Christians. One of 
them, from Tutuan, has remarkable talent ; he will become a 
great preacher. He is only thirteen or fourteen years old and 
already, in very good Portuguese, he has composed some sermons, 
in which he quotes the authorities of the Fathers with such 
a propos that they who hear him weep with joy and praise God.* 

One smiles a little at this lovely picture when one reads of 
another letter which went to Rodriguez about the same time 
as this went to the king, asking him to beg for indulgences 
for the college. There are other reports, too, from the 
Fathers of the college which are not so glowing. Most of the 
boys came to the place too old to have their morals satis- 
factorily dealt with. Yet this seemed at the time an unavoid- 
able evil, for if they came to the college too young they 
forgot their native dialect, and were unable to preach to their 
own people when the time came for them to return. The 
house was not satisfactorily governed. Xavier knew this, 
and had already written to Europe begging for a more capable 
Head. There was a good deal of friction among the various 
priests and instructors, and Xavier seems to have spent most 
of his time, from April until September, in trying to get things 
into better order. 

At the beginning of September two new workers arrived 
from Portugal, Gasper Barzee and Melchior Goncalez. 
Before their ships had cast anchor in the harbour, Francis, 
eager as always for tidings from home, had sent out messengers 

* Quoted by Cros, Vie cle S, Francois gfivier, vol. i. p. 346, 



INDIA REVISITED 265 

with refreshments and requests that they might land as soon 
as possible, for he longed to see them. 

Writing of his first meeting with the Saint, Barzee says : 

The joy which fills our soul is indescribable. I cannot tell you 
of the goodness of Father Francis. At first it was, for the Fathers 
and Brothers, like a whirlwind of love. When he had settled 
down, after mutual greetings, and a meal which restored us, 
Father Francis set himself to question us about the state of the 
Company in Europe. He never could end talking of Father 
Ignatius, Father Simon [Rodriguez], the other Fathers, the 
colleges, the number of the Companions, but, above all, of their 
virtues. It was touching to see how he lovingly praised God, 
in speaking, or listening to us speak of the fruits of salvation which 
God, through the Company, had gained in Portugal and elsewhere. 
As to the other Fathers and Brothers, they are God's elect ; I 
cannot say any more of them.* 

Caspar was a humble soul and had a sense of humour. He 
wrote to his friends an account of how he preached before the 
Saint : 

Soon Father Francis told me to be ready to preach at St. 
Paul's on the Day of our Lady in September, and he warned 
me well to speak distinctly, because, by what the people in our 
ship had said, there would be a great crowd. But I spoke so low 
that they were very displeased, Father Francis among the others. 
Several of them had hardly heard me. Then he (Francis) went 
away, leaving me orders to practise speaking during the night in 
the church. I did this till the brothers were satisfied with me. 
Since then I have been preaching, and the people are quite 
pleased, f 

Melchior Goncalez also leaves us an interesting account of 
his first impressions of the Saint : 

He is not old, and his health seems good, although he is ascetic 
in appearance. I note that he does not drink any kind of wine. 
Privations are nothing to him, for he is a brave soldier of Jesus 
Christ, forgetting himself, and thinking of nothing but his King. 
One can apply to him the words of St. Bernard : " The faithful 
soldier does not feel his own wounds when he looks with love on those 
of his King."% Truly, dear brothers, there is a living martyr in 

* Brou, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, vol. ii. p. 48. 
t Cros, Vie de S. Frangols Xavier, vol. i. p. 384. 
J Fidelis mjjes yulnera sua non spntit ujn jbenjgne sui Regis 



266 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

the midst of us, and I am convinced that he will soon die a martyr's 
death, for it looks as if he sought no other end. How often 
already arrows have been let fly at him ! And many a time 
they have set fire to the lodging where he passed the night. Three 
or four times in the same night the attempt has been made, from 
which you can judge what sort of sleep he has had. True soldier 
of Jesus Christ is a title which well applies to him.* 

On arriving at Goa, numbers of the passengers asked Xavier 
to allow them to enter the Company. Gonpalez wrote that 
these candidates included the captain of one of the ships, 
the governor of one of the forts, several noblemen, a secretary, 
a doctor, and a great many humbler folk. Xavier gave them 
all the Exercises, and as a result of his observations retained 
only one, Luis Mendez. This man died a martyr's death in 
South India a few years later. 

In September bad news came from Comorin of renewed 
invasions by the Badages, and Xavier at once set out for the 
south. He was given a royal welcome by his beloved converts 
on the Fishery coast. As he disembarked they sang aloud 
the hymns which he had taught them, and then carried him 
on their shoulders to the church. In spite of, or perhaps 
rather strengthened by, persecution and hardship, the 
Paravas were increasing in numbers and in faith. The 
mission here was better manned, better ordered and dis- 
ciplined than any of the other missions in India. Grammars 
and dictionaries had been written, and the work of teaching 
and translating methodically carried out.f 

From the Fishery coast Xavier wrote to Francisco Enriquez. 
Enriquez, the reader will remember, was the man who had 
run away from his work in Travancore, and had been sent 
back again by Xavier. The stern rebuke implied in sending 
his subordinate back to the post he had deserted is followed, 
in this letter, by a large-hearted trust and affection which 
must have fallen like coals of fire on the runaway's head. 
The letter assumes that the missionary had given up his work 
out of discouragement and disheartenment : 

" Do not be discouraged when you see that you are not 
gaining as much fruit among your Christians as you wish, 
for they are given to idolatry and the king is opposed to their 

* Quoted by Cros, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, vol. i. p. 3.85, 
j- See Brou, Vie de S. Francois Rawer, vol. ii, p. 52, 



INDIA REVISITED 267 

becoming Christians. And consider this, you are gaining more 
fruit than you think, in giving spiritual life to the new-born, 
when you diligently and carefully baptize them, as you do. 
For if you consider well, you will find that few go from India 
to Paradise, whether white or black, except those who die in 
a state of innocence, as are those who are fourteen years old or 
under. So you see, my brother Francisco Enriquez, you are 
gaining more fruit in your kingdom of Travancore than you 
think. Look how many baptized infants, since you have been 
there, have died and are now in the glory of Paradise, who 
would not have enjoyed God if you had not been there. The 
enemy of human nature has you in great abhorrence and 
would like to see you out of there, so that no one may go to 
Paradise from the kingdom of Travancore. It is customary 
with the devil to hold out to Jesus Christ's servants [the 
vision] of great services, and he does this with evil intentions, 
so as to disquiet and to molest a soul who is somewhere 
doing service to God, in order to draw and cast him out of 
the district where he is serving God. I fear me that the 
enemy is combatting you just here and is giving you many 
troubles and vexations in order to boot you out."* 

Three and a half years later Enriquez had established 
nineteen new churches in Travancore. 

In mid-November Francis returned to Goa to plead for 
the Christians. He had asked Enriquez to bring the affair 
before God. The Captain of Tuticorin, who, as we saw in the 
letters to Mansillas, had caused the native Christians such 
sufferings, had been succeeded by a man as bad as himself, 
and a long list of his abuses had been drawn up, and was now 
brought by Xavier before the eyes of the Governor. A 
letter sent in 1553 by the missionaries on the Fishery coast 
to John of Portugal shows that these efforts had not much 
success. This letter complains bitterly of the treatment 
given by the government officials to the native Christians, 
and concludes : " Above all more care ought to be taken in 
the appointments of the captains, and they should be paid a 
sufficient salary so that they will not be tempted to put 
pressure on the natives of such a poor country as this."t 

January and February of 1549 were spent by Xavier in 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 466. 

t Quoted by Brou, Vie de S. Frangois Xavier, vol. ii. p. 58. 



268 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Cochin. Besides his usual works he was occupied in the 
founding of a college or seminary there. 

A very revealing letter to Loyola is dated January 12th : 



(C 



By the principal letters which all we the least of your 
sons in India wrote by Master Simon, your holy Charity will 
be informed of the fruit (gained) and service which, with the 
help of God our Lord and of your devout and holy sacrifices 
and prayers, is done in these parts of India, and will be done in 
future. By this letter I will give you details of some affairs 
of this land so remote from Rome. First, the native Indians, 
so far as I have seen, and speaking generally, are barbarians. 
We of the Company are carrying on a great deal of work with 
those who are and daily become Christians. It is necessary 
that your Charity should have special care for all your sons 
in India in commending them to God our Lord continually, 
for you know what a great toil it is to have to do with people 
who through their very habitual evil living neither know God 
nor obey reason. 

" The great heat in summer, and the winds and rains in 
winter, make life in these lands very troublesome. There is 
little to maintain the body either in the Moluccas, Socotra 
or Cape Comorin. The spiritual and bodily toil is marvel- 
lously great when one has to deal with such people. Their 
languages are hard to get hold of. . . . All the Indians whom 
we have seen up to now, both Mohammedan and heathen, are 
very ignorant. Those who have to live among these un- 
believers and in the work of converting them need many 
virtues : obedience, humility, perseverance, patience, neigh- 
bourly love, and great chastity. For there are many oppor- 
tunities for sinning. They need too, sound judgment and 
strong bodies to carry on the work. I give your Charity this 
account because of the need there is, in my opinion, of testing 
the spirits of those you are going to send to this country. . . . 

" The man whom you, my Father, will have to send to 
take charge of the College of Santa Fe at Goa, and of the 
native students and of the Companions, will need, not to 
speak of all the other things necessary to a man who has 
to rule and command, these two qualities : first, great 
obedience, so as to make himself beloved, both by all our 
greater ecclesiastics and by the laymen who rule the district, 
so that they may not be conscious of his pride, but rather of 



INDIA REVISITED 

his great humility . . . second, to be affable and calm in 
dealing with others, and not strict, using every means he can 
to make himself loved, firstly by those whom he has to 
command, both natives and those of the Company who are 
here and are to come, so that they may not feel that he wishes 
to make himself obeyed by strictness or servile fear." 

The following passage gives a curious insight into the 
vigorous discipline of some of the Jesuits. N., the Editor 
of the Monumenta says, was Antonio Gomez. He alleged 
authority from Simon Rodriguez : 

" I say this, Father of my soul, because the companions 
here were little edified by a command N. brought to seize 
and send as prisoners in irons to Portugal those whom he 
thought did not edify here. Until now I never thought of 
keeping anyone in the Company by force, if it were not by 
force of love and charity. . . . Those who seemed to me fit 
for the Company I treated with love and charity to confirm 
them the more in it, since they endure such trouble in these 
parts in the service of God our Lord, and also because it 
seems to me the Company of Jesus means Company of love 
and conformity of minds, and not of strictness nor of servile 
lear. . . . 

" I see clearly, my only Father, by my experience here, 
that no road is opening for the perpetuation of the Company 
by the natives among the natives. Christianity will last 
among them only as long as we who are here or those whom 
you will send from home will last and live. The reason for 
this is the great persecutions suffered by those who become 
Christians, of which it would take too long to tell. I refrain 
from writing them as I do not know into whose hands these 
letters may come. 

" In all the parts of this India where there are Christians 
there are Fathers of the Company. In Malucco there are 
four ; in Malacca two : in Cape Comorin six ; in Colon two ; 

* "T~\ 

in Bassein two ; in Socotra four. As these places are very 
remote from each other, as Malucco more than a thousand 
leagues from Goa, Malacca five hundred, Cape Comorin two 
hundred, Colon a hundred and twenty-five, Bassein sixty, 
Socotra three hundred ; and as in all these places there are 
Fathers of the Company to whom the others of the same 
Company who are with them give obedience, since they are 



270 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

persons of good edification ; and where these persons of the 
Company are to whom those with them give obedience, 
I am not at all needed. 

" The Portuguese here control only the sea and the places 
on the sea-shore, and so they are not masters on terra firma, 
but in the places where they live. The native Indians are of 
this kind : through their great sins they are not at all inclined 
to the things of our holy faith, but rather abhor them greatly. 
It bores them mortally when we speak to them and ask them 
to become Christians. . . . With all this, if the unbelievers 
here were favoured by the Portuguese, many would become 
Christians. But the heathen see that those who are Christians 
are in disfavour and persecuted, and so they are unwilling to 
become Christians. 

" For these and many other causes, too long to relate, and 
because of a great deal of information received about Japan, 
which is an island near China, and because all in Japan are 
heathen, and there are no Mohammedans or Jews, and they 
are curious and eager to know new things, alike of God as of 
natural things, I determined, with much inward satisfaction, 
to go to this land. It seemed to me that among such a people 
it would be possible that they themselves might perpetuate 
the fruit which we of the Company might gain in our lifetime. 

" There are three Japanese youths at the College of Santa 
Fe. They came back with me in 1548 from Malacca. They 
told me a lot about Japan. They are men of good customs 
and great gifts, especially Paul. . . . Paul learnt to read, 
write and speak Portuguese in eight months. He is now 
taking the Exercises, and is sure to profit much. He is far 
advanced in matters of the faith. 

" I have great hope, and that all in God our Lord, that 
many will become Christians in Japan. I am determined to 
go first to the king's court and afterwards to the universities 
where they have their studies, with great hope in Jesus 
Christ our Lord that He will help me. Paul says their 
religion was brought from a country called Chengico, which 
is beyond China, and after Tartary. . . . 

" When I see the Japanese writings [or scriptures] and deal 
with the men of their universities, I will write fully of every- 
thing, and I will not fail to write to the university of Paris, 
and through it all the other universities of Europe will get 
word. I am taking a priest with me, a Valencian, Cosmo 




GKATZA ETCARITAS x?o. 

Te too voter anima mete,sumc% miU veneranUe vofttis 
niufCsu.nlanc tiU a>tam scriliOsvfflidter oro,vt mn a 
Deo imfrekres.vt dutnvmam sanctisrima votuntatisjiut ruhi dti 
ctvkm MTwfentlce.et omnmo exequen 
Tuus minimus flues. l<mgifime% exidant. 



'A! ' ,< f O?*j' 
J< ll. ', , 



A.IOYOJ OT OVUTI^V/ flat VAX 

KIC1WI MOM 



^ .T8 



i ^i 



ST. FRANCIS XAVIER WRITING TO LOYOLA 

FROM INDIA 



INDIA REVISITED 271 

de Torres . . . and also the three Japanese youths. We 
leave, with God's help, this month of April, 1549. 

" . . . In making this voyage I could never finish writing 
of the inward comfort I feel, though there are many and great 
dangers of death, of great tempests, winds, reefs, and many 
pirates. When two out of four ships are saved it is a great 
success. I would not give up going to Japan though it were 
certain that I should be in greater danger than ever, so 
strongly have I felt within my soul, and so very great hope 
I have in God our Lord that our holy faith will be greatly 
increased. By the report that Paul gave us you will see the 
opportunities there are of serving God our Lord there. I 
enclose it. 

"... Your Charity would do a great service to God our 
Lord if you would write to us, your least sons of India, a 
letter of doctrine and spiritual advice, as a will in which you 
would divide with these, your exiled sons, so far from the 
bodily sight, the riches which God our Lord has given to you. 
For the love and service of God our Lord, write us, if it is 
possible. 

" A priest of the Company is at Cape Comorin, who came 
from Portugal, Enrico Enriquez by name, a very virtuous 
man, and of great edification. He can speak and write 
Malabar, and gains more fruit than any other two, as he 
knows the language. The native Christians love him fright- 
fully, and he has a great name with them for the sermons and 
talks he gives them in their own language. For the love of 
God our Lord write and comfort him, for he is so good and 
gains so much fruit." 

The long letter concludes thus : 

"... So I stop, praying your Holy Charity, tender est 
Father of my soul, my knees placed on the ground as I write 
this, as if I had you here, to commend me much to God our 
Lord in your holy and devout sacrifices and prayers, that He 
may reveal His holy Will to me in this present life, and give 
me grace to fulfil it perfectly. Amen. And the same I 
commend to all those of the Company. 

" Cochin, 12th Jan., 1549. 

" Your least and most useless son, 

" FRANCISCO." * 

* Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 473 ff. There is an old MS. copy of this letter in the 
British Museum, but not, of course, an original. 



1 > ,1 



. 



ST. FRCJS XAYIER! WRlTINiG O LOYOLA 

* ' 



,* 



, J, . 



\ 



INDIA REVISITED 271 

de Torres . . . and also the three Japanese youths. We 
leave, with God's help, this month of April, 1549. 

"... In making this voyage I could never finish writing 
of the inward comfort I feel, though there are many and great 
dangers of death, of great tempests, winds, reefs, and many 
pirates. When two out of four ships are saved it is a great 
success. I would not give up going to Japan though it were 
certain that I should be in greater danger than ever, so 
strongly have I felt within my soul, and so very great hope 
I have in God our Lord that our holy faith will be greatly 
increased. By the report that Paul gave us you will see the 
opportunities there are of serving God our Lord there. I 
enclose it. 

"... Your Charity would do a great service to God our 
Lord if you would write to us, your least sons of India, a 
letter of doctrine and spiritual advice, as a will in which you 
would divide with these, your exiled sons, so far from the 
bodily sight, the riches which God our Lord has given to you. 
For the love and service of God our Lord, write us, if it is 
possible. 

" A priest of the Company is at Cape Comorin, who came 
from Portugal, Enrico Enriquez by name, a very virtuous 
man, and of great edification. He can speak and write 
Malabar, and gains more fruit than any other two, as he 
knows the language. The native Christians love him fright- 
fully, and he has a great name with them for the sermons and 
talks he gives them in their own language. For the love of 
God our Lord write and comfort him, for he is so good and 
gains so much fruit." 

The long letter concludes thus : 

"... So I stop, praying your Holy Charity, tenderest 
Father of my soul, my knees placed on the ground as I write 
this, as if I had you here, to commend me much to God our 
Lord in your holy and devout sacrifices and prayers, that He 
may reveal His holy Will to me in this present life, and give 
me grace to fulfil it perfectly. Amen. And the same I 
commend to all those of the Company. 

" Cochin, 12th Jan., 1549. 

" Your least and most useless son, 

"FRANCISCO."* 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 473 ff . There is an old MS. copy of this letter in the 
British Museum, but not, of course, an original. 



272 ST. FHANCIS XAVIE& 

A few days later he writes to Rodriguez : 



" 



The Chinese ports have all risen against the Portuguese'.- 
But not for that will I give up going to Japan, as I have 
written you. Since there is no greater rest in this laborious 
life than to live in great danger of dea,th when it is all under- 
taken without any other motive than the love and service 
of God our Lord, and the increase of our holy faith." * 

Arid in another letter to Rodriguez he writes : 

" All my devotees and friends are frightened at my taking 
such a long and dangerous voyage. It puzzles me to see 
how little faith they have. For God our Lord has command 
and power over the tempests of the Chinese and Japanese 
seas which are the greatest known and has control over 
all the sea robbers. ... I have no fear of any but of God, 
lest He give me some chastisement for being negligent in 
His service, unfit and useless for the increase of the Name of 
Jesus Christ among men who do not know Him."| 

Before leaving India for Malacca en route for Japan, 
Xavier sent one more letter to the King of Portugal. Much 
of it is a repetition of what he had said before, put even more 
strongly : 

"It is almost a kind of martyrdom to look with patience 
on the destruction of what one has gained with so much 
labour." 

And again : 

" At last experience has taught me that your Highness is 
not powerful in India for the increase of Christ's faith, and is 
powerful for carrying off and keeping all the temporal riches 
of India." 

And again : 

" I, Sire, because I know what goes on here, have no hope 
that commands or prescripts sent in favour of Christianity 
will be fulfilled in India ; and therefore I am almost fleeing 
to Japan, not to waste any more time." 

* Mon. Xav. t vol. i. p. 508. f Ibid., vol. i. p. 



INDIA REVISITED 273 

And finally : 

*' Be prepared, for kingdoms and lordships finish and have 
end. A new thing it will be, and something that never 
happened to your Highness before, to find yourself dis- 
possessed at the hour of your death of your kingdoms and 
lordships, and to have to enter into others, where this new 
thing must happen to you, to be sent, may God forbid it ! 
out of Paradise." * 

One of Xavier's chief anxieties in leaving India was the 
college at Goa. The new Rector, Antonio Gomez, who had 
just arrived with great eclat from Coimbra, was proving 
himself a thorn in the flesh to all concerned. Before leaving 
for Japan Xavier tried to get him to go, but without success. 
He then arranged that the more popular Camerino should be 
superior over all the missionaries who were not actually 
living in the college, and Gomez was to have no authority 
over Camerino. There are some pages of instructions to 
Camerino, written out at this time by Xavier. Their chief 
burden is that peace should be kept with Gomez. 

" Above everything else live with much prudence, humility, 
and sense, in love and charity with Antonio Gomez and all 
the Fathers ... do not order him in anything by obedience, 
but as by love and advice ... let there be between you 
and Antonio Gomez neither discords nor quarrels, but much 
love and charity. . . . Write me fully of your news, and 
of all the house, and of the love and charity between you and 
Antonio Gomez."t 

In April Xavier left Goa for Malacca and Japan. With 
him were Cosmo de Torres and Fernandez, the three Japanese 
youths, and three missionaries who were going to the 
Moluccas. 

On Easter Day they came to Cochin, and there made a 
short halt. They preached in the town, and were lodged by 
the Franciscans there. By the end of May they were in 
Malacca, where they were very joyfully welcomed by their 
friends. From there Xavier wrote a large budget of letters. 

From his friends in the college he begs and begs again for 

* Moil. Xoo., vol. i. p. 510 ff. f lUd., vol. i. p. 881, 882, 883. 

T 



274 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

long and full letters ; he wants to know all about them, and 
especially about the fruit which they are gaining. 
To the troublesome Antonio Gomez he' writes : 

" Antonio Gomez, I commend you much to charity, 
friendship, and love with all the blessed friars of the Order 
of St. Francis, and of St. Dominic. Be very devoted to them 
all. Beware of having any disedifying thing with them. I 
hope you will always fulfil this, great humility dwelling in 
you. Now and then you will visit them, so that they may 
recognise in you that you love them, and the people, lovers 
of discord, may see the charity which is among you towards 
all." * 

In the same letter he begs that they may pray for his 
companions and himself : 

" Let all of the house have special care to commend us to 
God, Father Cosmo de Torres, Juan Fernandez, and Paul 
Japan with his companions, and Manoel China, and Amador, 
and me, since we have such need in this dangerous and 
difficult voyage in which we go." -f 

In another letter he reports on the school work in Malacca : 

" Roque de Oliveira teaches the children to read and 
write, and he makes no less progress here, as the trouble he 
takes in teaching them is great. He has a great number of 
youths ; to some he teaches reading and writing, and to 
others grammar. A few have now gone, as they are more 
advanced, and have learnt all they wished. They read by 
primers and prayer books. They behave (as well) as if they 
were friars : it is a thing to give thanks to God our Lord 
when one sees their modesty. Never an oath, however 
little, is heard in their mouth." J 

Writing to Loyola about the Japanese youths who were 
with him, he says : 

" I asked them often in which prayers they found most 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 522. f Ibid., vol. i. p. 525. 

J Ibid., vol. i. p. 559. 



INDIA REVISITED 275 

delight and spiritual comfort, and they told me in the Exer- 
cises on the Passion, to which they are very devoted. 

" During these Exercises they experienced great grief, 
comforts, and tears. For several months before the Exer- 
cises we occupied them in explaining to them the articles of 
the faith and the mysteries of the life of Christ, and the 
cause of the incarnation of the Son of God in the womb of the 
Virgin Mary, and of the redemption of all the human kind 
made by Christ. I asked them often what in their opinion 
was the best in our religion [ley]. They always answered me 
that it was confession and Communion, and that no reason- 
able man, it seemed to them, could fail to be a Christian 
after our holy faith had been explained to him. I heard one 
of them, Paul de Santa Fe by name, say with many sighs, 
4 O people of Japan, how wretched are you who adore as 
gods the creatures which God made for the service of men.' 
I asked him why he was saying this. He answered me that 
he was saying it on account of the people of his country who 
were adoring the sun and the moon, while the sun and the 
moon were like ministers and servants of those who know 
Jesus Christ, and are only of use to lighten the day and night 
that men by their brightness may serve God, and glorify 
His Son Jesus Christ 'in the land." * 

He goes on to speak of the work which lies before them : 

" We are not afraid of meeting the learned of those parts, 
for what can he know who does not know God nor Jesus 
Christ ? And those who desire nothing but the glory of 
God and the manifestation of Jesus Christ with the salva- 
tion of souls, what can they be afraid of or fear ? Not only 
going among unbelievers, but, moreover, where there is a 
multitude of demons, why should we fear, since the bar- 
barous people and the winds and the demons can do us no 
more evil or annoyance save so far as God gives permission 
and licence ? 

" O^y ne dread and terror we bear, which is fear to 
offend God our Lord. For we have certain victory against 
our enemies, if we keep us from offending God our Lord. 
And since God gives to all grace sufficient to serve Him and 
to keep them from sinning, we thus hope in His Divine 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 544. 

T2 



276 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Majesty that He will give it to us. And since all our good or 
evil is in the good or bad use of His grace, we trust greatly 
in the merits of the holy mother Church, the Spouse of 
Christ our Lord, and particularly in the merits of the Com- 
panions of the name of Jesus, and of all their devotees, male 
and female, that their merits will extend even to us, and we 
shall come to use well the grace of the Lord God. 

" It has often struck me that our very learned companions 
who may come out here will have to put up with no small 
hardships in those dangerous voyages, and they may think 
that to face such obvious peril, in which so many ships are 
lost, will be tempting God. But then I have come to the 
conclusion that there is nothing in that. For I feel sure in 
God our Lord that the learning of our companions must 
be dominated by the Spirit of God, Who abides in them. 
For otherwise they will have trouble, and not a little. Nearly 
always I carry before my eyes and mind what I often heard 
our blessed Father Ignatius say, that those who were of 
our Company ought to strive hard to vanquish themselves, 
and, by taking the proper means, to cast out all those fears 
which hindered their faith, hope, and confidence in God. . . . 
And although all faith, hope, and confidence are the gift of 
God, and the Lord gives this to whom He pleases, He gives 
commonly to those who force and conquer themselves by 
taking the proper means. . . ."* 

Xavier then proceeds to less abstract topics : 

" The Japanese, our brothers and companions who go 
with us to Japan, tell me that the Japanese Priests [Padres] 
will be scandalised if they see us eating flesh and fish. So 
we go determined to be vegetarians [comer continuamente 
dieta] always [evidently Paul's friends were Buddhists] 
rather than give scandal to anyone."t 

On June 23rd, 1549, he writes a very characteristic letter, 
evidently in even more of a hurry than usual, to Rodriguez. 

" The grace and eternal love of Christ our Lord be 
always in our aid and favour. Amen. 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 548. t Ibid., vol. i. p. 549. 



INDIA REVISITED 277 

"This January of 1549 I wrote you a long letter from 
Cochin, both I and all the Brothers of the Company. By 
this letter I let you know that it would be a great service of 
God our Lord if you would send some man who had served 
in the College of Coimbra as Rector, or who was fit for it, 
and a man to whom neither the duty would cause qualms 
in his conscience [he puts in "neither," meaning, no 
doubt, to come in with a " nor" farther on, but he 
jumps away in the idea of the dangers of commanding, 
and never gets on the grammatical rail again] as the 
office of command is very dangerous for those who are 
not perfect, and of great perfection, as you know very 
well, and who was a man who knew how to watch for all 
the Brothers in India with great prudence and discretion, 
knowing how to have compassion, to lead, and deal with the 
Brothers of the Company. You must therefore send a man 
whom you have seen tried in such positions. Antonio 
Gomez has a great gift for preaching, and produces fine 
results in his preachings, but he has not such qualities as 
I desire for him who has to take charge of the Brothers in 
India, and of the College. Antonio Gomez would do great 
service to God by going about and preaching in the forts 
of India. 

" For the love of our Lord send me some Fathers preachers, 
for the forts of India have great need of instruction. We 
are greatly in debt to the king and to the Portuguese 
of these parts, and we cannot pay our great debt with 
anything but by watching over their consciences, and by 
watching over the many obligations of the king, and unbur- 
dening his conscience in these parts. For the love of our 
Lord let the men you send here, whether preachers or not, 
be men well proven in their life and virtues, for occasions 
and opportunities for evil are many here. Though the 
preachers you will send here may not have much learning, 
for the love of our Lord let them be men of great life (de 
grande vida), for here thev look little to learning and much 
to life."* 

In the letter that follows we have a delicious exhibition 
of our Saint as a match-maker. It is addressed to Paul 
Camerino and Antonio Gomez at Goa : 

* Mon. Xav,, vol, i. p, 563, 



2T8 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

" Malacca, 28 June, 1549. 

" After having written you a very long letter about every- 
thing, it seems well to me to send you these lines to tell 
you how I met here in Malacca a great friend of mine, 
Christopher Carvalho. 

" He is a bachelor, far advanced in virtue, rich, honourable, 
and of very good parts. I asked him in the zeal I have for 
the salvation of all, and for the great friendship there was 
between us, to try for the love of our Lord to take and choose 
some method of living in the service of God, and for repose, 
since he knew well in what dangers men walk who do not 
have method in their living. He told me that he now greatly 
desired to repose in some good state of life, which might be 
service to God our Lord, and to enjoy the favours and alms 
which our Lord God of His mercy had done him. 

" And thus going on from one subject to another, I began 
to remember the many kind deeds which we have all received 
from our ' Mother.'* I spoke to him about marrying some 
girl. I told him all about her customs and virtue, and he 
was very pleased with the veracious story of her virtue. 
He became quite seized and gave me his word. I believe he 
will fulfil it as my sincere friend, and because it is a matter 
of so much honour, advantage and repose to him. I have 
written about this to our ' Mother.' 

" And as I think your help will be very necessary, I beg and 
pray you to remember the hospitality and kindness which 
all of us have always received from our * Mother.' You 
and the Comptroller of Revenue put your heads together, 
and arrange so that this honoured widow may be relieved, 
and her daughter get shelter and protection. 

"My friend Christopher Carvalho is going there (to Goa). 
You will make his acquaintance, and you will know his wish 
and the word given me. You will speak to the Comptroller 
of Revenue and place before him the great service to God 
our Lord to be done in this matter, and the great honour 
and repose which will result to him from it, by protecting 
the orphan and comforting the widow. And I trust in God 
our Lord that it will be done, for he is a good and honourable 
man. 

* Ed. of Mon. Xav. gives a note from Filipucci : " In India the old women 
are called May [i.e., Mother]. This one so called by the Saint was a Bene- 
factress of ours." 



INDIA REVISITED 279 

" And you are aware that the King our Lord by letter-patent 
gifted to* our * Mother ' the office vacated by Diogo Froes, 
who is now in glory, for whoever should marry her daughter. 
Now Christopher Carvalho is honourable and rich and in 
easy circumstances, and does not need to serve offices. So 
I recommend and beseech you earnestly for the love of God 
our Lord, and for the great and many obligations of us all to 
our ' Mother,' that you two with the Comptroller of Revenue 
get licence from the Lord Governor that Christopher Carvalho 
may be able to sell the said office, since, as I have said, he 
is in easy circumstances through the favour of the Lord 
God. I make no more recommendations or charges about 
this, for I know the special care which you will take of it, 
as every day you will see reasons obliging you to it. And I 
pray you to arrange that the marriage may come off, for I 
shall be most glad and contented when I see this orphan, 
such a good girl, protected, and our ' Mother ' relieved. 
For I know and am sure that my friend Christopher Carvalho 
is a man who will stay and be very kind to our c Mother.' 

" And therefore I am so pressing. For I have already his 
word, and he promised me to do it and recognised that it 
was a great favour which the Lord was doing him in my 
thinking of such a good plan. And thus I have written to 
our ' Mother.' And yet it seems to me that it will not 
take place if there is nobody to hasten it, and take special 
care of it. And therefore I pray you to have great care of it. 

" Our Lord unite us in His holy glory, for in this life I 
do not know when we shall see each other. 

" Malacca, Eve of St. John, 1549. 

" Your Brother in Christ."* 

One wonders what the may said ! And the tfio boa filha, 
did she shut her eyes and open her mouth and take what 
Xavier sent her ? 

There is another very interesting document written at 
this time the Instructions to Preachers in the Forts. 

These Instructions are full of very self-revealing passages, 
and valuable on that account to the student of Xavier. 
And twentieth-century preachers will find here much good 
advice that is by no means out of date. We give a few 
extracts : 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 566. 



280 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

3. Visit the poor in the Hospital and from time to time preach 
to them to discharge their conscience, and exhort them to confess 
and communicate, for diseases generally rise from sins, and you 
yourself will confess it when you can. 

6. Let all your conversation be spiritual. And yet in this 
take care to deal with the greatest friends as if they might come 
to be your enemies. Avail yourself of this reflection : on your 
part to edify them in all your deeds and talk, and on their part 
when they give up your friendship, that they may be blamed, 
and confound themselves. 

8 and 9. Preach constantly and as often as possible, for this 
is a universal good of great service to God and advantage to souls. 
You will beware of preaching doubtful matters and Doctors' 
[scholars'] difficulties. Let your teaching be clear, acceptable, 
and moral. Reprove vice ; grieve over the offences against God ; 
be compassionate about the eternal condemnation of sinners to 
the pains of hell ; treat of sudden death which takes men un- 
prepared, and touch at the same time on some point of the passion, 
by way of a colloquy or talk of a sinner with God, or of God's 
wrath against the sinner : move your hearers with all your power 
to contrition, grief, and tears for their fault, exhorting to confess 
and receive the most holy Sacrament. 

10. And beware particularly of blaming from the pulpit the 
person or persons who have command in the same district. 
For men of that kind when publicly reprimanded become worse 
more quickly rather than amend. If it is necessary, preach to 
them in their own houses. Take them apart, and speak with a 
pleasant countenance. Do not use harsh words, but loving 
and mild. Embrace some, humble yourself before others, 
according to their nature. If they come to be friendly, then you 
can blame them with more confidence, and more or less as the 
friendship is greater or less. In short, harshness is taken badly 
by the rich and powerful. They easily lose patience and respect 
and think it does not matter at all to them to have us as enemies. 

11. When men of affairs confess, and those who live in hate 
or sensuality, you will try two things : first, they should take some 
days to think carefully of their past, and put down exactly all 
their sins ; and it would be better to have them in writing. 
Secondly, to do before you absolve them what they are obliged 
to do afterwards, making restitution, withdrawing from the 
occasions of vice, and being reconciled with neighbours. For, 
generally, to get absolution they make great promises in confes- 
sion, and when absolved do nothing. That they may put up 
with the delay in absolving them, and fulfil their duties, give 
them during some days while they are waiting some of the medi- 
tations we call " of the first week," that they may understand 



INDIA REVISITED 281 

the end for which God made them, and how they have erred 
from it by so innumerable sins, by the heinousness and ugliness 
of these same sins ; how much God resents them, and how He 
punishes them ; the certainty and uncertainty of death, the 
account which must be made, the greatness and eternity of the 
pains of hell. 

12. The devil embarrasses many with a false shame of their 
base and ugly faults so that they never completely disclose them, 
as is proper, to the confessor. He disheartens and fills with 
want of confidence others by the same means. 

13. With all these it is proper to use great sweetness until 
they have completely confessed, not putting on them fear of the 
divine justice, but making everything easy for them with the 
divine mercy. It will often help to overcome this temptation 
that they should understand from you that those things are not 
news to you, nor other greater sins. 

15. When you confess Captains, Factors, or any other officials 
of the King, and persons who act as Factors in the affairs of 
others, take the greatest care to get complete information of the 
way in which they gain their living. You will ask them if they 
pay paries [taxes ?], if they make monopolies, if they help them- 
selves with the King's money for their own business, and the 
like details. Do not be satisfied with asking them in general if 
they are holding what is of others. They will answer you that 
they owe nothing to anybody, for they easily take no notice 
of such things, as they are now well established, and they are 
so little affected by the many injustices involved. Really they 
are under obligation to restore much to many, as you will under- 
stand and make plain to them, if you proceed in your questioning 
in the manner I indicate. 

16. Be extremely obedient to the Vicar of the city, to whom you 
will go at once on arrival to kiss his hands, with both knees on 
the ground. You will preach and confess and exercise spiritual 
functions by his licence. Never break with him in any case. 
Rather strive to make him your friend, with a view to give him 
the spiritual exercises, at the least, when you cannot manage more, 
those of the first week. Deal with the priests of the district in 
the same way, endeavouring to keep friendly with all, having 
and showing great respect to them and leading them to make a 
retreat for some days and to take these same meditations. 

17. I charge you to have no less obedience, humility, and respect 
to the Captain. Do not break with him, however badly you see 
him doing. But when you have got him to be friends, and hope 
that you may be able to be of use, then with a pleasant face, with 
mildness and humility and love, so that he may understand that 



282 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

you do it because you are pained at seeing his soul and honour 
tainted, represent to him what is said of him in the district. 

18. But as many are sure to come to you with complaints 
and importune you to speak to him, be very cautious about this. 
It is best to excuse yourself, and say that you are engaged in 
spiritual affairs, and that if he does not make account of God, 
and of his own conscience, still less will he with you. 

20. And remember, always go, you or your companion, 
about the streets with a bell, calling the people to the holy doctrine 
an hour before you begin teaching. 

24. In conversation be pleasant and merry that fear may not 
keep people from profiting by you. Let your words be affable 
and mild, and even when it may be necessary to reprove some one 
in private, let it be with love and good grace, so that it may be 
seen that you abhor not the person but the fault. 

27. If any come to you with desires to be received into our 
Company, and you think him fit, take charge of him. Be cautious 
that the works of abstinence are not beyond his capacity and 
spiritual power, and instead of feeding and strengthening the 
spirit make him lose courage. Do not use novelties in this, for 
these make laymen mock rather than be edified. 

35. If you wish to gain much fruit, alike in your own soul and 
in those of the neighbours, and to live in spiritual comfort, converse 
with sinners so that they may come to trust you, and disclose 
their conscience to you. These are the living books which teach 
more than the dead. You must study them not only for your 
sermons, but for your own private comfort. Here you will find 
the points on which you ought chiefly to preach. I do not mean 
that you are not to read written books, rather you ought to do that, 
and to seek places of the Holy Scriptures and examples from the 
Fathers, with which you will give authority to the remedies 
against vice and sin which you see and read in the living books. 

36. Advises not to take gifts i.e., big things but the small, 
such as a little fruit, ought to be taken. Yet even these should 
be sent to the hospitals or prisons. People take it as an insult 
not to accept what is sent you when the things are small. The 
Portuguese of India are offended if you take nothing at all from 
them. And this is enough for the present. The Lord go with you, 
and remain with us. Amen. 

Goa, Jan., 1549.* 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 870 if. There are two versions of this document, 
The above is a translation of the second, except the last paragraph* 



CHAPTER XVII 

JAPAN 

(August, 1549 November, 1551) 

WE have seen from Xavier's letter from Cochin of January, 

1548, how the earliest intimations of his mission to Japan 
came to him. A year and five months later, on June 24th, 

1549, he left Malacca, and on August 15th arrived at 
Kagoshima. 

Francis Xavier's letters from Ja,pan were the earliest 
first-hand reports of that country to come to Europe. A * 
Portuguese captain had sent home some descriptions of it 
in 1547 * gleaned from one of his passengers, the Japanese 
Yajiro, who a few months later was to meet Xavier in 
Malacca, be converted by him, and accompany him on this 
voyage. Marco Polo had brought rumours of Zipango, 
as he called it, to Italy, but he had not been there. Mendez 
Pinto, in his Travels, claims to have witnessed many of the 
scenes that Xavier describes, but his claims are unauthen- 
ticated. The first Europeans actually to touch Japanese 
soil were probably some Portuguese sailors who were driven 
ashore in a storm in 1542. Since then, before the arrival 
of Xavier, Europeans had called at the ports occasionally, 
but no one appears to have landed, or at least gone beyond 
the harbours. That adventure was reserved for Francis 
and his friends. 

The little party numbered nine in all. Besides Xavier 
there were three other Jesuits Cosmo Torres, Juan Fer- * 
nandez, and Dominic Diaz. There was also the Japanese 
Yajiro, or, as he was now called, Paul of the Holy Faith, 
two other Japanese, and two " boys," one a native of Malabar, 
and the other a Chinese. 

Of the Portuguese Dominic Diaz we know little. Cosmo 
Torres was a Spanish priest from Valencia. For ten years 
he had been an adventurer and a wanderer, but the sight of 
Xavier at work in the Moluccas had rekindled the ardours 

* The text of these letters is in C. Manoel, Missoas dos Jesuitas no Oriente, 



284 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

of his youth, and in Goa, after due probation, he had been 
admitted to the Society. Juan Fernandez had come out 
in 1548 from Cordova, where he had been a wealthy silk- 
merchant. He had been " hardened " for missionary life 
by the bizarre methods at that time in usage at the College 
of Coimbra, and his earnestness and sincerity tested in a 
way thought to be very searching to an elegant young 
mondain : he was bidden to ride upon a donkey with his 
face towards the tail, dressed in fantastic silks, through 
the chief streets of Lisbon. Nine months later he was sent 
to India. Xavier wished to ordain him, but he preferred to 
remain a lay brother. 

Of Yajiro we already know something from Xavier's 
letter on p. 254. He was the first Japanese convert to 
Christianity.* 

The voyage was not without adventure, and in a letter 
written from Kagoshima on November 5th Xavier gives a 
very full account of it. 

"... On the afternoon of St. John's Day, 1549, we 
embarked [from Malacca] in a heathen Chinese merchant 
ship. . . . When we left, God did us great favour, giving 
us very good weather and wind. Then the captain began to 
change his mind, as the heathen are very inconstant, and 
not to wish to go on to Japan, and to stop unnecessarily in 
the islands he found. 

" What irritated us most in this voyage were two things 
first, to see that we were not taking advantage of the good 
weather and wind which God our Lord was giving us, and 
that the monsoon taking us to Japan was ending, and we 
were thus being forced to wait a year and to winter in China 
till the next monsoon ; and, second, the great and continual 
idolatries and sacrifices made, without our being able to 
hinder it, by the captain and the heathen to the idol which 
they carried in the ship. They often cast lots, and made 
inquiries if we could go to Japan or no, and if the favourable 
winds would last. Sometimes the lots fell out well, and 
sometimes badly. . . . 

" On the way to China, 100 leagues from Malacca we 

* Less than a year after his conversion he wrote a very remarkable letter 
to the Society in Europe, the full text of which may be found in Gary's 
History of Christianity in Japan. 



JAPAN 285 

touched at an island and provided ourselves with rudders 
and the wood necessary for the great tempests and seas of 
China. After this was done, they cast lots, first making 
numerous sacrifices and feasts to the idol. . . . The lot fell 
that we were to have good weather, and should not wait 
longer. So we weighed anchor and set sail with much 
pleasure, the heathen trusting in the idol which, with great 
veneration and lighted candles, and perfumings and odours 
of eagles' wood [a kind of incense], they carried in the ship's 
poop ; and we trusting in God, Creator of heaven and earth, 
and in Jesus Christ His Son. ... As we came along the 
heathen began to cast lots and make inquiries of the idol 
whether the ship would return again from Japan to Malacca. 
The lot fell out that she would go to Japan, but not return 
to Malacca. As a result . . . they resolved to winter in 
China and wait till next year. You see what we had to 
put up with on this voyage our getting to Japan was at 
the discretion of the demon and his servants. . . . 

" Coming slowly along, before reaching China and while 
close to Cochin-China, near China, we had two disasters in 
one day, the Eve of the Magdalen. Heavy seas were running, 
and there was a high wind, and we were full of water. The 
well of the ship happened to be open through carelessness ; 
Manuel China, our companion, was passing it, and not 
having a good hold, owing to the heavy rolling of the ship, 
fell down the well. We all thought he was dead from the 
great fall, and because there was so much water in the 
bottom : God our Lord willed that he did not die. His head 
and more than half his body were below water for some time, 
and he suffered for a good many days from a wound in his 
head. . . . With great trouble we drew him from the well, 
and he was unconscious a good while. . . . When he had 
recovered the storm continued, and with the tossing of the 
ship a daughter of the captain happened to fall into the sea. 
We could do nothing to help her owing to the heavy seas, 
and so, in the presence of her father and close to the ship, 
she was drowned. The cries and lamentations that day and 
night were very pitiable, and the sight of so much misery in 
the souls of the heathen. ... All that day and night, 
without rest, they made great sacrifices and feasts to their 
idol, killing many birds, and giving it food and drink. Then 
they cast lots, and asked it why the captain's daughter had 



286 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

died.* The lot fell out that she would not have died or 
fallen into the sea if our Manuel, who fell into tfeg well, had 
died. 

" You see the peril our lives were put in by the demon's 
lots and the power of his servants and ministers. What 
would become of us if God allowed the demon to do us the 
harm he wanted to do us ? . . . 

u The day these disasters happened, and all that night, 
it pleased God our Lord to do me much grace. He was 
pleased to cause me to feel and experience many things anent 
those fierce and frightful fears imposed by the enemy when 
God permits him, and he finds a chance of causing them ; 
and also aiient the remedies against the temptations of the 
enemy which a man ought to use when he finds himself in 
such trouble . . . The sum of all these remedies is to show 
very great courage against the enemy ; for a man must 
distrust himself totally, and trust in God grandly, placing in 
Him all the force and hope he possesses, and then, having so 
great a Defender and Protector, he must show no cowardice, 
and not doubt but that he will be victor. Many a time I thought 
that it was as if God our Lord had increased the demon's 
sufferings to a greater pitch than before, and that he was out 
that day and night to revenge himself, for he seemed to be 
keeping on saying to me that we were in his time of vengeance." 

Xavier, we gather, had prayed that God would come 
down on the devil every time the devil moved the captain 
to cast lots, as it was the lots which made the captain 
hesitate about going on to Japan. And now Xavier believed 
that God had answered his prayers, and that the devil, 
having a bad time of it, naturally wanted to get back a bit 
of his own. So often, in that day and night of the two 
disasters, he had before his mind that the devil was taking 
his revenge. The letter goes on : 

" And in such times want of confidence in God is more 
to be dreaded than fear of the enemy, for the demon cannot 
do any more harm than God allows. God allows the demon 
to discomfort and vex those creatures who through pusil- 
lanimity stop trusting in their Creator, and do not force 
themselves to hope in Him. Many who began by serving 

* Compare Jonah i. 7. 



JAPAN 287 

God have comfortless lives . . . because they do not keep 
on carrying the sweet Cross of Christ with perseverance. 
. . . These do not know their own weaknesses, and put 
them down to the Cross of Christ, and say it is troublesome 
to keep on carrying it. O Brothers, what will become of 
us at the hour of death, if in life we do not prepare and set 
ourselves to learn to hope and trust in God ? For in that 
hour we shall find ourselves in greater temptations and 
troubles and dangers than ever we have seen, both spiritual 
and bodily. Therefore let those who live with the desire 
to serve God strive to be humble in small things, always 
distrusting themselves, and establishing themselves entirely 
on God. ... 

" If men would only regard it as certain that to fail in 
duty to God must bring them more harm than could happen 
to them from the demon's side, what consolation they would 
experience ! How much they would profit when they knew 
their own little worth from then 1 own experience, and yet 
saw clearly their great worth when they closed entirely with 
God ! And how confounded and weak the demon would be 
on finding himself conquered by those whose conqueror he 
once had been I 

" To return now to our voyage. The seas went down, we 
weighed anchor and set sail with much sadness [because the 
captain had decided not to make direct for Japan]. ... In 
a few days we arrived in China at the port of Canton. All 
thought it well to winter at that port, the sailors as well as 
the captain ; we were the only ones to oppose this plan, 
which we did with petitions and with some threats [to report 
the shipmaster to the Captain in Malacca] . . . God our 
Lord was pleased to make them unwilling to remain in the 
isles of Canton, so we weighed anchor . . . and in a few 
days, with a good wind, which God was giving us con- 
tinually, we reached Chimceo [Tchintcheo], another Chinese 
port. We were just entering it with the intention of winter- 
ing there, as the monsoon to take us to Japan was coming to 
an end, When a sail came to us. They gave us the news that 
the port was full of pirates, and that if we entered we were 
lost. ... It was a head wind to go back to Canton, and a 
stern wind to come to Japan. Thus, against the will of the 
captain of the ship and the sailors, they were forced to come 
to Japan. So neither the demon nor his ministers were able 



288 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

to prevent our coming, and so God brought us to this so- 
longed-for land. 

" I arrived on the Feast of the Assumption, August, 1549. 
Without being able to touch any other Japanese port, we 
came to Kagoshima,* which is the home of Paul of the 
Holy Faith. There all, both his relatives and those who were 
not, received us with much love." f 

Kagoshima, the port at which Francis and his companions 
landed, was the native town of Paul of the Holy Faith, 
and his return was the occasion of a great welcome, both to 
himself and those whom he brought with him. They were 
not at all scandalised that he had become a Christian; the 
fact that he had embraced a new religion only added to the 
interest aroused by his reappearance. He introduced Xavier 
to the Governor of the town, who received the missionary 
with much kindness. This kindness was doubtless rein- 
forced by commercial instincts, for the merchants of Japan 
were just awaking to the fact that it was desirable that the 
Portuguese ships should visit them, and the different ports 
were ready to vie with one another in hospitality toward 
strangers from the West. 

As an interpreter, Paul was indispensable, and he took 
great pains to teach his Western friends the language. 
Already, during the voyage, Juan Fernandez had made good 
progress. 

After six weeks the daimio of the province invited them to 
appear before him. He received them kindly. Francis 
expressed his desire to go on to Kioto, J the capital, but 
the daimio dissuaded him, telling him the weather and 
the wars would make his passage quite impossible until 
later on. At the same time he put a house at the disposal of 
the missionaries. There Francis occupied his leisure moments 
in composing, with the help of Paul, a document similar to 
that which he had composed at Ternate (see p. 242). 

The first converts in Kagoshima were the relatives of Paul 
of the Holy Faith. Another of the earliest converts was one 
who received the Christian name of Bernard. This man 
became one of Francis' most faithful helpers, accompanied 
him in all his journeys through Japan, followed him to 

* Spelt throughout by Xavier Cangoxima. f Man. Xav.. vol. i. p. 572 ff. 

J Then known as Miaco. 



JAPAN 289 

India, and after the Saint's death went to Europe, visited ' 
the Jesuits in Spain and Italy, and finally died in the college 
at Coimbra. 

But Francis, in Japan, made no attempts to repeat the 
methods which he had used in Southern India. There, as an 
old chronicler has said, he had fished with a drag-net, but 
here he had to fish with a line. The first three months were 
chiefly spent in preparation. Fernandez, evidently a brilliant 
linguist, Cosmo de Torres and Francis became the industrious 
pupils of Paul of the Holy Faith. Besides studying the 
language, Francis studied the people, with whole-hearted 
gusto. 

In the letter written on November 5th, of which we have 
already quoted a part, he goes on to give his first impressions 
of the Japanese, or rather of the Japanese of the province 
of Satsuma : 

" The people with whom we have conversed so far are the 
best yet discovered. In my opinion no people superior to 
the Japanese will be found among unbelievers. They are 
of good behaviour, and good generally, and not malicious, 
marvellously honourable. They esteem honour more than 
anything. They are mostly poor, and neither the nobles nor 
those who are not esteem poverty as a reproach. They 
have one quality which I do not think is to be found among 
any Christians, and it is this the nobles, however poor they 
may be, and those who are not nobles, however rich, honour 
a very poor noble as much as if he were rich ; and not 
for any price would a very poor noble marry into another ' 
caste if it were not noble. ... So they esteem honour more 
than riches. They are very courteous among themselves. 
They prize arms greatly and trust much in them. They 
always carry swords and daggers all the people, high and 
low alike, from the age of 14 years, they carry sword and 
dagger. 

" They will stand no insults nor slighting words. The 
people who are not noble have great reverence for the nobles, 
and all the nobles are very proud to serve the lord of the land, 
and are very obedient to him. This I think they do because 
they hold that if they did the contrary they should lose 
their honour. ... 

" They are abstemious in eating, though they drink a 

u 



290 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

good deal. They drink rice wine, as there are no vines in 
these parts. They never gamble, because in their opinion 
it is very dishonourable, for gamblers desire what is not 
their own, and thence may come to be thieves. They swear 
little, and when they do it is by the sun. A great part of the 
people can read and write, which is a great help for learning 
the prayers and things of God quickly. 

" They have not more than one wife. It is a land of few 
thieves, because severe justice is mefced out to those who are 
found to be thieves, and none of their lives spared. They 
are kindly, very conversable, and eager for knowledge. They 
rejoice much to hear of God ... most of them believe in 
men of ancient times, who, as I have managed to under- 
stand, were men who lived as philosophers. Many of them 
adore the sun, others the moon. They rejoice to hear things 
conformable to reason, and though there are vices and 
sins among them, yet when they are given reasons, and 
shown that what they do is ill done, then what reason 
defends seems good to them. 

" Among the secular I find less sin, and see more obedience 
to reason, than among those whom they regard as Fathers. 
They call them bonzes [bonjos]. They are inclined to sins 
which Nature abhors. They confess and do not deny it. ... 
Among these bonzes are some who live like friars. They go 
clothed in grey gowns. They are clean-shaven, head as well 
as beard. . . . They are very licentious, and have nuns of 
the same order living together with them. The populace 
have a very evil opinion of them. . . . 

" I can tell you one thing for which you may give thanks 
to God our Lord : this island of Japan is very ready for the 
great increase of our holy faith in it. If we could speak the 
language I have no hesitation whatever in believing that many 
would become Christians. May it please God our Lord that 
we shall learn it in a short time, for already we begin to have 
a smattering of it, and we have expounded the Ten Com- 
mandments in forty days which we gave to learn them. I 
give you this so detailed account that you may all give thanks 
to God our Lord for the discovery of this country in which 
your holy desires can be employed and fulfilled ; and also 
that you may apparel yourselves with great virtue and with 
the desire to suffer greatly in the service of Christ our 
Redeemer and Lord. And remember that God sets more 



JAPAN 291 

value on the offering of a good will full of humility presented 
for His sole love and glory than He prizes and esteems the 
actual services done Him, however many they may be. 

" Be prepared, for likely in less than two years I may write 
to you that a number of you should come to Japan. So 
strive after great humility, persecuting your own selves in 
the things for which you feel repugnance. Strive with all 
the power God gives you to know yourselves as you are. 
Thus you will grow in faith and hope, and confidence and 
love toward God, and charity with your neighbours. From 
distrust of oneself is born the trust in God that is real. . . . 
Take care not to plume yourselves upon the good opinion 
others may have of you, or you will be confounded. For 
some by their carelessness in this come to lose inward 
humility, and grow in pride. ... In all your affairs establish 
yourselves altogether in God, without trusting in your own 
powers or knowledge, or in human opinion, and so I reckon 
you will be prepared for all the great adversities, whether 
bodily or spiritual, that may come upon you, for God lifts up 
and strengthens the humble, and chiefly those who in small 
and lowly things have seen, as in a clear mirror, their own 
weaknesses, and have conquered themselves. Neither the 
devil and his ministers, nor the great sea tempests nor the 
evil barbarians, nor any other creature can harm such as 
these. For their confidence is all in God, and they know 
for certain, even when facing tribulations greater than ever 
they saw, that without His leave all these can do nothing . . . 

" I know a person to whom God did great favour, who 
occupied himself often, both in peril and out of it, in placing 
all his hope and confidence in Him, and the advantage that 
came to him from this would take too long to write. And 
because all these troubles which you have hitherto had to 
endure are small compared to those which you will have to 
put up with when you come to Japan, I pray and beseech 
you as much as I can by the love and service of God our Lord, 
to make yourselves ready for much, overthrowing your own 
affections since they are a hindrance to good. And look 
well to yourselves, my brothers in Jesus Christ, for many are 
in hell who when they were in this life were the cause and 
instrument through which others, by their words, were 
saved and went to glory. . . . 

" Remember that saying of the Lord, What does it profit a 

U2 



292 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

man if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss oj his own 
soul ? Let none of you build on its seeming to you that 
you have been a long time in the Company, and that you are 
older than others, and that therefore you are more worth 
than those that have not been so long. ... I do not tell 
you these things to make you think the service of God 
troublesome, and the yoke of the Lord not light and sweet 
[suave]. For if men set themselves to seek God, and take 
and embrace the means to do it, they will find sweetness and 
comfort enough in His service, to make it easy to overcome 
all the repugnance they feel to conquering themselves. 
What delight and contentment of spirit men lose, because 
they do not master themselves in those temptations which 
are wont to keep back the weak from good and from the 
knowledge of the infinite (suma) goodness of God, and from 
rest in this troubled life 1 For to live here without enjoying 
God is not life, but one continued death."* 

"... And be well assured that you will undergo many 
kinds of temptations ; when you go alone, or two by two, 
placed in many trials, in countries of the unbelievers, or 
in storms at sea. You had not such things when you were in 
College. If you are not well exercised [i.e., drilled in the 
Spiritual Exercises of Loyola], and experienced in knowing 
how to conquer your own inordinate affections and in great 
knowledge of the deceits of the enemy, judge, brothers, the 
dangers you will run when you are exposed to the world, 
which is founded on wickedness, and how you will resist it 
if you are not very humble. . . .f 

" May it please God our Lord to give us language, so that we 
may be able to speak of the things of God, for then with His 
aid, grace, and favour we shall gain much fruit. Now we 
are among them like statues. They speak and talk a lot, 
and we, as we don't understand the lingoa, are silent. And 
now we must be as infants, in learning the language. God 
grant that we may imitate them, too, in simplicity and 
pureness of mind. , . .t 

" I think that we shall this winter be busy in making an 
explanation of the articles of the faith somewhat fully, in 
Japanese, for printing. All the principal people here can 
read and write, and so this will be a way of spreading our 
* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 679 ff. f #*> vol. i. p. 587. J Ibid., vol. i. p. 591. 



JAPAN 293 

holy faith, as we can't go everywhere. Paul, our very dear 
brother, is going to translate faithfully into their language all 
that is needful for the salvation of their souls. . . .* 

" I pray you earnestly [he concludes] that there may be 
true love among you ; and do not bear any bitterness of mind. 
Convert part of your fervours into love one towards another, 
and part of your desires to suffer for Christ's sake into 
suffering [one another] and conquering all the aversions which 
do not allow this love to grow. You know what Christ said, 
that in this He would know His own if they loved one another. 
God our Lord grant us to know within our souls His most 
holy will, and grace to fulfil it perfectly. 

" Kagoshima, 5th Nov., 1549. 

" Your Brother in Christ." 

In another letter written on the same day he says to the 
heads of the college at Goa : 

" Work hard at teaching and instructing in your college, 
especially Chinese and Japanese youths. Be careful for 
them spiritually. See that they can read, write, and speak 
Portuguese, so that they may act as interpreters for the 
fathers who, please God our Lord, will come before many 
years are out to Japan and China. For in my opinion there 
is a finer harvest to be reaped in Japan and China than in any 
of the other newly discovered countries. Therefore I charge 
you earnestly to care for the Chinese and Japanese. ... If 
the two bonzes who are going to Malacca this year get to 
Goa do your best to make them welcome among the Portu- 
guese. Show them much love, as I did to Paul when he was 
there. For they are a people who will be attracted only by 
love. Don't be at all hard on them."t 

On the same day Xavier despatched a letter to three of 
the Fathers at Goa, bidding them come out to Japan. He 
hopes to meet them at Kioto. To Gomez, the Superior of 
the College, he writes : 

" When the Fathers come, arrange with the Governor to 
send out some objects as presents for the King of Japan, 
with a letter. For I trust in God that if he were converted 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 600. f Ibid., vol. i. pp. 644 and 646. 



294 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

to our holy Faith great temporal advantage would result 
to the King of Portugal by making a factory in Sakay.* 
This is a very large port, and is a city where there are numbers 
of rich merchants, and plenty of silver and gold, more than 
in any other part of Japan. Judging by my experience of 
India, I am not so sure that they would send a ship [here] 
with the Fathers, if they had nothing else to look to but 
the mere love of God. It may be that I am wrong, and if 
so I should be glad. So in forwarding the Fathers, go about 
it in this way. Let the Lord Governor, if he wishes to do a 
great favour to some relative or friend, and secure him 
considerable profit, give him a licence to send a ship to Japan 
with the Fathers. For this I am writing a list of the things 
most valuable at the port of Sakay. It is two days' journey 
by land from Kioto [i.e., Kioto is two days' journey inland]. 

" Whoever conveys the Fathers will gain plenty of silver 
and gold, if he brings the merchandise entered in this list. 
In this way the Fathers will be able to come very comfort- 
ably and safely, for this ship will come well armed, and pro- 
vided with everything needful. 

" Give a warning that the Fathers come very soon to Japan. 
The ship that comes from Goa must leave Goa with all its 
cargo in April, and has to leave Malacca in June. It must 
take all needful provisions, and must not touch at China at 
all, however much they may hope to do business there. 
Nor must it take in provisions, save water, from any of the 
islands, but must make a straight course for Japan. For 
if it touch at China to do business there, you must understand 
that it will spend seventeen months between Goa and Japan, 
but, not touching at China, it will be in Japan in four and a 
half months. 

" It is necessary that the ship should not bring much 
pepper, but at the most eighty bares. For, bringing little, 
they are sure to sell it very well in Japan, and they will gain 
plenty of money, as I have said, if they come to the port of 
Sakay. 

" And see that you are cautious about the licence which 
the Governor gives to the man who has to bring the Fathers. 
It must stipulate that he does not touch at China to do 
business ... if they don't leave China for Japan on August 
1st there is no monsoon for a year. The priests who come 

* Near the modern port of Osaka. 



JAPAN 295 

should be well provided with Portuguese clothing and with 
boots, for here we are dying of cold."* 

Xavier was very full of this project, for sent off at the 
same time as the above letter is one to his friend Pedro da 
Silva da Gama, son of the great Vasco da Gama, and at 
this time Captain or Commandant of Malacca. 

11 ' In Sakay, which is the principal port of Japan, two 
days' journey by land from Kioto, a factory will be erected, 
which, please God, should pay very well. ... If you would 
trust me, and make me your factor in these parts of all the 
merchandise you send, I assure you of one thing, you will 
by a sure way make more than 10,000 per cent, profit, which 
no Captain in Malacca has done hitherto. Here is the 
way : Give all to the poor who become Christians. The 
gain will be most secure, and there will be no risks, for 
it is certain that for him who gives one for Christ's sake 
a hundred is kept in the other life. I'm much afraid that 
you don't approve of so much profit. The Captains of 
Malacca have this fault, that they are not disposed towards 
the largest merchandise." 



We know that Pedro da Silva liked to do things in great 
style. He had wished to send Xavier and his party off .to 
Japan much more magnificently than they chose to go. 
Later on Xavier sighed for him, when he was finding difficulty 
in getting a ship to take him to China. The two hidalgos had 
always got on well together. But here Xavier seems to be 
" taking off " his friend's way of talking about things, and of 
calculating the profits and losses of mercantile enterprises. 

The letter goes on to report the death of the man who 
had shipped them to Japan, the most famous Eastern pirate 
of these days : 

" The Pirate died here in Kagoshima. He was kind to 
us all the voyage, and we could not be kind to him, for he" 
died in his unbelief. Nor could we be kind to him after 
death, for his soul is in hell."t 

Xavier was very sure of God, but here, as so often else- 
where, we see how very sure of hell he was too. 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 048. f Ibid., vol. i. p. 654. 



296 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

A little later the Saint writes : 

" We are engaged in teaching the Christians and learning 
the language of Japan, and in translating some articles of 
our holy faith, beginning from the creation of the world 
to the final judgment, and the life of Christ our Lord, and 
His Sacred Passion. From all this we have made a book 
in Japanese, and we read from it to those who wish to become 
Christians, that they may know what they have to believe 
and do. They are glad to hear these things, for they begin 
to see they are all truth. This shows that the Japanese 
have good brains. This year about six hundred have 
become Christians. Many more gave up, not because 
they did not understand that our faith was true, but because 
they were afraid of the Duke [the daimio]." * 

Among the bonzes with whom Xavier used to talk in 
Kagoshima was one old man called Ninjit, the superior of 
the chief monastery of the place. One day Xavier, seeing a 
number of them engaged in meditation, asked Ninjit what 
was the subject of their thoughts. The old man, smiling, 
replied, " Some of them are calculating how much they 
have got out of their parishioners during the last month, 
others are planning how to dress themselves and feed them- 
selves, others how they are going to amuse themselves. 
None of them are dreaming about anything important." 

Another time Francis asked Ninjit which period of life 
he preferred, and Ninjit answered " Youth." And then 
Francis said, " When sailors leave one port for another, 
which hour is the happier for them, the hour when they are 
in mid-ocean, or the hour when they are almost in haven ? " 
" All that is not for me," said Ninjit, " for I do not know to 
what port my ship is going." 

Other bonzes were less ready to talk with the strangers, 
especially when, they saw that some of the townspeople 
were becoming Christians. They knew that if all the town 
were converted their living would be gone. So they began 
a kind of underhand persecution. They circulated gruesome 
tales about the missionaries, saying that they lived on human 
flesh, and to confirm this they strewed blood-stained garments 
about the place where they lodged. At the same time the 

* Mon, Xav., vol. i. p. 659. 



JAPAN 297 

daimio heard that a Portuguese ship which he had been 
hoping would visit Kagoshima had passed them by, and he 
suddenly wearied of his calculated friendship for the " bar- 
barians of the south." He published an edict, saying that 
whoever in the future became a Christian would be killed, 
but that those who had already been baptized would not 
be harmed. Xavier thought it time to seek out a more 
hopeful soil. " When we saw," he writes, " that we could not 
in the meantime gain any more fruit we went to another 
district. We took leave of the Christians, and they took 
leave of us, with many tears and much sorrow."* 

This was in September, 1550, after a sojourn of thirteen 
months in Kagoshima. 

Paul of the Holy Faith was left in charge of the little 
Christian community, and for five months he was faithful 
to them. Then, harassed and persecuted beyond the limits 
of his patience, he retired from all spiritual conflicts, bought 
himself a ship, and spent the rest of his days as a bafan, or 
pirate, on the Chinese coast. 

Juan Fernandez and Cosmo de Torres went with Xavier. 
As they left the outskirts of Kagoshima they came to the fort 
of Ycicu, where they had already made a number of converts. 
These they visited, and before they left, taught how to 
baptize, and gave away some of the literature which they 
had been so much occupied in composing some prayers, a 
Calendar, the Seven Psalms of Penitence, and the Story of 
the Passion, all in the Japanese language. Ten years 
later a Jesuit brother visited these people. They had not 
seen a European since Xavier left them, but they still kept 
the faith. 

By the beginning of October the missionaries found 
themselves in Hirado. There were Portuguese ships in the 
harbour, and thanks to that fact, probably, Xavier was able 
to record that the daimio had received them with great affec- 
tion. But this was not their goal. Xavier had made up his 
mind to go on to the capital, " to plant there the law of God." 
" Such an attempt," says Valignano, " needed a truly great 
and confident spirit. To penetrate a country thus, dressed 
in so new and strange a manner, and thus attired having to 
meet all the heathendom of Japan, with no other guide and no 
other hope but in God, was a proceeding which those who 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 659. 



298 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

know what Japan was then would call one of supernatural 
and heroic faith."* 

The old chronicler Frois had a first-hand account of this 
journey from Juan Fernandez. 

Neither the cold, nor the snow, nor the fear of unknown peoples 
hindered the Father Master Francis in carrying out his plans for 
the service of God. On the sea the pirates were everywhere, 
and we had often to remain hidden at the bottom of the hold, 
so as to escape them. Going by land, our troubles increased. 
We carried all our luggage in two wallets, like those of the 
mendicant brothers. It consisted of a surplice, three or four 
shirts, and an old blanket which we both used at night. For 
there are no beds in the Japanese inns. We did very well if 
they lent us a straw mat, or a wooden pillow. Sometimes when 
we arrived in the evenings, frozen with cold and famished, there 
was no kind of shelter for us. At other times, owing to the deep 
snow, our legs swelled, and we fell in these bitter mountain 
paths. Poor, badly clad, strangers, and recognised as such, 
we were very badly received in certain places, jeered at by the 
children, and even stoned. 

We arrived thus at Facata, a populous trading city in the 
kingdom of Chicugen. The Father went to visit a large monastery 
of bonzes of the sect of the Jenxus, who believe only in the present 
life. These people were notorious for their evil living. . . . The 
bonzes imagined that the Father came from Siam, from where 
they believe their gods to have come ; they received him with 
great demonstrations of joy, and took him to their superior, 
who was like a bishop. He received us with pleasure and had 
some fruit served to us. 

The Father at once raised his voice, and speaking very dis- 
tinctly reproached the superior and the others with great severity 
for the abominable vice which reigned among them. He also 
rebuked them for letting the people believe that there is nothing 
after this life, and, again, for deceiving them by exhorting them 
to make offerings to the dead by which they (the bonzes) alone 
profited. As they listened to him the bonzes were stupefied to 
think that a man whom they had never seen should reprove 
them with such energy. Some of them, it is true, laughed at 
him ; the others were amazed. Without further formality the 
Father left them and we continued on our road. 

The five or six days which followed our departure from Facata 
were very rough. Yet all the way the Father added to the 
troubles of the road a continual voluntary mortification. One 

* Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 123. 



JAPAN 299 

would have to have seen him as I did, with my own eyes, to get 
an idea of the details of this mortification. Even his way of 
saying prayers on the road had this mark of penitence. Medi- 
tation and contemplation were so familiar to him that the snow- 
covered mountains and valleys all around could not distract 
him ; all the time of prayer Father Francis did not raise his eyes 
or turn his head ; his arms and hands were motionless, only his 
feet moved, and that with difficulty. Truly he showed by this 
humility and reverence of bearing that he walked in the presence 
of God. 

Also at the inns, which were hardly more than stables, he was 
so temperate at table that, fatigued by the journey as he was, 
he appeared more like a slave whom his lord has condescended 
to invite to eat with him, and who cannot forget how unworthy 
he is to receive food from the hand of his master.* 

Of Yamaguchi, the next town which they came to, Xavier 
writes : 

" It is a city of more than a thousand heads of families. 
The houses are of wood. There were many gentlemen and 
others anxious to know about the religion we were preaching. 
So we stayed some time and preached twice daily in the 
streets. We read from the book we carried, making short 
discourses on what we read. Crowds came to the sermons. 
We were also invited to the houses of the principal gentlemen, 
they asking us to explain that religion which we were 
preaching. They told us that if it were better than their own 
they would adopt it. Some of them showed great satisfaction 
in hearing the law of God. Others made game of it. Others 
were bored by it. When we went into the streets the children 
and others followed, making game of us. ..." 

The daimio then sent for them and commanded them to 
declare the " law of God." 

" So we read a great part of the book. He was very 
attentive all the time we were reading, which would be 
more than an hour. Then he sent us away. We persevered 
in this city many days, and preached in the streets and houses, 
and many were glad to hear the life of Christ our Lord, 
and wept when they heard some passages from the Passion." t 

* Primera parte da Ilistoria de Japam (1549-1578), MSS., by P. Louis Frois, 
quoted by Cros, Vie de S. Frangois Xavier, vol. ii. p. 99 if. 
t Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 660 f. 



300 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

The Annalist of Macao* gives more details of this visit 
than Francis does. 

He tells us that when the Saint and his companions arrived 
in the town they looked so poor and wretched that no one 
would give them a lodging. They at once began to preach 
in the open streets. Crowds gathered, and they were rudely 
treated, but they would take no rebuff and went on preaching. 
Besides preaching Francis would read aloud to them from the 
little book which he had made. Some continued to laugh 
at his pronunciation and at the expressions he used, but 
others showed interest in what he said. So he went on, 
never showing any impatience, but declaring the truth 
and condemning their sins, till the Japanese, who, the old 
Annalist says, are experts in judging men, saw that they 
were irreproachable, and began to venerate them. But 
this veneration did not come to much. There were very 
few conversions. The interviews with the fidalgos of the 
town, as Fernandez calls them, were for him, if not for Francis, 
full of trepidating anxiety. Francis frankly and fearlessly 
denounced their vices, and warned them of judgments to 
come. And when their hosts upon this thee-and-thou'd 
them, or used other such impolite forms of speech, the Saint 
said to Fernandez, " Thee-and-thou them too," till the poor 
Brother expected each moment to see one of those long 
swords their hosts were wearing flash in front of his own 
neck. But Francis cheered him on with the words, " There 
is nothing in you you so much need to mortify as this fear of 
death. Despise death and these men will respect you, and 
know our teaching is from God." 



C 



With all this," Xavier writes, "very few became 
Christians. Seeing the small amount of fruit gained we 
determined to go on to Meaco [Kioto], the principal city of 
all Japan. We spent two months on the road, and under- 
went many dangers and travails."! 

Neither Francis nor his companions knew the roads, and 
the country was at war and overrun with soldiers. The 
cold for them was very trying. Often in the inns there was 

* This title is given by Cros to the author of an old contemporary MS. See 
Cros, Vie dt S. Frangois Xavier, vol. ii. p. 37. 
f Man. Xav. t vol. i. p. 661. 



JAPAN 301 

nothing to eat, and they had to fall back upon the little wallet 
of rice which they had brought for emergencies. Francis 
and Fernandez carried on their backs the silver for the 
celebration of Mass, and a blanket for night. Several 
times they met travellers going towards the capital on horse- 
back, and they used to run after them on foot as long as they 
could so as not to lose the way. Soon their appearance 
became so disreputable that the innkeepers would not give 
them any other shelter than that of a shed in the garden. 
In spite of their woes, Fernandez tells us that Francis was 
joyful all the time, and would tramp along with his eyes 
turned heavenwards, and his bare feet among the sharp 
stones, feeling nothing. Then later on he would see the blood < 
on his feet and say with surprise, " Whatever is this ? How 
did this happen ? " 

At last they came to Sakay, the town where Xavier had 
hoped to help his Portuguese friends to get a factory put 
up. No one would take them in, and the whole town seemed 
to have turned out to mock them : they tried to preach, 
but it was hopeless. Then they went just beyond the town, 
into a pine-wood, and there they made themselves a little 
cabin of fir-branches. But even there they could not rest, 
for bands of children came running out to see them, and flung 
stones at them. " Here one thing alone mars my delight," 
said Francis ; *' it is that I cannot preach." 

The Saint had brought with him an introduction to a citizen 
of Sakay : at first he had not been able to find this man, 
but he discovered him later and was hospitably received 
by him, and given an introduction to a Japanese nobleman 
who was travelling to Kioto. Without this it would have 
been impossible for the travellers to enter the capital, as all 
the surrounding country was in a state of war. The nobleman 
and his pages were carried in litters, and the servants ran 
behind on foot. With these ran Francis and his companions. 
" Never," says Fernandez, " have I seen Francis so gay as 
on this occasion. He wore a Siamese hat. And thus, d 
galope, we covered the eighteen leagues which separate 
Sakay and Kioto." * 

Xavier's reception in the capital of Japan must have been 
one of the most disappointing experiences of his life. In 
his dreams he had seen Kioto as the Paris of the East, and 

* See Cros, Vit de S. Frangois Xavier, vol. ii. p. 11? . 



302 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

had thought to discover there another Sorbonne, ready to 
open its doors to his sweet and reasonable appeal. But 
it was not to be in the capital that the first foundations of 
the great Roman Catholic missions in Japan were to be 
laid. His own account is brief, for he never spent his eloquence 
over his disappointments : 

" On our arrival at Kioto we tried for some days to get 
speech with the king [the Mikado], so as to ask him for leave 
to preach in his kingdom the law of God. But we could 
not get speech with him. After we had been told that 
even his own people did not obey him, we gave up trying to 
get leave. We looked to see if there was any inclination 
among that people (to listen) to the manifestation of the law 
of God our Lord. We found none, on account of war being 
expected. This city of Kioto was once very great ; now it is 
much ruined with wars. They say that in old days there were 
more than 180,000 houses, and I think that there would be 
from the site. At present, though it is greatly ruined and 
burnt, yet I think there will be more than 100,000 houses. 

" When we saw that the land was not peaceful enough to 
allow the manifestation of the law of God in it, we returned 
again to Yamaguchi." * 

" As the boat sailed down the river," says Fernandez, 
" the blessed Father could not take his eyes from off the 
city, but looked towards it, repeating with great emotion In 
exitu Israel de Egypto . . . and several verses from the same 
Psalm." 

The great emotion with which Fernandez says he repeated 
this Psalm was far from a feeling of anger or despair. Even 
in this bitter moment we hear the same undaunted faith 
ringing in his voice, and see the same mysterious smile 
lighting his lips and eyes, that we have heard and seen at 
every crisis since his conversion. And he goes down the 
river singing like a troubadour : 

When Israel went forth out of Egypt, 

The house of Jacob from a people of strange language, 

Judah became his sanctuary, 

Israel his dominion. 

* Mow. Xav., vol. i. p. 661. 



JAPAN 303 

The sea saw it and fled ; 

Jordan was driven back. 

The mountains skipped like rams, 

The little hills like young sheep. 

What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleest ? 

Thou Jordan, that thou turnest back ? 

Ye mountains, that ye skip like rams, 

Ye little hills, like young sheep ? 

Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, 

At the presence of the God of Jacob ; 

Which turned the rock into a pool of water, 

The flint into a fountain of waters ! 

Xavier never returned to Kioto, but in 1577 the first 
Christian Church was built there. It was called the Church 
of the Assumption of Our Lady, because on that feast-day* 
Xavier had first landed on Japanese soil. 

An account of how they came back from Sakay to Hirado 
has been left us by Fernandez: 

The hardships were greatest on our return journey. It was 
February, the time of the greatest cold, snow, frost, and wind, 
and for us there was neither shelter nor succour. 

The Father used to buy dried fruits at the inns and carry 
them in his breast or in his sleeves, and then when, by the roadside 
or in the villages, we came across little children, he gave them 
some of the fruits and his blessing, f 

This little fragment is surely very touching. On the 
outward journey Francis had constantly been hooted and 
jeered at by the children. We fancy he had found tha.t 
harder to bear than anything else for he was a very great 
lover of children and so he had thus tenderly provided 
against the same thing happening on his returning way. 

By the end of February, 1551, they were once more in 
Hirado. They had been away four or five months, and had 
been walking almost all tha,t time, very often with bare feet, 
and they had brought back no bright tale of success. 

Cosmo de Torres was able to give a cheering report of 
his work in Hirado ; the household with whom he lodged 
were converted, and many of their relatives and friends. 
But Xavier did not stay there more than a few days. He 

* August 15th, The Dai/ of Our Lady in Summer, it used to be called. 
t Cros, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, vol. ii. p. 122. 



304 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

had come to the conclusion that in Yamaguchi the soil was 
better prepared to receive the Gospel than in any other part 
of Japan. Before he set out on this new journey he procured 
for himself some richer garments than hitherto, as a mis- 
sionary, he had worn. He had learned by experience that 
in Japan people would not listen to his message with much 
respect if he were poorly and strangely clad. So the Siamese 
hat and the ragged cott6n cassock were laid aside, and he 
donned instead a handsome Japanese gown, and set out for 
Yamaguchi. 

The change of dress was significant of a complete change 
of policy. For in his pocket he put letters from the Governor 
and from the Bishop of Goa, which he had not hitherto used, 
offering the King of Portugal's friendship to Japan, and asking 
protection for the missionaries. 

Besides these he carried with him several European books, 
some spectacles, a musical instrument with a range of 70 
notes, called a manicordia, a piece of brocade, a Portuguese 
dress, an arquebuse, three beautiful crystal vases, some 
mirrors, a richly decorated striking clock, and various other 
attractive articles. 

The daimio of Yamaguchi was delighted with the pre- 
sents, gave them formal permission to preach, and put 
an empty monastery at their disposal. 

" While we stayed in this monastery many came to hear 
the sermons. Generally there was preaching twice daily. 
At the end of the sermon there were discussions, which lasted 
a long time. We were continually taken up with answer- 
ing questions and preaching. Numbers of bonzes, nuns, 
gentlemen, and crowds of other people came to the sermon, 
so that the house was almost always as full as it could hold. 
The questions they put to us were such that by our replies 
they knew that their laws and the saints in which they 
believed were false, and the law of God true. They kept 
up the discussions for many days, and then they began to 
become Christians. Many of them were gentlemen. After 
having become Christians, they grew more friendly than can 
be told. 

" Those who became Christians showed us very faithfully 
all the things the heathen have in their religions . . . 
After getting correct information about their religions, we 



JAPAN 305 

began to seek reasons for proving them false. So every day 
we smashed up some points of their laws, and put before them 
arguments which neither the bonzes nor monks nor wizards 
nor any of the people who abhorred the law of God could 
answer. 

" When the Christians saw that the bonzes could not 
answer, they were greatly delighted, and became confirmed 
more every day in the faith of God our Lord. The heathen 
present at the discussions lost belief in their former sects and 
errors. . . . 

" The Japanese are full of curious questions, with a keen 
desire for knowledge. So much is this the case that they 
never stop discussing with others about the questions they 
put to us, and the answers we give them. They are very 
inquisitive, especially about religions. They say that before 
we came here they were always discussing which of their 
religions was the best. . . . It is a wonderful thing 
to see, in a city so large as this, people speaking of the law of 
God in every street and house. . . . 

" The Japanese regard the Chinese as very wise, both 
about religions and the other world, and about the govern- 
ment of the commonwealth. So one of the questions they 
put to us ... was, How did the Chinese not know, if these 
things were so ? .... In the space of two months 
more than 500 Christians have been made, and so it goes on 
every day. ... It is wonderful how truly friendly the 
Christians are. They are always coming to visit us, and to 
see if we want anything. The whole nation in general is 
much given to compliments and courtesies, and the Christians 
seem to give all the greater care and attention to this, especi- 
ally with us, for the great love they have to us." * 

After the fiasco in Kioto all this is very cheering. Among 
the converts was a man to whom the name of Laurence was 
given in baptism. Frois gives a vivid little sketch of him : 

In the streets of Yamaguchi there was a blind man who earned 
his living, as many do in Japan, by singing and playing the 
violin. He was quite blind in one eye and nearly so in the 
other. He used to go often from house to house among the 
rich folk, to tell old stories and entertain them by his wit, and he 

* Mon. Xav. } vol. i. p. 662. 



306 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

was well received. Besides the qualities which he would naturally 
acquire by such a life this blind man had also a quick and pene- 
trating intelligence and an excellent memory. Having heard, 
then, quite soon of the arrival of strangers who were preaching 
a new religion, he presented himself to Father Master Francis, and 
asked him many questions. Satisfied with the replies, he came 
back and asked others, and every day he learnt something and 
became more capable of better teaching. In this way he was 
soon well informed on the things of the faith, and the Father 
baptized him and gave him the name of Laurence. The charity 
of Father Francis delighted him, and he was struck with the 
greatness of his plans for converting souls to the true God. He 
admired the way in which the strangers had come over thousands 
of leagues, through many dangers, and without seeking any 
temporal gain, for this beautiful and unique end. So he left his 
songs, his violin, his stories, and the vain amusements of men, 
and begged for the favour of being allowed to work, according to 
his gifts, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls ; and God, 
who is pleased to choose the weak things for his great works, 
chose this man who was blind, and whose face was of a ridiculous 
appearance, to be the first lay brother of the Company of Jesus 
in Japan and the first preacher and missionary of the Holy 
Gospel in the town of Miaco and the seigneuries round about ; 
there he worked with such abundant and special grace that he 
has a noted place among all the eminent preachers of the Faith 
in these lands. His words have converted many thousands of 
souls ; he used to argue in public with the most learned of the 
bonzes, and with the most cultured of the nobility, and he was 
never worsted. Indeed, the power of his teaching was so great 
that the proud men of letters humbled themselves at his feet, 
and many of them were won over by him and embraced the 
Gospel. 

While he was an unconquerable preacher of the truth, Laurence 
was no less exemplary in fulfilling all the duties of a religious and 
holy life ; in this he came behind none of those who had grown 
up in Europe at the heart of light and Christianity. All those of 
the Company who have lived beside him have admired his virtues, 
and even now, although he is more than sixty-five years old, 
very infirm, and weakened by forty years of hard toil, he still 
preaches in the kingdom of Nixo on the territory of I). Bartolomeo. 
Two or three times a day, when it is necessary, Brother Laurence 
preaches to the Christians and to the heathen.* 

The Annalist of Macao gives some other interesting details 
of the sojourn at Yamaguchi. The bills which were put up 

* Cros, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, vol. ii. p. 148. 



JAPAN 307 

in the town authorising the preaching of the Gospel ran, he 
says, as follows : 

I (the Daimio) am pleased to allow that the Law of God may be 
taught and preached throughout my territories and that those 
who wish to embrace it may do so freely. My vassals are all 
forbidden under grave penalties to hinder or molest any of the 
Fathers who preach the Law of Deos. 

At first, the Annalist says, they had no converts. 
But one day, when Fernandez was preaching, surrounded 
by a great crowd, a rough fellow came up and began to 
mock him, and then spat on his face. Fernandez, showing 
no resentment, quietly went on with what he had to say. 
This behaviour so impressed the people that from that hour 
they began to ask for baptism. Two months later there 
were a hundred Christians in the town, many of them belong- 
ing to the nobility. 

Xavier worked on in Yamaguchi for six months, and then 
he summoned Cosmo de Torres from Hirado, and put him 
and Fernandez in charge of the new community, and set 
out for the province of Bungo, where he had heard that 
there was a Portuguese ship ready to sail for India. "I 
leave you good guardians in Father Torres and Brother 
Fernandez," he is reported by a Japanese chronicler to have 
said, " but remember to put all your trust in God alone." 

He then knelt down and all the Christians with him, and they 
all prayed with tears and groans, and Father Francis commended 
them to God. When the prayers were finished Father Francis 
tenderly kissed Father Cosmo de Torres and Brother Juan 
Fernandez, holding them in his embrace, while the tears ran down 
his cheeks. Then, raising his eyes to Heaven, he said, " Now, 
more than ever before, I commend you to God from the bottom 
of my heart. It is He who will give you all the spiritual strength 
that you need, it is He who can protect you." * 

Earlier in his life the Saint would have bid them call on 
other names as well ; since then experience had taught him 
a simpler and grander faith. 

In November, 1551, Xavier left Japan. He took with him 

to India an ambassador from the daimio of Bungo, two 

samurai who had followed him from Yamaguchi, and who were 

to go to the college at Goa, and two of his Japanese converts. 

* Cros, Vie de S. Francois Xavier, vol. ii. p. 153. 

X2 



308 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

It was a fortunate thing for the Roman Catholic mis- 
sions that Xavier left behind him so capable a man as 
Fernandez. Gary, in his History of Christianity in Japan, 
estimates that he did more for Japan than Xavier did, and 
in many ways this is true. Xavier, here as elsewhere, 
opened up the way, and searched ou^ the fruitful soil, and 
then left others to plant and water, while he again prepared 
to go forward into the unknown. 

From Cochin the Saint despatched a letter to Ignatius, 
which is full of references to his work in Japan : 

" Those who come out will be much harassed, for they 
will have to oppose all the Japanese sects, and will have to 
expose to the world the deceitful way by which the bonzes 
get money from the laymen. And in this our people must 
not be too patient, specially in affirming that they cannot 
get souls out of hell . . . They will be much more put to 
it than many think. They will be very bothered with visits 
and questions at all hours of the day, and even of the night. 
. . . They will not have time for prayer, meditation, or 
contemplation, nor for any spiritual recollection. They will 
not be able to say mass, at least at first. . . . They will 
not have time to say their office, or even to eat or to sleep. 
The Japanese are very importunate, especially with foreigners. 
Of these they make little account, and are always making 
game of them. . . . Learned men are needed to reply 
to their questions, chiefly those who have done well in Arts, 
and those who were sophists, and who can catch them at 
once in obvious contradictions. . . .* 

" I hope this year of '52 to go to China ; our God might 
be greatly served thereby, both in China and Japan. For 
when the Japanese learn that the Chinese are adopting the 
law of God, they will lose faith in their own sects more 
quicklyf. . . . We made a book in Japanese, treating of the 
creation of the world and of all the mysteries of Christ's 
life. Afterwards we wrote this same book in Chinese letters, 
to be ready when I go to China, that it may be understood 
till I can speak Chinese." Xavier concludes by signing 
himself Your least and most exiled son (menor hijo y en des- 
tierro mayor).". 



* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 669 f. t Ibid., vol. i. p. 672. 

J Ibid., vol. i. p. 674. 



SPECIMEN OF Sf . 



(Part of this is translated OH fage 308) 



'< ( ,>' 



t 
t "I 



308 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

It was a fortunate thing for the Roman Catholic mis- 
sions that Xavier left behind him so capable a man as 
Fernandez. Gary, in his History of Christianity in Japan, 
estimates that he did more for Japan than Xavier did, and 
in many ways this is true. Xavier, here as elsewhere, 
opened up the way, and searched ou1} the fruitful soil, and 
then left others to plant and water, while he again prepared 
to go forward into the unknown. 

From Cochin the Saint despatched a letter to Ignatius, 
which is full of references to his work in Japan : 

" Those who come out will be much harassed, for they 
will have to oppose all the Japanese sects, and will have to 
expose to the world the deceitful way by which the bonzes 
get money from the laymen. And in this our people must 
not be too patient, specially in affirming that they cannot 
get souls out of hell . . . They will be much more put to 
it than many think. They will be very bothered with visits 
and questions at all hours of the day, and even of the night. 
. . . They will not have time for prayer, meditation, or 
contemplation, nor for any spiritual recollection. They will 
not be able to say mass, at least at first. . . . They will 
not have time to say their office, or even to eat or to sleep. 
The Japanese are very importunate, especially with foreigners. 
Of these they make little account, and are always making 
game of them. . . . Learned men are needed to reply 
to their questions, chiefly those who have done well in Arts, 
and those who were sophists, and who can catch them at 
once in obvious contradictions. . . .* 

" I hope this year of '52 to go to China ; our God might 
be greatly served thereby, both in China and Japan. For 
when the Japanese learn that the Chinese are adopting the 
law of God, they will lose faith in their own sects more 
quicklyf . . . . We made a book in Japanese, treating of the 
creation of the world and of all the mysteries of Christ's 
life. Afterwards we wrote this same book in Chinese letters, 
to be ready when I go to China, that it may be understood 
till I can speak Chinese." Xavier concludes by signing 
himself Your least and most exiled son (menor hijo y en des- 
tierro mayor}:. 



* Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 669 f. f Ibid., vol. i. p. 672. 

} Ibid., vol. i. p. 674. 



SPECIMEN OF ST. FRANCIS XAVlER'S 
HANDWRITING 

(Part of this is translated on page 308) 



JAPAN 309 

At the same time he wrote to the Companions in Europe : 

" The Japanese are strongly of opinion that there is none 
to match them in arms and chivalry. They despise all 
foreigners. They are proud of nothing so much as having 
good arms, well garnished with gold and silver. Constantly 
they wear sword and dagger at home and abroad, and sleep 
with them at their pillow. . . . They are very good bowmen. 
They fight on foot, though they use horses on the land. 
They are a people of great courtesy between themselves, 
but they do not use courtesies to foreigners, because they 
despise them. They spend all they have on clothes, arms, and 
servants, and save nothing. . . .* 

" I arrived from Japan with plenty of bodily and no 
spiritual strength. Nevertheless I hope in the mercy of 
God our Lord, and in the infinite merits of the death and 
Passion of our Lord Jesus, that He will give me grace to make 
this troublesome voyage to China. I am now white-haired. 
But it seems to me that I was never so strong bodily as now. 
Work among an intelligent people, who are eager to know 
in what religion they can find salvation, carries with it a 
grand contentment. . . . 

" Would to God that, as I write here these joyful and happy 
details, I might actually send to the universities of Europe 
the pleasures and comforts given to us by the sole mercy 
of God. I well believe that many and learned persons would 
fundamentally change their way of life then, and. use their 
great talents for the conversion of the heathen. If they 
only felt the spiritual delight and comfort which follow 
such labours, and knew the great opportunity here in 
Japan for the increase of our faith, I think that many of 
the learned men would give up their studies, many canons 
and other prelates would leave their dignities and their 
revenues for another and a richer life, and come and seek 
the Japanese. 

44 ... I have so much to write about Japan that I could 
go on for ever. I fear lest what I have written may be a 
nuisance as there is so much to read. I console myself 
with this, that those who are annoyed can throw it away 
and stop reading. With this I finish, though I can't finish 

* Man. Xav., vol. i. p. 676. 



810 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

when I am writing to my Fathers and Brothers so dear and 
beloved, and of friends so dear as the Christians of Japan. 
" May God our Lord unite us in the glory of His Paradise. 
" Entirely yours in Christ, 

" FRANCISCO."* 

* Men. Xav., vol. i. p. 695 ff. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE LAST MONTHS IN INDIA 

(January April, 1552) 

XAVIEE, left Japan in November, 1551, and by January 24 
he was once more in India. He paused at Cochin to despatch 
his letters to Europe, and to visit the new Governor-General 
of India, Noronha. He told Norofiha he wanted to go to 
China as soon as possible, to open up a way there for the 
Gospel. He then laid before him his proposed method of 
getting into that closed country, where the only Europeans 
were those who had been taken captive in attempting to land 
there. The first visit, Xavier maintained, must be made on a 
magnificent scale. An ambassador must be sent from the 
King of Portugal to the King of China, bearing rich presents. 
He had already found a man willing to act as ambassador. 
This man was his friend Diego Pereira, a Portuguese merchant, 
on whose ship he had made part of the homeward voyage from 
Japan. This merchant had given Xavier letters of credit on 
his agent in Goa for thirty thousand ducats, to expend on 
presents and other expenses of the voyage. Yet even that 
would not be enough. He begged for more from the royal 
treasuries : money spent in opening up so rich a land as China 
would be well spent ; Portugal would profit immensely in the 
end. The Governor smiled upon these proposals, and 
promised that the expedition should have every possible 
assistance, and that Diego Pereira should be allowed to go as 
ambassador of the king. 

From Cochin Xavier went on to Goa to visit the college 
and set his affairs in order before leaving for China. It 
was there that Teixeira, his oldest biographer, saw the Saint 
for the first and last time. Teixeira had been ill, and was in 
the hospital of the college. He writes : 

He had a very particular care for the sick, toward whom he 
had great charity, as he showed as soon as he arrived. When 
he had embraced the brothers he asked at once if anv were sick, 



312 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

Being told there were, at once before entering his own room he 
went to visit them. We had at the time a brother very near 
the end, and given up by the doctors. They watched him at 
night and had prepared everything for the burial. But the 
brother nevertheless had such faith and trust in God, and devotion 
to Father Master Francisco, whom we were expecting every day, 
that he thought that if the Father Master Francisco found him 
living, he would not die of that illness. And so it was, for, 
finding him alive and going at once to visit and comfort him, he 
(Francisco) said a Gospel, and placed his hands on his head. And 
it pleased the Lord that from thenceforward he went on getting 
better, and is still alive.* 

Then Teixeira goes on to give us the most authentic de- 
scription of Xavier's appearance which we possess : 

The Father Master Francisco was tall rather than small in 
stature, his face well proportioned, white and ruddy, happy 
and very attractive (alegre y de muy buena gratia), the eyes 
black, the brow high, the hair and beard black. He wore 
poor and clean clothes, the gown loose without a cloak nor 
any other garment, for this was the mode of the dress of the 
poor priests in India, and when he walked he lifted it up a 
little with both hands. He went almost always with his 
*eyes placed on the sky, with the sight of which they say he 
found particular comfort and joy, as of the Fatherland to 
which he thought to go. And thus he walked with his face 
so happy and ardent (alegre y infiamado) that it caused much 
happiness to all who saw him. And sometimes it happened 
that if any of the brothers were sad the way they took to 
become happy was to go and look at him. He was very 
affable with outside people, happy and familiar with those 
of the house, especially with those whom he knew to be 
humble and simple, and with little opinion or thought of 
themselves. But, on the contrary, he showed himself severe, 
grave, and at times rough with the proud and those who had 
a great conceit and opinion of themselves, until they knew 
and humbled themselves. He was a man of small appetite, 

* Teixeira says in his preface to the Vita (Mon. Xa.v., vol. ii. p. 815) that he, 
when he wrote, was the only one of the Company left of those who had known 
Xavier in India. This proves that it was he whom Xavier visited and revived 
on this occasion. 



THE LAST MONTHS IN INDIA 313 

although to avoid singularity he ate of all they put before him 
when he was with others.* 

One of the new missionaries who had just arrived at Goa 
wrote home his impressions of the Saint at this time : 

Imagine, my brothers, what it is to see, coming and going 
in this earth, one whose conversation is in heaven. ... His 
smiling face is so joyful and peaceful ! He is always smiling ; 
yet no, he does not smile, it is a spiritual joy that is on his face, j 

It was either at this time or just before he left Japan 
that Francis got the letter announcing his appointment as 
Provincial in India. This position gave him complete 
authority over all the affairs of the college at Goa, as well as 
over all the missions throughout the East. During his 
absence in Japan the affairs of the Society, both in Cochin 
and in Goa, had got pretty thoroughly out of hand. Antonio 
Gomez, the Superior at Goa, appears to have been original 
rather than discreet, ardent rather than wise, and persistently 
obstinate and autocratic. Xavier did not hesitate to use 
his new powers. Various novices, too hastily accepted, were 
dismissed. Gomez himself was directed to go off immediately 
to Diu, some hundreds of miles away, and found a House 
there. 

Besides Xavier himself there were in the East at this time 
three Jesuits of especially outstanding character and capacity ; 
to wit, Fernandez in Japan, Enrico Enriquez in Cape Comorin, 
and Caspar Barzee, who had just returned from Ormuz 
in order to go to Japan. Xavier chose the last of these three 
to be the new Superior of the college at Goa. The position 
had become an important one. The college had an income 
of 2,500 ducats, a chapel, a hospital, a large garden, accom- 
modation for at least thirty Europeans, besides a considerable 
number of native boys. 

Gaspar Barzee, the Fleming, chosen by Xavier to look after 
this work, had been in Ormuz for over two years.! Xavier 
had no disciple who followed his methods more closely. 

* Teixeira, Vita, Mon. Xav., vol. ii. p. 882. 

t Melchior Nunez, Sel. Ind. Epist., pp. 161-2, quoted by Brou, Vie de 
S. Frangois Xavier, vol. ii. p. 277. 

% In a letter to Loyola, giving an account of himself, he says : " I am 
Flemish, of the islands of Zeeland ; I took the arts course in the university of 
Louvain" (Mow. Xav., vol. i. p. 486, note). 



314 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

In Ormuz he had lived and worked in the hospital. On 
Fridays he preached to the Mohammedans, on Saturdays 
to the Jews, on Sundays to the Christians, on Mondays to 
the idolaters, and on the remaining days to those in prison. 
He had a most outstanding gift of eloquence, and soon 
crowds came to the confessional. Of what he heard there 
he says, "It is enough to keep one in tears day and night.'* 
His boldness in preaching amazed the colonists, who compared 
his sermons to thunderstorms. He is said to have rid the 
town of public prostitution, and to have given a course of 
Saturday lectures on the immorality of usury and founded 
an orphanage with the conscience-money which the lectures 
brought in. His encounters with the Mohammedans were 
perhaps more humorous than practical. One morning they 
woke up to find an immense cross crowning the minaret of 
one of their mosques. 

Besides reorganising the college at Goa Xavier made a 
number of changes in the various mission stations. Two 
missionaries took up Barzee's work in Ormuz, Gonzalvez 
Rodriguez and Alvaro Mendez. Melchior Nunez went to 
Bassein, in the Gulf of Cambay, where there was a flourishing 
house With an income of a thousand ducats. Lancilotti 
remained at Coulam, where he had been for some time, 
instructing fifty children whose parents had been converted, 
and preaching to natives and to the Portuguese. Antonio 
de Eredia was sent to Cochin, Francisco Enriquez to Tana. 
There were two missionaries in Malacca, and about seven 
in the Moluccas. Perhaps the most prosperous of all the 
missions was in Cape Comorin, to which Xavier now sent 
the Brothers Madeira and Antonio Fernandez, to take 
the place of Mendez, who had just been killed. Polanco 
says there were in 1552 60,000 Christians in the Cape, and 
thirty churches.* The success of this mission was largely 
due to the work of the Father Enrico Enriquez. He was a 

* We recollect, of course, that South India was then, as it still is, a country 
of " mass conversions." On Tuticorin and other places on the coast of Cape 
Comorin, where this flourishing mission existed in the sixteenth century, 
there was little trace left, says Sharrock (South Indian Missions), in 1771. 
In 1785 a church was opened for about forty Christians in Tinnyvelly. Then 
the " mass conversions " of Xavier's time began again. " In one short tour 
in 1803 Gerick6 baptized no less than 1,300 people, and Sattianathan shortly 
afterwards baptized 2,700 more. When they visited a village they would 
find as many as 500 people waiting for baptism. The missionary would be 
engaged till near midnight in preaching and baptizing " (p. 48). 



THE LAST MONTHS IN INDIA 315 

man of Jewish origin, and brought good brains, as well as 
a good heart, to his work. He was the first of the mission- 
aries to make a serious study of the Tamil language, and 
he composed a Tamil grammar and dictionary. 

In San Thome, the only other mission in India besides 
those mentioned above, no change was made, but Father 
Cyprian, who was in charge there, seems narrowly to have 
escaped being dismissed with some of the others. We feel 
rather grateful to Cyprian for having quarrelled with the 
Vicar at San Thome, since it has left us the following gem 
of admonishment; 



tc 



To Father Alfonso Cyprian, Meliapor, from Goa (about) 
April 14th, 1552. 

"You have badly understood the note of instruction I 
gave you as to what to do at San Thome. It is plain how 
little remains to you of the conversation of our blessed Father 
Ignatius. In my opinion your demands on the Vicar show 
small respect to the Articles. You always bring your harsh 
temperament to bear on things. All you do on one side, on 
another you undo. I tell you I am disgusted with the 
dissensions you bring about there. If the Vicar does 'what he 
ought not, he is not to be corrected by your reprimands, 
especially when they are made with as little prudence as you 
make them. You have so got into the habit of doing your 
own will that, wherever you are, you scandalise everybody 
with your ways, and you give others to understand that it is 
your temperament that is harsh. Please God that you may 
do penance one day for these imprudences. 

" By the love of our Lord I pray you to put your will under 
restraint, and in the future correct the past. For to be so 
passionate is not a matter of temperament, but comes from a 
great carelessness you have of God, and of your conscience 
and of love to your neighbours. I assure you that at the 
hour of death you will certainly find that what I tell you is 
true. I do pray you in the name of our blessed Father 
Ignatius that in these few days remaining to you, you may 
correct yourself and be tolerant, meek, patient, humble. 
And you may be sure that humility achieves everything. 
If you are not able to do as much as you would like, do 
willingly what you can. Nothing is achieved by violence in 
these parts of India, and the good which would be done by 



316 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

humility ends when you try to do things with -shoutings 
and impatience. . . . 

" Gonzalo Fernandez also, it seems to me, has your tem- 
perament, intolerant and impatient. And you cover your 
impatiences with the pretext of serving God our Lord. You 
say that what moves you to do what you do is the zeal of God 
and for souls. What you can't achieve with the Vicar 
through humility, you will not achieve by dissensions. 

" By the love and obedience you owe to Father Ignatius, 
I pray you when you see this letter to go to the Vicar and 
place both your knees on the ground and seek his pardon for 
all the past and kiss his hand I should be more comforted 
if you kissed his feet and promise him, all the time you are 
to be there, not to go against his will in anything. And 
believe me, at the hour of your death you will be glad that 
you did this. And trust in God our Lord, and do not doubt 
but that, when your humility is seen and becomes manifest, 
all you ask for the service of God and the salvation of souls 
will be granted you. 

" You and others clearly err in this that without having 
much humility, or giving great signs of it to those with whom 
you deal, you wish the people to do what you ask, just be- 
cause you are brothers of the Company. And you do not 
remember to imitate the virtues of our Father Ignatius, to 
whom God gave such great authority with the people, because 
he laid a good foundation. So you wish to make use of 
authority over the people and to neglect the virtues which 
are needful before the people will obey you. 

" I am very sure that if we were together you would tell 
me that there was no fault in what you had done, but that 
you did it for the love of God and the salvation of souls. 
You may be sure, and do not doubt it, that I should take no 
such excuse from you. Nothing would make me so dis- 
consolate as your justifying yourself. But I also confess 
that you could not comfort me so much by anything as by 
your accusing yourself. 

" Above all, I pray you to have no more dissensions with 
the Vicar, Fathers, Captains, or authorities, in the country, 
though you may see things done badly. What you can put 
right in a kindly way, do so, and do not risk losing with 
quarrels what you can achieve kindly through humility and 
meekness. 



THE LAST MONTHS IN INDIA 317 

[What follows is in Francis' own handwriting.] 

" O Cyprian, if you knew the love with which I write 
you these things, you would remember me day and night, and 
perhaps you would weep when you remembered the great 
love I have to you. And if the hearts of men could be seen 
in this life, I believe, my brother Cyprian, that you would 
see clearly into my soul. 

" Entirely yours, without my ever being able to forget you, 

" FBANCISCO." * 

The ending formula is an unusual one for Xavier. But 
perhaps we understand why he used it. The words are 
almost the same as those with which Loyola had ended 
his last letter to Francis, and we remember how deeply the 
phrase had moved the Saint. 

Almost the whole of the two months which Xavier now 
spent in Goa before setting out on his last journey must 
have been spent in rearranging the college and missions, and 
in writing out instructions and letters of counsel to those 
under his charge. 

His position was now one which is more common to 
women than to men. For he had two great spheres of 
work, either of which could easily have occupied his whole 
attention. As domestic cares he had all his duties as Pro- 
vincial ; as outside work, the mysterious Farther East, 
where he was going to "open up away" for the "Law of 
God," and to obtain release for the European captives who 
were there. And while he was planning with Diego Pereira 
and the Governor for the imposing embassage to China, he 
was also spending infinite time and care and thought on the 
setting in order of his own house in India. 

At mealtimes in the college the brothers, Frois tells us, 
gave him, each in turn, the story of his past life. Francis 
then asked them about the difficulties they had met with, and 
the mistakes they had made, and would talk to them in a 
way that humbled them to the dust, and then he would begin 
" to speak and to dwell upon the hope of the eternal glory." 

From his many letters and notes of advice written during 
those weeks, the following extracts are taken. To Father 
Gonzalvez Rodriguez, at Ormuz, he wrote : 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 743. 



318 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

" Preserve yourself from trying to impress the world by 
your singularity. Abhor all vain opinion. . . . Beware in 
your preaching of scandalising anyone. Don't try to preach 
subtle matters of learning, but morals. Reprove the sins 
of the people with great modesty and piety. Fraternally 
reprove in secret those who are public sinners. And know 
well that I should be better pleased by your reaping as much 

fruit as might be contained in this space of line without 

scandal, than I should be delighted if you reaped as much 
fruit as would be contained in a full line with some scandal 
or scandals." * 

And to Barret o, at the College of Bassein, he writes : 

"... Look well to it that you are very watchful over 
yourself, and then over others. And be careful to dismiss 
at once from the Company those whom you find caught in 
public sin or in grave scandal. I will regard as dismissed 
any whom you dismiss from the Company. . . . ^s for the 
rents of the college, arrange to spend them in spiritual 
temples rather than in material. ... I command you to 
take the native children when they are small, and teach 
them, so that when they are big they may bear fruit.' 



To Antonio de Eredia, in Cochin, he wrote : 

" In dealing with your people do not show yourself as a 
solemn person who desires to have authority over them, or 
as if they were beneath you. ... Be affable in your visits 
and talks. And in preaching to religious and to the general 
public, undeceive them about two errors in which they live, 
speak of the justice of God towards those who do not wish 
to amend, and of the mercy of God towards those who give 
up running after sin. Thus be rigorous against those who 
persevere in sin, but that they may not say that you put 
them to desperation, speak of mercy, as I said before. In 
conversing with the people, which you must do constantly, 
let it be in all humility, taking account of all, both ecclesiastic 
and lay. And if some good is done, attribute it to them, and 
then you will form them into supporters of good works. 

" . . . Do not do what many do. They seek artificial 

* Man. Xav., vol. i. pp. 707 and 709. f Ibid., vol. i. p. 717. 



THE LAST MONTHS IN INDIA 319 

means of making themselves acceptable to the people, and 
think and hope that they will succeed. All such are more 
concerned to be in the good books of the people than they 
are with God's honour or zeal for souls. This way is 
very dangerous, for it is inevitably accompanied by pride 
in having a good name among the people, and of being 
believed in by them. . . . 

" What the saints wrote comes infinitely short of the 
pleasure and the experience which they had when they wrote ; 
and men who do not have this inward contentment find 
little profit in the saints' descriptions. So I advise you to 
write down, and keep in the greatest esteem, your spiritual 
experiences and to humble and abase yourself more and more 
while the Lord increases you." 

Xavier recommends him to keep a record of his spiritual 
experiences, because the record may make them permanent 
and help the inward spiritual life. It is not things that 
matter, but the inward experiences they occasion ; and one 
cannot understand the things, still less the description of them 
by the godly, unless one ponders them in the heart, like. 
Mary. And the written word is cold, unless one has the 
inward spiritual feeling. It is a recommendation of spiritual 
biography like Bunyan's Grace Abounding, to name but one 
of many. 

The letter goes on : 

'* In confessions, if there is any impediment, before you 
absolve, see that promises such as of reconciliations, 
restitutions, or weaknesses, of sensuality and the like are 
fulfilled before you absolve. For the men of these parts 
are generous in promises, but slow in fulfilments." * 

To Father Caspar Barzee, the new Rector of the College, 
he left some Rules for Humility. The copy, which is repro- 
duced by the Editors of the Monumenta, has evidently, 
they say, been a copy made by Barzee, and modified for his 
own personal use. This accounts for the confusion of mood 
and person in the grammar. 

Xavier, it is clear, has had a lively fear that Barzee's grand 
reputation as a preacher might be his undoing. 

* Mem. Xao., vol. i. p. 897 ff. 



820 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

RULES FOR HUMILITY WHICH FRANCIS LEFT FOR FATHER CASPAR 
WHEN HE WENT TO CHINA IN THE YEAR '52. 

1. Seek great humility as to preaching, first attributing every- 
thing to God very perfectly. 

2. Have before my eyes the people, that God may give devotion 
to the people to hear His Word, and in respect of this devotion 
give me grace to preach, and to the people devotion to hear. 

3. Labour to love the people much, considering the obligation 
I owe them, since God by their intercession gives me grace to 
preach. 

4. Also I shall consider that I possess this virtue because of 
the prayers and merits of those of the Company, who with great 
charity, love, and humility, seek grace and gifts from God for the 
Companions, and this for the greater glory of God and the salvation 
of souls. 

5. Take care continually that I have plenty of humility, since 
what I preach is not mine at all, but liberally given by God. And 
seek with love and fear this grace, of which strict account has 
to be given to God our Lord, guarding myself from attributing 
anything to myself if it be not many faults, and sins, and much 
pride, and negligence, and ingratitude, as well against God as 
against the people and the Company, for whose sake God gives me 
this grace. 

6. Entreat God to reveal to me the hindrances caused by me 
which keep Him from doing me greater favours, and making use 
of me in great things. 

No. 7 is a warning to beware of causing any kind of scandal, 
in preaching, speaking, or acting. 

8. What, above all, you have to do ... is to note very 
carefully the things which God our Lord reveals to your soul, 
writing them in a little book, printing them on your soul, for this 
is fruitful. ... 

9. Do not ever forget to reflect that many preachers are in hell. 
They had more grace for preaching than you, and in their sermons 
they reaped more fruit than you. And most frightful of all 1 
they were the instruments which sent many to glory while they, 
the miserable, went to hell. They attributed to themselves 
that which was of God : they laid hold of the world : they 
delighted to be praised by it : they grew in vain opinion of them- 
selves and in great pride. So they were lost. Therefore, let 
each one watch over himself, for if we watch well we have 
nothing to boast about but our evils, which are all we do by 
ourselves. . . . 

10. Mind not to despise the brothers of the Company, when 
it seems to you that you are doing more than they are, and 
that they do nothing. Be very sure that it is for the sake of the 



THE LAST MONTHS IN INDIA 321 

brothers who are serving in lowly and humble duties that God 
chiefly favours you and gives you grace to work well. So you are 
more indebted to them than they to you. This inward knowledge 
will help you never to despise them, but rather love them, and 
always keep yourself humble.* 

To. Caspar he also leaves some directions on the "way to 
converse with the world so as to avoid scandals." 

In what he says about women we have to remember that 
the wives referred to were the native women, generally of a 
low caste, belonging to the Portuguese colonists. These 
were very apt to be badly affected by the freedom which 
they had gained from Hindoo restrictions. We have also 
to remember that the etiquette in Spain and Portugal 
between men and women was, as it still is, very different 
from that in England. 

. . . These visits (to women in their houses) you will make as 
seldom as possible, for much is risked, little gained, for the 
increase of the service of God, and women are generally inconstant, 
and unpersevering, and take up a lot of time. Behave with them 
as follows : 

If they are married do your best that their husbands draw 
near to God. Spend more time over the husbands than over the 
wives, for more fruit may be reaped, since men are more constant 
and the government of the house depends on them. . . . 

When there are discords between a wife and a husband which 
are leading to separation, be always for bringing them together. 
Have more converse with the husband than with the wife, strive 
to get them to make a General Confession, and give them some 
meditations of the First Week before absolving them. . . . 

Do not trust the devotion of wives when they say that they 
will serve God better separate from their husbands than with 
them. That is a kind of devotion which does not last long, and 
is seldom without scandal. 

Guard against putting the blame on the husband in public, 
though he be in the wrong. Counsel him in secret to make 
general confession, and in confession blame him with much modesty. 
Do not allow him to feel that you favour his wife more than him, 
even though he be guilty. Rather provoke him to accuse himself, 
and by his own accusation condemn him with much love, charity, 
and meekness. With these men of India much is accomplished 
by asking, but nothing by force. 

Watch, I repeat, that you never lay the blame on the husband 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 908 ff. 



322 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

in public. Women are so untamable* that they seek occasions to 
slight their husbands, alleging to religious persons [i.e., priests, 
etc.] that their husbands are the culprits and not they. Even 
though the wives are not the culprits, do not excuse them, for 
they excuse themselves : rather show them the obligation they 
are under to bear with their husbands. Often they deserve 
[punishment] because they have behaved unmannerly to them. 
Show them that they should take their present troubles patiently, 
and provoke them to patience and humility and obedience to 
their husbands. Do not believe all they tell you, whether the 
husband or the wife. Hear both of them before you lay the 
blame on either. Don't show yourself to side more with one 
than with the other. . . . 

And watch that you use great prudence with this evil world, 
keeping your eye on what may happen, for the devil never 
sleeps. ... 

And be watchful never to rebuke anyone in anger . . . Always 
humble and abase yourself to friars and Fathers, giving place 
to anger and passion. I mean this not only when you are the 
culprit, but much rather when you are blameless and they are 
the culprits. You will not wish a greater vengeance than to be 
silent with reason, when reason is not heard nor valued. Have 
pity on them when they do what they ought not, for late or early 
the punishment has to come to them from God, much greater 
than you or they think. So keep praying to God for them, out of 
pity for them. Seek no other vengeance, either of thought or 
speech or deed. These are dangerous and harmful, as is all 
else of flesh and blood, f 

In a letter to Rodriguez in Portugal we have a document 
which might be useful as a model to anyone who wished to 
effect a dismission gracefully. 

" By the present I shall be brief, as I have to be lengthy 
in a lot of other letters. ... It seems to me well to send 
Andre Carvalho, the bearer of this, to Portugal. He is 
ailing in these parts, and in his native air might become 
better. He is a man of importance in your kingdom, accord- 
ing to what everyone tells me, and one of whom much is 
expected, because of the many virtues with which God our 
Lord has endowed him and which by His mercy will increase. 

* The text in Mon. Xav. is : molheres sao too yndomdbeles. But Cros (Vie 
de S. Francois Xavier, vol. ii. p. 292) has used a different text, which gives 
endemonaveis, translated by Cros endiabl&s. 
, t Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 924 ff. 



THE LAST MONTHS IN INDIA 323 

I cannot write anything but good about him. I hope in God 
our Lord that after he has increased in learning and virtue he 
will gain much fruit in the Company. I pray you by the love 
of God our Lord, my brother Master Simon, to receive him 
with that love and charity with which both himself and I hope 
he will be received and comforted." * 

Ten years later, Cros tells us, Carvalho died a captive in 
the hands of the Moors in Africa. His ransom money had 
been sent to him from Portugal, but he had given it up to 
another Christian captive, who was his friend. 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 714. 



Y2 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE FINAL VOYAGE 

(April November, 1552) 

ON Maundy Thursday, the day of the institution of the 
Lord's Supper, Francis and his friends sang together the 
Gloria in Excelsis, before the white-decked altar of the 
college chapel in Goa, and there received the Blessed 
Sacrament. 

From the choir of the chapel the Saint then spoke with so 
much grace and power to those whom he was about to leave 
that Frois says they felt themselves like new men. 

A few of the brothers accompanied him as far as the 
harbour. The others waited in the chapel, kneeling before 
the altar of the Sepulchre to adore the Presence of Jesus, 
and to pray for those about to put to sea. 

The companions chosen by Francis for this journey were 
three Brother Alvaro Fereira, a Portuguese ; a Chinese 
youth called Antonio, who had been trained at the college ; 
and Christopher, a Malabar coolie. The appointed ambas- 
sador, Diego Pereira, and his rich cargoes, awaited the 
missionaries at Malacca. To add to the splendours of the 
embassage, Francis carried with him some brocades and 
tapestries and pictures which Caspar Barzee had brought 
back from Ormuz. 

Bad news, involving a complete rearrangement of the 
missionary staff at Cape Comorin, awaited the Saint at 
Cochin, and the halt there was fully occupied by the letter- 
writing which these rearrangements demanded. 

The ship reached Malacca at the end of May, and there 
Xavier's battle to enter China began in earnest. 

Pedro da Silva da Gama, Xavier's friend, was in the act 
of resigning his post as Captain of the Fort to his brother 
Alvaro. This was that Alvaro d'Ataide who had come out 
to India in the same fleet as Xavier. A letter from Mozam- 
bique gave us hints of some kind of storm there (see p. 153). 
Some men can treasure a grudge for many years. Perhaps 
Alvaro d'Ataide was one of these. Perhaps his heart had 
found a new occasion of mischief. Valignano and Teixeira 



THE FINAL VOYAGE 325 

put down his behaviour to greed and self-interest. The 
Embassy would probably have interfered with his own pri- 
vate smuggling affairs. In any case he ruined all Xavier's 
fine plans for entering China with Diego Pereira. He is 
said to have been jealous of the honour shown to that 
merchant, and to have thought that he himself should have 
been appointed the ambassador to China. He took advan- 
tage of his position as Captain-General of the Sea to forbid 
Diego Pereira to sail, and there was a great uproar. The 
Captain of the Sea got hold of the rudder of the ambassador's 
ship, hung it up over his door, and set a guard before it. 
Diego Pereira had his men too, and they prepared to fight. 
But at this point Francis intervened. They must not, he 
said, shed blood in such a cause. In place of their swords, 
he drew forth his pen, and wrote to Alvaro, through the 
episcopal vicar, reminding him that he was exposing himself 
to excommunication by thus hindering the apostolic mission 
of the Papal Nuncio. He also reminded him that Diego 
Pereira was the officially appointed ambassador to China, 
and that fie, Alvaro, had no right to interfere with him. 
Xavier thought that the very word excommunication would 
have frightened the Captain into amiability, but it had no 
such effect. Alvaro accused the Saint (who had left his 
Papal briefs in Goa) of having forged his claims, and worked 
himself and all his household into a great state of rage 
against " that perverter and hypocrite." The affair spread 
over the town, and for days the great adventurer had not 
the heart to stir beyond his own lodgings, except after 
dark. We read of him spending long nights in the church 
of Our Lady, and in the early morning being seen there 
saying a Mass for Don Alvaro. Valignano says that against 
the demon who had taken the Captain Alvaro for his medium, 
Francis armed himself with the Love of God. 

Nevertheless Alvaro carried his point. He forced Diego 
Pereira to stay in Malacca, and allowed Francis to go on if 
he liked in his friend's ship, and make his way alone into 
China as best he might. Valignano says that the Saint's heart 
"remained entire and victorious"; but this letter to Diego 
Pereira is not very cheerful : 

" Since your sins and mine are so great that on this account 
God our Lord was not willing to make use of us, there is 



326 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

nobody we can blame but them. And mine were so huge 
that they sufficed for my perdition and your ruin. You may 
well accuse me, Sir, of having ruined you and all who came in 
our company. I've ruined you, Sir, to the extent of four or 
five thousand pardoas, which at my request you spent in 
presents for the King of China. . . I beseech you, Sir, to 
remember that my intention was always to serve you, as 
you and God our Lord know. If this were not so, I should die 
of pain. I beseech you, Sir, not to come here, it would only 
make my pain worse, for it would be renewed and intensified 
to greater sorrow through seeing you, when I remembered 
that I had ruined you. I am going out to the ship, that 
the men may not come to my lodging and tell me with tears 
in their eyes that I have ruined them [i.e., the men who were 
to have shared in the mercantile side of Diego Pereira's 
enterprise]. ... I have already taken leave of Senhor 
Don Alvaro, since he was pleased to think it well to prevent 
our going." 

Xavier goes on to say that he is writing to the King of 
Portugal to explain the catastrophe, and to point out to him 
that he ought to recoup Diego Pereira for all he has lost, 
as the expedition was to have been for his honour and the 
increase of his state. He concludes : 



" It grieves me for the punishment from our Lord which 
must come on him (Alvaro), greater than he thinks." 



And he signs himself, " Your sad and disconsolate friend, 
FRANCISCO." * 

About July 15th, accompanied by Alvaro Fereira and 
Antonio the Chinese, and the Malabar coolie, Xavier left 
Malacca. As he bade his friends farewell he is reported to 
have said, " Take care that we meet each other in heaven, 

* Mon. Xav., p. 757 f. There are two copies of this letter -with very little 
difference. The second copy has this docket : " Copy of a letter of S. Francis 
Xavier all written in his own hand : Malacca : to Diego Pereira : also in 
Malacca, January 25th, 1551. Addressed to my special Senhor and friend the 
Senhor D. Pereira." Teixeira says that the Captain Alvaro afterwards became 
a leper, and was taken from Malacca to India, and thence to Portugal, where 
he died (see Teixeira, Vita, Mon. Xav., vol. ii. p. 893, and Valignano's Vita, 
Mon. Xav., vol. i. pp. 149 and 151). 



THE FINAL VOYAGE 327 

for here we shall meet no more. Live in peace : you will 
see me next in the valley of Jehoshaphat." * 

Some of the old historians say that the vicar of the town 
came to him and asked him to salute Alvaro d'Ataide before 
he left, and that Francis replied, " Don Alvaro will never 
see me again. I will wait for him at the judgment-bar of 
God, where he will have to render an account of that which 
he has done." He stood still and lifted up his arms and 
prayed for his persecutor, but sobs choked his voice and so 
he knelt down in silence. When he rose he took off his 
shoes and shook the dust from them. Then, without another 
word, he boarded the ship. 

He had planned that this should be a triumphal voyage. 
It was, indeed. But the triumph was quite hidden from 
men's eyes, for it now consisted in his going on in spite of a 
complete outward collapse of his plans. " As for me," he 
writes, " unmoored from any human help, I am going to 
the islands of Canton." f 

From Singapore he despatched several letters. The only 
reference to the debacle at Malacca is found in these words 
to Gaspar Barzee : " You could not believe, Master Gaspar, 
how I was persecuted in Malacca. I will write you no 
details. Francis Perez will do that."t The letter then 
speaks of more practical matters. The following is a fac- 
simile of his signature at the end of this letter : 




Next day he writes again to Barzee : 

" The alms which you have to send to the Brothers in 
Japan, let it be only in gold, and this gold the best you can 
get, like the Venetian. For the Japanese like the best gold 
for working and gilding their arms, and gold is put to no other 
use in Japan. If anyone comes out in '52 for Japan, nothing 
is needed so much as to come prepared for many troubles, 

* " Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehosha- 
phat (that is, for the Lord judgeth), for there will I sit to judge all the nations 
round about " (Joel iii. 12). 

t Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 767. J Ibid., vol. i. p. 765. 



328 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

both at sea before getting there, and then on landing. He 
must be well equipped against the cold, and take Portuguese 
cloth for himself, as well as for those already there."* 

In another letter Xavier advises Flemings or Germans to 
be chosen for Japan, as they would be better hardened against 
the cold than men from Southern Europe. 

In August the Santa Croce arrived at Sanchian. In those 
days, when foreign ships were not allowed to touch at Chinese 
ports, this barren little island was used by the Portuguese 
and Chinese traders as a rendezvous. It lies a little west 
of Hong Kong. Even here the Portuguese were not allowed 
to build themselves stores or houses. Very daring, they used 
to erect huts of wood or branches, where they ate and 
drank and gambled in the intervals of doing business. But 
these they always burned before they left, to show that they 
made no claim to the island. They had good reason to 
beware of offending the Chinese. There were horrible tales 
of how those who had ventured too far were kept imprisoned 
in dungeons. We read of one de Britto, a gentleman, 
hung about with chains, and a log tied round his chest, 
who about 1555 was seen by a Portuguese captain and a 
priest, greatly disfigured, and in deep misery. 

In 1556 the Dominican Gaspard da Cruz visited the same prison ; 
he describes for us the long galleries where in the evening hundreds 
of prisoners filed in to sleep. A thick iron chain which went 
through rings fixed in the ground and over their chests prevented 
them from moving, all through the night. A heavy wooden 
herse weighed them down and made any movement almost 
impossible. These were a small part of the tortures which awaited 
unfortunate strangers who were bold enough to violate the 
frontier : this hell was accepted by Saint Francis Xavier as he 
went to carry to the captives the comfort, if not the liberty, of 
the faith, f 

On October 22nd Francis wrote to Father Perez at Malacca : 

" By the mercy and pity of God our Lord Diego Pereira's 
ship and all we who came in it arrived safely at this port of 
San Chan, where we found a lot of other merchant ships. This 
port is thirty leagues from Canton. Numbers of merchants 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 774. 

f Brou, Vie de S. Frangois Xavier > vol. ii. p. 341. 



THE FINAL VOYAGE 329 

from Canton come here to trade with the Portuguese. The 
Portuguese have done their best to see if some Cantonese 
merchants would convey me. All decline. They said they 
would put their lives and estate in great danger if the Governor 
of Canton knew that they had taken me. So they would 
not take me at any price. 

" It pleased God our Lord that an honourable man, an 
inhabitant of Canton, offered for 200 cruzados to take me in a 
small boat in which there would be no sailors but his sons and 
servants, that the Governor might not come to know from 
the sailors what merchant took me. And more than that, 
he has offered to put me in his house, and hide me for three 
or four days, and from there to place me some day before 
daylight, with my books and little bundle, at the gate of the 
city. From there I would go at once to the house of the 
Governor. I would tell him that we came in order to go to 
the king of China and I would show him the letter which 
we bear from the bishop, telling him that we are sent from His 
Highness to explain the Law of God. 

" The dangers we run are two, according to what the 
Chinese say. The first is that the man who takes us, after 
having received the 200 cruzados, may leave us on some 
desert island, or throw us into the sea, that he may not risk 
being discovered by the Governor of Canton. The second 
danger is that if we are taken to Canton, and get before the 
Governor, he will order us to be tortured or make us prisoners. 
(This may well be) because this (our attempt) is such an 
innovation, and because there are in China such prohibitions 
that no one goes there without the king's safe-conduct and the 
king strictly forbids foreigners to enter his country without 
his safe-conduct. 

"... Besides these two dangers, there are many others, 
and greater, which do not concern the Chinese. To count 
them would be tedious, nevertheless I will mention some. 

" The first is the loss of hope and trust in the mercy of 
God. By His love and for His service we go to declare His 
Law and Jesus Christ His Son, our Redeemer and Lord. 
This, indeed, He knows, since by His holy mercy He gave 
us these desires. Now, to distrust His mercy and power 
on account of the danger in which we may possibly find 
ourselves in His service is a much greater danger than all 
the ill that the enemies of God could do us. For, without 



330 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

the licence and permission of God, the devil and his ministers 
can do us no harm at all. 

" And also we confirm ourselves with the saying of the Lord, 
' Who loves his life in this world will lose it, and he who loses 
his life for God's sake will gain it.' Which agrees with what 
also Christ our Lord said, ' He who puts his hand to the plough 
and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God.' 

"Considering these dangers of the soul, which are much 
greater than those of the body, we find that it is safer and 
surer to pass through the bodily dangers than that we should 
be convicted before God of spiritual dangers [i.e., defeats]. 
So, by whatever way, we are determined to go to China. I 
hope in God our Lord that the issue of our voyage will be for 
the increase of our holy faith, however much the enemies and 
their ministers persecute us, for ' If God be for us, who will 
have victory against us ? ' " * 

We do not wonder at the fighting tone of this letter, of 
all the letters of this time. We feel with Francis that the 
Devil is determined to hinder him if he can ; in a Spanish 
version of the above letter, Xavier mentions at the beginning 
that he had been ill for fifteen days. His companions, he 
adds, are recovered from their fever ; but Antonio, from 
whom he had hoped for so much as an interpreter, had had 
all the Chinese knocked out of his head by his education in 
Goa. He had, indeed, got someone else instead, a certain 
Peter Lopez, of what race we are not told, but he could read 
and write Portuguese, and " read well, and write a little 
Chinese," but a little later this man lost courage, and deserted 
his master. 

Barzee, Xavier's locum tenem in India, continues to receive 
numerous letters of careful advice and help. " I greatly 
commend you to take very special care of yourself, for if 
you do the contrary, I hope for nothing from you. Do not 
neglect to read and fulfil the memoranda which I left you, 
especially that in which I recommended you to exercise your- 
self every day." He goes on to say that the three new mis- 
sionaries have left Malacca for Japan, and in another letter, 
written a few days later, he advises the complete withdrawal 
of the mission from Malacca. The city, he writes, no longer 
deserves them, because of her opposition to his going to 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 783 ff. 



THE FINAL VOYAGE 331 

China. And he hopes that the Bishop will be persuaded to 
excommunicate Alvaro for his interference with the Nuncio 
and legate of the Pope. There was something of the haughty 
Spanish hidalgo left in Francis still.* 

On November 12th he writes to Father Perez in Malacca 
that he has at last arranged with a Chinese merchant to take 
him to Canton eight days hence. He (the merchant) is sure 
to go, Xavier says, for he is giving him enough pepper 
to allow him to make a profit of 350 cruzados. The letter 
goes on : 

" Pray much to God for us, for we run the very greatest 
risk of being made captives. Nevertheless, we comfort 
ourselves by thinking that it is much better to be a captive 
simply for the love of God than to be free by fleeing the 
labours of the Cross. And if it happens that he who is to 
take us changes his mind, because of the great risk he runs 
... in that case I will go to Siam, so as to go from there to 
Canton in the ships which the king of Siam sends. Please 
God we shall get to Canton this year. 



Meanwhile this little company of Christ's adventurers is 
thinning down. " I have dismissed Fereira from the Com- 
pany," Francis now writes, " because he is not fit for it."J 
Valignano says his health had failed him. Christopher, the 
Malabar boy, was of little use. But Antonio the Chinese was 
a very faithful servant. 

On November 13th Francis dictated his last letter, and 
we seem to hear the beating of the demons* wings around 
him as he writes. It is addressed to Father Perez, who is 
to send it on to Gaspar Barzee at Goa. 

"... Since this voyage to go from this port to China is 
difficult and dangerous, I do not know what will fall out, yet 
I hope that it will fall out well. If by chance I do not enter 
Canton this year, I will go, as I have already said, to Siam. 
And if I do not go from Siam to China within the year, I will 
go to India. Yet I have much hope of getting to China. 

" Know assuredly one thing, and don't doubt it. The 

* Man. Xav., pp. 793 and 805. f Ibid., vol. i. p. 800. 

$ Ibid., vol. i. p. 799. 



332 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

devil will be tremendously sorry that those of the Company 
of the Name of Jesus should enter China. I give you this 
certain news from the port of Sanchian. Be in no doubt of 
this. For the hindrances which he put in my way, and puts 
every day I could never tell you all of them. Be sure of 
one thing. With aid, favour, and grace of God our Lord I 
will confound the devil on this point. What great glory to 
God, to confound by a thing so vile as I am such a grand 
reputation as the devil's ! " 

" Master Gaspar, remember the counsels I left you on 
my departure, and those which I have written to you. Do 
not neglect to keep them, if presently you think, as others 
have done, that I am dead. For, if God will, I shall not die, 
though it is a long time since I felt so little inclined to live 
as I do now. . . . Notice that I charge you to receive very 
few men into the Company. Pass those that are already 
received through many proofs. I fear that it would be better 
to dismiss some who are received already, as I did Alvaro 
Ferreira. Do not receive him into the college, if he go (to 
Goa). Speak to him in the lodge, or in the church. If he 
wishes to be a friar, help him. . . . 

" Sanchian, 13th Nov., 1552. 
" FRANCISCO."* 

The end had almost come, and the gates of China were still 
closed. We find the history of the last days in a letter written 
a few years later by his companion Antonio to Teixeira,| and 
also in a report which Antonio made to Valignano.t 

Antonio says that one of the Portuguese merchants had 
given his companions shelter in his cabin. The Saint had 
asked the merchants to erect a little chapel of wood and 
straw where he might say mass and teach the native children 
so long as he had to wait on the island. He had talked very 
often with the Chinese merchants, either in Portuguese, 
which some of them knew, or by means of an interpreter. 



* Mon. Xao., vol. i. p. 808 f. 

f Vita, Mon. Xav., vol. ii. p. 894, and vol. i. p. 190. 

J These accounts are simple and convincing, and can, in the main, be 
easily believed. Antonio was not illiterate. He had been in the college at 
Goa for seven or eight years. Frois says he was one of the ablest of all the 
boys they had at that time. When they went to Sanchian he was about 
twenty years old. 



THE FINAL VOYAGE 333 

He had not spoken about Christianity, but of ordinary 
affairs, so as to get into friendly terms with them. They 
had questioned him much about the origin of the soul 
and the meaning of life, and were pleased with his answers, 
saying among themselves that he was a good and a wise 
man. 

All the time that he was there, his one anxiety had been 
as to how he was to get on to the mainland, and he discussed 
his hopes with all the merchants, and made great efforts to 
get one of them to take him. At last, as we have seen from 
his own letter, the matter had been arranged, but the expedi- 
tion was put off till all the ships had left Sanehian, so that, if 
the Chinese were over-annoyed by his visit, they could not 
wreak their vengeance on the merchants. 

At last all the ships except the Santa Croce had left the 
harbour. Francis' host, who had given him shelter, was 
gone with the rest. There was no one left, says Antonio, to 
give the Father Master Francis food or shelter. Often, 
being hungry, he sent the Chinese lad out to the ship to ask 
them for the love of God to give them a little bread. 

The nineteenth of December, the day appointed for the 
entry into China, came and went, and the junk which was 
to have taken them did not appear. Day after day passed, 
but it never came. 

It was then that Francis began to feel ill. He was deter- 
mined to get to China, with a determination that even he had 
never before known. But the body, as well as the heart, was 
sick with uncertainty and with the postponement of his 
desperate hope. There was no food such as he could enjoy, 
and no decent shelter. He and Antonio resolved to go 
out to the ship. On the evening of the 22nd they rowed 
out. For Francis a night of great misery followed. He was 
in a high fever, the ship was cold, and the waves were high. 
In the morning he said he must go back to land. So the 
two returned, Francis carrying with him a pair of cloth 
boots and a few almonds, the gift of some kindly sailor. 
When they reached the shore he sat down, almost overcome 
with weakness and cold. 

Presently a friendly Portuguese came along and, seeing 
him in this plight, rowed him across the bay to his little 
cabin. This Portuguese advised Francis to allow himself 
to be bled. So they bled him, and he fainted, for it had been 



334 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

badly done ; but when they threw some water on his face he 
came to himself again. 

He could eat nothing. Next day they bled him again, and 
again he fainted. He was tormented with the fever and 
sickness ; but all the time, Antonio says, he was so patient 
and enduring that not a word escaped his lips. 

That evening, Thursday the 24th, he became delirious. 
His face was then very joyful and beautiful, and he talked 
aloud in a high voice as if he were preaching. 

Toward the end he spoke in a language that Antonio did 
not understand. It was not Latin nor Spanish nor Portu- 
guese, for he knew all these. It often happens that at the 
hour of death, the mind returns to its native haunts, and the 
last words and recollections are those of far-off days of child- 
hood. " My language," Xavier had written in 1544, " is 
Basque.'* * Had the rude walls of that little hut on the 
desolate beach of Sanchian been transformed in the eyes of 
the dying saint into the tapestried hangings of his old nursery 
in Xavier, and the rich murmur of the waves hard by re- 
awakened in his fevered mind the tones of his mother's voice, 
telling him, ere she bade him a final good-night, some old 
Basque fairy tale ? 

On the 25th, two days before he died, Antonio heard him 
repeating some of the Psalms to himself, and remembered 
one line : 

Tu autem meorum peccatorum et delictorum miserere I 

These words seem already to fall upon our ears from be- 
yond the veil. They are the first utterances of the Supreme 
Encounter. Thus it is that man always speaks when he 
looks upon God. 

" Woe is me," cried Isaiah the prophet, " for I am undone ; 
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst 
of a people of unclean lips ; for mine eyes have seen the 
King, the Lord of hosts ! " 

And Peter, when he knew that he looked upon the Son 
of God, said, " Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O 
Lord I " 

" A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not 
despise," murmurs Santa Teresa with her latest breath, and 
we know that she is at last face to face with her Love. 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 279. 



THE FINAL VOYAGE 335 

And now the Very Hand of Love has touched Francis* 
quivering flesh, and we hear once more this old cry of human 
anguish at the revelation of the Purity of God. 

Tu autem meorum peccatorum et delictomm miserere ! 

And then there is silence, while the heavenly Father wipes 
away the first and the last tears that His child ever sheds hi 
Heaven, and while with His own lips he sets upon the brow 
of His saint the everlasting seal of His Love. 



FINIS 



APPENDIX I 

THE MIRACLE -STORIES 

WHEN the student of the life of Xavier comes to examine the 
miracle-stories he makes a pleasing discovery. He finds that 
his poetic sense and his historic sense are always satisfied or 
outraged at the same points. Both history and poetry protest 
if they are asked to see heaven in a grain of sand, or a world in a 
wild flower. 

The common affront is felt most keenly in the later biographies, 
from the seventeenth century onward ; and of these Bouhours' 
Life (1682) is the most notorious example. Here we have 
numerous instances of every conventional and fashionable type 
of miracle, told with every possible flourish and accompanied 
by every conceivable platitude of piety. None of these tales are 
succinct enough to excuse quotation, but the picture facing p. 342, 
of a crab bringing back a crucifix which the Saint had some time 
before thrown into the sea to quiet a tempest, is a typical example.* 
It sometimes happens that as time goes on reliable material for a 
biography becomes increasingly available, and the later life is 
therefore more authoritative than the earlier. In Bouhours' 
time that point had not yet been reached with regard to Xavier. 
He had access to no information that was not at the disposal 
of the earlier writers, so his work is simply an example of " how 
stories grow." With nothing fresh to help him but his own and 
other people's fanciful imaginings, he relates tale after tale, neither 
lovely nor true. Going back still farther, we come to Tursellinus 
(1594), who, though a much less muddy source than Bouhours, 
is nevertheless infected with the germs of inaccuracy, which, 
when transferred to Bouhours' pages, multiplied so abundantly. 
Where Tursellinus makes the Saint raise four people from the 
dead, Bouhours adds other ten.f Tursellinus says Xavier was 
transfigured twice; Bouhours says four times. And Bouhours 
throws in a miraculous draught of fishes and two extra miraculous 
supplies of fresh water. Yes, here History and Poetry have 
withdrawn together, and Sanctimoniousness and Credulity have 
met and kissed. And with regard to the gift of tongues, let us 
take one example from Bouhours, and then see what Tursellinus 
says on the same matter. " He preached in the afternoon to the 
Japanese in their language, but so naturally and with so much 

* The earliest versions simply say Xavier lost the crucifix and was very 
upset about it. 

f See the Life of Francis Xavier, by P. Dominic Bouhours, translated by 
J. Dryden. 



APPENDIX I 337 

ease that he could not be taken for a foreigner." * Thus Bouhours. 
But Tursellinus says: "Nothing was a greater impediment to 
him than his ignorance of the Japanese tongues ; for ever and 
anon, when some uncouth expression offended their fastidious 
and delicate ears, the awkward speech of Francis was a cause of 
laughter." 

On the whole, Tursellinus (1594) is much more beautiful than 
Bouhours ; a mediaeval nalveti and glamour still lingers on his 
pages, and there is a child-like fervour about his adoration of the 
Saint for the sake of which we can forgive him much. Moreover, 
quite a number of his miracle-stories can be traced back to a real 
incident, and many of these stories are quite accurately founded 
on the Letters. For example, we saw how the Badages had 
suddenly retired from one of their marauding expeditions. 
Tursellinus says that as they came riding up " they could not 
endure the majesty of his countenance, and the splendour and 
rays which issued from his eyes, and out of reverence for him 
they spared the others." And when Francis arrived at Lisbon 
on his way to India he writes (p. 127) that though Rodriguez 
was ill when he (Francis) got there, their united joy at meeting 
quite chased the fever away.f But Tursellinus when he tells 
us about this says the cure was either brought about by joy 
" or much more through the virtue of Xavier, which drove away 
all sickness." % 

In addition to this comparatively quiet and unextravagant vein, 
Tursellinus has times when he must needs give a fuller scope to his 
fancy. He too, like Bouhours, records how the Saint stilled a 
raging tempest, raised the dead, cast out devils, and prophesied ; 
and yet, as we have said, there is a certain artistic decency about 
the way he tells those stories that does not offend us as the later 
writers offend. And when we keep in view that the conventional 
attitude of that time toward the miraculous was different from 
what it is to-day, and that for Tursellinus to have written a life 
of Xavier with no mention of miracles in it would in itself have 
been a miracle, we find ourselves able frankly to appreciate a 
really beautiful biography. 

It may surprise to find that the miracle-stories, which so far 

* The belief in this so-called gift of tongues (a gift evidently far removed 
from that gift of tongues which St. Paul gives directions about) is firmly 
rooted in the minds of most of Xavier's biographers right up to the present 
time, though his own Letters, as we have seen, say enough to make very 
small change of the whole thing. Father Coleridge, in his Life (1872), says 
of Xavier in Japan : " He spoke freely, flowingly, elegantly, as if he had lived 
in Japan all his life." 

f His words remind us of the story of how once, when Melanchthon was 
very ill, and thought to be dying, a long-delayed visit of Martin Luther 
completely restored him. 

% Vita, Book I. cap. 10, par. 1. 

Z 



338 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

have diminished as we have pursued them toward the earlier 
sources, should suddenly increase when we come to the various 
Enquiries or pre-canonisation processes (1556-1616). Here we 
find the artistic coherence and dignity of Tursellinus entirely 
absent : here we literally wallow in the miraculous. There are 
several clear enough reasons for this. First, these witnesses were 
expected to relate miracles ; that was chiefly what they were 
there for : the psychological effect of such a necessity is, of course, 
considerable. Second, many of them, though not all, were old 
men and women, come to a time of life at which reminiscence 
is apt to be fanciful ; and few of them were real " witnesses " 
at all. They had ." heard it said," or So-and-so " had told 
them." Third, most of these people had very elementary ideas 
of miracles, and none of science, as it presents itself to our minds, 
and they clutched at the crude and figurative language which 
seemed most quickly to convey to their hearers their conviction 
that God was working in and through the Saint. They knew 
that they could not work miracles, and they knew rightly enough 
that they were not good enough to work them. Here was a 
man really better than they were, and he must have done them. 
Such minds represent a stage : they would like to see God every- 
where, and they felt He was everywhere. The definitions of 
miracles given by the witnesses at the Enquiry at Pampeluna* 
amount to no more than that they were astonishing and un- 
expected events : the word " miraculous " was, then as now, 
used in a loose and popular sense. The witnesses were not 
trying to prove that miracles " happened " for them there 
was no " problem of miracles " ; they only wanted to say they 
were sure that Francis had been a great saint and had lived very 
near to God. They, or their friends who had told them of him, 
would never have had these crude little stories if they had not 
had Francis, though the crudeness was their own. And it is, 
after all, to the credit of these men that saintship was a condition 
of the miracles, not the miracles a condition of saintship. 

And even here among those crude records we find gleams 
of light and notes of questioning. The tales about the raising of 
the dead are not always so convincing as the occasion demanded. 
A witness at Goa says that the Father Master Diego told him that 
he had asked Father Master Francis about the story of his having 
raised a boy from the dead, going up to him and saying, " O 
Father Master Francis, for the glory and praise of God, what 
happened about that youth you raised from the dead at Cape 
Comorin ? " To this he replied, very shamefaced and smiling, 
embracing him, " Jesus ! Senhor Padre Maestro Diego, I raise 
from the dead ! Ho peccador de mim I A sinner like me ! 
They brought the boy so, and he came living, and I told him to 

* Mon. Xav.f vol. ii. pp. 667, 673, 678. 



APPENDIX I 339 

rise in the name of God, and he rose, and the people made a story 
of it." (A genie fary ad'eso admiracao, the people wondered.) 
The witness adds that Diego said to him : " Doubt not that the 
Father, by the grace of our Lord, raised that dead youth." * 

At Cochin one witness said that he knew nothing about Xavier's 
miracles, but he had heard of a youth who was dead, and Xavier 
came to him and knelt down and prayed to our Lord and the child 
came to himself and rose well. All then began to shout " A 
miracle ! A miracle ! " and Francis said to them : "Be silent 
you, and do not speak ; the child was not dead, and it was our 
Lord's will to give him health." f Mansillas tells the same 
story, of which he had knowledge only by hearsay, and he adds : 
" The Father Maestro Francis, with great humility, said the 
youth was not dead." $ 

About the same tale Juan de Cruz, a native Christian of the 
Fishery Coast, and " one of the principal men of that land," has 
nothing to say, and nothing to say of any other miracle except 
this, " that he did indeed much and very miraculously (e de 
grande mylagre) in separating the Christians from their sins and 
vices, so that after becoming Christians they might not go the way 
to hell, for few and good is better than many and bad." 

This creditable testimony sounds like an echo of Xavier's own 
judgment || and unconsciously rebukes his interlocutors : Francis 
had given to this Parava convert a fair grip of the " Law of 
God our Lord." 

But, finally, let us turn to the earliest Lives of all, Valignano's 
and Teixeira's, and to Xavier's own Letters. 

From the Saint's contemporary, Teixeira,^ we have stories 
recording the impression made on a sober and educated mind in 
an age and of a faith which expected a holy personality to express 
itself by deeds transcending those of common men. Teixeira's 
intellectual attitude is fundamentally much the same as that of the 
less educated witnesses at the Enquiries. To him miracles were 
quite simple and possible, yet and this is important those he 
relates (and he relates far fewer than Tursellinus does) have, we 
recognise, come to us through a mind which already has certain 
standards of criticism with regard to the miraculous. He has 
rejected numerous grotesque stories which, as we see from the 
Enquiries, were already drifting about; he is very cautious in his 
accounts of a tale of raising from the dead; and all the other 
incidents have, we are made to feel, received the sanction of his 

* Mon. Xav., vol. ii. p. 185. f Ibid., vol. ii. p. 303. 

J Ibid., vol. ii. p. 319. Ibid., vol. ii. p. 311. 

|| " We see that a few good people are worth more, and do more, than many 
people who are not good " (Xavier. See Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 906). 

S Teixeira had been sent to Goa towards the end of 1551 or beginning of 
1552. When he wrote he was the only survivor of the Jesuits who had 
known Xavier. He died in 1590. 

22 



340 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

own belief an advanced one for his times in the limitation of 
miraculous powers to healing the sick, and to the gifts of prophecy, 
second-sight, and " exorcism." There is a remarkable reticence 
about all his pages. For example, where later writers give an 
elaborate miracle-story, Teixeira tells of a ship almost [" casi "] 
wrecked, and saved almost miraculously ["casi milagrosamente "]. 
His account of how the brother at Goa (which it is pretty certain 
was Teixeira himself; see p. 312) was cured, is simply and 
naturally told. When Francis returned to Goa, and when he 
got to the house and had embraced the brothers, he asked if there 
were any sick in the house. Hearing that there was one, he went 
to visit him before entering his room. This brother was far 
through and had been given up by the doctors, and everything 
had been prepared for his burial. But he had such faith and 
confidence in God our Lord, and devotion to Father Master 
Francis, " whom we were expecting every day," that he thought 
that he would not die if Father Master Francis found him living. 
" And so it was, for, finding him alive and at once going to visit 
him, he said a Gospel, putting his hands on his head, and it pleased 
the Lord that from then he went on improving, and he is still 
alive."* 

Again, Teixeira tells of a young man who " had a devil." 
Diseases of the mind were not then recognised as physical. The 
relatives of this boy sent for Francis, and when he came into 
the room the boy began to make strange gesticulations like one 
possessed, and Francis lowered his eyes and read in a prayer book, 
and then exorcised the demon and the boy was quieted.f 

Along with these stories of healing, so simple, so natural, 
we should look at Xavier's own account of the cures at Cape 
Comorin, which he believed to have followed on the preaching of 
the Gospel there.! The barometer of life and vitality rose when 
this great Saint and his great Gospel came near. 

Teixeira also gives a number of instances of second-sight, 
and some of these are confirmed by the Letters themselves. 
For example, Francis foretold a miserable ending to d'Alvaro 
d'Ataide, and afterwards the man died a leper in Portugal. There 
are various other pretty well authenticated instances instances 
very similar to the stories of second-sight which are often heard, 
for example, in the Highlands of Scotland at the present day. 

* Man. Xav., vol. ii. p. 882. f Mid., vol. ii. p. 862. 

} See p. 181. The incident which Xavier records in another letter (see 
Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 274) is the only other reference he himself makes to 
anything which might possibly come under the definition of miracle, and it 
certainly need not be interpreted in that way, though there are many devout 
minds which would accept it as such, and fortify their position by quoting 
present-day instances of the same kind. 

A typical tale is that recounted by R. L. S. in his ballad Ticonderoga. 



APPENDIX I 341 

This gift, or, as some might call it, affliction, has, of course, no 
particular relation to saintship, but the likelihood that Francis 
possessed it, added to the fact that he was a saint, probably gave 
the start to many of the wilder tales. 

On the whole, then, if we compare the records of the Enquiries 
with Teixeira's accounts, the upshot is this : that whereas 
Teixeira's quiet little stories have a considerable artistic and 
spiritual coherence with the impression given by the Letters 
and by authenticated facts, the stories told at the Enquiries 
picture a figure too abnormal to be real and too conventionally 
marvellous to be interesting ; and anyone who wishes to study 
this side of Xavier's history more closely must go back to 
Teixeira (and Valignano is nearly as good) and examine their 
accounts for himself. We cannot get any farther back, for Xavier 
himself was far too true a mystic to have been interested in miracles, 
even if he had performed them, and his experience of religion was 
too real to need any such support. Some parts of his Letters 
are written in a language in which the very word miracle at 
least as applied to his own doings would appear strange and 
out of place, for each day brought to him a revelation of the 
special Providence of God through deeper channels than that 
little word can plumb. 

Doubtless most of us are happier to believe it so. Nowadays 
even biographers prefer to record greatness of character in terms 
of psychology rather than in terms of miracle. And Bouhours 
and his fellows have done a great injustice to Xavier in this 
matter. A list of miracles to his name robs a saint of character 
and individuality just as paint and powder rob a woman of her 
most distinctive charms. 

The earliest authorities were the first to criticise the acceptance 
of these deviations from history and poetry. Already in 1583 
Valignano, at the close of his Vita, draws the attention of his 
readers to the fact that many miracles have been related at 
the Enquiries which he does not mention, and he goes on to warn 
them to imitate Father Francis rather in their labours and works 
and sufferings than in prophesying and miracle-mongering, for 
" in this we can and should imitate them (i.e., the saints), and not 
in prophesying or in miracles, in the which holiness does not 
essentially consist, since they are graces, given for the good of the 
community, which God communicates when and to whom He 
thinks fitting."* 

Still more interesting are some notes on Ribadeneira's Life 
of Loyola sent to Rome by Valignano and Teixeira, with correc- 
tions of some references to Xavier. At one point Valignano 
says : " Item : page 202 and over lines 10 to 14 are a very great 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 198* 



342 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

exaggeration, and in iny opinion should be altogether cut out. 
Indeed, however true many of the facts related may be, there is 
nothing to be certain about regarding the miracles in India and 
Japan except what is told in the first part of the Historia Indica " 
[i.e., in Valignano's Vita].* 

Teixeira's comments are even more pointed. He says : " What 
is said in the same chapter [of Ribadeneira's book] that the Lord 
raised the dead by Father Master Francis although his virtue 
and sanctity were such that our Lord of His infinite goodness 
and power could have done it by him yet, on enquiry, no certainty 
of this is found, but it is commonly said that our Lord did it by 
him. The most that is said on this matter was that in Cape 
Comorin our Lord raised one from the dead by him. But when 
it was wished to settle this, no one could be found who had seen 
it. The Brother Amrique of the Company, who was in the 
Pescaria for forty years and more, told me that he had purposely 
and by order of obedience inquired, and that he did not find, 
anything that could with certainty be affirmed. This is not 
said because there was no virtue and sanctity in the Blessed 
Father that the Lord might do all that is said, but because to 
assert a thing of such importance certainty seems necessary, 
or, at the least, evident probability ; since, as your Reverence 
well says in the Preface of your book of the life of our Father 
Ignatius, * If all lying in anything whatever is unworthy of a 
Christian man, much more in the lives of the Saints. Non indiget 
Deus nostris mendaciis.' " f 

With this wise and trenchant conclusion of old Teixeira, and 
with the following distich, which is inscribed on the documents 
of canonisation at Rome, we may leave the subject : 

" Sunt plurima, et sunt maxima 
Xaverii miracula : 
Ignatii miraculum 
Est maximum : Xaverius." 

* The following is evidently the passage referred to : " Such things were 
said of the miracles he did on that coast as quite exceeded the truth : and it is 
commonly said all over India, that among other things he did, he had raised 
one from the dead, of Which case, although the certainty cannot be known, 
this was public rumour then and still current " (Mow. Xav., vol. i. p. 53). 
These remarks are especially interesting when we know that Valignano had 
no objection to miracles a priori ; he relates ridiculous ones about St. Thomas 
and his grave. 

f Mon. Xav., vol. ii. p. 805. The Editor of the Monumenla blames Teixeira 
for saying that there is no certainty about the raising from the dead, and he 
(the Editor) prefers the testimony of a Cardinal at the canonisation, and the 
evidence of the Jesuit General, the 6th from Ignatius, who " asserted in the 
presence of 18 Cardinals that among Francis's miracles was the raising of 23 
or 24 from the dead : and of 17 the evidence was so clear and irrefutable that 
there could not be the least shadow of doubt." And that settles it. 



THE LEGEND QF T^E^GRAfr AND 

'> C5f V'-.'i'i 1 ..f \ < ,~ 




342 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

exaggeration, and in my opinion should be altogether cut out. 
Indeed, however true many of the facts related may be, there is 
nothing to be certain about regarding the miracles in India and 
Japan except what is told in the first part of the Historia Indica " 
[i.e., in Valignano's Vita].* 

Teixeira's comments are even more pointed. He says : " What 
is said in the same chapter [of Ribadeneira's book] that the Lord 
raised the dead by Father Master Francis although his virtue 
and sanctity were such that our Lord of His infinite goodness 
and power could have done it by him yet, on enquiry, no certainty 
of this is found, but it is commonly said that our Lord did it by 
him. The most that is said on this matter was that in Cape 
Comorin our Lord raised one from the dead by him. But when 
it was wished to settle this, no one could be found who had seen 
it. The Brother Amrique of the Company, who was in the 
Pescaria for forty years and more, told me that he had purposely 
and by order of obedience inquired, and that he did not find 
anything that could with certainty be affirmed. This is not 
said because there was no virtue and sanctity in the Blessed 
Father that the Lord might do all that is said, but because to 
assert a thing of such importance certainty seems necessary, 
or, at the least, evident probability ; since, as your Reverence 
well says in the Preface of your book of the life of our Father 
Ignatius, ' If all lying in anything whatever is unworthy of a 
Christian man, much more in the lives of the Saints. Non indiget 
Deus nostris mendaciis. 1 " f 

With this wise and trenchant conclusion of old Teixeira, and 
with the following distich, which is inscribed on the documents 
of canonisation at Rome, we may leave the subject : 

" Sunt plurima, et sunt maxima 
Xaverii miracula : 
Ignatii miraculum 
Est maximum : Xaverius." 

* The following is evidently the passage referred to : " Such things were 
said of the miracles he did on that coast as quite exceeded the truth : and it is 
commonly said all over India, that among other things he did, he had raised 
one from the dead, of which case, although the certainty cannot he known, 
this was public rumour then and still current " (Mon. Xav., vol. i, p. 53). 
These remarks are especially interesting when we know that Valignano had 
no objection to miracles a priori ; he relates ridiculous ones about St. Thomas 
and his grave. 

f Mon. Xav., vol. ii. p. 805. The Editor of the Monumenta blames Teixeira 
for saying that there is no certainty about the raising from the dead, and he 
(the Editor) prefers the testimony of a Cardinal at the canonisation, and the 
evidence of the Jesuit General, the 6th from Ignatius, who " asserted in the 
presence of 18 Cardinals that among Francis's miracles was the raising of 23 
or 24 from the dead : and of 17 the evidence was so clear and irrefutable that 
there could not be the least shadow of doubt." And that settles it. 



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APPENDIX II 

NOTE ON XAVIER'S 



THE Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines 
rtibrica as a stroke or combination of strokes of a fixed form 
which as part of the. signature anyone puts after his name 
or style. It may take the place of a signature. It is, there- 
fore, important. It may be intricate ; often it is neat ; 
now and then it achieves beauty. It is very different from 
the hasty scrawl or careless flourish with which some of us 
disguise our signature. Xavier's rtibrica (see cover of book) 
is characteristic. It has one peculiarity : it is double, being 
placed before as well as after his signature. In his time this 
was not so uncommon as it is now. 

It is a simple affair. It consists of three strokes sloping 
from right to left parallel with his writing. In the earlier 
forms each stroke is separate, but later he formed them more 
hastily, without lifting his pen from the paper. After 
making these strokes, he wrote the " F," and then drew his 
pen horizontally across the strokes to form the cross of the 
" F," and went on without lifting his pen to write the "r," 
etc. He then drew two other horizontal strokes, and 
repeated the operation at the end of his signature. Some- 
times he added a hasty stroke beneath. The whole is simple, 
it is done hastily, and is quite individual. One cannot 
mistake it, but it is done without any thought of form or of 
pride in it, or even of pleasure. It has only one object to 
be his rtibrica. The haste is not carelessness ; it is eagerness, 
the desire to get on to something further. H^ 

The rtibrica characterises the Letters. They are hasty, 
simple, formless, and unmistakable. Each has a pur- 
pose and achieves it. Here is an example of his 
hasty writing from a letter to the King of Portugal : 
" Your Highness ought to give him many thanks for 
the many labours which in these parts of India he has 
taken for the service of God and discharge of your Highness' 
conscience ; for the bodily labours which the Father Friar 
John has endured in these parts of India, although they 
are many and great and continual, in comparison with the 



344 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

labours of the spirit in seeing the bad treatment which the 
captains and factors do to the newly converted, they who 
ought to help them, are intolerable and almost a kind of 
martyrdom to have patience and see being destroyed what 
with such labour he has gained." The meaning is unmis- 
takable, but the form His incorrect quotations of 

Scripture exhibit the same qualities. 

Yet he was careful of his letters, because they were to his 
beloved brothers from whom he wanted letters. He is 
constantly asking for news. He gives frequent instructions 
about sending letters, and makes careful plans both as 
to their being written and forwarded. He wants to know 
everything about everyone. It is the personal spiritual 
news, never literature, that is always in his mind. There is 
only one limitation " Things which are not edifying, beware 
that you do not write them." * And this warning is given 
when he is instructing the Companions in Molucca to write 
to Loyola. He observed this limitation himself. Reading 
between the lines of his letters to Rome or Coimbra as to 
the kind of man he wants, we can see the character of the 
" unedifying things " and how they tried him. As to every- 
thing else, he wrote, as the lark sings, because he must. And 
so these letters are marked by the intense affection they 
express and desire. There are no letters less literary than 
Xavier's, yet their intensity, with their eager, simple individu- 
ality, achieves that reality which, after all, is the aim of 
literature. 

D.M. 

* Mon. Xav., vol. i. p. 516. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

IN giving this list of the books which have been consulted we 
must record our especially outstanding indebtedness to the 
Editors of the Monumenta Xaveriana, to J. M. Cros for his Vie 
et Lettres and his Documents Nouveaux, and to A. Brou for his 
Vie. Without Cros and the Monumenta the present work could 
never have been accomplished. The translations from the Letters 
are all based on the documents printed in the Monumenta, and 
we are much indebted to the Editors for their kind permission to 
translate from their pages. 

ACOSTA. De rebus Indicis. ... 1573. 

ACTA SANCTORUM. Vol. VII. of July. Ignatius. Paris : Palme. 

1868. 

AMADIS DE GAULA. Caragoca. 1508. 

ANALECTA BOLLANDIANA. Vol. XVI. Article on Xavier's Miracles. 
ANNALES INDIQUES. 1590. 

BACKER, A. DE. Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus. Toulouse. 

1890. 

BARBER, W. T. H. Raymond Lull. London. 1903. 
BARTOLI, D. DelV Istoria della Compagnia di Gesu. IS Asia. 

Rome. 1653. 
BARTOLI, D. Les Miracles de S. F. Xavier. Traduit de Vltalien. 

1673. 
BARTOLI, D., AND MAFFEI, J. P. Life of St. Francis Xavier. 

London. 1858. 
BELLESORT, A. Articles on Xavier in the Revue des Deux Mondes. 

1916. 

BOUHOURS, D. La Vie de S. Frangois Xavier. Paris. 1682. 
BOUHOURS, D. Life of St. Francis of Xavier. Translated by 

John Dryden. London. 1688. 
BROU, A. Saint Francois Xavier. Paris. 1911. 
BROWN, P. HUME. George Buchanan, Humanist and Reformer. 

Edinburgh. 1890. 

CAMBRIDGE MODERN HISTORY. Vol. I. London. 1902. 
CARY, O. A History of Christianity in Japan. New York. 

1909. 



346 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

CARYON, A. Bibliographie Historique de la Compagnie de Jesus. 
Poitiers. 1863. 

CATALOGUS PATRUM Soc. JESU. Paris. 1683. 

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPAEDIA. Articles on Xavier, Counter-Reforma- 
tion, Loyola, Ximenes, etc. 

COCQUELINES, C. Bullarium Privilegiorum ac Diplomatum 
Romanorum. Rome. 1739. 

COLERIDGE, H. J. Life and Letters of S. F. Xavier. London. 
1872. 

CONSTITUTIONES SociETATis JESU. Translated from the Spanish 
by J. Polancus (Rome, 1559). London. 1838. 

CREIGHTON. A History of the Papacy during the Period of the 
Reformation. 5 volumes. London. 1882-94. 

CRE"TINAU-JOLY, J. Histoire religieuse politique et litteraire de 
la Compagnie de Jesus. Paris. 1844. 

CROS, J. M. Saint Frangois de Xavier: sa Vie et ses Lettres. 

Paris. 1900. 
CROS, J. M. S. Francois de Xavier : son Pays, sa Famille, sa 

Vie. Documents Nouveaucc. Toulouse. 1894. 

DOUMERGUE, E. Jean Calvin. Paris. 1899. 
ERASMUS. The Epistles of Erasmus. London. 1901-4. 

ETUDES. Articles in October 20th, 1908 ; June 5th, 1901 ; August 
5th and 20th, 1902 ; and December 5th, 1903. 

FABER, P. Memorial. Paris. 1873. (See also Mon. Hist. Soc. Jesu.) 

FAIRA Y SOUSA. Asia Portugeza. Lisbon. 1674. 

FELIBIEN. Histoire de la ville de Paris. Vol. II. Paris. 1725. 

FOUQUERAY, H. Histoire de la Comp. de Jesus en France. Vol. I. 

Paris. 1910. 
GENELLI. The Life of St. Ignatius Loyola. London. 1871. 

GOTHEIN, E. Ignatius von Loyola und die Gegenreformation. 

Halle. 1895. 

GRAF, C. H. Jacques Le Fdvre d'Etaples. Strasburg. 1842. 
GREFF. Das Leben des Heiligen Franz Xavier. Einsiedeln. 

1885. 

HAAS, H. Geschichte des Christentums in Japan. 1902. 
HELFFERICH, A. Raymond Lull und die Anfange der Catalonischen 

Liter atur. Berlin. 1858. 
HERKLESS, J. Francis and Dominic and the Mendicant Orders. 

1901. 
HERMINJARD, A. L. Correspondance des Reformateurs. Geneva. 

1866-97. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 347 

HERZOG. Real-encyclopaedic fur Protestantische Theologie. Leip- 
zig. 1896-1913. Vols. IV., VI., IX., XVI., XIX. 

HISTOIRE DE L'EXPE'DITION CHRE'TIENNE EN LA CHINE. Rome. 
1605. French translation by T. C. D. A. Paris. 1618. 

HOME AND FOREIGN REVIEW. Article Francis Xavier, in Vol. II. 
January, 1863. 

JAPON. Lettres nouvelles du Japan. Paris. 1584. 

JARRIC, P. DU. Histoire des choses plus mmorables, etc. Bor- 
deaux. 1610. 

JOURNAL D'UN BOURGEOIS DE PARIS. Societe de 1'Histoire de 
France. 1854. Written between 1522-30. 

KIDD, I. Documents of the Continental Reformation. Oxford. 
1911. 

LEA, H. C. Chapters from the Religious History of Spain. Phila- 
delphia. 1890. 

LEA, H. C. History of the Inquisition in Spain. 1906. 

LETTERS. For a study of the sources of the Letters see Cros's 
Life, the prefaces to Vols. I. and II. Also the Monumenta 
Xaveriana. 

LINDSAY, T. M. History of the Reformation. Vol. II. Edin- 
burgh. 1907. 

LOYOLA. See Monumenta Ignatiana in Mon. Hist. Soc. Jesu. 

LOYOLA. A Series of Engraved Plates relating to Loyola. 1609-22. 

LOYOLA. The text of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius 

Loyola. London. 1908. 
LUCENA. Historia da vida do P. Francisco de Xavier, etc. Lisbon. 

1600. 
MACLEAN, M. H. Francis Xavier, the Story of His Life. London. 

1895. 

MALSAC, M. I gnace de Loyola. Paris. 1898. 
MONTAIGNE. Essays. 
MONUMENTA HISTORICA SOCIETATIS JESU. Chronicon societatis 

Jesu, par Polanco. Epistolae Micctae. Monumenta Xaveriana. 

Monumenta Ignatiana. Madrid. 1894-1914. 
MURRAY. Dictionary of Christian Biography. London. 1911. 
PHILIPPSON, M. La Contre-Revolution religieuse de 16e siecle. 

Brussels. 1884. 
PIALE, S. Fatti pui rimarchevoli della vita di S. Francesco. 

Rome. 1793. 

PLUMMER, A. The Continental Reformation. London. 1912. 
POLANCO. See MONUMENTA HISTORICA. Historia Societatis Jesu. 

Vol. I. 



34,8 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

QUICHERAT, J. Histoire de Sainte-Barbe. Paris. 1860-4. 
RANKE, L. Romische Papste. 3 volumes. Berlin. 1838. 

RASHDALL, H. Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. Oxford. 

1895. 
REPORT OF THE WORLD MISSIONARY CONFERENCE. Edinburgh. 

1910. 
REVUE HISPANIQUE. Article on Xavier's reported authorship 

of sonnet. 1895. 

RIBADENEIRA. BibUotheca Scriptorum Soc. Jesu. Antwerp. 1643. 
RIBADENEIRA. Vida del P. Ignacio de Loyola. Madrid. 1594. 

RIBADENEIRA. Life of Blessed Father Ignatius. English trans- 
lation by W. M. [Paris ?] 1616. 

RICCI, M. Histoire de I 'expedition Chretienne en la Chine. 1618. 

RICHTER, J. History of Missions in India. Translated by S. H. 
Moore. London. 1908. 

Rix, E. M. The Testament of Ignatius Loyola. London. 1900. 

ROSE, STEWART. Ignatius Loyola and the Early Jesuits. London. 
1871. 

ROUSSELOT. Les Mystiques Espagnols. Paris. 1867. 

SABATINI, R. Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition. London. 

1913. 

SHARROCK. South Indian Missions. London. 1910. 
SOMMERVOGEL. Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus. Paris. 

1890. 

SOUSA. See FAIRA Y SOUSA. 

STEPHEN, SIR J. Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography. 1849. 
SYMONDS, J. A. Renaissance in Italy. The Catholic Reaction. 

London. 1886. 

TEIXEIRA. Vida de S. Francisco Javier. In Monumenta Xaveriana. 
THOMPSON, FRANCIS. Life of S. Ignatius Loyola. London. 1909. 
THUROT, C. De V organisation de Venseignement dans Vuniversitt 

de Paris. Paris. 1850. 

TORSELLINO or TuRCELLiNUS. De, Vita Fr. Xaverii. Rome. 1594. 
TORSELLINO or TuRCELLiNUS. The Admirable Life of S. Francis 

Xavier. English translation. Paris. 1632. 
TOURNIER, F. St. F. Xavier d'aprte un MS. Inedit du P. 

Auger. Article in Etudes. December, 1906. 

VALIGNANO. Del principio y progresso de la Compania de Jesus 
en las Indias orientales diuidida en dos paries. Primera parte. 
Vita S. Francisci. In Monumenta Xaveriana. Tom. I., 
p. 2ff. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 349 

VENN, H. Missionary Life and Labours of St. Francis Xavier. 

London. 1862. 
Vos, G. DE. Leben und Briefe des Heiligen Franz Xaverius. 

Regensburg. 1877. 

WARD, A. W. The Counter-Reformation. London. 1910. 
WATRIGANT, P. H. La GenSse des Exercises Spirituels de S. Ignace 

de Loyola. In Etudes, T. LXXL, LXXIL, LXXIII. 
WHITE, DICKSON. A History of the Warfare of Science with 

Theology. London. 1896. 
WHITEWAY, R. S. Rise of Portuguese Power in India. London. 

1899. 



CONTEMPORARY CHRONOLOGY 

1506 Francis Xavier born. 

1506 Death of Christopher Columbus. 

1506 Bramante began building St. Peter's, Rome. 

1509 Henry VIII. became King of England. 

1509 John Calvin born. 

1510 Erasmus teaches Greek at Cambridge. 

1511 Machiavelli Secretary of State at Florence. 
1513 Battle of Flodden. 

1513 Leo X. first Medici Pope. 

1515 Santa Teresa born. 

1515 Francis I. became King of France. 

1517 Reformation in Germany. 

1517 Luther nailed his Theses to church door at Wittenberg. 

1519 Leonardo da Vinci died. 

1519 Charles V. became Emperor of Holy Roman Empire. 

1520 Raphael died. 

1520 Field of Cloth of Gold. 

1520 Straits of Magellan discovered. 

1521 Diet of Worms. 

1522 Adrian VI. Pope. 

1522 Michael Angelo floruit (1475-1564). 

1523 Clement VII., Pope. 

1527 Constable Bourbon at Rome. 

1528 Death of Albrecht Diirer. 

1529 Birth of Palestrina. 
1529 Diet of Spires. 

1529 Reformation in England. 

1530 Confession of Augsburg. 

1533 Titian floruit (1477-1 576). 

1534 Copernicus studies true system of Universe. 

1535 Cromwell Vicar-General. 

1538 Suppression of monasteries in England. 

1540 Execution of Cromwell. 

1540 Calvin at Geneva. 

1541 Death of Paracelsus. 

1543 Mary Stuart crowned (cet. 1 year). 

1545 Council of Trent began. 

1546 Burning of Wishart. 

1546 Murder of Cardinal Beaton. 

1546 Death of Luther. 

1547 Succession of Edward VI. 
1547 Birth of Cervantes. 

1547 Henri II. King of France. 

1548 Benvenuto Cellini floruit (1500-1571). 

1550 Vasari published his Lives of the Italian Painters. 

1552 Metz taken by France. 

1552 Francis Xavier died. 



INDEX 



Abelard, 43 

Adigars, agents of Rajah of Travancore, 

206, 210 

Africa, Raymond Lull in, 23, 24 
Aiyaz, Malik, opponent of Portuguese 

colonists, 147 

Albertus Magnus, 43, 44, 66 
Albuquerque, Alfonso d', Governor of 

India (1509-1516), 143-4, 147 
Alcald, Jesuit College at, 62 ; University 

of, 29 

Alendale (Cape Comorin), 200, 208 
Alexander VI., Pope, 29 
Almeida, D. Francisco d', Viceroy of 

India (1505-1509), 147 
Alumbrados, the, or Spanish Illuminati, 

61 

Alva, Duke of, 36 
Amadis of Gaul, Spanish Romance, 40, 

59, 60 
Amboina (The Moluccas), 230, 233, 235, 

236, 242, 252 
Ancient Languages, Chairs of, founded by 

Lull, 24 

Ancolina, Faustina and Vicentio, 121-2 
Antonio, the Chinese, 324, 326, 332 ff. 
Aquinas, St. Thomas, 43, 44, 46. 
Arab-traders in the East, 141 
Aragon, Kingdom of, 33, 35 
Aristotle, 44, 66, 84 

Artiaga, Joao d', 192, 197, 198, 204, 205 
Ataide, D. Alvaro d', son of Vasco da 

Gama, 153, 324, 326, 331, 340 
Atapanoa (Cape Comorin), 212 
Aznar, Duke of, ancestor of St. Francis 

Xavier, 33 



Badages, South Indian tribe, 187, 200, 
201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 210, 266, 337 

Bagdad, 141 

Baptism, the rite of, as practised by the 
Jesuits, 172-3 

Barcelona, 61, 62 

Barres, Maurice, 88 

Barreto, Melchior Nunez, Jesuit mis- 
sionary (Portuguese), 318 

Barzee, Gasper, Jesuit missionary (Flem- 
ing), 226, 264, 265, 313-14, 319 ff., 324, 
327, 330, 331 

Basil, St., 114 

Basques, 33, 59 

Bassein, 269, 314, 318 

Beauvais, College of, 65, 68 

Beda, Noel, Principal of College Mon- 
taigu in Paris, 55 

Beira, Juan de, Jesuit missionary (Portu- 
guese or Galician), 169, 227, 236, 241, 
253 



Bembar (Cape Comorin), 209 

Bernard, St., 265 

Betibumal, native Indian chief, 204, 207, 

208 
Bobadilla, Nicolas, one of the original 

members of the Society of Jesus, 73, 

106, 118 

Bologna, 32, 106-7, 121 
Bonaventura, St., 43, 87, 115 
Brahmins, 182 ff. 
Briconnet, Guillaume, Bishop of Meaux, 

47 

Brouet, Paul, Jesuit, 73 
Buchanan, George, Humanist, 54, 55, 65 
Bulla Begimini Militantis Ecclesice, 1 10 ft, 

134 

Bungo, 307 
Bunyan, John, 86, 319 



Calicut, 146 

Calvin, Jean, 44, 55, 62, 78, 93, 179 
Cambay, Gulf of, 212, 215, 314 
Camerino, Paulo, Jesuit missionary 

(Italian), 118, 153, 212, 227, 235, 273, 

277 

Canacapoles, native helpers, 214 
Canton, 287, 327, 329, 331 
Caraffa, Giovanni Pietro, Cardinal, and 

late Pope Paul IV., 102-3 
Careas of Beadala, Tamil fishermen, 200, 

205, 209, 213 
Carmelites, 115 
Carvalho, Andr6, Jesuit missionary 

(Portuguese), 322-3 
Carvalho, Christopher, 278 f . 
Casilina, Jerome and Isabella, 106-7 
Castanheira, Count, Don Antonio de 

Ataide, 139 

Castile, Kingdom of, 35 
Castro, D. JoSo de, Governor of India 

(1545-48), 215, 223, 262 
Cervantes, Miguel, 101 
Ceylon, 215 ff., 262 
Chamines, D., Loyola's spiritual director 

at Montserrat, 87 
Charles V., Emperor, 35, 98 
Chartreuse, Monks of, 114 
China, 234, 235, 263, 270 ff., 285, 287, 

293, 305, 308, 311, 317, 324 f. 
Christopher, Malabar coolie, 324, 326, 

331 

Cisneros, Garcia de, 61, 62, 86 
Cochin, 142, 145, 177, 196, 212, 214, 216, 

255, 256, 260, 268, 271, 277, SOS, 311, 

314, 318, 324 
Codure, J., Jesuit, 73 
Coelho, Francisco, native helper, 186, 

200, 205, 206, 209, 210, 220, 261 



352 



ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 



Coimbra, Jesuit College at, 130-1, 135, 

213, 284 
Colleges in Paris, see Ste. Barbe, Mon- 

taigu, etc. 
College of St. Paul (College of the Holy 

Faith), 168, 212, 223, 263, 265, 268, 

270, 273, 293, 311, 313, 325 
Colombo, 215 
CombuturS (Cape Comorin), 197, 200, 

207, 208, 209 
Comorin, Cape, 171-190, 266, 269, 314, 

324, 338, 340 
Company of Jesus, meets for first time, 

30, 59 a. 

Complutensian Bible, 29 
Compostela, 18, 19, 22 
Conference in Venice, 101 
Coplas de, Manrique, 63 
Cordier, Mathurin, teacher of Calvin and 

of Xavier, 54 
Cortes, Spanish, 17 
Coulam, 196, 215, 314 
Council of Vienne, 24 
Counter-Reformation, 28 ff . 
Creed, The Apostles', 179, 196 
Criminale, Antonio, Jesuit missionary 

(Italian), 261 

Cruz, Gaspard da, Dominican, 328 
Cruz, Juan da, native Christian, 220, 339 
Cruz, Manoel da, native helper, 199, 200, 

202, 204, 208, 209, 211 
Cyprian, Alfonso, Jesuit missionary 

(Spaniard), 315-16 
Cyprus, 24 
Cyril of Alexandria, 157 

Damascus, 141 

Degrees, value of, in XVIth century, 51 

Diaz, Bartholomew, 125 

Diaz, Dominic, Jesuit missionary (Portu- 
guese), 283 

Diet of Worms, 30 

Diu, 313 

Doctor of Navarre, uncle of St. Francis 
Xavier, 33, 52, 132 

Dominic, St., 20 ff ., 106 

Dominicans, in India, 163 

Ecclesiastical Music, The, of Thomas a 

Kempis, 62 

Education of Missionaries, 217, 225 ff. 
Enriquez, Enrico, Jesuit missionary 

(Portuguese), 271, 313 
Enriquez, Francisco, Jesuit missionary 

(Portuguese), 260, 266, 314 
Ephesus, Council of, 157 
Erasmus, 30, 43, 55, 56, 97 
Eredia, Antonio de, Jesuit missionary 

(Portuguese), 314, 318 
Etaples, Jacques Le Fevre d' (Faber 

Stapulensis), 44, 45, 66 
Euganean Hills, 104 
Exposition of the Creed, Xavier's, 234, 

242 ff. 
Eyro, Juan d', 225 



Faber, Peter, original member of the 

Society of Jesus, 53, 54, 62, 64, 67, 71, 

73, 106, 116, 119, 122 
Faber Stapulensis, see Etaples 
Fabrian Protestantism, 44 
Facata (Japan), 298 
Facel, one of the Group of Meaux, 47, 

note 

Family Life in XVIth century, 31 
Farewell Rock, The, 123 
Ferdinand and Isabella, The Catholic 

Sovereigns, 17, 27, 29, 35, 40 
Fereira, Alvaro, Jesuit missionary, 324, 

326, 331 

Feria, Duke of, 39 
Fernandez, Antonio, a native Christian, 

202, 203, 213, 314 
Fernandez, Gonzato, 316 
Fernandez, Juan de, Jesuit missionary 

(Spaniard), 273, 274, 283-4, 297, 298, 

300, 301, 302, 303, 307-8, 313 
Fernandez, Vasco, 221 
Fishery Coast (Pescaria), 171, 196, 260 

(see also Cape Comorin) 
Foundation of the Order of Jesus, 71-74 
Francis, St., of Assisi, 25, .35, 115 
Francis I. of France, 41, 47, 53, 55, 98, 

note. 
Franciscans, Order of, 29, 163, 171, 

215 
Fuenterrabia, 42 



Gaetano da Tiene, founder of the 

Theatines, 102 
Galvao, Antonio, Governor of the 

Moluccas, 240 

Gama, Pedro da Silva da, 295, 324 
Gandia, Abbess of, see Madeline. 
Gerard van Ziitphen. 87 
Gerson, supposed author of the Imitation, 

63 

Gia, Cardinal, 110 
" Gift of Tongues," Xavier's, 174, 292, 

336 
Goa, 160 ff., 177, 262, 263, 266, 267, 273, 

317 

Goethe, 101 
Gomez, Antonio, Jesuit missionary 

(Portuguese), 269, 273, 274, 277, 293, 

313 
Goncalez, Melchior, Jesuit missionary 

(Portuguese), 264, 265 
Gonzalez, Cardinal, 29 
Gouvea, Jacques de, Principal of College 

of Ste. Barbe, 62, 65, 116 
Graduation ceremonies in Paris, 51 
Granada, 17, 35 
Gregory VII., Pope, 19 
Group of Meaux, 47 



Henri d'Albret, Henry II. of Navarre 

(1503-1555), 41 
Hirado (Japan), 297, 303, 307 
Holy League, against France, 35 



INDEX 



353 



Hong Kong, 328 
Humanism, 45, 70 
Hus, John, 45, note. 
Hymn ascribed to St. Francis Xavier, 
238, note. 



Ignatius Loyola, his faithfulness to the 
Church, 18 ; wounded at Pampeluna, 
41 ; comes to Paris, 59 ; earlier history, 
60-2 ; enters College of Ste. Barbe, 
62 ; the Beginnings of the Order of 
Jesus, 62-74 ; the Spiritual Exercises 
of, 75-90 ; suspected by the re- 
actionaries, 91 f. ; goes to Spain, 91 ; 
in Italy, 101 ff. ; definite formation of 
the Order of Jesus, 108 f . ; asked to 
send missionaries to India, 116 f.; 
offers mission work in India to 
Francis Xavier, 118 ; letters from 
Xavier to, 127, 130, 135 ; his counsel 
quoted, 150 ; letters from Xavier to, 
152, 166, 168, 175, 217 ; his counsel 
quoted, 276 ; letters from Xavier to, 
256, 268, 274, 308 ; his example is 
recalled by Xavier, 315 ; the distich 
in Rome, 342 

Iniquitibirim, see Rajah of Travancore. 

Inquisition, in India, 236, 257 ff. 

Inquisition, in Spain, 20, 25, 26, 27, 30, 
125, 133, 134 

Isabella the Catholic, 26, 26, 29, 35, 39 

" Islands of Hope in God " (Islas de 
Moro), 224-255 

Italy, 101 ff. 



Jafnapatam (Ceylon), King of, 205, 212, 

216, 218 
Japan, 219, 254, 262 f., 270 f., 283-310, 

327 

Jasso, house of, 32, 33. 
Jay, Claude, one of the original members 

of the Society of Jesus, 73, 137 
Jerusalem, Loyola in, 61 
Jews in China, 235 
Jews in Spain, 20, 26 
John of the Cross, Juan de la Cruz, 61 
John of Navarre, father of Henry II. of 

Navarre, 32, 36 
John III. of Portugal (1502-1557), 28, 

52, 110, 116, 127, 131, 135-9, 163, 217, 

236, 256, 263, 272, 304, 311, 326 
Juana, wife of Philip of Austria, 35 
Juan de Beira, see Beira. 
Juan de la Cruz, Malabar prince, 171 
Juan de Jasso, father of St. Francis 

Xavier, 34, 36 
Juan de Jasso y Xavier, brother of St. 

Francis Xavier, 35, 39, 42, 92 ff . 



Kagoshima (Japan), 284, 288 ff . 
Kandy (Ceylon), 262 
Kempis, Thomas a, 61, 62, 87 
Kioto (Miaco), 294, 300, 303 



La Celestina, Spanish drama, 63 

La Marche, College of, in Paris, 55 

La Salle, form of punishment at Ste. 

Barbe, 65 
Lainez, Diego, one of the original 

members of the Society of Jesus, 73, 

75, 106, 110, 119, 137 
Lancilloti, Nicolas, Jesuit missionary 

(Italian), 314 
Laurence, Brother, Japanese convert, 

305 f. 

Le Fevre, Jacques, see Etaples. 
Lebrija, grammarian, 63 
Lenormant, Geoffrey, founder of College 

of Ste. Barbe,. 52 
Lima, Manoel de, native helper, 201 
Lisbon, 63, 139-40, 198 
Livar (Cape Comorin), 198 
Lopez, Gaspar, witness at the Ooa 

Process, 238 

Lopez, Peter, interpreter, 330 
Loretto, 121 
Louis XII. of France, his alliance with 

John of Navarre, 36 
Loyola, see Ignatius. 
Ludolf of Saxony, 87 
Lull, Raymond, 20 ff. 
Luther, Martin, 28, 60 
Lutherans in Paris, 44, 45, 57, 63, 70 



Maeuas, South Indian tribei 188, 213 
Madeira, - Aleixo, Jesuit missionary 

(Portuguese), 314 

Madeline, Abbess of Gandia, sister of 

St. Francis Xavier, 39, 57, 69 
Madrid, 118 . - 

Major, John, Scottish theological and 

historical writer, 55 
Majorca, 22, 24 ' 

Malacca, 222, 224 ff., 253, 254, 257, 

262, 263, 268, 269, 273, 278, 283, 

284, 314, 324, 326, 330 
Malucca, 238, 239, 252 
Manapar (Cape Comorin), 193, 195, 197, 

200, 201, 202, 204, 206, 207, 209, 210, 

211, 212, 213, 220, 260. 
Manar (Ceylon), 205 
Manoel, of Amboina, 252 
Manresa, Dominican Convent of, 60 
Mansillas, Francisco, Jesuit' missionary 

(Portuguese), 138, 153, 188-214, 220, 

225, 267 

Manuel, China, 285 
Marco Polo, 283 
Margaret of Angouleme, sister of 

Francis I. of France, 47 
Maria de Azpilcueta y Xavier, mother" 

of St. Francis Xavier, 33, 34, 40, 

'*! 
Maria Periz, sister of St. Francis Xavier, 

39 

Maria Perez de Herice, 39 
Martin de Azpilcueta, ancestor of St. 

Francis Xavier, 33 

AA 



354 



ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 



Mascarenhas, D. Pedro, Portuguese 

ambassador, 120-1, 130, 137 
Mass conversions, 181, 189, 314, note. 
Matthew, a native interpreter, 193, 196, 

197, 198, 199, 202, 204, 208, 213 
Mauburnus, 87 

Meliapor (India), 66, 221 ff., 315 
Melinda, 165 
Memorandum left by Xavier in Home, 

119 

Mendez, Alvaro, Jesuit missionary, 314 
Mendez, Luis, Jesuit missionary, 266 
Mendoza, Cardinal, 28, 29 
Menezes, Don Jorge de, Portuguese 

commander in the Moluccas, 239 
Miaco, see Kioto. 
Miguel, brother of St. Francis Xavier, 

35, 39, 41, 42 
Miguel, the Navarrese, Xavier servant 

at College, 51, 71 

Miracle stones, relating to Xavier, 336 ff . 
Modena, 122 

Mohammedan power in the East, 141 ff . 
Moluccas, 225, 227, 230, 253, 257, 268, 

269, 314 

Momchuri (Cape Comorin), 213 
Monselice (Italy), 104 
Montaigne, 43, 49, 97 
Montaigu, College of, in Paris, 55, 62 
Montmartre (Mons Martyrum), Church of 

Our Lady on, 48, 72-3 
Montserrat, Church of Our Lady at, 60 
Moorish invasions of Spain, 17 
Moralez, Manoel de, Jesuit missionary 

(Portuguese), 260 
Mozambique, 152 ff. 
Myers, F. W. H. f 160 
Mysticism, 18, 61 



Naharro, Torres de, Spanish writer of 
XVIth century, 63 

Navarre, Kingdom of, 17, 32, 33, 34, 36 

Navigator Prince, the, Henry of Por- 
tugal, 125 

Negapatam (India), 206, 216, 218, 219, 
221 

Nestorians, 66, 156-9, 163, 221, 235 

Niceta, author of the Te Deum, 238 

Ninjit, Japanese priest, 296 

Noain, battle of, 42 

Nola, Bishop of, 238 

Norofiha, D. Garcia de, Governor of 
India, 311, 317 

Notre Dame de Paris, 46-7, 69 

Nueva Espana, 219 

Nunez, Melchior, Jesuit missionary 
(Portuguese), 253, 314 



Obedience, idea of, in various orders, 

114-15 
Oliveira, Boque de, Jesuit missionary, 

274 

Olivetan, cousin of Calvin, 44 
Oratory of Divine Love, The, 102-3 



Order of Jesus, its definite formation, 

108 ff. 

Ormuz, 141, 313, 314, 317, 324 
Our. Lady of Nazareth, Church of, in 

Lisbon, 139 



Palestine, 61 

Palma (Majorca), 22 

Pampeluna, 36, 40, 41, 94 

.Pantagruel, 43 

Paravas, South Indian tribe, 171-190 

Paris, University of, 43 ff. 

Parma, 122 

Patanoa (Cape Comorin), 213 

Paul III., Pope, Alexander Farnese, 
109 

Pavia, Cosmo de, The Captain, a dis- 
honest Portuguese official, 192, 195, 
202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 208, 210, 211, 
213, 221, 261, 267 

Pedro, uncle of St. Francis Xavier, 39 

Pereira, Diego, merchant, 262, 311, 317, 
324-6, 328 

Perez, Francis, Jesuit missionary (Cas- 
tilian), 327, 328, 331 

Peter Lombard, 63 

Peter the Spaniard (Petrus Hispanus), 63 

Philip of Austria, 35 

Philippines, the, 224 

Pico of Mirandola, 70 

Pinto, Mendez, 283 

Piscaria, see Fishery Coast. 

Pius V., Pope, 30 

Place of Tears, The, in Lisbon, 139, 140 

Ponce de Leon, Luis, Spanish poet, 19 

Portugal, Queen of, 178 

Portugal, King of, see John III. 

Portugal in 1540, 125 

Portuguese as colonists, 142-8, 161 ff. 

Preachers in the Forts, Xavier's Instruc- 
tions. to, 280 ff. 

Prester John, 195 

Processes of Canonisation, 338 ff. 

Pudicare (Cape Comorin), 212 

Pudicurim (Cape Comorin), 209 

Punicale (Cape Comorin), 192, 193, 200, 
201, 202, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210 

Pyrenees, 19, 32, 34, 35, 123 



Rabelais, 43, 63, 97 

Rajah of Travancore, Iniquitibirim, 188, 
194, 202, 204, 206, 207, 209, 210, 211, 
212, 220 

Reformation, in Paris, 64, see also 
Lutherans. 

Beggio, 122 

Religion of the Pill of Immortality, 
Chinese sect, 235 

Ribeiro, Nuno, Jesuit missionary (Portu- 
guese), 253 

Richard of Bury, 43 

Robert Sorbonne, 67 

Rodriguez, Gonzalvez, Jesuit missionary 
(Portuguese), 314, 317 



INDEX 



355 



Rodriguez, Simon, original member 'of 
the Society of Jesus, 72, 73, 74, 103, 
105, 107, 118, 127, 132, 218, 219, 258, 
264, 265, 269, 276, 322, 337 

Rojas, Ferdinand de, Spanish dramatist, 
63 

Rome, 69, 107, 108, 120 

Roussel, Gerard, friend of Calvin's, 47, 
note 

Rubrica, note on Xavier's, 343 f . 

Sakay (Sakai, Japan), 294, 295, 301 
Salmeron, Alonso, original member of 

the Society of Jesus, 73, 104, 117 
Sancian, China, 328 ff. 
Sanctuary, rights of, in Xavier, 36 
Sanguessa, 34, 40 
Santiago, ship on which Xavier sailed to 

India, 148 
Santiago (St. James), national saint of 

Spain, 18 ff. 

San Nicolas, church of, at Pampeluna, 39 
San ThornS, Meliapor, 221-3, 225 
Santa Grace, ship on which Xavier sailed 

for China, 328, 333 
Ste. Sarbe, college of, 45, 48, 55 
Scholasticism, in Paris, 44 ff . 
Sea Route to India in XVIth century, 

141 ff., 149, 150 
Seville, University of, 30 
Siam, 331 
Singapore, 327 
Sixtus IV., Pope, 29 
Society of Jesus, 30, 59 ff . 
Socotra, island of, 156-9, 177, 268, 269 
Somascenes, Order of, 102 
Sorbonne, doctors of, 91 
Sousa, Martim Afonsa da, Governor of 

India (1542-5), 136, 145, 153, 168 
Spain, Makers of, 17-30 
Spiritual Exercises, The, 63, 71, 74, 75-90, 

127, 130, 133, 292 

Tale (Cape Comorin), 206, 210 

Tamerlane, persecutions of, 158 

Tana, 314 

Tchintcheo, 287 

Teixeira, his illness at Goa, 311, 312 

Teresa, Santa, 25, 334 

Ternate (the Moluccas), 238, 239, 240, 

241 

Theatines, The, 102-3 
Theological Course at the University of 

Paris, 66-7 

Thomas, the Apostle, 222, 234 
Thom6 da Molte (Cape Comorin), 209 
Thomists, 221 

Tiruchendur (Cape Comorin), 209, 210 
Toledo, Friary of St. John at, 29 
Toledo, University of, 30 
Torquemada, Spanish Inquisitor-General, 

.27 
Torres, Cosmo de, Jesuit missionary 

(Spaniard), 270, 273, 274, 283, 284, 

297, 303, 307 



Travancore, 188, 217, 220, 260, 267 
Trichantur (Cape Comorin), 209 
Tuticurim (Cape Comorin), 193, 195, 199, 

201, 203, 204, 206, 207, 208, 209, 212, 

221 

Turkey, war with Venice, 105 
Two Standards, Meditation of, 75, 79 
Tyrrell, George, 86 



Useda (New Castile), 29 



Vacarapatam (Cape Comorin), 200 

Varivandiao (Cape Comorin), 209 

Vasco da Gama, 125, 141, 142, 148 

Vatable, a royal lecturer in Paris, 47, note 

Vatican, The, 104, 119 

Vaz, Joao, Jesuit missionary, 190 

Vaz, Miguel, Vicar-General, 212 

Vaz, Paulo, 195 

Venice, 97, 102, 141 

Vicente, Gil, Spanish dramatist, 63 

Vicenza, 105 

Viranao (Cape Comorin), 199, 213 

Vives, J. L., 49, 63 

Vunbembar (Cape Comorin), 208 



Wilson, Florence, 65 . 

Women, list of directions for visiting, 321 
Wordsworth, 46 



Ximenes da Cisneros, Francisco, Cardi- 
nal, 25, 28 ff. 

Xavier, St. Francis. Birth, 35 ; death 
of his father, 36 ; demolishment of 
Xavier, 40; departure : ior Paris, 42; 
life in Paris, 43; meets with the 
Lutherans, 57 ; Ignatius Loyola 
shares his college quarters, Xavier 
takes his Arts degree and teaches at 
Beauvais College, 66; he becomes 
Loyola's second disciple, 71 ; the, 
consecration at Montmartre.,^-72 :~v 
takes the Spiritual Exercises, .Tj^ 
to his brother, 92 ; offered a|&|t] 
at Pampeluna, 94 ; the joui 
Venice, 97 ; on to Rome, 
preaches before the Pope, 104; back. 
to Venice, ordination ; retreat at-- 
Monselice, 104 ; Vicenza, the first 
mass, 105 ; Bologna, illness there, 
106 ; Rome, the call from the Bast, 
the formation of the Order, 108 ; the 
Pope gives his oral approbation, 
Xavier becomes Loyola's secretary, 
115 ; Loyola offers him work in 
India, he accepts, departure for 
Lisbon, 118 ; the three memoranda left 
in Rome, 119 ; the journey to Lisbon, 
120 ; work in Lisbon, 125 ; his own 
account of it, 127 ; his correspondence 
with the Doctor of Navarre, 132 ; 
visits the prisoners of the Inquisition, 



.'f 0$ ; 



356 



ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 



134= ; farewell letters to Rome, 135 ; 
departure for India, 139 ; the voyage 
to Mozambique, 141 ; work in Mozam- 
bique, 154 ; Melinda, 156 ; Socotra, 
157 ; Goa, 159 ; his descriptions of Goa, 
160 ; presents himself to his bishop, 
164 ; work among the colonists, 165 ; 
helps to found the college at Goa, 168 ; 
sets out for Cape Comorin, 170 ; 
among the Paravas, 172 ; methods 
of baptism, 173 ; " gift of tongues," 
174 ; return to Goa, 177 ; his accounts 
of the work at Cape Comorin, 178 ; 
return to the Cape, 187 ; the mission 
in Travancore, 188; the letters to 
Francisco Mansillas, 191 ; visit to 
Coulam and Cochin, the affairs of 
Ceylon, 215 ; batch of letters to 
. Europe, 217 ; the Retreat in San 
ThornS, 222 ; Malacca, 224 ; letters 
from Malacca, 225 ; proceeds to the 
Moluccas, 230 ; the " Islands of Hope 
in God," 231 ; reports of China, 234 ; 
Exposition of the Creed, 242 ; departure 
from' the Moluccas, 252 ; stay in 
Malacca, 253 ; leaves Malacca, 255 ; 
Cochin, depressed letters from, 256 ; 
asks for the Inquisition for India, 257 ; 
returns to Cape Comorin, 260 ; visit 
to Ceylon, return to Goa, 262 ; re- 
visits the Cape, 266 ; Goa, 267 ; two 
months in Cochin, account of the 
work sent to Loyola, 268 ; announces 
his intention of going to Japan, 270 ; 
letters of reproach to John HI. of 



Portugal, 272 ; leaves Goa for Malacca 
and Japan, 273 ; letters from Malacca, 
274 ; the Instructions to preachers, 
279 ; arrival in Japan, 283 ; letter 
describing the voyage, 284 ; the work 
in Kagoshima, 288 ; letters about the 
Japanese people, 289 ; letter to Goa 
about preparing men for Japan and 
China, 293 ; the journey to Kioto, 
298 ; failure there, 303 ; the mission 
in Yamaguchi, 304 ; he leaves Japan, 
307 ; letter to Loyola, 308 ; the last 
months in India, 311 ; Teixeira's 
description of his appearance, 312 ; 
appointed Provincial in India, 313 ; 
his organising work in Goa, 314 ; 
letters and instructions, 315 ; the 
Rules for Humility, 320 ; directions 
on how to avoid scandals, 321 ; 
leaves Goa for the last time, 324 ; 
the voyage toward China, Malacca, 
the uproar there, 325 ; leaves Malacca, 
326 ; letters from Singapore, 327 ; 
arrival at Sanchian, 328 ; failure to 
enter China, 332 ; illness, 333 ; death, 
334 ; study of the miracle-stories 
relating to, 336 ; note on his Rubrica 
and letters, 343 
Xavier, castle of, 34, 40 



Yajiro, 254, 270, 274, 283, 288, 297 
Yamaguchi (Japan), 299, 300, 304 fi. 
Ycicu (Japan), 297 
Ydocin, 33 



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