Francis Borgia

ON ST. FRANCIS BORGIA, CONFESSOR, THIRD GENERAL OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, AT ROME,

IN THE YEAR 1572

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Francis Borgia, confessor, third General of the Society of Jesus, at Rome. (S.)

BY J. B.

§ I. The origin of the Borgia family, and the great-grandfathers of St. Francis.

To the illustrious family of the Borgias

a town of Hispania Tarraconensis among the Celtiberians gave its name, They are believed to have first used the name Borgia formerly, as some will have it, Belsinum; but afterwards, from the time the Moors occupied Hispania Tarraconensis, called Boria or Borja. The first who began to use the name of Borja was, as Escolano at least writes in the History of Valencia, book 6, chapter 23, Pedro de Atarés, great-grandson of Ramiro, king of Aragon, the first of that name. But Brizio Martínez, abbot of San Juan de la Peña, in book 5 of the History of his monastery, chapter 30, says that not Pedro but his descendants changed the name Atarés into Borgia. Pedro indeed, from the time he had been enriched with the lordship of Borja by Alfonso I, king of Aragon, after Saragossa had been stormed about the year 1115 and the towns neighbouring it had been snatched from the Moors, could, having abandoned the name of Atarés, have adopted that of Borgia according to the custom of those times; yet I do not think that he did so in fact, at least in public instruments: for he had already been in possession of the lordship of Borja for several years when he founded for the Cistercians the monastery of Veruela in Hispania Tarraconensis, at the second milestone from the city of Tarazona, and yet in the Instrument of foundation, to which he himself is read as subscribed in Manrique in the Cistercian Annals at the year 1146, chapter 12, num. 10, no mention is made of the name Borgia, but only of the ancient one, that is, of Atarés. Escolano indeed, in the place cited, cites monuments, I know not what, found among the Aragonese and inspected by him; but of what credit or age they are he does not declare.

[2] Nor indeed could the descendants of Pedro de Atarés have begun to use the name Borgia, Atarés if he died without children, as Zurita wrote in the Indices of the Deeds of the Kings of Aragon at the year 1152, the year of Pedro's death. Did he judge so because no mention is made of Pedro's children, but only of his mother, in the Instrument drawn up by him concerning the foundation of the monastery of Veruela? Or because he wrote the Templars and Hospitallers heirs of the lordship of Borja after his death, and not his children but Teresa Caxal, his mother, as he suspects, obtained it by gift of Ramon, count of Barcelona, husband of Petronilla, queen of the Aragonese? Or finally, because he found that Pedro died entirely bereft of children in letters drawn up on that matter? He intimates indeed, in book 2 of the Annals, chapter 13, that he had seen these, when he names the nobles who were witnesses to this business: but he says nothing of such a kind from which you could conclude that Pedro's childlessness was expressed in them. Besides, why could he not have given Veruela to the Cistercians and Borja to the Templars and Hospitallers, even if he did not lack children, for whom he might have provided abundantly from elsewhere? Or what need was there to make mention, in the instruments of these donations, of his children, if he had any, whether legitimate or illegitimate? For this was neither required in deeds of donations of this kind nor always observed. Pedro had made the town of Borja another's property: Ramon, who, as the cited Zurita narrates in the Annals, had redeemed it from the Templars and Hospitallers by granting other domains, was entitled to transfer the lordship of the same town to whom he would. Further, Teresa Caxal does not seem to have been Pedro's mother, as Zurita suspects; since she is called not Teresa but Margarita in the Charter of which num. 4 treats.

[3] from the blood of the kings of Aragon, Nothing therefore very much urges us to assent to Zurita when he affirms that Pedro de Atarés died without children. Álvaro Cienfuegos, in book 1, chapter 1, §2 of the Life of St. Francis, relates that both José Pellicer in the Sejano Germánico and Pedro Abarca in the Annals have rightly proved that Pedro de Atarés did not lack descendants. What? Zurita himself intimates this very thing elsewhere. Pedro indeed was not the first of his race to rule the castle of Atarés, but the first to obtain the surname of Atarés: why then does Zurita, at the year 1118 in the Indices, after he has enumerated the chief families of Aragon, most flourishing at that time, presently add: Almost equal to these both in nobility and power… the Atarés, sprung of royal stock; if, Pedro having been taken from the living, none of his children survived to bear his father's name or in its place that of Borgia? Moreover Jerónimo Blancas, in the Commentaries on Aragonese Affairs, volume 3 of Hispania Illustrata, page 739, presents the arms of the Atarés, which, since they are the same as the arms of the Borgia family, are surely an indication that the Atarés and the Borgia families were one and the same, and that Pedro or his descendants changed the name Atarés into Borgia and retained it perpetually; in almost the same manner in which the descendants of Artal, lord of Alagón, as the cited Zurita writes, adopted for themselves the surname of Alagón.

[4] Further, the royal race of Pedro de Atarés some affirm, as Mariana at least writes, book 10, chapter 15, at the year 1134, as from the monuments adduced here led more by suspicions than by certain argument. Add the writer of the Deeds of the counts of Barcelona, who lived as the 13th century was verging to its end, and says, in Pierre de Marca in the Marca Hispanica, column 549, that when Alfonso, grandson of Ramiro I, had died, a dissension arose about electing a king, since no one else survived of the race (namely the royal one) except Ramiro, grandson of Ramiro I, whom, although a monk and priest, the Aragonese raised to the royal summit in the year 1134: but since it had seemed good to the nobles of Aragon first to adorn Pedro de Atarés with the royal dignity, had not the arrogance of his manners turned their minds away from him, are they not to be thought to have been moved chiefly by this, that he was believed to have sprung from the royal line, if not by a legitimate, at least by an illegitimate way? So widely spread indeed among Spanish writers is the royal race of Pedro de Atarés that Jerónimo Blancas, in the Commentaries on Aragonese Affairs, Hispania Illustrata, volume 3, page 645, says that all agree upon it. Nor are monuments lacking by which Pedro may be shown to have been the great-grandson of Ramiro. The whole matter will be set before the eyes by the Charter of Pedro Atharés brought to light by Yepes, from which Moret, book 3, chapter 5, §3, page 942 of the Antiquities of Navarre, recites what follows: I, García the Infante, son of Count Sancho Ramírez, and Margarita my wife, with our sons Lope Sánchez (so called from Sancho) and Pedro Atharés, make this charter etc. The charter was made in the Era 1149 (the year of Christ IIII) in the month of June. The lord king Ildefonso reigning in Castile and in Aragon, Queen Urraca his wife with him. I, García, infante in Atarés and in Exabierre. Pedro's father, therefore, was García, his grandfather Count Sancho, and his great-grandfather Ramiro, king of Aragon, the first of that name. That Ramiro had, besides Sancho his successor, another son also of the same name is clear from Ramiro's testament in Abbot Brizio, book 2, chapter 38, where one may read this: And I leave Aybar and Exavierre Latri, with all their villages which belong to them, to my other son Sancho, that he may possess them, and that he may hold those above-written villages by the hand of his brother Sancho, as if by me. And that this Sancho had a son named García and lord of Atarés seems again to be concluded from an instrument likewise of the year IIII, from which Brizio, book 5, chapter 29, recites these words: At that time García Sanz (that is, son of Sancho), cousin of the king (Alfonso), had rebelled in Atarés. Brizio indeed suspects that this García was the successor of Alfonso, king of Aragon and Navarre, in the kingdom of Navarre: but wrongly: for this one names himself not García son of Sancho, but son of Ramiro, in the charter of Ramiro II, king of Aragon, related by Jerónimo Blancas in volume 3 of Hispania Illustrata, page 646 and following, which that García, on whom Brizio's suspicion falls, subscribed.

[5] he sprang, as is shown: The patronymic name Sanz, although I am not unaware that it is placed by Jerónimo Blancas, volume 3 of Hispania Illustrata, page 779, among the anonyma, that is, those which lack proper names from which they may be derived, I have interpreted as son of Sancho, as if from the patronymic Sánchez, which signifies son of Sancho, because both in the Charter cited by the abbot of San Juan de la Peña and in the Charter partly transcribed from Moret in the preceding number, the same year, namely IIII, the same forename García, the same lordship, namely the castle of Atarés, as also royal kinship, are expressed: and since these indicate one and the same person, and in the Charter drawn up by himself García named himself son of Sancho, I judged that those two words García Sanz, which are read in the Charter cited by the abbot of San Juan de la Peña, are to be interpreted in exactly the same way, and not, as I think, undeservedly. Finally, from the same Charter of García, son of Count Sancho, it follows that Doctor Francisco Borgia, great-grandson of St. Francis, errs when he writes in his Life that Pedro de Atarés derived his race from King Ramiro through his legitimate son García. That García, son of Ramiro, was bishop of Aragon or of Jaca, Zurita and Blancas write, and nowhere, so far as I know, is he read to have begotten children. Sancho perhaps did not please him, because he seems to have been an illegitimate son of Ramiro I.

[6] and although it is not plainly established who these were, yet it is indubitable Pedro de Atarés departed from this life, as Zurita writes in the Indices, in the year 1152: he had a son, Jimeno Garcés de Borgia, of whom was born Fortuño Arnaldo de Borgia, who propagated his race through Gonzalo Gil de Borgia: to Gonzalo was born Rodrigo de Borgia; and to him Rodrigo Gil de Borgia. So far the doctor just cited, the wives of each being also expressed; whether truly and accurately I am not in a position to say, since he neither brings forward anything by which to make his statements credible, and sometimes slipped in the genealogical series of the Borgia race which he weaves, as has partly just been said and will partly be said below: but this I hold indubitable, that the name Borgia was illustrious among the nobles of Aragon from as early as the 13th century, when James I was reigning in Aragon, and thereafter. This king snatched the kingdom of Valencia from the Moors, and stormed Xàtiva, a noble and very strong town in that kingdom, in the year 1248. He ordered the territory of the town received into allegiance to be divided among the captains and soldiers who had excelled the rest either in brightness of race or in deeds strenuously done; among whom are numbered Pedro, Francisco, Bernardo, Arnaldo, Felipe, Alfonso, Miguel, Pedro Juan, Esteban, all distinguished by the name of Borgia, as Escolano relates, History of Valencia, book 9, chapter 22, from the archives of Xàtiva. I do not indeed say that all those mentioned here sprang from the noble family of the Borgias; since it could easily have happened that some of their number obtained that name because they were born in the town of Borja, or originated from there: yet that some among them were of that family is, if not certain, at least most probable. Zurita, in the Indices of the Affairs of Aragon enriched by his last hand, at the year 1250 relates

that the nobles of Aragon, the Catalans and the envoys of the cities solemnly swore that they would defend King James (who at that time was at enmity with his son Alfonso) against all who would not obey the royal will; and presently, weaving a catalogue of those who had bound themselves by that conspiracy, he records by name Bernardo de Borgia, who was probably the same as the Bernardo mentioned in the third place by Escolano, cited just now.

[7] F. de Borgia is numbered among the nobles of Aragon the Borgia family in the 13th century who bound their faith by oath to King James in their own name and that of the others at the Cortes celebrated by the same king in the year 1265 at Ejea in Aragon. See the codex of the laws of Aragon entitled Trophæa regni Aragoniæ and published at Saragossa in the year 1576, page 1 verso after the Preface and Dedication. That a noble man, Rodrigo Borgia, flourished in the same century, who also rendered outstanding service to James I in the storming of Orihuela, Escolano again relates, book 6 of the History of Valencia, chapter 23, from the monuments of that town. To Gonzalo Beltrán Borgia, Alfonso III, king of Aragon, together with 11 other noble men, partly Aragonese, partly Catalan, committed the custody of Charles, prince of Salerno, captured two years before in a naval battle by Roger de Lauria, as may be seen in Zurita in the Indices at the year 1286.

[8] In the century immediately following there flourished a certain Fortuño de Borgia, and was illustrious thereafter; whom Jerónimo Blancas mentions from public letters of Alfonso IV, king of Aragon, in volume 3 of Hispania Illustrata, page 807. But this displeases, that Alfonso's letters are said to have been given on the eighth day before the Ides of April of the year 1325, since Alfonso did not succeed his father James II before the year 1327. But whatever error lies hidden in those letters, it suffices me that a noble man of the Borgia race lived at that time, since in the said letters he is called a knight, and is recorded to have given testimony to the nobility of Peregrín Oblitas (afterwards, as Blancas thinks, supreme minister of justice in Aragon). In the year 1338 there lived Rodrigo Borgia, to whom the title of Generoso is ascribed in the Codices of the decrees of the tribunes of the people of the city of Valencia, as Escolano witnesses, book 6, chapter 23, who also mentions in the same place other noble men of the same century of the Borgia family, as Jofré, knight and royal minister of justice bearing a rod, whom the Spaniards call Alguacil Real; as Gonzalo Gil in the year 1340, Gil Beltrán in the year 1345, Rodrigo in the year 1368, jurats for the military estate among the people of Xàtiva; to whom, book 8, chapter 28, num. 2, he adds Ramón Borgia, knight of St. James and grand commander, as they call it, of Montalbán. Finally, as Escolano relates, book 6, chapter 23, in the time of Peter IV and of Martin, who reigned from the year 1495 to the year 1510, kings of Aragon, Rodrigo Gil Borgia was in great esteem with all, and in honour with the aforesaid kings, from whose descendants Escolano indeed judges was Alexander VI, the supreme Pontiff, great-grandfather of St. Francis, who recalled the Borgia race to its pristine splendour.

[9] But Zurita, book 16 of the Annals, chapter 32, says from which further seem to have been born both Domingo Borgia, that at the same time at which Rodrigo Gil, sprung from the noble family of the Borgias, flourished at Xàtiva, there existed there also another family of the same surname, but so much inferior in condition to the former that it could have usurped the name of Borgia either by right of clientship or because it had been attached to the service of the noble Borgias: and further, that of this family of inferior condition was a certain Domingo, father of the supreme Pontiff Calixtus III, lord of a very slender estate in a certain township of the territory of Xàtiva called Canals. What Zurita asserted doubtfully, Échard, after Zurita, pronounces affirmatively in volume 2 of the Bibliotheca Dominicana, page 834, although besides the authority of Zurita he brings forward nothing on this matter. I truly wonder here at Échard's confidence; since he was not ignorant that Domingo's poverty very little prevents his having been of the same family as Rodrigo Gil, although the latter far surpassed him in celebrity of name and wealth: since both in this our age (they are Échard's own words on the same page, and most true) and in the earlier centuries back it is easily proved by innumerable examples that of one and the same stock and progeny some shine with gold and titles, walking with potentates in great things, while others are squalid with want among the common people and unknown: add that it happens far more frequently that poverty clouds the brightness of race than that men of ancient nobility and more splendid fortune share the name of their family and the arms of their race with poor and mean men.

[10] father of Pope Calixtus III, This Domingo, as Zurita confesses, was the father of Alfonso Borgia, first bishop of Valencia and afterwards supreme Pontiff, Calixtus III; although Platina has related that he was called Juan: and yet of the writers who lived at almost the same age as Calixtus none, I think, will be brought forward who either openly declared or tacitly indicated that Calixtus III was born of a mean man, by which name Échard calls his father: on the contrary, Platina, in volume 3, part 2 of the Writers of Italian Affairs, column 961, in the Life of Calixtus III, calls his parents Gentle-born. A contemporary author, who described the election of Calixtus III as supreme Pontiff, in Papebroch in the Propylæum of May, says he was nobly born. To Æneas Sylvius (Pius II, the immediate successor of Calixtus), in the book of Commentaries on the things which happened in his times, he was born of noble station, as also to Gobelinus, book 1 of the Commentaries of Pius II, page 25: to Philip of Bergamo, at the year 1455, born of a most noble man, previously called Alfonso Boria: to Rodrigo Sánchez, bishop of Palencia in Hispania Tarraconensis, who flourished in the time of Calixtus III, Pius II and Paul II, part 4 of the Spanish History, chapter 40, noble by race, of the house called de Boria. St. Antoninus, envoy of the Florentines to Calixtus, part 3, title 22, chapter 15, § I, praises Calixtus because he added a greater nobility of manners to nobility of race. But who would easily persuade himself that these things were said of Calixtus by contemporary authors if he had been born of a mean man, or had shone only with a counterfeit nobility? Nor does it matter that the father of Calixtus III is called Domingo by Zurita, but Juan by Platina: for that both speak of the same man can be gathered from the fact that both call Calixtus's mother Francisca. Dismissing, therefore, this conjecture of Zurita, neither firm enough in itself nor consonant with the writers of the 15th century, let us pursue the series of the Borgia pedigree.

[11] Calixtus III's nephew by his sister Isabel was the one called Rodrigo Borgia, who, elected supreme Pontiff in the year 1492, took the name of Alexander VI: and Alexander VI, on his mother's side indeed, that his father was Jofré Borgia, son of Rodrigo Gil, of whom above, Zurita and Escolano determine: but Panvinio in the Lives of the Pontiffs, Garibay in the Compendium of the History of the kingdoms of Spain, book 19, chapter 1, and Mariana, De Rebus Hispaniæ, book 26, chapter 2, say Jofré or Gotifredo Lanzol. Pope Alexander VI, says Panvinio, previously called Rodrigo, drew his origin from the noble family of the Lanzols at Valencia in Spain. He had as father Jofré, a very rich knight, and as mother the sister of Pope Calixtus III. Who, although he was sprung of the Lanzol race, nevertheless, abandoning his ancestral name, retained until his death the name of Boria or Borgia, with which, together with the arms of the family, he had been presented by his maternal uncle. From what monuments these writers drew that Alexander VI was born of a Lanzol father they do not declare: yet their opinion, I think, must be stood by: for Filippo Bonanni, in volume 1 of the Papal Coins, presents a coin of Alexander VI struck in the year 1492, in which he entered on the Pontificate, on whose reverse face these Italian words are read: Roderico. Lenzuola. D. Borgia. S. P. M. CD. XCII.; that is, Rodrigo Lanzol, called Borgia, supreme Pontiff; so that it is abundantly clear from this that Rodrigo changed his paternal name into his maternal one; and he seems to have begun to use his maternal name from the time he came to Rome to his uncle the Pontiff, or from the year 1455: for so Girolamo de' Borselli writes at that year, in volume XXIII of the Writers of Italian Affairs, in the Annals running from the year 1418 to 1497: With this man (Luis, bishop of Segorbe, nephew of Calixtus by his sister Catalina) there came to Bologna for the sake of study a certain youth and nephew of the Pope, called Rodrigo Borgia. He afterwards (in the year immediately following) was made Cardinal and vice-chancellor, and finally created Pope and called Alexander VI. Nor are those to be listened to who think that Rodrigo Gil had two sons, Jofré and Alfonso, afterwards Calixtus III, of whom the former married Isabel, daughter of Domingo Borgia: for the opulence of Jofré and the poverty of Isabel and her father Domingo make these nuptials less credible.

[12] As regards the Lanzols, they too were famous and illustrious among the Aragonese and Valencians, born of a Lanzol father, a man of sufficiently known nobility, as Zurita witnesses in the place cited by Échard: yet Échard writes that the name of the Lanzols is of a scarcely middling and rather slight nobility and family among the Aragonese; and this indeed he pronounces to be certain; but undeservedly: for that the Lanzols flourished from as early as the time of James I, king of Aragon, is clear from his own Commentaries, in which, weaving a catalogue of those whose distinguished service he had used in wars, he wished to provide for the glory of the Lanzols among posterity; since he recorded among them a certain lord Lansol, as Escolano witnesses, book 1, chapter 20, num. 7: it is likewise clear from Zurita in various places: he, in the little Index of the deeds of the kings of Aragon at the year 1286, mentions Berenguer Lanzol among those nobles who went to meet Alfonso III, king of Aragon, as he was arriving at Valencia from the Balearic expedition and about to occupy the throne of his deceased father: at the year 1309 likewise he records Berenguer Lanzol among the captains of the kingdom of Valencia who conducted military affairs under James II in the war of Almería: at the year 1339 he says that Arnaldo and Mateo Lanzol were set over Villalonga by Peter IV, king of Aragon, when a Moorish war was threatening. Likewise in book 6 of the Annals, chapter 43, he names Juan Lanzol among the knights of Valencia summoned to the Sardinian war. Escolano enumerates, book 9, chapter 48, many other men of the same family distinguished for public offices and deeds, and among them Arnaldo Lanzol, who was presented by James I with the lordship of Villalonga for the service rendered to him in the war in which he snatched the kingdom of Valencia from the Moors (for which matter he cites royal letters given in the year 1259 on the 6th day of October), and was afterwards appointed general judge of Valencia, and particular judge of Xàtiva in the year 1268: which things, had Échard read them, he would not, I think, have so depressed the name of the Lanzols as he did in the words just transcribed. But Jofré Lanzol seems to have been allured to seek the marriage with Isabel by Alfonso, the brother

of her, by his immense esteem among all and his prosperity; who was both illustrious for learning and most acceptable to King Alfonso V, whose counsellor and secretary he was, and on account of his distinguished merits had perhaps already been adorned with the mitre of Valencia by Martin V at the time when Jofré married his sister.

[13] and others Further, Rodrigo, as I said, truly named Borgia by his mother's race, having been entered by his uncle in the number of the Cardinals, brought a most foul stain upon his dignity: for, carried away by perverse lust, he begot several children: Pedro Luis, the first duke of Gandía of the Borgia family; then Juan, likewise duke of Gandía after his brother's death; third, Cesare Borgia, first Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, but afterwards, having cast off the purple, duke of Valentinois in the Dauphiné; fourth, Jofré, prince of Squillace in the kingdom of Naples; to whom is added also a daughter, named Lucrezia.

[14] the ancestors of St. Francis Of these, Juan succeeded his brother in the duchy of Gandía, and joined to himself in marriage the bride whom the latter had left untouched, María Enríquez, as Escolano, book 6, chapter 23, and Francisco Borgia, the biographer of his great-grandfather, relate, a kinswoman of Juana Enríquez, mother of Ferdinand II, the Catholic king of Aragon. Schott, book 1, chapter 6, calls her Ferdinand's paternal cousin: but Zurita, book 3 of the History of the same king, chapter 6, names María's father Enrique Enríquez, Ferdinand's maternal uncle: King Ferdinand and María Enríquez were therefore cousins, or children of a brother and a sister. Cesare Borgia married Charlotte d'Albret, of the stock of the kings of France and sister of the king of Navarre; Jofré married Sancha, illegitimate daughter of Alfonso II, king of Naples. Lucrezia had several husbands, and among them Alfonso of Aragon, illegitimate son of Alfonso II, king of Naples, and another, likewise Alfonso I, duke of Ferrara, son of Ercole I. Further, to Juan, the second duke of Gandía of the Borgia family (whose mother was Vannozza, wife of Domenico d'Arignano, as Burchard witnesses in volume 2 of the Historical Corpus edited by Johann Georg Eckhart, column 2081, not Giulia Farnese, as the great-grandson of St. Francis writes), was born Juan, third duke of Gandía, but the II of this name, who, having married Juana, daughter of Alfonso, archbishop of Saragossa, begot St. Francis: and Alfonso was an illegitimate son of Ferdinand II, king of Aragon, of whose daughter, likewise named Juana, and Philip of Austria, son of the emperor Maximilian, was begotten the emperor Charles V, whose sister Juana married John II, king of Portugal, and was grandmother of King Sebastian.

[15] Besides St. Francis, the elder son, of Juana of Aragon, mentioned here. granddaughter of the Catholic king Ferdinand, he had Alfonso, Enrique and Luisa: she married the duke of Villahermosa; Alfonso was abbot of Valldigna, a monastery of the Cistercian Order in the kingdom of Valencia near Gandía; and Enrique was bishop of Squillace and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, having died at Viterbo in the year 1540; who in the Additions to Ciaconius, volume 3, On the Lives and Deeds of the Pontiffs, where Paul III is treated, is wrongly said to have been born of the mother Francisca de Castro y Pinós, second wife of Juan, third duke of Gandía, and is called nephew of Alexander VI and paternal uncle of St. Francis; for he was not the grandson of Alexander VI, but the great-grandson, as even the epitaph of Enrique itself, which is read in the same place, expressly witnesses. The same error is committed there with regard to Rodrigo Borgia, likewise Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, and son of Juan III, duke of Gandía, by Francisca de Castro. It would be long to recount each of the men of this family who were distinguished for dignities either ecclesiastical or secular: but of the female sex there shone forth chiefly for holiness of life the grandmother of St. Francis, María Enríquez, and her daughter Isabel, who both embraced the institute of the Discalced Poor Clares in the monastery of Gandía and observed it most holily, the one taking the name of María Gabriela, the other of Francisca de Jesús: but discourse will recur on these below, and more may be seen in Juan Carrillo, On the Foundation of the Discalced Nuns of Madrid, book 1, part 2, chapter 1.

§ II. The birth and education of St. Francis: he goes out from his native soil and is imbued with the precepts of philosophy.

He was born in the year 1510 That happy and auspicious year of the Borgia family, the day and the place on which, by a singular benefit of divine Providence, St. Francis was brought forth into this light, Schott, the translator of Ribadeneira, accurately describes in this manner: Born, he says, of his mother Juana of Aragon, daughter of Alfonso, him who was the son of the Catholic king Ferdinand: and that at Gandía, which is a town situated among the Contestani three milestones, which the Spaniards commonly call LEAGUES, from the mouth of the river Júcar, and nine from Valencia, on the fifth day before the Kalends of November, which day is sacred by annual rite to the Apostles Simon and Jude, in the year of restored Salvation one thousand five hundred and ten. When Schott says that Francis was born ante diem V Kal. Novembris, do not think this is to be so taken as if he were born on the eve of the feast of the Apostles Simon and Jude, or on the 27th day of October; but so that he began to see this light on the very feast-day of the Apostles Simon and Jude, or the 28th of October: in which matter Schott imitated the princes of Latin Speech, for whom ante diem V Kal. Novembris means the same as on the 5th day before the Kalends of November, and for that reason he added: Which day is sacred by annual rite to the Apostles Simon and Jude, which day also Ribadeneira assigns to the birth of St. Francis in his Spanish Life. Further, he was born, as Schott proceeds, when Julius II, supreme Pontiff, held the helm of the Roman Church, and the emperor Maximilian I that of the empire: when in Aragon King Ferdinand held the kingdom, to whom the surname of Catholic was deservedly given, the great-grandfather of our Francis: and who was then administering the kingdoms of Castile in the name of his daughter Juana and of his grandson Charles, who was afterwards both king of the Spains and emperor, the fifth of that name.

[17] St. Francis, After Pius III, Julius II took the helm of the Church in the year 1503, on the 31st day of October or the Kalends of November; and Maximilian that of the empire in 1493: he was born, therefore, as the seventh year of Pope Julius II was verging to its end, in the 18th of the emperor Maximilian from the death of his father Frederick, taken from this life in the year 1493 on the 19th day of August. To John II, king of Aragon, who died at Barcelona in the year 1479 on the 14th day of February, his son Ferdinand succeeded, and lived until the year 1516, having obtained the surname of Catholic for having driven the Moors in the year 1492 from the kingdom of Granada and of all Spain, and for other merits towards the Christian commonwealth. He had married Isabella, sister and heir of Henry IV, king of Castile; on whose death in the year 1504, her daughter Juana, married to Philip, archduke of Austria and son of the emperor Maximilian I, was saluted queen of Castile; yet the administration of the kingdom of Castile, since Juana was little fit for ruling, and Charles, Ferdinand's grandson by Juana, afterwards emperor, the V of this name, was not yet of the age which according to the laws of the kingdom would be held equal to ruling, fell to Ferdinand, as Isabella had provided in her testament, as Zurita relates, book 5, chapter 84, until Charles could rule the kingdom of Castile by himself and had completed the twentieth year of his age, who was then only in his fourth year. The reason is therefore plain why Schott said that St. Francis was born while Ferdinand was administering the kingdom of Castile in the name of his daughter Juana and his grandson Charles: and why he calls the same Ferdinand Francis's great-grandfather (namely maternal), Schott had revealed a little before, when he asserted that Francis's mother was Juana, daughter of Alfonso, begotten of the father Ferdinand.

[18] so called for the cause expressed here, whose birth his paternal aunt, The Boy having been brought forth, the name of Francis was given him: the cause of the deed Schott explains thus: His mother, being pregnant, when she was distressed by the pains of the womb, both employed the prayers and sacrifices of religious men and bestowed much on the poor in alms, that she might bring forth a happy birth: then she invoked blessed Francis (of Assisi), to whom she was greatly devoted while she lived. Near childbirth (and in danger of her life together with the Child, as Ribadeneira adds in the Spanish Life), his girdle having been brought from the monastery of St. Clare, she was happily delivered, and, fulfilling her vow, honoured the child with the name of Francis. These things concerning his birth Ribadeneira and Schott; nor does Cepari say more, rendered into Latin from the Italian by the same Schott: but Nieremberg, book 1 of the Life of St. Francis, chapter 2, with whom the great-grandson of St. Francis, chapter 2, and likewise Álvaro Cienfuegos agree, records besides another circumstance of his birth which it is wrong to pass over. Nieremberg observes, namely, what could easily be confirmed by many examples, that it has not rarely happened that God, when it has seemed good to him to confer some illustrious benefit on mortals, or to raise up a distinguished man for the world, has willed this to be foretold, in order to excite in the minds of mortals a greater desire of his gift; and he affirms that this also happened before St. Francis was born: for he says that Isabel or Elizabeth Borgia, when she had entered the monastery of the Poor Clares of Gandía against the will of María Enríquez, answered her mother, who complained that the Borgia family, since her only brother Juan had as yet no children, was exposed to the danger of extinction by her withdrawal into religion, by the suggestion of the divine Power, that there would be born to her brother, the duke of Gandía, a son, named Francis, who would be the propagator of the Borgia race and its ornament on earth and in heaven; which prophecy of Elizabeth indeed was presently entered in the records of the monastery of St. Clare, as Álvaro, cited a little before, is witness.

[19] Illuminated by the same spirit as her daughter Elizabeth, the mother María Enríquez (for the regarded virtue of each, the holiness of their manners and the favours conferred on them by God do not allow us to believe that they did this from mere human sense or rashly), and his holiness his grandmother foretold, foretold to Juan, third duke of Gandía, the holiness and remarkable grace with God of her grandson Francis, scarcely yet two years old, as Ribadeneira writes, book 1, chapter 6. He bore his mother Enríquez's entry into the monastery of the Poor Clares of Gandía no less ill than she had borne that of her daughter Elizabeth: having therefore tried in many ways to draw his mother away from her purpose, he also added that he was in fear lest an untimely death should snatch away his son Francis from himself, his family and his domain: but she answered that there was no reason why he should fear this; offspring would not be lacking to succeed him: further, that he himself would one day perceive of how great merit Francis would be with God, and how greatly they would be bound to the divine Power in his name: that prophecy seems to have occurred in the year 1511 or the following. For since María Enríquez is related by Ribadeneira and Juan Carrillo to have been 18 years old or a little more when she lost her husband Juan, killed at Rome in the fifth year of the Pontificate of Alexander VI, of Christ 1497, as Burchard witnesses, she seems to have been born about the year 1479; and if from this you count 33 years, as many as she had when the Poor Clares'

1

community of Gandía she is said to have joined, you will arrive partly at the year 1511, partly at the following one.

[20] After Francis, the eldest, and his other full brothers, The eldest of the children of Juan III, duke of Gandía. recorded in num. 15, Juan, third duke of Gandía, had several children by Francisca de Castro y Pinós, his second wife, daughter of the viscount of Evol: Pedro Luis, master of the knights of Montesa in the kingdom of Valencia, marquis of Navarrés and viceroy of Catalonia; Diego; Felipe, knight of Montesa; Isabel, abbess of the Poor Clares of Gandía; Tomás, archbishop of Saragossa; Juana de la Cruz, abbess of the Poor Clares of Madrid, whose Life and remarkable virtues Juan Carrillo described; Margarita, wife of Federico de Portugal y Cerda; Leonor and Magdalena, joined in marriage to Miguel de Gurrea and to Fernando de Próxita, count of Almenara; finally Rodrigo, entered by Paul III in the college of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. So, nearly, Álvaro Cienfuegos in the Life of St. Francis, book 1, chapter 2, §2. Escolano nearly agrees, in book 6 of the History of Valencia; but he wrongly confuses Leonor, married to Miguel de Gurrea, with Juana de la Cruz, and makes her abbess of the Poor Clares of Madrid, and therefore records only three daughters of Juan III, duke of Gandía, begotten of his second wife Francisca de Castro. But that Leonor was another person from Juana de la Cruz, abbess of the Poor Clares of Madrid, is clear even from this, that Leonor, dying, bequeathed by testament to Juana de la Cruz a certain miraculous image of Christ crucified, as Juan Carrillo of the Order of St. Francis writes in the Life of Juana of Austria, foundress of the Poor Clares of Madrid, chapter 20, who, when he wrote, was confessor to those sacred virgins.

[21] Brought up in piety from tender years His parents held nothing more important than that he should learn to cultivate piety from his earliest childhood, and their care and industry brought it about that his ears perceived nothing, and his mouth, while still stammering, uttered nothing, before the most sweet names of Jesus and Mary. When he was four years old he recited the customary prayers, as Nieremberg writes, and when five years old, as besides Nieremberg Ribadeneira and Cepari relate, the Christian doctrine by heart, and indeed daily, and that kneeling at the feet of his master, namely Doctor Fernando. When he was of so small an age, it is wonderful to say how inclined he was to piety, on which account his biographers all with one voice proclaim him. It was the custom of the Borgia family that each every year (not every month, as Schott, the translator of Cepari, writes, page 12) chose as patron some Saint offered to him by lot, and held him in singular honour; which custom was thence spread, by Francis's authorship, into the Society and into the sodalities instituted by it, not without abundant increase of Christian piety; yet in such a way that it was done more frequently, or every month; which seems to have given Schott occasion to say that it was practised in the Borgia family also every month. He chiefly venerated St. James the Apostle (the Greater, and most celebrated throughout Spain, as Cepari writes), because he had fallen to him as patron in the fifth year of his age, and for a like cause, as Álvaro Cienfuegos adds, St. Bartholomew the Apostle.

[22] and nourished in letters By the example of these, as Ribadeneira and Cienfuegos say, he frequently rushed forth from his little bed to pour out prayers to God on bended knee: besides, he was wholly given to collecting images of the Saints and adorning altars; he very often served the priest as he performed the divine office, and not only imitated the sacred rites himself but also taught them to his young companions. His manners, says Schott, were candid, sweet, without haughtiness, nor, as in this age for the most part, difficult; in fine, such as to express a cleric rather than the son of a duke. Nieremberg narrates the like of him, but somewhat more fully. These were Francis's beginnings: his biographers then explain what he did from the seventh year of his age to the tenth, and they are nearly these: when he was seven his father wished him to be imbued with the precepts of the Latin language, an eminent theologian, named Fernando, being chosen for that office; he added also a governor of manners, to teach the Boy those things which befitted a gentle-born knight; and likewise a third at the same time, to explain music and arithmetic to him, and besides to be his confessor, namely Alfonso Ávila, canon of Gandía, a man of great name and merit. The matter succeeded happily with each, since each discharged his office properly; and Francis had obtained a disposition easy and docile, and averse to the jests and boyish games in which time is consumed almost in vain.

[23] About the 10th year of his age he began so to listen to sacred orators he gives specimens of a mind by no means boyish: that, if ever he had heard one of them who pleased him, he not only received his sayings into his mind, but also rendered a great part of them from memory with such grace of gesture and speech as carried away the minds of the onlookers in admiration. Nieremberg and Cienfuegos relate in this place that Francis at that time, overcome by the prayers of his grandmother María Enríquez and his aunt Isabel, ascended the pulpit in the house of St. Clare and spoke of the suffering Christ with such force and spirit that he provoked the nuns and his companions to tears, and compelled them to confess that they had heard not a boy but a mind far loftier than a boy's. Already then also he began to give himself to daily prayers and to be wonderfully affected by them. He gave likewise another remarkable specimen of a mind and piety more than boyish. His mother was labouring under her last sickness, and when he had noticed her pains and danger, he hid himself in a chamber and poured out prayers to God with many tears for her health, and raged against his tender limbs for no small space of time with frequent strokes of scourges, and from then on drew the beginning of a more austere life. His mother's death (it happened in the year 1520) he bore with constant mind, and mourned, and lived ever mindful of the admonitions he had heard from his pious mother.

[24] This calamity was presently followed by another. Charles had set sail from Spain in the year 1519 being compelled, on account of a sedition at Gandía, to take the crown of the empire; the prince being absent, a sedition of the common people against the nobles arose, which gradually proceeded so far that it came near to bringing immense disaster and ruin upon the Borgia family: for when in the year 1521 the army of the nobles had been scattered not far from Gandía by the treachery of certain persons, the confederate people wretchedly plundered both the town itself and the Borgia house, and Juan, duke of Gandía, returning from the unhappy battle, thought it enough if he could rescue his family from the impending danger. For already, says Schott with Ribadeneira, num. 4, having dared to engage in battle in the open plains between Palma and Gandía with the viceroy (Diego de Mendoza) and indeed with all the nobility, (the commons) had come off superior. The nobles, thrown into confusion and put to flight, had turned their backs. Gandía fell to plunder, and was sacked at once: so that Duke Juan could scarcely get out his mother, his sister and his daughters, virgins consecrated to God and to St. Clare. Known from what has been said above are the mother and sister of Juan, third duke of Gandía, María Enríquez and her daughter Isabel, Poor Clares of Gandía: known likewise are his two daughters Isabel and Juana, who were indeed virgins dedicated to God, but not in the year 1521; since both were born of Francisca de Castro y Pinós, Juan's second wife; while his former wife prolonged her life to the year 1520: nay, Juan Carrillo writes, page 136, that Juana was only in the eighth year of her age when her father died: and the death of Duke Juan Ribadeneira and Schott refer to the year 1543. More cautiously, therefore, Nieremberg, book 1, chapter 5, writes that the mother and sister of Duke Juan were snatched from the danger of life by prudence, no mention being made of his daughters, which the great-grandson of St. Francis also did in his Life, chapter 3; although his daughter Luisa also was at that time withdrawn from danger of life, as will be said below, num. 29.

[25] to flee But Francis, in that confusion of affairs, as Schott writes from Ribadeneira, found safety in flight, his horse given its head. Nieremberg relates the same, but somewhat more fully: The governor of manners, he says, lifting our Francis, clad only in his under-tunic, and that a mourning one because of his mother's death, placed him on a horse, and with difficulty snatched him from the fury of the enemies. Further, he began flight towards the sea; when they had come there, being placed in a small boat he was carried to Denia (it is a port distant about four milestones from Gandía), to which, after the battle fought on the 25th day of July, as Escolano witnesses, book 10 of the History of Valencia, chapter 16, the viceroy, Juan duke of Gandía, and the other nobles had withdrawn: but since it did not seem safe to the viceroy to stay longer in a place destitute of the necessary apparatus of war, he decided to make for Cartagena, a city of Murcia situated on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, by ship: but when on the following day the wind opposed the intended course, they sailed to Peñíscola (it is a mountain on the borders of the kingdom of Valencia towards Catalonia, girt on all sides by the sea, whence also it got the name of Peninsula, notable for a strong citadel and affording a safe station to ships) and gained the port, as the same Escolano relates, on the 29th day of July.

[26] to Saragossa, From there Francis was sent to Saragossa, the chief city of Aragon: that metropolitan see was occupied at that time by Juan of Aragon, Francis's maternal uncle and grandson of Ferdinand V, the Catholic king, through Alfonso, archbishop of the same see, to whose faith and cares Duke Juan wished his Son committed. Hence (from Peñíscola, says Schott) his father brought him to Saragossa: he himself, affairs having been calmed and the rebels slaughtered to destruction and put to flight by the lord of Segorbe, at length returned home. Francis remained in the household of his uncle Juan of Aragon, archbishop of Saragossa. Francis's living with his uncle Ribadeneira indeed affirms in his Spanish Life: but that Juan returned to Gandía, the rebels having been slaughtered and put to flight by Alfonso, duke of Segorbe, Schott added of his own, and I fear not accurately enough: for both Álvaro Cienfuegos writes, book 1, chapter 5, §2, that Juan returned to Gandía with an armed band in the year 1523, and Escolano, book 10, chapter 14 of the History of Valencia, says the conspirators were put to flight and slaughtered by the duke of Segorbe between Murviedro (a town of the kingdom of Valencia on the river Turia) and Almenara in the year 1521 on the 17th day of July, so that this battle did not follow that of Gandía, but preceded it.

[27] where at twelve he conceives a desire for the religious life, At Saragossa Francis, under his uncle's auspices, diligently went on imbuing his mind with the studies with which he had begun to imbue it at Gandía; and making no less progress on the path of virtue, he began to direct his mind to higher things. There flourished at that time at Saragossa a celebrated herald of the divine Word of the Hieronymite family, in the monastery of St. Engratia, virgin and martyr, which the piety of John II, king of Aragon, and of his son Ferdinand the Catholic raised there, and which was handed over to the Hieronymites in the year 1493, on the feast-day of the same Martyr, or the sixteenth day of April, as José de Sigüenza writes, part 3 of the History of the same Order, chapter 12. Francis was present with the excellent preacher when, during the fast of the spring season, he was speaking of the supreme judgement of God and of the suffering Christ

words to the people: and the eloquence of the sacred orator so pricked Francis's mind that, partly struck with salutary fear, partly kindled with vehement love for Christ who suffered torments for each and all mortals, he seriously resolved in his mind even then to devote himself, when it should be allowed, to some religious Order in which he might spend himself wholly for God, and began to conduct himself in all things more cautiously. I regret that I have nowhere found the name of that man whom Francis used as confessor, and under whose guidance, while still a boy of twelve, he began, as Nieremberg witnesses, book 1, chapter 5 and following, to delight wonderfully in the works of Christian piety, to attend the sacrifice of the most holy Mass daily, to wash away his sins by confession on all the more solemn feasts of the Lord, and frequently to approach the sacred banquet of the Body of Christ.

[28] From Saragossa he set out for Baeza, as the inhabitants call a town situated in the kingdom of Granada, or Upper Andalusia, whence afterwards to Baeza for the sake of duty, invited by a most excellent woman, María de Luna, his great-grandmother, wife of Enrique Enríquez, who was the paternal uncle of Ferdinand the Catholic king and prefect of the praetorium, likewise grand master of the military order of León, says Schott: when he names Baeza, see that you do not understand Baeza situated in that part of Baetica which is today called Andalusia, but a town of the kingdom of Granada called Baza by the Spaniards. Further, he calls María de Luna the great-grandmother of St. Francis because she was the mother of María Enríquez, Francis's grandmother: but he wrongly called Enrique Enríquez in this place the paternal uncle of Ferdinand the Catholic king: for he was the brother of Juana Enríquez, queen of Aragon and mother of Ferdinand the Catholic king, and so not Ferdinand's paternal but maternal uncle; as Schott himself wrote more correctly when he rendered into the Latin tongue Virgilio Cepari's work on St. Francis. Schott presently slips into another error together with Ribadeneira, immediately adding these words to those just transcribed: Here also his grandmother María Enríquez, daughter of him (Enrique Enríquez), with his aunt (Isabel) and his sisters, having escaped by flight on foot in that civil secession, had arrived. For by the name of the sisters of St. Francis in this place are beyond doubt meant Isabel and Juana de la Cruz, discalced nuns of the monastery of St. Clare at Gandía, who at this time were either not yet born or certainly not yet nuns, as may be gathered even from the death of Juana of Aragon, which fell in the year 1520; and they were born, as has been said above, of Francisca de Castro, second wife of Juan, third duke of Gandía.

[29] To Francis, going from Saragossa to Baeza, his sister Luisa, a full sister by the same father and mother, was a companion of the journey; he goes together with his sister Luisa, she is the one whom I said, num. 15, was married to Martín de Gurrea, duke of Villahermosa, and whom her father Juan caused to be brought from Peñíscola (in Spanish Paniscola) to Saragossa, withdrawn together with Francis from the fury of the confederate commons. To Baeza also, when Gandía was taken by the confederates, María Enríquez and Isabel, Poor Clares of Gandía, had withdrawn, the one daughter, the other granddaughter, of María de Luna. Such company was indeed no small pleasure to Francis, but not of long duration: for a burning fever attacked him a little later and fastened him to his bed for six months. He had scarcely recovered from that sickness when, a huge earthquake having arisen throughout the kingdom of Granada, he was compelled to go out of Baeza and to spend the nights for forty days under the open sky. This earthquake Álvaro Cienfuegos refers to the year 1523, but Prudencio de Sandoval to the year 1522, book XI On the Deeds of Charles V, §3. Luisa was summoned from Baeza to Sanlúcar (in Spanish San Lúcar) by her maternal aunt Ana of Aragon, wife of Juan Alfonso de Guzmán, duke of Medina Sidonia: Medina Sidonia is a town of Lower Andalusia not far from Cádiz. But Sanlúcar (some call it of St. Lucifer) is a port of Andalusia, surnamed de Barrameda, and the ancestral domain of the Guzmáns. What has been said here of Luisa I have drawn from Álvaro Cienfuegos; who further adds that she was a perpetual imitator of her brother Francis, shone with such virtues, graces and prodigies that it was treated at Rome of entering her in the number of the Blessed, that her body remained entire and fragrant after a hundred and fifty years, and finally that she was worthy that SS. Ignatius and Thomas of Villanova should proclaim her piety in their letters.

[30] [and then to Tordesillas; recalled from there to Saragossa, he applies himself to the philosophers.] But Francis, his health having been strengthened, was sent to Tordesillas, a town of the kingdom of León six leagues distant from Valladolid: there was staying there Juana, mother of Charles V, together with her daughter Catalina, in whose service Francis was for about two years, until Catalina went into Portugal in the year 1525, to marry King John III. Francis's father did not wish him to follow Catalina into a foreign kingdom. Having therefore obtained leave to depart, he returned to Saragossa to his uncle, Juan of Aragon, to be imbued now with higher disciplines: that office was committed to Gaspar Lax, a philosopher of great name, yet more subtle than eloquent, not so much through his own fault, as Schott adds, as through that of that age. He was an Aragonese by country, from the town of Sariñena, and at Paris in the college of Montaigu was held the prince of the logicians of his time: having returned to his own people he opened a school at Saragossa, and published various works, partly at Paris, partly at Saragossa, on philosophical and mathematical matters, as Nicolás Antonio witnesses in the Bibliotheca Hispana. Handed over therefore to Gaspar's discipline, he began to apply himself to the liberal arts just as if he had resolved to obtain the academic laurel. So nearly Schott from Ribadeneira; Nieremberg adds a little more: namely that it seemed good to his uncle to join to Francis some noble fellow-pupils, who should apply themselves to the same arts at the same time and mutually kindle in one another the desire of praise: and that Francis took diligent care not to yield to any of them, and bore this fruit of his diligence, that, although he was only fifteen years old when he first approached the studies of philosophy, he completed its course as he wished in two years.

§ III. Sent to the court of Charles V, he discharges excellently the offices of a Christian prince: he contracts marriage: the children born of it.

To the court He was now of that age in which the purity of his soul was in the greatest danger: for at that age the sanguine complexion of the body, the allurements of the flesh, the counsels of the wicked, the affluence of wealth and other things of this kind are wont to strike and shake the minds of youths vehemently: and since Francis easily perceived this, he presently began to meditate more frequently how severe the judgement of the supreme Judge will be, to love more ardently Christ who suffered for human salvation, to hold fixed and settled that he would never admit anything by which he might be separated from the grace of God: further, to approach often the sacred tribunal of confession, to set out candidly and accurately to the priest every struggle of his soul, and to obey the counsels given by him. He admonished him to give himself diligently to prayers, humility, frequent use of the Sacraments, and pious books, to distrust himself, but to trust that divine help would be at hand for him: by which it is believed to have come about that he preserved the purity of soul and body unharmed and unblemished until he entered into matrimony. Such a manner of life cast a fear into his uncle, as Nieremberg witnesses, lest perhaps Francis should one day conceive the desire, abandoning the pomps of the world, of taking up the religious life: to meet which matter in good time he judged that he should be sent to the court of Charles V, where he hoped the youth's mind would easily be drawn elsewhere. The same seemed good to his father also: Francis having therefore been recalled to Gandía, his father joined to him a household of noble boys and servants worthy both of his birth and of the court of the emperor, which was at that time most splendid, and provided abundantly for the rest of the equipment which he understood would be of use to one about to set out for the emperor's court. If you listen to Ribadeneira and Schott, he went there rather of his own accord, yet with his father's kind leave, than by the counsel of his uncle or the command of his father: but the counsel of the uncle and of the father could have been the same, and Francis's wish at that time indeed the same.

[32] He was in the nineteenth year of his age, says Schott, the translator of Ribadeneira, num. 8, sent to Charles V when he returned home from Saragossa for the sake of visiting his father: having been humanely entertained there for some months, he then began to ask for his dismissal; that he might be allowed, with the peace of him to whom he had always been obedient, to remove to the emperor's court, so that he might give himself into the clientship of so great a prince, to whom he augured that the Christian world would owe much. But Schott is not consistent with himself: for since he says that he went to the emperor's court at Valladolid, it must have happened in the year 1527, or the seventeenth year of Francis's age: for the emperor stayed there with his court in that year, and was blessed with his son Philip on the 21st day of May; and Nieremberg relates, book 1, chapter 7, that when he was newly born Francis betook himself, in the seventeenth year of his age, to the court of the emperor, at that time most crowded with grandees both Spanish and foreign. Moreover, while Francis was on his journey, at Alcalá (it is now a town of Castile, distinguished by a celebrated university, called by the Spaniards Alcalá de Henares) he met St. Ignatius, when he was being dragged by the officers to prison about the beginning of the month of May of the year 1527, as Álvaro writes: the case of Ignatius thrust into prison was ended on the Kalends of June of the year 1527, as Pien relates, volume 7 of July, page 435, num. 135, from a copy of the Informations instituted concerning the Saint and his Companions; namely after forty-two days of captivity, as Ribadeneira witnesses in the Life of St. Ignatius, in the volume cited, page 672, which squares well enough with the statements of Álvaro Cienfuegos. Bartoli agrees with Álvaro in the Life of St. Ignatius, book 1, num. 33, writing thus: They say that he (Ignatius), while he was being led ignominiously to prison among the officers, met Francis Borgia, son of the duke of Gandía, a youth of seventeen years. Ribadeneira indeed says that Francis devoted himself to the service of Charles when he was in the eighteenth or nineteenth year of his age; but by the manner of speaking which he uses he abundantly reveals that he does not explain the time of the event altogether definitely.

[33] [he showed himself an excellent follower both of Christ and of the princes of the world.] Now let us hear what he showed himself to be at the court. Here, then, says Schott, unfolding the thoughts of Ribadeneira, with God's good help he so conducted himself that a little later he refuted the false opinion of those who said that a courtier could scarcely be at the same time a follower of Christ and of princes. For he attended, as both Ribadeneira and Schott relate in more detail, the sacrifice of the divine Mass, and daily fulfilled a fixed time of prayer: he was frequently present at sacred sermons, he washed away the faults of his soul on the more solemn feasts by the sacrament of Penance: he sought the friendship of grave men: he had among others as an intimate, as Álvaro adds, Garcilaso, a Spanish poet especially celebrated at that time. Respectful of others, courteous, placid, and most of all devoted to truth. So far was he from envying the merits and honours of others that he even applauded them, thinking that just as much would come to him, if he were equal in merits. He did not visit noble women unless the duty of courtesy required it: and then indeed he had the greatest care for decency and modesty; he was seen sometimes to put haircloth upon his flesh before he went to greet noble women,

carefully guarding lest any occasion of offending the divine Power should be afforded him from this. It was not wonderful, therefore, if (as Ribadeneira testifies he heard from a noble matron enrolled in the Empress's household) nothing was ever noticed in him that savoured of levity of mind. He wished idleness, games of dice, detractions, oaths, foul words, and whatever was unbecoming to that gravity which he himself expressed in his manners, to be far from his people. Yet he gave himself, if anyone did, to the lawful and honourable exercises of princely men; so much so that once, as Nieremberg witnesses, of the prizes of the equestrian games one went to the emperor, the other to Francis. The contest was in two kinds of riding, the one with legs relaxed and stretched out, the other with them drawn up after the African manner; the Spaniards call the first de la brida, the other de la gineta: in the former Francis won, in the latter the emperor.

[34] At the age of 19 he entered upon matrimony Being of these manners, he easily won for himself the love and goodwill of the emperor and of the Empress Isabella: she had in her retinue a noble maiden, dear and familiar to her already from the time when she was still living at the paternal court of Manuel, king of Portugal, on account of the ancient nobility of her race, her candid manners and her virtue, Leonor de Castro, daughter of Álvaro de Castro and Isabel de Meneses; and while the empress was seeking a fitting and splendid match for her, she determined that it would be to her advantage if, out of the whole number of the Spanish nobles, she should marry Francis, the elder son of the duke of Gandía. She opens the matter to the emperor, whom the match pleases. The emperor therefore sends to Juan, duke of Gandía, with letters, Francisco de los Cobos, to obtain his consent to the marriage of his Son with Leonor. Juan indeed at once refused: but having afterwards received other letters from the emperor, he wrote back that his Son's marriage rested with the emperor. The conditions of the marriage having therefore been agreed, Francis, that he might be in less danger of offending God, consented not unwillingly. These things were done, as his biographers write, when Charles was planning to go into Italy for the sake of receiving the imperial crown from Clement VII, and so in the year of Christ 1529, Francis's 19th. A little later, as Álvaro writes, book 1, chapter 10, the nuptials were celebrated with great pomp before the imperial pair: the emperor, that he might show openly how much he esteemed Francis, named him marquis of Lombay, situated in the territory of Gandía, concerning which matter he issued public letters in the following year on the 7th day of July at the Diet held at Augsburg, which Escolano also relates, book 18 of the History of Valencia, column 943. He ordered him moreover to be master of the royal huntsmen; and the empress made him master of the horse; which office indeed at that time returned him fifteen thousand gold coins (they call them ducats) annually. And the empress honoured Leonor with the office of mistress of the chamber.

[35] Álvaro Cienfuegos wonders that Ribadeneira, Cepari, with Leonor de Castro, sprung of a noble and ancient race, and the others who have pursued in their writings the deeds of St. Francis, have brought forward nothing specially about the ancient and noble race of Leonor: what he therefore missed in others, he himself, weaving the series of her ancestors under the guidance of Luis de Salazar y Castro, chronicler of Philip II, king of the Spains, says that she was born of the father Álvaro de Castro; but of the mother Isabel de Melo y Barreto. Then he records eleven paternal ancestors of Leonor, of whom the last, Fernando Ruiz de Castro, flourished about the end of the 11th century. He who occupies the seventh place in that series, Esteban Fernández de Castro, had as wife Aldonza, granddaughter of Alfonso, king of León, the IX of this name and father of St. Ferdinand: he who occupies the sixth, Fernando Ruiz, had Violante, daughter of Sancho IV, king of Castile; he who occupies the fifth, Pedro Fernández de Castro, had two daughters, Juana and Inés, the former married to Peter, king of Castile, and Inés to Peter, afterwards king of Portugal, the I of this name. As regards Leonor's maternal ancestors, her mother, likewise called Leonor, was the daughter of Nuño Barreto and Leonor de Melo. Further, Nuño had as father Gonzalo Núñez Barreto, governor of Faro (a port of the Algarve on the gulf of Cádiz), which office Nuño also discharged. And the family de Melo draws its origin from a noble man (the Spaniards call him Ricohombre), Men Suárez, who flourished in the 13th century under Alfonso III, king of Portugal: and Melo is a town in the Transmontane province of Portugal (called la Beira), which, Rodrigo Méndez Silva writes in the Commentaries on the cities and towns of Spain, page 192, was begun to be founded by the father of the aforesaid Suárez, and then enlarged by the great-grandson of the same Suárez, and finally that Alfonso V, king of Portugal, honoured it with the title of town in favour of Ruy de Melo, admiral.

[36] [and on account of her uprightness as dear to the empress as he was to the emperor;] Nieremberg says that Leonor was brought up together with the Empress Isabella at the paternal court of Manuel, king of Portugal, and came with her from there into Spain, namely in the year 1526: and further that from this, as also from the rare virtues with which she was adorned, there arose between them such friendship and familiarity that you would almost have called them sisters. By the same witness, pious, humble and prudent, she frequently confessed her sins, and approached the Eucharistic banquet after her Husband's example, being for the most part so intent on prayers that she scarcely interrupted them even in grave sicknesses; meanwhile so active in her affairs that Francis committed to her almost the whole administration and government of the household. The authority and favour which they had with the imperial pair, each Spouse used not so much for his own advantage as for that of others, which even their rivals confessed, as Álvaro Cienfuegos relates from Dionisio Vázquez, book 1, chapter 10, §3. Francis's conjugal chastity shone forth then above all: for though access to the royal women's quarters was open to him, he conducted himself there so cautiously and modestly that he gave no ground even for suspecting that he was of a more inclined mind towards any, even when this was allowable with decency preserved: so testified, says Álvaro, book 2, chapter 1, §1, Juana of Portugal, who was then in the retinue of the empress, but afterwards was joined in marriage to the duke of Medinaceli. Francis's so proven uprightness brought it about that the emperor placed the greatest confidence in him: it appeared often on other occasions, but most of all when, about to set out for Italy, he committed to Francis's care and faith his palace and whatever was dearest to him, than which he could not bear more splendid testimony to his virtue: the nobles, indeed, as Juana de Meneses, Leonor's sister, who was likewise then in attendance on the empress, related to Dionisio Vázquez, wondered at the emperor's confidence in Francis; but they affirmed that it was due to his merits.

[37] of whom he had, in the following order, Carlos, fifth duke of Gandía, Francis's marriage with Leonor was fruitful: the eldest of the sons, brought into the light by a happy birth in the year 1530 while the emperor was absent in Italy, was named Carlos: he was received from the sacred font in the name of the imperial pair and of Philip, their son, then a little more than three years old. He succeeded his father, a man of the highest prudence, whose services Philip II, king of the Spains, used in arduous affairs. Sent by him to Genoa in the year 1575, he calmed the tumultuous republic and fortified it with new laws, together with the legates of Pope Gregory XIII and of the emperor Maximilian II; of whom Pietro Bizzarri writes thus in the Proem of those laws: These were John, bishop of Ostia, Cardinal Morone, Prior of the sacred college of Cardinals, legate a latere etc. Pietro Fauno Costacciaro, bishop of Acqui and prince of the empire, imperial orator and commissary. Don Carlos de Borja, duke of Gandía, of the chief grandees of the Spains, and Don Juan de Idiáquez, counsellor of the Catholic king and his orator among the same Genoese. And having set forth the mandates of their princes, and obtained from the republic the most ample faculties for reforming it, they held nothing more important than to establish and settle with most holy laws and decrees the Republic, ill composed and hence wavering: and to compose the dispositions of the Ligurians, wanton through excessive prosperity and at variance among themselves. Which, God, best and greatest, the patron and author of all good things, they achieved. And after Portugal fell to Philip (it fell in the year 1580), the same, as military commander, says Schott, ruled the province with the highest authority. That he was viceroy of Portugal Escolano also is author, book 6, chapter 23. Conestaggio, book 9 On the Union of Portugal and Castile, writes that Carlos was substituted in the place of Fernando Álvarez, duke of Alba, who died about the beginning of the year 1582, a man, as he himself judges, endowed with greater goodness than experience of affairs. He did not hold this place long; for in the year 1583 King Philip, as Vasconcellos says in the Anacephalaeosis 22 of the Acts of the kings of Portugal, handed the government of that province to Albert of Austria. Carlos withdrew to Gandía, as Álvaro Cienfuegos witnesses, on account of the troubles of gout and the stone.

[38] His birth, says Schott, was followed after a year by Isabel, countess of Lerma: Isabel, countess of Lerma, and Juan her birthplace, as Álvaro adds, was Medina del Campo, a town situated on the confines of Old Castile and the kingdom of León, in which at that time, namely in the year 1532, the empress was staying, who wished again to receive the newly born child from the sacred font and to have her called by her own name Isabel: she married Francisco de Sandoval, son of Luis de Sandoval, marquis of Denia and count of Lerma, who succeeded his father, as Escolano witnesses, book 6, chapter 17, num. 6, in the year 1570. Hence Isabel was called countess of Lerma: her son, likewise named Francisco, whom Schott presently calls marquis of Denia, bore the title of duke of Lerma. She was moreover, as Schott proceeds, the mother of two countesses and of Juan de Sandoval; namely of Catalina and Leonor, of whom the former was married to Fernando Ruiz de Castro, count of Lemos and marquis of Sarria, the latter to Lope Osorio de Moscoso, count of Altamira. Finally Juan de Sandoval was marquis of Villamizar, knight of Calatrava, and chamberlain to Philip III, king of the Spains. The third offspring of Francis was Juan, count of Mayalde and Ficallo, born in the year 1533 at Bellpuig (it is a village of Gothalania or Catalonia about six Spanish miles distant from Lleida, and not far removed from the river Cervera) when his parents followed Charles V, who was holding the Cortes at Monzón, a town of Aragon on the confines of Gothalania. He was most acceptable to his father, whom he accompanied as he went from Gandía to Rome to give himself to the Society of Jesus.

[39] He himself also discharged various offices. who discharged distinguished offices, Garibay writes, book 30, chapter 15, at the year 1558, that, when he was five and twenty years old, he was already then among the chief military captains in the province of Guipúzcoa. He was Philip II's ambassador into Portugal to King Sebastian; he discharged the same office besides with the emperor Maximilian, the II of this name, as Ribadeneira, Nieremberg and Álvaro Cienfuegos write. He acted as master of the household to Maria, Philip's sister and wife of Maximilian II,

who had returned into Spain after her husband's death, at the time when Ribadeneira was writing the Life of Francis. That the same man was likewise orator of Philip II, king of the Spains, with the emperor Rudolf, Famiano Strada writes in the Belgian War, decade 2, at the year 1579. Finally the same was master or steward of the household to Margaret of Austria, wife of Philip III, king of the Spains; and counsellor of state to Philip. He entered upon two marriages, as Escolano witnesses, book 6, chapter 28, the one with Lorenza de Oñaz y Loyola, great-niece of St. Ignatius through his brother Martín, namely in the year 1551, as Henao relates, book 3, chapter 35, num. 5, On the Antiquities of Cantabria: the other with Francisca de Aragón y Barreto, daughter of Nuño Rodríguez Barreto, lord of Mayalde: hence he was called count of Mayalde: and he received the title of count of Ficallo from Philip II, as Henao, cited a little before, notes from Salazar de Mendoza. Of this latter marriage of Juan was born Francisco de Borja, count of Mayalde and prince of Squillace in the kingdom of Naples, having married the daughter and heiress of Pedro, prince of Squillace, chamberlain to Philip IV, and formerly viceroy of Peru — the words are Nicolás Antonio's in the Bibliotheca Hispana, volume 1, page 314 — a sweet, courteous and easy poet as few are, so that he stood not far from the first place among the Lyric poets. But neither was his father Juan a stranger to polite letters; as the work On Political Emblems composed by him and dedicated to Philip II testifies, of which Nicolás Antonio treats, volume 1 of the Bibliotheca Hispana, page 303.

[40] Álvaro, Juana, Fernando, Dorotea and Alfonso. After Juan was born Álvaro de Borja in the city of Toledo, metropolis of New Castile. He was held, as Álvaro Cienfuegos witnesses, among the most prudent of his age, and was ambassador of Philip II in arduous affairs to the Roman Pontiff. Álvaro was followed by Juana de Aragón y Borja, born at Madrid, and married to Juan, marquis of Alcañices, which place I find in the Maps of Blaeu on the borders of the archdiocese of Saragossa where it faces the kingdom of Valencia, on the river Guadalope. Further, Álvaro took as wife, by the Pontiff's indulgence, the daughter and heiress of his sister Juana and of the marquis of Alcañices, and from her dowry obtained the title of marquis of Alcañices: Imhof calls her Elvira Enríquez de Almansa. Of her Álvaro had, besides other children, a daughter, married to Juan de Vega, first count of Grajal in the kingdom of León, three leagues from Carrión de los Condes, with which title Philip III, king of the Spains, honoured him on account of his immense merits. In the sixth place was born at the court of Madrid Fernando de Borja, chief master of the household of the Empress Maria after his brother Juan. The seventh was Dorotea, born at Valladolid, who, having dedicated herself to God from tender years in the monastery of the Discalced Franciscan nuns of Gandía, was soon called to the heavenly Bridegroom. The eighth and last of the children, Alfonso, born at Toledo, discharged at the court of the Empress Maria, sister of Philip II, the same office as his brothers Juan and Fernando: his wife was Leonor de Logroño, a noble Portuguese, but they died without children, as Escolano witnesses.

§ IV. The occupations of St. Francis at court: he labours with a fever: he accompanies the emperor to Barcelona when about to cross into Africa, and then to the French war.

With courtly offices, mathematics, Having entered upon matrimony, Francis held nothing more important, says Ribadeneira, than that his household, which had before been a pattern for the households of unmarried princes, might also be the rule and pattern of the married. He used upright and honourable servants; horses and arms splendid according to his dignity and condition, yet so that he spared superfluous expenses. The care and administration of the household he committed to the industry and prudence of his wife Leonor: and he gave himself wholly to the business of the court, to carrying out the commands of the emperor, and to the use of arms. In the year 1531 he conducted the Empress Isabella and Prince Philip to Ávila, a city of Hispania Tarraconensis in Old Castile; and thence to Medina del Campo in the month of September of the same year, where, as has been said above, his daughter Isabel was born to him about the beginning of the following year; and likewise he accompanied the Empress Isabella to Barcelona, to meet Charles V returning from the German war. So Álvaro Cienfuegos, book 2, chapter 1, §2. Charles, having returned to Madrid in the year 1533, spent some time and labour on mathematics: Francis wished to imitate the emperor's example: he used as master Alonso de Santa Cruz of Seville, most skilled in mathematics, cosmographer of Charles V, and royal historiographer in the time of Philip II, as Nicolás Antonio relates in the Bibliotheca Hispana. And since the emperor also used the same man, he often questioned Francis about what he had learned, and familiarly compared his own studies with his, whence it came about that the emperor loved Francis the more, the more fully he had proved his faith and prudence. So indeed Ribadeneira: Nieremberg and Cienfuegos add that the emperor, from the time he heard of it, wished the same man to be teacher of mathematics to himself and to Francis, so that the latter might thereafter make him a sharer of what he had learned from Santa Cruz and others: which was so diligently carried out on both sides that in an interval of six months both were skilled in what was enough for their purpose and use: for they did not apply themselves to those things in which there was more curiosity than usefulness: whence they say that Francis, being once invited to learn the astrology which they call judicial, could not be induced to do so, because he judged it vain and futile.

[42] He wished idleness to be far from himself and his household: he used to say that gaming was often a loss of time, music and fowling of money, of religion and of conscience. He preferred therefore to give himself to hunting and music, thinking that he would be both more safely and more usefully delighted by them: nor did he excel moderately in both these kinds of exercise, being skilled not only in singing, but also in setting to the laws of Music those songs which fostered piety and were suitable for promoting divine worship: but light and profane songs he could not bear even to hear. And what he composed in this kind was received not without applause, and was wont to be sung in many churches throughout Spain. Nor did he lay aside this pious study of music as his age grew heavier: for when at Rome, as Cienfuegos relates, book 2, chapter 2, §1, he had begun to recover from a long sickness, and was holding the supreme government of the Society of Jesus, he set to the laws of music with admirable art Psalm 118 of David, whose beginning is, Blessed are the undefiled in the way. He delighted chiefly in the hawking of herons, both because he thus cut off occasion for less honourable recreations, and because he knew that the emperor was vehemently held by the same pursuit: he himself most skilfully trained falcons for hawking with his own hands. Going out to hunt, he fed not so much his eyes and body with pleasure as his mind with pious meditations, and from the sight of created things looked up to their founder, praised him and loved him. When he saw the docility and ready obedience of the birds and dogs, shame of himself was at once present with him. He once confessed to Fr. Dionisio Vázquez, as Cienfuegos relates, that it had been less troublesome to him to dismiss the pomps of the world than the delights of hawking: yet he overcame himself, when he could have taken the greatest pleasure from it: for it often happened that, when the falcon was already on the point of seizing the prey in its talons, Francis fixed his eyes on the ground, lest he should enjoy the pleasure offered, although sought with much labour.

[43] him occupied with pursuits a fever While he was occupied with these exercises, God wished to admonish him by how slender a thread the life of men hangs, and how little the affluence of all things and human favour do for protecting and preserving it. As he was returning from the Cortes which the emperor had held in the year 1533 at Monzón, a town of Aragon, and which had been prolonged to the month of December of the same year, a malignant fever attacked him, which, as the nature of the disease has it, gradually degenerating into a tertian and a quartan, afflicted him in many ways for some months. The emperor and the grandees came together more than once to the Sick man for the sake of solace and honour: God meanwhile was not wanting to the Sick man, and from time to time put pious thoughts into him. From the heat of the fever he began to weigh with how great an ardour, never to cease, those condemned by the sentence of the supreme Judge are burned: with how great, likewise, those who are purged by the expiatory fire. Since he could help these, he began to pour out daily prayers to God for them and to use the services of priests, that, relieved by their sacrifices, they might the more swiftly fly up to the sight of the divine Power. He took this advantage besides from that disadvantage, that, profane books having been dismissed, he gave himself wholly to the reading of pious ones: he had in his hands for the most part either the New Testament, or the Homilies of Chrysostom, or the interpreters of Sacred Scripture or the Lives of the Saints, not only at home but also in the country, to which, carried in a litter, he sometimes withdrew when the intermission of the fever allowed it. He constantly went over with himself, and committed to secret notebooks, the things which, once read, had most moved his mind; and this indeed, as his biographers write, was for him, by his own testimony, the first step to that more sublime kind of contemplation which he afterwards attained.

[44] attacks him: Witty and at the same time worthy of praise is what Nieremberg and Álvaro narrate of Francis in his fever and of his physician Francisco Villalobos, most skilled in medicine and very well known for his writings on it. He had found, having examined the pulse of the veins, that the force of the disease after some months was at length almost exhausted. What reward, said he, shall I bear off, if I bless you with good news? Wish for whatever you will, said Francis; you shall bear off what you wish. There happened to be near by a cabinet sumptuously furnished with gold and silver plate; in which the physician, having caught sight of a great dish wrought of silver, wished this to be promised him: Francis assented to the request. On his return, on the day and at the hour at which the fever was wont to recur, Francis, perceiving that no heat of fever remained to him, said to the physician: The dish is yours: but I have gain enough if no fever holds me. What do you think? He perceived that something of the fever did indeed remain to Francis, but so little that it could scarcely be perceived, and answered merrily with that saying of the philosopher: Plato is a friend (so the Spaniards call a dish) but truth is more a friend: I have lost the dish. Not at all, said Francis, and ordered two dishes instead of one to be handed over at once, greatly delighted both with the man's honesty and with his candour.

[45] Scarcely yet strengthened, says Schott, an expedition having been undertaken into that part of Gaul having recovered his strength from it, the emperor, about to cross into Africa, which was called by the Romans the Province, he followed the emperor bearing arms. But he hurries too much: Ribadeneira indeed records the emperor's expedition into Gaul after he had said that Francis had recovered from his sickness; but he did not say that it was undertaken immediately after his health had been strengthened. The fever attacked him, as has been said above, after the Cortes celebrated in the year 1533 at Monzón, and held him only for some months: Francis's restored health cannot therefore be put off beyond the year 1534: but the emperor, having already completed the expedition of Tunis, undertook the French one, namely in the year 1536. Álvaro Cienfuegos was more accurate in this place, who, book 2, chapter 3, §4, the things which in the years 1534 and following by Francis

were done, describes in about this manner. Having set out from Toledo on the fifth day of May of the year 1534, with Francis accompanying him, the emperor came to Ávila; where, having been most splendidly entertained for seven days by Gómez de Ávila, they continued their journey to Valladolid: from here the emperor, letters having been sent in every direction, proclaimed the Cortes to be celebrated in the month of October of the same year at Madrid. Having returned to Madrid, he opened to Francis the expedition which he was planning against Barbarossa the pirate, who, after he had terrified Italy, turning his arms into Africa had expelled Muley Hassan, king of Tunis, from his kingdom. He approved and fostered the emperor's purpose.

[46] The war having been prepared, the emperor, at the beginning of spring of the year immediately following, attended by a huge multitude of nobles, to Barcelona in the year 1535, among whose number was Francis, went to Barcelona. To the same place came from Portugal very many princely men, admitted into the fellowship of the glorious war. Among these was Luís, prince of Portugal, brother of King John III and of the Empress Isabella, with whom Francis then first entered into the closest friendship. It was granted to Francis to see there João de Castro, afterwards viceroy of the Indies, and other kinsmen of his wife. He had offered himself to the emperor as a companion in that war; but the emperor, when he was already on the point of setting sail from the port, ordered him to return to Madrid, to be at hand for the Empress, which was most vexatious to him. I know indeed that it has been related by many that Francis crossed into Africa together with the emperor; but I find nothing of this in Ribadeneira, Cepari, Nieremberg; who, I know not on what account, would have wished to wrap Francis's journey into Africa in so deep a silence, when they did not keep silence about his journey into Gaul together with the emperor, although the French war offered a smaller harvest of praise and glory than the African. But neither did Ulloa, the contemporary writer of the Life of Charles V, include Borgia in the number of those grandees whom the emperor led into Africa, as Gioacchino Sanacori says in the Compendium of the Life of St. Francis, num. 12. He was therefore disappointed of his wish, as appears most probable, in the year 1535; but otherwise in the following year.

[47] and in the following year Francis I, king of France, had occupied a good part of Savoy and Piedmont in the year 1536, and was now threatening the duchy of Milan. But the emperor, moving his army out of Lombardy, opened himself a way to the river Var, and having crossed it, carried the war into Provence. The emperor was still among the Insubrians when Francis set out to him, not without an ample retinue: in it were Ruy Gómez de Silva, afterwards prince of Eboli in the kingdom of Naples and most acceptable to Philip II, king of the Spains, and Jorge de Melo, the emperor's messenger to the empress in the previous year of the deeds done in Africa, whom Francis loved uniquely as kinsmen of his wife. The emperor received him most humanely on his arrival, and wished him to keep close to his side while he was on the march. After they had come into the enemy's borders, the routes were everywhere hostile and skirmishes continual: the army therefore advanced loaded with all its arms after the custom of that age; Francis had the same equipment, but it was very inconvenient to him both on account of the excessive heat of the sun and on account of the stoutness of his body; which the emperor perceiving, ordered him, against his will, to strip off his heavier armour. He begged that he might be allowed to follow the emperor's example: but the emperor's command had to be obeyed. Having engaged several times with the enemy, as Cienfuegos writes, book 2, §2, he came back from the fight the superior. But as Charles was returning into Italy by the way he had come, on account of the scarcity of provisions and the army diminished by the contagion of diseases, he received a most grievous wound, not in body but in mind, from which however he gained this profit, that he could show with what mind he was towards his friends, and felt new spurs applied to him towards contempt of human things.

[48] he accompanies him to the French war, There was serving under Charles's standards Garcilaso de la Vega, son of Garcilaso, count of Feria, and of Sancha de Guzmán, and most closely joined to our Francis in friendship; to whom neither the flower of age, nor nobility of race, nor the emperor's favour, nor a great fame for the poetic art and a most pleasant genius was wanting. The emperor had almost reached Forum Julii (Fréjus), when about four leagues from there, beside the royal road by which one goes from Brignoles to Fréjus, he came upon a certain castle called la tour du Muy, into which a small band of country people had withdrawn; Garcilaso, attacking it by the emperor's command, while he was performing the office of a soldier rather than of a captain, and, covered by his shield, was trying to burst in there, was struck by a heavy stone from on high and rolled headlong from the ladder to the ground. So Álvaro Cienfuegos records the event, book 2, chapter 4, §4; but somewhat otherwise Honoré Bouche in the History of Provence, book 10, chapter 4, §9, page 582. Borgia had heard of his friend's misfortune; he flies at once to the place of the fight (for it was not far off), leaps fearlessly into the ditch, raises up the fallen man, and, taking him up in his arms, carries him out from there. The emperor's physicians and surgeons tended the wounds of the injured man: when he was carried to Nice Borgia was his companion, and stood faithfully by him while he lived. The same man brought Garcilaso the news of his impending death; by which he, nothing dismayed, began to dispose himself for death, and, at Francis's exhortation, having confessed his sins again and again, received the Sacraments of the dying with a singular ardour of piety: nor did Francis cease to kindle and foster the pious movements of his soul, offering him again and again the image of the Saviour fixed to the cross, until Garcilaso rendered his soul to God with the greatest penitence for his past life.

[49] When the emperor had departed from Italy, the Marquis of Lombay accompanied him first to Genoa, then to Barcelona, [in which he gives a specimen of true friendship: having returned from there, he labours with a quinsy] where they landed about the end of the year 1536: and from here he was sent by the emperor to Segovia, a city of Old Castile, to set out to the empress the outcome of the war and to attend her according to custom; where shortly afterwards he was brought into danger of his life by the disease of quinsy. In the year which followed, 1537, says Schott, while the assembly of the estates was being held at Segovia among the Carpetani, he lay ill likewise with the disease of quinsy, so that his throat was almost blocked with blood; but although he seemed to have lost the use of his tongue, yet he kept his mind fixed on God: with a mind more prepared than ever before to meet death, both because from his friend's death human things had begun to grow more worthless to him, and because both the more frequent use of the Sacraments and a more careful manner of life added more confidence to him. Isabella was indeed staying at Segovia at that time, and Francis laboured there with the disease of quinsy; but at that time the Cortes of the kingdom, or assembly of the estates, were not held at Segovia, which Schott added of his own to Ribadeneira's statements, but at Monzón, to which, after he had recovered from the disease of quinsy and had gone from Segovia together with the court to Valladolid, Álvaro Cienfuegos writes, book 2, chapter 4, §6, that Francis was summoned by the emperor together with the other nobles of the kingdom.

[50] The other things which Ribadeneira and Schott relate of Francis labouring with the disease of quinsy at Segovia, labours. Álvaro Cienfuegos also affirms, book 2, chapter 4, §6, where he says that Francis himself, when he was labouring somewhat with ill health at Segovia in the year 1559, being then Commissary General of the Society, said to Fr. Luis Santander, first rector of the then newly founded college of Segovia, that he had undergone the extreme danger of life in the same city in the year 1537; but that it had then been no small solace to him that he was wont to confess his sins more minutely than before, namely, as Nieremberg says, book 1, chapter 10, every month, an example rare at that time, especially among courtiers of the same age as he was himself. Further, Francis, returning into Castile from the Cortes of Monzón, gave himself with new spirit and care partly to governing his household, partly to the services of the empress, partly finally to his accustomed exercises of mind and body; yet so that, if ever he went hunting, he used far less noise and equipment, and little by little cut off the fringes of vanity more and more.

§ V. He conducts the funeral of the Empress Isabella to Granada, from the sight of whose corpse he conceives the purpose of a holier life: he is appointed viceroy of Catalonia: he macerates his body: he asks in vain to be released from the office of viceroy.

Conducting the funeral of Isabella to Granada, The French war was prolonged until the year 1538, in which a happier face of things, a ten-year truce having been agreed between the emperor and the king of France through the care of Pope Paul III, refreshed the Christian world, over which however a most grave danger was impending from the Turks. The emperor, having entered into an alliance of war with the Pontiff and the Venetians to meet this, returned into Spain, and at Toledo, in order to prepare subsidies for the Turkish war, celebrated the Cortes, in which nothing was lacking that might serve either to increase the public joy or for splendour and magnificence. Whenever the imperial pair attended public games, Francis was companion to Charles, Leonor to Isabella, and their sons Carlos and Juan to Philip, prince of the Spains. But, as nothing in human affairs is perpetual, all joy was suddenly turned into the bitterest mourning by the unexpected death of the empress: a deadly fever, as Cienfuegos writes, had attacked her, which within the interval of a few days took that most worthy princess from this light on the Kalends of May 1539. The emperor forbade the Marquis and Marchioness of Lombay to withdraw from her as she lay ill, and it was requested by the empress both that Leonor alone should be allowed to touch the body of the deceased, and that the emperor should entrust to both Spouses the charge of conducting it to Granada. Isabella's funeral was carried out of Toledo with notable and mournful ceremony, Francis with his wife and household, and other nobles, attending it by the emperor's command, and conducted to Granada, the chief city of the kingdom of Granada, in which there was a church, as Schott says, famous for the sepulchres of the Catholic sovereigns, Isabella's grandparents, namely of Ferdinand, who in the year 1492 snatched the kingdom of Granada from the Moors, and of Isabella, of whose daughter Maria and of Manuel, sovereigns of Portugal, was born the Isabella of whom we speak here, wife of Charles V.

[52] and taught of his future conversion of life by his grandmother appearing to him, As Francis was going to Granada, as he had been ordered by the emperor's command, this singular thing happened to him, that, when the procession halted about midday for the sake of rest, and he had his eyes intent on the funeral but his mind on heaven, he seemed to himself to behold María Enríquez, his grandmother, surrounded with a remarkable light, and to hear from her that it would shortly come about that he would enter upon the way, divinely prepared, in which he should serve God. Midway between joy and fear, he at once sent to Gandía to his aunt Francisca de Jesús someone to report what had happened. The answer was that María Enríquez had died. The account of this fact rests, as Álvaro Cienfuegos witnesses, book 2, chapter 5, §3, on the testimony of María de Velasco, countess of Osorno, with whom Francisca de Jesús communicated it, having received it from the mouth of St. Francis; which was unknown to Ribadeneira and Cepari, who bound the death of María Enríquez to the year 1537; although they are not consistent with themselves either. For they write that María Enríquez died after spending 33 years in the monastery of the Discalced nuns of Gandía: whence it follows that María Enríquez embraced the institute of the religious life

already from the year 1504: how could this have come about, if she entered the monastery of Gandía after Francis was born, or after the year 1510, as the same writers again relate? From the year 1479, in which we said, num. 19, that María Enríquez was born, to the year 1512, 33 years are counted: Ribadeneira does not therefore seem to stray from the truth when he says that she lived 33 years in the world: but for the 33 years of religion about 27 years are to be substituted; so that she lived in all 60 years; or 25 years, as Escolano does, book 6, chapter 23, num. 7, if she be determined to have died in the year 1537. Likewise Juan Carrillo must be corrected, who not only says with Ribadeneira, in chapter 3 of the Life of her daughter Francisca de Jesús, that María Enríquez lived 33 years in the world and as many in the monastery of Gandía, but also in chapter 1 of the same Life had said that Francisca, born, as he says, in the year 1498, was already three years old when she was bereaved of her father; although he had lost his life as early as the year 1497: whence it comes about that her mother, who was then numbering 18 years, is determined by his calculation to have been born about four years later than is right, namely in the year 1483. And whence the same writer ascertained that María Enríquez entered upon the headship of the monastery of the Poor Clares of Gandía in the year 1540, and renounced it five years later, I do not perceive. For the rest, says Schott, Francis grieved vehemently at the loss of his grandmother, because he had lost a mistress of life who helped him by deed and counsel: yet he felt himself even then cherished by the patronage which she enjoyed with God; which Ribadeneira also testifies: but Schott presently adds: by whose prayers also he thought he had been brought into the Society of Jesus as into a port.

[53] Further, when Isabella's funeral reached Illiberis or Granada, he is struck by the foulness of the corpse, it was presently plain that no vain vision had been offered to Francis while he was still on the journey. He went at once to the royal chapel, to hand over the deposit entrusted to him to Gaspar de Ávalos, archbishop of Granada, and to the clergy, before notaries, witnesses, the chief men of the city, and an innumerable multitude of the people: but, lest there should be any room for fraud, before it was carried into the monuments of her ancestors, the face had to be uncovered; the companions had to make oath that it was the very body of the empress; and finally everything had to be entered in the public Acts. When the face was uncovered, not only was there no grace of former beauty, but so great a deformity struck the eyes of the onlookers that there was none who could recognize the empress in the empress; likewise so great a stench struck the nostrils of those standing by that there was none, except Francis, who either wished or was able to remain there longer. None of the companions, therefore, dared plainly to affirm on oath that it was the body of the empress. Francis himself, who had diligently guarded it night and day, thought it enough if, by reason of the utmost diligence which he had used in that matter, he swore that it could be no other than the body of the empress. It is wonderful how changed Francis felt himself from that spectacle, thereafter scarcely like himself. The movements which then arose in his mind his biographers describe more fully; by which he was at length compelled to cry out that enough had been given to a mortal prince: that what remained of light and life would be sacred to the eternal King, as Cienfuegos writes, book 2, chapter 6, §3, from the testimony of a canon of Granada who was present at the event, inserted in the Valencian Process, folio 669.

[54] and the purpose of a holier life, The remains of Isabella were laid in the royal chapel on the 7th day of May in the evening: the funeral rites were paid her on the following day. The sermon was given by Juan de Ávila, a sacred orator especially famous at that time, in which he set forth in most weighty words not so much the praises of the empress as the vicissitude and vanity of human things, and so pricked Francis's mind and confirmed him in the purpose he had conceived of a severer and holier life that, having returned home and having dined very sparingly, he summoned the orator to him and wished him to be not only aware of what he was turning over in his mind, but also his helper. Juan was a man, as Spain, illuminated by his sermons and writings, and the province of Baetica above all, testifies, most eager for promoting the divine glory and the gain of souls: he therefore heard Francis not unwillingly, instructed him with the best counsels for his condition and dignity, and admonished him first of all that he should chiefly beware of the three things which are wont to bring ruin to courtiers: ambition, envy and lust. By these as it were by steps God gradually sharpened in Francis the desire of pursuing more perfect things.

[55] the letters of his aunt also being added to these, he conceives, Another spur likewise was applied to one already running of his own accord about that time by letters received from Gandía from his aunt Francisca de Jesús, superior or abbess of the Poor Clares of Gandía, as Ribadeneira, Cepari and Cienfuegos name her in this place, which Schott, acting as translator of Cepari on the deeds of Blessed Francis, translated thus from the Spanish idiom in which they were written: Indeed, my Son, I was thinking at that moment of your conversion to God, commending your health to the Bridegroom, but most of all the salvation of your soul. There I saw you kneeling, asking Christ with tears and groaning for pardon of sins. I saw him also stretch out his hand and raise you up, and promise his present help. Give therefore, together with me, the greatest thanks you can to God, and comply together with me with greater care and love. Of the empress I report this good news, that the sacred virgins here saw her soul snatched from the purging flame and fly up, attended by angelic choirs, to eternal beatitude. Ribadeneira, who presents the same letters written in Spanish, rightly observes in this place that private visions of this kind, being often liable to the danger of error, are not forthwith to be trusted: yet it is certain that God sometimes bestows favours of this kind on purer minds, such as Francis had ascertained those virgins, and his aunt above all, to be. Certainly these letters had great weight with him, by which, just as by the other spurs we have mentioned, he was aroused, and seriously resolved to withdraw from the court and to live for God privately at home with his wife and children, and vowed that he would enter some religious Order if his wife should depart from life before him.

[56] and begins to carry it out by an illustrious deed. The purpose which Francis had conceived in his mind at Granada he did not long delay to carry out. The nine days' rites having been paid, as the cited Álvaro writes, chapter 8, §1, the due obsequies to the empress's funeral having been performed, as soon as he returned to the emperor at Toledo to render account of his office, he would at once have asked that leave be given him to quit the court, had this not then been inopportune for the emperor. While therefore he awaited a convenient time, he performed a notable deed, passed over by Ribadeneira and others, but related by Álvaro just cited: and it is such. Returning from Granada, he had sent someone to greet in his name Fernando, admiral of Castile, and to ask the place and time for meeting him: there had arisen, before Francis went to Granada, between him and Fernando some rather heated dispute, about I know not what political matter: the latter, suspecting that he was being challenged to a duel by the Marquis of Lombay, appointed a place and time suitable for a duel: but he, as soon as he came into the admiral's sight, threw himself at his feet, transferred all the blame to himself, and asked him to forgive; that this was worthy of his virtue, and that he knew for certain that he would do so. He at first hesitated, astonished at the novelty of so unexpected a spectacle, and, closely embracing Francis, thereafter held him especially dear. So, almost in Spanish words, Álvaro, not of his own, but from the sworn statement of María Clara, abbess of the Discalced virgins of Madrid, by which she testified that she had received the deed already related from the mouth of the older nuns of her convent, kinswomen of the Saint, who had likewise learned it from the mouth of Fernando himself.

[57] Having afterwards obtained a more convenient opportunity of meeting the emperor, He is appointed, against his will, viceroy of Catalonia, he revealed his desire of quitting the court, if he might do so by his leave, and with what weight of reasons he could tried to extort leave to depart to Gandía; but in vain: whence it came about that he was compelled to remain at court for some time. But some months having elapsed, as Álvaro says, §3, the emperor, planning a journey through France into Belgium, whither the disturbances that had arisen among the people of Ghent were calling him, summoned Francis to him, and, having first created him a knight of St. James, ordered him to be viceroy of Catalonia. He submitted his shoulders to the burden, but very unwillingly. Presently he so girded himself for the journey that at the same time the emperor set out for France, and he for Catalonia with his wife and children in the month of November of the year 1539, as the same Álvaro relates: and he so arranged his journey that he passed through Valencia and Gandía, to greet on the way his excellent father, Juan, duke of Gandía. Gothalania, counted among the most ample provinces of Spain, enjoys the title of principality: at the time Francis undertook its administration, it also comprised the county of Roussillon, which afterwards fell to the French kings. Some derive its name from the Castellani, placed by Ptolemy between the rivers Sambroca and Rubricatus: others will have it so called from a certain Otger Gotlant, surnamed Catalo, from Catalo, a castle of Aquitaine (which Pierre de Marca, archbishop of Paris, Marca Hispanica, book 3, chapter 5, denies ever existed in Gaul), who undertook an expedition into Spain in the time of Charles Martel: others finally derive Catalonia from the Catti and the Alani, or from the Goths and the Alani, as Schott, the translator of Ribadeneira, also judged, who fixed their seats there; and this opinion seems the sounder and more common, although it is not itself certain.

[58] The head of all Gothalania is Barcelona, a noble city on the Mediterranean sea, and distinguished by an episcopal see, for whose security and good, suffragan to the archdiocese of Toledo: when the new Viceroy came there, received with public and solemn applause, he at once directed his cares and mind to neglecting no part of the office enjoined on him: no small band of robbers was ranging through Gothalania at that time, for whom hiding-places were not lacking even with certain nobles: against these he first took action, and then, forces having been sent in every direction, he did not cease to pursue the robbers themselves, until, the criminal band having been rooted out, public security was altogether provided for, even at his own peril; and he was heard to say that this hunting of criminal men was then far more pleasant to him than that of wild beasts had been when he was young. Some he ordered to suffer the supreme penalty, and their cut bodies to be exposed to the eyes of all for an example, others to be deported to the royal galleys. If he had condemned anyone to death, he ordered thirty sacrifices to be offered one by one at his own expense, so that you might easily see that he hated not the men but their crimes, as may be seen somewhat more fully in Schott and Nieremberg. Álvaro adds that the chief of the robbers also, named Antonio de Roca, was captured and condemned to death: and that the Viceroy's diligence so pleased the emperor that he congratulated him on the happy outcome of affairs by repeated letters.

[59] while he excellently provides, And to the other parts of his office he attended no less diligently. He diligently took care that the judgements of controversies, according to what is fair and good, and

1

should be rendered speedily: he often recalled litigants to concord, compelled the wealthier who were bound by debt to pay their debts to the poor more quickly, freed the poor from servitude with his own money, established literary schools for instructing youth, a salary being appointed for those who imbued it with learning and manners. He conducted military affairs carefully, and took the greatest care that soldiers passing hither and thither should inflict no damage where their route lay. He removed a scarcity of provisions by procuring grain from France, England and Sicily. He girded the city of Barcelona, where it faces the sea, with walls and a bulwark, to which the name of St. Francis has clung. He fostered religious communities with alms, and secretly fed those whom the inconstancy of fortune had thrust down from wealth to want, and took pains that no one should go away from him sad. Finally, what was the Viceroy's manner of governing and his success you will gather in general from the testimony of the archbishop of the same city, cited by Álvaro from the Process of Saragossa, which runs thus: It was the public voice and fame that in the time of his government justice, temperance and prudence reigned, and iniquity and malice were shut out, and it seemed to all in common that an angel had come down from heaven to govern them. These are nearly the chief heads of the things which his biographers report Francis to have done for the province imposed on him by the emperor: then they set out how he lived privately.

[60] privately with long prayers; Francis, whom a little before they had depicted after the likeness of an excellent secular prince, they present in this place as a distinguished cultivator of Christian piety: they praise him greatly, and not undeservedly, for his zeal for prayer and penance, for his chastity, for his frequent use of the Sacraments — Ribadeneira indeed more briefly, Nieremberg and Álvaro Cienfuegos more fully: I shall relate the principal things in summary. As regards his zeal for prayer, Álvaro relates that, from the time he conceived the purpose of changing his life for the better, every day, as soon as he had sprung out of bed, he gave in the first months four whole hours, then five, and a little later even six, to mental prayer: this finished, having first greeted his wife, he presently attended the divine office: then he devoted himself to public affairs and to his office: he recited, according to the statutes of the Order of St. James (that Order was approved by the supreme Pontiff Alexander III in the year 1175 on the 3rd day of July), the seven canonical hours, and likewise a certain number of Lord's Prayers and angelic Salutations at prescribed times, with mind and mouth together: after dinner he was wont to converse with his family for some time, but about pious things. The rest of the time which he had free from occupations he gave to the reading of sacred books, to diligently telling his prayer-beads, and to holy thoughts. Then he made an examination of his faults, and, if he had committed anything less rightly, was wont to rage sharply against himself: finally he was accustomed to take only four or at times five hours of sleep, Nieremberg adds, chapter 15. And what was said a little before, that our Viceroy was wont to go to greet his wife before attending the divine office, ought to seem wonderful to no one: for the pious spouses had already by mutual consent bound themselves by a vow of continence and had exchanged conjugal love for a fraternal and purer one, at the instance, as Álvaro writes, of Juan de Tejeda of the Order of St. Francis.

[61] Now as regards the frequent use of the Sacraments, to frequent use of the Sacraments, he received the sacred banquet of the Eucharist on all Sundays and the more solemn feasts, on the latter indeed in the metropolitan church, on the former in the domestic chapel. To these were added also the days on which the laws of the Order of St. James prescribe that this be done: and with how great preparation of mind he was wont to do it you will gather even from this, that, as Álvaro relates, in the year 1539 on the Vigil of the Nativity of the Lord he did not approach the sacred table until he had first meditated on the divine mysteries for seven continuous hours and had duly confessed his faults. So frequent a use of the Sacraments was very rare at that time, so much so that it was almost a scandal, even learned men disputing among themselves about the matter. Nor indeed did the Viceroy do this without counsel, but on the advice of distinguished men of the Order of Preachers, Tomás de Guzmán, elected Provincial of Spain in the year 1539, and Juan Micó, who was Francis's confessor: that Juan, in order that a successor might be elected on Guzmán's death, held a chapter at Barcelona in the convent of St. Catherine the martyr in the year 1541, Francisco Diago writes, book 1 of the History of the Province of Aragon of the Preachers, chapter 62, and adorns him with a remarkable eulogy in some of the chapters immediately preceding. On the same matter, moreover, Francis wrote to St. Ignatius in the year 1542.

[62] Hear on what occasion this was done. Araoz, sent into Spain in the year 1540, St. Ignatius having been consulted on the matter, when the Society had not yet been fully approved by the supreme Pontiff, as Orlandini writes at this year, num. 99, and having landed at Barcelona by a storm, so acted there that he left among the people of Barcelona no small desire of the Society. The same returned into Spain in the year 1542 together with Diego de Eguía, as the same Orlandini witnesses: when they reached Barcelona, they so commended themselves to the city that they easily won for themselves the goodwill and favour of almost all the chief men: among these was Borgia, still at that time Marquis of Lombay, and his wife Leonor. It happened that Araoz, while he was engaging in pious conversations with the Viceroy, made mention of the Eucharist, and set forth how great Ignatius was in that kind. The Viceroy knew the institute of the Society of Jesus, already approved by Paul III, and had heard many illustrious things of Ignatius: he therefore gave letters to Ignatius, in which he consulted him about the frequent use of the Eucharist. Ignatius answered almost in this manner: since he was assured of the uprightness of his life from the report of others, he thought it would be to his advantage if he received sacred Communion with love and reverence every eighth day; that this is not the least fruit of this Sacrament, that it calls men away from vices and grave faults, or, if perchance they fall, that they recover themselves the more quickly and easily: he should therefore choose for himself a prudent as well as pious man, by whose counsels he might stand in that matter. The answer of Ignatius pleased the Viceroy, and thereafter he willingly used the counsels of ours.

[63] and with wonderful bodily Further, the austerity of life which he used towards himself was worthy of astonishment: in the year 1540 he began to forbid himself all supper, and to take no more at dinner than a very little of vegetables, bread and cold water, although he entertained his guests sumptuously and according to his dignity. He began likewise to keep that manner of fasting which is in use among the Franciscan Fathers in the time of Advent, from the 4th day of November until the Nativity of Christ: he devoutly wore the girdle of the same Order, as a tertiary of it, and was called, with his wife and children, into the communion of all good works in the year 1541 by Juan Calvo, Minister General of the Order of Minors, letters of this kind being given to him from the chapter of Mantua: To the most beloved in Christ and most illustrious lords and ladies, the lord Francis Borgia, Marquis of Lombay, Viceroy of Catalonia, and the lady Leonor de Castro, his wife, the lady Juana de Meneses, her sister, the lords Carlos, Juan, Álvaro, Fernando, Ildefonso de Borgia, their sons, and the ladies Isabel, Juana, Dorotea, their daughters, and also the lady Beatriz de Sosa, their cousin, Brother Juan Calvo, Minister General of the whole Seraphic Order of Minors, everlasting salvation in the Lord. Since in the utmost poverty of things readiness of mind ought not to lie hidden, we judge it indeed unworthy, and to be branded with the vice of an ungrateful mind, if we render no recompense for such great merits of yours towards us, whose great * affection of charity towards us we experience by sure indications of benefits. But indeed such are the offices of your kindness towards the Religion of our institute as can be repaid by no temporal things, which we renounced from the profession we entered upon. On that account, looking with pious affection of mind to the holy love with which you follow the Observant sons of our Seraphic Father Francis, we, who, although unworthy, hold the supreme summit of the threefold Religion of the same, receive all you aforenamed, by the authority which we exercise, with sincere love of charity, into the fellowship of our confraternity, both while you live and likewise when you have died. And lest anything be lacking to the pious desires of your soul, we impart to you also each and every suffrage of the same Order, and moreover the bestowal in every way of all spiritual goods whatever, the more liberally, so that, helped by the manifold protection of suffrages, you may merit both in the present the increase of divine grace and in the future the rewards of eternal glory. Given at Mantua in the sacred convent of St. Francis, in our general chapter, on the 10th day of June 1541.

Br. Juan, as above, with his own hand.

[64] So run the letters of Juan Calvo to the Viceroy in Fr. Juan de Luca in the continued Annals of the Minors at the year 1541, num. XI; he gives himself to torments of the body. from which let it suffice to have noted these things by the way. Further, the abstinence from food and drink which we have mentioned Francis after the year 1541 extended not only into the two Lents but into the whole year. Besides, he put on a very rough haircloth and was girded with an iron chain, even for the most part while he slept: he did not go to bed until he had soundly received the scourges: and then the ground was his bed: how long he was in praying has been said above: and while he poured out prayers he lay with his face upon a mat placed on the ground. By this abstinence it came about, says Schott, Ribadeneira's translator, that, whereas he had been very stout in body and belly, his tunics were shortly too loose, and his garments could be doubled over. It came about likewise, as Álvaro adds, that he had gangrene in the mouth, his molar teeth corrupted by continual fluxions, and a stomach so intolerant of all food that he was continually compelled to throw it up, and was tormented daily for about two hours with such pains that he seemed to be in danger of his life: finally that the huge bulk of his body, for which, so that he might sit conveniently at table, part of the table had first to be cut away in a circle, scarcely clung to his bones.

[65] From here Ribadeneira proceeds to the death of Juan, duke of Gandía, [to Juan de Tejeda an indication is given that Francis would be set over the Society,] by which the Viceroy was recalled from Catalonia to Gandía: but Nieremberg and Álvaro Cienfuegos relate certain particular things which happened before Juan's death, and so before Francis's departure from Catalonia, and which are not to be passed over altogether unmentioned. About the time at which the Viceroy had first come to Barcelona, Juan de Tejeda, of the Order of St. Francis, understood by divine revelation what would become of him, and to what sublime summit of holiness, towards which he was already being borne at a swift pace, he would one day attain. There was presented to his mind the likeness of a certain man of a countenance courteous as well as venerable: he saw him set as it were as monarch of a certain religious body (which the event proved in Francis, afterwards raised to the government of the whole Society of Jesus): he saw of how excellent holiness he would be, and to what sublime things he was destined by God; but who that man was he did not know; and, driven by a certain impulse, going out in public, to Francis, thus

by the will of God, he came upon him, and at once recognized that this was he of whom he had perceived such illustrious things. He went therefore to the Viceroy's house, and in brief words revealed what he had perceived, adding that it would come about that he would become a priest and a religious, although he was then of a far different station and order. That was the beginning of the intimate bond which afterwards existed between Tejeda and St. Francis. Álvaro adorns this nursling of the Minorites, illustrious for holiness of life, the gift of prophecy and heavenly favours, with an ample and surely not undeserved eulogy in the Life of Borgia, book 2, chapter 12, and the Society of Jesus always held him dear, if only on this account, that at his instance Borgia afterwards gave his name to the Society. Whoever wishes for more about him, let him go to Álvaro, already cited, or to Juan de Luca in the continued Annals of the Minors at the year 1541, num. 17 and following.

[66] He dissuades Charles V from the African expedition, In the same year, as Álvaro proceeds to narrate in the following chapter, the Turks on one side inflicted a notable disaster on the Christians, and, Buda having been taken, Vienna in Austria was already feared for: on another side the Algerian pirates frequently infested the coasts of Spain from Africa: the French were threatening Italy: the emperor, having dismissed the Diet of Regensburg and coming into Italy, thought that he must first of all take care to check the incursion of the pirates. He therefore undertook a naval expedition against them, although at an unseasonable part of the year, but altogether unhappy: for, the business unaccomplished, many men lost, and his numerous fleet torn by the force of storms, he was compelled to abandon Algiers, whose siege had been begun, and to set sail back to Europe. This calamity would not have befallen the emperor if he had obeyed the counsels of Paul III, the Roman Pontiff, whom he had met at Lucca in Italy, or of the principal captains, or the letters of Borgia, given to him on that matter. For the emperor, about to transport forces into Africa, gave letters to Borgia, and wished to be informed what his opinion was: Borgia not only himself gave himself to prayer and fasts, but, having sent a messenger to the virgins of St. Clare, also earnestly asked them to do the same, and not to cease praying God that he would grant a prosperous outcome to the emperor's undertakings. They obeyed, but at the same time reported to Borgia that the affair would turn out badly for the emperor. Nor did Borgia think otherwise: he therefore dissuaded the emperor from that expedition as vehemently as he could. And the emperor, having suffered the disaster, mindful of what Borgia had written to him, said more than once that he had never come upon Acts from which he might learn more safely what would be for his advantage than from the opinion of the Poor Clares of Gandía and of Borgia. So nearly Álvaro at the year 1541.

[67] he conquers himself, To the following year he refers what has been said above from Ribadeneira about the coming of Araoz to Barcelona. Álvaro then narrates, as Nieremberg also does, a notable victory gained by the Viceroy over himself. On the feast-day of the Finding of the Holy Cross, while the nuns of St. Clare of Gandía were pouring out prayers for the Viceroy, some of them saw a cross of immense weight placed upon his shoulders: they judged at once that he should be warned to receive it patiently and not unprepared: but he had already got through the danger before the messenger reached Barcelona: yet the messenger was very pleasing to him, because he understood not obscurely from this that he had done a thing pleasing to God. And the matter stood thus: on that day the chief persons of Barcelona of both sexes had gathered in the Viceroy's house: but the women apart, the men apart, because the former had asked this of the Viceroy. The Viceroy had undertaken that he would watch that no one should disturb them by entering. While they were conversing, a youth of the first nobility, who had then come to Barcelona, approached the Viceroy; by whom having been kindly received, he presently wished to enter the next chamber, into which the company of matrons had withdrawn. The Viceroy forbade it, saying that he was under instructions not to allow any man to go in to them. He, thinking an injury had been done him, cried out that he was not one to whom access ought to be shut, that he would enter in spite of the Viceroy, and, drawing his dagger, advanced right up to the Viceroy. The rest, moved by the indignity of the thing, were already putting their hands to their swords: the guards were present, ready at the Viceroy's nod to do whatever he should order: he signs to them with his left hand not to move from their place: with his right he lifts the curtain hung from the door, and, since, he says, it will be neither pleasing nor useful to God, nor to the emperor, nor to the commonwealth, that one of us two should perish for so light a cause, go in. He showed himself before them, but was received so coldly that for shame he rushed out of the Viceroy's house, and then out of Barcelona, as quickly as he could. The matter was not long hidden from the emperor, who would have punished the youth more severely than he did had not Francis pleaded his cause by letters.

[68] The emperor Charles, whom we saw in the previous year warring with the barbarians with less success, he helps the emperor with counsels, presently in the year 1542 had war with a far more powerful enemy, Francis I, king of France: he sent against Charles no small forces into Belgium and Piedmont, and besides Henry the Dauphin with a numerous army, to carry arms and war into Catalonia. Henry, setting out from Narbonne, made straight for Perpignan, the head of the county of Roussillon, and strove to surround that city with a siege before it was prepared for its own defence. Speed was needed: the emperor therefore ordered forces from every side to gather in Catalonia as quickly as possible, and effort was made that Perpignan, which the Dauphin was threatening, should be supplied in time with provisions, soldiers, fortifications, and all warlike apparatus, to which the industry and diligence of the Viceroy contributed much: the emperor signified by letters that this had been pleasing to him, and added that he wished the place to be provided for with other, and indeed more powerful, arms, namely with prayers, both his own and those of the nuns of St. Clare of Gandía, whom he knew to have great weight with God. Both obeyed the emperor's wishes; and the Viceroy received word from Gandía that the French would not gain possession of the city, provided those who defended it were not infected with the stain of heresy. The emperor, informed of this matter, ordered the third part of the garrison, since it was of Germans, many of whom were suffering from heresy, to go out of the city, others being substituted. Álvaro writes from a manuscript of Fr. Santander, who heard the matter from Borgia himself, that the Viceroy himself led the Catholic auxiliary soldiers to Perpignan, and led the Germans out of it. The outcome further was that which had been foretold by the nuns of Gandía. For Henry, having attacked the city in vain, led his army back into France in the month of September.

[69] Earlier, in the month of June of the same year, the emperor held an assembly of the Estates at Monzón, the emperor, which is a town of Aragon but situated on the confines of Catalonia, and in it he asked from the grandees of the kingdom a certain number of armed men in aid of the war, and other business of the kingdom was dealt with. Here it was plain how much the emperor valued the Viceroy's counsels: for when the others had departed, the two alone often deliberated together on the greatest matters. And the Viceroy was wont to take three days for himself, which he spent between prayers and works of penance, before he would deliver to the emperor his opinion on arduous matters. The same had left his wife Leonor at Barcelona. The emperor, to show how much he valued her too, ordered her to come to Monzón as soon as possible; and when she had scarcely arrived there, the emperor himself, which was unusual, went to her house for the sake of honour, which he also did for them when they departed for Barcelona. Worthy of observation is the answer which Leonor, who had gone through the exercises of St. Ignatius under the direction of Fr. Araoz, gave at Monzón. The lady María de Mendoza, joined to Leonor in intimate familiarity, said that it seemed strange to her that Leonor used such garments as befitted neither her age, nor her rank, nor her greatness: but she said: The Viceroy, my husband, goes about girded with haircloth, and shall I indulge in the adornment of the body? Far from it; I cannot but conduct myself otherwise than he whom God has given me as master, companion and rule of life.

[70] from whom he asks in vain leave to resign his office. While the emperor and the Viceroy were thus dealing familiarly at Monzón, the latter, having found a convenient time, recalled to the emperor's memory that he had long since pronounced a vow of living privately and consecrating himself to God, and again asked leave that, having laid down his office, he might be allowed to return to Gandía: the emperor refused, who had then resolved to set out for Italy and to leave the administration of Spain to Prince Philip, who was then betrothed to Maria, daughter of John III and of Catalina, the emperor's sister, sovereigns of Portugal: for thinking that Francis's counsels would be of no little profit to Philip in his own absence, in order to take from him the hope of departing, he set him over the prince's household; and he appointed Leonor and her daughters Isabel and Juana to the service of Maria, Philip's bride. So Álvaro, book 2, chapter 16, §2. At the time of the Cortes of Monzón the emperor also declared to Borgia that he had it in mind, after his example, to say farewell to the world and its pomps, and to give himself privately to himself and to God, as soon as the age of his son Philip and the advantage of the Christian world and of his kingdoms should permit, which we shall see he at length likewise carried out. The Cortes of Monzón having ended, Borgia returned with his wife to Barcelona, to attend to his office as usual; whither the emperor followed him in the month of October of the year 1542, as Sandoval writes, book 25, chapter 24 of the Life of Charles, intending to continue his journey from there into Castile. Having supplied from Nieremberg and Álvaro what was wanting in Ribadeneira, I now take up again the thread of the Life of St. Francis which Ribadeneira composed.

* read multæ

§ VI. He succeeds his deceased father; he provides for the good of the people of Gandía; he spurns riches, he loses his wife.

His father having died, made After the emperor's departure from Barcelona into Castile, Borgia was diligently administering his office as usual, when, as he was not expecting it, sad news was brought from Gandía, that his father Juan, duke of Gandía, had died, leaving a great longing for himself, namely on the ninth day of January of the year 1543, as Álvaro has it, book 2, chapter 17, §1. Presently, on the 14th day of January, he informed the emperor by letters of the most grievous wound which he had received by his parent's death, and asked that he might be allowed to betake himself to Gandía: so I gather from the letters of reply of Charles, by which he signifies to Borgia that he should not go from Barcelona to Gandía before the emperor himself had again come there, intending to go on from there into Italy and Germany. They were given at Madrid on the twenty-second day of January of the year one thousand five hundred and forty-third, as is expressly read in their copy which is with us, otherwise much corrupted. We also have a copy of letters of Paul III, the supreme Pontiff, to Francis, but equally faulty, by which Paul consoles him for his father's death, and heaps great praises upon father and Son alike: he says indeed that he grieves vehemently at the death of his father, a man, as he calls him, distinguished for authority, piety and virtue: but that this grief of his is lessened by the fact that he left a Son as heir who reproduced his parent no less in the image of virtue and soul than of body. That Paul also gave Francis the choice of which of his sons he would wish the cardinal's hat conferred upon, but that the duke of Gandía refused that honour out of modesty, writes

Álvaro, chapter 17, §6, from the testimony of Fr. Dionisio Vázquez, although no mention of this matter is made in the cited letters of Paul.

[72] When the emperor returned to Barcelona in the month of April, duke of the people of Gandía, he pleaded with him in many words to transfer his office to another and to give him leave to go away to Gandía: his father's last will, which it was wrong to delay, his domestic affairs and his widowed mother required this. The emperor at length assented to his wishes and established Francis as duke of Gandía, by which title I shall call him henceforth: but the emperor assented to his wishes on this condition, that, his affairs having been settled, he should return with his wife and daughters to the court of Prince Philip and his bride Maria, namely that they might there discharge the offices recently decreed by the emperor: Francis accepted the condition, but at the same time, taught, as it appears, by heavenly inspiration, he foretold that this would never be, and that it had seemed otherwise to those above, which the outcome of affairs demonstrated: for the premature death of Maria, Philip's wife, which followed in the year 1545 on the 12th day of July, made void the law laid on Francis, his wife and daughters. The emperor therefore going away into Italy, Francis returned to his paternal home, together with Juan de Tejeda, whom with the good leave of his superiors he had adopted as his perpetual companion and was wont to maintain in his house. These things nearly from Nieremberg and Álvaro.

[73] As much grief as his departure brought to the Catalans, so much joy did his coming bring to the people of Gandía, he provides excellently for the good of his people, who, as Ribadeneira writes, had placed great protection for themselves in his humanity and benevolence. When he came to Gandía, he first gave a specimen of benevolence towards his parent's household: for although he had a house well furnished with servants of his own, he would yet have none of his parent's ministers removed from his place. He restored the hospital and increased it with revenues. He fortified Gandía, on the side where it was unprotected, with moles, a ditch, a rampart and a wall, with newly cast cannon and military watches, so that it might be safe from the incursions of the African pirates: he increased the domain of Gandía by buying some neighbouring villages with his own money: he began a monastery for the Dominican Fathers at Lombay. These things Ribadeneira sets out in few words: nor does Nieremberg relate more in this place: Álvaro is much fuller, from whom I briefly cull what follows. Increased by a new dignity, he increased the exercises of piety and austerity of life to which he had been accustomed before: he so instructed his children and household to piety by words and deeds that his court seemed a dwelling of virtue. His liberality towards the needy and religious communities was lavish; his care and charity towards the sick the highest; he travelled through the townships and peoples of his domain, removed public scandals and vices, inflicted fines on blasphemers, had the conversion of the Moors to the Catholic faith supremely at heart, and established various laws useful to the public happiness as well as to the divine glory; all of which, as I said, Álvaro explains more fully and refers to the year 1543.

[74] he goes through the exercises of St. Ignatius, In the year which immediately followed this, Fr. Araoz was sent to the people of Valencia, who had given hope of founding a college, and during Lent he gave sacred sermons to the people with the greatest fruit: the Duke, eager to hear him, set out from Gandía to Valencia, and not only heard him frequently as he spoke, but also went through there, under his direction, the exercises of St. Ignatius, which he had already done at Barcelona, and filled the whole city with admiration of himself by the holiness of his life: this went ill with the demon; he appeared in a terrible form to the Duke as he was visiting the hospital, and burst out into such words: I wonder at you, who are so great, associating with such vile common people. The Duke repressed the enemy's pride with a humble answer: Indeed I wonder more, he said, at you, who are so proud, wishing to converse with me, so vile a man. For the rest, as regards the matter of the college of Valencia, he not only promoted it by his authority, but also helped it by contributing a thousand coins. Araoz, having departed from Valencia, made for Gandía for the sake of greeting Leonor, and when he had set out from there too, both spouses entered upon counsels about founding a college for the Society at Gandía, as Francis afterwards signified to Araoz by letters written on the 18th of November. Orlandini, in the History of the Society of Jesus at the year 1544, num. 125, writes indeed that Araoz made for Gandía for the sake of greeting Duke Francis, and makes no mention of the things which the Duke of Gandía did at Valencia when Araoz was there; but I would not dare to affirm on that account that what has just been said of these things from Álvaro was not truly said: for Francis could have returned from Valencia first, and Araoz afterwards have met him again, as also Leonor; and that this was in fact done so, Álvaro writes, book 2, chapter 18, §1.

[75] He frees his people from fear of pirates, Álvaro proceeds from here to the year 1545. About this time, he says, a certain apostate, feigning a solitary life and holiness, requested for himself, to inhabit, a certain cell situated on the sea-shore, to which a chapel sacred to St. Anne was adjoined, a place at that time altogether deserted for fear of the African pirates: when Borgia hesitated in doubt, Juan de Tejeda, consulted by him, answered that Gandía would be taken by the Moors if the old rogue obtained his wish. Afterwards it was certainly learned that it had been a military contrivance by which they might open themselves an entrance that way into the domain of Gandía; and a few days later it happened that the pirates engaged in battle with the peoples neighbouring Gandía, in which fight the traitor paid for his perfidy with death. Meanwhile the ships of the pirates did not quit the shores neighbouring Gandía; throughout the domain there was a great number of Moors: there began therefore to be alarm on every side, the Moors to be brought into suspicion of treason: for no other cause to rage with cruelty against the multitude; to search out secretly what was going on was a matter full of danger, to increase suspicions, and to apply new goads to minds already irritated. Nothing seemed wiser to Francis than to fly to God and prayers: nor did his opinion deceive him. For rising once from prayer, he declared that neither would Gandía be taken by the pirates, nor were the Moors of his domain plotting treason, but that the people were feigning vain fears for themselves; which utterance, received as an oracle, dispelled the fear and restored tranquillity to the inhabitants of Gandía and to the neighbours alike.

[76] To these Álvaro adds some specimens of virtues of a soul by no means attached to worldly things by which the Duke at that time aroused Gandía to admiration of himself. He happened to be present with his wife at a sermon in the convent of St. Clare, over which presided Francisca de Jesús, the Duke's aunt, who had once appointed him heir of her goods: the orator, more eloquent than prudent, reproving the sacred virgins more freely than truly for allowing their goods to be spent by their kinsfolk on luxury rather than on the worship of God, said, turning to the nuns: If you are Saints, administer your goods by yourselves: they will be spent better by your hands than by those of others (this turning to the Duke), prodigal to the world, niggardly to heaven. The orator's freedom pricked the Duke's mind, although he was free of fault, and at the same time raised a scruple in his soul. When therefore the other had made an end of speaking, he went to the superior of the convent: you have heard, he said, the orator's words: I fear that I have not administered your affairs usefully enough: henceforth they will be dispensed at your discretion; so it will be that I shall have less of revenues and less of care. She, understanding that the Duke's scruple arose from lowliness of mind, and admiring the contempt of worldly things in him, answered that she had for certain ascertained that her goods had always been excellently managed by him, nor was he guilty of any other prodigality than that which should be called by the name of piety. Further, even if they should perish badly, it was nevertheless not right that she should thrust herself into those affairs which she had long since renounced for the love of Christ her Bridegroom. So it came about that the Duke, acknowledging his error, departed from her with serene countenance and mind.

[77] Another indication of a soul by no means attached to earthly riches, by no means attached given by Borgia, the same superior of the convent of Gandía was wont to narrate, says Álvaro, not without feeling: Juan, the Duke's father, had left by testament to Francisca de Castro y Pinós, whom he had joined to himself in a second marriage, revenues ample enough to maintain her dignity: but she, not content with these, wished her revenues to be increased: the Duke, as one who held his stepmother in place of a mother, desired to comply with her wishes rather than to pursue lawsuits. On the contrary, his wife and his other kinsfolk contended that he ought rather to serve the advantage of his children and his domain: that it would be a kind not of piety but of injustice if what was owed to his children, his wife and his family should yield to his stepmother. He went to jurists, by whose opinion, since Francisca was asking what was unjust, it came indeed to lawsuits, but in such a way that the Duke softened this evil, such as it was, as far as he could by undoubted signs of benevolence and reverence towards his stepmother. The cause was argued in the royal council; when it came to the votes, the greater part of the judges stood with Juan's widow, and perpetual silence was imposed on the dukes of Gandía. He received the sentence given against himself as gladly as if he had won the cause himself. Presently betaking himself to St. Clare's, he said to his aunt: I bring you glad news, that I have lost my cause: what matter that the victory has fallen to my stepmother, since it brings no less joy to me than to her? My estate will be a little diminished: but she who has won the cause has more need of these things that I have lost. With words of this kind Francis testified to his aunt the sincere joy of his soul from this matter: but he took diligent care not to reveal it to his wife, lest either he should add grief to grief, or their mutual love should take some detriment.

[78] he gives specimens. Likewise a certain priest, for very light causes, brought another suit about a certain stream against Francis, his lord: this went ill with the Duke, since he judged that it was not being done without all injury to himself. Having therefore summoned the priest to his house, he set before him unassailable documents from which his right was clearly established, and reproached him with the reverence he owed to his Lord, trampled underfoot. He received the Duke's words not without some contempt. The matter moved the Duke's mind; wherefore, having used sharper words towards the priest, with angry countenance, heavy step, and the thread of the speech he had begun suddenly broken off, he withdrew. But he had scarcely gone away when, coming back to himself, he ordered the priest to be recalled: when he saw the man, pale with fear, entering the house, he at once went out to meet him, and, throwing himself on the ground, did not cease to water the priest's feet with tears until he had obtained pardon for the deed, the whole blame of which he transferred to himself: presently he settled the suit amicably, more to his adversary's advantage than to his own. He ordered besides that inquiry be made secretly what expenses he had incurred on the suit, and that these be repaid to the priest, leaving an immortal example of his virtue.

[79] His wife Meanwhile a long and dangerous fever, with which his wife Leonor had begun to struggle about the beginning of the year 1546, struck him with a wound the graver, the greater the love with which he was borne towards her on account of the likeness of their manners, their intimate familiarity, the fruitfulness of their children and her excellent virtues: therefore he spared no prayers, poured out alms, ordered public and private prayers and Sacrifices throughout his domain, so that to his most beloved wife (with whom for some years

he had entered into a compact of continence, as Cienfuegos witnesses, book 2, chapter 10, §1) he might obtain from God her former health: nor altogether in vain: for once, having entered his chamber alone, witnesses having been removed, says Schott from Ribadeneira, he earnestly, with tears poured out, besought God that he would will his wife safe and surviving: when lo, he seemed to hear clearly a certain inner voice, as he himself afterwards related, which said: If you wish your wife to survive longer, let it be done according to your will: but it is not expedient for you. Nieremberg and Álvaro write the same indeed, but more explicitly; as those who relate that that voice glided down in a sensible manner to Francis's ears and mind from the image of Christ crucified before which he was praying on bended knees: to which matter, to make it credible, Álvaro, book 2, chapter 1, §1, cites the testimony, confirmed by oath, of Francisca de Jesús, Francis's granddaughter through his son Juan, and of six others, from the Madrid process alone. He adds that that image of Christ was carefully preserved in the Borgia family by Carlos, Francis's son and successor in the duchy of Gandía: but that he was compelled by the piety of the Poor Clares of Madrid, who greatly desired to venerate it, to send it at one time to Madrid; but that now (his Work on the Life of St. Francis appeared in the year 17 of this century) it is in the hand of the prince of Squillace, who has recently recognized the virtue and efficacy of that wonder-working bronze, not yet extinct.

[80] Further, Francis could not sufficiently wonder at the goodness of God towards him; nor could he do other than commit not only his wife's life, he loses. but also himself and all that was his, to the divine will, with the greatest readiness and at the same time lowliness of mind. Thereafter Leonor's sickness began to increase to despair, the physicians, ignorant of the cause of so great a change, being astonished. There was then at Gandía with some companions, says Álvaro, Fr. Oviedo, the building of the college of Gandía, which Borgia was planning, not yet having been begun: it was most pleasing to Leonor to enter upon the journey to eternity under his guidance: having therefore confessed to him the faults of her whole life amid showers of salutary tears, she received with like ardour and feeling of piety the other Sacraments of Holy Mother Church instituted for the protection of the dying. Nowhere was the Duke's help and solace lacking to his wife as she struggled with death. Álvaro relates from Fr. Dionisio Vázquez that he said to the dying woman that he would willingly die so that she might live, if God would exchange their lot: but that she received the Duke's words with a gentle smile and answered that this was by no means doubtful to her; since she knew for certain that he would do just as much for the vilest sick person of the hospital. Thus she hastened placidly to the end of her life, Francis looking on, which she at length reached, repeating the most sweet names of Jesus and Mary, on the 27th day of March of the year 1546, when Francis had not yet completed the thirty-sixth year of his age. Leonor left eight children, whose care and the administration of the household he committed to the prudence of Juana de Meneses, Leonor's sister. He himself, the due obsequies having been paid to his wife, betook himself frequently first to the monastery of St. Jerome, situated not far from Gandía, then to Valldigna, an abbey of the Cistercian Order, where, removed from almost all human company, he strove day and night by prayers, chastisements of the body and every office of piety to obtain for Leonor's soul a swift entry into eternal happiness: Álvaro adds besides that, while he was staying at Valldigna, he renounced the title of perpetual abbot which the dukes of Gandía enjoyed, which was a prelude to far greater things.

§ VII. He partly founds, partly fosters religious communities: he binds himself secretly by the vows of the Society: he causes the Exercises of St. Ignatius to be approved by Paul III, and gives examples of various virtues.

at Lombay a convent for the Dominicans, Illustrious indeed and worthy of admiration are the deeds which Francis had so far performed; but after he saw himself freed from the bonds of matrimony, he applied his mind to far greater things. It has already been related above from Ribadeneira that Francis began at his own expense a convent of the Dominican family at Lombay. That work was begun, as Francisco Diago writes in the History of the province of Aragon of the same Order, book 2, chapter 101, in the year 1543, while Leonor was still alive; but she departed from the living before she saw the finishing touch put to the work. First in the year 1548, as the cited Diago writes, Francis put the Dominican Fathers in possession of the monastery on the day before the feast of St. Dominic, and caused the bull of Paul III, the supreme Pontiff, obtained on that matter as early as the year 1544, to be publicly promulgated on the 14th day of September. He endowed the new monastery with suitable revenues, but strove most of all that those who first inhabited it should be men most approved for virtue and integrity of life, among whom there shone forth chiefly Juan Micó, who, as has been said in the foregoing, had once been the Duke's confessor, and Luis Bertrán, whom, enrolled by Clement X in the album of the Saints together with Francis, the Church now venerates. Francis aimed chiefly at this goal when he founded that monastery, as is read in letters written on that matter on the 4th day of the month of August of the year 1548, that teachers might not be lacking to the Moors recently converted to the Catholic faith, to cultivate their rude minds with Christian learning. These things he performed at Lombay, in order to protect and propagate the Catholic faith there.

[82] he founds a college and university at Gandía; But at Gandía, which was the head of his domain, he performed even greater things. He had long since fostered in his mind the purpose of raising up a University there: he had treated of that matter, as also of founding a college for the Society, with St. Ignatius, to whose judgement he at length committed the whole affair. Faber was sent by Ignatius to Gandía to begin the college: the foundations of the college were laid with solemn rite in the year 1546 on the 5th day of May. The building was shortly advanced so far that public schools were opened, and this was the first public school of letters that fell to the Society in Europe, as Orlandini relates at this year, num. 71: he built besides another dwelling for maintaining the children of the Moors and imbuing them with sincere religion together with letters: the college, for whose use Borgia planted a vineyard with his own hands, his sons imitating their Father's example, began to be inhabited by the companions in the year 1548 on the day before the Ascension of the Lord: and in the following year, on the Kalends of March, the letters of Paul III were recited in the church of the college before Duke Borgia, Francisco Roca, dean of the canons of Gandía, who was executor of the Apostolic mandates, Oviedo and Araoz, and the University of Gandía, to which Ignatius gave Oviedo as first rector, was published, and in the year 1550 likewise confirmed by the emperor, as Álvaro writes. Borgia wished it to be decreed among other things, by the same witness, that those who took a degree in it should confirm by oath that they would be patrons of the Virgin conceived without stain, and that example was thence spread to other universities also.

[83] he promotes that of Alcalá and that of Saragossa, The lavish prodigality, so to speak, of the Duke of Gandía towards the Society did not stop here. At the time when he was erecting at Gandía an ample church for the Society at the greatest expense, at Alcalá, where a very celebrated University flourished, he maintained a certain number of companions at his own expense: he gave letters to Fernando of Aragon, his maternal uncle, archbishop of Saragossa, and to the viceroy of Aragon, that they should found a house for the men of the Society of Jesus at Saragossa, offering besides of his own accord the dwelling he had there, and some revenues which the dukes of Gandía enjoyed in Aragon: at Seville, which is the head of Baetica, he persuaded his maternal aunt, wife of the duke of Medina Sidonia, and the wife of the marquis of Plego, that the same should be done, likewise transferring to the Society some revenues which he possessed near Seville: yet on that account he took nothing from the alms which he was wont to bestow on the needy whether publicly or privately, nay rather he increased them; so that it seemed like a prodigy that the domain of Gandía could then suffice for these and other expenses, and Borgia once confessed, being asked about that matter by Fr. Dionisio Vázquez, that all this, however much it was, must be ascribed to a hidden and singular benefit of divine providence towards him. So partly Orlandini in the History of the Society, book 2, partly Álvaro in the Life of St. Francis, book 3, chapter 2, §§3 and 4.

[84] Meanwhile the Duke of Gandía bore no less solicitude for cultivating his soul more and more: having gone through the exercises a third time, he had already gathered altogether exceptional fruit from the exercises of St. Ignatius at Barcelona and Valencia: he undertook the same at Gandía also, under the direction of Faber. He, having been summoned to Rome, died there in the same year, to the great grief of his brethren. Ignatius, although he made the very greatest account of the loss of this man, nevertheless consoled his followers, promising that it would shortly come about that another would give himself to the Society (this was Francis, duke of Gandía) who would easily repair the loss of Faber; and so it happened: for Francis, from the time he undertook the Exercises for the third time, as we have said, now altogether decided to carry out the purpose which he had once conceived in his mind of freeing himself from the cares of the world. His mind wavered between the Seraphic Order of St. Francis of Assisi and the newly born Society of Jesus. He sought the prayers of St. Luis Bertrán, of Micó, of Faber, of Tejeda, of whom above, of Oviedo and of others: Tejeda above all answered positively that it was the divine will that he should embrace the Society, which also, Álvaro relates, book 3, chapter 4, §2, partly from the testimony of Doctor Herrera, partly from letters on that matter given to Fr. Dionisio, was confirmed both to Borgia and to Tejeda by an intelligible voice through an image of the Virgin Mother of God. There was no need of more spurs for Borgia to conceive forthwith the vow of entering the Society: having therefore sent a messenger to Rome, he asked of Ignatius that he might be enrolled among the Companions, and the latter presently granted his wish, letters having been sent, whose sense Schott renders below at num. 51.

[85] Nothing could have been announced more welcome to Francis: and thereafter the sum of his wishes was that by the solemn profession of vows he might free himself as quickly as possible from the bonds of the world. he binds himself secretly by the vows of the Society, But neither through public nor through private business could this be done as quickly as he wished. Philip, prince of the Spains, being about to hold an assembly of the kingdom of Aragon at the town of Monzón in the year 1547, summoned the Duke of Gandía there: the prince had to be obeyed and public business handled: yet he did not so apply his mind to it, as Orlandini writes at this year, but that he took care that discipline, fallen into decay in some monasteries of virgins situated in Catalonia, should be restored according to the norm of antiquity: about the same time also he asked that Paul III be requested through Ignatius that it might be lawful for him to profess privately the solemn vows of the Society, and meanwhile to administer public and private affairs until he had provided for the needs of his children and household. This power having been granted him by the Pontiff, thinking that there should be no delay, without even awaiting the arrival of the tardy Araoz, he took the solemn vows of the Society in the chapel of the college of Gandía on the Kalends of February, sacred to St. Ignatius the martyr, in the year 1548, yet with few aware of it, namely the companions of the college of Gandía, as Álvaro says, and the Duke's sons, lest the matter should spread among the common people. Further, the cause of such haste was that he might escape the mastership of the household of Prince Philip, which was being negotiated to be imposed upon him.

[86] of the exercises Nor was this the only indication of his benevolence towards the Duke of Gandía which Pope Paul gave in this year: for Borgia, having again and again experienced the excellence of the little book of exercises of St. Ignatius, had previously besought the supreme Pontiff that he would fortify with his authority that little book, translated from the Spanish idiom into Latin; which the Pontiff indeed did amply and liberally in these words: Pope Paul III. For the perpetual memory of the matter. The care of the pastoral office committed to us over the whole flock of Christ, and the love of the divine glory and praise, cause us, embracing those things which help the salvation of souls and their spiritual progress, to admit to the grace of a hearing the wishes of those who request of us something that is able to foster and nourish piety in the faithful of Christ. Since, therefore (as our beloved son, the noble man Francis de Borgia, duke of Gandía, has lately caused to be set forth to us), our beloved son Ignatius de Loyola, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, erected by us in our gracious City and confirmed by us with Apostolic authority, has composed certain instructions or spiritual Exercises, drawn from the sacred scriptures and from the experiences of the spiritual life, and has reduced them to an order most apt for piously moving the minds of the faithful; and the aforesaid Duke Francis has learned not only by report brought from very many places, but has also ascertained by manifest experience, at Barcelona, at Valencia and at Gandía, that they are greatly useful and salutary to the faithful of Christ for spiritual consolation and progress.

[87] from Paul III Wherefore the same Duke Francis has caused us to be humbly supplicated that, in order that their fruit may extend more widely and more of the faithful of Christ may be invited to use them with greater devotion, we would deign to cause the aforesaid spiritual instructions and exercises to be examined, and, if we should find them worthy of approbation and praise, to approve and praise them, and otherwise to provide fittingly in the premises of our Apostolic kindness. We therefore, who have caused instructions and exercises of this kind to be examined, and have found, by the testimony and report made to us thereupon by our beloved son John, Cardinal priest of the title of St. Clement, bishop of Burgos and inquisitor of heretical depravity, and by our venerable brother Philip *, bishop of Saluzzo and vicar general in spirituals of our said City, and also by our beloved son Egidio Foscarari, master of our sacred palace, that they are full of piety and holiness, and are and will be very useful and salutary for the edification and spiritual progress of the faithful.

[88] obtains approbation: Having also, not undeservedly, due regard to the abundant fruits which Ignatius, and the aforesaid Society instituted by him, do not cease to produce in the Church of God among all nations everywhere, and to the very great help which the aforesaid exercises have brought to this; inclined to supplications of this kind, by the aforesaid authority, by the tenor of the present letters, from certain knowledge, we approve, commend, and fortify with the patronage of the present writing the aforesaid instructions and exercises, and each and every thing contained in them: exhorting very much in the Lord each and all the faithful of Christ of both sexes, wherever placed, that they be willing devoutly to use such pious instructions and exercises and to be instructed by them. And also granting that instructions and spiritual exercises of this kind may freely and lawfully be printed by any bookseller to be chosen by the aforesaid Ignatius: yet so that after the first edition they may not be printed, without the consent of the same Ignatius or of his successors, either by this one or by any other at all, under penalty of excommunication and of fifty ducats to be applied to pious works. And commanding nevertheless all etc. Given at Rome at St. Mark's, under the ring of the Fisherman, on the last day of July, 1548, in the fourteenth year of our Pontificate.

Blo. El. of Foligno.

[89] Having pronounced the vows of the Society, he held nothing more important he settles his domestic affairs, than to carry out accurately each thing which he had received in commands from Ignatius. As soon therefore as it was allowed, he settled his domestic affairs and provided for his children. To Carlos, his elder son and successor, he gave as wife Magdalena Centelles, daughter of Francisco, count of Oliva, and of María Cardona, afterwards heiress of her father's county: of his other children Ribadeneira here is altogether silent: but Álvaro writes, book 3, chapter 8, §1, that Alfonso, a youth of tender age, was left to the power of his brother Carlos: and that it was Francis's wish that Juan, Álvaro and Fernando should embrace the ecclesiastical state or a religious Order. The youngest of his daughters, Dorotea, had taken Christ as her Bridegroom in the convent of the Poor Clares of Gandía. Juana, the second-born, married Juan Enríquez, marquis of Alcañices; and Isabel, the eldest, married the elder son of the count of Denia, the count of Lerma, Francisco Rojas Sandoval: in her nuptials there shone forth a remarkable caution of Francis: he did not give the betrothed the opportunity of conversing until the marriage had been duly entered upon and the sacred rites performed in the principal church, to which he led his son-in-law straight on his arrival from Denia at Gandía; which, besides Ribadeneira, Dionisio Vázquez wrote from the account of the count himself, as the cited Álvaro says, §2.

[90] By the same letters by which Ignatius had adopted the Duke of Gandía as a nursling of the Society, He studies Theology. he ordered him to resume the study of letters, to apply himself skilfully above all to Theology, as being most necessary to a priest, and also to take the laurel of doctor in the University of Gandía. Borgia carried out these things with no less zeal than pleasure, being wont to withdraw together with his sons into a part of the college of Gandía, so that he might devote himself to studies, as Ribadeneira testifies in Schott, where he also sets out what plan of studies and manner of life he then kept. He thought none of the scholastic exercises which the others performed alien to himself: and he made such progress in a short time that he carried all away into admiration of him: but the greater he was than the others, the smaller he seemed to himself, and the more he learned, the less he thought he knew; which he revealed in certain theses which he once undertook to defend among the companions after dinner: and they were of this kind: Positions of confusion. Out of nothing I was made. To nothing I have been reduced. What I am, I know not. If I know anything, this only I know, that hell is my home. Problem. Of myself I do nothing. They will be defended tomorrow after dinner. He obtained the laurel of doctor in the year 1550 from Fr. Oviedo, rector of the university, treated in no respect more gently than anyone else. Pérez, a distinguished theologian of the Order of St. Mary of Mercy, whom he heard, turning over in his mind his theological learning, could not doubt that he used another teacher, and that an invisible one; and some years later he was designated theologian of the council of Trent, as Dionisio Vázquez, Nieremberg and Álvaro write, from whom likewise are drawn the things which we have added here to Ribadeneira's narrative.

[91] He is called the Wonder of Dukes Meanwhile Borgia's fame spread far and wide, so that not a few men both of the ecclesiastical and of the secular order came to Gandía from desire of seeing him face to face and speaking with him. Among these was Esteban de Almeida, bishop of Murcia and Cartagena, who in the year 1548, turning over with ambitious mind I know not what great thing, wished first to meet the Duke of Gandía before he went to Castile, intending to lay there the foundations of what he was planning. He, although he had heard illustrious and famous things of Francis, soon perceived that these were less than the truth, contrary to what often happens. When he had spent some days in the Duke's palace, at his exhortation and through his conversations he bade farewell to the counsels already formed, and, his mind altogether changed, began to do altogether other things. Returned to Murcia, he could not restrain himself from adorning Francis and his familiar Juan de Tejeda with lavish praises in letters given on the 25th day of April of the same year to a prelate friend: I came, he said, to Gandía; I saw the Duke, the prodigy of dukes and grandees, wholly humble, wholly holy, and truly a man of God. See the rest in Esteban's letters, which Álvaro presents, book 3, chapter 8, §3. Further, the same Álvaro, in the chapter immediately following, relates some other particular things which happened to Duke Borgia when he was staying at Gandía, which it will suffice to cull in summary.

[92] He is illuminated with heavenly light. And first he says from the Saint's Processes that Francis, accompanied by only one servant (his name was Molto, and, his wife having died, following his Master's example, the pious man was enrolled in the Society), was wont in summer time to go out of his house towards evening as if for the sake of breathing purer air; but in reality that he might devote himself, in a certain tower set over the gate of the city of Gandía by which one goes to Valencia, to prayer and the contemplation of divine things until midnight: and further that it once happened that in that place the above-said servant saw his Lord absorbed in the highest contemplation and illuminated with heavenly light: likewise that the Duke often visited this servant's workshop, and, as he applied himself to his work, sometimes gave him a pious little book to read through, sometimes began pious and lengthy conversations with him, by which he was not only aroused to virtue but also instructed his fellow-workmen; and that the daughter of the same servant testified in the processes of canonization that her father, returning home from work, often said to her and to his wife: Our Duke is indeed a remarkable saint, and one day, whether living on earth or dead in heaven, we shall see him enrolled among the Saints.

[93] He gives examples of rare humility and other Álvaro then relates that Francis, ordered by Ignatius to moderate the rigour of his penance, did indeed go to bed earlier; but that the mere desire of obeying repeatedly interrupted his sleep; that he therefore covered his eyes with a veil, and that in this way it came about that he took a sleep as more prolonged, so also sweeter with pious thoughts: and that, since from that time especially he had begun to be infested by spectres of demons, and those frequent and terrible, Borgia, armed with the arms of prayer, received the demon's illusions with undaunted mind, despised and routed them. To these he subjoins examples of rare humility in Borgia. Araoz had come to Gandía, involved in a dangerous sickness: Borgia had seen him often before, although he was over the others, occupied in the labours of the kitchen, and serving food to the community in the refectory. Borgia wished to render the same service to the sick man: he therefore hurries to the kitchen, lights a candle, pours water into a pot and puts it on the fire, cooks a pair of eggs, and himself carries this to Araoz: eat, he says, the eggs which I have cooked; if perhaps they offend by hardness, you will pardon me: for I have never cooked eggs at any other time. Services of this kind he often rendered to ours at other times, and being asked by Oviedo how much he valued them: so much, he said, that I judge myself unworthy of their reward.

[94] Equal to his humility was the cheapness of the garments with which he was clothed. virtues. Fr. Rafael de Tejeda, about to depart from Gandía to Valladolid, being in need of an undergarment, happened to make mention of the matter before Fr. Oviedo, rector of the college of Gandía, Francis and others: when Francis heard it, he presently ordered his steward to have the garments which Rafael wanted made for him, adding in jest that he did not know whether Rafael would be willing to wear them, since he himself wore them: inasmuch as they were so worn and torn that the Duke suspected what was the case,

as Fr. Rafael confessed in letters which he gave in the year 1586 on the 21st day of May to Fr. Dionisio Vázquez, adding besides that there were not lacking both secular and ecclesiastical men who reproved the Duke on that account; but that he was not at all moved by it either to change the cheap kind of garment or to go about in more ornate attire. Finally, as Álvaro proceeds to narrate, he had already then so blotted all worldly things out of his mind that he seemed to have transferred even all his love for his children and kinsfolk entirely to the members of the Society, whose institute he had already embraced.

* Archinti

§ VIII. His affairs having been settled, he goes to Rome, promotes the cause of the Society, and shines before the Companions by a wonderful lowliness of mind.

Having settled for the most part Not yet had the four years elapsed which Paul III had granted to Francis for settling the affairs of his family, when, his affairs having been duly settled, he altogether decided to cast off his dignity, to strip himself of all things, and, like Abraham, to bid farewell for ever to his children and to Gandía: but he hung in doubt of mind as to where he should chiefly make his withdrawal. Should he remain in Spain? There was fear from the emperor, lest he should recall him to the court and set him over the household of Prince Philip. Should he go to Rome? No less fear was present from Paul III, lest he, who had once been honoured with the like honour by Alexander VI, and had already presented his brothers Rodrigo, in the year 1536, and Enrique, in the year 1539, with the Roman purple, should add him too to the college of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church; especially since they had already departed from the living. Ignatius was in a like doubt at Rome, as Ribadeneira witnesses, who was present at the event: but, Paul III having died in the year 1549 in the month of November, this fear ceased, and Ignatius at once ordered that he should be present at Rome in the following year, in which the Jubilee was to be celebrated.

[96] his affairs, Having received the letters of Ignatius, he presently proceeded so to dispose of everything that he could renounce his dignity without inconvenience to affairs either public or private, and now openly profess the Society. He made his testament in the year 1550, by which he wrote his son Carlos his heir, to whom he committed the administration of the domain of Gandía. The care of executing his testament (as I read in a mutilated copy of it) he left to Carlos just mentioned, to Juana de Meneses, Leonor's sister, to the Dean of Gandía, to the Prior of the Preaching Fathers of the convent of Lombay, to the Rector of the college of Gandía, and to Fr. Baptista Parma, of the Society of Jesus, master of Theology. He went to Lombay and Valencia, as Álvaro writes; to the former, that he might thank the inhabitants of the place for the fidelity shown to him hitherto, and bid farewell to the Dominican Fathers, for whom he had built a dwelling there: to the latter, that St. Thomas of Villanova, of the Order of St. Augustine, bishop of Valencia, might pray well for him. He visited for the last time, most lovingly, as one never to return there, the chief citizens, priests and religious of Gandía, and above all the sacred virgins of St. Clare, whom he followed with the most tender love. To Juana de Meneses he gave as a gift the image of Christ which he valued most highly on account of the benefits obtained through it. Finally, going away, he left to his children admonitions than which nothing more excellent could be said for their happiness and that of the domain of Gandía, whether in this life or in the future one. The speech which he made to his son you have nearly below, num. 56, in Schott. If you want more, Álvaro will give it.

[97] together with some companions The day appointed for departure was now at hand, the last of the month of August of the year 1550: Francis, having closely embraced his family amid tears and sobs, presently went with his son Juan, the companion of his journey, to the college of Gandía; where there joined him as companions from among the brethren Araoz the Provincial, Oviedo the Rector of Gandía, Francisco Estrada, Diego Mirón, summoned by Ignatius to Rome together with Francis to celebrate the congregation of the Society. There were added to these also Pedro Tablares, Manuel Sá, and Francisco Rojas; to whom Álvaro, book 3, chapter 10, §3, adds Hercules, and brother Julian, Araoz's companion. Ribadeneira and Nieremberg also relate that nine of the companions accompanied Borgia. The retinue was increased by nineteen servants of the Duke. Thus Francis went out of Gandía on foot and clad in his usual dress, the whole multitude of the people pouring out at the spectacle of so great a thing: when they came outside the walls of the city, having bidden farewell to his country in few words, tears flowing for joy and his eyes raised to heaven, he burst out in a loud voice into the Psalm, When Israel went out of Egypt, and, it being finished, he added: The snare is broken and we are delivered. Álvaro adds in this place that the gate by which he went out of Gandía was blocked up with a wall by his son Carlos as a perpetual monument of the event: but after Carlos's death it was opened again by his son Francisco, as one who, not undeservedly, judged that the eternal memory and fame of his Grandfather, known to heaven and earth, by no means needed a monument of this kind.

[98] Nor yet does Carlos seem to have blocked up that gate unfittingly, from Gandía to Rome because his Father had so departed from Gandía that he was never to return there: indeed, when many years after he had come into Spain at the command of Pius V, and to Valencia, which is only one day's journey from Gandía, he could by no means be brought to revisit his native soil. Further, Francis, having mounted a horse outside Gandía, steadfastly pursuing the journey begun with the same greatness and eagerness of mind, wherever his steps bore him, gave constant indications of no common holiness to his companions and to his hosts. Hear Orlandini, book 10 of the History of the Society of Jesus, num. 38, speaking of our holy Traveller: Now the manner of the whole journey, he says, was such that his retinue seemed not some popular multitude, but a well-ordered sodality of religious. So fitted and disposed were all things to discipline. Every day after prayer, and that a very long one, namely of many hours, he cleansed the faults of his soul by confession. He was always present at the Sacrifice of the Mass with a certain singular reverence for that mystery, and received the body of the Lord with pious mouth and mind; which was perpetual or customary with him up to his priesthood. His attire and clothing were below the dignity of a duke, below his person, nearer to a cleric's than a secular's. His daily food likewise very sparing, and taken once a day. His nightly rest, when deep sleep had overcome the servants, was interrupted by frequent scourgings. But the matter could not be done with so great concealment as to deceive the ears of the boys: they, awakened by the noise of the strokes, often counted the strokes themselves, the number of which, as counted by them, is established to have been above five hundred. Mutual conversation on divine things relieved the weariness of the journey, and the same by a certain alternation interrupted long silences of prayer.

[99] Although these things might suffice for Orlandini to be judged to have written deservedly that this company of travellers bore the appearance and image, proceeding amid constant works of piety, not of a popular multitude, but of a certain religious household, and that a well-ordered one, yet it will not be beside the point, I think, to add to these a few things from Álvaro, book 3, chapter 3, §3, by which Orlandini's statements may be confirmed or become more explicit: he relates therefore besides that from the very beginning of the journey undertaken the single hours of the day were so divided between the Duke, Juan his son, and the Fathers of the Society that each spent his hour in turn in prayer, a little apart from the others, so that the prayer of the travellers was almost perpetual: if they turned aside to an inn, the Duke with his son and the Fathers of the Society went into a private chamber, and some pious book was read aloud to all: very often also a sacred sermon was given, now Araoz, now Oviedo, now Estrada, sometimes also the Duke, though unwilling out of lowliness of mind, speaking to the others. Then they made together the daily examination of conscience, and, this done, the Duke sought out those places where he might indulge in prayer and sighs without a witness. If he happened to come upon poor people, he invited them to the inn and refreshed them with food and drink ministered with his own hands. It happened not rarely that, meeting travellers of humbler condition, he gave up the horse on which he was riding, nor did he mount it again until he had covered some miles on foot, not without fatigue; yet he did not allow the others to do the same, lest what he himself did should turn to the inconvenience of others.

[100] he is received with the highest honour both in Italy, Nothing was so vexatious to him on his journey as the honours with which the French and Italian grandees received him on his arrival: he had scarcely set foot in Italy when there came to him a messenger from Ercole d'Este, duke of Ferrara, to greet Borgia in his lord's words and to invite and conduct him to Ferrara: he, although most fleeing honours, yet judged that he would not be acting humanely enough if he opposed his requests, on account of the bond of kinship which existed between him and Ercole. For Ercole, duke of Ferrara, the II of this name, had been born of Alfonso and his wife Lucrezia Borgia, sister of Juan, duke of Gandía, the I of this name, and paternal grandfather of St. Francis; and Ercole and Juan, duke of Gandía, the II of this name, Francis's father, were therefore first cousins, children of a brother and a sister. And Ercole received his cousin's Son with great signification both of honour and of love for four days, as Ribadeneira, Nieremberg and Álvaro write: but Schott, the translator of Ribadeneira, expressed only three days: was it because he departed from Ferrara on the fourth day from his arrival? So indeed I think. He was also received with remarkable ceremony at Florence, where he stayed only two days, by Cosimo de' Medici, grand duke of Etruria: he had designated a magnificent and excellently furnished chamber for the duke of Gandía: but he, retiring to bed, lay down on a carpet spread on the ground. He persuaded each Duke to found houses for the Society throughout their domains, with such fruit that in the following year the colleges of Florence and Ferrara began to be founded. Likewise, passing through Bologna, he greatly promoted the affair of the college of Bologna with the Pontiff's legate, so that he can be held as it were the founder of these colleges, says Álvaro, who also adds that Francis was entertained very honourably at Parma by the duke of the Camertes, namely Ottavio Farnese, who, having restored to the church the duchy which he had obtained from Paul III, became duke of Parma and Piacenza after Pier Luigi Farnese had been killed by some conspirators in the year 1547; whose son was that Alessandro Farnese, especially renowned for military affairs excellently conducted, above all in Belgium.

[101] and at Rome, When the Duke of Gandía had reached Viterbo, he had decided to enter the walls of the city of Rome secretly and without noise: but a messenger came there from Cardinal Cueva, that not a few of the number of the Cardinals, and the envoys of princes, were already hastening to meet him: that it was fitting that he should admit this honour: that these things were due to the dignity both of the emperor and of his ancestors. Ignatius also wrote to the same effect at the urging of the grandees. The Pontiff sent someone to meet him, to congratulate the Duke in his words on his happy arrival, and to offer him perpetual hospitality in the sacred palace while he remained at Rome. Some of the Cardinals also did the same: but he thanked them all, pleading the faith he had given, that he would use no other hospitality than that which his companions used, that is, the Roman house of the Society of Jesus. He was two or three

leagues away from Rome when a huge multitude of Spanish and Italian nobles received him as he came; they were followed by the emperor's ambassador to the Pontiff, accompanied by many nobles and prelates. There was present among the rest Fabrizio Colonna, attended by a troop of Roman nobles and a great body of horse, so that the number of those coming to meet him bore a certain appearance of an army. So again Álvaro, who drew almost each and every thing related here about Francis's coming to Bologna, Ferrara, Florence and finally into the city of Rome from the Letter of Fr. Tablares, which he wrote a few days after Francis's arrival in the City, namely on the 28th day of October, sacred to the Apostles Simon and Jude, and he presents in the Spanish idiom the very letters on that matter of Fr. Tablares, who followed Francis from his departure from Gandía all the way to Rome.

[102] He was led into the City with this pomp, where, turning aside to Ignatius, which, the more magnificent it was, the more grievous it fell upon his modesty: having entered the City he made straight for Ignatius, who was awaiting the Duke's arrival on the threshold together with the other companions: when he dismounted from his horse, he was reverently brought into the house, and Andrés de Frusis congratulated him in the name of all on his happy arrival in it. The retinue having been dismissed, the Duke, throwing himself on the ground and taking Ignatius's right hand, humbly asked that he would pray well for him; then they came to embraces and kisses, tears flowing on both sides for joy, especially as Ignatius already then foresaw how much of divine glory and of advantage to the Society this new Offspring would bring. The next days had to be given to restoring his strength, wearied by the journey, and to admitting the greetings of the grandees; his strength now restored, he went to kiss the feet of the supreme Pontiff (this was Julius III) according to the custom of our forefathers, on the day, as Fr. Tablares testifies in the above-mentioned letters, of the Holy Apostles Simon and Jude, or the 28th of October. Julius received the Duke of Gandía with greater inclination of mind than he was wont to receive other princes, commended his piety towards the sacred thresholds of the Apostles with exquisite praises, and again offered him the Pontifical palace, if he wished to use it; but just as vainly as before. The Pontiff therefore ordered, as the said Fr. Tablares relates, that he should consider with himself against their next meeting in what matter he wished to be benefited; saying that he would do it willingly. And when Francis had departed, he testified that he had recognized great and generous spirits in him, and added the wish that God would give them increase to the glory of his name.

[103] Thus honourably brought back home, says the Latin translator of Ribadeneira, num. 60, of the Roman college, he seemed to be restored to himself; yet he visited for the sake of courtesy the Cardinals whom it was necessary to visit. Freed at length from these cares of greetings, he visited in order the sacred churches of the Saints, using as guide of the way and nomenclator a little book of itinerary: in which churches innumerable relics of blessed Martyrs, more than anywhere else, are preserved and frequented by pious men. To which he subjoins that Francis laid open to Ignatius the whole course of his past life, expiated by sacred confession at the time of the jubilee all the faults of life he had ever contracted, and did many things illustriously at Rome; but above all that by his care and labour the foundations were laid of the Roman college, whose usefulness afterwards flowed far and wide through the Christian world. These things Ribadeneira, but very concisely after his manner: Orlandini, Nieremberg and Álvaro Cienfuegos relate the same more explicitly, from whom I will go on to illustrate a little more distinctly Ribadeneira's general statements about the things done illustriously by Francis at Rome. For beginning the Roman college he presently paid out six thousand gold pieces; he invited by his letters various princes in Germany, Spain and France to send their children there: he applied to the building of the same college, with the emperor's leave, for five years, some annual revenues which he received by the benefit of Charles V, which Philip II, king of the Spains, willed to be prolonged likewise for another five years. He obtained for the same, from a friend, a revenue of a thousand gold pieces, nor did he lay aside his particular care of it while he lived; so that Ignatius deservedly offered him the titles and honours of founder, which however he not only did not admit out of modesty of mind, but said they should be kept for another who should support so vast a structure with a richer revenue and fulfil all the parts of a founder, which praise Gregory XIII, supreme Pontiff and true parent of the Society, afterwards attained.

[104] and he diligently promotes the affair of the professed house, And when Francis had observed that the church of the Roman professed house was too narrow to be equal to holding the daily concourse, he caused another, and one more capacious, to be raised from the foundations: he used in this matter the liberality and help of the bishop of Squillace, a most devoted lover of the Borgia name, who together with the Duke and Ignatius duly laid the first stone of the sacred building, the same Juan his son and the rest of the Duke's household also contributing their labour. That work indeed, as Orlandini writes, was afterwards abandoned, and another church far more august was built in a more suitable place: but not on that account did the Duke's piety lack its merit and reward with God. For the rest, the cited writers are silent about the name of the bishop of Squillace: in this year (1550) there were two bishops of Squillace living, according to Ughelli, augmented Italia Sacra, volume 9, column 447, each a Spaniard by race. One of these was Alfonso de Villalbos, who occupied the see of Squillace from the year 1549 to the year 1568: the other Enrique de Villalbos de Xeres, the former's paternal uncle, as Ughelli writes, who, having presided over the church of Squillace for nine years from the year 1540, resigned it, and died at Rome in the year 1554. This one, therefore, I would say more probably went to Rome after he had renounced his see, spent the rest of his life there, and is indicated in this place by the biographers of St. Francis and by Orlandini. Álvaro writes besides that Francis, at the time when he was staying at Rome with Ignatius, urged the archbishop of Genoa, namely Girolamo Sauli, to establish a house for the Society at Genoa. Orlandini also writes that Francis did the same; but at Genoa, while he was still on the journey to Rome. However that may be, This man, says Ughelli, augmented Italia Sacra, volume 4, column 899, received the Fathers of the Society of Jesus at Genoa to spread piety and learning in the year 1553, in which, as Orlandini witnesses, book 13, num. XI, with the consent of the republic added to the wishes of the Sauli family and of many citizens, twelve Fathers were summoned to Genoa, a stable seat however not yet having been found for them.

[105] And what the Duke of Gandía was at home, hear in the words of Orlandini: No less admirable, he says, book 10, n. 43, was the Duke in our house, where there was also a greater opportunity at hand for the use and exercise of virtue. and shines before the companions with wonderful lowliness of mind. Once when certain Fathers were about to sup with Ignatius, the Duke suddenly appeared together with his son Juan, girded with a small towel for the sake of serving, and, leave for this having been obtained by pressing, and water having been poured on the hands of the guests, he began to bring the dishes to the table, bareheaded, like one of the boys of the household, and served diligently through the whole supper. Then, the table having been cleared, he went straight and silent into the kitchen, to clean the soiled dishes. Ignatius however refused, content with the examples already given, and lest he should weary one unaccustomed to labour. Nor was the fruit of pleasure which Duke Borgia took from the intercourse of the old Fathers less than that which the Fathers took from his example: but especially from the intercourse and familiarity of Fr. Ignatius, to whom, as he had already done before by letters, he gave and devoted himself wholly. Not unlike these are the things which Álvaro relates, such as is what I relate from him. On the first day on which he took dinner in the refectory together with the companions, Ignatius ordered him to sit at a more honourable place at table; which fell so grievously on his modesty that by many prayers he extorted leave from Ignatius to sit, together with his son Juan, the emulator of his father's humility, at a lower table, separated from the others and appointed for those guilty of some fault: thus as he dined there was not lacking one whose reproof he might receive with the same confusion of countenance with which one guilty of a graver offence is wont to receive the sentence of a judge.

§ IX. Having renounced his property and titles, he puts on the habit of the Society, and, having received sacred orders, begins Apostolic labours.

He again asks leave to renounce his property; of the Roman purple Francis vehemently desired to grow old in the City, partly led by reverence for the sacred places, partly wonderfully charmed by the intercourse of Ignatius and the companions, and as quickly as possible to cast off his fortunes and titles. The emperor was away in Germany, involved in a grave war: to him therefore he sent from his household Gaspar Villalón with letters full of contempt of himself, so that with the emperor's good leave it might be lawful for him to transfer the lordship of his domains to Carlos, marquis of Lombay, his eldest son. These letters were written at Rome on the 15th day of January of the year 1551, and are extant in Ribadeneira, book 1, chapter 23, in Spanish; but it is of no concern to record them in this place, since the reader can consult them below, num. 63 and following, put into Latin by Schott. While Borgia was eagerly awaiting the emperor's reply, a great fear arose from Pope Julius. The Duke's purpose had begun to creep through the Roman curia; and Julius, admiring the greatness of his soul and his virtue, thought he would be doing a thing very useful for the good of the Church if he should co-opt Francis into the college of Cardinals, and the Pontiff had already seriously resolved upon this. Struck by this sad news, the Duke consults Ignatius as to what must be done. The same opinion stood with both, that, taking to flight as quickly as possible, he should withdraw himself from the eyes and at the same time from the honours of the Pontiff.

[107] fleeing into Guipúzcoa for the sake of declining it, Torn away therefore with difficulty from Ignatius, whom he held in place of a dearest father, and from the other Roman companions, accompanied by the same Fathers and servants with whom he had come to Rome, he made for Spain with what speed he could; and when he had arrived there, fleeing far from the court and his native country, he made for Guipúzcoa, a province of Cantabria, for two reasons chiefly, both because that province would afford him a safe retreat from the noise of worldly affairs; and because Ignatius had drawn the first breaths of life there: as soon as he reached Guipúzcoa, he held nothing more important than to search out the site of the house of Loyola: led there, and taught where the cradle of Ignatius was, Lying on the ground, says Orlandini, book XI, num. 50, he began piously to kiss the first traces of the infant, and zealously to give thanks to immortal God that he had brought forth from there such a man for the whole world; at the same time praying and beseeching that he might be permitted to imitate the virtues and holiness of him whom He had given him as guide and master of life. Ribadeneira adds to these that Francis, led by reverence for the place, did not depart from there until he had attended the divine office and been refreshed with the sacred banquet of the Eucharist in the oratory of the same house.

[108] at Oñate, with the emperor's leave, he puts on the habit of the Society, Leaving the castle of Loyola, he betook himself to Oñate, which is a town situated four milestones from there: the house which Araoz's paternal uncle, dying without leaving offspring, had bequeathed to the Society for founding a college, here afforded hospitality to the Duke. While he was staying here, Villalón, returning from the emperor, brought most joyful news; namely the emperor's letters, by which, having commended Borgia's purpose and piety, he gave him power

to lay down the burden which he had long been bearing on unwilling shoulders. See the emperor's letters, written at Augsburg on the 12th day of February and made Latin by Schott, below, num. 65 and following. It cannot be said with what joy Francis was flooded when he had read them: presently, lying on the ground before the image of Christ hanging from the cross, he gave immense thanks to God for so glad news, and, having prayed with most ardent wishes that He would receive him, naked, naked into the arms of his mercy, he orders the deeds to be drawn up by which he ceded his principality and dignity to his son Carlos; he shakes off from himself the ornaments of a duke, puts on the poor habit of the Society, shaves his beard, and shaves the crown of his head, as one who was shortly to be ordained. Meanwhile those who were present wept, each one, and the whole household, sad and silent, lamented their Lord as if he were already breathing his last; he alone exulted, because then at last he seemed to be restored to himself and to be his own. There remained his servants, some of whom he commended amicably by letters to his son Juan, others to the absent Carlos.

[109] and, having received sacred Orders, Ribadeneira, comprising, after his manner, many things in few, presently sets before the reader Francis, now entirely freed from the cares of the world, offering at the altar the unbloody Sacrifice to God on the Kalends of August, which Orlandini and Nieremberg also do. Once more, therefore, it will be helpful to transcribe here in few words from Álvaro Cienfuegos, book 4, chapter 1, §1 of the Life of St. Francis, the things that are wanting in these. While Borgia was still staying at Rome, he had obtained from the Pontiff that in receiving sacred Orders he should be exempt from that law by which it is provided that sacred Orders be conferred on no one except at fixed intervals of time: using this grace, Francis invited by letters to Oñate a certain bishop, whose name, says Álvaro, was Gaona, at Calahorra, a city of Hispania Tarraconensis, to confer sacred Orders on him. Perhaps he was then exercising the episcopal office in the stead of Juan Bernardo Díaz, bishop of Calahorra, who in that year was present at the XIII session of the council of Trent, held on the 9th day of October, as may be seen in Labbe, volume 14 of the Councils, column 814. However the matter stands, which I would not dare plainly to assert, he came to Oñate, and in Whitsun week, as he had been asked, ordained Borgia to sacred Orders, and to the priesthood indeed on the day before the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, which in that year fell on the 24th day of May. Thus far from Álvaro: I return to Ribadeneira.

[110] The time that flowed from the 24th day of May until the Kalends of August, [he celebrates his first Mass privately in the castle of Loyola, and publicly at Vergara.] lest he should approach so grave an office less worthily than was right, he spent partly in assiduous prayer, meditation on divine things and affliction of the body, partly in thoroughly learning the sacred rites of the venerable Mystery: and on the very Kalends of August, in the oratory of the lords of Loyola, which Álvaro relates had already then been converted into a chapel from the birth-chamber of St. Ignatius, he offered his first Sacrifice to God, but without musical chant, and, this performed, he gave to his son Juan the Author of life hidden under the species of bread. Nor is the piety of Luisa Borgia, Francis's sister, wife of Martín de Gurrea, duke of Villahermosa and count of Ribagorza, to be passed over in this place, who sent as a gift to her Brother, about to go to the altar for the first time, some ornaments worked with her own hand. The second Sacrifice after the first he celebrated with solemn rite and publicly at Vergara, which is about two leagues distant from Oñate, not in the church of the place, although capacious and ample, but under the open sky, on account of the unusual force and multitude of the people flowing together from every side, which two causes had drawn there: one of these was the fame of Francis's holiness, which, spread abroad in every direction, was daily taking new increase: the other, that Julius III had granted a jubilee to all those who, duly reconciled to God, should be present at the first Sacrifice which he should offer publicly. A very great throng of men was present, nor did the morning suffice for distributing the divine banquet to the people. Having finished the Sacrifice of the Mass he spoke to the people. Of the hearers some were ignorant of the Castilian tongue in which he spoke; others, more remote from the pulpit, could scarcely or not even scarcely catch the speaker's voice; yet his speech was received by both with ears pricked up and with abundant tears: so much did the mere spectacle avail of the Man, lately a distinguished Duke, now a poor religious. Moreover they said that they had heard within, in their mind, certain silent voices, clear interpreters of what Borgia was saying. That these things happened, Álvaro adds, on the 15th day of November; and that the vestments in which he then performed the Sacred rites were preserved in the house of the Society at Vergara down to his own age, and, applied to the sick, often brought them health.

[111] Further, Francis, having entered upon the priesthood and been declared already a professed of the Society of Jesus, At home indeed an excellent religious, says Orlandini, book XI, num. 52 and following, loved a still more inward retreat and solitude, in which he might cultivate the pursuits of piety and penance more ardently. He therefore obtained from the people of Oñate that retreat, which is not more than a thousand paces distant, sacred to Blessed Mary Magdalene. Here he built a humble and very narrow dwelling, as the love of poverty required, of rough and unpolished material. Here he spent whole days in prayer, here strenuously broke his desires, here tamed body and soul alike, applied himself to Christian humility, and fulfilled all the parts of perfect holiness. And leave having been given by Miguel de Ochoa, who presided over the companions, he began to serve the household cook, and, like some drudge, not to shrink from mean tasks, to scour the cauldrons and pots, to handle with his finger the soiled dishes and wash them with boiling water, to sweep the floors, to carry water and wood, to build up the fire, to perform everything with his own hand, to shrink from nothing. Finally, having cleaned away the refuse of the kitchen and set everything neatly in order, he would come into the dining-room to serve his brethren, and sometimes kissed their feet one by one, and, having pleaded for pardon for his faults, humbly sought the prayers and wishes of each. Only six of the companions, as Álvaro says, were staying in this house; and such was the narrowness of the place that there was no lodging left even for Juan, Francis's son, to withdraw into, so that he had to be left at Oñate: yet it so pleased Borgia that he wrote to Ignatius that he would stay nowhere else more willingly than in this dwelling of poverty.

[112] but abroad he shows himself an apostle, Such indeed was Francis at home: but what was he abroad? And lest the exercise of virtue in the shade (I again use Orlandini's words) should profit only himself and those of the household, with a wallet placed on his shoulder and a staff in his right hand, glad and eager he went out to collect alms and to beg food from door to door. Aroused by which spectacle, men and women alike, either because he was already known to most by face, or because his fame had already filled everything, flew in rivalry out of their houses, eager to look at least upon his face close at hand, and, having kissed the bread which they gave, demanded in return his blessing and the suffrage of his prayers. Nor with less eagerness did he then go round the villages and neighbouring countryside with a little bell, to explain to a gathered flock of boys the beginnings of the Christian law. And as he taught, not weak age only, but often also that of mature strength, wherever he went, gave attention. So Orlandini: but lest anyone from his words, in which he says that Francis went round the villages and neighbouring countryside for the sake of explaining Christian doctrine to boys and adults, should think that this pious excursion was confined only to a small tract of land, it will be helpful to add here from Álvaro that Francis, in the manner and with the zeal just described, ran out not only into the villages neighbouring Oñate, but also into the principal districts of the three provinces, namely Biscay properly so called, Álava and Guipúzcoa, which Biscay taken generally and more widely comprises, to the great good of the inhabitants. And the authority of Ribadeneira adds not a little credence and weight to Álvaro's statements, when he testifies that Francis instructed boys from there as far as Vitoria, which is situated in Álava, and from the other side as far as the port of San Sebastián, placed at the extreme boundary of Guipúzcoa, and frequently gave sacred sermons to the people. The matter will likewise become more manifest from what we shall relate at the year immediately following from the same Álvaro.

[113] by his example to the Society This new kind of life, which Borgia had now begun to profess openly, gave occasion to various talk throughout Spain, and displeased many: those who had a sounder mind extolled him with the highest praises, among whom not the last was, as Nieremberg writes, Bernardino de Arévalo, a distinguished nursling of the Order of St. Francis: but his example availed more with many conspicuous either for brightness of race or for learning and piety than the foolish and silly mouths of detractors: for so great was the multitude of those seeking the Society in this or the following year (as the cited Álvaro says, chapter 2, last §, from Fr. Polanco, whose words he presents) that, if all could have been admitted, they would have been enough to fill many new colleges. Among these Luís far excelled the rest, brother of John III and of the deceased Empress Isabella. He wrote to Francis, already long known and dear to him, as we have seen, not only most loving letters, full of congratulation, in the year 1551 on the 3rd day of July, but also afterwards wished to be co-opted into the Society, although neither Ignatius nor Borgia judged that this would be for the divine advantage. Ribadeneira presents the letters exchanged on both sides in Spanish, book 2, chapter 3; his translator Schott in Latin below, num. 73 and following. The latter's letters of reply were written on the 15th day of August of the same year 1551, to which he signed himself: Francis the sinner; by which name he was wont to call himself from the time he took the habit of the Society, so that he might blot out from his mind, as far as could be done, even the very memory of his former dignity.

[114] Otherwise did the matter turn out in this same year for Bartolomé de Bustamante, Bustamante, a distinguished theologian, who had been secretary to Juan Tavera, archbishop of Toledo. He was of a mind averse to the Society; yet, solicitous for his salvation, he once earnestly prayed God during the Sacrifice of the Mass that he would show him, wavering among the rocks of the world, a sure port of salvation: he heard the voice of God; that he should go to the mountains of Guipúzcoa and cleave to the footsteps of the Duke of Gandía. Bustamante broke off all delay, and having set out for Guipúzcoa without hesitation, when he came to the retreat of Oñate he found Francis, who had filled that whole province with the odour of holiness, carrying stones and mortar for the building: falling on his knees before him, he opened his desire of entering the Society, and, having obtained his wish, was afterwards, on account of the singular prudence in which he excelled, given to Borgia as companion for many years. His vocation to the Society Álvaro ascribes to the year 1551, in which, when it had advanced to the month of May, he writes that the building of the retreat of Oñate was finished, book 4, chapter 1, §2. Orlandini, however, book 12, numbers 47 and 48, records Bustamante's vocation and entry into the Society at the year of Christ 1552, and of the Society 13.

[115] Otherwise likewise for Antonio de Córdoba, son of Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa and of Catalina Fernández

de Córdoba, He draws Antonio de Córdoba and others. marquises of Priego and counts of Feria, and Borgia's cousin. He was a youth of four and twenty years (see Orlandini, book 12 of the History of the Society of Jesus, num. 43), especially illustrious for nobility of race and excellence of learning, already then rector of the University of Salamanca, an office which was committed only to men of the first rank: moreover, at the emperor's request, he was shortly to be entered by Julius III into the senate of the purpled fathers: thinking himself unequal to this dignity, he asked Ignatius to be admitted into the Society of Jesus, as into the safest bulwark against honours of this kind, letters on that matter having been written to him on the day before the Kalends of April of the year 1552, which may be seen in Orlandini, in the book cited a little before, numbers 44 and the three following. No mention indeed is made in them of Borgia specifically: but that mention is tacitly made of him in these words in Orlandini: But the examples of the Saints openly teach what is to be done at these junctures of affairs; who fled those honours with the greatest effort: and in our times also we see excellent men renounce great domains (who would not believe that Borgia is here pointed at with the finger?) in order to serve God, much less to assume something new — this I altogether think. Borgia presently came to Salamanca, and it came about that Antonio, impelled in no small degree partly by his words, partly by his examples, went to Oñate before the letters from Ignatius had yet been delivered, and preferred the humble garment of the Society to the Roman purple. To the same place came Sánchez from Castile, Pedro Lodosa from Navarre: likewise two distinguished theologians, Diego de Guzmán, son of the count of Bailén, and Gaspar Loarte, illustrious for apostolic labours already undergone throughout the diocese of Calahorra. Ribadeneira records only these as having at present, in imitation of Borgia, given their name to the Society at Oñate, although he affirms not obscurely that more did the same. Álvaro subjoins to these Alfonso Manrique de Sandoval, son of the duke of Nájera, an anonymous Navarrese youth, likewise of noble birth, the vicar of Zumaia in Guipúzcoa, and Íñigo de Guevara, duke of Bovino in the kingdom of Naples, and others, who afterwards adorned the Society not a little.

[116] At Pamplona At the time when many distinguished men, invited by Francis's example and virtues, were giving their name to the Society at Oñate, there were not lacking others who sought his counsels in doubtful matters. Among these was Bernardino de Cárdenas, duke of Maqueda and viceroy of Navarre. He besought Francis by letters, and indeed, as Álvaro writes, repeated ones, that he would not be loath to come to Pamplona, the chief city of Navarre and seat of the viceroy, or, if that could not be done, to any other place of Navarre he pleased, where they might confer together in conversation. He came to Pamplona together with Fr. Doménech and Fr. Ochoa sooner than he was expected: he had scarcely dismounted from his horse when he entered the church neighbouring his lodging, to say Mass, sending Doménech meanwhile to inform the viceroy of his arrival. The viceroy wished to go out to meet him; but Doménech dissuaded him, who knew well how much Borgia fled honours. The viceroy therefore thought it enough to send two knights of the Order of St. James to meet him. When they came into each other's sight, there was much talk between them about the duties of princes. The viceroy laid open the secrets of his soul. And Francis not only fully satisfied the viceroy's mind, but also suggested precepts according to whose rule he might both compose his own life and govern the peoples entrusted to him; which indeed the viceroy received, as he had wished, set down in writing, and valued very highly. He gave frequent sermons at that time, either to the people in the cathedral church or to sacred virgins in the monasteries. In the morning, as he was going out to speak to the people, his two sons-in-law, the marquis of Alcañices and the count of Lerma, met him: having addressed them as they met him in friendly but few words, he hastened straight to the church, and a few days later dismissed them, admonished however not to visit him often.

[117] The people of Pamplona followed him as he departed not without tears, having returned to Vergara, he so cultivates it that it seemed another, still less the viceroy himself; especially when he saw some of his own household on their knees before him, asking to accompany him and to live at Oñate under the laws of the Society; but it seemed good then to defer their wishes. Having set out from Pamplona, he returned through Álava to Oñate, where many grandees came together for the sake of greeting him; and among others two of his sons, Carlos, duke of Gandía, and Álvaro; and a little later also the duke of Villahermosa, husband of his sister Luisa; whom he did not allow to stay there long, out of love of solitude. From here further he betook himself to the longed-for solitude of St. Magdalene, where, while he applied himself assiduously to meditations on divine things and to prayers, besides other heavenly favours with which he was blessed, he was divinely taught that a son had been born to Carlos, Duke of Gandía, and to himself a grandson. He revealed this when, to the messenger arriving with this news, who had not yet uttered a word, as soon as he had seen him, he said: How is little Francis? At the same place and time he wrote the treatise which he entitled On the Perfections of the Soul of Christ, of which afterwards. But the love of solitude in Francis was not such as to take away or lessen his care and solicitude for the salvation of others: for in the last three or four months of the year 1551 he so cultivated Vergara and its territory that the magistrates and chief men of the town, letters having been given to Ignatius, which Álvaro presents partly from Bartoli, could not proclaim worthily enough the fruits which Francis's labour and industry had produced among them, and further strove with the utmost prayers that he would not have them bereft of that man, by whose work it had come about that Vergara now seemed wholly other and altogether unlike itself. The priest of the place, whose words I render from the Spanish into Latin, wrote in this manner: Vergara has been made a pattern of Christian piety: so has Fr. Francis amended it, so instructed it to holiness of manners, who alone visits and instructs the whole neighbourhood. The wicked are changed into the upright: the upright strive up to the summit of virtue. Many of the priests cast away their riches, that they may devote themselves to the salvation both of themselves and of their neighbour. All Vergara humbly asks you that Fr. Francis may by your leave remain with it etc.

[118] And in the first months of the following year, when he had scarcely recovered from a fever, and other places of Biscay he made new excursions through the snow-covered mountains of Biscay, with equal labour and fruit. There are three places, mentioned by name by Álvaro (Horrio, Elgueta and Durango), which he watered with his apostolic sweat, in spite of the winter cold: of these I found the first marked on the geographical Maps which I was able to consult, although expressed somewhat differently (namely in this way: Orio), not far from the mouth of the river of the same name which rolls down into the Cantabrian Ocean near the port of San Sebastián, and so situated on the maritime coast of Guipúzcoa: and the third in Biscay properly so called, about five leagues distant from Bilbao or Flaviobriga. From there he came to Vitoria, which is the head of the same province, on the 12th day of February: lodging was offered him, but furnished with greater apparatus than his modesty would allow, and for that reason he turned aside to the Franciscan Fathers. On the following day (Septuagesima Sunday) the church in which he was to speak to the people was far unequal to holding the multitude, and to satisfy it he had to speak several times on the same day, now in the church, now under the open sky. The fruit was equal to the labour; many of the common people, of the clergy and of the religious families being converted to better and more perfect things. It was likewise treated with him about founding a house there for the Society, for which the citizens and some noble men promised that their help and means would not be lacking. Not a few followed him as he departed as far as Oñate, of whom he partly instructed some in virtue and piety by the exercises of St. Ignatius, and partly, having admitted others into the Society, distributed them into various colleges and provinces.

[119] he waters with apostolic sweat. After the excursion to Vitoria he made another on foot into the territory of Bilbao, at a slow pace, both in order to satisfy the advantage and desires of the villages through which his passage lay, and on account of the difficulty of the roads covered with waters and snows, and finally on account of the troubles of the gout from which he suffered. A great multitude of the people of Bilbao, poured out to meet him, as a splendid indication indeed of their reverence for Francis, but not with less bashfulness and shame on his part, joyfully led their most highly esteemed guest within the walls. When they had come there, Borgia first needed all the eloquence in which he excelled to obtain, with the good leave of the people of Bilbao, that he might be allowed to lodge in the common hospital of the poor. On the following day such was the concourse of hearers into the church in which he was to preach that there was need of the service of some men of outstanding bodily strength to open by force a way to the pulpit, the multitude having been removed as far as was enough. He here used such ardour of speaking, such straining of mouth and voice, that it was celebrated in the talk of many that words and flames together burst from his mouth; which surely were needed to break the inveterate obstinacy in sins and vices of the hardened, some of whom, it was established, were present among the other hearers. These and other labours of this kind of Borgia were followed by a great change of manners among the people of Bilbao; a great number of wicked people brought over to a Christian or religious life; the observance of former discipline restored among the sacred virgins; solitudes filled with new inhabitants, to wash away the errors of their past life by severe chastisement of themselves; monasteries increased and adorned with illustrious men. Moreover a desire seized the chief men of the city that a college should be founded there for the Society; but Francis wished that the care of this matter should rest with Ignatius.

§ X. He visits various towns of Spain not without fruit; he leads a colony of Poor Clares to Casa de la Reina; he declines the cardinal's dignity repeatedly, having taken a vow not to admit it.

A colony of the Poor Clares of Gandía It was not long permitted him, returned to Oñate, to be at rest: for at the request of the inhabitants he soon had to return to Vergara: he was explaining to the people here the Psalm of David Have mercy on me, O God, when letters were brought from Ignatius by which he was ordered to remove to Valladolid, then to Salamanca, and finally to Portugal; likewise to mitigate the rigour of his life: for Ignatius had been warned by his son Juan in secret letters that his father Francis now seemed not a penitent but almost his own torturer. Borgia at once obeyed, and, Fathers Bustamante and Doménech having been summoned to Vergara, he gave from the alms collected by him as much as was enough to the hospital in which he was lodging; what remained he sent to Oñate. Having set out from Vergara on foot on the 19th of March and entered Castile, he could not but visit his maternal aunt, Juliana of Aragon, duchess of Frías, and María de Velasco, countess of Osorno, as he had been asked by repeated and importunate letters: Juliana received Borgia on his arrival in her palace: but on the following day, as one who knew his modesty well, she offered him a poor little house, to which a small garden was attached, thinking that thus it would come about that he would visit them more frequently. The place in which Borgia met them Álvaro calls Casa de la Reina

2

which is situated in La Rioja, bordering on the province of Álava. For the rest, Borgia was not idle here either: to pass over the most salutary counsels with which he imbued those two matrons, he gave frequent sermons to the household of each, and with such fruit that once some maidens of their service, with tears poured out, asked of him as a benefit that by his work an entrance might be opened to them into some convent of Poor Clares.

[121] Francis had long since treated with Juliana that she should summon a colony of the Poor Clares of Gandía to that place, he prepares an entry to Casa de la Reina. and she had already obtained apostolic letters on that matter. Francis used the occasion, and began again to exhort Juliana to hasten to carry out what she had long since determined: when he had found her compliant with his wishes, he at once sent letters on that matter to Gandía to his aunt, the abbess of Gandía, and at the same time to Rome; so far did he let no time pass without always undertaking, with altogether unconquered strength of mind, something that would redound to the glory of God, although the bulk of his body was unwilling, being then so exhausted of strength that by the judgement of the physicians it utterly refused all medicine. About the same time also he uttered a notable prophecy: for when the countess of Osorno, María de Velasco, had asked him which of the virgins of Gandía would come to Casa de la Reina together with his aunt: There will come, he said, Sister María de Jesús, my two sisters, Sister María de la Cruz, Sister Juana Bautista, likewise the sister of the marquis of Denia. To these he added: My aunt will indeed wish to bring here with her Sister Dorotea (she was Francis's daughter), but Carlos, duke of Gandía, will resist, and I do not know whether divine providence … here, his speech broken off, when he had been silent for a little while, he suddenly burst out into these words: The matter is decided: Dorotea has this very moment entered the heavenly glory. Having said these things, when he had come back to himself, he blushed: but the outcome of events afterwards taught that he had foretold true things, nor did eight days pass from then before Dorotea's death was announced from Gandía: which things indeed the countess of Osorno confirmed by oath to have been both done and foretold so.

[122] he speaks to the people at Burgos and Valladolid, Having set out from there to Burgos, he had coming to meet him, by order of Cardinal Mendoza, the archbishop, Fathers Francisco Estrada and Fernando Álvarez del Águila: he lodged in a humble house near the parish of St. Giles. As soon as the rumour of his arrival had spread through the city, men of every rank came at once in troops for the sake of seeing or greeting him: there came likewise men sent by the canons to ask him in their name to speak to the people in the cathedral church: and he did what was asked, almost extempore, with greater admiration of the hearers than labour and study on the part of the preacher: since he had taken scarcely so much time for speaking as was scarcely enough even to run over in his mind by the way what was to be said. No less a concourse of courtiers took place for the sake of seeing him at Valladolid, where the court was then staying, although he had entered the city by night for the sake of avoiding it. Among these were Fernando Álvarez de Velasco, constable in the kingdom of Castile, supreme admiral, Ruy Gómez, prince of Eboli, likewise the marquis of Távara, who, treading in Borgia's footsteps, transferred his wealth and titles to his eldest son. Of words, although he did not spare these either there, Francis had no need here, whose whole manner of life, and the condition of his person both former and present, admonished the courtiers enough and more than enough how fleeting and perishable were the things they pursued.

[123] at Toro he instructs Juana, princess of Portugal, in piety, Not far from Valladolid the princess Juana, betrothed to the prince of Portugal, was staying at Toro in the kingdom of León; who, when it had been reported to her that Borgia had come to Valladolid, at once sent someone to ask him to meet her at Toro. Borgia set out on the journey, and, passing through Tordesillas, went for the sake of honour to greet Juana, mother of Charles V: there was with Juana the countess of Lerma, Borgia's daughter; who however could not obtain from her father either that he should make a longer stay there or that he should use any other lodging than the hospital's: nor would he have remained longer at Toro, hastening to Salamanca as he had it in command from Ignatius, had not the princess Juana opposed it. Here he suggested to Juana a fixed plan and manner of life which she should keep perpetually thereafter; she gave ear to Francis for two hours daily as he discoursed on things pertaining to the salvation of the soul, and confessed all the errors of her life. Many noble women of the retinue imitated the princess's example, to whose instruction also Borgia's industry diligently laboured; finally on the citizens themselves, whether in holding pious conversations, or in giving sacred sermons, or in hearing confessions, he spent so much labour that, as Fr. Doménech, his companion, witnesses, he could scarcely have been equal to such labours without a prodigy. And when he had observed that many of the princess's retinue, whether men or women, were everywhere handling books more apt for corrupting minds and uselessly wasting time than for instilling and fostering piety, he brought it about that they were heaped up and given to the flames.

[124] To Salamanca, at that time a most celebrated university in the kingdom of León, he acts with no less fruit at Salamanca, he set out on Holy Saturday: with a great concourse not only of studious youth but of nobles and learned men he spoke to the people from the pulpit on the Easter feasts, and on Quasimodo or Low Sunday in the convent of the Augustinian Fathers, as Juan de Ribera, archbishop of Valencia, testified in the year 1608, whose words on that matter Álvaro presents from the Process of Beatification, book 4, chapter 4, §3 of the Life of St. Francis. He snatched from the world there many chosen from so great a supply of youths, and above all, as we said above, joined Antonio de Córdoba to the Society. From Salamanca he sent into rather distant regions Br. Juan Gutiérrez and Fr. Doménech, retaining Bustamante with him: Juan to Fr. Mirón, superior of the companions in Portugal, to inform him of the journey which Borgia had begun into Portugal, which however he did not complete this year, the face of affairs there, for the sake of which chiefly it had been undertaken, having changed: and Doménech for grave reasons into Guipúzcoa; he admonished both that on returning from the journey they should meet him not at Salamanca but at Tordesillas; that he would await their return there. He himself, having gone there somewhat later, would use no other lodging than before, namely the public hospital.

[125] It was plain here that knowledge of hidden things was sometimes divinely infused into Borgia as he prayed: at Tordesillas he utters prophecies, for once, coming away from prayer, he positively foretold to Bustamante that Br. Gutiérrez and Fr. Doménech would be present at Tordesillas on the following day. Bustamante received these words of Borgia with the greatest wonder, since he knew well that this could not be foreknown by human sagacity and industry, nor had any letters been brought to Francis about it either from Portugal or from Guipúzcoa: but when he saw both returning from their journeys on the following day, as had been foretold, he could no longer doubt that the prediction had proceeded from the divine inspiration which he had received in prayer. At the same time Philip, prince of the Spains, came to Tordesillas to see his grandmother there; he presently ordered Borgia to be summoned to him by a messenger; but the messenger had not yet reached the hospital in which, as has been said, he had chosen his lodging, when Borgia asked for an audience of the prince: he was held by Philip kindly indeed, for old friendship's sake, but also reverently, for the holiness which Francis breathed; which, if it could not but be pleasing and acceptable to Francis, he nevertheless conceived the greatest grief in his mind when he heard from the prince's mouth that the Roman purple was destined for him by the will of the emperor Charles: having therefore at once written letters to Ignatius, he vehemently asked that he would avert in whatever way he could the shipwreck threatening his tranquillity.

[126] There are also other things which he did illustriously while he stayed at Tordesillas: and restores a tooth knocked out, he was once reclining at table together with his kinsfolk, when a tooth was violently knocked out of his daughter Isabel, wife of the count of Lerma; Borgia picked up with his hand the tooth that had fallen on the ground and restored it to its place; which at once stood so firm that it was never afterwards moved from its place; nay, even many years after Isabel's death, when her bones were translated to another tomb, the rest being corrupted, it was found altogether entire and of the whitest colour: likewise on another occasion, while his son-in-law, his daughter and his grandchildren were conversing together at table, he burst out into such words: "Remember my words: not many years will flow by before one of us will depart from life by a sudden death: see that it does not find any of you unprepared, or that the bloom of age deceive and betray you." Borgia was no vain prophet, for in the year 1558 (as Álvaro writes; for others prefer the year 1555 or 1556) sudden death, falling upon Isabel, countess of Lerma, as she was drawing threads, suddenly broke the thread of her life. But Francis now invites us elsewhere.

[127] whence Having set out from Tordesillas about the same time as Philip, he hastened his return into Guipúzcoa out of desire for the solitude of Oñate: yet before he left the kingdom of León, he met at Medina (which got its surname from the river Seco) Fernando Enríquez, supreme admiral, and his wife, as he had been asked, where he chose to lodge with the Franciscans, the house of Enríquez having been refused: after he had satisfied the piety and the doubts of mind of this man's wife, he went to the village of Paredes, almost bordering on the kingdom of Castile: from there, leaving the kingdom of León and passing into Old Castile, he turned aside into the camp of Caesar, or, as others say, of Sigeric, called by the natives Castrojeriz; in each of these places some of his kinsfolk or connections were living, whom he would not pass by ungreeted. Burgos was about five leagues from here: he would not enter the walls of the city, lest he should be delayed; yet he met Fr. Estrada near them, and using him as guide and companion for about half a league of the roads, he at length arrived amid the pains of gout at the village of Villímar, less than a league distant from Burgos: Benedetto Uguccioni, canon of the church of Burgos, a man most devoted to the Society and founder of the college which his liberality and piety raised there for ours a few years later, received him, weary from the journey, into his house.

[128] he returns to Casa de la Reina, Having returned from there to Casa de la Reina, he was received kindly and amicably by the duchess of Frías and the countess of Osorno, almost all the strength of his whole body being exhausted. There was added a great evil from a quartan fever: which however did not prevent him from contributing such zeal and labour as he could to the salvation of his neighbours. Fastened to his bed, by the piety of his speech, the piety of his manners and the examples of Christian endurance, he profited those who came into conversation with him no less than his hearers from the public pulpit. On the days on which he was free of fever he spoke publicly to the people, and he was once seen, when his speech was most fervent, not to falter but suddenly to fall silent and be rapt out of himself, the ring of hearers meanwhile being astounded. When he came back to himself, he duly completed the rest of the speech; but, when he had made an end of speaking,

in order perhaps to withdraw himself from the importunate eyes and questions of the curious, he hurried away by flight from the sight of the multitude. The duchess of Frías and the countess of Osorno were present at the sermon which I have mentioned; who, although they strove for it with many prayers, could not succeed in extorting any of the things which had been presented to his mind: yet some years having elapsed, at the command of Fr. Melchor Marco, whom he obeyed as his superior, he related at least this, that there had appeared to him in that ecstasy the soul of a certain discalced Poor Clare of Gandía, his kinswoman and beloved for her merits, borne up to heaven surrounded with heavenly glory. The deed just related, to pass over other trustworthy witnesses, the countess of Osorno, of whom there was discourse just now, afterwards lawfully attested.

[129] Francis foresaw that the Poor Clares of Gandía, of whom above, and, the colony of the Poor Clares of Gandía having been led there, would shortly come into La Rioja: therefore, unknown to the duchess of Frías (who perhaps would have opposed the journey on account of his weak health), he went to meet them as far as Tudela, which is situated on the extreme borders of Navarre on the river Ebro: he here first came upon the duke of Maqueda, of whom above, greatly rejoicing that he was allowed to see Borgia again face to face. After some days the Poor Clares of Gandía likewise were brought to Tudela, whose band was led by the one who presided over the rest, Sister Francisca, Borgia's aunt, as we have said. How great joy he took from their arrival can be gathered from this, that he had formerly always held them in the highest esteem, and now had conceived the greatest hope that this new colony of virgins would produce remarkable fruits throughout Castile. Francis wished to accompany it for the sake of honour from Tudela all the way into La Rioja, until it had reached the place destined for it by the duchess of Frías (Casa de la Reina). Here they were most kindly received by the duchess of Frías and the countess of Osorno, and in a great house chambers both common and private were assigned to each. Francis remained in that place for some time, in order to promote and strengthen that work more and more; yet it came about that some years afterwards they departed from that place, of whom some migrated elsewhere, but the abbess with certain others into the royal convent afterwards founded at Madrid, as Juan Carrillo writes, History of the Poor Clares of Madrid, chapter 8.

[130] These things having been done at Casa de la Reina according to his wish, he returns to Oñate, to enjoy a laborious quiet. he returned with eager mind to Oñate, to enjoy again the longed-for tranquillity: there he showed himself guide and master in every kind of virtue to Antonio de Córdoba, who about that time had betaken himself from Salamanca to Oñate, and had begun a manner of life admirable even to the eyes of Borgia himself. Yet Francis did not so hide himself there but that he would suddenly come forth in public, whenever the salvation of his neighbour and the glory of the divine name required it. At that time two families in Biscay were engaged in mutual hatreds, not without scandal to the inhabitants and disturbance of the public peace: Borgia spared neither most difficult journeys over the ridges of Biscay, nor prayers, nor tears, until he compelled the leaders and heads of those at variance to come together into a covenant of perpetual peace and friendship. All these things nearly from Álvaro, who described the deeds of St. Francis more singly and more fully, and not in quite the same order as Ribadeneira, except that the latter as it were fuses into one Francis's various excursions while he had a fixed habitation at Oñate, so as to set many things in few words before the reader's eyes, to be surveyed as at a single glance. Now let us hear both further.

[131] Ribadeneira, book 2, chapter 5, records that a great danger was again presented to Borgia while he was leading a quiet and happy life at Oñate; He again declines the cardinal's dignity, from which however he was happily rescued chiefly by the prudence of Ignatius, so that he was not entered by Julius in the number of the purpled fathers; and that the matter stood thus: Borgia seemed to the emperor especially worthy to be offered by him to Julius III to be adorned with the Roman purple, which the emperor in fact did. Julius readily assented to the emperor's prayers, to which the consent of the Cardinals also was added: Ignatius, fearing lest, if a window were opened for the men of the Society to dignities of this kind, it should take great harm from that matter, moved every stone that this might not be done: but to bend the Pontiff's mind was an arduous and difficult matter. He at length persuaded him to offer Francis indeed the dignity which the emperor was requesting for him, but not to compel him to accept it against his will; that thus the emperor, the college of Cardinals, and finally Francis and the whole Society together would be satisfied. Borgia, informed of these things, grieved vehemently that the matter had been carried so far: but when he understood that the danger had already been dispelled by Ignatius's prudence, having given letters to the Pontiff, he gave such thanks as were fitting for the dignity offered him. So Ribadeneira in the place cited, and to almost the same come the things which Orlandini relates at the year 1552 at the beginning of book 12 of the History of the Society of Jesus. To these Álvaro adds that Juan Manrique de Lara, son of the duke of Nájera, was sent by the emperor from Innsbruck to Rome in the year 1552 on the 18th day of the month of March, and had it in commission to ask for four red hats, the first for Borgia, the second for Diego de Tavera, afterwards bishop of Jaén, the third for Antonio de Córdoba, son of the marquis of Plego or Priego, as Schott says; the fourth finally for Juan de Velasco; but that at that time this honour was decreed to Borgia alone: and that Antonio of Córdoba, having refused the Cardinalate, devoted himself to the Society after Borgia's example, we have already said above.

[132] which also on other occasions, Scarcely two months had passed since this storm was dispelled, as Álvaro writes, when a new struggle with the cardinal's dignity, which the cited Ribadeneira also mentions, had to be undergone by Francis, and indeed sharper and more vehement than the former. He had turned aside to Casa de la Reina together with Bustamante for the sake of fostering and strengthening the piety of the Poor Clares, who had recently come there to dwell, as we have seen, when, as he was expecting nothing of the kind, letters were delivered to him from Giovanni Poggio, legate of the Apostolic See, by which he was summoned to the town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, situated not far from Casa de la Reina in La Rioja. For Philip, prince of the Spains, when he understood that the cardinalate had been refused by Borgia, pressed the Pontiff to urge him by his command to admit the honours offered, even though reluctant: and the Pontiff enjoined Poggio to storm Francis's mind by whatever means he could, and, if need were, to add the threats of a command to reasons, yet not to impose it, lest the Pontiff should seem to break the faith given to Ignatius. Poggio did what he was commanded not sluggishly: but, overcome by the weight of reasons and by the effective eloquence of Borgia, divinely inspired, having changed his counsel, he urged Philip and Julius not to compel the Man to return to those things which, as he had once generously and of his own accord cast them off, so he continued most constantly to shun with his whole soul. And although Borgia had come to that struggle not unprepared by prayer, yet he ascribed its happy outcome to the prayers poured out to God by his aunt Francisca de Jesús and her companions.

[133] The affinity of the argument with which we are occupied brought it about that the oft-cited biographers of St. Francis, having even taken vows not to aspire to it, not observing the order of time, gathered together and brought forward as it were under one view all the supreme Pontiffs and other princely men, whether ecclesiastical or secular, who thereafter (for the struggle of Borgia just related was not the last) wished Borgia to be increased with the dignity of the cardinalate. Philip, prince of the Spains, as partly Nieremberg and partly Álvaro relate, before he crossed into England in the year 1554 to join to himself in matrimony Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and queen of England, again asked Julius III that Borgia be added to the college of Cardinals: but Borgia earnestly besought Julius by letters not to confer that dignity on him: and Juana, Philip's sister and princess of Portugal, did the same, by letters written to her brother at London, that he should not be adorned with that dignity against his will. Thus indeed it came about, Álvaro writes, that Ignatius required of Borgia a vow by which he should promise that he would aspire to no dignity either within or outside the Society, still less admit it without the Pontiff's command; nay, that he would report to the superior of the Society anyone whom he should find aspiring to it; which he both performed with a willing mind, and, propagated by his example afterwards in the Society, it has been perpetually observed by those professed of the four vows.

[134] Two years later, Ignatius having died, he had decided to set out for Rome to be present at the congregation of the Society; he did. but after he understood that he was awaited by Paul IV and that a cardinal's hat had been prepared for him by him, he bade farewell to the journey to Rome, so that Paul might remember nothing of one absent. Twice Pius IV had the same mind and the same purpose; first when he was vicar general, then when he was Superior of the Society. And Pius V had it in mind to compel Borgia even by command to undertake that degree of dignity; but the vows and prayers of the humble Man availed more than the counsels of princes and Pontiffs; since by much force of tears and blood, as Fr. Gaspar Fernández once heard from his mouth when he was his confessor at Rome, he obtained from God the grace that he would quit life before he would quit the habit of the Society. What of the fact that, Pius V having died, there was even thought of imposing on his shoulders the burden of the supreme Pontificate? Tomás Borgia, archbishop of Saragossa, brother of St. Francis, gave lawful testimony to this matter, framed partly in these words: Cardinal Paleotti charged me to procure with all my strength to bring Father Francis, my lord, to the Roman curia on the occasion of the election: because he knew that many of the Cardinals adhered to his most reverend Paternity etc. Borgia was then staying at Ferrara with the duke, who did not allow him to be torn from him, because he did not wish the sick man's life exposed to danger. Further Francis, when he had learned this by I know not what rumour, obtained from God that he should either be absent from Rome when the election of the new Pontiff took place, or depart from life, as Fr. Luis Santander witnesses, to whom Borgia himself related it. But now, the dignities which he refused being dismissed, let us return to his apostolic labours.

§ XI. He cultivates the dioceses of Calahorra and Burgos: his journey into Portugal: returned to Spain, he sows the seeds of some colleges.

The diocese of Calahorra From the letters which he gave on the 10th day of November of the year 1552 to the wife of the duke of Villahermosa, his own sister (see Álvaro Cienfuegos, book 4, chapter 6, §1, where he recites them in Spanish), it is clear that Borgia, the year already hastening to its end, was not free of fever, and that it seemed good that he should withdraw for the sake of a change of air to some port of Cantabria, yet not very far removed from Oñate: it is plain likewise from the same that, although affected in health, he did not even then lay aside his care of the things that served the increase of the Society, since by these letters he wished the affair of the college of Burgos seriously commended to his sister. He had scarcely recovered from the fever when, by Juan Bernardo Díaz, bishop of Calahorra, who had returned from Trent to his diocese, with most courteous

letters he was summoned, that the fruits which he had produced elsewhere he might gather at Calahorra also, where the licence of the people and clergy, the corruption of manners, public scandals and grave feuds and hatreds of the nobles, as Álvaro relates, gave great hope of a rich harvest. Borgia set out for Calahorra in the month of March, and presently, having begun sacred sermons, he so moved the people and clergy in a short time by the ardour and vehemence of his speaking that so great and so sudden a change of manners seemed to the bishop of Calahorra nothing less than a prodigy. Then with equal labour and fruit he watered with apostolic sweat Juliobriga (so some have called that town which the Spaniards call Logroño, situated on the river Ebro where it separates Castile from Navarre), the prelate of Calahorra accompanying him.

[136] and that of Burgos he cultivates: Meanwhile Cardinal de Mendoza, archbishop of Burgos, had treated with Ignatius at Rome that, since he vehemently desired to root out the vices of his diocese and to amend corrupt manners for the better, he would give that business to Francis. Ignatius complied with Mendoza's wishes, and Borgia, having departed from Juliobriga on the 15th day of April of the year 1553, with Antonio de Córdoba added to him as companion, skilfully undertook the new province. On most days he spoke to the people; innumerable were those whose confessions he heard; not a few men of the first nobility he instructed in a remarkable and constant piety by the help and aid of the exercises of St. Ignatius; he also compiled very many laws and instructions and transmitted them to Mendoza, which he might use, if it seemed good, for administering the diocese duly and usefully: and he underwent and went through these labours for the most part in spite of fevers, with which he was compelled to struggle again and again; yet none the less he never ascended the pulpit to speak except accompanied by a certain singular and wonderful force and efficacy of speaking as well as firmness of voice.

[137] having set out into Portugal, The Burgos mission having been finished, he went to Portugal: he had already been summoned there before by the letters of John III, king of Portugal, which Fr. Luís Gonçalves had brought him while he was still staying at Vergara in Guipúzcoa; but at that time his health was not yet, by the judgement of the physicians, so strengthened and sound that he was equal to undertaking the journey to Portugal without danger to his life: but when he was at Burgos, the sovereigns of Portugal, to whom Álvaro adds Luís, the king's brother, and Juana, princess of Portugal, again made known their desire of seeing Francis face to face to Fr. Jerónimo Nadal, commissary of the Society for all Spain, who was then staying at Lisbon. To this Nadal said that he had indeed no right over Francis, whom Ignatius had expressly exempted from the power of the commissary: but that he would cause Borgia to know what the will of the princes was: nor further was there any doubt in his mind that he would comply with the excellent merits of such great princes towards the Society, and render what was fitting. Borgia, informed of these things by Nadal, at once set out on the way together with Fr. Bustamante: having gone out of Castile he came to Salamanca in the kingdom of León: departing from there, on the seventh day after he reached Coimbra, which is a city of Portugal situated on the river Munda (Mondego), but not without a prodigy, by which it was granted from heaven at Francis's prayers that Bustamante, having fallen from very high rocks together with the beast on which he was sitting into precipices horrible even to look upon, escaped unhurt and unharmed a most evident and certain danger to his life not far from Coimbra, as Schott from Ribadeneira in the Life of St. Francis, num. 87, and other biographers of the same record more fully. Further, as Álvaro writes, book 4, chapter 6, §3, as soon as he came to Coimbra, although he wished to depart from there at once, he was compelled by the courtesy, prayers and tears of ours and of outsiders to make a stay there of six days, with remarkable solace and fruit not of outsiders only, but of ours above all; there was not even one of these who did not gladly and joyfully lay open the secrets of his conscience to Francis, and depart from him full of solace and eagerness.

[138] From Coimbra, after a journey of two days, he came to Lisbon on the day before the Kalends of September, and by the royal family received by the sovereigns with singular courtesy, says Schott, the translator of Ribadeneira; how truly this was said by Ribadeneira will be plain more clearly from what Álvaro adds, book 4, chapter 7, § I: as he entered the city, he says, there went to meet him the Apostolic Nuncio, the archbishop of Lisbon, the duke of Aveiro, two brothers of the duke of Bragança, and not a few others of the nobility of Portugal. When he had entered the college of the Society, there presently came Pedro Carvalho, of the king's household, to congratulate Borgia in his king's words on his happy arrival: the same was done by Queen Catalina, Luís the king's brother, and Juana, sister of Philip II, married to João, prince of Portugal. Being asked by Carvalho whether he had come wearied from the journey: I am, he said, somewhat: but much more from the title which you add to me (he had called him Lord for the sake of honour). On the following day he kept himself in the college for the sake of taking rest by the king's order, which however was most vexatious to Borgia on account of the frequent greetings and congratulations of the nobles and princes of the court: and on the third day he came into conversation with the sovereigns according to Álvaro; although Orlandini, book 13 of the History of the Society of Jesus, num. 47, relates that this was done on the second day from his arrival, which Nieremberg also does, book 2, chapter XI of the Life of St. Francis. Orlandini's words, from which you will besides understand with how great offices of courtesy he was received at the Portuguese court, book 13, num. 47, are these: On the following day he is invited by the sovereigns to a conversation. At his entrance the king and the queen alike rise up, and both most kindly come to meet him for some space. And the king indeed had taken off his cap, which honour he had never paid even to the dukes themselves and the nobles of his kingdom: and when he added to his kindness, insisting that he should sit down at once, the humility and modesty of the Father prevailed so that he addressed the king on his knees according to the custom of the nation; nor ever, although often ordered to rise and to rest on a chair prepared for that purpose, did the most modest Man admit so much honour: which honour, however, the sovereigns paid him not as a duke, for perhaps they would not have deemed one worthy of so much; but as a holy Man, who himself despised and trampled underfoot the things which others so greatly admire and are astounded at.

[139] honourably received, Nor less honourably afterwards (Orlandini proceeds after a few words) did Juana, sister of Philip II and wife of Prince João, and Maria, the king's sister, and Isabel, wife of Duarte, the king's brother, and Luís, likewise the king's brother, a man of most sweet and excellent manners, receive him. King John sent Borgia daily dishes from the court, as Álvaro witnesses, §2: the queen did the same, and the rest of the royal family emulated their examples: but in these one thing pleased him, that he had from them the means of giving to the hospitals of Lisbon. Twice daily, while he was at Lisbon, he had to go to the royal palace, and although the college was distant from it by a rather long interval, he would never use a litter. Queen Catalina, when she had heard that he was affected with a slight sickness, and knew that he used a bed furnished with neither curtain nor covering above, sent a canopy of green cloth, adding that she had found none cheaper in her court; thinking that thus it would come about that Francis would be willing to use it, since she was not unaware that, if it were more precious, he would certainly cast it away: yet the queen's care and industry were in vain: for either even that was too splendid for Francis's modesty and poverty, or by this name alone, that the gift had come from the court, it displeased him so much that he would not use it. From which indeed it is abundantly clear how great was the kindness and veneration of the Portuguese court, and of the king's family above all, towards him. But what return did Francis make for such remarkable benevolence?

[140] of his sermons He gave frequent sermons in the royal chapel before the king, the royal family and the nobles of the court, in which he reproved the vices of the court both freely and bravely: credence and weight were added to his words both by the speaker's former dignity and by his most upright and holy manner of life and manners, perpetually consonant with his words. It was especially delightful to Queen Catalina to hear him preaching from the sacred pulpit who, she remembered, had once served her among the number of the noble pages when she was at Tordesillas. To Luís, the king's brother, who, we said above, had sought the Society, it was most welcome to bind and confirm with closer ties the bond of friendship with Borgia, entered upon long ago in Spain when the emperor was girding himself for the expedition of Tunis: and although he seemed born and made by his own nature for virtue and piety, yet by Borgia's work and industry he became far greater than himself. The most pious manners of this prince, although they redound in great part to Borgia, I do not pursue at more length, because this has been abundantly done by Francis's biographers, as even those things clearly prove which Schott, the translator of Ribadeneira, relates below in the Life of St. Francis, num. 88 and following.

[141] Frequently likewise the queen conferred counsels with him on things pertaining to the salvation of the soul; immense fruits frequently João, prince of Portugal, and his wife Juana: and the noble matrons and maidens who were at court followed in the footsteps of the princes: they often gathered in the evening in some chapel together with the queen to hear Borgia: hence it came about that the frequent use of the Sacraments at court shortly grew so strong that they confessed their sins every eighth day: Borgia also took pains, lest the ardour of the piety begun should at some time grow lukewarm or perish, that on Sundays and feast-days some prudent and learned men of the Society should go to the court, whose office it should be either to give ear to those confessing their sins, or to explain the precepts of the Christian law, or to remind the princes of their duty and of the good example which they especially owed to the other faithful. He introduced the cult of the Virgin Mother of God into the Portuguese court by such a device: on some slips he wrote the chief virtues and praises of the Mother of God; to each virtue he added as many prayers suitable for obtaining them: then on an equal number of slips he wrote one by one the names of the queen, the princess and the other noble women. Then both slips, joined as the lot gave, were distributed to each on this condition, that for eight days they should strive with singular zeal after the virtue which the lot had offered them, and should daily recite the prayer added to it. By these and other institutions of that kind such a change of manners was shortly made in the Portuguese court that there was someone of rather free disposition and tongue who said that Borgia had come to the court with this plan, to turn the king's palace into a monastery, the appearance of which the royal palace then indeed bore.

[142] But this device greatly pleased the princess Juana: at court and Borgia, thinking that the opportunity offered him should be used, carried his industry further. Which device, says Orlandini at the year 1553, num. 49, since it had wonderfully pleased Juana, Borgia, who burned with a certain immense desire of spurring men to virtue, asked as his reward that she, who was mother and princess of the household, should with her whole court cleanse her soul in honour of the Virgin (whose birthday was then being celebrated),

and then strengthen it with the heavenly food. When he had easily obtained this, he himself, chosen as priest for the purpose, holding the most divine Host in his hand before he began to distribute it, spoke a few words, but burning ones, showing who He was whom he was holding in his hands, what His majesty and holiness: how great, on the contrary, the vileness and depravity of the man receiving Him. At which words, uttered with such feeling and at such a time, a great movement of the hearers followed. And from that time, in the princess's court, those sacred mysteries began to be performed salutarily and seriously every eighth day, and at least every fifteenth.

[143] Thus Francis was gathering an ample and rich harvest of his labours at the Portuguese court; and gathers in the city of Lisbon; yet he would have seemed to fail in his duty if he had not from time to time given part of his labours to the salvation and the advantage of the souls of the citizens likewise and of the mixed multitude. In various churches, as Álvaro writes, book 4, chapter 7, §3, he spoke publicly to the people, and by name on the 21st day of September, the feast-day of St. Matthew, in the college of St. Anthony at Lisbon, to which, to hear him, not only the inhabitants of Lisbon but also the king himself with the whole court came together; which sermon, although Ribadeneira has mentioned it, yet his Latin translator Schott has not. Likewise he aroused the greatest movements of souls on the Kalends of October at St. Roch, the sovereigns, princes and nobles of Portugal again being present; among whom João, the Portuguese prince, going out of the church, said that he heard with pleasure this orator, who pleaded no less by deeds than by words. On that day the Society had come by royal authority into possession of that house, which was afterwards the beginning of the most ample house of the professed at Lisbon, in which matter Francis's authority and favour availed much. Within the domestic hearth of the college he was beyond doubt no otherwise than we have said above that he was at Coimbra: from Álvaro, §4, this can be specially added, that there were, while Borgia was living in the college of St. Anthony, some of the companions who were wavering indeed in their vocation, but, strengthened shortly by Borgia's exhortations, came to their senses, and thereafter went on constantly to follow the kind of life they had taken up.

[144] which likewise at Évora These things having been done in Portugal, he departed from Lisbon on the 5th day of October: thence he came to Évora; Henrique, the king's other brother, then Cardinal and archbishop of Évora, and afterwards king of Portugal, having been informed by Luís, met Francis most amicably as soon as he arrived, and obtained that he should speak in a sermon on the following day in the cathedral church. Not far from there at that time was Jorge de Melo, the one who, we said, attached himself as companion to Borgia when he followed the emperor into Gaul. He greatly longed to speak with Borgia face to face for the sake of their old friendship; but the fever by which Jorge was held prevented that conversation: yet he set out on the way, with a rash daring indeed but a happy one: for he had not yet reached Évora before he felt himself, the fever already driven away, restored to his former health. After they had met amicably, Jorge wished to confess his sins to Francis: from which matter he was so greatly refreshed both in soul and in body that he returned to his people entirely sound in body indeed, and in soul thereafter grew warm for virtue no less than he had a little before been warm in body. These things concerning the meeting of Jorge and Francis Álvaro relates, perhaps from Fr. Dionisio Vázquez, whom he cites a little before, where he speaks of the meeting of Henrique and Francis at Évora.

[145] and at Vila Viçosa he does. From Évora, invited by the duke of Bragança, he suddenly set out on the journey to Vila Viçosa, with this purpose, that he might present himself to Duke Teodósio before the latter should go to meet him for the sake of honour: but Francis had to cover a journey of about eight leagues to reach the place to which he was invited: and so the duke of Bragança could be informed of his arrival in good time, as in fact happened. Francis was not far from Vila Viçosa when he had Duke Teodósio, surrounded by much nobility, coming to meet him: when they came into each other's sight, the duke leapt down from his horse, and Francis, having come nearer to the duke, and not thinking himself worthy of so great honour, suffused with a blush, threw himself on the ground at the duke's feet: the duke, presently embracing him as he lay so, led him to the palace, and there detained him for some days: meanwhile Francis after his manner instructed the people to salvation with sacred sermons, and so conducted himself with the duke that he vehemently kindled and increased in him the love with which he had hitherto embraced the newborn Society, which the duke afterwards transmitted to his children and descendants as if by a perpetual right of inheritance, as not only Álvaro but also Ribadeneira and Nieremberg relate. These things having been recounted, Ribadeneira and his translator Schott, and Nieremberg, set Borgia down at Valladolid in Castile and narrate his deeds there: but some other things must here again be culled at least in brief from Álvaro before we too proceed there, lest we treat his deeds less either fully or in order.

[146] Borgia, about to return from Portugal into Castile, made his journey through the kingdom of León, Returned to Spain, of some colleges in the kingdom of León, in Castile and in autumn reached Medina del Campo, situated on the extreme borders of the said kingdom and about eight leagues distant from Valladolid, where, Fr. Antonio de Córdoba celebrating at the altar for the first time, he gave a notable discourse with a great concourse of the nobility and common people, which he also did on some following days. Further, Borgia's coming produced there a twofold fruit chiefly. Some men of that town of no lowest repute were first of all of a mind averse to the companions; but Francis's presence brought it about that the hatred of the Society which had seized them was turned into love. And then the same presence profited very much for raising a college there. Those of the Society who had first come there had so far been using a hired house, and were maintained at the expense of Rodrigo de Dueñas: he had bought a garden and a place suitable for founding a college and had given it as a gift to the companions on the 29th of June of the year 1553: likewise a certain agent of the king of Portugal, who had come there to the fairs, had given a rich contribution. In the same year therefore the building of the college was begun, Francis laying its first stone: and the foundation of the church was begun in the year immediately following by Diego Ruiz de la Cámara, abbot of Medina, one of those who a little before had been less favourable to the Society. The last hand was afterwards put to the work by the care and expense of Pedro Quadrado and his wife Francisca Manjón, and revenues were established for the college. Moreover, from Medina del Campo he sent into neighbouring Castile two of the companions, Fr. Fernando Álvarez and Fr. Baptista Sánchez, to cultivate Ávila with their labours; whose industry was so approved that the city even then asked for a college of the Society; it began to be founded two years later, when Borgia was discharging the office of commissary of the Spains, and there went there by Borgia's order Fr. Fernando Álvarez (the one of whom mention has been made), a citizen of Ávila, and Fr. Juan de Prádanos. These, first of the Society, by a singular benefit of the divine Power entered into friendship with St. Teresa, that most choice flower of Carmel: she used each from time to time as confessor, and, under the direction of Prádanos, by the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius wished to purge and polish more and more a soul however most pure.

[147] To Borgia, intent on gathering so rich a harvest in the kingdom of León, there were frequently brought letters of most illustrious matrons, and in Andalusia by which he was invited with the greatest prayers into Andalusia, especially by the wife of the marquis of Priego, most eager to see her son Antonio de Córdoba, whom Borgia had in his retinue. He set out on the journey in the month of November of the year 1553 together with Fr. Bustamante, Fr. Antonio de Córdoba and Brother Bernardo: when he had reached the Marian mountains, situated on the confines of Andalusia and New Castile, Borgia gave an excellent specimen of Christian humility and gentleness, which Schott narrates in Latin from Ribadeneira, num. 85, thus: While he was going from the kingdom of Castile to Baetica, attended by his companions Antonio de Córdoba and Bustamante, in the rough and rugged Marian mountains (the inhabitants today call them Sierra Morena), weary from the way, he entered a public inn and lodging, to refresh his tired body with food while the midday heat abated. When he had dismounted, having entered the single and empty chamber of the inn, at once, as he is wont *, on bended knees, intent on prayer, he implored the help of God. Meanwhile the traveller returned who had occupied it first, his baggage having been placed there; and thinking that a common cleric had entered there and was trying under the appearance of piety to steal away his property, he began to quarrel angrily, to raise his voice, to hurl insults, and even to threaten blows. Francis, such was the modesty of his mind, rising from prayer, said: "Grant me this pardon, and be of tranquil mind. For it is not my purpose to shut you out of the chamber: rather, if I had occupied it first in time, I would willingly yield it to you. The blows which you threaten me with I confess indeed I have deserved by my sins." A crowd suddenly gathered at the voice of the man shouting, and when they had appeased him in his quarrelling and had taught him that those on whom he was vomiting his spleen were illustrious and famous men, he, restored to himself, falling on his knees with great shame of himself, begs pardon. But Francis, raising him from the ground and embracing him in the Lord, bade him sit beside him: exhorting him to patience, and that thereafter, if he were wise, he should not loosen the reins of anger. Álvaro adds that that man afterwards everywhere acted as a herald of Borgia's patience, avenged his anger on himself by a harsh kind of life, and as long as he lived was wont to have recourse to the men of the Society in doubts of soul.

[148] to the foundation Having at length crossed the Marian mountains and the river Baetis (they call it by the more recent name Guadalquivir), they proceeded as far as Montilla, where they found Antonio's mother eagerly awaiting her son with his companions. She was glad indeed at the sight and conversation of her son; but much more glad when she saw with her own eyes the holiness of her guests and the zeal for the divine glory with which they burned: after his manner Francis not only spoke from the pulpit, but also went round the neighbouring places, shaking a little bell in his hand and by its sound calling together the inhabitants and neighbours, to whom he then explained the precepts and institutes of the faith and of Christian doctrine: moved by these and other things of the kind, Catalina Fernández de Córdoba, Antonio's mother, began to be borne with wonderful love towards the institute of the Society, and to treat of founding the college of Montilla, which began to be inhabited by the companions in the year 1558, as Sacchini witnesses, part 2 of the History of the Society, book 2, num. 135. From the same likewise it proceeded that both she herself and Fr. Antonio greatly desired a house for the Society at Córdoba, in which city they were especially powerful by their authority and wealth. The marquis had written on that matter to Juan de Córdoba, dean of the church of Córdoba, most illustrious for the splendour of his race, opulent and rich, but imbued with a false opinion of the men of the Society; and behold, beyond expectation, a glad messenger came from Córdoba to Montilla, that Juan had given as a gift to the Society the house in which he lived, an outstanding one and excellently furnished with sacred furniture, and had decreed annual revenues for establishing and maintaining a college.

[149] They set out therefore for Córdoba on the 2nd day

of December, diligently and on the following day it was agreed that a literary school should be opened as soon as possible. So nearly Álvaro, book 4, chapter 8, §2 of the Life of St. Francis, as also Orlandini, part 1 of the History of the Society of Jesus, book 13, num. 41; although concerning the day on which they arrived at Córdoba he seems to write otherwise here, in these words: But since it (the city of Córdoba) greatly desired to see more quickly the beginnings of studies, while the school is being built in this house (of Juan de Córdoba, of which just now), it is opened in another smaller one lent by the same Juan. The future inhabitants of the new college had already gathered at Montilla with the marquise Catalina, together with Antonio de Córdoba, who was the first rector, and with Borgia himself and Bustamante, lately returned from Portugal. These, with the other colonists, having been transferred on the day sacred to St. Catherine, most illustrious virgin and martyr (the 25th of November), to Córdoba, from which Montilla is six leagues distant, are led by the dean, with common rejoicing, into that temporary house. Here therefore the school was first opened on the third day before the Ides of December (that is, the 11th day of the same month), distinguished by a variety of five classes etc.

[150] These things having been done at Córdoba according to his wish, he returned with Fr. Antonio to Montilla, he applies himself. and, having left him there, made with Brother Bernardo for the port of the sea of Cádiz which the Spaniards call San Lúcar de Barrameda, to visit the dukes of Medina Sidonia: before he arrived there, he greeted on the way the counts of Ureña at Osuna, and at Marchena the duke of Arcos and his wife María de Toledo: these could scarcely obtain from him that he should allow one of their footmen to accompany him: but they had not gone far from here when he addressed his companion Bernardo merrily thus: "Brother Bernardo, you have now covered nearly a league's journey on horseback; get down from the horse, now Brother Zarzuela shall ride," which was the footman's name. And having gone on another league likewise, he addressed himself in like manner thus: "Fr. Francis, you too have now ridden for two leagues; get down from the horse, now Brother Bernardo shall ride." And whatever the latter strove against it, Borgia had to be obeyed. When he came to the town which is named Jerez de la Frontera, he entered it secretly, and suddenly, although it was already late and he himself was weary from the journey, he left it, because he perceived that the chief men of the place had got some scent of his arrival. When he was already on the point of entering Fanum S. Luciferi (so Baudrand expresses San Lúcar in Latin), seeing the duke of Medina Sidonia coming out to meet him, attended by his son, the count of Niebla, and a great number of nobles, he was then suffused with such a blush of mind that he turned his horse back; but with a greater one still when he saw the duke, who presently followed him, both dismounting from his horse and falling at his knees and kissing his right hand. Led into the town, having greeted the wives of the duke and of the count, he could not be induced to lodge in the duke's house, altogether preferring the public hospital to it. Here, after his custom, he had much labour for his neighbour's salvation, and fruit equal to the labour: moreover he began to treat with the duke's wife about building a college for the Society, which he had likewise done at Marchena with the wife of the duke of Arcos: and meanwhile he summoned four workmen of the Society to that place, to labour and cultivate that new field diligently.

* solebat

§ XII. He is summoned by Philip, prince of the Spains, to Tordesillas to his grandmother Juana, and to Valladolid to his sister Juana: by his sermons he converts many to better things.

the madness of Juana, mother of Charles V; The year 1554 had already begun, as Álvaro proceeds to narrate, when he was recalled into Castile by letters of Philip, prince of the Spains: for Philip grieved at the condition of his grandmother Juana, who was out of her mind at Tordesillas, and had experienced in the past year that Borgia's presence had not been useless to the wretched princess: and he, having received Philip's letters, hastened his journey to Madrid: he found Philip at the royal palace (called by the Spaniards El Pardo) at the second milestone from the city of Madrid, coming out in the morning from the chapel where he had attended the divine office: the prince, deigning Borgia a familiar address, asked him to go to Tordesillas for the sake of the delirious Juana, and to make a stay there of at least two months, because, as the prince said, he alone had profited his grandmother more in a few days in the year just past than many physicians in forty years. Borgia, having set out for Tordesillas, chose his lodging in the hospital which María de Tejeda had built there: and from there he visited Juana daily in the palace, and his presence availed so much that, whenever he came to her, the force of the malady and the fury of her countenance somewhat abated. About the beginning of the same year Juana, Philip's sister, bereaved of João, prince of Portugal and her husband, fled likewise to Borgia for the sake of solace in so great grief. After she had borne a posthumous son, Sebastião, afterwards king of Portugal, she informed Borgia by letters that, when she had recovered from childbirth, she would come into the kingdom of Castile, and at the same time begged him not to set foot out of it.

[152] and mitigates the grief of Juana, his daughter; These letters were delivered to Francis when he was at Tordesillas, whither about the same time Philip came to bid farewell to his grandmother before he sailed to England: Francis went to Philip for the sake of duty: but he was struck by sad news from the prince; that his sister would shortly be present in Castile, and that the helm of the Spains would rest with her in his absence; further, that he wished Francis not to depart from her side, that he might be a helper to his sister by the experience of affairs, whether private or public, in which he excelled. Francis received these things indeed with unwilling ears; but in the month of June, in which Juana came to Valladolid, he too set out for the same place, to bring what solace he could to the sad and afflicted princess. He was assiduously present to the princess Juana at court: and at home (in the college of St. Anthony, whose means were still very narrow) he began to expound to the people the Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah by way of sacred lecture: and to those of the house Theology. In autumn he went to Plasencia, situated in Extremadura, and there, having recalled to the anvil his meditations on the Lamentations of Jeremiah, he perfected them, before he set them forth openly in the University of Alcalá; which he did in the following year with no less concourse than applause of learned men, who everywhere confessed that the things which Borgia said proceeded not so much from books and human industry as from prayer and knowledge given from heaven. At that time Bishop Gutierre Carvajal was building a college at Plasencia, to which, besides Borgia, many others of the companions also betook themselves: presently, offices having been divided among each, Borgia, as Orlandini witnesses, book 14, num. 78, made a beginning of preaching with the highest approval of all. Ribadeneira relates in this place (and so also his translator Schott), among the illustrious deeds which Francis did at Valladolid, or, to use Schott's interpretation, at Pintia, that by his persuasion, but by order of the princess Juana, a colony of the discalced nuns of Gandía, afterwards transferred to Madrid, came to the city of Valladolid, and he sets before the reader's eyes the series of the whole migration in an uninterrupted thread of discourse, although it was not accomplished at one and the same time. But I have already related above, num. 129, from Álvaro, their journey to Casa de la Reina, which took place in the year 1552, whom I have decided further to follow, in order to keep the order of time; and for that reason I defer discourse on their coming to Valladolid to the year 1557, in which, at Borgia's instance, it in fact took place. Meanwhile I proceed to narrate, or rather to touch briefly upon, from Álvaro, the things done this year by Francis at Valladolid and elsewhere.

[153] At that time, as Álvaro narrates, book 4, chapter 8, §4, some noble families throughout the kingdom of Valencia proceeding to Plasencia were engaged in most grave hatreds and enmities among themselves, so much so that they did not abstain even from mutual slaughters: in these disturbances, led, as happens, by party zeal, Pedro Luis Galcerán Borgia, master of Montesa, and his brothers Felipe and Diego, and Carlos, duke of Gandía, had involved themselves: the last was, as has been said, Francis's son; the former his brothers, by the same father but another mother. These, joined with the Figuerolas, on whose side they stood, had on the 27th day of January at Valencia taken the life, by a musket shot, of Diego of Aragon, natural son of the duke of Segovia; and they were compelled, lest they should fall into the hands of the viceroy of the kingdom of Valencia, the duke of Maqueda, to provide for themselves by flight wherever they could. The matter brought the greatest grief to Francis. On one side love of his brothers and son, on the other the manifold offence against God, the harm to his country, and the public scandal inflicted most grievous wounds on his gentle breast: he therefore gave himself, which alone he could, more fervently to prayer, raged against himself with bloody scourges, as if that evil had arisen from himself, wept, groaned, and implored from God pardon and mercy for himself and his own.

[154] Such hatreds were seething when, on the journey to Plasencia of which a little before, he is warned of danger to his life; there suddenly met him two men mounted on wild horses, their faces covered with masks and armed with naked swords: one of these led Francis away some distance apart from his companions, among whom was Fr. Dionisio Vázquez, who here beyond doubt lit the way for Álvaro: the other joined himself to his companions. Francis, nothing disturbed, placidly asked the former what he wanted. For your sake, Fr. Borgia, he said, I have covered these not few leagues; hear my counsel: you seem to me ignorant of the feuds in which your family has plunged itself, or of what the desire of revenge can do: you would rather live hidden in some chamber; or at least make your journeys accompanied by those who could protect your life in dangers. To this Borgia said that he would not be persuaded that the enemies of his brothers, if there were any, would wish his life, that of a poor religious, taken from him: that the road is safe for those who have nothing; nor would he depart from the command of his superiors through fear of death: that he knew he had deserved nothing of the kind; finally, that, if need were, he would willingly extinguish those feuds even with his own blood. These things having been said, both departed: whether it was an enemy, whom reverence for Borgia restrained, or a friend or kinsman, who wished to look out for his life, is uncertain.

[155] having preached at Valladolid, Juan Mosquera, But this journey of St. Francis to Plasencia had been preceded this year by the remarkable conversion of Juan Mosquera, which Álvaro, from Fr. Herrera, who was present at the event, describes nearly thus. This Juan whom I have just mentioned was one of the governors of Valladolid, a man of known nobility, but turbulent, and exposed to the hatreds of many; and so averse to the men of the Society that he could not bear even the sight of them. By chance, on the 13th day of June, the feast-day of St. Anthony of Padua, seeing a huge throng of men running together to the church of the Society, he asked a citizen whom he met what solemnity or fraud the fathers were celebrating: there is being held, he said, a sermon, and further plenary indulgences have been set forth there on account of the feast of St. Anthony. You tell lies, said Juan; and I would rather suffer the loss of all indulgences than enter that church. But, replies the citizen, he who

is preaching is Francis Borgia, the same who was duke of Gandía. When he heard the name of Borgia, whom he had once known at the emperor's court, impelled either by the dignity of and veneration for the person or by his own curiosity of mind, he entered the church and mingled with the other hearers. The voice of Borgia, thundering to the people from the higher place, so pricked and moved Juan's mind that, having scarcely well found the exit of the church and mounted his horse, scarcely knowing himself, he made straight for Simancas, to dispel there, as he hoped, whatever it was by which he had felt his mind so greatly moved: but, disappointed of his hope, he saw no sleep on the following night. On the next day he was driven by no smaller goads to change his former manner of life for the better, although he diligently strove against it. So great a labour was it to exchange the examples of a bad life for good ones.

[156] the demon gnashing his teeth, At length, when he sought in vain by every means the quiet of body and soul and did not find it, he yielded, conquered, to God who called him, and presently, letters having been written to Valladolid, besought Borgia as a suppliant to come to Simancas, to gather the prey which he had made his own, to raise up the fallen, to restore life to a dead soul: that he himself would willingly come to Valladolid, did he not fear the court, and had it not seemed far more advisable to remain in that place where it would be lawful both freely to lay open the secrets of his breast and to bewail without fear the past offences of his life. Borgia, who, as soon as he had come down from the pulpit, had been informed of all that had happened, appointed for himself eight days of prayer and fasting for the conversion of that wretched man; nor did he decide to go to Simancas until they were finished. He set out on the way on the 22nd day of June together with Fr. Bustamante and Fr. Herrera; and that by night on account of the heats of the day. While he was making the journey apart from his companions, a foul spectre of the demon sat upon the back of the beast on which he was riding, which, because of so infamous a burden, could neither go forward nor draw breath. When the horrible apparition was suddenly presented to Borgia as he looked round, he was afraid before he could collect his mind, and at the same time uttered a cry, the sign of his fear, at which, Bustamante and Herrera at once running up, the spectre vanished, not without some shame on Francis's part that he had feared so feeble an enemy even so: yet the thing was an indication how ill the demon bore that this prey should be snatched from his claws.

[157] Further, when Mosquera saw Borgia, falling on his knees to a remarkable and kissing his feet, tears meanwhile flowing abundantly from his eyes, he committed himself wholly to his judgement. Francis wished that, before he confessed all the faults of his life, he should go through the exercises of St. Ignatius, so that a richer and more solid fruit might flow from the Sacrament of penance. After he had been duly reconciled to God, Francis's first care was that he should return likewise into favour and friendship with those whom Juan had previously offended: Francis went to each in person, and, Juan's penitence having been set forth, extinguished with happy effort the hatreds conceived against him. Juan then, intending to make ample satisfaction to each, betook himself to Valladolid, and he who before was a terror to most, now gentler than a lamb, became a suppliant to each whom he had once injured, and begged pardon for his offences, the court and the whole city being astounded at so sudden a change of the man. These things having been done, he withdrew to Simancas to live privately with his wife, and, with his wife's consent, transferred to the Society the house which he had there, adding besides suitable revenues for maintaining and supporting the novitiate of the companions which was erected from both.

[158] For the rest, Juan spent what remained of his life he brings about a change of life; in a Christian, nay a religious manner. So nearly Orlandini, part 1 of the History of the Society of Jesus, book 14, numbers 79 and 80: he differs from Álvaro in this, that he affirms that Juan was not present at all at Borgia's sermon; and hence he says: This so great change of Mosquera, so that he passed suddenly from extremes to extremes, men assigned to a miracle. Nor indeed has it been handed down what at the beginning converted the man so. But what carried him away entirely not only into favour towards the Society but also into admiration of it was the observed modesty of Borgia during the few days that he had him with him at Simancas. What Orlandini says of the examples of modesty shown by Francis at Simancas he says as the matter is: but this stay of his with Juan must have been preceded by something unusual, which impelled a man so far averse to the men of the Society until then to invite Francis and his companions to himself; namely the hearing of Francis's sermon: which beginning of Mosquera's conversion indeed, as Álvaro witnesses, Fr. Herrera, a spectator of it, revealed in writings which escaped Orlandini.

[159] This conversion of Mosquera was indeed remarkable: but Francis accomplished many others of this kind at Valladolid by preaching and by the examples of his life: likewise a noble matron how many he brought over from the mire of vices to virtue, how many hatreds and enmities of families and private men he extinguished, how many lawsuits he laid to rest, how many prostitutes he restored to purity of soul and body, the limits of a just history, says Álvaro, book 4, chapter 9, §3, do not permit to be recounted one by one. He thought it would therefore be enough if he presented some more illustrious specimens of conversions, from which the rest could be known. There was, he says, at that time at Valladolid an illustrious matron, especially noble of race, flourishing in wealth, outstanding beauty of body and the favour of the princes, and much given to the adornment of the body: she once heard Borgia in the church which they call of the Rosary discoursing in a weighty speech on how great a danger of eternal salvation was joined with luxury of garments and the rest of the adornment of the body: she felt her mind pierced by as many goads as she heard sentences from the speaker's mouth, which, turning them over afterwards at home in assiduous speech and thought, by a certain divine force and impulse she cut off her hair, cast away her splendid garments and all womanly finery, meditating thereafter another kind of life and other manners.

[160] and certain princely men: She then orders Borgia to be summoned, and, having confessed to him the sins which she had ever committed, committed herself wholly to be ruled by his judgement. She then used most modest garments; the expenses which she had made for pomp she turned to the sustenance of the poor; her time she consecrated, not to offices of courtesy, not to conversations or worldly jests, but to prayer and works of penance; nay she even built a convent, in which at length, with her husband's consent, she spent the rest of the course of her life for herself and for God. There were not lacking also among Borgia's hearers most illustrious and noble men who, in order safely to avoid the rocks and refuse of the court, which, as Borgia taught from the pulpit, they had learned to value according to the truth, left the court and withdrew to their own domains: among these the cited Álvaro numbers Martín de Pimentel, marquis of Távara, the constable of the kingdom of Castile, likewise the duke of Nájera, the supreme admiral, Alfonso de Acevedo, count of Monterrey, and Francisco de Toledo, son of the counts of Oropesa, and others, whom I pass over.

[161] like whom both at court, Nor meanwhile was he idle at court: he so cultivated the princess Juana and the rest of the court women's quarters with the exercises of St. Ignatius that he produced no less fruit of piety at the Spanish court than lately at the Portuguese. And Juana made so much of Francis, and of the fruits which he was gathering whether at court or throughout Spain, that she appointed for herself a fixed time of praying daily both for Francis and for certain other fathers singularly known to her, and for the whole Society. Hence also many benefits proceeded from the same princess to the Society: she increased the church of the college of Valladolid with buildings: she paid the price of the hospital of St. Anthony, so that there might be a firm and perpetual seat there for the Society. In the year 1558 Borgia, relying on the providence of God alone, had bought, for the price of three thousand gold pieces, the house of the viscount of Altamira, neighbouring the college of Valladolid, then too narrow: when Juana learned this, she freed Borgia from the debt out of her own. She likewise once boasted that it was at her instance that Borgia had escaped the dignity of the cardinalate, and said that she would take pains, if he were to be elected Pontiff, that this should not be done, if only on account of the fruit which Spain was bearing from his sermons. And this for the present he instituted in the women's quarters of the princess Juana, that the noble women should choose for themselves some one of their flock as president, and on fixed days should gather in some particular chamber, where she who presided over the rest should reprove and chastise according to desert any sin which she had either observed herself or which the guilty spontaneously confessed, from which law not even the princess herself was exempt. They likewise sometimes waited upon their maidservants, which same thing likewise they had ascertained that Fr. Francis did for his companions in the refectory: and so by Borgia's industry it was found that there can be room even in the proud palaces of kings for Christian humility and religious virtues.

[162] Whenever he went to Madrid on business, as sometimes happened, both elsewhere, he was wont to give a sermon in the hospital of St. Genesius (of Arles), and his speech thundered against women of prostituted life, many of whom he brought over from the mire of turpitude to penance, and from the brothels to religious cloisters, illustrious matrons promoting so salutary a work by their pious liberality. It once happened at Alcalá that, when he was going to the church of SS. Justus and Pastor to preach, a stranger, unknown indeed but illustrious, fell as a suppliant at Francis's feet in the eyes of the multitude and said with a raised voice: O Lord, how long a journey have I made to find in you the protection of my salvation! Do not deny to a stranger what you so liberally furnish to these citizens. He, suffused with shame, said: If you knew me, you would think far otherwise of me: yet if it is that as a minister of God I can effect something for your salvation, do not fear; pains will be taken that what is worthy of your confidence in me may be done. The stranger, glad at this answer, set forth his sins again and again to Francis, and, reconciled to God, returned to his country, instructed with most salutary counsels and precepts, according to whose rule he might thereafter conduct his whole life.

[163] The so happy and abundant fruits of his sermons are splendid witnesses he gathers fruits. how excellent an orator Francis was: witnesses are so many distinguished men who had resolved never to be absent from his sermons, of whom num. 160, and others, among whom the duke of Maqueda testified that, after he had heard Borgia at Pamplona, he had found no one equal to him in speaking, although there were not lacking those who at that time flourished with no common praise for eloquence: witnesses are the precepts which he himself wrote for heralds of the Gospel; witnesses finally the most learned and excellent theologians to whom he was a cause of admiration and astonishment at Valladolid and Alcalá, as Álvaro narrates more fully. He spent very much study and labour in turning over the sacred pages and the works of the holy Fathers: he was wont to speak not ornately and exquisitely; but in order and weightily: yet his speech breathed a native eloquence seasoned with a manly sweetness. He never approached speaking without first sending prayers to God, fasts and other chastisements of the body according to the opportunity of the time; finally he used equal diligence and zeal whether he was to speak in the most celebrated cities to grandees and learned men, or in villages to the rude common people of the country.

§ XIII. He is made Commissary of the Society throughout Spain: what was then his manner of travelling and governing, and the divine Providence towards him.

What manner, having undertaken the office of commissary for Spain, By the prosperous course of affairs everywhere throughout Spain the number both of the companions and of the houses was now increasing: for which reason it seemed good to Ignatius to constitute four provinces in it: Fr. Mirón presided over the Portuguese as provincial, whose authority was prolonged for three years: over the Castilian he set Araoz, over that of Aragon Estrada, over the fourth, or Baetica, newly instituted, Fr. Torres: and over these Borgia with the title of Commissary. He indeed laboured not sluggishly that Ignatius should impose that burden on firmer shoulders than his own; but he could not move him from his purpose. Fr. Nadal therefore, as he had received in command from Ignatius, held an assembly of the companions at Medina del Campo, and in it declared Borgia Commissary of the Spains, and the others whom I have just mentioned heads of the provinces. Orlandini says, book 14, num. 53, that there came together there, besides Nadal, first of all Borgia, Araoz, Torres and Estrada: Álvaro adds Bustamante, Villanueva, rector of Alcalá, and Fr. Tablares: but the public letters by which Ignatius entrusted the office of Commissary to Borgia he sent into Spain (as the same Álvaro relates from their autograph, preserved among the marquises of Alcañices) only in the following year (1555), in which Borgia is named Commissary not of Spain only but also of the Indies. Orlandini sets out the principal parts of his office, book 14, num. 56, when he relates that Ignatius wrote to Borgia: He should therefore strive in that office to spur the men of the Society to holiness and a perfect life: he should review the colleges, increase them, complete those which were already begun; and found new ones there whence more glory to God and more fruit to souls seemed likely to return. And whatever of the yearly course should remain over from journeys and inspections of the colleges, he should spend for the most part in that place in which the royal court was staying: because that seat seemed suited for easier communication with all the provinces, and for his dealing with his neighbours and transacting daily business. Which the Blessed Father added expressly on account of the outstanding humility of the Man, by which, fleeing the light of men, he sought solitude and hiding-places. Now it is pleasing to examine how he conducted himself in these things.

[165] he kept Very many houses of the Society were scattered through the provinces of Spain and far apart, either only begun to be founded and not yet completed in all their parts, or to be built from the foundations, which demanded Borgia's presence and help; nor did he fail in his duty: for, if the necessity or advantage of the colleges called him anywhere, neither precipices horrible to look upon, nor roads covered with deep snows, nor cold or heat, nor the fury of rains deterred him: he thought that he was sufficiently provided against the inclemency of the air if he were covered with a cloak or a cap; he said that it went excellently with him whether he was burned by the heats of the sun, or his limbs grew stiff with cold, or the gout raged, or finally he was assailed by the tongues of calumniators. Journeying in the morning he prayed perpetually, and, rapt out of himself, as if unaware of himself, he sat upon his beast: but he took pains above all that so much time should be left over to him from the journey that he could perform the divine office, nor did he set foot out of the church before he had spent two hours there either praying or celebrating Mass. For the same cause he sometimes turned aside from the direct path for not a few leagues: it happened also more than once that, having entered a most wretched inn, he spent the night lying on the ground, lest on the following day he should desire in vain a place in which to say Mass: and from midday he discoursed with his companions about virtues and pious things, yet not averse to honest jests in their place, with which he might relieve his companions of the weariness of the journey. And if he caught sight from the road of a wild beast roaming through the mountains, or birds flying through the air, or a more pleasant place offered itself, suddenly carried away, he conceived in his soul such flames of love towards God, by whose wisdom all things were founded, that he burst out into his most sweet praises.

[166] He could never be induced, although sometimes sick or not very firm in body, of travelling to provide things necessary for the journey and supplies, saying merrily that his beast was an example to him which he himself wished to imitate, in that it laboured much but ate little. But the more neglectful he was of himself, the more solicitous of others. Whenever he came upon a wayfarer who lacked a horse or mule, he leapt down to the ground, and, first using familiar conversation, then ordered him to mount the beast, so that, thus charmed, he might the more easily gain him for God: and he himself went on foot even for many miles, often to his great inconvenience. In order to help a poor and unknown traveller, he once entered a marshy place, from which he himself would not have found a way out, had not Br. Marcos opportunely come to his help as he was in danger. Being rebuked by a noble Castilian man, whom he happened to meet on the road, because he was making his journey so destitute of all things and did not have even moderate care of himself, he answered placidly that it was better provided for him than he believed: that it was his settled custom to send before him a faithful steward into whatever inn he was going to betake himself, who would diligently see that nothing should be wanting to him on his arrival. And being asked who that steward was whom no man knew; The knowledge of myself, he said, by which it comes about that nothing is an inconvenience to me, well conscious of my sins and deserving the pains of hell.

[167] Whenever he turned aside, drenched with rain and pressed with hunger, to an inn manner; in which neither bed nor light nor supper was to be had, he lifted his hands to heaven and gave thanks to God, and the cheerfulness of his countenance revealed the singular joy which his soul took from it. He presently sought there a retired corner or chamber, in which he devoted himself to prayers and the scourging of the body. When the companions had gone to bed, he gave three hours to prayer; he turned over the works of St. Dionysius the Areopagite (as indeed they are commonly called), and renewed the memory of the journeys of St. Paul, and above all of the toils of Christ for the salvation of men. He had given in command to his companion that he should let no beggar go without an alms, if he had anything to give him. It happened once that, compelled to spend the night with kinsfolk or noble men, he was to take his sleep in magnificent and sumptuously furnished bedrooms: but he then lay on the ground, or, if he was not well, on a mattress spread on the ground, as was sometimes observed by the household servants, keen, as happens, inspectors of guests, which happened at Toro and Alcañices. He sometimes also attended the splendid banquets of grandees; but he used such choice of foods that he took only the cheaper ones, and very sparingly, and no more liberally than among his companions in the refectory. And this indeed, to pass over the dangers of life which he underwent whether from precipices of the roads or from robbers and brigands, was then Borgia's perpetual manner of travelling throughout Spain, transcribed here from Álvaro. And he so increased the austerity of his life that Ignatius, informed of this matter, assigned one of the companions according to whose judgement he should temper the rigour of his life.

[168] by which likewise Further, as regards the manner in which he governed the provinces of Spain, God seemed, says Orlandini, part 1 of the History of the Society of Jesus, book 14, numbers 63 and the three following, wherever Francis turned his hand, to have applied His likewise to the same place: so according to his wish, so prosperously did he carry on all things. Nor were there lacking those who, measuring things by the rule of human prudence, thought that the things done by Borgia were begotten of that excessive love and spirit with which he was borne towards his most dear poverty, not so imitable by others as admirable; and kept saying that to embrace so many colleges, resting on no principles and foundations, was a cause of harm and damage both to those who were sent to those colleges, since they are chosen for them sour, like grapes that have not yet attained maturity; and to the whole Society, since it embraces in its bosom more than it holds tightly. Ignatius however, who excelled in a certain more sublime and more divine prudence, and was led by that supernal spirit which through him had sown the Society in the world, and through Borgia was directing and propagating it, learned thoroughly also by use and experience that it was not Borgia himself, but God through him, who was undertaking and beginning the colleges. Accordingly, when he had admonished him of anything, if anything seemed to need admonishing, for the rest he was at ease and left all things to his judgement. And the day itself declared thereafter that Borgia was impelled by the finger of God: and that under such a leader and master the things that were done could not but be done rightly by him. Which providence and mercy of God we recognize also in the founding and establishing of other families, that at their rise He admonished the first authors and fathers by His prompting of many things; which, if anyone should direct them by the norm of human prudence, he would hold for manifest errors at the time, whereas, handled and governed by God, they contained admirable outcomes, and counsels so lofty that they could not be comprehended and perceived without that very Power from which they drew their origin as from their source.

[169] in which manner the companions The manner which Francis adopted of ruling those over whom he presided and of helping the rest was this. First, that he should pray to God ardently and continually that He who had given him the burden of the province would also supply strength and sinews for bearing it. Then the splendour of his example, by which he shone before the rest as with a certain torch. For he was the first to be aroused to labours and every function of duty, like a diligent and watchful shepherd running before his flock. Afterwards he took pains both to review the colleges which were already begun and to inspect those which were most recently being founded, and to betake himself to them, so far as could be done, not only to satisfy his office, but also to capture so much the greater harvest of patience. It was a thing worthy of admiration to see a man brought up in so great pomp and in so great comforts of life travelling over so many and so great tracts of land, under the striking sun, in onrushing rains, winter and summer alike burning, by night as well as by day, with the greatest inconveniences, in great scarcity of food, and not rarely taking his sleep on the ground, and bearing all these things with a glad and tranquil mind; only to visit according to custom very few and poor servants of God. Truly Francis's joy and serenity of countenance were great when he came under the roofs of the companions, so that he cheered all by his entrance, and with it seemed to have entered at the same time all joy, kindled piety, imparted ardour of spirit, and love of suffering all things for Christ. And if anyone in those colleges had perhaps been of a more contracted and more languid mind, he collected himself at the single sight of Francis, and, the cloud of sadness being dispersed, soothed his heart and mind.

[170] He addressed each one singly and without witnesses, he governed: and spurred him on to every praise of duty, suggesting opportunely precepts according to each one's need and medicine according to the kind of disease, striving everywhere to bring all things to the norm of the constitutions, which, received from Nadal, he venerated as a divine work. Sometimes one

all having been gathered together into a place, he urged upon them constancy in the purpose they had undertaken and the singular benefit of God, that He had led them out of the most hard servitude and darkness of Egypt and brought them across the horrible and dreadful waves of the Ocean dry-shod, at the same time sustaining them through the desert pilgrimage of this life with heavenly bread. He recalled to mind the short days of man and the so narrow limits within which human life is bounded, the eternity of the rewards, the examples of holy men, the immense labours and vain strivings of other men, in comparison with which our labours are nearer to rest than to labours. He weighed what an unhappiness, what extreme misery it would at length be if, while through them God was freeing so many men from sins and snatching them from the snares of the enemy, they themselves should put themselves into those snares, and should be sunk in those waves from which others were emerging through them. And if anyone perhaps of those over whom he presided had, as a man, fallen into some fault, even a light one, his chief care was that he should acknowledge and correct his error, and make satisfaction to the offended God according to his dignity and strength. Inviting him to this by his words and examples, "I feel (he would say) that it was brought about by my sins that you incurred this fault: but it would be fair that, to wash it away, each of us should undergo some penalty. I indeed will undergo this and this: you in turn deliberate with yourself what you think should be undergone." Who so savage and of iron would not grow gentle at this so great sweetness and fatherly charity? Who would not be bent?

[171] To Rectors and Provincials he gave separate precepts, the divine that they should reckon with themselves that account must be rendered by them of those whom they had undertaken to rule, mindful that they were fathers, not masters; ministers, not lords, and that these were to be fostered and held together by them as sons, gravity however being joined with affability, and with ease, if need should be, severity: and that they should altogether strive to bind their souls to themselves for God's sake, so that all things might be freer and easier. And lest the inspection of the colleges should rest on words and precepts alone, he, as I have said, went before in all labours and functions of humility by his example. He served at table, lying on the ground he received the feet of each with holy kisses, and like one of the novices recently added he gave his work to the cook: he frequented the public prisons and the infirmaries to console the confined and the sick. He gave sermons in various places, and talks to the pupils according to their age and capacity. Thus in one and the same function of mercy he coupled humility and charity alike in a certain most beautiful bond of fellowship. By these ways chiefly Francis sowed and watered the new shoots of the colleges, and the Lord gave the increase: and he doubled the things which pertained to the conveniences both of soul and of body. For it often happened that, when Francis arrived at some college most needy in all things, together with his entrance the divine benignity seemed to enter, and an abundance of all things which nature desires.

[172] often Providence Thus Orlandini depicts the whole sweet and happy administration of Borgia: but what the same Orlandini says of the singular providence of the divine Power, which was often at hand for colleges committed to Borgia's care and moderation when they were labouring under want of the things necessary for life, Álvaro, book 4, chapter 10, §4, explains more fully with more than one specimen, although he keeps silent in this place about more which he could have brought forward on the same matter, had it so seemed good. To the students of the college of Valladolid, he says, all food besides a very little bread and vegetables was once lacking; the hour of dinner was pressing; nor was there a purse from which the things necessary for dinner could be procured: in these straits they went to Borgia, who, having given thanks to God, ordered the household to be summoned to table by the usual signal of the bell, and what there was of vegetables and bread, however little, to be distributed to each: as soon as they had sat down at table, a great noise was heard at the door: the doors having been opened, there was present a grave and modest old man together with a maidservant, who was carrying bread, wine and eggs in a basket: being asked, either by the porter or by Fr. Francisco González, who was likewise present, who he was, he gave no answer, and only asked that they would accept what he was bringing as an alms for the love of God. The venerable grey hair of the old man and the modesty of his countenance, the time of the event, the manner, and the other circumstances left no doubt to the inhabitants of the college of Valladolid that whatever it was must be referred as received to a prodigious benefit of divine Providence.

[173] he has helping him. Almost the same happened at Simancas, where the number of the companions had grown to about forty. It was once reported here to Borgia a little before dinner that there was scarcely anything at hand from which a dinner could be prepared: he ordered that little, however small it was, to be set out, asserting that God's care for his own would not be lacking; which shortly afterwards was manifest to all: for after prayers had been poured out to God, when they had begun to sit down at table, a certain pilgrim, leading a beast laden with bread, wine and meats already cooked, knocked at the doors; he offered the provisions, which, carried from the doors straight to the refectory, were enough for the refreshment of the companions. The college of Seville likewise was pressed by the same straits, in which not even one pound of bread, still less a sufficient supply of other foods, remained. Fr. Juan Suárez, rector of the college, informed Borgia half an hour before dinner of the anguish in which he was: Suárez's anxiety had besides been increased by the arrival of some guests, whom hunger and the labours of the roads had wearied: Borgia, having lifted his mind for a little to God, and looking at Suárez with serene countenance, said: Since the present hour of the day so requires, you will give the usual signal for the examination of conscience, and then for dinner: and at the same time you will trust in God. He obeyed eagerly and, full of good hope, carried out what he had been ordered; and the hour of dinner was already at hand when a noble man, sent by Isabel Galíndez, a noble woman, stood before the doors, offering as a gift not only a large supply of foods, but also various furniture for the refectory, which that house had hitherto lacked. Thus Borgia taught his followers to place their hope in the goodness of God rather than in earthly goods and means.

§ XIV. The origin of the college of Plasencia and of Seville. He is present at the death of Juana, mother of Charles V. At Valladolid he renders useful service to many, and establishes a novitiate at Simancas.

Carvajal, bishop of Plasencia, founds a college for the Society, He himself trusted in this so much that in accepting houses for the Society throughout Spain his prudence seemed in some way to be wanting: among which the colleges of Plasencia and of Seville are to be recounted not in the last place. Gutierre Carvajal, bishop of Plasencia, had dealt at Trent with Laínez and Salmerón, and had been so captivated by their virtue and learning that he vehemently desired a colony of the Society established in his diocese: he had already treated of this matter with Ignatius by letters, and sent others to Borgia at Valladolid, by which he requested that six of the companions be appointed to Plasencia, where a college might be begun; and if Borgia would join himself to the others, nothing, he said, would be left to his wishes. The prelate's desire was speedily satisfied: in the month of August of the year 1554, by Borgia's order, Fr. Villanueva and Fr. Martín Salinas set out for Plasencia; and in the month of October of the same year Borgia betook himself there from Medina del Campo together with Fathers Bustamante, Martín Gutiérrez and Dionisio Vázquez; to whom at Simancas Fr. Juan Suárez was added. After his manner Borgia wished to turn aside to the public hospices of the poor: but the prelate did not allow the Fathers to stay anywhere else than in his palace while the church and house of the college were being built. While the structure of the college was being advanced, he assigned annual revenues which were equal to maintaining forty of the companions: he likewise gave as a gift a garden outside the city; but since it was outside the walls, and there was no access to it from the city, he brought it about with the magistrate that these should be pierced. A noble man refused to sell to the prelate a plot necessary for the building of the college; and having set out abroad to the church called St. Mary of France, towards Salamanca, he saw his wife seized with a sudden sickness: thinking that this happened in punishment of his obstinacy, he returned at once to Plasencia, went to the bishop, and sold the plot. Having returned from there to his wife, he found, not without astonishment, that she had been restored to health and had begun to recover from the time when he himself had begun to return to Plasencia; so did all things flow according to wish.

[175] and his manners But one thing was wanting to Francis's wishes: it seemed fair that he should make a return to the prelate of Plasencia, whose merits towards the Society were so great. Carvajal was of such manners that he seemed nearer to a secular prince or a generous Knight than to a bishop. Eager beyond what was right and becoming for external splendour, he had contracted not a little debt: he had had some lawsuits with the clergy, and there was not sufficient agreement between the two; and, what was the chief thing, almost the whole city had gone off into opposing parties on account of the most grievous hatreds which the two most illustrious families of the Carvajals and the Zúñigas were exercising. The examples and conversations of his guests indeed pricked the prelate's mind, but did not change it. Borgia therefore judged that stronger arms must be used with which to storm a hardened mind: and they were these: almost perpetual fasts, new and most dire afflictions of the body beyond the usual ones, extraordinary prayers prolonged for some hours every day, perennial tears, by which he came not far from losing the use of his eyes: nor was that enough for Borgia: he easily impelled the companions to do the same. So great rigour of life did not escape the prelate, and he was heard to complain of it, as one who did not know that these things were being done for his sake: and that struggle lasted for thirty whole days, on the last of which God deigned to hear Francis's prayers.

[176] chiefly by Borgia's prayers On that day he had applied himself to prayer from the second hour of the morning until the eleventh before the image of Christ hanging from the cross, when from it this most joyful voice reached his ears: I will save and glorify him. Having gone out of the oratory, presently, with serene countenance and shining eyes, he addressed one of the companions who met him, and likewise another, in this manner: "Give thanks to God: the Lord has granted this to my prayers, that the bishop will turn himself to better things. The matter is now in such a state that you will shortly see the wonders of God in him." And indeed a little later, having been freely admonished by Villanueva to look back upon and amend his past life, he resolved, to use Orlandini's words, book 15, num. 92, to take more account of the soul neglected up to that day: He withdrew for a little while from the people and the noise of cares, and gave himself to prayer and tears. Then, this step having as it were been taken, he strove daily for greater things. He caused it to be proclaimed in the whole diocese that if anyone complained that he had been oppressed and defrauded either by him or by his household, he should plead his cause before chosen judges and demand back what was his. And he had chosen three men to give judgement and render to each his own: his provisor (Juan de Ayora) and two fathers of the Society, one a theologian, the other skilled in pontifical law. With these he deposited a great quantity of gold and silver, from which to all,

to whom any fraud had been done, satisfaction might be made conveniently enough. Afterwards, turning to ordering his household, he corrected it all to sobriety. And he himself was reconciled with the clergy and others with whom he had previously had any lawsuit, or by whom he had been injured in any matter. Finally he turned himself wholly into another man, and began another beginning of life, namely such as became that person.

[177] The conversion of Carvajal to better things fell out very opportunely for the inhabitants of the diocese of Plasencia: he amends. for in the year 1556, as Orlandini witnesses, book 16, num. 45, as almost the rest of Spain, so also the diocese of Plasencia was afflicted by a great dearness of provisions, during whose ravages Carvajal poured out his revenues with a very liberal hand for the sustenance of the poor: at Plasencia indeed he employed two hundred and sixty workmen, who had their strength and vigour of body entire, in completing the building of the college. A hundred families, to whom shame was a heavier burden than want, he maintained at his own expense: the chief men, imitating the prelate, were at hand to the rest. At Castrojulio, which is another town of the diocese of Plasencia, he likewise maintained a hundred and twenty poor at his own expense: which charity of the bishop towards his people was ascribed by the natives, and surely not undeservedly, to the merits of Villanueva and Borgia. These things Orlandini records, as I said, at the year 1556, but Álvaro at the year 1554: from the latter also are drawn the things which have likewise been said in this § about the image of Christ hanging from the cross which spoke to Borgia. Further, the affairs of the college of Plasencia having been settled, as Álvaro proceeds to narrate, he departed from Plasencia almost at the end of November, to visit the college of Alcalá. As soon as he came to Alcalá, the whole university came together to greet him for the sake of honour, and, being asked by the rector of the university to be willing to honour the schools of the lyceum with his presence on the following day, he could not refuse what was asked. On the following day therefore he was led there with great honour and retinue; and he was praised in a public oration which Pascual Mancio, a most celebrated theologian of the Order of St. Dominic, delivered. There had arisen at Alcalá at that time a sedition, not without blood, between the citizens and the student youth: a good part of the youth, to escape the severity of the judge, had taken to flight this way and that, to the grief of the governors of the university: but, Borgia interceding, the judge remitted much of his severity, thinking that something should be granted to their age, and that rigour could, justice being preserved, be turned into clemency. But let these things suffice concerning Borgia's deeds at Alcalá this year: now I begin discourse on the origin of the college of Seville.

[178] Ribadeneira relates the origin of both colleges, both that of Plasencia at Seville also and that of Seville, but after his manner in few words: and concerning the beginnings of that of Seville Álvaro, book 4 of the Life of St. Francis, chapter 12, §1, thus. The poison of the Lutheran heresy had begun to be disseminated at Seville, which, lest it should creep further, Borgia judged must be met in good time, and he had long been seeking some way and means of introducing nurslings of the Society there. The first access for this matter was opened by Gonzalo González and Basilio (called in the world Alfonso) de Ávila, born of noble station among the people of Seville: the latter's father was Juan Fernández de Pineda, who, since he was held by a great desire of his son Basilio, leave was given Basilio to visit his father together with González: when they had come to Seville, they made straight for the hospital which was called of the Love of God; but, the doors being already closed, they took their sleep on the ground all that night, no less sweet than if they had lain on a soft mattress; Basilio, recognized on the next day and pointed out to his father, moved into his father's house together with González: their stay among the people of Seville was indeed not long, yet it produced abundant fruits, and, when González and Ávila departed, left there a great desire for the Society. Borgia pressed on the happy beginnings, and having summoned to himself some time later Juan Suárez, although exhausted in strength by continual labours, asked whether he desired to go to Seville for the sake of founding a college there. I will go, he said, wherever the command of superiors shall send me. When three days later Suárez had given Borgia the same answer, Gird yourself then, said the other, set out for Seville; when you have prepared a house to hold twelve priests, I will meet you at Seville.

[179] a college Suárez set out there together with Br. Juan Gutiérrez in the month of November, equipped for a business of so great moment only with an old breviary and the bull of confirmation of the Society, transcribed on a small slip. Having been brought to Seville, Suárez presently presented himself to Gaspar Cervantes, who was then acting in the stead of Fernando Valdés, archbishop of Seville, whom he found not only well disposed to himself and the Society, but also prepared and ready to promote the purpose of the Father Commissary with all his strength: from there he turned himself to performing the functions of the Society throughout the city, with such fervour of mind, and assiduity and variety of labours, that in a short time he filled all things with admiration of him, and most of all because his infirm and sick body seemed to be strengthened by those very labours and to gain greater strength daily: meanwhile this happened most conveniently, that Fernando Ponce de León, a noble man, offered to the Society his most richly adorned house, worthy of a prince: Borgia, informed of this matter by Suárez, presently, taking to himself as companions Fathers Torres, Araoz and Pablo Hernández, set out from Plasencia for Seville: and on this one journey alone Borgia gave such specimens of humility and the other virtues that Araoz, astonished, said that they alone would suffice to establish his holiness.

[180] he causes to be built, They reached Seville on the day before the Nativity of the Lord: but Borgia, when he saw the splendid and richly adorned house, would rather have turned aside elsewhere, had not the solemnity which was then at hand prevented him from then seeking a poorer and humbler roof, and he rebuked Suárez for having admitted a lodging little suited to poverty. He could scarcely be kept for eight days with Ponce de León: at the beginning therefore of January of the year 1555 they all moved together into another house, but very ruinous and narrow: Which, since it was falling into ruin everywhere, says Orlandini, book 14, num. 83, and was open to the rains, it often happened that not only the bed but even the very head of the Man was rained on, with his highest pleasure. So much was poverty among his loves. And when he saw himself at length placed, according to his wish, among its inconveniences, with hands spread out to God and eyes fixed on heaven, he began to sing praises and hymns to Him, because He deigned him worthy of such a gift, and because he saw the Society brought into that city, so noble, so pre-eminent, by a man so weak, of no strength at all. At the beginning indeed the want of the companions of Seville was extreme, as can be sufficiently understood even from what has been said above, num. 173; but from such slender beginnings, as the years glided by, the affairs of the Society at Seville were so increased that in place of one house it obtained there three, both numerous and wealthy; which indeed was a prophecy of Borgia as he bade farewell to the fathers of Seville: I rejoice, he said, that I leave you without a roof, without provisions: but let this keep no one anxious: for the time will come when all these things will flow to you in abundance.

[181] At the time when Francis was staying at Seville, as Álvaro narrates from the Process of canonization and the testimony of Fr. Luis de Valdivia, and, offering the Sacred rites, he is flooded with heavenly light. performing the divine office one morning, he was seen to be flooded with a certain heavenly light: there was present in the church the wife of Pedro de Valdivia, who was to discharge the office of governor in the Indies, Marina by name, and her companion, Catalina de Miranda, born at Villanueva (called by the Spaniards de la Serena, which is a village in Extremadura not far from Mérida): she not only saw the countenance of Francis, as he turned to the people, radiant with a certain heavenly light, but at the same time also felt such movements within in her soul that she perceived in her mind as it were a certain odour of holiness, and a great desire seized the woman of imitating him from whose countenance so wonderful a splendour burst forth. Having gone out of the church and been told the Priest's name, she set out the whole matter to her confessor of the Dominican Order, who said that the matter, although wonderful, was yet not wonderful to him, who knew Borgia's changed manner of life and holiness: that she should pray God both to preserve the newly arisen religious order, and that the same God would continue further to favour the holy desires which she herself had conceived: from which time, as long as she lived, she was accustomed to recite five times a day the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation for the Society, and so ordered her life that she died in the odour and fame of holiness. But not before she had seen the Society brought into the province of Chile, which she had asked of God, which things Fr. Luis de Valdivia, rector of the college of Chile, heard from her own self when he was staying in the town of that province called Concepción.

[182] At the same time likewise Constantino de la Fuente, infected with the heresies of that time, was flourishing at Seville with great praise for eloquence, Having departed from there, and was secretly instilling the poison of perverse dogmas by his sermons into the unwary minds of his hearers: Borgia urged many to beware of him: and his own likewise to engage with Constantino in a war either clandestine or, as the matter should require, open; who afterwards, thrust into prison by the censors of the faith, laid violent avenging hands on himself for his own perfidy: many finally who had been seduced by Constantino came to their senses from the errors which they had imbibed by the work of Borgia and his companions. Having departed from Seville, he betook himself to Fanum Luciferi (so some call the town of San Lúcar de Barrameda), where, besides other fruits, he put into the mind of Melchor Marco, a Catalan and once his musician when he was viceroy of Catalonia, the thought of entering the Society; who afterwards, enrolled among the coadjutors, was given to Francis as superior in the things which concerned his private person and manner of life, whom he, although he presided over the others, obeyed most humbly and most promptly in all things. About this time likewise he advanced literary affairs and the right instruction of youth with the greatest care. At Medina del Campo he opened a school of humane letters; likewise at Plasencia, Burgos, Monterrey, Murcia, Córdoba and in most of the colleges which he was erecting. At Salamanca he instituted higher studies; he also sent from Spain to Rome very many excellent in learning and genius, who illuminated Italy and foreign regions. Araoz bore this loss to Spain ill; as also the fact that, on account of the multitude of companions occupied in teaching humane letters to youth, the progress of higher studies would be less. And yet, Borgia prophesied, the time is not far off when the divine goodness will compensate this loss, whatever it is, with hundredfold interest (as in fact came about).

[183] and, summoned into Castile, Borgia was still staying on the extreme coasts of Andalusia at Fanum Luciferi when letters were delivered to him from Juana, princess and regent of Spain, by which he was recalled very quickly into Castile, to be present with Queen Juana, who was in danger of her life at Tordesillas. Juana was the daughter and heiress of Ferdinand and Isabella, sovereigns of Spain, mother of the emperor Charles V by Philip, son of the emperor Maximilian, whom she lost by a premature death in the year 1506, in which he first came to Spain: which misfortune fell so bitterly on the unhappy princess that afterwards, perpetually out of her mind, she spent at Tordesillas the remaining

part of her life, which she prolonged until the year 1555: Francis came to Tordesillas about the end of the month of February or the beginning of March: And when, says Orlandini, book 15, num. 84, he had found her not so far from the supreme danger, he set about with all speed to strengthen her with pious conversations and to succour her as she was about to die. Her continual madness stood in the way of his wishes, which gave her mind no intervals of sound light. Borgia nevertheless, relying on God, whom he besought with silent prayers, exhorts the woman to commit herself to God and ask for the last Sacraments; and to allow to him the part and care of professing the holy faith in her name, since through her sickness she herself could not. At this word, beyond the hope of all, she turned her mind, and ordered Borgia to begin the creed: which when the Father had begun, she herself wisely added certain words from the Nicene creed, and with the same wisdom answered at the end, where the end of the pronouncing was made, Amen.

[184] he assists the mother of Charles V, dying at Tordesillas. Then she fixed pious kisses on the sign of Christ crucified and on the image of his Mother placed behind, and ordered them to be brought nearer and applied to her. This rumour of the queen coming to her senses having been spread through the court, there was a common joy of all, joined with great admiration, since they remembered how vehemently in her madness she had shrunk from the mention of pious things: and they assigned this to Borgia's merits. And he, when he noticed so many indications of a composed mind, urged the household to send to Salamanca someone to seek the opinions of the learned, whether it was lawful to administer duly the last mysteries to the queen, brought now to that point; and, consulted, there came from there Domingo de Soto, a doctor of known wisdom, of the Order of Preachers, who, having been informed of the queen's state and the return of her mind, and having conversed with Borgia, judged that the woman should duly be anointed. For the holy Body of the Lord was prevented from being given, namely, by the disturbance of a nauseated stomach and frequent vomiting. Having therefore been duly anointed for the last struggle, she departed from the body on the sixth day of the week, on Good Friday, to the great joy of the peoples, and by far the greatest of the emperor Charles and of Philip, then king of England, because the queen had departed anointed with that mystery and with her mind recovered. The queen's last words were: May Jesus Christ crucified be with me, as Álvaro narrates from the letters which Borgia gave to the emperor about the queen's death, who, besides Orlandini, whose words I have given, cites also the authority of Fr. Herrera, an eye-witness, and of Sandoval in the Life of Charles V, book 32, so that on this matter, although there is no mention of it in Ribadeneira, there ought to be no doubt at all.

[185] But in truth, if these things turned out prosperously and according to wish for Francis, at Valladolid he averts by his prayers a great danger from the Society, from another quarter, as nothing in human affairs is wont to be constant and perpetual, a calamity arose which struck him with the dread of a great evil. The supreme Pontiff Paul III had ceased to be among the living on the 23rd day of March of the year 1555: likewise a little time after, Marcellus II. And his successor Paul IV, having scarcely entered on the pontificate, showed himself a favourer of the French and an adversary of the Austrian princes, and that openly in the year 1556, in which the alliance entered into in the preceding year with Henry II, king of France, broke out into the open. Francis, Juana having died, returned from Tordesillas to the Spanish court, then staying at Valladolid, where (it is unknown by what way) he understood that Pope Paul was preparing a sentence of excommunication against Philip II, king of the Spains: and not only that, but that he himself was to be chosen to publish it at court and in other cities. Here Borgia was stuck between the hammer and the anvil. If he obeyed the Pontiff, he could not escape the displeasure of Philip: and not to carry out the Pontiff's orders would indeed have been pleasing to Philip, but hateful to himself and to the Society. Pressed by these straits, he resolved to appease God by prayers, and, having set out for Simancas with Fr. Dionisio Vázquez, he could not so hide the grief conceived in his mind but that Dionisio read it in his countenance: asked the cause, he declared what the matter was, and added that he would explore the counsels of God and of wise men, and, these having been ascertained, would not depart from his duty even by a nail's breadth. Dionisio bade Borgia hope well, and it was agreed between the two that in so arduous a matter they should offer their sacrifices and prayers to God: and when this had been diligently done by both for several weeks, he at length rose from nightly prayer so suddenly strengthened in mind that thereafter he by no means doubted of the prosperous success of affairs: and indeed a few days later he received letters from Rome, by which it was announced that the Pontiff had held back the thunderbolt prepared against the Spanish king; which Borgia numbered among the chief benefits with which he had ever been favoured by God.

[186] What time of the year he had left over from visiting the houses of the Society throughout Spain he spent either at Valladolid, and renders useful service to many. where the Spanish court was then staying, as he had been ordered by Ignatius, or in places neighbouring Valladolid: there indeed, or at court, he frequently stood by the princess Juana with his counsels; and since he was very powerful with her in authority and favour, it is no wonder that he was besieged by a huge number of clients, who knew that he would be of very great profit to their business or wishes if they could win his goodwill for themselves: others, who were pursuing lawsuits, caused Francis no less trouble and business: yet he would commend to no one the cause of anyone except one for whom right and equity were fighting. How few, he would sometimes exclaim, come to me from Jerusalem! on the contrary, how many from Egypt! The holy Man, namely, wished it understood that he grieved that out of so great a number of clients few were those who had recourse to him for the sake of salvation; but far more those who sought either honours or goods of fortune. The more honourable appellations and titles, of which there is frequent use in the courts of princes, he so shunned and hated that, if anyone called him lord or duke, he would beg, even on bended knees and with tears welling up, that he would not burden him thereafter with words of this kind. He forbade his son Juan, as Álvaro relates from letters of Araoz to Luisa, duchess of Villahermosa, Borgia's sister, to call him by any other name than Francis: and when he was once going through the city, and saw a huge throng of workmen coming out of their workshops to meet him, partly for the sake of honour, partly out of curiosity, Do you not see, he said to his companion Bustamante, how many men run to look at the great beast (so he called himself)?

[187] he establishes a novitiate at Simancas, But Borgia was too great a lover of religious quiet and solitude to cling perpetually amid the tumults and crowds of the court: wherefore he withdrew from time to time from Valladolid to Simancas, from where, if need were, he could easily return quickly to Valladolid. The college at Simancas had begun to be founded in the previous year (1554), and a literary school had been opened, which, since it was not frequented enough according to wish, it seemed good to Borgia, with the consent of the founder, to convert that house or college into a house of first probation or novitiate. Over the novices, when their number had already grown to about forty, he set Bustamante as master: nor content with that, he himself often went there, to foster and promote by his words and examples their outstanding efforts towards every kind of virtue; by which he effected so much that many grandees and religious men came to see that novitiate, as if to behold with their eyes a likeness of ancient holiness. And if the fervour and modesty of those novices were an admiration to outsiders, they were no less a pleasure to Francis: Borgia delighted, says Orlandini, book 15, num. 87, most greatly in this institution of novices, calling this house the Gem of the Society, and affirming that the house of probation would be found in his heart, if it could be inspected. Here Borgia bore himself no otherwise than as one of them: here he made up the time of praying which the court and the business of the court had stolen from him, here he doubled the works of penance; from here, his shoulders laden with a sack, he went out into the streets and villages, begging alms from door to door; and at home there was no ministry of the kitchen so mean that he did not perform it. He was once by chance washing dishes in water, when one of the novices, who had recently been received to probation, came up to do the same: but, unaccustomed to these things, he had scarcely begun to put his hand to the work when he recoiled. Borgia saw it, and began to drink of the same water, and seemed to delight greatly in that drink in the novice's sight; who, recognizing his own faint-heartedness from this deed of Borgia, humbly asked pardon for his error, and became altogether another man.

[188] where, having become to the novices On another occasion, returned from the court, he betook himself straight to the kitchen, where he found the coadjutor cook, who had recently come there and did not know Borgia; to whom Borgia said: I come to help you: what do you command? I should like to know first, he said, what you know how to do rightly, or less badly. There is nothing, said Borgia, that I indeed know how to do rightly: perhaps I could sweep the kitchen or wipe the dishes less badly. Very well, answered the cook, here is matter enough for you of this labour. Nor more: he presently began to clean and wipe all the utensils of the kitchen. He once came from Valladolid to Simancas by night, seized with much cold and covered with snow: when he had come to the door of the college, the rest had already gone to bed, and the porter was far from the door: so it came about that no one heard the signal of his arrival which he had given, and, exposed under the open sky to the winds and snows and growing stiff with cold, he was compelled to stand before the doors, more like a log than a man; until at length his companion knocked at the doors more strongly, and after a long delay they were let into the house. When the rector and the porter saw him so affected, they grieved exceedingly; but Borgia, desiring from his heart to console them, said: There is no reason why you should grieve for my lot: for during the whole of the time that I stood before the doors I had my soul steeped in great delights. Many, and those excellent men, there were who in this or the following year entered the novitiate at Simancas under the same Borgia: Many were the novices most noble by race, says Orlandini, book 16, num. 41 and following, but much more conspicuous by the light of Christian humility than by earthly brilliance.

[189] Among these he records two chiefly, Juan Manuel and shining before them by words and García Alarcón: of the former he has thus: Among these Juan Manuel, in the vilest attire, so empty of all bad shame, performed servile offices, and went out to the market to buy provisions with a basket, as if he had been brought up in that office: and the heavenly Master repaid this disposition of his novice, filling him amid those ministries with the clearest delights of heaven. Which breeze of divine indulgence Juan receiving in a grateful bosom, and carried further by it to contempt of himself, when he took the three customary vows of religious, added a fourth, if holy obedience should permit, of serving God, as long as he lived, in the office of a domestic coadjutor. Of the other he has thus: With no less eagerness García Alarcón strove to adorn the splendour of his family and himself with the reproach of the cross. He was serving the cook at Simancas when, summoned to Valladolid by the commissary Francis, he went like a little beggar in a short and torn cloak, with stockings broken in many places, without a mantle: and in the same

dress, in order to crucify thoroughly the vain pomp of the world, having entered the royal palace, where he had many kinsmen and acquaintances among the chief men, he offered himself for a good long while to be looked upon by the eyes of all. Álvaro also relates other things of the same man. He was the elder son of Alfonso Girón Alarcón and Juana Pacheco, lords of Piqueras and Albaladejo. Every day he was wont to pray from midnight to the middle of the seventh hour; he often expelled demons from the bodies of the possessed, and foretold the death which he died at Orvieto, and shortly after appeared in glory to a certain venerable matron. To Manuel and Alarcón Álvaro not unjustly joins Baltasar Álvarez, to whose remarkable holiness St. Teresa gave splendid testimony.

[190] Thus Borgia instructed his novices to contempt of self not by words only but also by examples: for, he sees the glory prepared for him in heaven. since his garments were worn and torn, the marquis of Priego sent new ones to his companion, to be substituted gradually and secretly for the old; but, the matter having been discovered, he could not be prevailed upon to use them. By words, exhortations and prayers he often brought it about that those of the novices who were wavering in their vocation should not desert it. Among these was someone of no common nobility who, terrified by the poverty and silence of the house, was meditating a return to his country; contrary to his custom Borgia did not much oppose his departure: for he had been divinely taught that he would return more spirited and more constant to the bosom of the Society he had deserted. He returned a little later, as Borgia had foretold, and so spent the rest of the course of his life that he yielded not even to the most fervent. Of the many favours which God bestowed on Borgia at Simancas, Álvaro relates one, which he ascribes to the year 1556: namely, applying himself to prayer one morning and rapt out of himself, he saw the heavens opened and a seat of glory prepared for himself in them: the greatness of the joy with which his soul was overflowing his dripping eyes and countenance easily revealed; for the rest he was more like a statue than a living man, in the posture in which Bustamante found him: when Borgia began to come back to himself, Bustamante pressed him not to wish to keep him in ignorance of whatever this was, and at length even extorted it, this condition being added, that he should reveal the matter to no one: but Borgia could not so dissemble the joy of his exulting soul that the others did not notice it; nor could Bustamante help, after Borgia had withdrawn elsewhere apart, being overcome by the importunate prayers of the companions, making public what he had heard from Borgia himself.

§ XV. He constantly endures the storms and sicknesses that arose against the Society in Spain: invited by the emperor to a conversation, he defends the Society excellently.

Yielding from Saragossa But if Borgia about this time merited to be refreshed by heavenly favours, and those frequent, yet there were not lacking, the Divinity so permitting, adversities from time to time, by which his virtue and his constancy in enduring evils might be proved, and the more bitter the dearer he held the flock committed to him. With great labour it had come about in the year 1555 that a fixed house had been purchased for the Society at Saragossa, and the companions were already on the point of having the first Mass celebrated with more solemn pomp in the chapel of the college on the Wednesday after Easter; at the altar was to be Juan Esquivel, and to speak to the people Juan de Azorola, the former Prior of Saragossa of the Order of St. Dominic, the latter of the Order of St. Jerome, a distinguished herald of the divine Word: on the eve of that day, late at night, there came someone to ask, in the name and words of Lope Marco (he was vicar of Archbishop Fernando of Aragon), that that solemnity be deferred to another time, on account of complaints brought to him by the clerics and religious dwelling nearby. On the following day nevertheless, for grave reasons approved by learned men, and an appeal having first been made to the Pontiff, the decreed solemnity was held before the multitude, and before it was finished, an edict of the vicar, by which the parish priests were ordered to forbid their people access to this chapel under pain of anathema, was fixed to the doors: presently the thunderbolt of excommunication was hurled against the companions of Saragossa, and indeed against each by name; and the city itself, as long as the companions remained in it, was subjected to an ecclesiastical interdict; effigies of the fathers were exposed through the streets and crossroads of the city to the eyes and mockeries of the wanton common people.

[192] By these arts the adversaries achieved the companions that the companions were not allowed to be safe even at home: For a band of impudent boys, as Orlandini says, book 15, num. 69 and following, not without a crowd of older people, one of those foul images having been raised on a spear for a banner, gathers round the house; they batter the roofs with stones, beat the doors, wound the windows, fill everything with insane cries; with such uproar that the officers of the viceroy (Íñigo de Mendoza, who at that time bore the title of duke of Francavilla) and the viceroy himself had to run up, since a tumult of the whole people was feared. Many Knights also who were playing at ball, and others who were watching that game, when it had been whispered that a wicked band of armed men had gathered at the Fathers' house to slay with the sword as many as were in it, suddenly, half-naked as they were, leaving the game, flew there with drawn blades to defend those servants of God against the onset and fury of the multitude. Nor did all these things seem enough to the adversaries for rousing the minds of the people under the appearance of religion, which is the sharpest weapon. For three days thereafter they renewed a funereal procession round the houses of the Society with a mournful chant, carrying an effigy of Christ hanging from the cross covered with a black veil and turned backwards, and amid curses and execrations hurling stones at the roofs and from time to time crying aloud for mercy.

[193] These disturbances some fear or other of a few men arising from the neighbourhood of the companions produced, he foretells that they will shortly return there: and since neither the authority of the viceroy, nor of the Apostolic nuncio, nor even that of the princess Juana, then regent of the Spains, could check them, the companions, fearing not without reason that graver things would befall them, decided to yield their place. In the name of the rest Pedro Tablares made his last speech to the senate, by whom he was kindly heard and honourably dismissed: Borgia was not sluggish in this calamity of his own; since, as Orlandini writes, Fr. Román, having set out from Saragossa to Valladolid, had informed him of what was being done there: nor does it appear to be doubted that at Borgia's request the princess Juana interposed her authority for calming this popular commotion, although at first indeed in vain. By letters also he admonished the companions of Saragossa to collect the stones with which the fury of the people had assailed their house, from which a new and firmer house might rise for the Society, which thing was both an example of wonderful trust in God and as it were a certain prophecy of things to come: for after, having departed from Saragossa, they had settled for some time at Pedrola, seven leagues distant from there, whither they had been sent by Luisa Borgia, then countess of Ribagorza and afterwards duchess of Villahermosa, Francis's sister, before the year 1555 had elapsed they returned to Saragossa with no less honour and congratulation of the good than the hatred and execration of the wicked with which they had before been compelled to depart from there, and the Society put down roots so much the firmer as the whirlwind which had driven it from there had been more vehement.

[194] No less grievous to the Spanish Society, and so to Borgia, was the year 1556, is tossed by a grave in which hatred against the companions was stirred up no longer of the common people only, but of friends, nobles, learned men and even of the court itself. Charles had now returned into Spain, to lead a private life thereafter; and there had come together with him not a few Spaniards infected with the contagion of Calvin and Luther which they had contracted in Germany. These vomited all their bile and rage against the institute of the Society, from whose nurslings they feared for themselves; yet they feigned friendship with them, and kept saying that the whole protection of their sect was placed in the Jesuits; which others, through excessive credulity or carried away by hatred, easily believed, so much so that, when some of the better-known heretics had been thrown into prison, it was spread among the common people, and believed by them, that all these had been Jesuits. It was moreover spread abroad that Charles V was of a mind averse to the institute and men of the Society: the same was bandied about of his sister Maria. There had also come to Valladolid in that year, not so much to explain the Epistles of Paul to Timothy as to renew the old calumnies against the Society, even against the will of the superiors of his Order and of not a few of his brethren, Melchor Cano of the family of St. Dominic, a man otherwise especially famous for praise of learning and eloquence. With what reproaches he was wont to load the Society is of no concern, and, if it were, it would be irksome to relate: this one thing I add here, that it was not through him that the emperor did not pursue the Society with the gravest hatred, which indeed his letters prove well established, which he wrote from Salamanca in the year 1557 on the 25th day of September to Juan de Regla, and which Álvaro presents, book 4 of the Life of St. Francis, chapter 15, §2.

[195] throughout Spain That storm was vehement and long-lasting: but as long as it held, neither was Borgia's constancy conquered nor his labour and zeal to calm it interrupted at any time. Throughout all that time he poured out perennial prayers to God, perennial were his tears, perennial his vigils: he gave nine hours daily to prayers, and ordered public prayers throughout each college of Spain: while the storm of Saragossa was raging, his groans were perceived from afar, as Fr. Dionisio Vázquez witnesses, whom Álvaro cites. And from prayer he conceived a firm hope that the very storm which was tossing the little ship of the Spanish Society would drive it on to port and safety. Nor indeed were these straits so perpetual but that the divine benignity from time to time imparted some solace to the grieving Borgia: at the same time at which at Valladolid the Melchor Cano whom I have mentioned was turning the Epistles of Paul into bitter satires against the Society, not a few youths from the court itself, excelling in genius and race, embraced its institute, nor did the observance of religious discipline and holiness of manners ever at any other time flourish more at home, nor was there ever more abundant fruit abroad, nor was sprouting heresy more happily routed: The virtue of Religion flourishes greatly in the Society, and produces great fruits especially in rooting out the recent heresies; by whose work and doctrine a great part of the evil has been taken away and of the good preserved. There have not been lacking, nor are there lacking, enemies to your virtue and religion; but I hold for certain that God permits this both that it may be perfected and that the wicked may be confounded, said Juan de Vega, president of Castile, in his letters to Laínez, which he wrote from Valladolid to Rome on the 7th day of October of the year 1558, and which Álvaro presents in Spanish, book 4 of the Life of St. Francis, chapter 15, §2.

[196] storm the Society, Meanwhile the excessive rigour of life which he used fastened Borgia to his bed, nor was there only one form of evil with which he had to struggle: his stomach, from excessive cold, threw up all food, not without his greatest pain; there were added the greatest weakness of the head and an abundance of melancholy humours: the physicians, thinking that the former arose from the immoderate length of his praying, forbade him this, which indeed fell more grievously on Borgia than the evil itself; since, as he then testified to his companion, he took from prayer not labour and weariness but rest and strength. Besides, the demon, him hemmed in by so many evils, with various

strove to terrify him with spectres: when he began to recover a little, in order to dispel his melancholy, he bade Brother Marcus play something for him on musical instruments, while he himself meanwhile gave himself to prayers, tears, and devout sighs; now and again, taking a companion with him, he withdrew to some pleasanter spot, so that from the beauty of created things, and much more from the contemplation of the wisdom that made them, he might refresh a mind overwhelmed with grief. Solitude, though he was exceedingly fond of it, he avoided above all at that time, and he took diligent care not to abate anything of his accustomed affability and cheerfulness, nor to be burdensome to others; so much so that to those who were aware of his pains and sorrow the serenity of countenance and expression which he displayed was a cause of amazement.

[197] Borgia was afflicted by these evils when he saw the clouds gradually dispersing and the storm subsiding. While Borgia meanwhile suffered in body, At Seville leading men from the clergy and from the religious families took up the defence of the Society: when calumnies had been cast about against the Society everywhere in that city, two above all of the sons of St. Dominic, with equal zeal, eloquence and success, openly opposed them, master Burgoa and master Salas. No less spiritedly did master John Penna fight for the Society at Simancas. Distinguished service in that matter was also rendered by a man in every respect most eminent, of the same Order, Louis of Granada, who, as Alvarus, cited at number 194, §3, writes, when he had come to the court, turned the Epistles of Paul, which Cano had used not at all rightly, to the praise of the Society, which he also called an apostolic college. To these Alvarus subjoins the Spanish letter of the same Louis, which he gave to a friend at Lisbon on the last day of March of the year 1556, in which he heaps exceptional praise on the Society and openly disapproves Cano's sayings against it. Ferdinand Valdés, archbishop of Seville and president of the sacred inquisitions throughout Spain, in the year 1558 bore public testimony to the innocence of the Society, and when a rumour had been spread that some of the companions had been thrown into prison at Valladolid, he declared it to be far from the truth by letters sent to the tribunals, of which Alvarus recites the one which he gave to the tribunal of the sacred inquisitions at Saragossa on the 12th day of June of the year 1558. At that time Louis Strada also deserved splendidly and exceedingly well of the Society, of the Cistercian Order, abbot of Huerta on the borders of Old Castile and Aragon, whom Manrique in the Cistercian Annals at the year 1213, chapter 6, number 9, calls a man distinguished in piety and learning and the glory of his age. Two letters of his, one to doctor Torres, written on the 16th day of May of the year 1558, the other to Father Alphonsus Romanus, but both full of praise of the Society, see in Alvarus, cited, §4.

[198] From the court, moreover, there came a frequent concourse of the foremost nobility to the college of the Society, which, however, gradually, which was eager to examine the apostolic bulls by which its institute had recently been confirmed, and, having laid aside their unfavourable judgements and suspicions about it, many condemned themselves for their error; nor was the Society ever increased with more illustrious pupils than then, nor were colleges founded at greater expense and with greater splendour: the same president of the sacred inquisitions throughout Spain, of whom above, not only contributed a good sum of money to the building of the house at Seville, but also strove to introduce that institute at Oviedo: the very tribunal of the sacred inquisitions frequently made use of the labour of the companions for rooting out the heresies recently brought into Spain. In the same manner other storms and whirlwinds elsewhere gradually vanished through a happy change of affairs and times, so that out of such clouds and darkness, in which the Society had for a while been enveloped throughout Spain, it emerged brighter and more illustrious, a hope which Borgia had always cherished in his mind, as his letter to Father Ribadeneira, then working in Belgium, given afterwards, clearly shows, in which he speaks of that matter roughly thus, but in Spanish words, as found in Alvarus: I shall mention this one point, that so much labour and diligence was contributed by the Society in this calamity of the times, that the senate of the sacred inquisitions knows that it was of no small help to it, and also acknowledges it with a grateful mind: although in this court and in the kingdom of Castile (as also, readily, in Belgium) there was no lack of a report that those errors arose from the Theatines (by which name they designate ours); that I had been thrust into prison, another hanged from the gallows, that elsewhere we had been burned with fire, etc. These and other things of this kind are spread through the world, and behold, we live and give thanks to the Lord, that for no merits of ours He deigns to give us so manifold an occasion of deserving well of Him, and makes us worthy of His standard: wherefore I hope that His help will not be lacking to us, whereby these things may be turned to our greater good and greater knowledge of ourselves; and that He will bring it about by this way and means (as God is wont to do, and as we have learned by experience) that the Society will be more esteemed, and a new increase will be added to its authority. Ribadeneira also reports this letter in book 2, chapter 19, where he dispatches very briefly the disturbances of the persecutions which arose at this time against the Society, which we have just pursued more fully from Alvarus and the History of the Society; Schottus, however, in book 2, chapter 15, but below, number 115.

[199] was calmed, as he had hoped. Celebrated, if any year ever was, was the fifty-sixth year above the one thousand five hundredth, in which Charles, the most mighty emperor, the fifth of this name, and likewise king of the Spains, most famous for his deeds, having cast away the sceptres of empire and kingdoms, withdrew into Spain, to lead thereafter a private life in the monastery of St. Justus in the diocese of Plasencia. He made over Belgium to his son Philip on the 26th day of October; the kingdoms of Spain on the 16th of January of the year 1556, at Brussels; and the empire to his brother Ferdinand on the following day: thence, carried by ship, he landed in Guipúzcoa on the 28th day of September, and was conveyed from Laredo first to Burgos and then to Valladolid; whence likewise, with few accompanying him, he came to the monastery of St. Justus, which belongs to the Hieronymite fathers, where he spent the rest of his life with the greatest piety. Moreover, for daring and accomplishing so illustrious and rare a deed, no small spurs had long since been applied to the emperor by the example of Borgia, formerly duke of Gandía; and they had communicated mutual counsels on that matter between themselves as far back as the year 1542, in the assembly at Monzón, as was said above at number 70. The emperor, although he admitted few to converse with him from the time he had moved into the monastery of St. Justus, was nevertheless soon seized with the desire of seeing Borgia: and so through Ferdinand Álvarez of Toledo, count of Oropesa, he speedily summoned Borgia to the monastery of St. Justus. Borgia was likewise summoned about the same time to Rome, to be present at the general congregation in which a successor to the deceased Ignatius was to be elected. Before the emperor he used the excuse of his health; the same likewise before the Fathers assembled at Rome, although to these he wrote out several reasons which prevented his journey to the City, as may be seen in Sacchinus, part 2 of the History of the Society of Jesus, at the year 1557, numbers 68 and the two following. He thought it safe for himself to approach neither the City nor the emperor. If he went to the City, he feared lest Paul IV (who, when he was Cardinal of Chieti, had said to him as he was departing for Spain that, if he were Supreme Pontiff, he would not permit him to go away in that garb, namely of the Society) might burden him with the Roman purple, as he had once conceived in his mind: the same danger, moreover, came from the emperor, who, as we saw above, had once already attempted it.

[200] Wherefore Borgia thought it a matter of his prudence, Invited to avoid in one way or another the conversation with the emperor, whether by excusing himself on grounds of health or by putting off the journey: and in truth Borgia was then for some little while recovering from an illness, not at Plasencia, as Schottus, Ribadeneira's translator, says of his own, but at Alcalá, as Alvarus, book 4, chapter 6, §1, and Nieremberg, book 2, chapter 19, expressly write, although Sacchinus, number 114, agrees with Schottus. But the emperor, impatient of further delay, sent Ferdinand de la Cerda, duke of Medinaceli, to Alcalá, to bid Borgia in the emperor's words, if only his health would in any way allow it, to set out on the journey to the monastery of St. Justus. Borgia obeyed, and, taking with him as companions Fathers Bustamante and Herrera, and his inseparable companion Brother Marcus, set out on the journey the next day: but he had gone only a little way from Alcalá when a letter was delivered to him from the princess Joanna, the emperor's daughter, in which she advised him that he would very soon be summoned to her father: that her father had formed the plan that Borgia should exchange the habit of the Society for the habit of the Hieronymite brethren, or, if that pleased him less, that at least, as would be lawful for him, both together should withdraw to the Grande Chartreuse: let him therefore see to it that he satisfied the emperor, yet in such a way as not to fail the Society. Thus it happened conveniently that Francis had time for deliberating in so difficult a matter, and might come prepared to so doubtful a contest. Having read Joanna's letter, he turned to prayer as was his custom, and at length rose from it with such cheerfulness of mind that he could not contain it in his breast. Let us go, he said, companions; I have been taught by I know not what oracle that the Deity will be propitious to me, whose kindness, as I fully trust, will bring it about that neither the Society nor the emperor will have anything to complain of in me.

[201] It was a delight to the emperor to hear that Borgia would soon be with him, to the monastery of St. Justus, and for him, as he had done for no one else, he ordered lodging to be prepared within the monastery of St. Justus, and the chamber in which he was to stay to be covered against the cold: then, having inquired of Louis Quixada, his steward, whether everything had been duly prepared, he wished to inspect Francis's chamber himself, and when he had seen the wall adorned with a costly tapestry, he ordered it to be removed at once and black cloths substituted, well aware, that is, that precious ornaments of this kind would not please the humility of his Guest. When Borgia came into the presence of Charles, he wished to kneel on the ground and kiss the emperor's hand, but Charles, embracing him, bade him rise, sit down and cover his head, and called him Duke of Gandía: Borgia besought the emperor not to address him by this name: since, said he, you so wish it, I will call you Father Francis: but again he bade him sit down and cover his head: Borgia refused to do it, because in the imperial majesty he recognized and revered the divine, and so he asked that he might address him on his knees. Then Borgia, in order to forestall the speech the emperor had prepared, said that it was a great pleasure to him that the emperor had changed his manner of life, by which so signal and unusual a deed he had filled the world with admiration of himself more than ever before: that he too could not deny that whatever it was that he had left was repaid to him with manifold interest by the bounty of the divine Deity in the manner of life which he had undertaken, and that there was nothing for which he would wish to exchange the humble garment of the Society.

[202] to the institute The emperor, seeing the thread of his prepared speech cut short by Borgia, turned the conversation elsewhere: From the time, he said, that you renounced earthly things, I envied you your happiness, and I would gladly even then, if the age of prince Philip and the tranquillity of the kingdoms had permitted it, have walked in your footsteps; and if I had done so then, there is no doubt

that rivals would have interpreted it as the deed not so much of one aspiring to things divine and eternal as of a man of abject and timid spirit: but you surely remember what was said between us on this matter at Monzón as far back as the year 1542. I remember well, said Francis, that even then your majesty committed that secret of your heart to my fidelity and silence, and I have revealed it to no man up to now. I committed it to you, said the emperor, and likewise to one other, but to no one besides. I bear in mind, said Francis, what uncommon confidence your majesty had in me: but I think matters are now placed where it may be made plain to the world that this was not a recent purpose of your majesty, but one conceived long before. So it is, said he, for since at that time everything was flowing for me from all sides according to my wishes, envy will the more perceive from this that nothing human drove me to this change of life.

[203] together with the emperor, in conversation, You remember in turn, emperor, added Borgia, that I too at that time disclosed what I had resolved about changing the habits of my former life and conduct. I hold it fast, said the emperor, and your speech then fixed such goads in my mind as no variety of subsequent events could abolish or pluck out; and it came about chiefly through your example that, having abdicated the helms of empire and kingdoms, I began to live for God alone: we have both splendidly stood by our words. The conversation was then drawn out in varied and familiar fashion; and when the emperor had gradually slipped to the point of beginning to speak about the laws and institutes of the Society, concerning which he had heard many unfavourable things from the calumnies of the malevolent, Borgia, fearing lest he should make mention of his leaving the Society, said: It is a matter for a long and lengthy conversation, and evening is coming on: if it seems good to the emperor, we will resume the conversation on that matter tomorrow. The condition pleased the emperor, and each departed from the other to his own chamber.

[204] The next day, when they came again to converse, the Society Borgia was compelled by the emperor to sit beside him and cover his head: the emperor made the beginning of the conversation: Now, he said, if you have leisure, I wish you to explain to me the reasons why you entered this Order, and what sort of Order it is. You ask what is fair, emperor, said Borgia; I will therefore do what you command, both truly and faithfully. There was no need, said the emperor, of that preface; I have always found you a lover of the truth. Come, and do not doubt that your words will find credit with me. Then indeed Borgia began a rather long speech both for himself and for the Society, and drew it out, as Alvarus says in book 4, chapter 16, §3, to nearly three hours, the emperor only occasionally interrupting the speaker with a few questions. The principal heads of this speech are set out below by Schottus, number 104 and following, and by other biographers of Francis, to whom must also be added Sandoval in the Life of Charles while dwelling in the monastery of St. Justus, §§12 and the three following, which he had from the autograph of Martin de Angulo, Prior of the monks of St. Justus, who put it in writing by order of Joanna, the emperor's daughter.

[205] The fruit of this conversation was that the emperor laid aside all the unfavourable suspicion about the Society, he defends it excellently. which the calumnies of the malevolent had suggested to him, and turned it into love, declaring that he would make known to all Europe that he both loved and highly esteemed the Society. Sacchinus, in the History of the Society at the year 1557, number 115, reports that Charles, when he had heard Borgia carefully refuting the calumnies of the detractors, gradually became inflamed against the informers, that old military spirit growing warm again, and, suddenly striking his forehead with his hand, exclaimed: So this is how they lie to me? Sandoval, moreover, testifies that the conversation of the emperor and Father Francis lasted more than three hours, and that it had this outcome, that the emperor said to him that he had heard with great pleasure of mind whatever he had discoursed, and believed it true; and although, on account of the things he had heard about the Society, he had held it in suspicion, he was now persuaded of the truth and of the virtue of the Society by the testimony of Francis, and would henceforth attend it with his favour and goodwill, for the sake of the divine service and of Francis, who was of it. Nor did the emperor delay to perform in deed what he had promised in words: for he did not dismiss Francis from him before he had most lovingly suggested to him some counsels which he judged would do very much toward preserving and increasing the Society; and as he was departing he ordered two hundred gold pieces to be counted out to him by way of alms, and word to be given that what he gave was indeed modest, but yet, if account were taken of his present means, as much as he had given to no one while he had guided the reins of empire.

§ XVI. He approves the spirit of St. Teresa: a remarkable prodigy wrought in his hands by an image of Christ fixed to the cross: in the emperor's name he performs an embassy to Catherine, queen of Portugal. He praises her when dead in a funeral oration.

He approves the spirit of St. Teresa, Having spent three days with the emperor, he applied himself with a cheerful mind to the visitation of the colleges. Having set out for Ávila, he gave up the beast on which he was riding to a lay brother whom he chanced to meet on the road; he himself made the journey on foot, although he suffered no small discomfort from gout. When he had entered late the hospital house of St. Giles, which the companions inhabited at that time, and had betaken himself to bed, amid the bitter pains of the malady he remained utterly silent that night: to the brother who attended him and asked the reason for this, he replied: Far be it from me to complain of an evil which I have so eagerly asked of God, and which I hold in the place of a benefit: and if complaints and groans should seem in some way to soothe the pains of this malady, they certainly diminish the merit of patience. With these and other examples of virtue, while he stayed at Ávila (and he stayed fifteen days), he strove with all his strength to profit not only those of his household but also the citizens by sermons in the cathedral church. His labour was useful above all to St. Teresa, who was then living at Ávila. That seraphic virgin was being rapt out of herself, but by what spirit she did not sufficiently know. From the time the Society had fixed its seat there, she had been borne with a wonderful affection toward the men of that institute. Not unwillingly, therefore, did she obey the counsel of pious men that she should go to consult Borgia, already known everywhere by the fame of his holiness.

[207] and wins her friendship for himself. She came, made Borgia a sharer of her secrets, and received great consolation from conversing with him; which indeed St. Teresa herself attested in chapter 24 of her Life, writing in Spanish words in this manner: Father Francis, formerly duke of Gandía, who, having left all things, had entered the Society of Jesus, had come here (to Ávila) at that time. By the counsel of my confessor (John de Padranos) and of the gentleman mentioned above (Francis Salcedo), it was arranged that he should come to me in order that I might speak to him and explain the manner of prayer I held to a Man to whom, as one who had left much for His sake, I knew that God granted greater things even in this life. After he had heard me, he told me that it was the spirit of God, which he did not think it right to resist any longer; that everything had been going rightly so far; but that I should henceforth begin my prayer with some article of the Passion; and that if the Lord should then raise my spirit to Himself, I should not struggle against it, but should allow myself to be raised, without making any effort toward it. Teresa felt herself greatly refreshed by Borgia's reply and by the counsels received from him, as she herself adds in the words just transcribed. Other testimonies of this kind from that holy virgin are reported by Ribera, book 1, chapter 10 of her Life, and book 4, chapter 3. Finally, Diego Yepes, §3 of the Prologue to the Life of St. Teresa, is the authority that Borgia, from the time he began to deal with her, always extolled her holiness with immense praises and cultivated a lasting friendship with her by letters. He had not yet left Ávila when it was reported to him that the French had taken up arms against Philip II: forthwith he summoned some of his sons from Madrid to Ávila, and, having scarcely embraced them, bade them follow the king's camp if they wished to be held as his own; and at the same time he warned them sternly not to confuse the precepts of Mars and of the Christian religion. Thus far Alvarus, book 4, chapter 17, §§1 and 2; what he narrates in the following § is horrifying to hear, and you would call it fabulous, were it not drawn from the Process of Canonization of St. Francis

[208] Borgia had heard that in a certain principal city of Spain there lay at the point of death a certain man, The image of the Crucified, to the confounding of a hardened man, as notorious for his depraved morals as for the splendour of his birth, and that he could not thus far be brought by any means to wash away the offences of his wicked life in the Sacrament of Confession. Borgia needed no further spurs to withdraw into his room and, prostrate on his knees before an image of the Redeemer hanging from the cross, to beseech God with many prayers and tears that He would be propitious to the wretched man, He who willed not the destruction of the sinner. While meanwhile he contemplates the image with intent eyes, behold a prodigy: he sees the head of the image raised, and hears a voice of this kind descend to him: Go to the sick man, and I too will be present, clothed in the guise of a physician, while you persuade him to a timely confession of his sins. No sooner said than done: on this side Francis strives to soften the wretch's spirit with words now gentle, now most grave; on that side the heavenly Physician shakes the iron breast with silent and divine impulses. He was at first indeed moved a little; but soon he returned to his nature and obstinacy.

[209] When the heavenly Physician had gone away, Francis continued with every effort to recall the sick man's mind to amendment; it pours forth blood in Borgia's hands. but his speech availed nothing with the sick man, who stopped his ears with both hands. Sorrowful, therefore, he returned home, and repeating his prayers before the same image of Christ hanging from the cross, he was found worthy to hear from it: "That you may understand how much I love you and desire the salvation of that wretched man, take this image of Me in your hand, and return to the sick man's house." Francis does as commanded; he offers the sick man pardon of his sins and eternal happiness, if he would come to his senses, in the name of Him whose image he held in his hand: the man obstinately remains silent, and even feigns to be dead. O stupendous clemency of God! O obstinacy harder than any rock! There flows from the five wounds, as from so many fountains, a most abundant stream of blood; and now not Borgia but Christ in His image thus addresses the man: "See, O wretch, at what price this rebellious soul has cost Me. See to what the love of your salvation has brought Me, that I may receive you, penitent, in these arms and place you in the bliss of glory." Deaf to the minister, he did not hear the Lord either; who, no longer bearing such contumacy, unfixed His right arm, and casting at the obstinate man the blood drawn from His side, added that terrible saying: "Since you spurn the blood that flowed for you, may it be to you for everlasting unhappiness": when this was uttered, that unhappy man breathed out his soul amid horrible insults against Christ.

[210] He visits the emperor a second time, Some months had passed since Francis had met the emperor in the monastery of St. Justus, when he came to Plasencia: the emperor, being only seven leagues distant from there, soon learned of his arrival, and wished him to come to him again; when he came, with equal tokens of love

he received him, consulted him about matters pertaining to the soul's progress, and bade him carry out certain political business. Borgia was said to have put off all human love toward his children: the emperor wished to test whether this was true. The emperor, Francis, and Alphonsus de Cardona, count of Oropesa and admiral of the fleet in Aragon, who had a lawsuit with Charles, duke of Gandía, the son of Francis, were conversing together. This count, said the emperor to Francis, has complained to me much of your son. What then do you think, or what do you wish me to do in this matter? To this he replied: I am entirely ignorant on whose side the justice of the case stands: this one thing I would earnestly beg of you, emperor, that you attend the count with all the favour you can, saving justice, and nothing indeed will befall that is more welcome to me. But where, said the emperor, is the love which you owe to your sons and family and which nature implants? Is virtue perhaps the adversary of nature? Charles has, said Borgia, what is sufficient: but Alphonsus has more of honours than of wealth. The love which nature implants toward our own is for the most part blind: I do not rub it out of my heart, but I govern and correct it with another, more clear-sighted love, as with a golden bridle; and this reply of Borgia the emperor received with much admiration and praise.

[211] He consoles the queen of Portugal at the death of the king, On the fourth day after he had met the emperor he departed for Simancas, whither he used most gladly to withdraw: there he received the saddest news, that John III, king of Portugal, had died on the 11th of July. He considered that he could not escape the mark of an ungrateful mind unless he brought Catherine, the king's widow, such consolation in so great a grief as lay in his power: he therefore sent her a letter full of piety and consolation on the twenty-fourth day of the same month. Ribadeneira presents it, book 2, chapter 16, and Alvarus Cienfuegos, book 4, chapter 18, §2: its substance comes to roughly this: that John III had indeed been withdrawn from the Church militant, but inserted into the Church triumphant, which was to be counted in the place of the highest benefit: that she would not pay him the return owed to him unless she undertook to cherish and sustain with her own cares and labours, in like manner, that part of the Church which he had cherished and sustained, namely until his grandson Sebastian should grow up. Let her trust that the crown of blessed immortality would not be lacking to those who had not only borne the Lord's cross generously themselves, but had also carried it to so many nations: finally, that he prayed God to heap upon her both grace and glory.

[212] He procures a seat at Madrid for the Poor Clares of Gandía. About five years had now passed since, as was said above at number 129, through the care of Francis, a colony of the Discalced nuns of Gandía, under the leadership of Frances of Jesus, Borgia's aunt, had set out to Casarrubios. But since the dwelling, which Juliana of Aragon, wife of the duke of Frías, now deceased, had procured for them in that place, threatened ruin, he brought it about with Joanna, daughter of Charles V, who, after the death of her husband John, prince of Portugal, had returned to Spain, that those virgins should be summoned thence to Madrid; and they had already come to Valladolid, while meanwhile Joanna converted her own birth-house into a convent, in the month of September of the year 1557, again at Borgia's instance, when not long afterwards Frances of Jesus, his aunt, departed from this life on the 28th day of October of the same year, as John Carrillo writes in her Life, chapter 6. Her loss was made good by Joanna of the Cross, the first abbess of the Poor Clares of Gandía transferred from Valladolid to Madrid, daughter of John III, duke of Gandía, but by his second marriage, and sister of St. Francis, whose virtues and holiness of life John Carrillo described, page 147 and the three following. Nor indeed did Francis benefit these sacred virgins only by the authority which he had with Joanna, but also by salutary admonitions and pious conversations. From that time, says John de Luca in the continued Annals of the Minors at the year 1541, number 15, Borgia was accustomed to come often and gladly to them, being now in the Society of Jesus a wonderful tamer of his own body and an eminent despiser of human glory; and, having entered upon conversation about divine things, he sharpened the zeal of the women more and more from day to day; and he urged them to withdraw themselves as far as possible from the contagion of the world and to mingle themselves wholly in mind with the purest spirits.

[213] At that time he was for the most part living in the novitiate house which he had built at Simancas, Sent by the emperor into Portugal, from which he was summoned to the emperor now for the third time. Although he was not of firm strength, he set out at once for the monastery of St. Justus, taking with him as companions Fathers Dionysius Vasquez and Bustamante and Brother Francis Briones. Admitted into the emperor's presence, he soon understood that he was being sent into Portugal to treat of great matters with Catherine, queen of Portugal, whose husband John III, as has been said, had recently died. The emperor, namely, desired, as Alvarus witnesses, book 4, chapter 19, §1, that the nobles of Portugal should declare heir to the kingdom his grandson Charles, whom Philip II had begotten of Mary, the daughter of queen Catherine, if anything should by human chance befall Sebastian, the posthumous son of John III. Borgia obeyed the emperor, although he hoped for no other fruit from that embassy than that of obedience. Having taken leave of the emperor, he went to Plasencia; whence on the following day he set out on the road into Portugal: at night both he himself and his companions had to lie on the ground in an inn open to the rains: by which it came about that such a pain seized the shoulder of Father Dionysius Vasquez that in the morning he could neither continue the journey nor draw breath: it vanished suddenly, however, after he had applied to the afflicted shoulder a linen cloth first dipped in a very cold spring, as Borgia had commanded, so that this might not be credited to his prayers. Having entered Portugal, he came about midday, after covering some six leagues in the morning, to Evora Alia, a town of the province beyond the Tagus, between the rivers Tagus and Guadiana, and soon, according to his custom, went to the altar to celebrate Mass, having left old Bustamante at the inn: he, while chatting with the host, ignorant of what Borgia had in charge from the emperor, exhorts the man to pour out frequent prayers to God for the safety of Sebastian, lest the kingdom of Portugal be transferred to the Castilians. The host, taking these words otherwise than he had spoken them, cries out that that Priest is an enemy of the prince and the kingdom; the neighbours run up, some assail the old man with insults, others look for stones with which to overwhelm the poor man; but Borgia, opportunely coming upon the disturbance, and using gentle speech, shook the anger from the minds of the irritated crowd and the stones from their hands: but he rebuked Bustamante and bade him return to Castile.

[214] Proceeding thence to Évora together with Vasquez and Brother Briones, he fell into a most violent fever: with a deadly fever, Henry the Cardinal, archbishop of the place, the same who afterwards succeeded king Sebastian, sent his chief physician, Barbosa by name, to treat the sick man. Such was the force of the disease that it cut off almost all hope of longer life; at last, having suffered a fainting fit, he seemed more like one dead than living; and those who were attending him as he lay, the physician and the companions, as Schottus indeed writes, or Brother Briones (who alone, Alvarus says, were present at this), were already weeping for him as though extinct, when, suddenly shaking off the torpor, he broke out into these words: Why do you shed tears in vain (I use the words of Schottus)? Will they snatch me from death, if it has seemed good to God to recall me from this exile of life to the fatherland? But this fruit is not yet ripe to be set on the tables of the supreme King: a great road still remains for us: nay, within four days I shall go on to Lisbon alive and well. From then on he immediately began to recover his strength, to the amazement of the physician. The physician prescribed that Borgia should purge his bowels at the third hour of the morning: he obeyed; but, so as not to be without heavenly food even for one day, he anticipated the hour, refreshed his soul with the most holy Body of the Lord, and remained in most lofty prayer from the first to the third hour of the night; which indeed has been added by Alvarus to the statements of Ribadeneira. On the third day afterwards the queen sent members of her household to Évora, to take Borgia up in a litter and bring him to Lisbon as soon as that could be done, with whom on the next day, as he had foretold, he set out on the journey, the rector of the college of Évora and the physician Barbosa accompanying him.

[215] He is tossed by a storm at sea, and foretells another. The queen had besides sent a light vessel to the banks of the Tagus, by which Francis might be carried to Lisbon: but since it was not there in time, he committed himself to a not very safe skiff at the place called Aldea Gallego; whence to Lisbon was a voyage of two or three hours: while he was sailing a storm arose, and the fury of the winds carried off the sail of the skiff, and with it the sailors' hope; and now there was danger lest the skiff be swept out to sea: the cries of the despairing vied with the roar of the waves: at length, looking out from his litter with a serene countenance, "Courage," he said, "we shall soon reach port." Their efforts are redoubled, the sail is recovered and given to the winds, their lost hope returns to the sailors, and at last, after a struggle of nearly eight hours with waves and winds, the skiff puts in at Lisbon about midnight. It was ascribed to Borgia's merits and prayers that the skiff did not perish, especially since three others, which had been sent to the aid of the one in which he was carried, perished in the same storm. He spent that night in the college of St. Roch, his health somewhat disturbed by the tempest he had endured: on the next day the queen asked him to withdraw to the royal palace of Xabregas, situated on the bank of the Tagus, until he recovered, so that the purer air and pleasantness of the place might more quickly restore strength to the sick man. Borgia withdrew there with Vasquez, and the queen ordered food to be supplied to them daily, so splendidly and kindly, says Vasquez, that if we had been her sons nothing more could have been expected of her. On the third day after, he went in the afternoon hours to the Franciscan Fathers, whose convent looked toward the sea: he warned them that those who inhabited that part of the monastery which the Tagus washed should gather up their furniture and move to the other part of the monastery. The sky was clear, and there was no sign of an impending storm. Borgia's words were partly believed, partly not: those who had remained, when a most savage storm broke in the night, barely escaped the danger of drowning, safe only through the help of their brethren. He himself, having returned to the royal palace, although it was solid enough, would not stay there that night, the royal attendants and his own companions protesting in vain: and so, since he was so obstinately set on it, he was conveyed to the college of St. Roch. That storm spared the royal palace no more than the monastery of the Franciscans; indeed, it wrought no small ruin, so that, on the testimony of Vasquez, had they spent the night there, they could not have been safe except by divine help. Historians relate that this foul storm, arising from the furthest bounds of India, and beginning at Lisbon in the month of September on that same night, then poured itself out with equal fury far and wide through almost all Europe and Africa, and brought a horrible pestilence upon mortals.

[216] Having recovered his strength somehow, he went according to custom to pay his respects to the queen, to Sebastian, and to Henry the Cardinal (prince Louis, most dear to him, had died), His diligence is approved by whom he was received with great honour and goodwill. Most people supposed

that Francis had come to Lisbon to inspect the colleges of the Society as commissary of the Spains. But why he had come there Catherine alone knew for certain: the matter was therefore treated between the queen and Borgia no less secretly than diligently, and it seemed that what the emperor desired could not be done; that Sebastian was alive and well; and that if perchance he should die, some hope remained in Henry the Cardinal: that the minds of the Portuguese were so disposed that, if they learned anything of that matter, no smaller commotions would be stirred up throughout Portugal than those which the recent storm had raised. The queen, aware of what had befallen Bustamante, said to Borgia besides, "They would overwhelm both me and you with stones, as they wished to do to your companion." Borgia informed the emperor by letter how matters stood. While awaiting the reply, he visits the colleges of Portugal with the greatest pleasure of mind; and he received as a gift from the queen a crystal apple filled with a most fragrant liquid, which she thought would benefit his ailing stomach, and which the coadjutor Briones carelessly dashed on the ground. Borgia smiled, and said to the brother, who was blushing at what he had done: "My brother, Francis has lived up to now without delicacies of this kind; why should he not live henceforth without them?" From the emperor, however, he is bidden to desist from what he had begun, to stop up all the chinks through which what had been done might creep out to the public, and to return to the monastery of St. Justus as soon as his health permitted. He would not, however, leave Lisbon, as Alvarus reports from Dionysius Vasquez, without repaying a return of gratitude to the physician Barbosa: he had a daughter who vehemently desired to be enrolled among the sacred virgins serving God under the institute of St. Bernard about one league outside Lisbon. The thing was difficult to obtain, both because the girl was of birth not sufficiently distinguished, and because for several years she had suffered from infirm health and weakness of the nerves: Borgia nevertheless brought it about not only that the wishes of the girl and her father were satisfied, but even that Henry the Cardinal paid her dowry. The same Alvarus also reports from Vasquez that further benefits were divinely conferred on the same physician through Borgia's prayers.

[217] to the emperor, he utters a remarkable prophecy, These things having been done at Lisbon, he returned to the emperor, to render a fuller account of his embassy: the emperor approved his diligence, by which it had come about that the public peace was not disturbed. On that occasion Borgia uttered a remarkable prophecy: he had told the emperor that the business committed to him had been no less difficult to accomplish than if the whole kingdom of Portugal had had to be taken by force of arms: then, checking his voice for a little while, he continued thus, the course of his speech being interrupted from time to time: But, emperor, this time does not require that we dwell on this subject: I have hope, and that solidly founded, that it will shortly come about that those kingdoms will be joined by certain hidden channels, and that your son Philip will see fulfilled in himself what you desire for your grandson. The emperor was astonished, and felt himself suffused with joy: he did not, however, dare to ask Borgia whence he had learned it and affirmed it so confidently. For the fourth time, but the last, Borgia saw the emperor in the monastery of St. Justus. Sandoval wrote that this happened only three times; but that writer was unaware of Borgia's third journey, in which he went from Plasencia to the monastery of St. Justus; which Alvarus Cienfuegos reported from Vasquez, his companion on the same journey. Ribadeneira and others have related that the emperor gave Borgia two hundred gold pieces in alms when he came to the monastery of St. Justus for the first time. But Sacchinus, part 2 of the History of the Society, book 1, number 123, contends that this was done in the year 1557, when Borgia, returning from Portugal, visited Charles for the last time. But that this, says Sacchinus, did not happen at the first meeting of Borgia and Charles, as is reported in his Life, is certain from Borgia's own letter, in which he announces that after his return from Portugal, when he had gone to Charles with Dionysius Vasquez as companion, he had been presented with that sum of money: which he at once set aside for the Roman college. Herrera, however, an eyewitness, agrees with Ribadeneira, as Alvarus writes: wherefore Alvarus not without reason supposes that the emperor repeated his gift.

[218] he attends to the congregation of the Society, Up to this time no successor had yet been elected to Ignatius to govern the Society: a congregation was therefore proclaimed, to be held at Rome, in which another Superior General was to be elected. The roads by which one had to go from Spain to Rome were scarcely safe because of the war: he provided, with as much diligence and prudence as he could, for the safety of those travelling there. Borgia, no less intent upon the congregation than those at Rome, says Sacchinus, book 2, number 9, when he saw the roads into Italy blocked on all sides, having long and anxiously turned the matter over with himself, and having at length communicated it with John Vega, a man equally wise and devoted to the Society, determined thus: that the fathers, divided into three parties, should set out on the road: the Portuguese, for whom it was less dangerous, should make their way through France, which they did: the rest should be distributed into ships: and each of these parties should carry the written votes of the other two. He had decreed this with the design that among so many impending mischances at least some party might reach Rome safe and in time: so that all could not easily be intercepted, nor, if a longer delay detained some, would it be necessary to prorogue the congregation to the detriment of affairs and the loss of reputation. Borgia could not set out for Rome with the others, although his presence there was greatly desired, because to his old infirmities a most grievous pain of the kidneys and the stone had been added: he therefore believed that he had done his duty sufficiently by sending in his own place to that congregation John Plaza, master of novices in Baetica, a man of distinguished virtue. Laínez was elected Superior General in this congregation on the day sacred to the Visitation of the most blessed Virgin, in the year 1558; Borgia received only a single vote.

[219] In the same year Charles V no less anxiously desired his presence, and praises the emperor in a funeral oration. when he was near death: when he understood that it was imminent, turning his head to those standing by, he broke out again and again into these words: "Where is the holy Father Francis Borgia?" and again into these, when at his last breath he made the codicil by which he appointed him executor of his testament: "What do I not suffer, that the holy Father Francis is not now at my bedside." The charge of executing the testament which the emperor had given him he undertook reluctantly; but he had to yield to Joanna, Charles's daughter, who was governing Spain in the place of Philip II. At Pintia, that is Valladolid, he delivered a funeral oration in praise of the emperor in the church of St. Benedict, whose theme, as indeed they write everywhere, was that saying of the royal Prophet, Psalm 54, verse 8: Lo, I have gone far off flying away, and I abode in the wilderness. But Alvarus, book 2, chapter 20, §1, cites the manuscript of Herrera, in which he testifies that he was present at that funeral oration, and that its theme was that of Jeremiah, Lamentations 2: To what shall I compare thee, or to what shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? For great as the sea is thy destruction, the first part of which he adapted to the emperor's soul, and the other to Spain. And in that oration he disclosed, among other things which he had received from the emperor's own mouth, that from the time he had reached the twenty-first year of his age he had let no day go by without giving himself, for no small space of time, to the prayer which they call mental, which surely ought to be admired in a prince who had to sustain the business of so many kingdoms. It was, however, very grievous to him, says Schottus, that he had not been at hand to Charles in his agony, to render this last office to a patron who had deserved so well of him, and to close his eyes as he died.

§ XVII. He sends companions to foreign regions. Having suffered most grievous calumnies in Spain, he goes to Portugal and illustrates it with his virtues.

Companions to Africa, to Asturias, He was likewise bereaved of another friend about the same time, John Vega, president of the council of Valladolid, at whose death it turned out more happily for him, in that what he had not been able to do for Charles he performed for Vega, to whom he rendered faithful service while he, repeating these words of Paul, I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, was released by a happy death in the year 1558, on the tenth day before the Kalends of January, as Sacchinus relates, or about the beginning of the following year, as Alvarus relates. By his counsel it had come about a little before that Martin of Córdoba, governor of Oran in Africa, when he was preparing an expedition against the barbarians, asked Borgia for two or three men of the Society to devote their labour to the salvation of the soldiers: he sent two priests, Peter Martinez and Peter Domenek; to whom he gave as companion John Gutierez, a coadjutor. That expedition was fatal to the Spaniards, the whole army being almost destroyed by slaughter and the rest led away into captivity: wherefore their labour would have been very useful if they had been allowed to be present with the soldiers fighting against the barbarians: but it had seemed good to the governor that they should remain at Oran, to have the care of easily five hundred soldiers lying in the hospital. Some while afterwards they arrived safe at Granada, when they were already numbered among the dead, and Masses and prayers had been offered for them by Borgia's order: but for Martinez the palm of martyrdom, which he afterwards found in Florida, was being reserved. Moreover, in the same year he sent into Asturias Peter de Saavedra and Carvajal, the first apostles of that principality from the Society. There was in that year a huge dearth of provisions throughout Spain, and above all among the Asturians: Christopher Sandoval, formerly bishop of Oviedo, but at that time of Badajoz, and finally archbishop of Seville, had sent Borgia a letter in which he declared the want of the Asturians not only of provisions but also of Christian doctrine, and asked him to seek aid for the wretched from the princess Joanna, and himself, by sending labourers into that vineyard, to feed the souls of a people not sufficiently instructed. This letter easily moved Borgia to compassion: he went to Joanna and, having read Sandoval's letter aloud, at once added: The silver mines which you have in the Sierra Morena, O princess, yield, by the bounty of God, a return of three thousand ducats and more every single day; let some part of it go back to its Author: let us join our labours, that the want may be relieved under which the cradle of this kingdom suffers: it will be mine to send two men to feed the souls of the needy; do you, if it please you, provide for their bodies with alms. The proposal pleased the most religious princess; she ordered a fitting aid to be sent to the wretched, to which she added four thousand ducats of her own. So Alvarus, book 4, chapter 20, §2.

[221] He sends to the East Indies, to Austria and to Sardinia, He extended his zeal also to the East Indies, whither, on the same witness, he sent in the year 1559 Father Andrew Gonzalez de Medina together with Alfonso Lopez, a coadjutor: they were not far from the shores of India when the ship in which they were carried struck on a shoal and broke up: some leapt into the boats; the rest, easily five hundred in number, overcoming the waves, swam to the shoal, where the wretched men had to perish of hunger and thirst. If Andrew and Alfonso had been willing to commit themselves to the boats, as they were asked, there was hope that they would quickly reach the college of Goa safe and sound: but, fearing lest so great a multitude of men

brought to despair should perish in soul and body together, they too came out onto the shoal. Here Andrew encouraged each one to adore the providence of the divine Deity in so great a calamity, and to dispose himself duly to meet death: Alfonso went through the midst of the waves to the ship and brought back food from it; but it barely sufficed for a few days. Soon, therefore, all of them, after expiating the faults of their souls, perished of hunger and thirst. The companions, last of all, by a singular gift of God indeed, having sent the rest before them, as one may lawfully hope, into heaven, fell in that sandy and deserted place as distinguished victims of charity: that these things were so was shown by a slip of paper written in Andrew's hand and found together with his corpse. Likewise, at the request of the princess Joanna, he sent Christopher Rodriguez to Mary, wife of the emperor Maximilian, who greatly profited the Catholic faith at Vienna, and afterwards undertook most arduous apostolic journeys into Calabria, Apulia and Egypt. He was held by fevers when Borgia first made mention to him of undertaking the mission to Vienna: but, relying both on the merit of obedience and on Borgia's holiness, We will go, he said, if you so command; Borgia commanded; the sick man recovered, and the next day with an untroubled mind he undertook so long a journey. Finally he sent to Sardinia Father Balthasar Pinnus, who was afterwards called the apostle of Sardinia, and Father Francis Antony, who also contributed distinguished labour to the cultivation of that vineyard.

[222] While Borgia diligently promotes the glory of God, God in turn willed his name to be made illustrious by various prodigies, whose fame in turn on the witness of Alvarus, book 4, chapter 21; and first indeed he filled the Spanish court with admiration by raising a boy from the dead; at that time he was summoned to Sarabris (or, as some will have it, Octodurum, in Spanish Toro, a town of the kingdom of León) by his daughter Joanna, married to John de Almanza, marquis of Alcañices, whom he found affected with great grief because she had heard that her husband lay sick at the Spanish court. Borgia, having said Mass, goes to Joanna and informs her that at the beginning of the Mass the marquis had died; but at the end of the same Mass his soul had flown to those above; and a little later it was announced that he had ceased to live at the very time Borgia had said. The same daughter, on another occasion, being near death, asked her father to beg of God that her life be prolonged. I will do it, said Borgia, if you promise that you will dismiss the vain finery and the profane little books on which you waste your time. She promised not only this, but also that she would henceforth lead another kind of life. Having poured out prayers to God, he foretold that she would recover and would survive him, but not for long; namely by two years, as the event showed. With these prodigies he also mingled exercises of the virtues. Having returned to Valladolid on the 21st day of May of the aforesaid year, he attended a noblewoman who was to suffer capital punishment. About the same time Laínez, Superior of the Society, had ordered that any of the companions who wished to go to convert the Indians should write to him to that effect: Borgia offered himself for this, in the hope of obtaining martyrdom, which he had many times longed for. Further, Alvarus reports, book 4, chapter 21, §2, a remarkable miracle taken from the informations for his canonization and supported by the assertion of many eyewitnesses. In the year 1558, namely, the princess Joanna was suffering from a fever, and, having summoned Borgia to her, pressed him to immerse in water a fragment of the most sacred Cross, given to her as a gift by her father Charles; from which, if she drank, she hoped she would recover: he had scarcely immersed it in the water when it took on a blood-red colour: the princess, out of reverence, abstained from that water; nevertheless she recovered promptly, as she had hoped.

[223] It happened likewise at the same time that, when Joanna wished to share with Borgia a fragment of the skin of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, by various and he was dividing it, a drop of blood fell onto the cloth placed beneath, the court being again astonished at the new spectacle. Moreover, when she wished to send the water of which we spoke a little before to Charles, lying sick in the monastery of St. Justus, she again saw its natural colour turned to blood-red; and when afterwards this happened, it was held as a certain sign of death. On the other hand, if, when someone was sick, the water kept its natural colour, it was observed that the sick person's former health returned. It happened in the year 1559, in the month of October, that, when Mary de Castro, wife of Francis Cisneros, was sick, the particle of the Cross was immersed in the same water, which at once took on a blood-red colour: the princess summoned Ferdinand de Castro, marquis of Sarria, the count of Andrade, and the duke of Alburquerque, to be witnesses of the prodigious change. There was present also Dominic Vadillo, General of the Order of St. Benedict, who carried part of the bloodied water to the monastery of St. Benedict at Pintia, that is Valladolid, for cult and veneration. For the rest, on that same night Mary de Castro departed from this life. A not dissimilar prodigy, though much later, namely in the year 1571, when he went as companion to Cardinal Alessandrino, the papal legate, into Spain, occurred at Madrid in the convent of the Discalced Poor Clares, whither the princess Joanna used to withdraw from time to time. She had among her sacred treasures a portion of the most holy Cross, but one which differed somewhat in colour from that former one; being, that is, rather whiter than the other: she therefore doubted whether this was a genuine portion of the Lord's Cross: Francis, consulted on that matter, replied that it was undoubtedly genuine: and when he was dividing it in the presence of Joanna and some sacred virgins who had formerly been in the princess's service, blood likewise flowed from it. Mary Clare, the abbess, and John Muniessa, confessor of the same place, testified in the Process of canonization that they had heard this from the older nuns of that convent. He arrived at Segovia in the month of October, where at the request of the chapter he spoke to the people from the pulpit in the cathedral church of St. Bartholomew with his accustomed fervour, as also to those held in prison, with an equal concourse of grandees and noble ladies, and to the consolation and profit of the prisoners. At home, moreover, he freed Father Ferdinand from a tertian fever.

[224] by prodigies At Guadalajara (it is a town of New Castile) he met Íñigo Mendoza, duke del Infantado: between him and his son the count of Saldaña there were not only grudges but even open enmities, which had besides broken out into civil discord. When Borgia, however gently, touched the sore which the duke bore in his heart, he threatened, with a mind not at all calm, that he would withdraw if he went on speaking of that matter. Having suffered a rebuff, Borgia, since words had not availed, turned to prayers: the duke went off hunting; but a little after, while ranging through a neighbouring wood, he was thrown from his horse against a tree-trunk. Carried home by his people, and seized with a sharp fever, he did not blush to recall Borgia as quickly as possible, to confess his error, and to show himself ready for whatever he wished. Borgia bade him be of good heart, promising that after a few hours he would be free not only of all danger but also of the fever. Having returned home, he soon offered Mass, beseeching God that, since the duke had come to his senses, He would withhold the scourge; which happened the same day. The duke embraced with grateful mind not only Borgia but also the conditions of peace which it seemed good to him to propose: thus, with Francis as arbiter, peace and concord were restored between father and son.

[225] He betook himself to Toledo in the month of October, and there God makes illustrious, he stayed, to the great benefit of its college, until the end of the same month, about which time he set out for Andalusia: Father Louis Santander was going to Segovia, the future rector of the college which it was hoped would be founded there; Francis met him near the pass which the Spaniards call Yébenes, and bade him accompany him to the pass. Having celebrated Mass there, he disclosed to Santander that the house which was to be converted into a college had been bought by Francis Erasso, secretary to the Catholic king: Santander, saddened by this news, because he thought the hope of founding a college there was cut off, said: In vain, then, shall I have gone to Segovia: Do not, answered Borgia, lose heart so quickly: nothing is so powerful as to resist God: go, and do not doubt that everything will turn out rightly and prosperously for the greater glory of God. No more was needed for Santander to betake himself to Segovia full of good hope, and he had scarcely arrived there when Erasso of his own accord gave up the house he had bought for the founding of the college. When he was making his way thence to Córdoba, with Suero de Vega as companion, one night he was giving himself to prayer and the chastisement of his body in a remote room of the inn, while the others were chatting at the hearth; when suddenly, having barely snatched up his clothes, he rushed out thence, warning the others to follow him at once if they wished to be safe. They followed him in his hasty flight, although they did not know the reason for the flight. They had scarcely come out under the open sky when suddenly part of the inn, seized by hidden flames, collapsed with a great crash. Nor was there any doubt that they would have been crushed by that disaster, had not Borgia, divinely warned of the danger, driven them in time to flight both by word and example. Having gone on to Montilla, he restored peace and concord between the duke of Frías and his mother, against whose will he had contracted marriage with an Englishwoman.

[226] It could not but be that all these things should win Borgia immense fame and glory; and assailed by calumnies which, however, at this very time certain envious men of his set about not only to wear away but even utterly to blacken. Philip II was offended in mind against Borgia because, against his will, Borgia's brother Louis, marquis of Navarrés, had joined to himself as wife Eleanor, who traced her descent to Ferdinand, duke of Braganza, the second of this name. Philip thought, namely, that Borgia had contributed something to this, or at least had not prevented that marriage when he could. Having found an opportune time for calumny, they tried to make Borgia suspect to the king of a most grievous crime, as though he had conducted himself less than chastely with the princess Joanna. To an utterly absurd calumny they added one no less absurd: that he did not think rightly in the faith, that he was most intimate with Carranza, archbishop of Toledo, who, having been placed in custody, had refused Ferdinand Valdés, archbishop of Seville and chief of the inquisitors, as judge of his case, making use of the testimony of Borgia and others; that he favoured the Lutherans, and namely Dominic de Roxas. There was added another evil also from the booksellers: Borgia had written, before entering the Society, a certain pious little book, not for others but for himself, a copy of which the booksellers obtained and printed several times: there was one of them who, gaping after greater gain, added to Borgia's work little books of various authors, in which there were some things that deserved to be censured. So this volume, marked with the name of Borgia alone, was entered in the year 1559 in the Index of prohibited books in these words: The book whose name is: Works of the Christian, written by Francis Borgia, duke of Gandía. On that occasion it was spread abroad everywhere among the people that the doctrine of Francis had been condemned, not that he was a man of that sort.

[227] most grievous His own disgrace indeed he bore with a great and unperturbed mind; but he grieved that it redounded upon his companions. He committed the whole matter to the divine counsel and judgement, trusting that happier times would succeed these turbulent ones: nor did his hope deceive him. For what of his

conversation with Joanna had been bandied about could not have even the shadow of truth, and Philip confessed in the year 1561 to the duke of Feria and to Ruy Gómez de Silva, having read the letter which they had brought from Francis to Philip, that he had never believed that anything had been committed by Francis which was unworthy either of himself, or of his eminent virtue, or of the institute which he professed: indeed he soon sent him a letter most full of goodwill and kindness. And some years afterwards, when he was returning to Spain, he sent a messenger to meet him with a letter in which he declared his immense desire of seeing him. And he had scarcely set foot in the court when the same Philip embraced him most amicably. He had indeed dealt with Carranza, archbishop of Toledo, but at a time when he was still held in veneration by all, and had as yet had no grudge with the archbishop of Seville. He had likewise dealt several times with Dominic de Roxas, who was infected with the Lutheran heresy: but that crafty man had carefully taken heed not to betray to Francis the poison lurking in his mind; and he testified on oath that he had never dared to disclose to him the sentiments of his mind, and moreover had heard nothing from him that was not thoroughly Catholic. And the cloud which the spurious little books, of which above, had cast over his name was dispersed by Borgia's genuine offspring, printed separately and fortified by the new approval and praise of most wise and most pious men.

[228] He consoles. Nor indeed was he without divine consolation amid these storms. At Valladolid once, while he was giving himself to the consideration of himself, he was so confounded in mind that he judged himself worthy to be loaded with insults and harassed by all created things: he heard a voice saying to him: Be confounded likewise before me. He recognized the voice of Satan, and immediately replied that it was just that he should be confounded even before the demon; seeing that the demon, though he was of a most excellent nature, because he had sinned once, had fallen forever from eternal beatitude and from the hope of it: whereas to himself, a vile and abject manikin, who had many times and grievously offended God, the hope of obtaining it was still left, ungrateful though he was, and therefore worthy that even the demons should be hostile to him. The demon fell silent: but soon he heard another voice, which said: "This is the true way, this lowliness of mind is pleasing."

[229] Having set out into Portugal Catherine, queen of Portugal, and Henry the Infante, Cardinal of the H. R. C., had learned from the letters of the princess Joanna by how great a storm Francis was being tossed. Henry, therefore, who had raised up for the Society a college and university at Évora, sent him a letter in which he signified that two things above all were among his wishes; the one, that he should send to Évora two men distinguished in learning to adorn the university founded there by him: the other, that he himself should come to Évora to inspect the beginnings of the university, and be not only a consolation to the masters but also a great incentive to their undertaking their labours with a cheerful mind. Henry's letter, written at Lisbon on the 11th day of November, as may be seen in Alvarus, book 4, chapter 23, §1, was delivered to him while he was still staying at Montilla. He sent ahead into Portugal Father Peter Paul Ferrer and Father Ferdinand Perez, who taught Theology at Évora for many years and with great praise. He himself followed them to Évora, with Bustamante, Saavedra, and Brother Marcus, a lay brother, as companions; the queen had sent him a litter, but he would not use it: when he arrived at Évora he was received most lovingly by Henry, who had likewise betaken himself there from Lisbon; and at his request he spoke to the people from the pulpit in the cathedral church on the Sundays of the spring fast, the Dominican Fathers of their own accord yielding their right, although his health was so impaired that he could not go to the church unless set on a mule, nor mount the pulpit unless helped by the assistance of two lay brothers.

[230] It happened once that he announced to Henry that he could not, for weakness of strength, speak to the people: Évora, it is not necessary, he replied, that he speak to the people: it will be enough if they but see in the pulpit him who for the love of Christ forsook all things. About that time Henry wished to visit the university with notable pomp, having summoned to the palace all the youth, the flower of the nobility, the chapter, and Father Leo Enriquez, rector of the college and university: when with this retinue he came to the buildings of the college, he found Francis coming to meet him, attended only by two lay brothers, the porter and the cook (Ribadeneira says that the Fathers Minister and Procurator were likewise present): having given thanks to the prince for the college and university founded by him, he added that it had not seemed fitting to him to mingle himself with so learned a company; that he had therefore remained at home with the lay brothers, as one who had been a layman for a great part of his life: for the rest, let him know that this company too (he was pointing to himself and the cook) was devoted to his service; all who were present marvelling at such lowliness of mind in so great a Man. Having then visited the halls of the college and university, Henry and Borgia treated apart of matters looking to the glory of God, from which conversation Henry derived such pleasure of mind that he could not conceal it.

[231] He did not depart from Évora before he had greatly profited both his own and outsiders, Coimbra partly by words, partly by examples, above all those shut up in prison, and the sick lying in the hospital, to whose relief and consolation not only the companions but even noble men and women themselves ran together in rivalry. Then he went on to Coimbra, having first, however, paid his respects at Lisbon to Catherine and her grandson Sebastian, the sovereigns of Portugal. Here there was the same zeal of Borgia as at Évora, the same examples of piety and the virtues: affable even to the least; wholly given to imparting the precepts of the spiritual life and salutary counsels to men whether noble or ecclesiastical, and a perpetual despiser of himself. If ever, hindered by a multitude of business, he had not been present in time at the domestic duties, he wished to be chastised as one guilty of some offence: he wore a garment which seemed nearer to unseemly than to poor: nor could it be obtained of him that he should put on a more seemly one. Meanwhile, seized with a desire for solitude, he decided to withdraw to a country house of the college of Coimbra situated on the borders of Portugal and Galicia, called Sansfins, or St. Felix, in order to refresh a little his body and mind wearied with labours.

[232] the city of Porto, Having therefore spent eight days at Coimbra, he hastened with Bustamante and Saavedra to the country house I have mentioned: but when he came to the city of Porto, he forthwith betook himself with his companions to the hospice of St. Roch Amator: there were at once present Roderick Pinerius the bishop, the nobility, and a multitude of the citizens, roused above all by the fame of his holiness. When he saw the bishop coming, he prostrated himself on the ground, kissed the prelate's hand, and as a suppliant asked him to be pleased to pray a blessing upon him; at whose command on the next day he spoke to the people, with the most favourable eagerness of his hearers; by which it came about that Francis renewed in the people of Porto the desire, which Francis Strada had earlier aroused by his sermons, of founding a dwelling for the Society in their city. After the sermon, says Sacchinus, part 2, book 4, number 156, he departed the same day, hastening to St. Felix, to enjoy as soon as possible the longed-for solitude and holy leisure, where, as the same author adds, he arrived on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of June: yet he did not so give himself there to leisure, or rather to the meditation of heavenly things, as not, together with his companions, to cultivate with the greatest labour the untaught minds of the neighbouring Galicians with the precepts of Christian doctrine, which labour he held for rest, because he was away from the business and turmoil of courts.

[233] and Braga He returned to Porto in the month of August, and, having summoned his companions there, converted into a college a part of the house which Jerome de Govea, a man of altogether singular virtue, had made over to him, and having built a chapel in that part of the house, there he first offered Mass and reserved the most holy Eucharist on the feast day of St. Lawrence. It happened while he was in that city that a bar falling on his head very nearly deprived him of the light, and he was preserved almost by a miracle; for him, namely, a still greater mass of labours to be undergone for the glory of God was impending. What Borgia had begun in the city of Porto was not long hidden from queen Catherine, and it brought such joy to the most pious princess that, in a letter sent to him on the 26th day of the month of August of the year 1560 (see Alvarus, book 4, chapter 23, §2), she testified that the matter had been a great consolation to her, because she had long had it among her wishes that the Society should fix its seat in that city; and in the same letter she asked Borgia to provide for the perpetuity of the college, from which great fruit was hoped for: that she was writing on the same matter to the bishop and the magistrates, and did not doubt that they would be at hand as far as was needed. What sort of man Borgia showed himself in the city of Porto, understand from Sacchinus, book 4, number 161. Here, he says, Borgia, as though restored to entire age and health, undertakes with his broken strength to discharge the duties of an almost wholly vigorous and robust labourer. He preached very frequently: he rejoiced to impart the divine Bread to those approaching the heavenly table: where he was accustomed, holding the most holy Body of the Lord in his hand, to interject something apt for moving them. He visited and consoled the sick: he composed quarrels: a Man of that dignity and age went about the streets of the city with a tinkling bell: and he gathered the untaught and the children (to the number of two thousand and more) for Christian instruction in the court of the principal church; because this church would not hold the number of them and of the rest of the mixed multitude. At the same time as these things were being done in the city of Porto, Bartholomew of the Martyrs, archbishop of that city, a most accomplished prelate from the order of St. Dominic, was planning a college for the Society at Braga: but delay was put in the way of this matter, because the pious prelate required certain things which were not sufficiently accommodated to the institute of the Society: Borgia came to Braga, removed the delay, and, by sermons held in the cathedral church, brought very many back to amendment, as Alvarus, cited above, says from Father Tellez and others.

[234] But the city of Porto so pleased Borgia He illustrates by his zeal and virtues. that, in a letter sent to Laínez, the Superior General, he signified that he wished to spend there whatever span of life remained to him: and for what reasons he desired this, learn from Sacchinus, book 4, number 160. But Borgia, he says, a wonderful lover of holy poverty, while he loved that city in many ways and judged it very suitable for bearing most abundant fruits of divine glory, listened the more gladly to the requests of the citizens because they were asking for a poor house. Wherefore, when the Superior General had given him leave to choose for himself a seat, wherever it pleased him, according to his own mind, he writes to him thus: that the sum of his wishes had long been to be most closely united with Evangelical poverty; and to end his life not in colleges, but in a poor house. At Rome and at Lisbon there were indeed poor houses, but they were likewise courts: and if he lived near them he could not be without the throng and din of human business. Let him therefore allow a little house endowed with holy poverty to be set up in the city of Porto, which he might have as the rest from his cares and the solace of his weary age: in whose bosom he might breathe out his last breath.

§ XVIII. Summoned to Rome he twice fills the office of Vicar: on the death of Laínez he is elected Superior General of the Society,

whose good he soon provides for splendidly.

Summoned to Rome by Pius IV, These indeed were Borgia's wishes: but the fathers of Toledo urged Borgia to return to Castile, to the court, in order to meet the unfavourable rumours which his absence from there, or, as his rivals interpreted it, his flight, had produced: but Borgia hated the din of the court too much to wish to return there. Laínez thought his labour would be useful at Rome, and Cardinal d'Este, his kinsman, vehemently desired that he should come there: the supreme Pontiff Pius IV also had the same among his wishes. Having therefore summoned Laínez to him, he asked whether Borgia was of such health as to have strength equal to the Roman journey; he replied that Borgia was indeed of infirm health, but such as did not prevent him from making continual and difficult excursions hither and thither as the glory of God required: that he would without doubt come to Rome if he understood it to be the Pontiff's will. The Pontiff therefore wrote to him a letter conceived in the following words: Beloved Son, greeting and apostolic benediction. The solicitude of the pastoral office, which, as it has pleased the Lord, we sustain though unequal to it in merits and strength, causes us to desire that, for safeguarding the welfare of the Lord's flock at so needful a time, the greatest possible abundance of good and faithful servants of Christ should be at hand to us in this kindly City. Since, therefore, among the other Orders of those who have dedicated themselves to divine worship, the great and abundant fruits which it has brought and daily brings to the Church declare that this Society was raised up by Jesus our Lord, the very author from whom it took its name; we have thought it right to summon hither you, of whose faithful and strenuous ministry we have learned from the very fragrance of your life and good works, spreading far and wide. Accordingly we exhort in the Lord your devotion, which we trust will not wait for sharper commands from us, to come to the apostolic thresholds at the earliest opportunity, if only you are not hindered by ill health: yet we wish you to make the journey in such a way as to take account of your health. Your coming will be welcome to us, and likewise timely to all your brethren who reside in this City and who eagerly await it. Given at Rome at St. Peter's under the Fisherman's ring, on the 10th day of October 1560, in the first year of our Pontificate.

Antonius Floribellus, bishop of Avellino.

[236] from Portugal through Spain Having received the Pontiff's letter, Borgia did not stir from his place before the Pontiff had been informed through Cardinal d'Este of everything that had been done on the occasion of the little books published under his name and condemned by the inquisitors of the faith, and before he had received a second letter from the Pontiff by which he was summoned again to Rome. When he was about to depart, the bishop of Tuy met him at the country house of St. Felix, and was so captivated by Borgia's virtue that, having afterwards become bishop of León, he built a college for the Society at León: Borgia, however, having forewarned Philip II of his departure and of the Pontiff's command, set out from the aforesaid country house for Rome by the overland route, with the priests Peter Saavedra and Gaspar Hernandez and Brother Marcus as companions. He had scarcely reached the borders of Galicia when he caught sight of two horsemen, and these masked, following his tracks wherever he went: he did not think the journey safe with these companions, and, to rid himself of them, he stopped in a neighbouring village until they had passed by, and went back to the country house of St. Felix. After an interval of some days he boarded a ship, intending to make for Bayonne, a port of Gascony; but a storm at sea arising meanwhile, he was compelled to return whence he had come, to St. Felix: Thence he informs Natalis, says Sacchinus, book 4, number 22, that since the voyage had not succeeded, he would go through Castile. This news truly alarmed all the fathers. He was thought to be rushing into destruction, and although they trusted in the goodness of the cause and in his conscience, they nevertheless judged that the occasion should be avoided, lest anything should turn out otherwise than the fame and holiness of such a Man deserved.

[237] he makes his way, where, A letter was at once sent to him dissuading that journey, but too late; for Borgia had already set out on the road, to venerate the sacred ashes of St. James at Compostela. Thence, secure of himself and relying on the purity of his conscience, he came to Toledo, where the court was then residing, in which, on the witness of Alvarus, book 4, chapter 23, §4, having spent some days, he continued his journey into France. Thence, by a road very dangerous on account of the heretics who were rioting there at that time, he went on into Italy; but he could not, while hastening to Rome, refrain from visiting the house of Loreto, in which the Son of God is believed to have put on human flesh, and venerating it for some days. He entered Rome on the seventh day of the month of September of the year 1561, as Ribadeneira and Alvarus relate, or on the fourth day of the same year and month, as Sacchinus writes, book 5, number 154, to the incredible joy of the companions. How he was received at Rome, the same Sacchinus sets forth thus: On the same day (the fourth after his arrival), Borgia's arrival being now spread through the city, many of the nobility came to him before he had yet left the college. Among these were the ambassador of the king of Portugal and one of the inner chamberlains of the papal chamber, who asked in the Pontiff's name whether he would lodge with him in the Vatican, or, if he preferred, the Pontiff would furnish a house elsewhere worthy of his person; adding that the sight of Francis would be welcome to him. As regards the house, Borgia, having given thanks, declined it. But since he had twice before been summoned all the way from Portugal and had now been so kindly and generously invited, he added that he would make bold to approach and kiss the feet of the most blessed Father at the earliest opportunity. He came on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of October. Nor did the Vicar of Christ show him less honour and kindness when present than he had bestowed on him when absent. Although he had to contend with the holy humility of Francis. For, bidden to rise, he could not be moved from his knees until the Pontiff commanded it seriously and by obedience. When they had conversed for some while, the Pontiff added that Francis himself and his affairs would be his care, as was due on account of the singular example which he had given to mortals in his times. Ribadeneira and Cienfuegos relate nearly the same things, although they place Borgia's approach to Pius IV on the third day after his arrival, which seems to me more probable than what Sacchinus says, namely that Borgia approached the Pontiff on the seventeenth of September, especially if Borgia had pledged that he would do so at the earliest opportunity. Schottus, however, at number 124, affirms that this happened on the day after his arrival, when Borgia was still weary from the road, departing, for I know not what reason, from Ribadeneira, whom he translates.

[238] Laínez was then absent from Rome, having been sent together with Cardinal Ippolito d'Este into France to Charles IX and his mother Catherine de' Medici, first, in the absence of Laínez, to meet the heresy swelling there, Father Salmerón, superior of the Society at Naples, having been left at Rome to discharge his functions: on him too, as also when Laínez a little later set out for the council of Trent by order of Pius IV, the burden of the vicariate fell upon Borgia's shoulders, though unwilling, seeing that he would rather have lived as a private man at Loreto beside the holy house: he at once began to visit the houses which the Society had at Rome, and to animate each one, partly by words, partly by examples, to the perfection of the religious life and to the labours befitting his profession. Twice a week in the time of the spring fast he preached from the pulpit at St. James of the Spaniards in his native tongue, not only Spaniards but also Italians flocking together to hear him. Not a few of the number of the purpled fathers made use of his counsels and friendship: among these Alvarus Cienfuegos, book 4, chapter 24, §1, lists Otto Truchsess, founder of the college of Dillingen, John Aldobrandini, Stanislaus Hosius, Alexander Crivelli, William Sirleto, Gabriel Paleotti, Antony Carafa, Cervantes of Tarragona, Bartholomew de la Cueva, whom, when he was suffering from his last illness and dying, he not only faithfully attended in the year 1562, but also prompted him to leave by testament a great sum of money to the hospice of St. James, which they call that of the incurables; Michael Ghislieri, who afterwards, elected supreme Pontiff, took the name of Pius V; Alexander Farnese, a distinguished protector of the Society; finally St. Charles Borromeo, who in the year 1563, newly initiated into the priesthood, wished to say his second Mass in the same chapel and at the same altar of the Roman professed house at which Sts. Ignatius and Borgia had offered the Sacrifice. Under Borgia's guidance likewise he afterwards cultivated his soul with the exercises of St. Ignatius, striving even then toward that sublime summit of holiness at which the Church afterwards saw with amazement that he had arrived. At that time also he began to seek a way and means of providing for the freedom of captives among the Turks and the salvation of the Greeks, having been informed of the wretched lot of both by Alvarus de Jande, who had been a captive at Constantinople for two years.

[239] and then, on his death, acts as vicar of the Society, Laínez, the Superior General, returned to Rome from Trent on the twelfth of February of the year 1564, and by him Borgia was declared assistant for Spain and Portugal, to which office he had long since been designated, and was besides set over the colleges of Amelia, Tivoli and Frascati with the title of Superintendent. Laínez, however, died on the nineteenth day of the January next following, of whose most pious death Borgia wrote thus to Salmerón: Our excellent father has passed from this miserable life to the eternal one, to receive the reward of the hardships endured here. There is no doubt that we suffer a great loss in him: but we also hope for a great gain with him: since the better it is with him, the more he will be able to help us. Among other things I can affirm this, that we did not believe his departure would be so brief: and some of the physicians bade us hope very well: but he, as one who had surer messengers and more excellent authorities, when on the holy day of the Epiphany they wished to give him a medicinal draught, put it off to the following day, and said to me: Today I wish to say Mass, which will be for Viaticum; therefore the draught must be put off. So he did. So it turned out. That was the last time he offered the Sacrifice, although at that time he was not yet confined to bed; and, so far as I think, he even went out of the house. Then, as the disease grew worse, when I reported the Masses that were being said for him, he said with a certain air as of one taking it ill: I would not that Masses were said for me thus. For they hold me back and delay me, as do likewise the prayers of these blessed brethren. Moreover, when I was present at his sacred anointing, he took leave of me in such a manner that I think I shall remember it as long as I live. For when the sacred anointing was finished, he looked at me, and at once, raising his eyes to heaven, invited us to go; for he was now entering upon the journey: which he did several times, now turning his eyes to me, now raising them to heaven, with a most sweet and most placid countenance. Laínez would not, as Alvarus adds, book 4, chapter 24, §3, substitute a vicar for himself; but he left to the professed Fathers at Rome the faculty of electing whom they wished, provided that Borgia presided over the assembly of electors; to whom on the following day the office of governing the whole Society, until a new Superior should be elected in the general congregation, was to be conferred

they decided: in order to shake off this yoke as quickly as possible, Borgia proclaimed through the provinces a general congregation for the second day of July of the same year 1565; at which time another burden also threatened him from the Pontiff Pius IV, who was planning to add him to the college of Cardinals; but this, by throwing himself at his Holiness's feet, he happily thrust from his neck. So the same Alvarus in the place cited.

[240] The nearer the time of electing the Superior General drew, and, the congregation having been held, as its Superior General the greater was Borgia's fear lest the electors should cast that burden upon his shoulders. When those who had the right of suffrage had arrived at Rome, he exhorted them with a vehement speech on the 28th day of June that, laying aside in a matter of the gravest moment every human and private affection, they should keep the glory of God alone before their eyes, and set over the Society him whom they judged most fit and worthy before the rest. Two days later, driven by the same fear, he began to deliberate in his mind how he might shake off that burden, and it was his intention to beseech the fathers to elect anyone other than himself, unworthy of so great an office: first, however, he wished to consult Salmerón and Ribadeneira on that matter. Schottus writes that Borgia consulted more than these; but he contradicts Ribadeneira, who writes that Salmerón and likewise one other (tacitly hinting at himself) were consulted by Borgia. They further advised him not to do it: for if he did, they said, it would come about that he would seem not so much to have fled the dignity as to have canvassed for it; that perhaps there would be no one who would elect him; but if it turned out otherwise, there would be room for entreaty; finally, that the business was to be left wholly to the judgement of God. Borgia yielded to the counsel of both: the second day of July had dawned, sacred to the Visitation of the Virgin and fixed for the election; Borgia offered Mass and distributed the most holy Body of the Lord to the electors; then, after a Latin oration had been delivered by Father Palmio, and the Hymn Veni Creator Spiritus had been said, they proceeded to the votes, and when these had been gathered, out of the whole number of votes (there were 39 in all), with the exception of only seven (besides Borgia's own vote), all the rest declared Borgia, as Alvarus writes, book 5, chapter 1, §3, Father Francis Borgia, Superior General of the Society. The future election of Francis as General was indicated from heaven, if Alvarus writes rightly, to St. Ignatius, to Laínez, and to John Texeda, to Peter Saavedra, and even to Borgia himself. As regards the latter, Schottus writes thus of him from Ribadeneira, below at number 49: While he was revolving these things (he had resolved to enter the Society, namely in the year 1546), intent on prayer, for seven days in succession he clearly saw a tiara hanging over his head. Thinking that an ecclesiastical dignity was being designated, he besought God and prayed that he might not seem to have sought elsewhere the honours he was fleeing. When afterwards he had been proclaimed Superior of the Society, being asked by Gaspar Fernandez whether that was the tiara, he answered pleasantly that it seemed to be the same. Peter Saavedra, a man of most upright life, was likewise, on Alvarus's witness, giving himself to prayer in Spain, and was praying God to give a worthy Superior to the Society, still bereaved; when suddenly the likeness of Francis Borgia was set before his eyes. Not hesitating at all that he was to be elected Superior, he at once sent a letter to him at Rome, which, as he said, Borgia would not receive unless elected Superior General.

[241] The election of the new Superior General affected all the companions with the greatest joy: with the greatest applause of the Romans Francis would have shuffled in vain; and so far was he from deprecating the burden that, from amazement and confusion of mind, which the changed colour of his face abundantly showed, he could not even speak: but, being restored to himself after a little, I had indeed long since asked God, he said, to lay some cross upon my shoulders: but I was never persuaded that so great a one would be laid on me by Him and by the Society. Having then given thanks to God according to custom, he was led by the whole college of electors to the convent of Ara Coeli, where Pope Pius then was, who, having been informed of Francis's election, declared that nothing more useful for the service of God and of the Church, nothing more welcome to himself, could have been done by the electors; and that he would prove what he said by deeds, when the matter and occasion should allow. So Ribadeneira reports the Pontiff's reply; but his translator Schottus, number 128, somewhat otherwise. Alvarus records rather more things said by the Pontiff in praise of the Society in the presence of the ambassador of Portugal, who was present: on whose witness likewise Pius IV, when he not seldom went to the papal palace, was wont to say, how fit a head presides over such a body!

[242] and of other peoples, he is elected: His election was received everywhere with the greatest applause: at Rome the purpled fathers, the ambassadors and the Roman nobles ran up in crowds to congratulate him on the dignity he had obtained and to wish him every happiness. When the news of this reached other regions, it brought no less joy in many places. Frequent letters of congratulation came from kings and princes, as Alvarus reports from Dionysius Vasquez, book 4, chapter 1, §4. The duke of Medinaceli, says Sacchinus, History of the Society, part 3, book 1, number 32, John de la Cerda, who had returned to Spain from the government of Sicily, having learned the matter at Madrid, at once hastened at a run to the college, and holding in his hands the letter announcing it, repeated nothing but, in congratulation, Francis the holy duke, the General: in Germany at the same news (the words are again those of Sacchinus) the Cardinal of Augsburg (Otto Truchsess) gave thanks to God at Dillingen in the church with solemn rite and musical harmony. Next to these Sacchinus subjoins a most honourable letter of Cardinal Hosius of Warmia from Poland, in which he gives thanks to God, by whose kindness it had come about that not the Society only but the whole Church had been provided with so grave, upright and prudent a Man. Finally he recites a letter of John Tapia, not altogether unlike these, sent from Valencia to Borgia.

[243] but, the congregation having been dissolved, The congregation was prolonged until the third day of September, and the fathers diligently consulted for the common good. Meanwhile it was reported that the island of Malta had been besieged by land and sea with a numerous army by Suleiman, emperor of the Turks; which brought Pius IV great anxiety of mind: and since Philip II, the Catholic king, had decreed to send a naval force across there to succour the besieged, the assembled fathers judged it their duty to contribute whatever service they could to the common good. The fathers therefore offered the Pontiff some fathers, some of whom were of the congregation, to arm the soldiers with the divine mysteries and to devote themselves to the ministry of the sick, which was most welcome to him. There were sent there, furnished with ample faculties, as Sacchinus writes, six priests; namely Jerome Domenech, who presided over the Sicilian companions, Bartholomew Fernandez, John Gurrea, James Suarez, John Baptist Vitalis, Angelo Hyparchus, and two lay brothers. On the day the congregation was dissolved, having delivered an address, he finally asked the fathers to regard him as a pack-animal: if he limped, they should lift him up by their prayers; if he went too slowly, they should goad him on by admonitions and examples, and relieve him of his load when wearied. Then indeed, falling on his knees and creeping along the ground, he kissed the feet of each one, and then, having embraced them all with great charity, he dismissed them filled with holy joy and eager. Not long afterwards solemn thanks were given at Rome to the divine Deity for the liberation of Malta from the siege: Borgia's voice was added to the public rejoicing: For, says Sacchinus at the year 1565, number 64, at St. James of the Spaniards (where many of the fathers had been eagerly heard at the time of the general congregation), when thanks were being given to God with great ceremony, he himself, chosen as orator, before an immense nobility and with a great number of Cardinals listening, delivered a sermon very pious and of effective example.

[244] Thereafter Borgia strove with every effort and zeal to fulfil all the parts of the office laid upon him. of the office laid upon him Above all he wished to be informed in detail what the condition of each province or college was: by which indeed he achieved that he had in his mind an accurate image of the whole Society delineated, and, surveying it with attentive mind, he besought God daily at earliest morning to watch over this flock dispersed through the Church; and that He would not allow anything belonging to a good shepherd to be wanting to himself. Then indeed, looking at himself, he could not but admire the divine Providence, which had committed the sheep to a wolf, as he said in contempt of himself. Three times daily he prayed God to preserve and strengthen the Society; and four and twenty times that he might not lose any of the sons committed to his solicitude. Likewise every morning he commended the Roman professed house to God the Father; the college to the Son, the Wisdom of the Father; and the novitiate house, which was afterwards erected by his care, to the Holy Spirit, the eternal Love. He had besides fixed for himself certain days in rotation on which he poured out prayers to God and to their guardian angels for the other provinces and their superiors. With daily prayers also and unceasing tears he begged for himself the holiness and prudence of Ignatius, and the wisdom and gentleness of Laínez: and at night he exacted of himself a severe account whether whatever he had done that day in administering the Society had been squared to the rule left by Ignatius; whose rules and constitutions he held so sacred that he would not depart from them even by a nail's breadth. He arranged the Rules into common and particular in the year 1567, and vehemently exhorted the companions to keep them: in order to confirm the Constitutions and commend them more earnestly, he had begun a work in which he was collecting testimonies from the Gospel befitting each of them. A work worthy of a Superior's vigils, and one that would have been welcome to posterity, had not the Spanish journey interrupted it, says Sacchinus at the year 1572, number 172.

[245] He was indeed more inclined in mind to solitude and holy leisure, all the parts and would have preferred to give himself solely to prayer and contemplation; but since the nature of his office forbade this, the love of solitude and prayer yielded to zeal for the public utility; and he prevailed upon himself to withdraw from prayer as much time as would suffice for dispatching business and for the benefit both of his own and of outsiders, of whom there was a great number. Not only was access to him easy, but, as though forgetful of his dignity, he even sought of his own accord the conversation and familiarity of his own. He sent Visitors into Germany, France, Sardinia, Spain, Portugal and Brazil, to inspect the provinces and provide for their safety and good: over Italy he himself kept watchful eyes. And what he judged would be most to the advantage of the Society, that each province should have a novitiate house separate from the rest, he himself carried out at Rome, to be an example to the others. While he was still vicar, he had obtained the chapel of St. Andrew on the Quirinal hill with the adjoining buildings from John Andrew Crucius, bishop of Tivoli, which in the year 1566 he dedicated to the house of probation, being helped in that matter above all by the most pious liberality and munificence of Joanna of Aragon, formerly wife of Ascanio Colonna, who was accustomed to confess her sins to him every eight days, and who not only supplied the necessary sum of money for the building, and added the house which she had near that chapel together with part of the gardens, but also assigned a fitting endowment to the new house. Houses of this kind he always

made and held as his delight, nor did he set over them anyone who was not conspicuous for zeal in prayer, prudence and proven virtue. He gathered together very skilfully from the fountain of the sacred scriptures various sentences thoroughly accommodated to the daily actions of the novices, so that they might perform them with a more fervent mind. The Roman College, which he had begun as duke of Gandía and fostered as commissary throughout Spain, he at last, as Superior General, rendered complete in all its parts. He fortified the German College at Rome and the seminary with most holy laws, and saw to it that universities were established in the several provinces, in which the younger pupils of the Society might be imbued with every kind of the liberal arts and sciences at less expense than if they had to migrate to Rome or to other provinces, so as afterwards to hand on the same to the youth of the regions in which they lived.

[246] to fulfil A grave storm very nearly broke upon the Society from Spain, had not Borgia met it prudently. He had summoned to Rome for the election of the General Father Antony Araoz, who had much influence at the Spanish court, and again, when he had been named by the assembled fathers assistant for Spain. What had been done solely for the greater good of the Society was received very differently in Spain. That office, says Sacchinus, part 3, book 2, number 72, was laid on Araoz not as an honour but as a punishment; not that he might care for the interests of the Society, but that he might not care for those of the king: that that vote was born not of right counsel, but of a mind blinded by passion, and of persecution: to avenge the resentment that this upright man, providing for the kingdom, had never judged that money or companions should be carried out of Spain. Thus, to a man who had deserved excellently of his own family, of the Church of God and of the kingdoms of Spain, this one thing was imputed as an offence, that he had freely defended the royal decrees and had always held that they must be faithfully observed. Philip II also took this ill. He therefore wrote to Borgia to order Araoz to remain in Spain: Borgia assented to the royal requests, so as not to stir further the king's irritated mind; he wrote, however, to Ruy Gómez, by whose counsel the king had sent his letter to Borgia, for the purpose of clearing himself and the electors: Let him drive far from his mind those false suspicions: nor, if anyone should press them upon him, admit them to his ears. For what so many and such men had done in the General congregation with so much counsel and prudence was wrongly condemned. Let him examine and learn the Acts of the Congregation: he would understand that he himself and the other fathers were of the same opinion as Araoz: that the royal decrees must be observed, and that this had been sanctioned by decree, so far was that matter from having been an offence in him. That he had been placed in the highest rank after the General: and, what is the greatest proof of confidence, appointed as guardian to the General himself. It was enacted in the same congregation that the novices during the two years of the novitiate should study not letters but piety alone. He added half an hour to the time of prayer and meditation: one of his men, who had retained a chair of humane letters obtained before entering the Society, endowed with certain revenues, yet on condition that these should be applied to the college of Perugia, he ordered to renounce the chair and the revenues. He also forbade that any boxes for receiving alms should be placed in the churches, on the witness of Alvarus, book 5, chapter 2, §3.

[247] He was of equal love toward all, nor did he attend anyone with particular favour, he begins splendidly. yet so courteous toward all that each one understood himself to be most acceptable to him. Those whom he could not address face to face he visited with frequent letters; and with what zeal for the divine glory, with what charity and solicitude, with what abundance of salutary admonitions these were filled can be gathered from that remarkable Pastoral Epistle which, written in the Spanish tongue, Sacchinus presents in Latin, part 3, book 5, number 5 and following. He wished men mature in age and learning to be received into the Society; because they would come better fitted and better instructed to undertake more quickly the ministries of the still nascent Society. He gladly heard the opinions and counsels of the Assistants, and valued them very highly, even if he himself thought otherwise. By increasing the faculties of the Provincials and Rectors he rendered the government of the Society as much more expeditious as it was gentler. He desired to be accurately informed of the gifts and temperament of each one, so as to know for certain what office would best suit each. If he moved any to functions of greater moment or labour, he diligently warned them never to curtail the time prescribed for prayer, however great the mass of business by which they were pressed. He wished his men to conduct themselves cautiously in the courts of princes. In the year 1570 Henry the Cardinal, afterwards king of Portugal, the one who, as was said above, founded the college of Évora, had asked him that Leo Henriquez should be his confessor and live in his palace: Borgia granted the first, but refused the second; repeatedly saying that it could not be done without pernicious example: but that Henriquez's service would not be lacking to the prince, even though he lived in the college with the others.

§ XIX. Having undertaken the office of Superior General he governs the companions gently and at the same time firmly: how much the Spanish and Portuguese companions owed him.

Having undertaken the office of General Although it had already long been sufficiently approved, yet the fame of his prudence spread much more widely from the time he began to govern the whole Society. Philip II made so much of it that in the year 1559, while Borgia was still living in Spain, and while unfavourable suspicions about his holiness and reputation were being instilled in the king, he nevertheless, being about shortly to come into Spain and to begin the administration of that kingdom, wished to consult Borgia as to which of the principal offices of the kingdom, whether political or ecclesiastical, he thought should be given to whom; on which matter Borgia wrote a Memorandum to the king, which Alvarus reports word for word, book 5, chapter 2, §5. And Borgia's Memorandum was so approved by Philip that he named scarcely anyone in it who did not obtain some distinguished dignity. And after he presided over the Society, the supreme Pontiff Pius IV, Cardinals, Prelates, the Emperor, and the Kings of France, Portugal and Spain vied in making use of his counsels. I may say, says Father Dionysius Vasquez, Borgia's confessor, in Alvarus cited a little before, that I have seen very many letters of the foremost princes of the Christian world written to Father Francis with their own hand, in which they either humbly commended their kingdoms to his prayers or sought his counsels in their affairs. These things from Alvarus as cited, from whom also, book 5, chapter 3, I take the following.

[249] the companions gently He preferred gentleness to rigour, after the example of Bernard, Anselm, and Laínez his predecessor; and by that method and manner of governing he so bound to himself the minds of his men that there was nothing so arduous and difficult which they were not ready to undertake, if only they understood that it was pleasing to him. This he inculcated upon the superiors in the congregations which were held while he governed the Society; on which matter he made an exhortation in the year 1568 to the Superiors of the provinces and the other superiors of the Society; but above all to the Spaniards, among whom he had heard that excessive rigour harmed virtue no less than frost harms flowers and fruits. He was harsh if any of the superiors sinned by excessive rigour: Father Dionysius Vasquez, rector of the Roman College, experienced this, whom, though he was his confessor, he stripped of his office for that reason in the year just mentioned. If he wished to give his men any command, he was more like one entreating than commanding. If he was about to lay any burden on anyone, he diligently asked the man to consult his own strength; and if he judged it equal to the burden, to offer it as a sacrifice to God, to the Society and to him. He examined to what each one's mind most inclined; and if his gifts were equal to the office desired, he committed it to him. Otherwise he left the office offered to the judgement of him to whom he offered it; Dionysius Vasquez says that he knew of only one to whom, when he declined some office, though an honourable one, he spoke by way of command. If anyone perchance had erred, he excused him when he could; when he could not, he said he was a man. He considered the religious life as a cross, to be borne not for a short time but from the novitiate to the tomb; and therefore he did not wish it to be made heavier than was fair.

[250] It happened that, when he was discharging the office of Commissary throughout Spain, at the same time the college of Valladolid was governed by a rector who was a man of much virtue and authority, but also of much rigour: under him was a lay brother so given to laughter that he could not restrain it even in the proper place. The rector treated the brother harshly, saying that he was of a light spirit and little mindful of Christ the Lord, who, while He lived on earth, wept indeed, but never laughed. The rector himself a little later fell into the same fault, nor, however he strove against it, could he overcome it. He went to Borgia for a remedy, and brought back from him this answer, that he should ask pardon for what he had done of the lay brother whom he had rebuked too severely; that thus it would come about that he would be free of that fault: and when he had done this, what Borgia had foretold came to pass. He had the honour and reputation of his men very much at heart, well aware that those who discharge sacred and public ministries cannot at all be without a good reputation if they are to perform them with fruit. He did not rashly give credit to accusations, and held no one guilty of an offence until the truth of the fact was established. If it was necessary to remove anyone from office, he put forward honourable reasons why it was done, so that the honour of the one deposed might be safe. Accusations brought to him he revealed to absolutely no one, and when the case was finished he committed them to Vulcan. Once punishment had been inflicted he abolished the memory of the offence. Those guilty of lighter faults, if they passed into a habit, he admonished to amend themselves not by himself, but through their intimate friends, so that they might not perceive that the admonition had come from him. Superiors, so as not to diminish their authority, he rebuked secretly, and when it was necessary he dissembled their faults. But his government was not so mild as to relax the fervour of his men: he knew how to join severity with mildness when the gravity of the matter required it.

[251] We saw above, §5, number 58, that when he was viceroy of Catalonia he pursued malefactors with fire and sword: and firmly the royal in the Society he moved very many from their place when its good and necessity demanded it. As Commissary of Spain he had, having first consulted Ignatius, given the habit of the Society to three noblemen who had left another religious order: but since they did not live sufficiently according to its institute, and nothing was gained either by mildness or by severity, he forthwith expelled them; whence by a decree of the Society entry to it was closed to deserters from other religious orders. When the General came from Rome to Madrid, among others Father Santander the provincial came to greet him: he, having recently been in charge of the college of Alcalá while another rector was being designated for it, was astonished that Borgia questioned him in detail how matters were managed there, with what zeal each one performed his duties, and with what diligence and assiduity they applied themselves to their studies; since he was not able to answer, he used the excuse that it was scarcely eight days since he had had charge of that college: then that that charge had been laid upon him not permanently but for a time: to whom Borgia, with a somewhat angry countenance: Do you not know, then, that you must apply as much care if you are to govern that college for only eight days as if you were to govern it permanently? Do you suppose that the greatness of the care depends on the length of time and not on the gravity of the office? An Argus of the flock

must see through many things in a short time. Hold this for certain, that you will render a far more severe account to the supreme Judge. See whether that excuse will avail with Him. He punished above all those superiors who by their drowsiness slackened the reins of licence: Woe to them, he said, because by the same act by which they open the door of licence to others, they open to themselves the door of eternal unhappiness. Neglect of the sick, even the slightest, he bore most grievously. Sometimes, intending to avenge the offences of others as though they had been committed through his own negligence, he would shut himself in his room together with the offender; where, his shoulders bared, before the image of the Crucified, he raged against himself with bloody scourges while the offender looked on, a manner of punishment which could not but be most heavy for those who had offended.

[252] How much While Borgia governed, whether the provinces of Spain or the whole Society, in the manner we have described, there came to him an immense increase of colleges, heaven being propitious to Borgia's labours and sweat. The colleges of Gandía, Saragossa, Alcalá, Barcelona, Seville, Rome, Valencia and others certainly owed very much to him before he took up the helm of the Society: but besides these, many more, scattered through various provinces, were by his care and authority either raised from the foundations or advanced to a better state. And in Old Castile indeed, that of Ávila, which had begun to be founded in the year 1553, was increased in revenues by Louis Medina, who was acknowledged by Borgia as its father and founder; in which humane letters were established in the year 1567. That of Segovia was obtained from Borgia in the year 1559: he first sent there Christopher Rodriguez and Ferdinand Solier, and, the number of companions having been increased, he set over it as its first rector Louis Santander, a preacher of especial note: he also established a school of letters there, distributed into three classes. That college owed much to Francis of St. Mary, of the Order of St. Jerome, bishop of the city, to Francis Solier the archpriest, and to the Carthusian monks. That of Bellimar, situated near Burgos, began to be founded in the year 1560, Benedict Uguccione, canon of Burgos, contributing most to it. The year 1551 gave the beginning to that of Burgos; five years afterwards a school of humanities was established in it: but in the year 1568 they moved to another house, so that lawsuits might be seen. That of Palencia was obtained by the prayers of Teresa Quiñones, countess of Monteagudo, sister of John Vega, and of the same John's children Suero and Eleanor, in the year 1559: Peter Saavedra was given to it as its first rector. The care of Faber gave the beginning to that of Valladolid, into which the higher studies of Philosophy and Theology were introduced in the year 1563. In the year 1567, at Borgia's urging, it was changed into a Professed house: part of the companions remained in the old building; the other moved into a new college, dedicated to St. Ambrose.

[253] the Castilian That of Logroño was likewise raised up in the year 1559, at the instance of Thomas de Janguez, of the foremost nobility of that city; ten of the inmates of this college in the year 1564 met a glorious death in the service of those infected with the plague: the two remaining preserved their lives, though they were indeed touched by the same plague. The college was restored by postliminy, and adorned with a school of Theology in the year 1569 by Borgia's order. The college of León was founded in the year 1572 by John of San Millán, the most praiseworthy prelate of that city, who wished to be buried in its church, which, having collapsed, he had rebuilt more solidly and handsomely. That of Monterrey, which is a town of Galicia in the diocese of Orense, began to be founded in the year 1556 by the munificence of Alfonso de Fonseca y Acevedo, count of Monterrey, Francis Manrique de Lara, prelate of Orense, very readily collaborating with the count. The college of Medina del Campo, begun in the year 1551 by Roderick Dueña, a pious and wealthy citizen, was completed and increased with revenues, and likewise with a house and church, by Peter Quadratus, an honest citizen and rich merchant, who had once learned from St. Ignatius at Antwerp that it would be so. John Moschera in the year 1554 offered Borgia his house together with its gardens for building a novitiate of the companions at Simancas. The college of Salamanca was begun from slender beginnings in the year 1548, chiefly by the care of Father Michael Torres: but afterwards, theological studies having been introduced there by Borgia, it was notably increased. The novitiate and college of Villagarcía were built at her own expense in the year 1572 by Magdalena Ulloa, a matron of equal piety and nobility, widow of Louis Quixada. Alvarus writes that she established three dwellings for the Society; but Sacchinus, History of the Society, part 3, book 8, number 273, ascribes the colleges of Oviedo and Santander to another Magdalena, of the same surname as the one just mentioned.

[254] Bartholomew Carranza de Miranda, and the Toledan archbishop of Toledo, of the Order of St. Dominic, called the Society to Toledo in the year 1558. The first sent there were Fathers Bustamante, Domenech, Strada and some other companions; who began a college, which afterwards, in the year 1566, was converted into a Professed house, its first Superior being John Valderrabano. The college of Madrid grew to remarkable size from a house of no great extent which Eleanor Mascarenhas, a Portuguese, had given the companions in the year 1560. Edward Pereira, a Portuguese, first presided over it, and humane letters began to be taught there in the year 1572. The novitiate of Villarejo in the province of Toledo was established in the year 1567, to the great good of the people of Villarejo and of the surrounding villages: and to such joy of John Pacheco, the parent of that dwelling, that, writing a letter to Borgia, he gave immense thanks to God, by whose gift it had been granted him (as he said) to see angels on earth. So Sacchinus, part 3, book 3, number 190: but Alvarus says that the letter I have mentioned was sent to Borgia by John Emmanuel Leonius, the first master of that novitiate; but, as it appears, wrongly. The college of Ocaña owed its origin to Louis Calatayud, a citizen of that town and an apostolic protonotary, who had been urged by doctor John Ramirez to found it. To settle the matter he betook himself to Borgia at Alcalá, and drew up the deeds of foundation on the 16th day before the Kalends of November of the year 1558. The first to perform the functions of the Society there were James Carillo and some others sent there together with him; they were indeed compelled for a while to desist from what they had begun by order of John Siliceo, archbishop of Toledo: but he having been snatched from among the living shortly afterwards, they returned to Ocaña on the 18th day before the Kalends of May of the next following year. Joseph Acosta and Alfonso Sandoval began to teach the tenets of the theologians to the companions there in the year 1567.

[255] Stephen Almeida, a Portuguese, bishop of Cartagena, the provinces who had once known Borgia familiarly, and had heard much of the labours of the Society by favourable report, summoned the fathers to Murcia in the year 1555. The first rector of the college of Murcia was John Baptist Barma: in the following year the number of companions there grew to twelve, of whom seven were priests and five lay brothers. On Barma's death James Miró, sent there by Borgia from Portugal, was substituted; and the college was transferred from the province of Toledo to that of Castile, according to the wishes of bishop Almeida. That of Belmonte was born in the year 1558, which James Lopez Pacheco, marquis of Villena, first sought; then John Lucas fostered it; and, both having died, Ponce de León established it with fixed revenues. You have the origin of the college of Plasencia explained above, at the beginning of § XIV: it was adorned with a school of letters in the year 1555, and enriched with new revenues in the year 1557 by bishop Carvajal. The liberality of Peter Puteus, canon of Cuenca, had given the beginning to the college of Cuenca as early as the year 1554; the annual revenues that were lacking were supplied in the year 1561 by the well-disposed mind toward the Society of another canon of the same church, Peter Marquina. Of the college of Huete in the same diocese this was the origin: as early as the year 1551 the townspeople had indeed longed for the company of the fathers, but had not hitherto obtained their wish: but in the year 1559 Peter Ortiz of Huete, living at Alcalá for the sake of his studies, gave his name to the Society: Stephen Ortiz, Peter's paternal uncle, an honoured and wealthy priest, having vainly tried to turn the young man from his purpose, nursed for some while his anger against the companions as men who had snatched from him the young man in whom he had placed the hope of his posterity; which gradually cooling, and the counsel of other priests being added, he resolved to spend on founding a college the wealth he had destined for his brother's son. Father John Ramirez, therefore, together with some companions, was sent there in the year 1563, and the college was received by Borgia, matters having been gradually set in order, two years later.

[256] he increased; Doctor Baptist Madrid founded the college of Navalcarnero in the archdiocese of Toledo, having conferred on that object, by indult of the supreme Pontiff Pius IV, a rich benefice which he had there; nor was that enough for him, unless he also gave himself to the Society, in which he died in the year 1572. The college began to be inhabited in the year 1566. That of Oropesa, founded in the year 1570, was the gift of Ferdinand Álvarez of Toledo and of his brother Francis. Cardinal Espinosa, archbishop of that city, was planning a college at Sigüenza, and Mark Valdés had been sent there with five companions in the year 1569: but the death of Espinosa, which happened in the year 1572, cut off the progress of the college; and since there was no one to promote what he had begun, the companions were recalled from there. Michael a Regno, a citizen of that town, had been trying for seven years already, with great zeal and labour, to bring the Society into Caravaca (a town of the Knights of St. James, especially noted for the cross fashioned by angels); which at length in the year 1568 he obtained. To this college he left by testament whatever remained to him, adding also a most modest proviso, that if anyone should bestow more upon it, he should enjoy the title and benefits of founder. The college of Segura was founded in the year 1569 by Christopher Rodriguez de Moia (he, as it appears, whom Ribera mentions in book 3, chapter 7 of the Life of St. Teresa), with not only the consent but also the liberality of his daughters, who themselves wished that college to be endowed out of their share of their mother's inheritance. The place indeed seemed more suited to a novitiate: Borgia, however, did not refuse that a college be raised there, in order to satisfy Christopher's wishes.

[257] He likewise held the province of Andalusia, or Baetica, bound to him by many titles. how much likewise to him When heresy had begun to creep in at Seville, he sent some priests there in the year 1554 to check the progress of the heretics, and in that way he laid the seeds of the college of Seville. John Suarez, Gonsalvo Gonsalvez, Baptist Sanchez and Basil Ávila laboured there with great fruit. Likewise in the year 1554 that of Granada took its beginning, Peter Guerrero, archbishop of the city, lending most support: the novitiate was transferred there from Córdoba in the year 1556. The college of Cádiz was added to the same province in the year 1564, the companions having been summoned there with equal consent of the ecclesiastical and secular orders, to a place to which up to that day entry had been open to none of the religious orders. That celebrated emporium, situated on the furthest boundary of Europe toward the West, was first cultivated from the Society by James Lopez and Sancho Castillo. The college of Córdoba had been begun partly by the munificence of John of Córdoba, the dean, partly by that of the city: but in the year 1564 a magnificent church was added to it, whose first stone was laid with more solemn rite by Christopher de Rojas y Sandoval, prelate of Córdoba, on the feast day of St. Catherine, virgin and martyr and patroness of the college.

[258] Francis Palma, a citizen and cleric of Trigueros, undertook to build that of Trigueros; Baetica, Eleanor de Zúñiga and her son Alfonso Perez de Guzmán, duke of Medina Sidonia, fostered it: it began to be inhabited in the year 1563, its first rector being John Rodriguez. That of Montilla was raised up by Catherine Fernández of Córdoba, marchioness of Priego, and established with revenues: there were sent there in the year 1558 six priests and eight lay brothers,

under the leadership of Alfonso Lopez. That of Marchena, founded by Mary of Toledo, daughter of Catherine Fernández, and by Louis Ponce de León, Mary's husband and duke of Arcos, began to be inhabited in the year 1567 by four companions who were priests and nine without the priesthood, over whom Gaspar Salazar presided as rector. That of Sanlúcar, which the wife of the duke of Medina Sidonia had obtained and had supported up to then, was dissolved by her death in the year 1556. Elvira Ávila, a noble matron, bereaved of husband and children, had seen what fruits and advantages Granada was reaping from the labours of the companions, and, desiring as much good for Biatia (today Baeza), her native place, she bequeathed by testament her inheritance for founding a college there in the year 1569: Borgia accepted the condition and ordered the college to be undertaken; which Diego Carillo Carvajal afterwards increased with revenues. The beginning of that of Málaga was given in the year 1572 by the well-disposed mind toward the Society of Francis Blanco, at that time bishop of Málaga, which he showed by many other benefits besides, concerning which see Schottus below, number 176.

[259] In the province of Aragon, besides the college of Gandía raised up at his expense, and the Aragonese as was said at number 82, he did not a little for that of Valencia: some companions were sent there in the year 1544, Jerome Domenech, a canon of Valencia, most desiring a college in that city: three years afterwards, by contributing a subsidy of a thousand gold pieces, he diminished, if he did not remove, the poverty of that college. It was harassed by the university men on account of the theological schools established there in the year 1570; but in the following year peace was restored, to which the authority of Borgia himself, being present, contributed very greatly. Alvarus adds that a Professed house was established there: but this happened after Borgia's death, while Everard Mercurian governed the Society; namely in the year 1579, as Sacchinus writes, part 4 of the History of the Society, book 7, number 200, and Escolano, History of Valencia, book 5, chapter 10. The college was dedicated to St. Paul, the professed house to the Holy Spirit. As to the founding of that of Saragossa, he had treated by letters with Ignatius when he was duke of Gandía: after the companions had left there in the year 1555, they were recalled not long after and returned thither at Borgia's command. The people of Barcelona offered the Society a dwelling among them in the year 1540, at which time Borgia was presiding as viceroy of Catalonia; in which the theological disciplines were established by his authority in the year 1569.

[260] propagated into Sardinia. From the college of Barcelona, when Borgia was commissary of the Society for Spain, a colony of companions was sent, which in the year 1561 established that of the Balearics, or of Majorca, called of Monte Sion from the church of the Mother of God assigned to it, chiefly at the request of William Rocafull, viceroy of that island: the kindness of the citizens supported it until in the year 1569 it was secured with certain revenues by their contribution. That of Sassari in the island of Sardinia was completed in all its parts in the year 1562: three classes of humane letters were established there, masters having been summoned from Spain to teach them to the youth. The people of Sassari quickly reaped no small fruit from that college: whence the people of Cagliari also were seized with the desire of founding a college among themselves, which they obtained in the year 1564. And the entry into Sardinia was opened to the Society by two Sardinians admitted into it, Peter Spiga and Alexius Fontana, the former of Cagliari, the latter of Sassari.

[261] and the Portuguese owed him. Among the Portuguese the college of Porto was begun by Borgia in the year 1560; as was also that of Braga by Bartholomew of the Martyrs, archbishop of the same city: it was increased by a church in the year 1567. That of Bragança was begun in the year 1561 at the request of Antony Pinerius, bishop of Miranda, and of John, duke of Bragança, which the citizens of Bragança had also sought from Borgia by public embassies. It has already been said above, at number 143, that the Professed house of Lisbon, dedicated to St. Roch, was greatly advanced by his authority and by the favour which he enjoyed with the sovereigns of Portugal. And for the college of Évora a church was built in the year 1567 at the expense of his friend Henry the Cardinal, who in the same year also increased with revenues the college of St. Antony at Lisbon.

§ XX. Increases of the Society in other regions: the goodwill of Pius V toward it: some missions instituted by Borgia; his journey to Loreto, and a remarkable revelation, said to have been made to him, concerning the salvation of the companions.

[Increases of the Society in the island of Madeira, in the Terceira islands, Brazil, Sicily, Calabria;] In the year 1570 the companions were brought into the island of Madeira, not without immense congratulation and applause of the inhabitants, under the leadership of Father Emmanuel de Sequeira, the first rector of that college. Father Louis Vasconcellos did the same in the same year in the Terceira, or Flemish, islands, a college having been established in the port of Angra. In Brazil in the year 1567 the college of Rio de Janeiro was begun by the care of Father Ignatius Azevedo, afterwards slain for the faith, but at the expense of Sebastian, king of Portugal. Among the Sicilians, in the year 1571, the college of Caltagirone was established in the navel of Sicily from the public treasury, its first rector being Father Joseph Fabricius. The college of Reggio in Calabria was indeed undertaken in the year 1564 at the request of Perafán de Ribera, viceroy of Naples, and of Gaspar del Fosso, archbishop of Reggio, but in the year 1567, for convenience of administration, Borgia wished it to be transferred from the province of Naples to that of Sicily. He sent Father John Maria into Sicily in the year 1567 to order the studies there, and to establish theological teaching where it seemed most opportune, which he inaugurated at Messina in the following year.

[264] At Würzburg in Franconia the companions fixed their seat in the year 1567, in Germany and Moravia; having been summoned there by Frederick Wirsberg, bishop of that city, the deserted and empty monastery of the virgins of St. Agnes having been fitted out some years before for their habitation with the consent of Pope Pius IV. The abbot and prince of Fulda, Balthasar von Dernbach, in order to set a barrier to the heresy swelling among his people, gave the Society a college there in the year 1571. The college of Speyer was likewise established in the year 1567 by a colony brought out of the college of Mainz, which began the labours of teaching on the third day before the Kalends of May. In Upper Germany the college of Hall in the county of Tyrol was founded in the year 1569 by the piety of the sacred virgins Magdalena and Helena, daughters of the emperor Ferdinand. The college of Olomouc among the Moravians was founded in the year 1566 by the remarkable zeal of William Prusinovsky, bishop of the same city, lest heresy should infect the flock committed to him. Borgia also ordered a house of probation to be raised at Brno, the same bishop labouring for it, as Cienfuegos writes, book 5, chapter 4, §3.

[265] The parent of the college of Turin in the province of Milan, in various regions of Italy begun in the year 1567, was Aleramo Becuti, the last of his family. James Acosta was given to it as its first rector. The piety of St. Charles Borromeo also brought a great increase to the same province. He had as early as the year 1567 established a college of the companions at St. Fidelis: but in the year 1572 this gave way to a Professed house; the college being transferred to the Braida, or Brera, which had been a monastery of the Humiliati in the city of Milan. He also raised a novitiate house at Arona (which is a town of the Borromeo family on Lake Maggiore). Borgia admitted the college of Mondovì, or of Monteregale, among the Subalpine peoples, on the witness of Cienfuegos just cited, §4, namely in the year 1561, when he was discharging the office of Vicar general. The province of Milan was further increased in the year 1571 by a house of probation, which Camillo Gonzaga, count of that town, founded at Novellara, not far from Modena, and adorned with revenues; finally the college of Brescia was begun in the year 1567, when Angelo Paradisi and thirty clerics, his associates, who had applied themselves there to the salvation of their neighbours according to the rule of the Society, were received into the Society. Angelo, however, afterwards asked to be dismissed from the Society, and obtained it from Borgia.

[266] regions; In the year 1567 he sent Jerome Suriano and Antony Ramirez to the college of Naples to teach divinity there, so that nothing should be wanting to the perfection of that college. In the year 1568 two houses of probation were established; the one in the city of Sant'Angelo among the Samnites at the request of Joanna Castriota, duchess of Nocera, the other at Nola. The people of Cosenza in Hither Calabria also asked, in the year 1570, while Borgia was administering the Society, that a college be built in their city, but the execution of the matter was deferred to another time. In the Roman province very much was owed to him by the Roman College, the college of the Penitentiaries of St. Peter, whose administration he undertook by order of Pius V in the year 1570, the house of probation of St. Andrew, the German seminary, and the professed house, whose magnificent church, dedicated to the most holy name of Jesus, began to be built in the year 1568 at the expense of Alexander Farnese, Cardinal of the H. R. C. To these must be added the college of Teramo among the Samnites, begun in the year 1570, and that of Montepulciano in Tuscany, admitted by Francis in the year 1568.

[267] in Belgian Gaul, In France the college of Lyons was begun in the year 1565, over which William Crichton was first set; as also that of Chambéry, which was committed to the care of Louis Coudret, and endowed by John Trivulzio in 1571; and that of Avignon to that of Antony Possevino. Francis Baulon, a senator, founded that of Bordeaux in the year 1572, with the approval of Charles IX, king of France; and Louis Gonzaga, duke of that city, that of Nevers. In the same year the college of Pont-à-Mousson was received, and there a university was afterwards established in the year 1574 under Everard, by the munificence of Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. The college of Verdun Nicholas Psaume, bishop and count of that city, not only began in the year 1565, but also restored in the year 1571 when it had been dispersed on the occasion of a pestilence. Gerard d'Haméricourt, abbot of St. Bertin and first bishop of Saint-Omer, established the college of Saint-Omer in Belgian Gaul in the year 1567, and increased it with revenues, schools and a church in the year 1569. That of Tournai, dispersed by the heretics in the year 1566, began to be restored partly in the year 1567, partly in the following one. A seat of their own was procured there for the novices in 1569. At Liège the companions first had a fixed seat in the year 1566: and the college of Louvain was received by the city in the year 1565. That of Douai took its beginning in the year 1568, its founder being John Lentailleur, abbot of Anchin, of the Order of St. Benedict.

[268] Entry into Poland was opened to the Society as early as the year 1564, Prussia, Masovia, Lithuania, Poland. while Laínez was still living, by Hosius, bishop of Warmia and Cardinal of the H. R. C., and by Commendone, apostolic legate to Sigismund, king of Poland, he too afterwards enrolled among the purpled fathers; of whom the former was the author of the college of Braunsberg in Prussia, in which the functions of the Society began to be exercised in the year 1565. His example was soon followed by Andrew Noskowski, bishop of Płock, by founding a college at Pułtusk in Masovia, of which possession was entered upon at the beginning of the year 1566. The college of Vilnius in Lithuania was founded by the care and zeal for the Catholic religion of Valerian, bishop of that city, into which in the year 1569 the first colony of companions was brought from the college of Olomouc in Moravia under the leadership of Balthasar Hostovinus. Its first rector was appointed in the year 1570, Stanislaus Warszewicki. A fourth was added to these in the year 1571, namely that of Poznań in Western or Greater Poland, its founder being Adam Konarski, prelate of the city. Other colleges also were added from time to time, so much so that the colleges which had at first belonged to the Austrian province were erected into a new province under Everard, Borgia's successor, in the year 1574. It seemed good to gather these together on account of the affinity of the subject, although they were done at various times: now

I take up again the series of events from the year 1566.

[269] Pius IV having died about the end of the year 1565, Of Pius V toward Borgia at the beginning of the following year Michael Ghislieri, of the family of St. Dominic, called Pius V, was substituted in the Chair of Peter. The friendship which he had contracted with Borgia before his Pontificate he retained continually during his Pontificate also. Nor did he long defer giving proof of his kindness toward the Society: for when the new Pontiff was proceeding in solemn procession to the Lateran basilica, and had seen Borgia standing among his own before the doors of the Professed house, he called him to himself and honoured him for some time with a close embrace and conversation. And when Borgia went to greet the Pontiff and to offer him the service of the Society, he professed that he would make very great use of the Society's labour. Soon what he had professed in words he performed in deed. He willed the benefits granted to the Society by former Pontiffs to be ratified, and confirmed them. He willed that Jerome Natalis, James Ledesma and Peter Canisius should be present at the diet of Augsburg which Maximilian had proclaimed.

[270] Andrew Oviedo, patriarch of Ethiopia, and Melchior Carneiro, and toward the Society bishop of Nicaea, he ordered to transfer themselves from Ethiopia, where little fruit was hoped for, to the Japanese and Chinese, which Carneiro indeed did, but Oviedo was compelled to remain in Ethiopia, and there amid hardships closed his last day. The same Pontiff willed in the year 1567 that Edmund Hay, rector of the college of Paris, and Thomas Darbyshire, an Englishman, should be companions to Vincent Laureo, his nuncio to Scotland. He sent Christopher Rodriguez with Thomas Orsini, bishop of Strongoli, into the kingdom of Naples to root out the remnants of the Waldensian heretics. He ordered the Catechism for parish priests, prepared according to the mind of the council of Trent, to be rendered into French, German and Polish by men of the Society. He willed that the care of the house of catechumens should rest with the same Society; as also the administration of the Penitentiary, as was said above. He gave the Roman College fifty gold pieces every month. He made use of the labour of the companions above all in relieving the sick when the plague of pestilence was raging through the City in the year 1566. He willed that the preacher who should speak before himself and the Cardinals should be from the same Society, which office was discharged by Benedict Palmio, Alphonsus Salmerón, Emmanuel Sa, and Francis Toledo, afterwards in the year 1594 raised to the number of the Cardinals by Clement VIII. He subjected candidates for ordination and for promotion to the office of confessor to the examination of the Society.

[271] goodwill. At Borgia's suggestion, as Cienfuegos writes, book 5, chapter 7, §3, he instituted a twin congregation of four Cardinals each, of which one should apply itself to the conversion of heretics, the other to that of the heathen, which Ribadeneira also testifies. If any disturbance arose against the Society, he was at once at hand, as appeared especially in the year 1569, in which by a letter sent on that matter (see Sacchinus, part 3, book 5, number 145) he excellently defended the innocence of Antony Possevino, who was undeservedly said to have tried to introduce the inquisition after the Spanish rite into the county of Venaissin, and extinguished the sedition which had arisen thence against the companions at Avignon. On other occasions, in letters sent to princely men, he heaped praises on the Society and earnestly commended it, of which kind was the letter which he gave in the year 1568 to Salentin, count of Isenburg, archbishop of Cologne, and which may be seen in Ribadeneira, book 3, chapter 4. The same Pontiff declared the Society a mendicant order in the year 1571, and gave each province the power of electing a conservator. In the year 1567 a rumour had been spread on all sides that the Pontiff was of a mind estranged from the Society, that he wished to reform it, to change its dress, nay, to extinguish the whole Order and transfer it into another. Francis asked Cardinal Pacheco to report these rumours to the Pontiff; and having heard them, the most holy Pontiff, who had undertaken nothing except what he supposed would make for the perfection of the Society, replied that this was far from him.

[272] Instituted for Florida, In the same year 1566 he first sent companions to Florida, bordering on New Spain in the West Indies, to propagate the Christian faith there, the priests Peter Martinez and John Rogel, and Francis Villareal, an administrator of domestic affairs; of whom Peter Martinez, when he had gone down onto land to look for the Spanish commander, on the seashore met a speedy end of his mortal life from a club driven into his head by the Tacatacuru. And when that expedition had not succeeded, he sent eleven others to the same place in the year 1568, under the leadership of John Baptist Segura. Segura had already come with seven or eight companions into the province of Ajacán, under the guidance of a certain neophyte Louis, for the sake of spreading the Gospel; when through the perfidy of the same neophyte, whom he had in vain tried to bring back to the faith, first three of his companions, and on the fifth day after he himself with the rest were put to death in hatred of the faith in the year 1571; who, besides Segura, were these: Louis Quirós, a priest, pierced with an arrow, and Gabriel Gomez, Peter Linares, Sancho Zavallos, John Baptist Mendez, Christopher Redondo, and Gabriel de Solis, coadjutors. The Society was likewise honoured with another martyrdom in the year 1568. Father Francis Lopez was sailing from Cochin to Goa on a Portuguese ship, which, while fighting bravely against Mahometan galleys, was partly burst asunder and partly set on fire by the fall of a spark into the gunpowder. Thus Lopez came into the hands of the Mahometans; he might have been saved if he denied Christ and went over to Mahomet. Lopez shuddered at the impious words; wherefore his breast was pierced with a spear by the Malabarese, his head cut off with a sword, his body stabbed with blows of lances, and rolled into the sea.

[273] To Bartholomew de Torres, bishop of the Canaries, he added as companions four of his men, the priests James and Lawrence Gomez, to the Canary islands, Africa, Peru and likewise two brothers, Louis Ruiz and Alfonso Ximenez, in the year 1567; he likewise instituted the mission of Oran on the coast of Africa, sending there, together with Peter Louis Borgia, his brother, master of the military order of Montesa and governor of Oran, Peter Domenech and Jerome Mur. In the same year also, at the request of Philip, king of Spain, the first colony of companions set out for Peru, over which Jerome Portillo presided, to whom were added from the province of Toledo Antony Alvarez and Louis Medina; from Baetica James Bracamonte, first rector of Lima, and John Garcia; from Aragon Michael Fuentes and Peter Lobert; from Castile Louis Lopez. Another colony of twelve companions likewise landed there together with Francis of Toledo, the viceroy, in the year 1569, five priests and seven coadjutors. The priests were these: Bartholomew Hernandez, set over the rest, John Garcia, Alfonso Barzana, Ferdinand Sanchez, and Roderick Alvarez. The coadjutors were Sebastian Amador, John de Zúñiga, John Gomez, Antony Martinez, John de Casasola, Diego Ortun, Diego Martinez. So Ribadeneira, book 3, chapter 7: but Sacchinus, at the year 1569, number 302, and at the year 1572, number 319, numbers John Zúñiga among the priests. Finally Joseph Acosta was added, with Andrew Lopez and James Martinez, brought to Peru likewise after a long voyage in the year 1572.

[274] The Mexican province in New Spain was founded, sent by Borgia, in the year 1572 by Peter Sanchez the provincial, and missions to Mexico. James Lopez, rector of the college of Mexico, Peter Diaz, Ferdinand Suarez de la Concha, Francis Bazán, Alfonso Camargo, James Lopez de Mesa, Peter Lopez Parra, priests, John Curiel, Peter Mercado, John Sanchez, shortly to receive the priesthood, and the helpers Martin Matilla, Bartholomew Larius, Martin Gonsalvez, Lope Navarro: Ribadeneira adds to these Diego Fonseca, a priest. A little before, Father Sedeño had also come there from Florida with Salcedo, to prepare a lodging for the new companions; and soon a college was founded there at the expense of Alfonso Villaseca, on the witness of Sacchinus, book 8, number 310, at the year 1572.

[275] While these things are being done in foreign nations under Borgia's care and auspices, to Loreto he himself proclaimed the first congregation of procurators in the year 1568, so that he might know more accurately the state of the several provinces and provide better and more promptly for his whole family; over which, since Borgia was suffering from ill health, Everard Mercurian, assistant for Germany, presided. He was hoping that a general congregation would be proclaimed, in which, as he had asked God with many prayers, he might lay down the administration of the Society, for which he judged himself unequal: but he was compelled to acquiesce in the judgement of the fathers who thought otherwise, and considered that this could not be done without the greatest detriment to the Society. At the beginning of the following year he sent a letter to all the companions, full of the Spirit of God as well as of pious and salutary admonitions, which Sacchinus reported, book 5, from number 5 to 28. And when he had suffered from a lingering fever of eight months, although not yet rid of it, and though all protested, he entered upon the journey to Loreto in fulfilment of a vow, to give thanks to the divine Mother for benefits received. On leaving Rome he could scarcely be induced to use a litter offered him by Cardinal Pacheco. He had not yet reached Loreto when he felt the strength of both mind and body restored to him. At Loreto he ordered an image of the most blessed Virgin to be made by the skilled hand of a painter, with the kind permission of Cardinal Charles Borromeo, which should exactly reproduce the one which St. Luke painted; in order to increase in himself and in others love and veneration for her, as Cienfuegos reports, book 5, chapter 9, §2.

[276] Returning to Rome he translates the remains of St. Ignatius, Having returned to Rome, at the urging of the physicians he went to Tusculum and dispatched the business of the Society there for some time. On the 31st day of the month of July of the same year, while Cardinal Farnese was building the new church of the Professed house, he translated the remains of St. Ignatius by night with the greatest piety and the least pomp, says Sacchinus, book 5, number 63. On the contrary, Borgia's great-grandson writes, part 2, chapter 3, that it was done with the greatest pomp and not without angelic singing; but neither the greatest pomp nor angelic singing is mentioned by the eyewitnesses of this translation whom Pinius cites in volume 7 of July, page 599 and the following. Cienfuegos narrates that angelic singing was heard by Father Julius Mancinelli on the eve of the translation toward evening, and that it lasted for twenty hours, until the urn had been placed in its new location. But if that translation was made very late at night, as Father Francis Gomez testified, how was that singing prolonged for twenty hours?

[277] [and about the same time he is said to have had a remarkable revelation concerning the salvation of the companions.] About the same time they say there occurred that celebrated revelation to Francis, by which it was divinely disclosed to him that none of those who in the Society either had already died or should die in its first three centuries had been or would be damned; which revelation is treated by Pinius in volume 7 of July, page 851, and by Alvarus Cienfuegos, book 5, chapter 10. What he puts forth here concerning Fathers Diego Monteiro, Michael Soler, Martin Gutierrez, Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez, and other persons outside the Society of both sexes, conspicuous for holiness of life and heavenly favours, to whom the same was revealed either in part or wholly, does indeed add some weight and moment to the revelation made to Francis and made public, both while he was living and after his death, by his inseparable companion Brother Melchior Marcus, who received it from Borgia's own mouth.

§ XXI. The Society is adorned with a twin band of martyrs.

Of Father Azevedo A remarkable glory accrued to the Society in the year 1570

an increase of glory, first indeed from the martyrdom of Father Ignatius Azevedo and his companions, who, sent by Borgia into Brazil to propagate the faith, on the 15th and 16th day of July fell into the hands of James Soria, a pirate of the Calvinist sect, and by him were all, except one, slaughtered in hatred of the faith, or at least drowned in the sea, near the island of Palma, which is one of the Fortunate Isles. They were thirty-nine in number, partly priests, partly not priests, partly, finally, temporal coadjutors, as they were called. Schottus presents their catalogue from Ribadeneira, but not free from every error. Peter Poussines, on the life and death of Ignatius Azevedo, book 4, chapter 1, weaves their catalogue, as he says, beyond doubt, from three others, namely the Roman, the Évora and the Coimbra Catalogues, agreeing most exactly with one another, in this manner: First decade: Father Ignatius Azevedo, Father Diego Andrada, Antony Suarez, Benedict de Castro, John Fernandez of Lisbon, Francis Alvarez of Covilhã, Dominic Fernandez, Emmanuel Alvarez, John de Mayorga, Alfonso Vaëna. Second decade. Gonsalvo Enriquez, John Fernandez of Braga, Alexius Delgado, Louis Correa, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Simon Lopez, Emmanuel Fernandez, Alvarus Mendez, Peter Nunez, Francis Magalhães. Third decade. Nicholas Dinis, Gaspar Alvarez, Blaise Ribeiro, Antony Fernandez, Emmanuel Pacheco, Peter Fontoura, Simon da Costa, Andrew Gonsalvez Amarus Vaz, Diego Perez. Fourth decade. John de Baeza, Mark Caldeira, Antony Correa, Ferdinand Sanchez, Gregory Escrivano, Francis Perez Godoy, John Baptist de Zafra, John of San Martín, Stephen Zuraire, San Juan, a candidate of the Society, who succeeded John Sanchez, spared by the heretics, and filled up the number of forty martyrs.

[279] With Poussines and with one another, apart from some discrepancy of letters, and of the companions agree the witnesses I and IX of the Process of Évora instituted in the year 1628, and of the Process of Coimbra witnesses III, V, VI, VII, XII, XIII, XV, XVI, XX and XXI, as may be seen in the summary of the Declaration of the martyrdom of Ignatius Azevedo and his companions printed at Rome in the year 1713 by the press of the Apostolic Camera, number 12. Therefore Fathers Philip Alegambe, in Joseph Fotius, page 147, and John Nadasi, in the Year of memorable days of the Society of Jesus, page at the 15th day of July, are to be corrected, who, omitting Amarus Vaz, wrongly substitute Peter Fonseca; and very probably also Alvarus Cienfuegos, although he says that he follows the sure footsteps of Father Vasconcellos, mingling Louis Rodriguez with these martyrs and wrongly striking John Fernandez of Braga from their number. Peter de Fontoura, or, as Ribadeneira writes, de Fontaura, Schottus less accurately names Peter Pontaureus. And Peter Nunez I find called Mugnos by some. For Amarus Vaz there is also read from time to time Amatus, which reading Schottus has followed, although Ribadeneira calls him Amaro, which word among the Portuguese, on the witness of Poussines, book 4, chapter 1, is the same as Maurus.

[280] martyrdom, Schottus describes the martyrdom of Azevedo and his companions below, at number 161 and following: but I think it will not be unwelcome to the reader if I transfer here the letter of Father Peter Diaz, Azevedo's companion, written to the Provincial of Portugal on the 17th day of August of the year 1570 from the island of Madeira, from the Summary of the Declaration of their martyrdom, number 19, page 140 and the three following, where it is extant in Latin. It runs thus: I shall set out in this letter the happy end of Ignatius Azevedo, Provincial of Brazil, and his companions: On the Nones of June, having set out from Lisbon with Aloysius (or Louis Vasconcellos), governor of the same Brazil for the king of Portugal, with a fleet of seven ships, on the eighth day we reached this island of Madeira after a prosperous voyage: about sixty-nine in all of our Society had embarked, distributed among three merchant ships. That which was called St. James carried Ignatius, with Diego Andrada and many others of our number (they were presently listed by name). To Francis Castro, with two Brothers and the orphan boys, the ship of Ferdinand had fallen. Me, with more than twenty companions, the same ship which had received Aloysius the governor. And since for certain reasons Aloysius had decided to stay for some time in this port of Madeira, the passengers and sailors of the St. James, because they had much business at Palma in the Canaries, one of the Fortunate Isles, earnestly begged that they might be allowed to go ahead: that, having dispatched their business in good time, they would be ready for the rest of the fleet when it arrived. And at first indeed Ignatius refused, thinking it dangerous to separate from the others amid such peril of sea and pirates. But afterwards, overcome by their prayers, he asked leave of Aloysius to depart, and, having obtained it, as though he divined what afterwards followed, on the eve of the day which is sacred to the Prince of the Apostles he took care that all should be fortified by the Sacrament of Confession and Communion, and at the same time he distributed to them some waxen images of the heavenly Lamb, consecrated by the supreme Pontiff, and certain other religious little gifts, which he had brought with him from the City of Rome.

[281] by Father Peter Diaz, These things done, they set sail on the day before the Kalends of June with a favourable wind, which, however, failed them in mid-course. Further, on the next Sunday, the fifth day before the Nones of July, it was brought here that James Soria (according to others John Sora), commander of the fleet for the queen of Navarre (Joanna, mother of Henry, king of Navarre) (he, a distinguished follower of Calvin, openly professes and proclaims that he carries on deadly enmity with the Papists, for so the heretics call the Catholics in mockery), was standing with about seven ships in a port five leagues from here, his own *, to which the name of Santa Cruz has been given. This news greatly disturbed the minds of all, and at once Aloysius and the governor of the town with the whole people prepared themselves for battle. And so on the Saturday that followed, when James Soria had come into our view, he was terrified and withdrew before the Catholics who ran out to meet him, having brought out ten vessels well furnished with soldiers and guns. Ours, content to have put the enemy to flight, return the next day; but he, having come through this danger, made for the Canaries, and on the Thursday following he was carried, very fortunately indeed for him, as far as within sight of the island of Palma and of our merchant ship, which, destitute of wind, had never been able to make port. On that very day Ignatius had made his way in the morning with the other Brothers in a skiff to the village of Tazacorte (Tertia Cohors is the name of the place), about five leagues from the port, with the design of reaching the port by land if the opportunity were given, but since the matter had no success they were compelled to betake themselves to the ship again. So that even from this it sufficiently appears that that desirable kind of death had been prepared for them by God. And all the more, because that voyage of eighty leagues was barely completed by them in fifteen days; I add, the ship not at all encumbered, and the wind too at first, as we have said, very favourable. That whole voyage was run by James Soria with five ships (and some of them indeed heavily laden) in not more than three days.

[282] The next day ours, held by the same calm about nine thousand paces from the shore, Azevedo's companion, when they see the Calvinists approaching, resolve to defend themselves by all means with a few guns set in position. Ignatius, however, taking an image of the Virgin Mary, which he had carried out with him from Rome, began, as the matter and the time required, to exhort the Catholics to duty and to piety. Meanwhile the enemy bring one of their vessels up to our merchant ship, and three leap into it first, among them a ship's master of great esteem among them. And these indeed are at once put out of the way by the Portuguese; but then, a greater number of the enemy bursting in, resistance could not be kept up any longer. Then James Soria, when he learned that men of our Society were there, ordered all to be killed to a man, crying out: Kill, kill, since they are going to Brazil to sow wicked doctrines. Among those who had seized the merchant ship there was a certain kinsman of James, who, having promised life to some Catholics, ordered this to be reported to James. He asked whether all the priests (for so he called ours) had been slain. When it was answered that they had been slain, then he forbade (read: willed) that hands be kept off the others. By which deed he certainly displayed splendidly his hatred toward us, especially because a few days before, when he had intercepted a vessel in which two Franciscan preachers and as many lay priests were being carried to Portugal, he killed none of them.

[283] Having then got hold of ours, for the great part young men and novices, he spared none at all. letter, And Ignatius was slain first of all, whom, as he went forth to meet the enemy, raising in his hands the image of which we spoke, and professing with great courage that he and his were Catholics, they ran through with three thrusts of a lance, and tried in vain to wrest the sacred image from him. Then Diego Andrada rushed into Ignatius's embrace. And so, joined together, both, despatched with wounds, are hurled into the sea together with the image itself, which had never fallen from Ignatius's hands. Then they go below to the decks of the merchant ship, where Ignatius in that tumult had placed * the thirty-eight Brothers (for so many had followed him from this port), and leading them out two and three at a time in order to the ship's edge, and having stripped them of their ankle-length tunics, though of very slight value, they drive a dagger two or three times into the bowels of each and throw them half-alive from the ship; of some they even cut off the arms, so as to take away from the rest absolutely all hope of escaping. And this end that happy company obtained. Afterwards inquiry was made concerning the slaughter of those three who had crossed over from the enemy fleet into that merchant ship. Soria, roused to fury, orders the authors of that slaughter, the pilot of the merchant ship with two of his mates, to be brought to him. There, he not only commanding but also looking on, the breasts of the living were cut open, and the entrails cruelly drawn out are cast into the sea.

[284] presented here, And now the Calvinists heap upon this barbarity this crime too: they return to the merchant ship. The most sacred head of one of the eleven thousand Virgins, which Ignatius was bringing to Brazil for the consolation of the neophytes, they insultingly and wickedly hang from a rope of the masthead; then, having seized another image of the Virgin Mother of God, made with excellent workmanship, which Ignatius had likewise brought with him from Rome, together with very many other sacred images, they set them up in a corner of the ship in mockery, and begin to hurl daggers at them as at a target. And the blessed rosaries and the relics of the Saints, and the books on religion, and certain other writings greatly pertaining to the affairs of the province of Brazil, as being of little use to them or rather superfluous, they committed to the deep. We received the account of this whole affair from two Portuguese who were present as spectators, being held captive by the Calvinists during those days. Those of ours who were slain were, equally with the veterans, furnished with excellent aids for carrying out their work. And so they were held to be very fit for promoting the Christian cause.

[285] described, I am truly astonished, considering with myself the changes and migrations of ours from ship to ship, first at Lisbon, then in this island of Madeira: so that that happy band, like the soldiers of Gideon of old, almost man by man

seems to have been chosen by the Lord. Ignatius had almost decided to put me on board the ship St. James, and himself to remain with Aloysius the governor, but he afterwards changed his plan: partly, as I indeed think, lest he should seem to have wished to shirk labour and danger, partly also because I was, it is evident, unworthy of so great a good. We remain now of the Society forty: it is certain that we shall pursue the journey begun in trust in the Deity: whether with the same outcome we do not know. This indeed we understand, that James Soria vehemently desires it, and lays snares with us (and for us). But now the hour of departure presses, and I make an end of writing, and commend myself and my companions to your sacrifices and prayers and those of the rest. From the island of Madeira, on the 15th day before the Kalends of September, 1570.

[286] and acknowledged as truly such by Pius V and Borgia. The news of this brought Borgia partly the greatest grief, partly the greatest joy: grief indeed, because he saw so great an aid for promoting the faith snatched from Brazil; but joy at the glorious victory of the companions over the enemies of the faith, whom he held for true martyrs. Soon he sent an encyclical letter on the matter through the Society; and in the one which he sent to the Provincial of Brazil he speaks thus: Divine Providence, however, provided better, which willed that of the seventy labourers who were being sent together to its cultivation, forty should labour from heaven, when it called to itself by so happy an end the Provincial with his blessed companions; and their intercession is to be hoped for as far more useful than any works to be accomplished on earth. So it is read in the Information of Fact and Law, §3, proof 2, page 25. Consulted by the procurator of Portugal, as is read at the beginning of the same §, whether the prayers customarily recited for the deceased in the Society should be ordered for the forty martyrs, having first held mature consultation, he replied: Here it does not seem that suffrages should be ordered for the forty martyrs. He was also accustomed to commend himself to their patronage, and indeed attended them with a certain private kind of cult, to which the Pontiff himself exhorted not only Borgia, when he informed Pius V of their martyrdom, but also all who were present, as Alvarus Cienfuegos writes, book 5, chapter XI, §8, from Father Dionysius Vasquez, who was present at the event. Further, that Pius V and Borgia held the same judgement about those martyrs is made clear from his Bull which begins with these words: Dum indefessae, and was given in the year 1571 on the 7th day of July, in which he says that certain companions, so seized by the love of the Lord that, prodigal even of their own blood, in order that they might plant the word of God there (in both Indies) more effectively, had submitted themselves to voluntary martyrdom.

[287] Of the approximately seventy companions whom Francis had sent into Brazil, Twelve other martyrs of the Society, besides the thirty-nine already mentioned, twelve others also obtained the palm of martyrdom in the year 1571, namely Peter Diaz, the author of the Letter adduced a little before, and Francis Castro, priests; and, not priests, Gaspar Goes, Michael Aragonius and Francis Paul, who were all on the 13th day of September despoiled of life in hatred of the faith by the Calvinists, under the leadership of Capdeville, while sailing from the port of Angra to Brazil, on the Canary sea, as was also a certain boy who attached himself to Peter Diaz. On the same day besides, Gaspar Gonsalvez, who through fear of death had cast off the garment of the Society, was thrown into the sea, not for the sake of religion, but on account of the scarcity of food. To the five former were added, on the following day, Peter Fernandez, John Alvarez, Alphonsus Fernandez, Andrew Pais, Ferdinand Alvarez, a second Peter Diaz, and Diego Carvalho. On the same day besides, Diego Fernandez and Sebastian Lopez were driven headlong into the sea; but these escaped death by swimming. Diego Carvalho, though mentioned by Ribadeneira, Schottus omits, wrongly thrusting in Diego Gonsalvez in his place. Sebastian Lopez landed in Portugal in the month of November, from whose account Francis Henriquez, rector of the house of Lisbon, in his own name and that of his men, sent to the companions at Rome a letter of this kind concerning the martyrdom of these twelve companions, on the 9th day of December of the same year (see the additional summary of the Declaration of the Martyrdom of Ignatius Azevedo and his companions, page 13 and following).

[288] Very Reverend Fathers and Brothers most dear in Christ, the grace and peace of Christ. Azevedo having been slain, You have already learned, as we believe, the end of Ignatius Azevedo and his thirty-nine companions, who, making for Brazil together with Aloysius the royal governor, in order to establish colleges in that province according to our custom for the sake of caring for the Christian cause, were overwhelmed by the Calvinists on the way, and poured out their lives in the profession of the Catholic faith: now we shall go through the story of fourteen others (Gaspar Gonsalvez being excluded from this number for the reason just stated), who a year later in the same cause showed equal fortitude of mind (for seventy of ours had departed from Lisbon, put aboard several ships), in the very order in which one of the two (Sebastian Lopez) who by God's kindness survived set out the whole matter to us.

[289] After the death of Ignatius, when the ships of Portugal had set sail from the island of Madeira on a course directed to Brazil, after a long journey by land and sea they met with different fortunes. That in which Father Diaz was carried with some companions arrived at the port of the island of Cuba which takes its name from St. James so shaken by waves and storms that they judged it altogether necessary for them to leave it; but since there was no other there, they decide to go to Bona, a port of the same island, two hundred leagues to the East; and having first covered a three days' journey on foot, and that barefoot, in dense and continual rain, by a most foul road, with difficulties besides, as in such a region, the very greatest, they committed themselves to a small and open vessel, so exposed to winds and rain that not only were the provisions spoiled by excessive moisture, but even the very clothes in which they were dressed almost rotted. Carried in that vessel seventy-four leagues as far as Bona, and having hired a ship of larger size in that port, in the month of August they at last overtake, at the Terceira islands, Aloysius the royal governor, and of our Society Francis Castro and five Brothers, who had gone on ahead. Here Aloysius, the ship's company having been very greatly diminished, both because sixty men of his merchant ship had perished in so difficult and long a voyage of fifteen months, and because many had stayed behind at the Antilles (that is the name of the place), and many too, worn out with labours and dangers, had changed their plan and returned thence to Portugal, since there remained of passengers and sailors scarcely what would suffice for one merchant ship (among whom, however, five and twenty women were reckoned, with an unwarlike flock of children), having gathered all into one, resolved to complete the journey begun with a single ship, and set sail on Wednesday, the eighth day before the Ides of September.

[290] they meet the Calvinists, Further, of our Society (almost as many others having been scattered by the storm, concerning whom nothing certain has yet been learned) fourteen were present: two Fathers, Peter Diaz and Francis Castro: twelve Brothers: Alphonsus Ferdinand, Gaspar Goes, Andrew Pais, John Alvarez, another Peter Diaz of the same name as the priest, Ferdinand Alvarez; and of the number of the novices Michael of Tarragona, Francis Paul, Peter Ferdinand, Sebastian Lopez, Diego Ferdinand, and Diego Carvalho. Having been carried for eight days into the deep Ocean in a favourable state *, as the sun was already setting they catch sight of five ships, of which four were French, one English. These, concealing their purpose until night, then suddenly turning their prows, pursue our ship with a favourable wind. When Aloysius noticed this, thinking (as was the case) that they were both enemies and heretics, he at once called an assembly and exhorted the ship's company to enter the battle keenly, and to meet death bravely for the Catholic religion, as befitted Christians. Then he orders arms to be got ready, mattresses to be spread before suitable places, a quantity of stones to be heaped up, and casks of sulphurous powder to be brought out quickly: finally, the stations for the fight having been assigned, he himself and the others to whom time for confessing was given that night duly confessed their sins.

[291] by whom But as day was already whitening, a beaked ship of the enemy, of the number of those they call Galleons, had approached ours, much larger and loftier, and by two signals of the guns, according to custom, had ordered the Portuguese to lower sail: when they by no means obeyed, then the enemy, making three assaults on the merchant ship, kill five of their number; they wound seventeen, and almost all of these in the legs, so that, holding on to ropes with one hand lest they fall, they could fight only with the other. And although the heretics fought from a much higher position, yet the combat was not bloodless for them; since at the very beginning of the fight they lost about twenty men, about eleven besides being wounded, and then they were most grievously damaged by three shots of the cannon, by one of which * the mast was torn apart and the sails laid flat; by another the side of the hull was pierced and took in water, not without great danger to them; by the third ten heretics were torn to pieces at once; and although all these were no light disadvantages, yet nothing so much disturbed the enemy as the sails being utterly thrown down, so that they thought it was all over with them. Then indeed, out of very desperation, straining with all their strength, they attack ours for the fourth time, and overcome them with less trouble than they had thought; for not more than ten defenders were left, of whom five, placed in the prow, fell at the first onset. So, the entrance now being laid open, the heretics, about sixty, burst in with the greatest violence, whom Aloysius, having received two iron balls, one in the breast, the other in the leg, though the strength of his body was now exhausted, yet with great courage resolved to await, and with sword and shield never cast away he fought splendidly to his last breath.

[292] On his death surrender was made by the rest, which, however, availed nothing to mitigate the cruelty of the enemy: captured for, driven by diabolical furies, they cut down all whom they met: Aloysius, not knowing who he was, they stripped, and threw into the waves, together with the bodies of others, many of them still breathing. Then their fury turned upon the relics of the Saints and the sacred images, of which there was a huge number in that ship; the heretics wrested these by force from the Catholics, dragged them along the decks, trampled them underfoot, and finally, exulting, threw them into the fire; vomiting forth blasphemies against those Blessed ones whose relics they were, which the mind shudders to write. Nay more, two statues found on the twentieth day after, the one of the most holy Virgin, the other of an angel, they brought out in public and broke with sacrilegious hands; carrying the angel's head round the whole ship in mockery. Having roamed for thirty-three days, and having also taken a vessel of the Algarve, they put their booty ashore at Cape Ortegal on the Galician coast *. The commander of the fleet was John Cadaville (or Capdeville), a Frenchman, a vehement heretic and a most bitter enemy of the ecclesiastical Orders. The beaked ship was the same one in which James Soria had earlier taken and slain Ignatius Azevedo and his companions. The Calvinists fell upon Aloysius the governor when they had set sail from the island of Gomera after ravaging it, and this was the death of Aloysius and the Portuguese, of whose fortitude

and virtue our Brother records so many things that it must be held for certain that his soul passed into the heavenly dwelling.

[293] Now let us come to the men of our Society, first indeed three of them are slain; which is chiefly our purpose. These, when the enemy were approaching, from midnight until daylight each gave themselves to expiating their sins by confession: then, ordered to go below decks, they did not come up until battle had been joined, to encourage the soldiers, refresh them with food and tend their wounds. But at the time the surrender was made, none of them was to be seen on the upper part of the ship except Castro; for he a little before had gone up to the lowest turret of the prow to hear the confession of one of the pilots, who was breathing his last from a wound: occupied in that office, the heretics, roused to the greatest anger, ran him through with very many wounds by thrust and cut; no doubt because they had come upon him ministering the Sacraments of the Church: for against the others they did not rage so much. About the same time Peter Diaz, who up to that hour had given his labour to the confessions of those who were below decks, and with an ever cheerful and serene countenance had encouraged the others, came out into the open, Gaspar Goes following. As soon as they appeared, the French at once kill both, nor do they spare even a boy of very tender age, who would hardly suffer himself to be torn from Peter: and in this way chiefly those three were slain at the first encounter, stripped and thrown into the sea.

[294] then the rest Then the eleven remaining, the tumult having now subsided for a little, having exhorted one another with speeches full of piety, of their own accord go out onto the higher parts of the ship. And not only do they not mingle themselves among the rest of the crowd for the sake of hiding, but, all massed together on purpose in one body, they openly profess that they are both of the same religion as the three just slain, and equally ready to undergo death by the grace of the common Lord; and the heretics, at once pouring around them, do not cease the whole of that day to mock and harass them insultingly and wantonly by words and deeds, while they answered nothing, except if anything pertained to the honour of God or to the dignity of the Catholic Church. When night came, the hands of the innocent men are bound behind their backs, and in the binding it happened that Michael of Tarragona (the same as Aragonius above) groaned from the wounds which he had received in his arms at the beginning, and this was so far from moving * the heretics to pity that, furiously seizing the man and heaping many insults on him, they hurled him from the ship, and, lest he should go unaccompanied, they threw down Francis Paul also (for he was nearest) with the same violence: all the rest, bonds having been put on them (as we were saying), are thrust into the cabin of Aloysius, etc. And below.

[295] they are thrust into the sea. The defenders of the faith were beaten with fists and frequent slaps: nay more, the sacred crowns, as they call them, were diligently sought for on the very tops of their heads, and if the heretics found any, they each beat these again and again, and at the same time assailed them with quarrels and curses, with many others, but especially with these: dogs, thieves, old knaves; it is your doing that all mortals do not conspire and agree together, and that, discords and tumults being removed, we do not all enjoy tranquil peace and leisure. By your crime perverse doctrine is spread not only through Germany and France, but even through Brazil and indeed through the whole world, etc. And below. Further, all these things Sebastian Lopez himself set out to us. We showed the whole series of the affair, consigned to this letter, to the same Sebastian for him to review, and he again confirmed by his testimony the truth and trustworthiness of the narration. Which we did all the more diligently in order to send this letter to you, thinking that it would be the more welcome to you the more certain the things it conveyed. For the rest, we very earnestly desire to be commended again and again to the Lord by the sacrifices and prayers of you all. At Lisbon, on the 5th day before the Ides of December, 1571. The unworthy servants in Christ of you all, Francis Henriquez, rector of the house of Lisbon, and companions. What is wanting in this letter I supply from what is subjoined next to it in the cited Summary from the Process of Coimbra, and it runs thus: They began to dispute with the fathers (the remaining ones, as is premised in the same place) on the dogmas of the faith, on the Mass, on confession and on other things, and after the disputation (in which the Fathers constantly defended the truth of the faith) the heretics said, were the Fathers ready to die in defence of those dogmas which they taught, and when they answered with brave and eager mind that they would most gladly undergo death for the truth of those things, the heretics said, so shall it be done to you, and they wounded them all and threw them into the sea, of whom twelve died, but two of them by swimming reached the boats and escaped death. Whoever desires more about these, let him go to Peter Poussines, book 4, chapters 4 and 5. I return to St. Borgia.

* situated

* perhaps he had ordered them to sit together?

* breeze

* it seems that "by the first" should be supplied here

* to the bay of Ortegal, on the coast of Galicia

* move

§ XXII. By order of Pius V he undertakes the Spanish and Portuguese journey.

Given as companion to Cardinal Alessandrino by Pius V, No less was the state of the Society in Europe a care to Borgia: in the month of June of the year 1571 he held a congregation of procurators in the City, in which some things were usefully established for the better administration of the Society. He designated new superiors of provinces: Alfonso Ruiz for Rome, Jerome Domenech for Sicily, Claude Matthieu for Aquitaine, Edmund Hay for France, Baldwin de Angelo for Lower Germany, Hermann Thyraeus for the Rhine, Peter Sanchez for New Spain. At that time the Turks had occupied the greatest part of the kingdom of Cyprus, whose advances St. Pius V, having struck a league with the Spaniards and the Venetians, decided to resist, and, sending various embassies to various princes, he laboured that they should join counsels, forces and arms for vanquishing the foulest enemies of the Christian cause. To the kings of Spain, Portugal and France he sent Michael Bonelli, Cardinal Alessandrino; to the emperor Maximilian and Sigismund, king of Poland, Cardinal Commendone: and since the holy Pontiff was not ignorant with what dexterity in managing affairs and what authority Borgia was powerful among the Spaniards and Portuguese, he wished to add Borgia as companion to Cardinal Alessandrino, as Father Francis Toledo to Cardinal Commendone: and although Borgia's health was already broken, he nevertheless undertook that burden not unwillingly for the good of the universal Church, for which he was ready even to pour out his life. Borgia's promptness pleased the Pontiff, and at that time he issued the diploma by which he declared the Society a mendicant Order and a sharer in the benefits conferred on them. The Pontiff willed besides that some religious men from the Capuchin Fathers and from the Society should accompany the fleet of the allies, to be at hand for the soldiers and sailors, and there were sent for this from the Society Christopher Rodriguez, John Montoya and four others, besides those whom the Venetians took to the fleet of the Catholic king. The commander of the whole fleet was John of Austria, who won that memorable victory over the Turks at the Echinades islands on the Nones of October of the year 1571.

[297] As he was about to set out from Rome he named Polanco vicar. very honourably at Barcelona, He set out on the journey on the day before the Kalends of July: and the manner of the journey was such that no part of the day slipped by without either he himself or one of his companions applying himself to prayer; which Cardinal Alessandrino so approved that he ordered his people to imitate it. He met, on the witness of Cienfuegos, book 5, chapter 13, §2, Philibert, duke of Savoy, and had an intimate conversation with St. Charles Borromeo, archbishop of Milan, before he entered France: and when he had arrived there, an escort was provided by Charles IX, king of the French (civil discords and heresy raging in France at that time). He came to Barcelona, the principal city of Catalonia, where he had once acted as viceroy, on the 4th day before the Kalends of September, received with the greatest eagerness of the citizens. A very difficult lawsuit was being conducted there between the colleges of canons and the royal procurators; but with Borgia as mediator it was at once composed, to the common congratulation of both parties. Here he met his son Ferdinand, sent to his Parent by Philip II, king of the Spains, with a letter which Schottus presents below. At the same time too there were delivered to him honourable letters both of other nobles and of James Cardinal Espinosa, president of the royal council, and of Ruy Gómez de Silva, prince of Éboli and an old friend, witnesses of their joy at his coming into Spain. Then further, says Sacchinus, book 7, number 128, upon this so great kindness of honour offered at the first border of the kingdom there followed, the further they advanced inward, the more honourable receptions: with such favour and such inclination of the wills of all, that that supreme Arbiter, who weighs the moments of individual things in the most exact balance, and, correcting the unfairness of the human scale, by taking away here and adding there whence it was taken away, makes weights and reckonings equal, seemed to have willed to compensate by this celebrity and glory of his return the obscurity of his departure (from Spain) ten years before, when many reviled as an ignoble flight the obedience rendered by a most humble Father to the Vicar of Christ.

[298] at Monzón, From Barcelona they went to Valencia. Between Barcelona and Monzón it happened that the steward of the household, secretly sent by Charles, duke of Gandía, set a golden dish before Borgia at dinner, which he ordered at once to be removed, and the man, though he shuffled much, to sit at table with him: and the same man, when at Monzón someone had come to greet Borgia in the name of John Ribera, archbishop of Valencia, set on the table a little more food than he was accustomed to; but he ordered what had been added to the usual food to be taken away and distributed to the needy, as Cienfuegos narrates in the place cited. From Monzón he proceeded to the monastery of the Hieronymites called San Miguel de los Reyes, fifteen hundred paces distant from Valencia; where Charles, duke of Gandía, together with his son Francis, marquis of Lombay, his brother Alfonso, and surrounded by a great retinue of noblemen, was awaiting the Father's arrival; and when, they having fallen on their knees, he had blessed them, he directed them to attach themselves to the Cardinal legate by way of honour: and he himself, having in this way removed the crowds from himself, turning aside from the royal road, as one who desired to be snatched from so splendid a retinue, passed by the walls of the city by a long circuit, and, entering Valencia by the gate of St. Vincent next to the college, soon betook himself to the companions on the day after the Ides of September.

[299] at Valencia He went straight to the church, which a huge crowd of noble women, led by eagerness to see him, had filled; and thence he had himself carried by two Brothers (for he was suffering from gout) into the buildings of the college: there that same evening, when he was permitted to withdraw from the Cardinal legate, there came John Ribera the patriarch, Charles duke of Gandía and other kinsmen. On the next Sunday, at the patriarch's request, he spoke to the people with equal admiration and piety of the hearers. Charles was present for his Father, standing bareheaded on his feet: Borgia ordered the companions to take seats, saying that these were his brothers, that one his son. He obtained from Charles that he should increase the annual revenues of his brother Ferdinand. There was some disturbance between that college and the university of Valencia, for settling which his authority availed much. Invited to a banquet by the Cardinal legate, he obtained with difficulty, by many entreaties, that the last

place at table might be his, and that he might take his food bareheaded and standing on his feet. On the day before his departure (he stayed at Valencia four days) he delivered an address to the companions, in which he taught them how much it matters to join together the pursuits of prayer and penance, and those who would free their mind from the desire of human things. From Valencia the legate went on to Madrid; with his kind permission Francis turned a little aside from the road and visited the novitiate of Villarejo, where he both refreshed the novices with his conversation, and was received with the greatest goodwill and veneration by John Pacheco de Silva, lord of Villarejo, and his wife Jerónima Mendoza, and treated with them about enlarging the house of that novitiate. Thence he soon returned to the legate.

[300] He entered Madrid together with the legate on the day sacred to St. Michael the archangel, and is received at Madrid, that is the 29th of September. By the king's order the count of Olivares came to meet them both, and likewise a very great multitude of men: among these Borgia had looked a little attentively at a nobleman riding a noble horse: he, thinking that the appearance of the horse had pleased Francis, sent it to him as a gift, well caparisoned; but Borgia sent it back with many thanks, adding besides some small sacred gifts, saying that he was not the duke of Gandía but a poor religious. Having entered the royal court with a distinguished retinue of the foremost nobility, they were received courteously and honourably by king Philip. He had not yet recovered his strength from the journey when he was summoned by the king to the palace; and when the king saw him entering, he rushed into his embrace, and said that he had many things, both private and public, which he wished to communicate with him: thence, having been led to the queen and received with the greatest veneration, he turned aside to the college. Pressed by both the variety and the weight of business, when he had leisure he would hurry off at earliest morning to the house of his son Ferdinand, and there indulge in prolonged prayers and in exercises of piety of every kind. He greatly benefited the Discalced virgins, over whom his sister Joanna of the Cross presided, above all by salutary rules and counsels.

[301] Meanwhile, says Sacchinus, book 7, and having there concluded number 133, he also devoted care to ordering the affairs of the Society together with the Provincials who had come to him: and while Miró was inspecting Aragon, and was soon to inspect Portugal, he assigned Baetica, Castile and Toledo to Francis Vasquez, Balthasar Alvarez and John Emmanuel Leonius, who had gone to Rome as procurators and had returned, to be examined briefly so that they might report the matters to him. In Castile, at the request of the bishop and the whole city, masters of Latin were restored to the college of Segovia. It was decreed that the dwelling at Burgos should be a professed house, which was done the next year, and a new college undertaken at León. In Baetica, the bishop pressing it, some companions were sent to Málaga for the beginnings of a college. In Aragon a house of Probation was begun at Valencia, the buildings neighbouring the college having been bought up. At the same time he determined many things pertaining to the beginnings of the Mexican province: and that was the reward of their delay to the fathers destined for it: who, since they had been unable to meet the fleet of that year in time, were compelled to wait for that of the following year.

[302] the business prosperously, As to what pertains to the business of the embassy, Sacchinus says only this of it in general, that all considered that Borgia had added by far the greatest weight to the embassy; and Ribadeneira, that it was concluded according to the mind of the king and the legate. Cienfuegos narrates a little more, book 5, chapter 14, §§2 and 3: that at that time discord flourished between the royal and the ecclesiastical tribunals concerning their rights; and when some thought one should proceed one way in that matter, others another, Borgia was the author to Philip that the matter should be treated amicably and peaceably by some men chosen on both sides; and that this was entrusted in the king's name to Ruy Gómez de Silva, prince of Éboli, and Cardinal Espinosa, president of Castile; and in the legate's to Borgia alone, and that the matter had the desired outcome. When about to depart into Portugal with the papal legate, Borgia sent as a gift to Philip II, through the marquis of Denia, his son-in-law, a particle of the most holy Cross, adding a letter, to which the king himself deigned to reply with his own hand kindly and courteously. The letters of both are presented in Spanish by Ribadeneira, book 3, chapter 14, and Cienfuegos, book 7, chapter 14, §4, and in Latin by Schottus below, number 198 and following; and Sacchinus, book 7, number 134 and following. This, however, was a matter of admiration to many, that Borgia, though he had so much influence with the king, never then complained by so much as a word of those who for some years past had torn his fame and reputation with such atrocious calumnies.

[303] with like success The office of the Spanish embassy having thus been discharged, they entered upon the Portuguese journey, as they had in charge from the Pontiff: at the borders of that kingdom there was present Constantine, brother of Theodosius, duke of Bragança, and formerly viceroy of India, sent there by king Sebastian to escort them both as far as Lisbon; and when they arrived there they were received honourably and most lovingly by the king, who had come forward to the seashore to meet them, an immense multitude of men flocking together to the spectacle. Queen Catherine, Sebastian's grandmother, and Henry the Cardinal, prince of the kingdom, attended Francis with equal tokens of goodwill. The legate was lodged in the royal palace: Borgia could not be prevailed upon to do the same; and so he turned aside to the companions. Francis strove with every effort to recall the royal family to peace and concord. He brought to the desired outcome certain private affairs which he had in charge from the Pontiff; likewise those from Philip II, using in these chiefly the labour of his son John, Philip's ambassador to king Sebastian at that time. The other affairs were concluded with no less success: the Pontiff demanded two things above all of the king of Portugal: one, that he should turn his arms against the Turks: the other, that he should join to himself in marriage Margaret, sister of Charles IX, king of France, who, however, was afterwards betrothed to Henry, prince of Navarre, and later king of France, the fourth of this name: the care of the legate and of Francis brought it about that Sebastian consented to both: since concerning these matters, a little after their departure from Portugal, on the 20th day of December of the year 1571, Sebastian wrote thus to Pius V; concerning the first indeed: I, most holy Father in Christ and most blessed Lord, after I had myself diligently considered the whole matter with myself, and, as the dignity and magnitude of so great a business truly required of me, had weighed everything with mature counsel, determined that I must with a most willing mind join in an expedition of this kind. And a little after: But if by the Clemency of the most mighty God matters shall come to the point that the other Christian princes decide to undertake together this most glorious expedition, I promise, and constantly affirm (although, being placed at the furthest bounds of the world, I am far distant from the empire of the Turks) that I wish first to be enrolled in this alliance of the sacred war, and to be present in person at the expedition itself.

[304] And concerning the other: Since all these things are in truth so, he enjoys in Portugal. and we have learned not only from your Beatitude but also from the conversations and letters of others that the sister of the most Christian king of France shines with the greatest and most illustrious ornaments of the virtues, so that she may with the best right please us; we have decreed that we should treat more openly of that matter with the same Cardinal Alessandrino, and place that business in his hands, so that he himself, in your Beatitude's name, as soon as he arrives in France, whither he is now making his way as legate from your Beatitude, may speak on the same matter with our ambassador residing there. And if French affairs, so far as pertains to the business, shall be at such a point that it seems that they can be treated of with our authority and reputation safe, then only, for the honour and glory of the almighty God, for the salvation and protection of holy mother Church, and for maintaining concord and peace among Christian princes, I shall bear with a willing mind that your Beatitude bind and fasten me by the bonds of this marriage and alliance.

§ XXIII. He likewise undertakes the French journey, returning from which he dies holily at Rome: his writings, and the writers of his Life.

Likewise the French journey When he had returned from Portugal to Madrid together with the Cardinal legate, the sovereigns of Spain wished him to be present at the baptism of their son Ferdinand, so that by his prayers he might obtain heavenly favour for the newborn. There he received another command from Pius V, that he should go as companion to the Cardinal legate into France also. Soon he set out on the journey with the legate, Ferdinand Borgia, his son, escorting them by king Philip's order as far as the furthest borders of the kingdom: and Thomas, afterwards prelate of Saragossa, followed his Brother all the way to Rome. Peter Nuñez, a priest of Toledo, also increased the legate's company. At Burgos Cardinal Pacheco received him with the greatest veneration: thence he took with him to Miranda on the Ebro Father John Suarez, Superior of the professed house of Burgos: here ^d he received a letter from the noble matron Magdalena de Ulloa, who was planning to found the novitiate house of Villagarcía: the place displeased some: but Borgia foretold that that house would bring immense utility to the church (which the event proved). When he dismissed John Suarez there, he foretold two things to him; that he himself would scarcely return alive to Rome; but that John would again be superior of the Castilian province. He refreshed his son Ferdinand at Fuenterrabía with the sacred Banquet with his own hands, and, having furnished him with last admonitions, sent him back from Bayonne into Spain.

[306] but he undertakes it with less fruit, The face of affairs in France was altogether other than in Spain: the Calvinist heresy raged everywhere, slaughter, rapine, seditions, and every evil that civil wars bring with them. Churches everywhere half-ruined, without roofs, without adornment, without altars, so that the sacred rite could not be performed in them with decorum; at the sight of these calamities (which he had foretold ten years before in a letter sent to Ribadeneira, who was then working in Sicily) Borgia, already almost worn out with diseases and labours, conceived the greatest grief of mind out of his zeal for the house of the Lord; by which it came about that the strength of his body failed him more and more. On the second day of February, sacred to the Purification of the Virgin, he offered to God the unbloody Sacrifice in a certain church open to the winds, rains and snows, since he could find no other, using the sacred furniture which he was accustomed to carry with him. Here a fever attacked him so violent that the physicians believed he would scarcely be among the living for two days: yet he would continue the journey; while he was on the road the fever abated a little; it increased when he rested. The legate reached Blois as Lent was close at hand, on the 16th day of February; Francis two days after. Charles IX, king of France, who was then staying at Blois together with the queen mother Catherine de' Medici, went forward to meet him as he came, as Cienfuegos writes, book 5, chapter 16, §3, and showed such kindness toward Borgia that he wrote to Polanco, his vicar at Rome, that he had been suffused with much shame. Nor was he treated less kindly by the queen mother: he had scarcely reached Blois when she at once sent someone to greet him in her name: when it came to conversation, she bade him sit beside her and cover his head. The tranquillity of the kingdom of France by his prayers

she wished to be commended, promising also that she would be a helper of his counsels with the king. She wished to see his companions, and as he was departing asked that the prayer-beads which hung from his girdle be given her as a gift, and received them reverently; on the witness of Peter Nuñez, a priest of Toledo, in Cienfuegos, book 5, chapter 17, §3.

[307] and gradually However, since the business did not proceed sufficiently according to their wishes, and the papal legate had been informed of the illness of Pius V, it seemed good to both to hasten their return into Italy: and so they departed together from Blois on the 25th day of February, and had arrived at Lyons when Cardinal Alessandrino learned by a further letter that the Pontiff's life was in great danger; which matter compelled the Cardinal, though unwilling, to separate from Borgia, who was hastening to the same place as the Pontiff. Francis, since he could not go on foot, was carried in a litter to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, a town of the dominion of Savoy, where, at the persuasion of his son Thomas and by the command of Brother Marcus, he made a stay of some days. Emmanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, took care that physicians and medicines should be supplied to him as he lay sick: nor did he take less care of him when he was painfully carried from the town just mentioned to Turin through the Cottian Alps, or Mont Cenis: here he was honoured with every kind of honour and attention more lavishly than his lowliness of mind would bear: so he extorted leave to depart from the unwilling dukes, and, put on board a ship, he came down the Po to the territory of Ferrara, landing at Baligniano. Thence he was carried to Ferrara on the Thursday after Quasimodo Sunday in a ship which Alfonso, duke of Ferrara, his kinsman, had sent him. Nothing troubled Francis here so much as the pomp with which he was received by the duke of Ferrara, and, spurning the palace, he would not turn aside anywhere but to the college of the Society; yet, by the counsel of the physicians and the Fathers, at the command of Brother Marcus, he withdrew to a certain suburban villa of the duke, where a healthier air blew, on condition that the duke should send nothing to him there except what the physician of the college prescribed. His brother Thomas he sent away elsewhere, so that the duke and nobles should not keep coming to him on his account. The duke meanwhile caused public prayers to be proclaimed and poured out generous alms for his recovery.

[308] At that time he underwent frequent ecstasies, failing and was once seen to be suddenly rapt into the air and suspended there on bended knees. Amid these ecstasies he was informed of the time and manner of his death, and, enjoying health now a little better, now worse, until the month of September of the year 1572, he decided to depart from Ferrara for Rome: he therefore asks Alfonso to order what was necessary for the journey to be made ready for him, as he would set out from there the next day: to Alfonso's resistance he replied that it was the divine will that he should die not at Ferrara but at Rome, where his predecessors Ignatius and Laínez had died. That it would be an immense consolation to him if he were soon carried to Rome: on the contrary, a grief if he should finish the pilgrimage of this mortal life at Ferrara. Alfonso complied with his desire, and wished two physicians and some of his household to accompany him on his departure. Having been carried to Loreto, he ordered himself to be brought into the holy house in which the Saviour put on human flesh, in order to commend his soul, hastening to the heavenly fatherland, to the patronage of the Virgin Mother of God. Having set out from Loreto to Macerata with health a little better, he repeatedly admonished his companions to hasten the journey: at Macerata he nearly expired; yet he recovered his strength to some extent: here he was advised by the physicians, who thought he would not reach Rome, to designate a vicar general; but Francis refused to do it, having been, no doubt, informed of surer things by the heavenly Physician. When Brother Marcus saw him almost expiring, and had said that he wished to die together with him, Not yet, said Borgia, will that happen: for it will come about that shortly after my death you will go away into Peru (a matter which, as he testified on oath, had never once come into Marcus's mind), and that your labour will contribute much there to the conversion of the infidels; to which province Everard Mercurian, elected in the place of Francis, who died shortly afterwards, soon assigned Marcus.

[309] He at last arrived at Rome on the 28th day of September toward evening, He returns to Rome, and there and entering the City by the Flaminian gate, tears springing forth for joy, he used these words of the prophet Simeon: Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord. When he came to St. Mary of the People, he ordered the litter to be stopped, and commanded his brother Thomas to grant no one access to him: then for half an hour with joined hands he poured out most pious prayers to the Blessed Virgin, and gave thanks that he had arrived alive, and was laying down his life in the service of the Pontiff and the Church. Thence he was received at the professed house with the greatest joy of its members: soon he sent Father Louis de Mendoza to Gregory XIII (who had succeeded St. Pius V), who was staying at Tivoli, to ask suppliantly for the apostolic blessing for him; which the Pontiff at once sent him, with a plenary indulgence, through Cardinal John Aldobrandini. Soon there came also the imperial and the Spanish ambassadors; having dispatched these very quickly, he forbade anyone to approach him except Father Natalis, Father Louis Hernandez, Brother Marcus, and lord Thomas de Borgia, being thenceforth about to give himself to God alone. On the following day, sacred to St. Michael, he received the holy Viaticum with wonderful piety, and imparted his blessing to the whole Society. He was fortified with the Sacrament of Extreme Unction with the greatest affection of piety and tranquillity of mind on the 30th day of September toward evening, answering most piously to the prayers that were poured out: soon, rapt out of himself for the space of three hours, he saw the glory prepared for him; restored to himself, when he saw his brother Thomas weeping, There is no reason, he said, for you to weep for me: How much of beatitude I have just now seen! Then he imparted his last blessing to Thomas and to the rest of his sons and grandsons; admonishing Thomas by name to be a faithful minister of the Church; because God had destined him to be a prelate of His Church; the event proved the prophecy, when Thomas was raised first to the see of Málaga, then to that of Saragossa, to the first in the year 1600, to the other in 1603. Being asked to name a vicar, he would not do it, because neither St. Ignatius nor Laínez had done it. A painter, who was present to make a portrait of him, he ordered to go away with the thing undone, turning away his face. He gave back his happy soul to the Creator shortly after the midnight which preceded the Kalends of October, having completed the 62nd year of his age, less about twenty-seven days; others say that he died on the 31st day of September a little before midnight: but that he died a little after midnight is written by Cepari, by Alvarus Cienfuegos, book 5, chapter 8, §2, and the same is read in the Compendium of the life, virtues and miracles, and also of the Acts in the cause of the Beatification and Canonization of Blessed Francis Borgia, printed at Rome in the year 1671 by the press of the Apostolic Camera.

[310] he dies in the repute of great holiness, So great was the esteem of his holiness that immediately after his death the fathers who were present at Rome began not to pray for him, but to commend themselves to his prayers. Cardinals, bishops, noble men and women flew there in the greatest concourse to kiss his feet. Gregory XIII, having learned of Borgia's death, said: Today the Apostolic See has lost a faithful minister, the Church a pillar; and Cardinal Paleotti lamented that the light of the Catholic Church had been extinguished. Schottus describes the habit of his body from Ribadeneira below, number 203. He was buried on the Kalends of October in the church of the professed house between St. Ignatius and Laínez, his predecessors, with such a concourse of the people and the grandees that, on the witness of Mark de Contreras, who saw it, the City of Rome seemed deserted in its other part. Not a few images were soon fashioned, by the mere sight of which many testified that they were moved to piety: but Father Dionysius Vasquez, who was his confessor, left it in writing that none of these which he had seen was delineated with sufficient accuracy. Father Antony de Alarcón carried to Valladolid a less defective one, by placing which on the heads of the possessed, and invoking the name of Francis, he more than once saw demons expelled, on the witness of the same Vasquez in Cienfuegos, book 5, chapter 18, §3.

[311] But the endowments of his mind he himself painted more beautifully in the little works left behind which he wrote partly before, partly after entering the Society, for the most part in the Spanish tongue: they are various, and accommodated rather to arousing devotion than to gaining praise for learning and eloquence. Don Francis Borgia, the Saint's great-grandson, collected whatever he could find, and, having arranged them into a proper volume, published them in the year 1675 by the press of Francis Foppens, printer of Brussels. They are listed in the Library of the Society in this order: 1. A Sermon on those words of Luke 19: "When Jesus drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it." II. The Mirror of the Christian man, or on Christian works. III. A spiritual Eye-salve. IV. On preparation for the Holy Eucharist. V. On a spiritual Exercise for the knowledge of oneself. VI. On the Canticle of the three children, whose beginning is: "All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord." These six treatises, written before entering the Society for himself rather than for others, he saw, though unwillingly, published to the world; and after his death Alphonsus Deza, a theologian of the Society, had them put into Latin and printed at Madrid in the year 1579. Ribadeneira asserts, book 3, chapter 19, that these alone and no others were Borgia's genuine offspring: which assertion of Ribadeneira falls not only on those treatises which we said above were falsely ascribed to Borgia's name in the year 1559; but also on those which are listed below at number 314 in the first and third place, of which the first, translated into the Italian tongue, came out at Venice in the year 1561; and the other at Valencia in the years 1550 and 1570, on the witness of Nicholas Antonio. I proceed to his remaining Treatises recorded in the Library of the Society.

[312] VII. On Meditation upon the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. by writings This Treatise, divided into seven discourses, Nicholas Antonio, volume 2, page 44, ascribes to Louis de Montoya, a man of the Augustinian Order as pious as he was learned, from Thomas de Herrera of the same Order, as indeed appears from the fact that he adds a little after that the latter abridged this Life of Louis in his History of the Augustinian House of Salamanca. Likewise, treating of Borgia, volume 1 in the place cited, he writes thus: Meditations on the Passion of our Lord for each of the canonical hours. A treatise on this subject, not rightly attributed to Borgia, is said to have had as its author Louis de Montoya, the Augustinian. I read the same in Cornelius Curtius, in the Eulogies of illustrious men of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, printed at Antwerp in the year 1636, page 1779, as also in Augustine Mary Arpe in the Eulogies of the same, printed at Genoa in the year 1709. A treatise plainly of this kind I find in book 5 of the Works of St. Francis published by his great-grandson in the year 1675: but what makes me doubt whether this is the same one that Louis de Montoya composed is Thomas de Herrera, who in the cited History of the Augustinian house of Salamanca, printed in the year 1652, page 342, does indeed mention, in the abridgement of the Life of Louis de Montoya, a Treatise on the Passion of Christ divided into seven discourses, composed by Louis,

but ascribed to Borgia; not, however, for the seven canonical hours, but for the seven days of the week, as Herrera says in express words.

[313] various, and solid Perhaps, therefore, some error lurks here, to which both the very subject of the treatise and its nearly similar arrangement gave occasion. For the rest, it could have happened that a copy of such a treatise, found among the papers of the deceased Borgia, was held to be his offspring, and as such was afterwards published; which could also have happened to Schottus, who in the Latin Life of St. Francis printed in the year 1598 mentions the same Treatise as composed by Borgia, although Ribadeneira is silent on that matter, thinking this permissible to himself because Ribadeneira had not made it his purpose to enumerate absolutely all the writings of St. Francis. For soon, turning his discourse from the six treatises reported at number 311 to the remaining little works of St. Francis, he says: Besides these six treatises of St. Francis (which, as we have said, have been printed in Latin, and alone are his), he also wrote certain other works of much spirit and learning, not yet published, or in manuscript: among which are, etc.

[314] full of piety, There are added to these in the Library of the Society: the Instruction of a Christian knight, a little book On the method of preaching, The principal and most necessary matters of St. Thomas Aquinas reduced to the form of Litanies, a Letter to the companions of Aquitaine on the means of preserving the spirit of the Society, Lessons on the Lamentations of Jeremiah, two volumes of Meditations on the Gospels which are read through the year at Mass on Sundays and Feast days, an Instruction for the good government of subjects to his son the duke of Gandía, and others recorded by Nieremberg at the end of the Life of St. Francis.

[315] having obtained from time to time very many, He obtained very many writers of his Life, whom I do not think it necessary to list one by one: and so I touch briefly on only a few of the principal ones, whom I have chiefly used in this Commentary. The first to publish the Life of St. Francis in print was Father Peter Ribadeneira, a Toledan by birth, received into the Society by St. Ignatius in the year 1540, a man not only of the same age as St. Francis, but also distinguished for learning, writings and the praise of religious virtues; he died at Madrid in the year 1611, on the tenth day before the Kalends of October, concerning whom more may be read in the Library of the Society, page 693 and following, a Work to which he himself gave the beginning. Among the various writings which he composed with much sweat, there occurs there in the fifth place the Life of Blessed Father Francis, third Superior General, divided, namely, into four books written in the Spanish tongue, printed at Madrid in the year 1594, and offered by its author to Philip II, king of the Spains, and that at a time when the memory of St. Francis and his deeds was still fresh among the Spaniards, by whom he could easily have been convicted of falsehood if he had introduced into his Life anything invented or foreign to the truth. He was discharging the office of Assistant in the year 1571, in which Borgia set out into Spain. In the year 1609, juridically interrogated by the Nuncio and the Apostolic Commissaries, he affirmed on oath that he had mixed nothing into the Life and prodigies of St. Francis of which he was not certain, so that this Life deserves full credit in every part. I do not know whether it was a copy of this that St. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi sent as a gift from Florence about the beginning of this century to her brother, living in the country house of Parrigiano, and commended it, but in Italian words, in this manner: I send you a book on the life of Father Francis Borgia, the reading of which I think will be a great pleasure and consolation to you. So runs the copy of the autograph Letter preserved at Rome in the house of the oblates, commonly called Tor de' Specchi, sent thence to our predecessors in the year 1749.

[316] The Spanish Life of St. Francis written by Ribadeneira, of the best faith and note so that it might be in the hands of more people, was put into Latin and published at Antwerp in the year 1598 by Father Andrew Schott, departing somewhat at times from the Spanish as to the words, and adding also from time to time brief little digressions and interpretations: In translating, he says in the Dedicatory Epistle to Charles, duke of Gandía, the great-grandson of St. Francis, I have used the rule of Marcus Tullius and Horace, thinking that the words should not be counted out but the sentences weighed, provided only that I omitted nothing. But I have referred everything to the faith of truth. The same Schottus turned from Italian into Latin the Compendium of the Life of St. Francis published at Rome in the year 1624 by Father Virgilio Cepari. He drew his material partly from Ribadeneira and the Chronicles of the Society, partly from the Processes made for the canonization of Francis, and from the documents of the Rota and of the Congregation of sacred rites; to one consulting sources of this kind error could not easily creep in. Helped by new monuments of the Borgia family and by Italian books, Father Eusebius Nieremberg described the deeds of St. Francis more copiously than Ribadeneira in six books, and published them in Spanish at Madrid in the year 1644; using besides the manuscript Commentaries on the deeds of Francis of Father Dionysius Vasquez, who was secretary, and indeed confessor, to Borgia not only as commissary throughout Spain but also as Superior General at Rome, and was the first to write of them.

[317] Finally, most copiously of all wrote of St. Francis Father Alvarus Cienfuegos, the writers of his Life. afterwards enrolled in the sacred college of Cardinals, in that remarkable volume which, written in the Spanish tongue and divided into seven books, first came out at Madrid in the second year of the present century, and again in the seventeenth. The two last books treat of the heroic virtues and remarkable prodigies of St. Francis: as regards the virtues, the fourth book of the Life written by Ribadeneira, and to be reprinted below in the translation of Schottus, abundantly supplies them: as regards the miracles, whoever is curious of these may consult Alvarus in the sixth and seventh books. It will suffice us to have reported below a few well-ascertained ones out of many. Besides the aforementioned writers of the Life of St. Francis, the same Alvarus in the Preface mentions, not without praise, Fathers Verjus and Bartoli besides, of whom the former in the French tongue, the latter in the Italian, wrote his Life accurately and diligently.

§ XXIV. His Beatification, canonization, sacred cult, and patronage against earthquake.

Processes having been duly instituted concerning his virtues and miracles, He who, while he was alive, had been called the Miracle of Dukes, by the miracles wrought after his death wonderfully increased the fame of his holiness and spread it far and wide; by which Francis Sandoval, duke of Lerma, grandson of St. Francis through his daughter Isabella, believed himself admonished to apply himself diligently to procuring heavenly honours for his Grandfather, and he obtained from the most illustrious Don Decio Carafa, at that time papal ambassador at the Spanish court, that actions or processes concerning his virtues and miracles should be duly instituted: and four processes were instituted in the year 1610 in Spain, at Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona and Saragossa: and in Italy the Cardinal of Ara Coeli, bishop of Recanati, instituted a special one at Recanati concerning the miracles wrought in the monastery of the Virgins of the Order of St. Benedict of the same city. The processes were transmitted from Spain to Rome to Paul V in the year 1615, and there were added suppliant letters of Philip III, king of the Spains, of the grandees, prelates, colleges, universities and kingdoms of all Spain, as also in the name of the Society, which Claudius Aquaviva governed, that it might be possible to proceed to the canonization, to which the duke of Lerma likewise added another, so that he might confirm the virtues and miracles of St. Francis by his own authority. The Pontiff committed the cause to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, which, having diligently examined the processes, decided on the 28th day of August of the same year that the matter was at such a point that it could be committed to the auditors of the rota, who instituted the general process at Rome, and sent back letters to Spain that the process in specie should again be instituted in Spain, judges being given in Bernard Sandoval, Cardinal of the H. R. C. and archbishop of Toledo, and Isidore Aliaga, archbishop of Valencia. Those letters were brought to Madrid, as Alvarus Cienfuegos writes, book 5, chapter 19, §2, on the third day of April of the year 1617, and the following day were carried by the duke of Lerma, surrounded by a great throng of nobles, companions and Dominicans, to the palace of the archbishop-Cardinal just mentioned; and Philip III wished to be a spectator of this pomp.

[319] his relics having been translated from Rome to Madrid, While these things are being done, with greater veneration than pomp, and with the doors closed, the relics of St. Francis, with the permission of the supreme Pontiff, were first deposited from the first tomb in the sacristy of the Professed house on the 23rd day of February of the year 1617, and thence translated into the new church and placed at the Gospel side of the altar dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, in the presence of Gaspar Borgia, the Saint's great-great-grandson. The duke of Lerma had resolved to build a magnificent church at Madrid for his Grandfather, and for that reason he pressed both Paul V and Mutius Vitelleschi, Superior General of the Society, that his relics should be sent to him at Madrid. They were handed over on the 22nd day of April to Antony Zapata, Cardinal of the H. R. C., who was about to set out for Spain, only a bone of the arm being left at Rome. Brought to Madrid, they rested for some time in the convent of the nuns of the Incarnation, with the Discalced Virgins, and in the royal convent of St. Dominic, and, the casket having been opened, before many witnesses they diffused a most sweet odour. But at last they were handed over by the duke of Lerma into the hands of the Father Provincial of Toledo on the 17th day of December of the same year, and placed at the Gospel side of the church of the Professed house of Madrid, which was then situated in the street called del Prado: but the third translation of them took place in the year 1627 on the 9th day of May, where they were kept in a chapel of the church until the year 1680, in which, another church having been built by the care of Father Louis Suarez, they were placed in its principal altar, on the witness of Cienfuegos, cited in the preceding number.

[320] Further, the processes having been completed again in Spain, in the year 1624 he is enrolled among the Blessed: the auditors of the Rota, under Pope Gregory XV, having maturely weighed the holiness and miracles of St. Francis, judged in the year 1623 that he seemed worthy to be inscribed in the roll of the Blessed: but when, Gregory XV having been snatched from among the living, Urban VIII had succeeded in the same year, he submitted the report of the auditors of the Rota offered to him to the examination of the Sacred Congregation of Rites; and when it too, a congregation having been held on the 31st day of August of the year 1624, had decided that the cause of the servant of God Francis Borgia (the words are those of the Compendium of the Acts in the cause of the Beatification of St. Francis, printed at Rome by the press of the Apostolic Camera in the year 1671, in which he was enrolled among the Saints) was to be held to be in such a state that it would be possible to come at any time both to his Beatification and to his solemn Canonization. This opinion of the sacred Congregation (as follows a little after), on the report of the Lord Cardinal del Monte, dean of the sacred college and prefect of the same Congregation, our Most Holy Lord Urban VIII approved, and accordingly on the 23rd day of November of the same year the same supreme Pontiff, with the counsel of the same Cardinals, at the earnest supplication of Philip III, Catholic king of the Spains, and of Gaspar Cardinal Borgia, and, in the name of the Society of Jesus, of Mutius Vitelleschi, its Superior General, by letters in the form of a Brief granted licence and power that the servant of God Francis Borgia, until his Canonization should be reached,

might be called BLESSED by all, and that on the Kalends of October the Office and Mass of the common of a Confessor not a Pontiff might be celebrated concerning him by all the priests of the Society of Jesus wherever they might be, and in the dominions of the Lords de Borgia by all priests, regular as well as secular; which indult the same supreme Pontiff afterwards, at the prayers of the same Cardinal Borgia and of Mutius Vitelleschi, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, by a letter given on the 2nd day of September of the year 1625, extended and enlarged to all priests, regular and secular, of whatever Order and Institute, in the churches and houses of the same Society of Jesus. The news of this filled Spain with the greatest joy, and at Madrid indeed a most splendid solemnity was held, which lasted for eight days.

[321] The Processes instituted in Spain and Italy supplied very many miracles, from those wrought before the Beatification and these duly proved: but I shall present in this place, from the Compendium of the Acts in the cause of the Beatification of St. Francis Borgia praised above, only those which chiefly moved Urban VIII to enrol him among the Blessed, the report of them having been made to him by John Baptist Coccinus, Alphonsus Manzanedo de Quiñones, and James Cavalerius, auditors of the Rota. And they run thus: The first. The most excellent lady Doña Jerónima de Cardona, duchess of Uceda, daughter-in-law of the duke of Lerma, had been brought (in the year 1607) to the last extremity of life, because the foetus in her womb could not come out of it, and, tormented for twenty hours by the sharpest pains, she was unable through weakness of strength to expel it: her recovery being already despaired of, and the royal physicians themselves asserting that no hope of living remained, the duke of Lerma brings a relic of blessed Francis to the lady, already almost in her agony, and exhorts her to commend herself with faith to his patronage: the duchess obeys the duke's exhortation, embraces the sacred relic, kisses it, and touches her womb with it. At the touch of the womb the dead and almost putrefying foetus at once comes forth, and, all pain being removed, she immediately comes out of it safe. As soon as the fame of so great a miracle spread through Spain, it is inexpressible with what ardour of veneration the name of blessed Francis was received everywhere, for in a most excellent lady, joined by blood with almost all the grandees of Spain, the splendour of the miracle shone forth more splendidly.

[322] by him The second. Of the noble girls whom the wife of the prince of Esquilache numbered for her service in her palace, a certain one, named Agnes Hurtado, afflicted with most savage pains in the side and seized with a monstrous fever, had come into great danger of her life, receiving absolutely no help from the remedies applied; the prince, pitying the most wretched state of the girl, who had now been suffering for three days, took up a relic of blessed Francis, his kinsman, and begged those standing around to behold as eyewitnesses a miracle of blessed Francis. Then, with them accompanying, he goes to the sick girl, and, recounting to her the holiness of blessed Francis, offers her his relic, that she may commend herself to it with ardent faith. The girl invokes his name with faith, and is lightly touched with his relic: at the touch of the relic the pain with the fever at once vanishes, and she is restored to her former health.

[323] by miracles The third. Mary Martinez was nursing her little infant, but so great a disease attacked her breasts that when the child sucked their nipples the mother was tortured with the sharpest pain, and the son almost always drew back his lips sprinkled with blood: in a short time the disease came to the point that the nipple of the right breast was almost entirely cut away, and, hanging, adhered to the breast by scarcely a part of a tiny piece of skin: destitute of human aids, the mother most piously approaches blessed Francis, and on getting into bed applies his image to her breast, and resolves never to remove it thence until she is restored to health. That same night, awakened by the child's crying, she offers him milk from her breasts, not perceiving even the slightest pain: to her husband, asking why she did not complain as usual of the sharpness of the pain, she discloses the miracle, and declares blessed Francis her benefactor. Then he, rising from the bed and bringing a light closer to his wife's breast, perceives the breasts sound and whole, and the right nipple, which had already been almost entirely cut away, adhering firmly to the breast.

[324] out of many The fourth. Another maidservant of the same wife of the prince of Esquilache, called Frances de Milan, was likewise tormented by most savage pains in the side: very many and very great medicines were useless, by which the most eminent physicians strove to overcome the force of the disease; at last, seized with drowsiness and a little after awakened, she asked that a relic of blessed Francis be given her, because it had been affirmed to her by a certain Father of the Society, whom she had seen while resting, that she would be freed by his patronage from the pains she was suffering: at once there was someone at hand to supply the relic received from the princess, and when she touched with it her side, tortured by the stings of the pains, at once the pain, and the fever with it, vanished. Then, being asked who that Father was whom she had seen in her sleep, she answered that he was entirely unknown to her, but would easily be recognized if she saw an image of blessed Francis. As soon as she beheld one presented to her, she at once said: This indeed is the very one who gave himself to be seen by me while I slept and persuaded me to ask for his relic to free me from my pains.

[325] The fifth. An eight-year-old boy of the same family de Milan, a few named Christopher, from a swelling by which his right knee had swollen to a great size, had been brought into such danger, in the opinion of all the physicians, that, unless his whole right [leg] were cut off, his recovery was utterly despaired of. Thereupon his most sorrowful mother, confidently imploring the patronage of blessed Francis, gave the boy an image of the same Blessed, which he kisses with tears, and, placing it over the diseased knee, addressed it with these words: O holy Father Francis, make me become well, and be freed from so great a danger. At this, immediately the most bitter pain, the huge swelling and the fever departed.

[326] The sixth. At Madrid a three-year-old boy in the house of Francis Perez, having fallen from the domestic staircase, are reported; and rolled headlong * with full force down twenty steps to the bottom, had suffered an enormous wound in his head, gaping with a wide opening. Hence his skull was fractured, a great fever, a most copious effusion of blood, and a most foul swelling occupying his whole face. On the following day an image of blessed Francis Borgia is given to the boy in his danger, that he may piously ask for his help: the boy obeys, and having placed the image on his head, gave himself to sleep: as soon as he awoke at earliest morning, he called the household and said that he was very well, and had received health through the help of B. Borgia. The surgeon comes, recognizes no wound in the head, sees a scar formed over it, the skin knit together, no deformity in the face, and all the heat of the fever extinguished. That all this was miraculously wrought by blessed Borgia he himself confirmed in a written narration of the whole matter, since merely to restore that skin which covers the skull, according to the laws of surgical science, thirty days at least are necessarily required.

[327] Thereafter, moreover, God did not cease to declare the holiness and merits of His Servant by new prodigies: as also from those, two of these are reported in the Compendium of the Acts in the cause of the Beatification and Canonization cited above at number 320, in these words: The seventh. Apollonia Caballa, a Roman girl, now in the monastery of Mount Tabor in the town of Eretum (commonly Monterotondo), called sister Deodata of the Most Holy Trinity, suffered on her left side from a herpes, horrible to see and altogether incurable by the forces of nature: for over seven years, with total corruption of the skin, it had devoured the substance of the patient, and was eating away the living flesh, and had baffled all the most powerful medicines applied. By Father Nicholas Zucchi of the Society of Jesus there was given her an image of blessed Francis Borgia, that with pious confidence in him she might place it on the desperate ulcer: She assented; in a short time it came about that, all the malignity of the herpes receding, she recovered her former health, not even the slightest trace of a scar formed over it remaining on the outer skin.

[328] which preceded his canonization The eighth. From a most grave acute fever and a parotid swelling on the right side of the head, Magdalena, maidservant of Don Joseph Polo, had already been given up by everyone in the city of Valencia, and, already fortified with the sacred mysteries according to Christian rite, was awaiting the last hour of death; when, out of the remarkable devotion with which she had always attended blessed Francis Borgia, she asked for his relic from Father Augustine Palacio, who not long before had heard her last confession: Father Augustine indulged the prayers of the despairing woman, and hands her the desired relic; the sick woman applies it to the parotid swelling, and within a very short space of time the most savage pains with which she was tormented from the swelling depart, she then takes food cheerfully, spends the whole night thereafter in quiet, finally at earliest morning she is found by the chief physician of the city with such diminution of the disease that she was said to be wholly free from all danger of death, and within three days, restored to perfect health, she gave herself to be seen by all, everyone affirming that it had been done by a miracle of blessed Francis.

[329] of which the Bull of Benedict XIII is presented here. These two miracles the sacred Congregation of Rites offered to Clement X in the year 1670, that he might enrol Francis in the number of the Saints; which Leopold, emperor of the Romans, and Charles II, the Catholic king, and other princely men, both ecclesiastical and secular, earnestly requested; and to satisfy their most just desires he enrolled Francis in the number of the Saints with solemn rite, together with Sts. Philip Benizi, Cajetan of Thiene, Louis Bertrand and Rose of St. Mary, on the second Sunday after Easter, the day before the Ides of April, in the year 1671. But since neither Clement X nor his successors Innocent XI, Alexander VIII, Innocent XII, Clement XI and Innocent XIII had drawn up and promulgated decretal letters on that matter according to custom, Benedict XIII did it in the year 1724, on the day before the Nones of June, the first year of his Pontificate, by the following bull: Benedict, bishop, servant of the servants of God. For the perpetual memory of the matter. It agrees with reason and befits equity that what the Roman Pontiff, in a plenary assembly of our venerable brethren the Cardinals of the H. R. C., Patriarchs, Archbishops and Bishops, their unanimous counsel having been communicated, has sanctioned and defined, should at length obtain its effect, even if afterwards, because of the death of the same Pontiff, apostolic letters concerning these matters were not drawn up.

[330] Bl. Francis Borgia excelled in holiness in the various states of life. The Roman Church, over which the ineffable counsel of God has willed us to preside, with no merits of ours requiring it, according to ancient discipline and the apostolic constitutions, has been accustomed to enrol by solemn rite in the canon of the Saints those who by the example of their virtues might kindle the faithful of Christ to run more eagerly along the way of salvation in the footsteps of their forebears; and whereas many have for the most part excelled in some particular kind of life, Francis Borgia alone has been found in the sixteenth century whom those placed in various and many orders might follow as a sure guide of salvation. For the nobles and princely men, and those who govern the commonwealth, have in him what they may set before themselves to imitate in the whole course of their life. Those also have great things who, flourishing in the favour of kings, are placed at the summit of the highest dignities. Those joined in marriage as well as those released from it, adolescents likewise, and young men.

Men likewise dedicated to God, and those set over religious communities. These, all to a man, have in Francis what they may abundantly and safely express in their conduct and acts. For he, God so willing, represented each of these persons by a wonderful holiness of life, with miracles accompanying; whence it came about that, the constant fame of the virtues and signs of the Man of God increasing daily, the Roman Pontiffs of happy memory, our predecessors, Paul V and Urban VIII, entered upon the plan of numbering him in the canon of holy Confessors, moved also by the fervent wishes of the Catholic kings of Spain, set forth to this holy Apostolic See: which our predecessor of pious memory Pope Clement X at length completed according to the canonical rites received by ancient tradition and pontifical authority, the whole Church applauding.

[331] Among the principal lords of the Spains are numbered the dukes of Gandía, The birth, native place and education of Francis. which is the family of Borgia. Manifold dignities rendered it famous and very celebrated. Yet it became more famous from the time when the great servant of God Francis came into the light, his parents being John, third duke of Gandía, and Joanna, born of Alphonsus, son of Ferdinand the Catholic king, in the year of Christ the Lord 1510, on the 5th day before the Kalends of November: which day the blessed Apostles Simon and Jude ennobled by their martyrdom. The birthplace of Francis was Gandía, the ancestral town of the house of Borgia on the coast of the Balearic sea among the Contestani, peoples of Hispania Tarraconensis, in the diocese and kingdom which are named from Valencia, the principal city. His pious mother, because by the present help of the seraphic confessor blessed Francis she had escaped danger of her life in giving birth to her Son, wished him to be called Francis in Baptism, a name which was then heard for the first time in the house of Borgia, as a happy omen of his future holiness. His father's sister and his mother's mother, who was a cousin of Ferdinand the Catholic king, conspicuous among the Poor Clare virgins for the exceptional praise of their piety, cast into the soul of the Youth the sparks of Christian perfection: and he, having spent his boyhood years at home, and having been snatched together with those same spouses of God from the hands of pirates, is liberally educated with his maternal uncle Alphonsus of Aragon, archbishop of Saragossa, and with Catherine, daughter of queen Joanna, afterwards married to John III, king of Portugal.

[332] Thence having set out to the court of Charles V Augustus, mindful of the salvation of his soul, [At the court of the emperor Charles V he lives holily, takes a wife, begets offspring, and from the sight of the dead empress Isabella is illumined by divine light.] he kept himself spotless on every side, being accustomed to approach matrons, for the sake of duty, only when girt with a rough hair-shirt. At the instance of Charles's consort, the empress Isabella, he is joined in marriage to Eleanor de Castro, a most choice Portuguese virgin, relaxing nothing at any time of his resolve of a holier life. Endowed by her with fair and copious offspring, he never turned his mind, at home or abroad, from the rule of piety he had entered upon, being occupied day and night in meditating on heavenly things, and solicitous to be fortified, not without tears, with the sacred Synaxis every eighth day. When the empress Isabella had been taken away, the burden of conducting her funeral to Granada is laid on Francis, and her face, uncovered so that her corpse might be recognized by public attestation, struck him by its deformity with such terror that, illumined by divine light, he resolved with himself, if he should survive his consort, to forsake earthly things altogether, being accustomed afterwards to say that the death of the empress had brought him life.

[333] Set over Catalonia with authority, he fostered that thought more ardently, and there studied the happiness of the peoples [He administers Catalonia holily, and consults blessed Ignatius about the things of eternal salvation.] so that he deserved to be honoured with the title of father of his country, as one born for the good of the commonwealth. He spent a great quantity of gold on the poor, increased with alms the pious families of sacred virgins and men, but above all secretly supported those who had come from the highest fortune to extreme want. Often turning over the plan long implanted in his mind, and clinging in meditation to God alone, he was accustomed at daybreak to pray on his knees five hours daily; and, when he was free from royal business, to be refreshed by frequent sitting at the divine table, by fasts and penances. Then there was given him from heaven the first occasion of consulting in writing about such great matters blessed Ignatius, parent and founder of the Society of Jesus, of regular priests, to which he afterwards gave his name.

[334] [He provides for the happiness of the people of Gandía; he feels himself drawn into the Society of Jesus: he desires above all to flee honours.] Bereaved of his excellent father, and of his consort, the companion of all his pious exercises, and having returned home, he provided for the consolation and security of his people of Gandía, restored hospitals, built monasteries, erected schools for educating the Moors in Christian fashion, enriched the sacred buildings with vessels of gold and silver befitting their dignity; and, resolving in his mind to perfect his old purpose of life, he besought through the prayers of good men that salutary counsels toward this might be given him from God. God at length smiled upon the wishes of His Servant, and he felt himself drawn into the Society of Jesus. For because the recently arisen religious order, and more ardent from its origin, was still unknown to the common people, and no place for dignities lay open in it to ambitious men, it seemed most fit to Francis, who fled the highest honours. While, intent on prayer, he was turning these things over in his mind, for seven whole days he saw a tiara hanging over his head, and, fearing lest it portended a dignity of the Church, he did not cease earnestly to beseech God that he might not meet elsewhere the honours which he was fleeing. After the death of his two brothers, Cardinals of the H. R. C., when he had repelled from himself the same dignity offered freely through our predecessors the Roman Pontiffs, he afterwards learned that the office of Superior in his sacred family had been indicated by that tiara.

[335] [While still duke of Gandía he pronounces the vows of religion; and in the year of jubilee he goes to Rome.] While still duke of Gandía he was permitted by our predecessor of happy memory Pope Paul III, at the entreaty of blessed Ignatius, to pronounce religious vows, with few being aware of it. The four years prescribed by the Pontiff for settling his affairs he spent in publicly learning thoroughly, with singular modesty, the graver disciplines worthy of a sacred man: when these had elapsed, and the year of Jubilee had been proclaimed to Christians by Pope Julius III of happy memory, Francis, in order to frequent the thresholds of the Apostles, and that he might enjoy the conversations of Ignatius, who invited him, and might decline the beneficent will of Charles V toward him, bidding farewell to his own, set his mind on Rome with the intention of never thereafter seeking again his native soil, as one who was hastening with the greatest effort to another fatherland, the heavenly one, namely; and this he holily kept, even when, in the reign of our predecessor Pope Pius V, he went that way in the embassy of Cardinal Alessandrino to the Catholic king of the Spains Philip II. On the holy journey to the City, which assiduous prayers and divine conversations lightened, as also when placed at Rome, he would have preferred to be unknown rather than to be received with honour.

[336] The whole City looked up to the immense piety in him, and the submissive spirit which set below the embrace of blessed Ignatius everything most ample and great. He had spent four months at Rome with Ignatius in visiting the basilicas sacred to God and in every kind of piety, [Rome admires his piety. Fearing honours, he departs thence, abdicates from his possessions, puts on the cleric's habit, and celebrates his first Mass.] when, getting wind that his enrolment in the senate of Cardinals was being treated of with Julius, at the instance of the same Ignatius he quickly withdrew himself from the Pontiff's eyes and returned into Spain, where, with the authority of Charles V, who praised his purpose, having made over all his affairs and titles of Gandía to his son Charles, he abdicated completely, putting on the habit of a regular cleric of the Society of Jesus, and joyfully repeating that saying of David: "Thou hast broken my bonds, O Lord; I will sacrifice to thee the sacrifice of praise." Initiated into the priesthood, he privately offered his first Sacrifice to God at Loyola in Cantabria, granting this to the native place and piety of Ignatius, using on the altar linens embroidered with the needle by his sister Louisa. But since Pope Julius had specially granted this, that when he first performed the Sacred rites publicly, as many as, duly cleansed by the confession of their sins, received the Body of the Lord from his hand should obtain plenary pardon, this was done in the town of Vergara, to which so many people came, drawn by the fame of the matter, that, since the church, though large, could by no means hold them, he had to celebrate at an altar raised in the open air, so many approaching the sacred Table that the midday hour was long past. Afterwards he delivered a sermon, and, the clergy and people proceeding in supplication, carried the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.

[337] Returning thence to his companions, he applied himself to cultivating a greater holiness, [The great fame of his piety spreads everywhere. Blessed Ignatius intercedes that he may not be created Cardinal.] granting eight hours daily to the pursuit of prayer, not disdaining to undertake of his own accord all the vilest duties, openly begging alms from street to street and door to door with bare head and feet, and distributing them to the poor and to the hospitals, sleeping also on the ground or on boards. The fame of such piety spreading through the royal courts, very many were seen to come to him and consult him on the business of salvation. Many likewise, especially of the highest rank, following the example of Francis, devoted themselves to religious families. But Pope Julius and Charles V, thinking it unworthy that so great a virtue should lie hid among the Cantabrians, vied in entering upon the plan of co-opting him among the Cardinals of the H. R. C., in vain however, which afterwards was also often done. Ignatius, who had barred to his companions access to honours by laws enacted, falling at the feet of Julius, with a suppliant petition and tears entreats him in person not to confer the honour on one unwilling and unaware, nor to compel him to accept it if offered; that he would kindly grant at least this to the nascent fellowship; and obtains it, to the very great joy of Francis, who also sent a letter to the Pontiff as witness of his grateful mind.

[338] Ignatius, however, did not allow him to lie hidden. For, having perceived the man's singular prudence in winning souls for God, [He devoutly enters upon the offices laid on him by blessed Ignatius, consoles Charles V lying sick, praises him in a sermon when dead, is summoned to Rome, where he becomes the third Superior General, and is sent by blessed Pius V into Spain with Cardinal Alessandrino.] and his holiness, he commanded him to go to various cities and regions to give sacred sermons, and to discharge with the most ample faculty the office of Commissary general of many provinces, which, though in poor health, he traversed on foot: all of which things were accomplished to the great good of the Christian cause. And after he had raised up Charles V, languishing with disease, by the remembrance of mercy, and had praised him when dead in a funeral discourse, having been named by him in his last testament to execute his will, which he wished to be held valid, he is summoned to Rome by our predecessor of revered memory Pope Pius IV, where, James Laínez, Superior general of the Society, having been ordered to go to the council of Trent, the office of Vicar general is laid upon Francis. Soon, James having returned to the City, he is chosen Assistant for Spain and Portugal; afterwards, Laínez having been taken from among the living, he is again Vicar general, and at last, unwilling, he is proclaimed Superior of the whole Order by a great agreement of votes, in which office he ruled the Society most holily for seven years, and completed the course of his life in the service of the Apostolic See, as he had most desired. For Pope Pius V, sending Cardinal Alessandrino into Spain, Portugal and France for the Christian cause, to strike a sacred league against the Turks, wished Francis to be joined to him as companion and sharer of his counsels. And the pious Man, though almost worn out with labours, most harsh penances and diseases, eagerly obeyed the Pontiff's command.

[339] [Returning to Rome, full of virtues and merits, he dies piously and is famous for signs.] Returning to Rome, with eyes and hands

raised to heaven, he joyfully exclaimed: "Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord!" Soon, two days after his return, broken by a long illness and many afflictions, which, however, could not prevent him from hastening to Rome to the last and now imminent end of his mortal life, having received with a steady mind and the greatest devotion the Sacraments of the Church, and fortified with the pontifical blessing of Gregory XIII, our predecessor of happy memory, full of virtues and merits, amid the embraces of his brethren he gave back his most pious soul to heaven in the year of Christ 1572, on the Kalends of October. The Servant of God, held in very high esteem by the blessed and most eminent men Ignatius Loyola, Pope Pius V, Charles Borromeo, Francis de Sales, the holy Virgin Teresa of Jesus, and very many others, left everywhere a great fame of virtue and holiness. Many miracles also followed, which, the prayers of Philip III, Catholic king of the Spains, and of the Grandees, Prelates and Universities of Spain being added, moved Pope Paul V to grant that, with a view to so great a Servant of God being enrolled in the canon of the Saints, an examination of his eminent virtues and of the same miracles might be duly instituted: which having been completed, Urban VIII sanctioned his being enrolled in the order of the Blessed, granting also that all the religious of the Society of Jesus everywhere might recite the Mass and Office of him, and soon that it might be lawful for all priests to do the same in their churches.

[340] [Consultation is held about enrolling Francis in the canon of the Saints, the decree is published by Clement X, and the ceremony of the solemn act is completed by him.] Meanwhile, under others of our predecessors of illustrious memory, Innocent X, Alexander VII and Clement IX, the signs wrought after the beatification of Francis were brought into examination according to the Apostolic Constitutions and proved on every side. The decree, however, concerning his enrolment in the tables of the Saints, which Clement IX, cut off by death, had not been able to publish, his successor Clement X duly published, at the entreaty of Leopold of illustrious memory, elected emperor of the Romans, with his consort the Empress, of Charles II, Catholic king of the Spains, and of other princely men ecclesiastical and secular. Wherefore the same Clement X, all the acts of blessed Francis having been duly discussed and approved before him according to the ancient custom of the Apostolic See in three Consistories, pronounced that on an appointed day he was to be enrolled in the calendar of the Saints. And so, on the second Sunday after the Resurrection of Christ the Lord, the day before the Ides of April, in the first year of his pontificate, when he had proceeded into the most holy basilica of blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, to perform the ceremony with solemn rite, prayers to God having been repeated once, twice and a third time in the plenary assembly of the venerable Brethren, Cardinals of the H. R. C., Patriarchs, Archbishops and Bishops, for Francis Borgia to be enrolled in the canon of the holy Confessors, with the unanimous acclamation and suffrage of all, after sacred hymns and prayers piously poured out to God, and the grace of the Paraclete Spirit earnestly invoked, to the honour of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian religion, by the authority of almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, he decreed blessed Francis Borgia, a Spanish priest of the Society of Jesus, of whose holiness, sincerity of faith and greatness of all virtues, and excellence of miracles it had been abundantly established, together with the blessed Confessors not Pontiffs Philip Benizi, Cajetan of Thiene, Louis Bertrand, and the virgin not martyr Rose of St. Mary, to be a holy Confessor, enrolled him in the canon of holy Confessors not Pontiffs, and established and defined that henceforth he should be venerated, invoked and honoured by all the faithful of Christ as truly a Saint: he pronounced that sacred buildings and altars, where the Unbloody Sacrifice may be offered to God, might be built and dedicated in his honour: that every year on the fifth day before the Nones of October his memory should be piously kept as that of a holy Confessor not a Pontiff, and honoured with Office and Mass according to the rite of the H. R. C. Moreover, by the same his Apostolic authority, to each and all of the faithful of Christ who on the said day should devoutly visit the tomb and the little body of the same holy Confessor, he mercifully relaxed seven years and as many quarantines; and within the Octave forty days, of penances enjoined or due. These things done, having worshipped with hymns and praises God the eternal Father, and the King of glory Christ the Lord, the everlasting Son of the Father, and the holy Paraclete Spirit, one God and one Lord, a special prayer in honour of blessed Francis Borgia having been sung to God, he celebrated Mass at the high altar over the confession of blessed Peter with a commemoration of the same Francis, granting indulgence of sins to all the faithful of Christ present at so great a ceremony.

[341] And lest anyone should ever hereafter in any way hesitate concerning such apostolic decree, [The decree of Clement X concerning Francis Borgia's enrolment among the Saints is confirmed by this constitution.] definition, sanction, enrolment, grant and the other premises of Pope Clement X, because decretal letters were not drawn up and promulgated according to custom by the same Clement and by his successors Innocent XI, Alexander VIII, Innocent XII, Clement XI and Innocent XIII, Roman Pontiffs of pious memory, our predecessors, we, who by the Lord's disposing have succeeded them in the Chair of blessed Peter, though unequal in merits, will and by Apostolic authority establish that the decree, sanction, enrolment, ascription, grant, and the other things thus far mentioned, shall obtain their effect on every side and in full from the already said day, the day before the Ides of April of the year 1671, as if decretal letters concerning them had in truth been drawn up by the same Pope Clement X on the same day and promulgated according to custom, as is narrated above.

[342] And we will that the present letters Let this constitution obtain credit everywhere. shall suffice altogether everywhere for proving the decree, definition, sanction, ascription, enrolment, statute, grant and the other premises, and that the support of no other proof whatever shall further be required for this. Moreover, because it would be difficult for these our letters to be brought to each place where there might be need, we will that copies of them, even printed, subscribed by the hand of a public notary and furnished with the seal of some person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, shall obtain everywhere the same credit which these our letters would obtain, wherever they might happen to be exhibited or shown.

[343] Let no one dare to infringe it. Let it therefore be altogether lawful for no man to infringe this page of decree, definition, sanction, ascription, enrolment, statute, grant, or to go against it with rash daring. But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God and of Peter and Paul, His Apostles. Given at Rome at St. Peter's in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand seven hundred and twenty-four, the day before the Nones of June, in the first year of our Pontificate.

✠ I, Benedict, Bishop of the Catholic Church.

† I, Francis, bishop of Palestrina, Cardinal Barberini.

† I, Lawrence, bishop of Frascati, Cardinal Corsini.

† I, Joseph, of the Title of St. Praxedes, priest, Cardinal Sacripanti.

† I, Philip Antony, of the Title of St. Cecilia, priest, Cardinal Gualterio.

† I, Louis, of the Title of St. Silvester in Capite, priest, Cardinal Pico della Mirandola.

† I, Antony Felix, of the Title of St. Balbina, priest, Cardinal Zondadari.

† I, Peter, of the Title of St. John before the Latin Gate, priest, Cardinal Corradini.

† I, Melchior, of the Title of St. Mary of the Angels, priest, Cardinal de Polignac.

† I, Bernardine, of the Title of St. Peter in Montorio, priest, Cardinal Scotti.

† I, Nicholas, of the Title of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus, priest, Cardinal Spinola.

† I, George, of the Title of St. Agnes, priest, Cardinal Spinola.

† I, Louis, of the Title of St. Prisca, priest, Cardinal Belluga y Moncada.

† I, Joseph, of the Title of St. Susanna, priest, Cardinal Pereira de la Cerda.

† I, John Baptist, of the Title of St. Stephen on the Caelian Hill, priest, Cardinal Salerno.

† I, Alvarus, of the Title of St. Bartholomew on the Island, priest, Cardinal Cienfuegos.

† I, John Baptist, of the Title of St. Matthew in Merulana, priest, Cardinal Altieri.

† I, Vincent, of the Title of St. Onuphrius, priest, Cardinal Petra.

† I, Prosper, of the Title of St. Chrysogonus, priest, Cardinal Marefoschi.

† I, Nicholas, of the Title of St. Mary in Domnica, priest, Cardinal Coscia.

† I, Benedict, of St. Mary in Via Lata, deacon, Cardinal Pamphili.

† I, Joseph Renatus, of St. George in Velabro, deacon, Cardinal Imperiali.

† I, Lawrence, of St. Agatha ad Montes, deacon, Cardinal Altieri.

† I, Charles, of St. Angelo in Foro Piscium, deacon, Cardinal Colonna.

† I, Curtius, of St. Eustace, deacon, Cardinal Origo.

† I, Fabius, of Sts. Vitus and Modestus, deacon, Cardinal degli Abbati Olivieri.

† I, Charles, of St. Mary in Aquiro, deacon, Cardinal de Marinis.

† I, Julius, of St. Adrian, deacon, Cardinal Alberoni.

† I, Alexander, of St. Mary in Cosmedin, deacon, Cardinal Albani.

† I, Nicholas, of St. Mary ad Martyres (the Rotunda), deacon, Cardinal del Giudice.

P. Card. Prodatary. — F. Card. Olivieri.

SEEN

On behalf of the Curia, J., Archbishop of Ancyra.

L. Martinetti.

Registered in the Secretariat of Briefs.

[344] The canonization of Francis was received everywhere with the greatest applause: [Francis was venerated first on the 1st, then on the 3rd, now on the 10th of October:] in Spain, when, on the witness of Cienfuegos at the end of book 5, a certain heretic had heard of it, and had devoted himself to the infernal powers if he believed the Duke of Gandía received into heaven, he had scarcely uttered the blasphemous words when, snatched by an invisible hand, he at once disappeared from the eyes of men. The feast of St. Francis, when he was enrolled in the roll of the Blessed, was at first celebrated on the Kalends of October: but Clement X, after he had enrolled him among the Saints, wished it transferred to the third day of October, and to be recorded in the Roman Martyrology in these words: At Rome, St. Francis Borgia, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, memorable for the austerity of his life, the gift of prayer, the renunciation of the world, and the refusal of the dignities of the Church. Thence, however, because it coincided with the first Vespers of St. Francis of Assisi, it was finally transferred to the 10th day of October in the year 1683. The Office under the rite of a double of the second class was approved for Spain and the Society in the year 1684: and in the year 1689 Alexander VIII extended his Mass and Office under the semidouble rite to the universal Church.

[345] His patronage is invoked above all against earthquakes. his patronage against earthquakes In the year 1625, the next after his Beatification, as Peter de Mercado relates in the History of the Society of Jesus in the New Kingdom of Granada, Ferdinand Arias de Ugarte, archbishop of Santa Fe de Bogotá, together with the suffragan bishops of Cartagena, Santa Marta and Popayán, held a provincial synod, in which by the unanimous consent of clergy and people he was elected special patron against the earthquakes by which that region was frequently wont to be shaken, and it was established by public vow that his anniversary day should be held as a festival and holiday, and celebrated with a solemn procession to the church of the Society. Alvarus Cienfuegos, book 7, chapter 8, is the authority that an image of St. Francis at Tunja in the same kingdom in the year 1627 ran with a prodigious sweat for twenty days and more; which was followed by a huge earthquake. Meanwhile the sweat flowing from the image gave health to the sick, and sight

restored almost entire sight to the blinded; all of which things were submitted to the examination of Julian de Cortázar, archbishop of Santa Fe, who, having associated with himself his chapter and the Superiors of various Orders, after the matter had been maturely examined, declared by the concordant opinion of all that that image was truly miraculous and that its effects exceeded the forces of nature, and renewed the vow of which above.

[346] Several towns of those regions did the same, he is invoked above all. and sent a common letter on these matters to Urban VIII, in which they likewise asked for the Canonization of Francis. Certain other towns also, when another earthquake arose in the year 1641, bound themselves by the same vow. Peter de Mercado, praised above, relates besides, book 3, chapter 13, that when in the year 1666 the obligation contracted by vow had been less fully satisfied, both in the city of Santa Fe and at Tunja, earthquakes soon falling upon them, the former piety and veneration toward Francis at once returned. He was likewise elected patron against earthquake of the city and kingdom of Naples in the year 1694, and of Palermo in Sicily in the year 1693: the first I have from the account of the solemnity instituted when approval of the election had been received from Innocent XII in the year 1695, and published at Naples in the same year; the second from Joachim Mary Sanacori, priest of Palermo, in the Compendium of the Life of St. Francis, number 97, which he subjoined to the Treatise of St. Francis on the method of preaching rendered into Italian.

* headlong

LIFE

By Father Peter Ribadeneira, a contemporary,

FATHER ANDREW SCHOTT TRANSLATOR.

Francis Borgia, Confessor, third General of the Society of Jesus, at Rome. (S.)

By Father P. Ribadeneira

CHAPTER I.

The birth of St. Francis, his education, his coming to the emperor's court, his marriage, and his children.

BOOK I

CHAP. I.

St. Francis born in the year 1510, Those who have consigned to the monuments of letters the deeds of illustrious men done at home and abroad are generally accustomed to fetch the stocks of their ancestors from the source. I too shall briefly recount the birth of Francis Borgia, most illustrious in father, grandfather and ancestors, although I shall not measure his happiness by these things: since they think it of very great importance to his praise that one noble at home should have arrived by the way of virtue at the summit of piety, and, despising the images of his ancestors and the titles of honours, should have consecrated himself to Christ crucified ^a. Francis Borgia, then, fourth duke of Gandía, afterwards priest and third Superior General of the Society of Jesus, was the first-born son ^b of John Borgia, third duke of Gandía ^c. He was born of his mother Joanna of Aragon, daughter of Alphonsus, who was son of Ferdinand the Catholic king: and that at Gandía, which is a town situated among the Contestani at the third milestone (the Spaniards commonly call them LEAGUES) from the mouth of the river Júcar, and at the ninth from Valencia: on the 5th day before the Kalends of November ^d, which day is sacred by annual rite to the Apostles Simon and Jude, in the tenth year above the one thousand five hundredth of restored Salvation, while Julius the Second, supreme Pontiff, held the helm of the Roman Church, and the emperor Maximilian I that of the empire, when king Ferdinand held the kingdom in Aragon, to whom the surname of Catholic was deservedly given, the great-grandfather of our Francis, and who was then administering the kingdoms of Castile in the name of his daughter Joanna and of his grandson Charles, who was afterwards both king of the Spains and emperor, the fifth of that name ^e. The Borgia family, moreover, is among the most famous and noble of the Spanish families, from which very princes have come forth: two Pontiffs, Callixtus the Third ^f and Alexander the Sixth ^g, and very many Cardinals and dukes.

[2] His mother, being with child, when she was tormented by pains of the womb, both employed the prayers and sacrifices of religious men and bestowed much in alms on the poor, the eldest son of John, third duke of Gandía, that she might have a happy delivery, and also called upon blessed Francis, to whom she was most devoted while she lived: near her delivery, his girdle having been brought from the convent of St. Clare, she was happily delivered, and, as she had vowed, honoured her Offspring with the name of Francis ^h. He, being now brought up by both parents with the greatest care and diligence, imbued at once with the first rudiments of the Christian faith, drank in with his milk those seeds of virtue which clung to him through every age. They took diligent care, according to the precept of Plato, that his tender age should not be infected with the silly tales of nurses. He frequently prayed to God with prayers according to the capacity of his age, even on bended knees, as taught by his parents, and still more gladly of his own accord, which seemed a proof of the best disposition and of virtue: he venerated St. James ⁱ among the others, set up altars at home, and was appeased by images of the Saints if, as happens at a tender age, he grew angry or shed tears. There was also a solemn custom of the Borgia family, by ancient institution, that every year ^k it should draw by lot one from the number of the Saints. The boy Francis, even then, religiously kept this custom (which he also introduced into the Society, before he began to head his family). He to whom the name of the Saint had fallen fed, on the eve of the feast, two beggars gathered from the streets; but on the feast itself, two by two, men served men, women women, at table. His manners were candid, gentle, without arrogance, nor, as for the most part at this age, difficult: thus it came about that he was dear and acceptable to all with whom he had to do.

[3] He had already reached the seventh year of his age when his parent gave charge to the tutor Ferdinand, having obtained a disposition equal to his famous birth, a distinguished theologian, to instruct him accurately in the first precepts of the Latin tongue and to teach him the method of writing. Likewise a governor of manners, a nobleman, was added as guardian, to imbue him with courtly manners, and teach him the duty of greeting courteously and of conducting himself ^l. These did not disagree among themselves with contention and envy, but rather each diligently performed his own office with honest emulation, such as Hesiod praised. To neither was the task of forming that first age very difficult, because the Boy had obtained a docile disposition, and an obedient one, not obstinate in obeying. He was in his tenth year when he gladly heard the heralds of the Word of God in the churches: and if perchance, as eloquent men, they had pleased by their delivery, he would gracefully imitate their gestures and recite their sentences from memory. When the Boy was bidden by his grandmother and aunt ^m to preach, he then spoke such words on the torments of Christ our Redeemer, beyond what could be expected from that age, that those present affirmed that they had heard the voice not of a boy but of the Holy Spirit. Being more than ten years old, he lost his mother by death in the year one thousand five hundred and twenty after the birth of Christ. He asked God for the health of the sick woman, if it so pleased Him, shed tears, besought Him. In addition he withdrew into his room without witnesses and raged against himself with scourges; whether of his own accord, or taught by pious men, I cannot say: only this; that already then he had splendidly laid the foundations and made the beginning of a more austere life. He mourned his mother's death as far as that age allowed, and bore it with constancy. The counsels and precepts of life of the pious matron he retained to his very last breath and religiously observed.

CHAP. II.

[4] scarcely snatched from the hands of the seditious. At that time there was tumult in Spain from civil sedition, king Charles ⁿ being absent, who was then in Germany, having been proclaimed emperor. For the common people, seceding, had taken up arms against the nobles. Crying out, they called for liberty, and summoned even the slaves to the cap of freedom. They complained that they were oppressed by the richer and more powerful, that they hardly endured life, that they suffered a heavy slavery. In time, as happens, the sedition, having arisen from small beginnings, had at last come to this, that, camps being pitched, they joined standards, nor did the inflamed mob refrain from the slaughter of nobles. The Borgia family was not without a share in that calamity (for they raged against all the families of the greater houses). For already, on the open plains between Palma ^o and Gandía, the conspirators, having dared to engage with the viceroy [p] and indeed the whole nobility [q], had come off superior; the nobles, routed and put to flight, had turned their backs. Gandía fell to plunder, and was sacked forthwith, so that duke John could scarcely get out his mother, his sister and his daughters [r], virgins consecrated to God at St. Clare's. Francis, his son, found safety in flight, giving his horse its head, and was carried to Denia, which is a port at the fourth milestone from there. Thence with his parent and the viceroy he came by ship to a castle set upon a rock, which rock is called by the inhabitants from its shape Peñíscola. Hence his parent brought him to Saragossa: he himself, matters having been quieted, the rebels having been slaughtered to extermination and put to flight by the lord of Segorbe [s], at last returned home.

[5] he moves to Saragossa; Francis stayed in the household of his maternal uncle John of Aragon, archbishop of Saragossa. He took care that he should be instructed by the best teachers in the arts which it is fitting that a freeborn young man should know, grammar, music and the equestrian discipline. In these, however, Francis judged that the pursuit of piety should by no means be neglected. He had then heard, during the fasts of springtime, when sermons on divine things are customarily held for the people, an eloquent man of the family of St. Jerome perorating vehemently and with strong lungs on the last judgement of the universe, and again on the torments of Christ in His passion; the Word of God, sharper than a two-edged sword, indeed pricked the Youth's soul: on the one side the fear of that severe tribunal, where we must all be set; on the other compassion for the sufferings undergone on the cross for the sake of redeeming him. Led by these things, he began to loathe present things, and even then to turn over in his mind a plan of a more perfect life, to be spent in some family of pious men: but because he was under age, and the matter was not in the power of one who was not yet his own master, he gained at least this advantage, that he managed all his affairs more prudently, as far as his age allowed, so that they should not drive his mind astray.

[6] [then to Baeza: and then at Tordesillas he is enrolled among the pages of Catherine, princess of Spain:] From Saragossa he set out for Baeza (as the inhabitants call a town situated in the kingdom of Granada) for the sake of courtesy, invited by a most choice lady, Mary Luna, his great-grandmother, wife of Henry Henriquez, who, paternal uncle [t] of Ferdinand the Catholic king and prefect of the praetorium, was also grand master of the military order of León. Hither also his grandmother Mary Henriquez, her daughter, with his aunt and his sisters [u], had arrived, having slipped away in flight on foot during that civil secession. Though delighted by the sight of them, Francis afterwards nevertheless fell ill, perhaps from the hardships of the journeys. For six whole months he lay fixed to his little bed: soon, when he was somewhat better, behold, an earthquake, dangerous and also long-lasting. So he spent forty days in the open air, using a litter with hides: this furnished him roof and bed, for avoiding the danger. Now sound and well, he was sent by his parent to Tordesillas (some, without authority, call that town Turris Syllana) to Catherine, princess of Spain, daughter of queen Joanna, to whom the Youth rendered service according to custom, before she was given in marriage to John III, king of Portugal.

[7] Afterwards he returns to Saragossa, whence he had come, to his maternal uncle: then, thoroughly instructed in letters and piety, who, a wise man among uncles, so that the Youth should not languish in idleness (which is the seed-bed of all vices), bids him apply his mind, according to custom, to philosophy, and handed him over first to be imbued with the method of disputation to Gaspar Lax, then a subtle philosopher, but, as those times were, by no means eloquent, because, more by the fault of the age than of the men, the humane studies lay neglected there, by which the other arts shine forth as though placed in a good light. Borgia, moreover, pursued the faculty of dialectic, partly by disputing, partly by working through the dictated lectures, just as if he had resolved to receive the laurel after the manner of the universities.

He had perceived that the roots of the sciences are bitter, but that they bring forth from themselves the sweetest fruits: but of his soul, which is the chief thing, and of piety he took the greatest care, lest through assiduous study of letters it should run wild through excessive neglect of itself. And so he repeatedly stirred up the sparks implanted in his soul by assiduous use of the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist: if the tinder of nature and the demon waged any intestine war against the spirit, he fled to prayer and confession as to an anchor. By these things it came about that he escaped the domestic flatteries of courtiers and parasites, full of adulation, and lust, after the example of chaste Joseph; and finally, in the manner of Ulysses, his ears stopped with wax, passing by the voices of the Sirens, he did not cling to the rocks. Moreover, by gladly reading at home sacred little books on ascetic matters (which feed the soul rather than the eyes), he had persuaded himself with steadfast mind that virtue was to be embraced and vices to be fled, often using that saying of the royal prophet: "I have sworn and am determined to keep the judgements of thy justice [x]." By these things above all he brought to sacred wedlock a chaste and untouched body, which St. Jerome also wonderfully praised in Nebridius, a Roman knight [y].

CAP. III.

[8] He was in the nineteenth year of his age [z] when he returned home from Saragossa for the sake of visiting his parent: and having followed the court of Charles V, having been kindly entertained there for some months, he then began to ask leave to go; that it might be permitted, with the consent of him to whom he had always been obedient, to move to the court of the emperor, that he might give himself into the clientship of so great a prince, to whom he foresaw that the Christian world would deservedly owe much. His parent approved the prudent counsel of his son. "I love you," he said, "for this resolve, my Son, and I wish as you wish: I will not unwillingly be without my only son, so long as it is for the advantage of the excellent Prince: go on then, and proceed whither your virtue and the examples of your ancestors call you." He furnishes him with a household as he sets out thence, attended by which honourably he came among the Vaccaei. Here Pintia, which today is Valladolid, then the seat of the emperor, abounded in the noblest men of all nations. Francis, being handsome in this flower of his age and of a form worthy of empire, easily turned the eyes of all upon himself. Here, then, God helping well, he so conducted himself that shortly afterwards he refuted the false opinion of those who said that a courtier could scarcely be at the same time a follower of Christ and of princes. For as Francis strove earnestly, out of duty, to please Charles, so he had regard to Christ, the beholder and judge of all things: so that he said, did, or thought nothing unworthy of a knight and a Christian, which is the highest praise.

[9] to the emperor indeed, And so he forbade his household, partly by word, partly by example, idle sloth, gambling, lust, obscene talk and the depraved habit of swearing: evils which, such as they are, he called the plagues of a young man's palace. Those who professed pandering, a thoroughly impure vice, he ordered to take their things and go. "Let parasites, Gnathos, Thrasos and friends of the pot," he said, "bring pleasure to others by flattering: to me, to say what I feel, they are not pleasing. Grave and innocent men please me, who dare to speak the truth freely." He said that servants do not so much bring honour to their masters by attending them as, on the contrary, borrow distinction from the good repute of their masters: he could not bear that the reputation of others should be detracted from in his presence, but, being accustomed either to reprove modestly when occasion offered, or at least to break off the conversation, he tacitly admonished them of their duty. By these good arts he was an example to his people at home and held up a torch by honourable conversation. So far was he from envying courtiers who obtained their wish in seeking and received rewards from the prince, that he even heard it with willing ears and praised the deed; he even congratulated them, with good hope that honour would likewise one day be paid to himself when his course had been run. I indeed remember that one who was of his inner chamber said that he had seen that, whenever he had to visit noble ladies for the sake of courtesy, he was accustomed to put on a shaggy hair-shirt rough with bristles: so that, fortified with this as with a shield, he might quench the fiery darts of the demon and the allurements of the flesh. For death is wont to penetrate to the soul through the windows of the eyes, and to wound often with a lethal dart. Thus he brought his ship safe between Scylla and Charybdis. Nay more, even after he had taken a wife, who was older than he, although the doors of the palace were always open to him, they say that nothing was ever said or done by Francis that was intemperate or light.

[10] but he strives above all to please God, He was further wonderfully delighted with equestrian exercises, having drawn that discipline from the philosopher Xenophon. He gladly took part in the Trojan games, tilted with lances, threw javelins, struck the enemy in feigned flight after the manner of the Parthians, wounded with backward hand, provoked bulls in the arena, wheeled his horse in a circle, contended in the race with his equals, yielded the prizes to no one, and in short did dexterously all things worthy of himself [aa]. That virtue, which cannot long lie hidden, did not escape Charles, but, as though set in a conspicuous place, it met the eyes and gave rise to talk everywhere. There was in the suite of the empress, who had long since proved her faithful service, Eleanor de Castro, a virgin born of noble rank among the Portuguese [bb], daughter of Alvarus de Castro and Isabella de Menezes Barreto, adorned with candid manners and eminent piety toward God. While a match was being sought for her, Francis alone pleased the imperial couple on account of his almost singular uprightness of character, and Peter Gonzalez de Mendoza, the empress's steward, was sent at once to Gandía, to ask of duke John in the emperor's name that he would will and order that the wife sought for his Son and the marriage be ratified. Nor did the duke refuse: he thanks the emperor by letter for having taken account of his Son. Nor did Francis decline the marriage, thinking, as was the fact, that he must comply with the emperor, to whom he owed all the ornaments of his life, and likewise with his parent, to whom he owed his life.

CAP. IV.

[11] Eleanor having now been given in marriage into the Borgia family, and joined in marriage with Eleanor de Castro, the emperor adorned Francis with the title of Marquis of Lombay, and set him over the royal stable of horses, which is almost the highest dignity. The manners of both spouses were in harmony, and they vied in a certain pious contention in every way of deserving well of others: they sought the friendship and goodwill of the imperial couple not so much for their own sake as for that of the needy. By which things it came about that God, the Parent and Maker of all things, for the sake of the poor in turn advanced them further: hence constant health, wealth, clients, honours, magistracies flowed to them, and, what we believe happened by the kindness of God, an abundance of children, and those excellent ones. "For the wife of him that feareth God," says the royal Psalmist, "is as a fruitful vine on the sides of his house: his children as olive plants round about his table [cc]." Eight children were born of her; five males, three females: the eldest was Charles Borgia, who succeeded his Parent in the titles of honour. The empress, consort of Charles, who was then in Italy, gave him the name of Charles Caesar, together with Philip, prince of the Spanish youth, in the year of Christ 1530. A man of the greatest prudence and keenest judgement, the one man chosen out of the whole flower of the nobility, he was sent by Philip II, the Catholic king, to pacify the sedition of the Ligurians in the year 1575. After Portugal came into the king's power, the same man, as commander of the army, ruled the province with the greatest authority.

[12] At the turn of the year Isabella followed his birth, he is increased with numerous offspring. countess of Lerma, mother of the marquis of Denia and of the ladies the countesses of Lemos and Altamira, and also of John Sandoval. The third, John Borgia, was born at Bellpuig, a village of Catalonia, when both parents had followed the emperor while he was holding the assemblies of the kingdom of Aragon. He likewise was sent as ambassador by king Philip into Portugal, afterwards to the emperor Maximilian in Germany, and now is High Steward at the court of the empress Mary, Philip's sister. The fourth, Alvarus, he too ambassador at Rome to the Pontiff on difficult matters in the name of the Catholic king, afterwards marquis of Alcañices by his wife's dowry. The fifth child, Joanna of Aragon, was given in marriage at a mature age to the marquis of Alcañices: her daughter, by the Pontiff's indulgence, came into the hand of Alvarus, whom I have named, her maternal uncle. The sixth, Ferdinand Borgia, he too steward of the court of the empress Mary. Then the daughter Dorothea, who departed this life while still in tender age, in which, a virgin, she had devoted herself to God at St. Clare's. The last of the children, Alphonsus Borgia, he too, after the example of his brothers, presided, while he lived, over the court of the Empress [dd].

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Diego de Mendoza.

q. In the year 1521, on the 25th day of July.

r. Rather, his daughter, named Louisa, the full sister of St. Francis. See the Preliminary Commentary, numbers 24 and 29.

s. These things Schottus added of his own to the statements of Ribadeneira, and, as it appears, not accurately enough. See the Preliminary Commentary, number 26.

t. Rather, maternal uncle. See number 28 of the Preliminary Commentary.

u. Read: and his sister, namely Louisa. See the number just cited and the following; also what was said at letter r.

x. Psalm 118, verse 106.

y. Epistle 9 to Salvina. An addition of Schottus.

z. Rather the seventeenth year, from number 32 of the Preliminary Commentary.

aa. These things have been somewhat amplified by Schottus.

bb. Concerning Eleanor's family consult the Preliminary Commentary, number 35.

cc. Psalm 127, verses 3 and 4.

dd. You have a little more about Borgia's children at number 37 and the three following of the Preliminary Commentary.

CHAPTER II.

Exercises of mind and body; he accompanies the emperor to the French war; he loses his grandmother. From the funeral of the empress Isabella he conceives the purpose of a holier life; he administers Catalonia as viceroy; he consults Ignatius about the frequent use of the Sacraments.

CAP. V.

He manages his household cautiously, Although he had managed his domestic affairs prudently before, so that he seemed to excel any father of a family at the court; now, however, he began to look after his household affairs more cautiously. The accounts and the reckoning of money were entrusted to his wife Eleanor: he himself took care of public business; he omitted nothing of what the emperor gave him in charge. He chose an excellent household, of thrifty, not worthless, servants. He forbade dice and games of that kind far more severely than before: repeatedly saying that it was a false pleasure of the eyes. Being asked also what was the reason why he dreaded that passion for playing at dice which courtiers so eagerly embrace, "It is the part of a madman," he said, "to drive a well-built ship, full of merchandise, deliberately onto the rocks with sails and oars." The prudent Man rightly called the dice a rock, on which, a small cube indeed but great in force, very many who were in splendid estate and prosperous had wrecked their ship. That it was wont to bring besides the loss of four things of any price you like; that loss was made of time, of money and of piety; and finally that the scruple of a good conscience was easily lost by perjury, the companion of games.

[14] And so he relaxed his mind with better exercises for preserving health, music, fowling, such as the harmony of music, in which he so excelled that he could not only sing sweetly and melodiously, but himself composed measures according to art and devised chants, which are sung to this day in the churches of Spain in the divine service and sacred rites under the title of the Duke of Gandía. For exercising the body he employed fowling, using chiefly the falcon and the hawk. They relate that he was the more eagerly delighted with this form of hunting because it was then the more pleasing to the emperor Charles, whom he followed with singular devotion. But Francis's diligence did not stop here: he turned over loftier things in his mind, and bore richer fruits from the sight of the fields and from hunting: for as we have received that that divine Francis ^a, when he set out on foot on the road, having looked at the little flowers in the countryside, was accustomed to praise God, the maker of all things: so our Francis assiduously praised God the architect from created things, from fields, birds and dogs: which pious meditations, not devised by me, but received from his mouth, it will be worth the trouble to report.

[15] "Great," he said, "are the benefits of God that stand out in me in both directions, even as I wander over fields and woods, pursue wild beasts, and take prey from the birds. Whence it comes about that sometimes I am accustomed to meditate admiringly on the wisdom of Him who has taught wild beasts and birds, feeding his mind meanwhile on pious meditations fitted for rapine, to obey the human race: birds which, when loosed from their bonds, fly up into the sky so far as even to escape the keenness of the eyes. That He has bestowed so much honour on man too, that at his command birds, forgetful both of their bonds and of their former liberty, obey whistles and feigned cries, return when called, mindful of the hand that is wont to supply their food: and, although they are of a wild and rustic nature, yet by use and training they grow tame. These same birds, sent out to the capture, like soldiers sent to reconnoitre and rout the forces of the enemy, strike, lay low and dash to the ground the other birds, even larger ones, with talons and beaks. Soon, the victory gained, they leave the prey to their master, and patiently wait for the smallest part. Likewise, when I watched them fighting in the air, that thought entered my mind, that such seems the fight of the demon when he attacks the souls of the pious from ambush; while, as a roaring lion, he goes about seeking whom he may devour: and, if anyone proves a little more steadfast, he strives to overturn the citadel of reason by mines.

[16] feeding. But more frequently that meditation is wont to strike me with shame, that that carnivorous wild creature, for the sake of a little food, puts off its wild nature, is rendered tame and gentle, flies at once when called by the voice of man; that it allows besides its eyes to be veiled, than which nothing in life is dearer to it: while man, on the contrary, a sharer in reason and speech and made for civil society, lacking wings and winged sandals by which he could escape the divine vengeance, adorned with so many and such great benefits, lives so ungratefully that he will not obey God when He calls. And in hunting with dogs I used to marvel at this, that the animal, though hungry and driven by a kind of rage against the wild beast, nevertheless obeys the commands of men and leaves the prey: whereas man, the image of God, if he has bound himself by any crime, is torn from it with difficulty, lives with deaf ears, and does not obey God when He calls." By these meditations Francis, even when ranging over the fields, reaped the most abundant fruits: while he fed not only his eyes and body, as the tribe of hunters do, but also his soul with the remembrance of heavenly things. Moreover, he was more often accustomed to snatch from the talons and let go the prey which he had sought through a long space of the day, so that he might even then accustom himself to conquer himself and the feeling of his mind.

[17] and he practises mathematics: He also gave attention to the mathematical disciplines, especially those which he had heard were required in an excellent commander in war, for hurling engines and masses, fortifying walls, choosing a site for a camp, investigating the situation and nature of sky and soil. He had learned that by these arts great commanders had often won victory in warfare, and had also freed their soldiers from fear. A spur was added also by the example of the emperor, with whom he was on familiar terms, why he should wish to make greater progress daily, under whose cosmographer, surnamed Santa Cruz, he also studied, though at different hours. And so Charles gladly consulted Francis and asked for his dictated notes, by which one thing no small addition was made to their former intimacy: and so he had all things, jests and serious matters, in common with him. But not even by those pursuits of the mind, music and mathematics, or by the exercises of the body, hunting and fowling, was he sufficiently furnished to preserve a constant bodily condition, but, as for the most part happens in this weakness of life, he was also tried at times by diseases.

[18] For, weakened by a most burning fever, he learned that there is nothing in human affairs that is one's own, he soothes the pains of fever with pious readings, nothing perpetual. And when on alternate and stepmotherly days his marrow was being cooked with fire, that pious meditation pricked his mind, what flames those suffered who were paying eternal penalties among the dead for their crimes, and who were being expiated by purifying fire with hope of future beatitude. For these, therefore, from that time he began both to pray daily himself and to have Mass offered. This advantage also came from the disease, that he even then sent away profane books, and assiduously handled sacred ones, especially the New Testament and the Lives of the Saints, with the greatest pleasure and profit: but impure writers, as seed-beds of vices and lusts, he would not suffer even to be named. While he was carried in a litter into the fields for the sake of his health, he used to read the Epistles of St. Paul, a sacred interpreter being also employed, no otherwise than the eunuch of Candace, queen of Ethiopia, read the prophecies of Isaiah: but his endeavour was not to read many things, but to read much. If anything praiseworthy occurred, he would pause, desiring to weigh it and to carry it out. Hence he used to say that the reading of pious books is rightly the first step of a better life.

[19] Scarcely yet recovered, when an expedition had been undertaken into that part of Gaul which was called by the Romans the Province, he accompanies the emperor in the French war; he followed the emperor bearing arms ^b, having taken as companions Ruy Gómez de Silva, afterwards prince of Éboli, and likewise George Melo, whom he held uniquely dear and loved as few, as relatives of his wife. The war being now wearing on, he was sent by the emperor to set forth to his wife the empress the whole outcome of the war, and to bid her be of easy mind about his health. In the following year, 1537, while the assemblies of the Estates were being held at Segovia among the Carpetani ^c, he likewise lay ill with a disease of quinsy, so that his throat was almost blocked with blood; but though he seemed to have lost the use of his tongue, he nevertheless kept his mind fixed on God, with a mind more ready to meet death than ever before. For already then, his sins expiated, he fed every month on that heavenly Bread. Besides those troubles of diseases, sad news brought from Gandía of the death of his grandmother Mary Gabriela added spurs to piety, a most choice lady who, having first led a life of piety and innocence, afterwards hid herself in the convent of St. Clare; of whose life and character, since the place seems to lay hold of my hand, I shall touch on a few things out of many.

CAP. VI.

[20] Among other proofs of his happiness he counted that a most pious grandmother had fallen to his lot, Mary Henriquez, Mary Henriquez, cousin on the father's side of the Catholic king Ferdinand ^d, whom John Borgia, second duke of Gandía, had as consort of his bed: but, he having been carried off by an untimely death, she was left a widow in the eighteenth year of her age, having borne two children, John, and Isabella, who while still of tender age bound herself to God by vows at St. Clare's; and John, the eldest, took in marriage Joanna of Aragon, of whom, Francis having now been born as the first offspring, Mary moved to St. Clare's, after the example of her daughter Isabella. Nor was it permitted her, as she had most desired, to carry it out sooner, because, as befits a pious matron, the children, bereaved of their parent, had first to be rightly brought up, and offspring propagated from them: having now obtained this wish, amid so many and so great miseries of life, she held nothing more precious than the solitude of the convent; John, the third duke, tried in vain with tears to deprecate and dissuade from that heroic deed: fearing lest anything should befall by human chance Francis, the only heir of the family and name, newly born. But she said: "I indeed free you from this fear, my son. For Francis, who has been born to you, will turn out such and so great that he alone will be the equal of many children. In the name of this divine benefit, therefore, it is necessary that we both give thanks to God daily, unless we wish to be ungrateful. I indeed can affirm of myself that as often as I am in the company of virgins singing praises to God, so often I seem to be present among the choirs of Angels. Why you should grudge me this true pleasure, my son, I do not see." John obeyed these words, though unwillingly.

[21] his grandmother, She had reached, then, the thirty-third year of her age when Mary, having abdicated the titles of the court, consecrated herself to the Greatest of kings, though with such weakness of body that the physicians denied that she could survive even a year among the veiled virgins, in the abstinence of so austere a life: and yet, God commanding, she lived thirty-three whole years in the convent in the highest religion and discipline, and was an example to all the others, no account being taken of dignity and birth: for she had now taken, as sacred virgins are wont, the name of Mary Gabriela. Her daughter, when she happened to preside over the virgins with the title of abbess, as they commonly call it, gave her mother a new tunic in place of her worn-out one, and ordered her to leave the old one to her for her own clothing. Here there was a dutiful contest on both sides over the worn garment, while neither yielded it to the other. At length the mother yielded to her daughter, as then the greater in dignity, this being added,

by way of augury: "Have for yourself, daughter, my garment, worn as it is, which you have so eagerly desired: may God, the parent of the universe, who regards us and ours, grant that you cast it off only when you shall establish in the kingdom of the Carpetani (as afterwards came to pass) a family of our virgins under the title of St. Clare."

[22] of a very holy life This also is to be recorded, that Ignatia Corella, a noble virgin, daughter of the count of Cocentaina, earnestly besought Mary, who was most dear to her, when near death (because she thought life would be bitter to her without her), that when dead she would obtain from God that she might follow her into heaven immediately by death: Mary undertook that she would do it. Not long afterwards her apparition was seen, and announced that she had now obtained her wish. So not long after Ignatia, happily departing this life, followed her. Nor will this produce less admiration in the reader; that on the day before the day on which she departed this life she foretold her death: "Tomorrow" (she said, turning to Mary of Jesus, sister of the count of Denia) "by the kindness of God I shall fly hence, as from an inn, into heaven, as I hope and desire. Meanwhile I shall be thoroughly burned by a most burning fever, so that the errors of my past life may be expiated: for nothing unclean shall enter those seats: but in these burnings render me, as I die, that last service, that with your leave (for she was endowed with vicarial authority) cold water may be offered to me when I thirst; for I will not ask for it except in the greatest necessity." She had scarcely made an end of speaking when a fever seizes her marrow so violent that she seemed to burn with flames. For duke John, having kissed her hand, asking his mother's blessing, and saying the last farewell according to custom, affirmed that he had handled coals of fire, not the hand of a human being.

[23] Blessing her daughter Frances, who was presiding with authority, he loses the matron. she gave her the charge that as soon as she had breathed her last breath she should order the hymn Te Deum laudamus to be sung by the virgins with thanksgiving, because by the kindness of God she had at last departed, as though freed from bonds. This too was a proof of a holier life: the sacred virgins declared that when the body had now been laid out, before it was carried forth, the voices of Angels were heard. And when the duke, surrounded by the ecclesiastical orders, was present to pay the last rites to his mother and attend to the funeral, the priests about to perform the sacred rites commanded silence, because the harmony of singing was heard in the nuns' choir. But it was found that no mortal had sung then; and it was believed that the voice was heard from heaven, as Pope Gregory records often happened at the funerals of blessed persons ^f. This was the end of a most religious matron: at whose loss Francis grieved vehemently, because he had lost the mistress of his life, who helped him by deed and counsel: yet he felt himself even then fostered by her patronage, because she was in possession of God, and he believed that by her prayers too he had afterwards been carried into the Society of Jesus, as into a harbour.

CAP. VII.

[24] Those things were done in the thirty-seventh year above the one thousand five hundredth after the birth of Christ ^g: Having seen the empress Isabella's these following, no less wonderful than those, happened two years later. The emperor Charles was holding an assembly of all the orders at Toledo, which, the capital of the Carpetani and the seat of the kings in Gothic times, was as it were the navel of Spain, with great preparation of festal games and with the applause of nobles and common people. But, as for the most part is wont to happen, mourning stained the joys. For the empress Isabella, Charles's consort, departed this life, leaving to the emperor a great longing for her. For she was a woman dear to all on account of her singular cultivation of piety and her liberality toward the needy, and, as one born under that sky, not a foreign one, since she knew the Spanish temperaments, she governed them excellently. It was decreed by the emperor's authority that the marquis of Lombay should conduct the funeral toward Illiberis, which city is today the capital of the kingdom of Granada, and in it a church famous for the tombs of the Catholic sovereigns, the grandparents of Isabella ^h; which sovereigns, within the memory of our forefathers, snatched that city from the Moors and claimed it for the kingdom of Christ.

[25] The corpse was carried forth with remarkable pomp, Francis attending with all his household and his wife: by the foulness of the corpse, here nothing was omitted that pertained to the guarding and the decorum and expense of the funeral. The body, laid out, is handed over to the people of Illiberis, to be brought into the royal chapel among the monuments of her forebears, and they record in the public Acts, by the attestation and hand of a notary, that this is the corpse of the empress, at what time, and by whose agency it was received and laid away. But when the face was uncovered so that it might be recognized, lest perchance any fraud had been committed, it appeared so deformed that it struck terror into the onlookers; and by its heavy odour it also drove away the companions of the journey: so that no one was found who dared to testify that it was the empress herself. For in dying, such was the modesty of the lady, she had commanded that no one should touch her or embalm her with spices. Francis alone remained, and although he did not dare to confirm by oath that this was the same princess most famous in the whole world, because she appeared so unlike herself: yet affirming this holily and in express words, he orders it to be entered in the acts that she appeared to be the empress herself; because he had knowingly and wittingly omitted nothing of what pertained to faithful guarding on the journey to Illiberis. Here he, silent with himself and sorrowful, comparing the present with the past, began to think: "Are these those eyes which had turned the eyes of all upon themselves? Is this that beauty which had extinguished the forms of other women? Are you Isabella? Are you the empress? My eyes deceive me: my mind wanders: but they do not deceive; this, no doubt, is the vicissitude of human things. Go now, admire that fragile good of beauty."

[26] of a holier life, This indeed is true and certain, that by this one and brief sight of the corpse Francis himself too was so changed, and rendered so unlike himself, that you would deny he was the same. For already then, illumined by divine light, he was meditating things far different, and once for all seriously brought his mind to this: that these false and fleeting goods, beauty, riches, clienteles, honours, are to be accounted as nothing; that those true and eternal ones are to be pursued, heavenly things set before earthly, divine before human. That the course of life is circumscribed by brief spaces and narrow bounds. That a single soul is infused from heaven into each, which, having undergone death and being free from the bonds of the body, will either pay the eternal penalties of its offences or obtain the everlasting rewards of virtue. So, thinking that nothing should be put off, he turned over in his mind all better things, to be done as soon as he had the power, and religiously promised them to God. "For what," he said, "have I in heaven, and besides thee what have I desired upon earth ⁱ? What profit is there in my blood, whilst I go down to corruption ^k?" The corpse having now been duly laid in the sacred building, Francis betook himself to his house, and at once hid himself in his room without witnesses, having shot the bolt of the door; and, prostrate on the ground, mingling groans with tears, he broke out into words roughly of this kind: imitating, I believe, Augustine ^l, when he too, like a stag, had been freshly struck by the heavenly wound. "O wretched course of life! O deceitful hopes of men and our empty thoughts! How long shall we love vanity and seek after lying ^m? How long, neglecting the true, shall we pursue shadows? Kingdoms, empires, nobility, honours are dissolved by death; the dignity of beauty is lost by disease and death; in short, all things quickly fall back from joy and pleasure to mourning and tears. Behold how that most beautiful of empresses lies deformed in her funeral! Awake then, my soul, awake as from a torpor: enough has been given to a mortal prince. Thee, Thee, Immortal, will I follow. Enlighten my eyes, O God, and show me the way, so that the space of life that remains, very short indeed; but, however much it is, may be spent rightly and piously." So, roughly, Francis, shedding tears abundantly, repeating again and again this: "Enough has been given to a mortal prince; henceforth, if I am wise, the immortal one must be served. I shall therefore make over the rest of my life to the heavenly court."

[27] other spurs being added besides, The night that followed he spent sleepless in these anxious thoughts. On the day after that day, the divine service having been performed, the funeral rites were performed and the due offices duly paid. Soon John Ávila, a distinguished preacher, and, as his writings testify, of excellent knowledge of the sacred scriptures and piety, briefly touched on the praises of the empress in a sermon: but vehemently and more at length he proclaimed the condition of mortal life, the empty hopes of men, and their innumerable miseries and calamities. Nor did the Word of God merely prick the soul of Francis, who had already been struck from heaven; but, the sword of the spirit, it drove deeper. Having therefore taken a little food at midday, he had that priest summoned to him: he opens his wound; he uncovers the mind of his soul; he asks him to set forth boldly what he thinks will be to the purpose. He bids him flee above all three vices of courtiers, ambition, envy, and lust, as plagues of souls and deadly poisons.

[28] This other spur was added. At that time a letter was delivered of his aunt Frances of Jesus, he conceives the purpose who presided over the veiled virgins at St. Clare's at Gandía. She relates that it had seemed to her in prayer that Francis, while he was on the journey to Illiberis, was stretching out his hands to God as a suppliant: then, raised by the divine hand, was borne up to all the best things. That the soul of the empress also had been seen by the sacred virgins carried up by angels from the purging flames into heaven. To such visions, although credit is to be given only with the greatest judgement and discrimination, because many little women, deceived by simplicity, have drawn even grave men into error: yet no one can deny that true visions and likenesses have often appeared to most holy persons. Francis certainly derived great profit from this letter, as from the funeral of the empress and likewise the sermon of John Ávila. So true is that counsel of the wisest of men, "that it is better to frequent the house of mourning than that of feasting ⁿ." Wherefore, more confirmed day by day in the pursuit of a more austere life, he resolved to withdraw from the court to his home and live privately with his wife and children. More than this; if anything that he would not wish should befall his wife, and he himself should survive, he would give himself to some family of religious men: then at last he thought it would go splendidly with him, and he called this the happiness of life. Which vow indeed he duly promised to God, and at length, the use of a longer life being granted, he performed it in deed.

CAP. VIII.

[29] Having returned home from Illiberis, he wished to render to Charles an account of what had been done and of the funeral attended to. Viceroy of Catalonia He, having praised his discharge of duty, dismissed him honourably. Not long after, having summoned him, he sends him with the authority of viceroy or praetor into the province of Gothalania, so called from the Goths and Alans, who fixed their seat there when Spain had been occupied; as also from the Vandals Baetica is today called Andalusia, as it were Vandalia, and from the Lombards the region of the Insubres is called Lombardy. These nations from the North, barbarous in savagery and innumerable in multitude, poured into Italy and Spain, held dominion by force for two hundred years and more. The inhabitants call it Catalonia. There are those who derive Catalonia from the Catalaunian plains of Gaul. Others suppose them to be the Caletani of Ptolemy ^o. But let us attend to our business. The marquis at first began to shuffle, and affirmed that the office was indeed full of honour, but of immense burden. The emperor on the contrary urged that his talent was needed for this matter. For he wished to use the vicarial power of good princes, not of those who sought gain from command and dignity. At length the authority of Charles, who could command by his own right, prevailed.

[30] So, venerating God, he prays that, since

He knew that the fasces and titles had not been sought by his endeavour, appointed by Charles V nor the province canvassed for by him, the same God who alone both could and would might supply strength equal to the business. Now with the authority of viceroy he set out on the road toward Barcelona: but first going by Valencia and Gandía, to greet his excellent parent on the way. As he departed the Emperor bade him wear the red cross of St. James, patron of Spain, set upon the breast in the shape of a sword, adding also rich annual revenues from estates and taxes. This is the first among the military orders of Spain [p], into which only the most noble, their birth first having been approved, and those who have deserved best of the commonwealth, are enrolled. Many immunities have been given to these by the kings in the provinces, and especially in the one he was entering. Received at Barcelona with the public joy of the citizens and with festal games, he held nothing more important than to discharge his office happily: having implored before all things the help of God, the author of justice, from whom all beginnings of affairs to be conducted must be drawn. His first care was to render the royal road safe from robberies, so that goods might conveniently be both imported to and exported from that most opulent city. All that coast, neighbouring on France, was then notorious for robberies, whether from the nature of the place, encumbered with woods and mountains, or from the fault of the people, is uncertain.

[31] the office laid upon him Here Francis had heard that certain nobles were harbourers of robbers and maintained factions. Against these first punishment was inflicted after the manner of our ancestors. There was a rumour that almost fifty assassins, formed in a column, having laid waste the fields and plundered the villages, had carried off peasants almost before the eyes of the people of Barcelona. And so, having gathered forces and led out his bodyguards, Francis strives to pursue them in war: they turn their backs and betake themselves to a castle. For men of that kind are timid, whether unskilled in handling arms or goaded by conscience. The marquis orders those shut within the walls to lay down their arms and do as commanded: if they did not obey, he would bring up the brazen engines. Thus at last compelled to surrender, they paid the penalty. Some he ordered to be raised on the gallows: their bodies cut up, and the limbs set in the public roads, so that they might give examples to the rest: others he assigned to the royal galleys to row. That severity brought fear to the other guilty men. The curious also observed him saying that he had taken greater pleasure from this hunting of assassins, who, besetting the roads, fell upon travellers, than when as a young man he pursued wild beasts. For he compared the commonwealth to a body, in which rotten members are wont to be cut off and burned with the cautery so that the rest may remain sound: the wicked are condemned to death by good judges so that the good may be safe among the wicked.

[32] he discharges holily: And so he hated vices, not men, but pitying their lot he lamented them: and when they were being hurried to execution, he ordered thirty Masses to be offered for each at his own expense. He also took account of the judges: both that they should administer law according to equity and right, and that they should not render lawsuits immortal by adjourning them, and by collusion make the suit their own; to the great detriment of the litigants, whose means are exhausted. Controversies he often brought to concord by consent of the parties, so that lawsuits should not be sown from lawsuits. He ordered the richer to pay at once their debts to the needy. The poor also, having paid out of his own money the debts they had contracted, he set free by liberal act, so that they might not serve as bondmen to their creditors by the praetor's edict. To those who opened schools of letters, by which the earliest age is formed in the best letters and morals, he publicly assigned a house and a salary. For he proclaimed that boys are the seed-beds of commonwealths, from whom, rightly instructed, the best citizens would come forth.

[33] he holily discharges: He likewise diligently inspected the garrisons, as the sinews of the commonwealth. He held a levy of soldiers, discharged the cowardly and those infrequent at the standards: if any forces, as they are wont, passed through that way into Italy, he ordered them to abstain from injury to the peasants. Whoever did otherwise, the military tribune was compelled to pay the damage. Barcelona, where it is washed by the sea, being without walls, he girded with a wall drawn continuously: and he threw out a mole, to which, because he laid the first stone in its foundations, the name of Francis attached itself. At that time there was suffering from dearth of provisions, so that there was danger lest the commonwealth be exhausted by famine. The marquis, sending letters in every direction by land and sea, had grain imported and distributed man by man. Whence it came about that he was said to be born for the good of the commonwealth and was called Father of his country by the citizens. He gave a great sum of money for the relief of the poor. He secretly supported those whom he had learned to have fallen from rich goods of fortune, because he was not unaware that to these want is a burden heavier than Etna. He helped the pious families of monks and virgins with alms. Finally, he diligently took care, as they relate of the emperor Titus Vespasian, not to dismiss from himself sad anyone needing protection.

CAP. IX.

[34] Nor did the Marquis think that only the business of the emperor was to be attended to and the commonwealth managed; nor meanwhile his own he himself took greater account of his own salvation: thinking, as is the fact, that mortals soon perish: that very many are taken away in the middle of their course, deceived by empty hope: that we carry nothing hence, that virtue alone is our companion. That the soul, therefore, to which it properly belongs, is above all to be cultivated, because it survives the funeral. He recalled to mind from time to time the plan he had undertaken of a better life, lest, as happens, it should languish through forgetfulness or sloth. He was also wont to say this: that the death of the empress had brought him life. That resolve therefore remained fixed, that the pomps of the world were at some time to be renounced, although that matter would give occasion of talk to very many, and that whatever in the end might be the judgement of others about him, he should by no means be troubled. These foundations of solid virtue, which consist in contempt of the talk and glory of the crowd, being as it were laid deep, he thought that some spare hours should be given daily to prayer and the meditation of heavenly things. This he called the one anchor of conducting affairs prudently and happily, the base of the best counsels. He likewise judged that the use of the Sacraments should be frequented, of Penance and the Eucharist, which put together the ship for those gathering the planks of shipwreck, and restore it by expiating the errors of the past life.

[35] Since, then, by reason of the duty of the title of the Cross committed to him, he was bound daily at fixed hours to recite Lord's Prayers and Angelic Salutations; in virtue to the seven canonical hours he joined as many salutary meditations on the passion of Christ: in which he accompanied Him out of duty from the mount of Olives as far as Calvary, and thence, when He had commended His spirit to the Father, to the sepulchre. And as he had learned that the wisest of mortals judged that "the just man falls seven times a day [q]": so he had learned that his parent, the royal prophet, was accustomed amid the occupations of his kingdom to say praise seven times a day. He duly counted out prayers to the B. Virgin daily, turning over the mysteries in his mind, from which he said a threefold profit was gained. First, that immortal thanks are given to God for so many and such great gifts: then, that we are affected with shame because we have hitherto despised them: finally, that we are incited to those very virtues which stand out here. By the use of these meditations he was spurred on day by day to a greater zeal for piety, turning over greater things in his mind. He meditated, therefore, on the attributes of God, the ineffable power by which He made the universe; the inscrutable wisdom by which He governs all things; the inexhaustible goodness by which He feeds and quickens all; and he contemplated His mercy and justice, and finally the glory and beauty of eternal beatitude. Borne into which, as into a great sea, he held the deep, and was rapt out of himself in admiration. Hence it came about that tears flowed abundantly, and he said again and again this: "Lord, who could soften my heart, harder than flint or rock, nay than adamant, save Thou, the God of mercies, who didst bring forth fountains of water from the rock? who canst raise up children to Abraham from these stones [r]: who canst in short render the heart of stone a heart of flesh [s]." Thus at daybreak he often spent five hours in praying on bended knees: spending the rest of the day on public business, so that he might not seem to have failed in his office.

[36] neglecting the progress, He was often present unwillingly at games and spectacles, yet occupied with something else, so that when asked what had been done he neither could nor would report anything. These things, indeed, about his admirable prayer: now about his abstinence and penance. He perpetually forbade himself suppers. At dinner he lived so sparingly that he used only herbs and boiled legumes, content with bread alone and cold water; delicacies and courses of dainties he rejected. He himself received his guests, even noblemen, with pious conversations, abundantly as was the custom. For he could not, for honour's sake, omit the invitations of princely men whose road lay that way into the middle of Spain. By this abstinence it came about that, whereas he had been of a very stout body and belly, in a short time his tunics were too loose, and his garments could be doubled. Equal austerity in vigils and in the hair-shirt, by which he tamed his flesh: likewise in scourges and in contempt and victory over himself, which Plato said was greater even than the storming of cities. Someone perhaps will censure excessive austerity in a princely man: but it is not far from the truth that it so seemed good to God, and that He willed with so vehement an impulse to hew into shape that chosen vessel by expiating the sins of his former life.

CAP. X.

[37] concerning the frequent use of the Sacraments The most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist he frequented privately every eighth day, but publicly on the annual feasts, so as to be an example to the citizens. But that frequent use of the Sacraments gave rise to talk among very many, various people thinking variously: since, of the unskilled common people, so many heads, so many opinions: for that most ancient custom of more frequently sitting down at the divine banquet of the Eucharist had fallen into disuse: which, however, had prevailed from the beginning of the nascent Church. There were not lacking at that time, therefore, men, otherwise not unlearned, who believed that greater account was had of the dignity of the Sacrament if that Bread of angels were eaten very rarely, or once a year according to the precept of the Church.

[38] Ignatius But others, in no way inferior to them, had learned by assiduous reading of the holy Fathers that, as it is wicked to receive it unworthily, so it is most useful to receive it worthily and frequently: because it both kindles the cold and deters from vices. Francis wished, amid such conflicting opinions, to embrace with open arms the truer one once known. Antony Araoz, a theologian of the Society, sent by Ignatius Loyola, had opportunely come from Rome to Barcelona. While he was greeting the Marquis out of courtesy, amid various conversations about pious exercises of the soul, mention fell also on the Eucharist, and he set forth how much Ignatius excelled in that kind. A desire came upon the Marquis to refer the sentiment of his mind on this whole matter to him.

[39] he consults by letter. Having therefore sent a letter to Rome, he first congratulates Ignatius on the stock newly arisen through his labour, for the benefit of the Catholic Church: he begs him to inform him what he thought should be held about the frequent communion of the Sacraments. The letter having been delivered, Ignatius replied that that good of the Society was a solid benefit of God. "Paul planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase [t]." As to what pertains to the Eucharist: that among its advantages, which are very many, this too seemed not the least; that by its more frequent use men are called away from vices and stumble more rarely: but if, as we are men, it happens that they fall, they rise sooner, come to their senses, and are recalled to amendment. Nor are all temperaments to be measured by one rule: for some it seemed useful to approach the divine Table more rarely, for others more frequently. He therefore advised and exhorted him to choose out of many some prudent and pious man, whose counsel he might chiefly use in the pursuit of piety. The Marquis at once assented, and gladly went over to his opinion, and even then gladly consulted priests of the Society of Jesus for cultivating his soul and guiding it with counsel [u].

ANNOTATIONS.

a. Of Assisi.

i. Psalm 72, verse 25.

k. Psalm 29, verse 10.

m. Psalm 4, verse 3.

p. More probably instituted in the year 1175, in which it was approved by Alexander III, as Henry Flórez has it in the Clavis Historica.

q. Proverbs 24, verse 16.

r. Matthew 3, verse 9.

s. Ezekiel XI, verse 19.

t. 1 Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 6.

u. You have more things done by Francis when he was viceroy of Catalonia in §5 of the Preliminary Commentary.

CHAPTER III.

He becomes duke of Gandía: his wife having died, he enters the Society at Rome: he leaves Rome to flee the cardinalate: he bids farewell to his possessions and titles.

CAP. XI

Taken from among the living Intent for the most part on these things, he was administering the province rightly, acceptable to the inhabitants because he bound all to himself by service and harmed no one: when sad news was brought from his native place to him unexpectedly, that his parent John had ceased to live. It struck Francis's soul not lightly that he was bereaved of such a parent. For John, on account of his singular affability of mind and integrity of character, was dear and acceptable to his people; so that the whole dominion of Gandía lay in mourning and squalor, having lost the common parent: and the needy mourned above all, whom he had liberally cherished as members of Christ. I shall select one example out of many.

[41] his father John, When the steward of the household complained that the accounts did not seem equal to the alms, John replied: "When I myself spent my own means splendidly for my own pleasure and delights, you were by no means wont to complain: now that I distribute these things to the needy, to whom they are owed, you complain that there is a shortage? But I resolve thus: I will rather suffer all the necessaries of life to be lacking to myself than to the members of Christ." Toward God also he showed himself most pious: for when at Gandía the Lord's Body was carried through the streets to the sick in the name of Viaticum, according to old custom, he was wont himself to carry a burning torch in his right hand, and was an example to all his people. Nay more, when he had gone out hunting (a pursuit by which he was wonderfully held), if perchance, as he had ordered, the signal was given with the bell, he at once returned home, turning back his horse's rein and even applying the spurs, so that he might perform this duty according to custom. At Valencia also he led the noblemen, so that from the palace which lies opposite the church of St. Lawrence as far as the church of the Hieronymites sacred to St. Michael, surnamed of the Kings, a very long distance, he conducted the ranks of the nobles: which nobles, with burning torches, by way of honour preceded and escorted back the Eucharist ^a.

[42] he returns to Gandía, His parent's death having thus been announced, Francis asked the emperor Charles, who was then by chance at Barcelona and planning to go into Italy, that he might be allowed, with his leave, to return to his people and look after his family affairs. He obtained it, though with difficulty, from the emperor: on this condition, however, that he should be steward of the court of Philip, prince of the Spanish youth (I speak in the Roman manner), who was then preparing to marry Mary, daughter of John III, king of the Portuguese, and his wife Eleanor lady of the bedchamber to the bride. Which matter, though ordered even in writing, was broken off by the untimely death of Mary ^b. And so he arrived at Gandía, amid the great expectation of all, in the year 1543: his people auguring well, because they had placed great protection for themselves in his kindness and goodwill. He did not dismiss his parent's servants, lest they should complain that they were forsaken; although he had long since constituted his household entire. He saw to it besides that the hospital should be restored and enlarged, assigning also an annual sum of money.

[43] The town, being near our sea, because it was exposed to the incursions of pirates, who, leaping from Africa onto the coasts of Spain, carried off captives and drove off cattle, he decided should be fortified and girded with walls where it was bare: then, that the inhabitants might not be perpetually harassed by garrisons of soldiers, who generally act unrestrainedly and licentiously. he administers his paternal dominion excellently; He also set in place newly cast brazen guns, threw up moles, drew ditches and rampart, organized watches: so that nothing could be wanting to the appearance and ornament of an elegant town. He also enlarged the palace by building a wing, for the convenience of posterity: besides, he bought back, at great outlay of money, the neighbouring villages, for the concord and quiet of his people, and joined them to the dominion of Gandía. In the village of Lombay he built from the foundations a convent for the family of St. Dominic ^c: he enriched the church with vessels of gold and silver, and assigned as much as sufficed for food and bodily needs. For he thought that the greatest account should be had of the want of religious men. He judged likewise, and showed it in deed, that the poor indeed must rightly be fed; but then more justly those who, having once enjoyed a splendid fortune, had fallen, through some grave calamity received, into extreme want ^d.

CAP. XII.

[44] Francis, bereaved of his excellent parent, not long after mourned being widowed also of his consort. likewise of his wife He had enjoyed her for many years as a most faithful companion, not only of his bed, but also of all pious exercises. For she was a matron of singular piety toward God and charity toward the needy. And even if she had been of a dissimilar disposition, she could nevertheless have been bent by her husband's domestic example. Being asked once by a most noble lady why she wore a garment so simple and almost worn, taking no account of her dignity, she said: "Would you have me clothed in fine linen, silks or purple, when I know that my lord (for so she called her husband) wears a hair-shirt?" When, then, they had lived together for eighteen full years without complaint, she first, worn out by a lingering disease, at last departed. God no doubt willed that her faults, if perchance she had contracted any, should be expiated by slow pain. That misfortune therefore afflicted Francis's soul too, though constant, because he saw himself despoiled of the other part of himself, the mother of his children and the companion of his sorrows and cares. While she was sick he prayed more frequently, employing also the prayers of pious men, alms and fasts. Once, having entered a room alone, witnesses removed, with tears poured out he earnestly besought God that He would will his consort to be safe and to survive: when behold, he seemed to hear clearly a certain interior voice, as he himself afterwards reported, which said: "If you wish your wife to survive longer, let it be done according to your will, but it is not expedient for you ^e."

[45] Disturbed by this, he by no means doubted that it was the voice of God. bereaved, He must therefore obey: for he was tacitly reproved because he did not know what he was asking. But again he fell into tears, mingling these words: "Lord God, whence is this to me, that Thou committest to my will what is in Thy power alone? It matters very greatly to me to follow Thy will in all things. For who knows better than Thou what is for my good? Let Thy will therefore be done: and decide not only concerning my wife, but also concerning my children, I suppliantly pray." It was observed that his consort's disease was then holding a certain steady state, so that the physicians doubted whether she was somewhat better or worse; but after these prayers she began to labour toward despair. As she was in her agony he was at her pillow and strengthened her with divine words, so that, relying on God's mercy, she might meet death with a brave mind. She, having piously embraced an image of Christ hanging from the cross, gave back her soul, full of hope, to the Author of salvation on the 6th day before the Kalends of April, in the year of the world's redemption 1546 ^f.

CAP. XIII.

[46] Eleanor having died, Peter Faber, the Savoyard, who was the first to attach himself to the Society of Ignatius Loyola at Paris, he cultivates his soul with the spiritual exercises, had opportunely come to Gandía. Paul III, supreme Pontiff, had had him summoned from Spain so that, among the theologians of the Pontifical See at the council of Trent, he might defend the cause of the Catholic faith against the heresies recently raised from hell, together with his companions James Laínez and Alphonsus Salmerón of Toledo. Ignatius had given Faber in charge to make his journey by Gandía, to greet duke Francis out of courtesy; who had set his mind on raising a house for the Society: and priests had been sent there a little before from Rome and Lisbon. It is incredible to say how much Francis was delighted by his coming: so that he proclaimed that he had at last, by God's kindness, obtained a parent and director of his soul. For Faber had set before him for meditation the exercises which Ignatius had dictated on the deeds and death of Christ. This ascetic little work (for so, following the authority of Basil the Great, I call what are commonly called the "Spiritual Exercises"), Francis, having afterwards experienced its utility in deed, had ratified by the authority of Paul III, supreme Pontiff. He also obtained a diploma to that effect, which we read added to the little book ^g, to lessen the opinion of those who rashly condemn what they have not read; or, if they have read, judge with an eye bewitched by envy, not by right reason.

[47] he raises a college and university at Gandía, The foundations of the college were happily laid on the 3rd day before the Nones of May of the year 1546. The first stone indeed Faber laid, having duly said Mass; the second the Duke, and after him, by his example, his children. In a short time buildings were constructed and schools opened of humane letters, likewise of divine and human philosophy. Nay, he even raised it to the form of a university by the authority of the supreme Pontiff and the Emperor. It was the first of all entrusted to the Society. He likewise adorned it with a library. Faber, having greeted Francis, reached Rome by forced marches. Soon, on the Kalends of August, to the great grief of the companions, he died. In the following year Philip, then prince of Spain, honourably summoned Francis to Monzón ^h, a town on the borders of Celtiberia, where the assemblies of the three kingdoms are wont to be held: so that he might recall the minds of the nobles to concord. He remembered that his parent the emperor Charles had made use of the faithful labour of the same man five years before. Francis, as though he were now rendering this last service to the prince, and preparing himself for the immortal King, omitted nothing that seemed to pertain to the advantage of his country, the benefit of the nobles, the honour of the king.

CAP. XIV.

[48] and deliberating on a new kind of life, Thereafter he was turning over greater things in his mind, so that he might strive toward the highest perfection of life, and, being now free of the bonds of marriage, might think the counsels of the Gospel were to be embraced. He therefore asked pious men, as often as they came to him, to ask of God by prayers and liturgies salutary counsels for him concerning the choosing of the best kind of life, in which all things are,

that He might suggest them ⁱ. He himself also gave alms daily, and devoted more time to prayer, meditation and vigils: he intensified fasts and the scourging of his body. For he had learned as a boy that deliberation on the course of life to be entered upon is the most difficult of all. This indeed was fixed and made firm in his mind, that, having abdicated riches and titles of honour, he would follow Christ and walk in His footsteps by taking up His cross. But this thought was doubtful and hampered in the twofold way of religious men, which of the two it were better to enter, that of those who, given to the meditation of heavenly things, have hidden themselves in solitude and away from the company of men, and watch over their own salvation only; or that of those who, with excellent greatness of soul, strive to win their neighbours for Christ, partly by word, partly by example, such as was the life of Christ and the Apostles. And indeed the life that is occupied in contemplation and that which is occupied in action, designated in the sisters Mary and Martha, are bound together by the closest bond, like sisters. Francis indeed seemed more fond of solitude, so that he might give himself more conveniently in solitude to himself alone and to God, and macerate his body in the desert with fasts and abstinence: but when he gave himself to prayer, he felt, God inspiring him, that the institute of those was rather commended to him who joined action also to contemplation for the public advantage. But in this very kind of life this too was perplexing, which one in particular he should follow among so many and such great families of pious men.

[49] At first he preferred to the others the institute of St. Francis, the Society because he had taken him as his patron, and his name, from boyhood. There he knew that the greatest poverty and austerity of life, good arts which he had long desired, were practised. But while he often commends these counsels to God, he felt himself rising from prayer dry, cold and empty: but drawn to the Society of Jesus; because the newly born religious order was still unknown to the common people: and finally no place lay open here for ambition or dignity. That it would come about, therefore, that there he would pass unnoticed and lie hidden, ignoble and inglorious. In this deliberation he referred the matter, as a secret, to a pious and learned priest of St. Francis ^k; intending to hear the oracle of God through him as interpreter and intercessor. And he, having offered the sacred rites, relates that he was called into the Society of Jesus; that so it had pleased God ^l: "Which," he said, "may it turn out well for you, Duke, and for the Church." Overcome at last, Francis yielded, and decided for certain to enter the Society. While he was revolving these things, intent on prayer, for seven days in succession he clearly saw a tiara hanging over his head. Thinking that an ecclesiastical dignity was being designated, he besought God and prayed that he might not seem to have sought elsewhere the honours he was fleeing. When afterwards he had been proclaimed Superior of the Society, being asked by Gaspar Fernandez whether that was the tiara, he answered pleasantly that it seemed to be the same.

CAP. XV.

[50] Francis, therefore, thinking that he should delay no further, he seeks, at once sent a member of his household with a letter to Rome to Ignatius, who, as its founder, was then leading the family of the Society: he asks first that he would fulfil his wish by enrolling him with the other companions. He informs him of all his family affairs, his children, his annual income and revenues: that he might rule and direct them by his counsel. Ignatius, the letter having been delivered, took no small pleasure: because he trusted that the newly arisen family would be made illustrious by the accession of so great a Man. And indeed he had long foreseen this, God suggesting it. For when Faber had returned to Rome from Spain and soon departed this life, and Ignatius saw the companions sorrowful at the untimely death and loss of so great a man, he said: "I bid you hope well, and I think there should be no mourning at all: since I do not doubt that it goes splendidly with him. I hope likewise that He who has snatched Faber from us untimely will supply another his equal"; tacitly prophesying the Duke of Gandía. I shall subjoin the letter with which Ignatius replied: but let it not be imputed to me that the words have not been counted out, since I know that the sense has been rendered in good faith.

[51] and having obtained his wish from Ignatius "Blessed be God, who consoles us in all things, to whom, since we mortals cannot give thanks according to His merits, let all the angels and the spirits of the blessed give praise, because He has destined and hired you for the cultivation of His vineyard. I indeed adopt and receive you gladly into our Order, with good hope that it will be for the utility of the Church of God, whose honour is sought; for your greatest consolation also, for an ornament to the Society, and finally for an example and benefit to all. I shall pray God, therefore, that He who has given to will may also give to accomplish, to the praise and glory of the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, into whose Society it has pleased Him to call this little flock. I come to the several heads of your letter. You ask concerning yourself when you may be admitted into our flock. I indeed thus decide in the Lord, that you first settle your family affairs, as befits an active father of a family, prudently and promptly. Promptly indeed, so that you may the sooner obtain your wish; but prudently, so that you do not allow that sound counsel to be divulged to the public before you can carry out what you greatly desire with convenience to yourself. As to placing your daughters in marriage, I think account should be had of your dignity and rank. A wife also must be sought for your eldest son, the Marquis. To your other sons leave as much in goods as is sufficient for them to be able conveniently to pursue the studies of the disciplines at the universities. I trust besides that the emperor will take account of them, both for your services toward him and because they themselves will so deserve. Let buildings, if any have been begun, be brought to their roofs. Finally, to say it once for all, I should wish everything to be completed as promptly as possible and brought to an end so far as can be done: so that it may sooner be permitted to enjoy you free and unencumbered. Meanwhile I think studies should by all means be resumed; and Theology, necessary for a priest, must be seriously pressed, in which I should also wish you to be honoured with the laurel of doctor in the university of Gandía. Other matters, as they present themselves, you may refer to me; I indeed shall henceforth consult for your affairs with the mind of a parent, and shall pray God to preserve you and yours and bring you to the harbour of eternal salvation. Rome."

[52] he binds himself by religious vows in it, in the year 1547. Having read this letter, Francis almost leapt for joy, because he had passed out of his own power and had committed himself to Ignatius, as he had begun. So he busied himself with everything, so that it should not drag on longer, in order that he might the sooner free himself from his bonds. He wished even then to take vows after the rite of religious men. This matter Ignatius, moved by his letter, obtained from the supreme Pontiff. In the year of Salvation 1547 ^m, therefore, having pronounced solemn vows, he was enrolled in the number of the companions at Gandía; with few, however, being aware of it, so that it should not spread to the public before, all matters having been settled, he joined himself to the Society.

CAP. XVI.

[53] Freed by the marriages of his children, He therefore judged that in the rest he must obey the sound counsels of Ignatius. To his son Charles, marquis of Lombay, head of the family, was given as wife Magdalena Centellas, daughter of Francis Centellas, count of Oliva (that town lies a thousand paces from Gandía), and of Mary Cardona ⁿ. Of his three daughters the youngest, Dorothea, while her mother was not yet lost, had taken Christ in place of a spouse, and while still a mere girl had hidden herself in the convent of St. Clare: the others were placed with most noble men. Isabella was given in marriage to Francis Gómez de Sandoval, count of Lerma and heir of the marquis of Denia: Joanna of Aragon came into the hand of John Henriquez, marquis of Alcañices. Each son-in-law, truly, as most noble in birth, so most honourable in character. In which marriages I see this counsel of duke Francis praised. He ordered the one son-in-law, the count of Lerma, to be present on the third day; having agreed the hour and time when, the sacred rites duly performed, they should enter into the espousals, lest, as often happens, the spouses should come together not rightly before the blessing of the Church. There remained the other of the commands, which it was both his zeal and his pleasure to carry out. For, freed by the marriages of his children, he gave himself wholly to the study of the sacred letters. For this purpose he had built in the college of the Society a wing of the house, which still stands, where he might withdraw with his children for the sake of studies. And so he gave excellent attention to Theology, partly mystical, partly that which is wont to be treated in the schools by disputation in methodical fashion, using as teacher master Perez ^o, whom he had had summoned from Valencia of the Edetani with a great reward, honour and stipend. Him he heard attentively and assiduously, and in reading and disputing gave such proofs of diligence and learning that in a short time he was held worthy by the votes of all of the title of the laurel.

[54] And so, disputations and examination having first been employed, he was adorned first with the laurel of Master, soon with that of Theology. he gives himself to Theology, It will perhaps be worth while to report his hours and the method of his study. He anticipated the sun by three hours, which, and another three, he gave to prayer. At the eighth hour of the day, as the Spaniards count, having expiated his sins daily, he communicated. At the ninth he listened attentively to the doctor of Theology, even taking down the dictated lectures with the pen. Having dined with the greatest temperance, he treated of divine things. The rest of the afternoon he gave partly to studies, partly to private and public business. As the sun was declining toward its setting, he joined the monuments of the holy Fathers to the reading of Scripture: likewise devoting some time to the canonical hours. For he was most sparing of sleep, using not a bed, but wooden boards spread with a shaggy covering. Before sleep he examined himself accurately, imagining himself to sustain the persons of summoner, lictor, defendant and judge. By this manner of life it came about that, the fame of it having been spread abroad, some lords came to Gandía for the sake of seeing him: among these also the bishop of Cartagena Spartaria, Stephen Almeida, who also sent an honourable letter on that matter to a friend.

CAP. XVII.

[55] The day which the Pontiff had fixed for Francis for settling his affairs had passed, to Rome in the year 1550, and, the space of three years of studies having now run, the sacred secular year, which today is called the Jubilee, was imminent. He decided, therefore, to set out for Rome, both to frequent the thresholds of the princes of the Apostles, which are then all duly thrown open, and from zeal for Ignatius: and finally so that the emperor should not again use his labour in transacting business. He feared, on the other hand, lest, when he was present at Rome, he should against his will be enrolled by Paul III in the college of Cardinals contrary to the institute of the Society, because Alexander VI of the Borgia family had once presented him with the purple hat [p]: his fear had also been increased because two brothers of Francis had recently been created Cardinals by that same Paul [q]. But it fell out conveniently that Paul, taken from human affairs [r], likewise left the Pontifical See vacant for Julius the third.

[56] Having therefore made his testament, he calls aside Charles, the heir of the family. "This is perhaps the last time," he said, "Charles my son, that I speak to you. You see the journey to Rome being prepared in the sacred secular year, having commended the dominion to his son Charles, that I may kiss the thresholds of the Apostles. I have willingly bound myself to the Society of Jesus, being about to abdicate my possessions and titles, so that I may live more securely and, God well helping, obtain eternal beatitude. I therefore commit your brothers and the dominion of Gandía to your faith: do you in turn take pains that we may never repent of having committed it to you, the head of the family. Uphold right and equity above all, employ prudent and faithful counsellors, who speak freely and do not cajole with flattery. Study the advantage of the citizens rather than your own, and prefer to be loved rather than feared. Three monasteries, as monuments of our ancestors, I deliver into your hands: at Lombay, that of the brethren of St. Dominic; at Gandía that of the companions and that of St. Clare

for virgins, in which are your aunt [s] and great-aunts [t]. For the commonwealth is happily conducted by the prayers and counsel of pious men. Fear God, which is the head of the matter, and worship Him religiously: carry Him before your eyes as the beholder of human affairs, and await Him as Judge. Hail and farewell." The Marquis, shedding tears abundantly, having promised in a few words all the best things, kissed his parent's right hand according to the custom of the nation. Francis, having embraced the rest of his children in order, bade them farewell; only John, the second-born, accompanying his father: and soon, having entered the neighbouring college of the Society, he took as companions Antony Araoz, Francis Strada, and likewise seven other priests [u].

CAP. XVIII.

[57] Having mounted their horses, he departed from Gandía on the day before the Kalends of September of the year 1550. Having gone out of the town, he makes his way, with eyes and hands raised to heaven, and tears also mingled for joy, he recited in a loud voice that saying of David: WHEN ISRAEL WENT OUT OF EGYPT [x]. Soon also: THE SNARE IS BROKEN AND WE ARE DELIVERED [y]; with good hope and fixed mind that he would never be compelled to return there and revisit his native soil, as one hastening to the heavenly fatherland. This he religiously observed. For when long afterwards he was sent by Pius V, supreme Pontiff, on an honourable embassy with Cardinal Alessandrino into Spain to the Catholic king, and had entered Valencia, he never suffered himself to be commanded to visit the town of Gandía, which is only one day's journey away. On the journey he gave several hours daily to prayer, and kept the custom, which he held perpetually, of confessing his sins daily and sitting down at the sacred banquet. He was accustomed to take food only at midday, even if he was languishing, weary from the road: at supper he lived content with very little food: raging against himself also with scourges, although it was inconvenient in the inns. The divine conversations by which the tedium of journeys is wont to be lightened he so divided that he gave hours in turn to prayer and to divine discourses and pious meditations; and he prepared himself not for the pleasure of the ears but rather for the profit of the soul [z].

[58] very honourably at Ferrara, in Tuscany, and at Rome, As soon as he reached Italy, behold a nobleman with a letter from Hercules d'Este, prince of Ferrara, Francis's great-uncle [aa], begging him not to omit turning aside from the road to him: that he desired, in accordance with the old bond of kinship, to enjoy the sight of him, which could be done with almost no inconvenience of the road and loss of time. Francis complied, as was fitting, and gave three days to the duke of Ferrara, being courteously received: he was also two days with Cosimo de' Medici, duke of Etruria, who likewise omitted no kind of courtesy [bb]. Soon, so that it should not be longer before he saw Ignatius, he hastened to Rome. He was brought into the City honourably by the wish of some Cardinals and of the emperor's ambassador. For they had taken care that he should not, as Francis greatly desired, enter unknown at dead of night. He preferred, namely, such was his modesty, to lie hid and be unknown. But Ignatius himself too, overcome by the authority of superiors, had signified in his own hand, some hours before he entered the City, that he should take in good part the pomp of congratulation, which he would count as a disgrace rather than an honour. Julius III, supreme Pontiff, offered him a palace through envoys, with joyful congratulation that he had come, long awaited, and assigned him a wing of the building, if he were willing. He gave great thanks: for he had chosen the humble dwelling of the Society of Jesus. Here Ignatius was waiting before the doors, embracing the Duke in friendly fashion and raising him from the ground as he struggled to kiss his feet and hands: tears of charity also mingled, because he foresaw that Francis would be of great benefit for enlarging the Church of God, and of use for helping the companions also by deed and counsel, and finally by example for the greater glory of God.

[59] He, somewhat tired from the road, when he had collected himself a little received also by the Pontiff himself: and regained his strength, held nothing more important than to venerate the supreme Pontiff and kiss his feet after the manner of our ancestors. Here in the Pontifical basilica he was received more courteously than others of his rank are wont to be. The Pontiff praised the deed, and said it had been welcome to him that he had flown to Rome from almost the furthest lands at this time of the year and in the heat, which had not yet broken, for the sake of religion, to visit the tombs of the blessed Apostles and to kiss the threshold of the golden door now opened. "Would," he said, "that we had a great abundance of such princes: the Christian cause would hold more steady." He again testified before him that his palace lay open to him. But Francis modestly declined, giving thanks, because he had turned aside into the college of the companions: that it would be enough, nay, he would count it in the place of the highest benefit, if he would sometimes give him patient ears and bless him. Thus honourably escorted home, he seemed to himself restored to himself. He nevertheless visited the Cardinals whom it was necessary to visit, for courtesy's sake.

[60] Free at last from these cares of salutations, he visited in order the sacred churches of the saints, he gains the jubilee, using a little guidebook as guide and nomenclator of the way: in which churches innumerable relics of blessed Martyrs, more than anywhere else, are preserved and frequented by pious men. That he might gather more abundant fruits from these advantages, he thought that an account of his whole past life should be rendered to Ignatius, and decided that his errors were to be expiated again by confessing them to a priest, in the holy City and at the most holy time. Nor did he delight himself only abroad in visiting and going round sacred places; at home also he was wonderfully refreshed by the sight of those Fathers, the first men of the Society, and of Ignatius, the author of the family. Among the very many other things splendidly done at Rome, this is memorable to eternity, that the first foundations of the Roman College were laid by him: it is, and will always be, a kind of seminary of all nations. But all that praise was left to and passed to Gregory XIII, supreme Pontiff and excellent parent of the Society, the buildings and the august school having been built by him.

CAP. XIX.

[61] Francis wished to spend his life longer at Rome, with the emperor and to grow old nowhere more gladly, both on account of the holiness and religion of the place, and on account of the character of Ignatius, a most innocent man. He therefore judged it best done * to despoil himself of his goods of fortune and his titles, so that he might devote himself more conveniently to piety. He therefore sends one of his household, Gaspar Villalón, with a letter or suppliant petition to the emperor Charles, who was then conducting affairs in Germany: he asks that, with his kind permission, he might make over the dominion and titles of Gandía to his eldest son, the marquis of Lombay. That this would be welcome and acceptable to him, who wished to collect and hide himself. That he had chosen above all the family of the Society of Jesus, in which to spend the remaining course of his life; recent indeed, but one which, like the others, would be more fervent from its origin day by day. I shall subjoin a copy of the letter, that it may be read with pleasure and profit at once.

[62] he treats by letter of abdicating his possessions and titles "How greatly I have long desired, august emperor, your coming into Italy, so that I might ask in person what I now ask absent by letter, is known to God alone, whose will, since it has so seemed good to Him that by my desert I should not obtain my wish, I hold ratified, as I ought. And since I trust that absent I shall set forth the sentiments of my mind no less than if I were present, therefore, as speech is the interpreter of the mind and writing in turn of speech, I shall use this, since the other is not possible at so great a distance of place. Of me hold thus: I frankly confess myself a sinner, and that I was a stumbling-block to the other courtiers when I lived in your palace, for which fault I decline no penalty from God the King of heaven, nor from you, who rule on earth. That Father of mercies, though I have so often deserved the torments of hell, has borne with me to this day with incredible patience, gentleness and kindness, that I might come to my senses and return to the way: and He has granted me time that I might in good time take note how great were His benefits toward me, how many and how great my injuries toward Him. While I consider these things, from the death of my wife Eleanor, four whole years now, and many prayers having been poured out to God by pious men for that purpose, the desire of a new life grew day by day, and, as though the mist had been driven from the eyes of my mind, I began to hold all earthly things in contempt. Now, although I am unworthy to be a future labourer in the Lord's vineyard; especially since I have come so late, and once strove to tear up the vines which others planted; yet by the kindness of God the priests of the Society of Jesus have admitted me into their Order through no merit of mine. In which, indeed, although I have long desired to live and die, I am nevertheless prevented, while I fulfil the duty of a good parent and provide abundantly for my sons: from which care after one month and likewise another I shall free myself once for all.

[63] abdicating; Wherefore, most great emperor, with your kind permission, let this be permitted me, because, as your client and a knight of the Order of St. James, I ask that I may so spend the space of life that remains, very short indeed, but to be counted as gain, that I may, God well helping, make good the loss of my past life by worthy fruits of penance; correct past errors, flee present dangers, avoid future ones. And if I shall make any progress in this very form of a better life, I indeed shall take pains, standing at the sacred altars, to make vows assiduously by the divine service and by fasts for the safety of your empire, and to pray God for your salvation, on which that of many also depends, that He who has recently granted you victory over the Turks and the heretics may also grant you to conquer yourself, which method of conquering, as it is truly the most difficult, so is it also the most useful and most praiseworthy: finally that He may inflame you with the fires of divine love, and that by assiduous meditation of the torments of Christ, so that you may rightly say with the Apostle: God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ [cc]. May He, Christ, who bore the pains of the cross for us, preserve you safe for the Christian commonwealth as long as possible. Given at Rome on the 18th day before the Kalends of February, 1551."

[64] While he was awaiting the emperor's command, it had already been spread abroad among the people He snatches himself in flight from Rome to escape the cardinalate, that Francis had changed his state of life for the better. Learning this, Pope Julius desired to enrol Francis in the college of Cardinals (which he had feared before, so that he had hesitated on that account to set out for Rome). He indeed shuddered at the sad news as much as some eagerly pursue and grasp at that honour. And so it seemed expedient to Ignatius that Francis should suddenly leave Rome, so that, withdrawn from the Pontiff's eyes, he might snatch himself from honours by flight. And so, with the same companions with whom he had come from Spain to Rome, when he had scarcely remained four months in the city, he returned into Spain. Here, as he was above all a lover of solitude, wishing to live far from the din of the crowd, he chose as his seat Guipúzcoa, a province of Cantabria: both because fewer people inhabited that coast; and because it was the native soil of Ignatius. As soon as he reached the Spains, therefore, he made his way straight to Cantabria: and having entered the house of Loyola, he sought diligently by inquiry the place where Ignatius, first born, had touched the earth. Here he fixed a kiss on the ground and at its feet, and gave thanks to God that He had willed so useful a man to the world to be born in that place, and had made himself the disciple of so great a master. Then, having heard Mass and received the Eucharist, he departed for Oñate; that town is at the third

milestone from the house of Loyola. Here Peter Michael Araoz [dd], when dying, had bequeathed by testament certain buildings for building a college of the Society. Thence some of the companions, dismissed in various directions, returned to their provinces: others remained in the company of Francis with his son John.

CAP. XX.

[65] It was not long before Gaspar Villalón, returning from Germany, and with the emperor's kind permission brought Francis the emperor's letter, of which this is a copy: "Gaspar Villalón, your client, has delivered to me your letter, Duke Borgia. Although that counsel of yours and plan of life, by which you wish to withdraw and collect yourself so as to exchange earthly things for heavenly, is holy and pious (for who but an impious man would deny it?), yet it distresses us somewhat that we shall have to be without you. But to humour my own desire and to put my own advantage before yours I neither wish, nor, if I wished, could I. I therefore give you power, gladly and willingly, to cede the dominion of Gandía at your discretion to Charles, your eldest son. Of the deed I indeed think thus, that you will find more rivals than imitators: for it is easy and natural for anyone to envy another; to perform the like has been, and will always be, difficult. That you abandon your other children, I readily suffer that burden to be laid upon me, so that I myself may provide for them to the best of my power and succeed in the place of a parent. I shall bring this about both on account of the services of their mother Eleanor, a most choice woman; and of their parent, who himself also has deserved well of me. It will be no loss to them that both parents gave their service to me. May God, Best and Greatest, bring your counsels, Duke Borgia, to a happy outcome, Whom I pray that He may look upon us also and the commonwealth in these most difficult times. So may He keep and preserve you. Given at Augsburg. On the Ides of February, 1551."

[66] Having read this, Francis, almost triumphing with joy, at once entered his room and fell on his knees before the image of Christ hanging from the cross. he renounces his possessions and titles "Lord Jesus," he said, "of whose mercy there is no number, although so many and such great benefits toward me stand forth, yet Thou dost not cease to heap new ones upon them. I have what gratitude I can, and shall render thanks as long as I live. Now I freely follow Thee as Thou callest, and I strip myself of all the goods of fortune which Thou hadst given with liberal hand, that I may naked more promptly imitate Thee fixed to the cross. I cast away gladly all things, slight indeed; but kingdoms too and empires, if I had them, I would dismiss with the same eagerness of mind, as Thou well knowest, who searchest the hearts and reins. Suppliant, therefore, I ask and beseech that Thou receive me, that prodigal son returning from far places, and embrace me with the outspread arms of Thy mercy. Let the doors of Thy house lie open to me, among religious devoted to Thee alone. This one thing I ask, that I may dwell in Thy house all the days of my life. Thou, who art the light, the way, the truth and the life, look upon me: and Thou who hast given me this mind, give it a happy outcome." When he had devoted himself to God with these prayers, he went out in public, and at once, notaries and clerks having been summoned, he entered in the acts that he stripped himself of the right of the dominion of Gandía and of all goods, and made over everything to Charles, his eldest son, the survivors being present, so that he kept nothing back for himself. Soon, his beard shaved, his clothes cast off, he put on the long, worn gown of the companions, the servants weeping, no otherwise than if he were departing this life: but he rejoiced, so that he scarcely seemed to be in his senses, because he had stripped himself of public dress and the titles of duke, and, as though he had emerged from a very great shipwreck and storm, he thought he was holding port, and that in the extreme poverty of the Society he was in truth most rich, exclaiming again and again that saying: "Thou hast broken my bonds, O Lord; I will sacrifice to Thee the sacrifice of praise." Soon he dismissed his servants in friendly fashion; some he assigned to John Borgia among the number of his clients, others he sent to duke Charles, commended by letter.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Alexander Farnese, made supreme Pontiff in the year 1534 and called Paul III, had been admitted to the college of Cardinals by Alexander VI in the year 1493.

q. Paul III namely created Cardinal Roderick Borgia, brother of Francis, but by another mother, Frances de Castro, in the year 1536; and in the year 1539 Henry, full brother of Francis, who is wrongly called the son of Frances de Castro y Pinos, second wife of John, duke of Gandía, the second of this name; and wrongly also the uncle of St. Francis, in volume 3 of the Lives and Deeds of the Pontiffs, in the Additions to Ciaconius, column 673.

r. He died in the year 1549, on the 10th day of November.

s. Dorothea.

t. Isabella and Joanna of the Holy Cross, sisters of St. Francis.

u. Oviedo, rector of Gandía, James Miró, Peter Tablares, Emmanuel Sa and Francis Rojas; to whom add two lay brothers, Brother Hercules and Brother Julian, Araoz's companion.

x. Psalm 113, verse 1.

y. Psalm 123, verse 7. See more at number 97 of the Preliminary Commentary.

z. For more pertaining to Francis's pious manner of travelling see number 99 of the Preliminary Commentary.

aa. See number 100 of the Preliminary Commentary. Octavius Farnese, duke of Camerino, did the same at Parma.

bb. You have more about the things done by Francis at Rome at that time at number 103 and the two following.

cc. Galatians 6, verse 14.

dd. Paternal uncle of Father Araoz.

* to do

CHAPTER IV.

He is initiated into the priesthood: some censure his changed kind of life, others praise it: distinguished men imitate his example. He more than once rejects the cardinalate.

BOOK II.

CAP. I.

His first Mass privately at Loyola, Francis both felt and proclaimed that no day had dawned more joyful for him up to that time than that on which he had stripped himself of all his goods. For, free from cares, he gave himself to God alone, than which nothing was then more important to him. That this might proceed more happily, he was initiated into Holy Orders. And lest he should seem unworthy of that order, he had been accustomed now daily to pray to God and chastise his body. For he was not ignorant that to burst into those sanctuaries with unwashed hands is a crime akin to sacrilege. He had already learned thoroughly the rites and ceremonies. He made his way, therefore, to Loyola, and offered his first Liturgy ^a, granting this to both the native place and the piety of Ignatius, on the Kalends of August ^b of the year after the birth of Christ 1551. He used ornaments for the altar, and linens skilfully worked and embroidered with the needle by his sister, Louisa Borgia, countess of Ribagorza. And John Borgia, his son, received the Eucharist from his hand. Julius the third, supreme Pontiff, had liberally granted Francis a jubilee, as they call it, so that when he first performed the sacred rites publicly, as many as were present having duly confessed should receive pardon of their sins.

[68] [he says his second publicly at Vergara with a very great concourse of the people;] He hastened, therefore, to the town of Vergara ^c, at the second milestone from Oñate, so that the benefit of the Sacrifice might flow to more people. As soon as it became known to the inhabitants, there was suddenly such a concourse of people from all around that a church, though spacious, would not hold them. Wherefore it was necessary to raise an altar in the open air next to the chapel of St. Anne: and so many approached the heavenly Table that the midday hour was long past; all wondering, and not refraining from tears for joy, because they gladly beheld the Duke in the apostolic habit, who with the greatest magnanimity had exchanged titles and pomp for Evangelical poverty, and the purple for the worn garment of religious men; whether because it was a rare and unusual example of our age; or because, in popular judgement, they ranked the priesthood below any honour. The divine service having been performed, he preached to the people. Many, asked why they had wept while he preached, whose speech they either did not understand on account of the difference of language, or did not sufficiently hear because they were too far from the pulpit in so great a ring of people, answered frankly, as is the disposition of that nation, that a divine voice, not a human one, seemed to be heard in him; besides, that it was like a prodigy that a duke of most holy life should be seen.

[69] he undertakes any lowly offices, Inaugurated into the priesthood, he held nothing more important than that he might collect himself and venerate God, partly by prayers, partly by works of penance. He therefore modestly asked the people of Oñate that he might be allowed to have the chapel sacred to St. Magdalen, a thousand paces distant. He obtained it easily; he decided to add a slender house, and a very narrow one, built of rough and unpolished material, as one more fond of poverty and weary of courts and august palaces. Hither he moved with a few companions, whom Michael Navarro, a priest, then governed, from whom he first asked that he might be allowed, with his kind permission, to give his service to the cook. Which he obtained with no less pleasure of mind than others obtain by the favour of a prince the highest magistracy and a province. Here he carried out the domestic offices, carried wood and water into the kitchen, lit the fire, swept the floor, cleaned the dishes and pots and other things of that kind, as though he were a novice of the Society, or of the lowest condition. Soon, everything having been prepared, he served at table. He begged pardon of the Fathers and Brothers for his negligence and errors: having kissed their feet one by one, he asked them to intercede with God for him, that He would will this mind to be perpetual in him.

[70] he acts as catechist and preacher: Well formed by these exercises, not content with the narrow bounds of the house, he strove to deserve well of more people by his service, mindful of that saying of Dionysius the Areopagite: "The further good spreads, the more excellent it is." He therefore went out into the neighbouring villages, laden with a little sack after the manner of beggars, and carried a staff, and asked from street to street for bread by way of alms and for a dole in the name of Christ. It is incredible to say how eagerly the Cantabrian matrons, from the repute of his holiness, came out of their houses and offered bread, having kissed it: asking in return for his blessing, and begging prayer for the common salvation.

Here, carrying a rod in his hand, he called out the children with a little bell, and led them in a long line singing into the church and the public square, where as catechist he taught them the first rudiments of the faith: and he did not grudge to inculcate things necessary to be known by questioning and repeating the same things very often. In these offices he employed his good hours well, going through as far as San Sebastián, the port of the Cantabrians: thence, going on foot to Vitoria (they think that town to be the Vellica of the Cantabrians in Ptolemy), he both instructed the children and frequently acted as preacher in the churches.

CAP. II.

[71] Francis had hidden himself in solitude, avoiding the crowds of men: some censure his changed kind of life. yet he could not lie hidden and escape the notice of others perpetually. For the odour of his piety, spreading further, was wafted even to neighbouring places: rumour, which is wont to magnify all things beyond measure, had grown in various forms, while some praise the deed, others revile it. For as each one's feeling of mind is, so for the most part does he sow his talk. Those who pursue earthly and perishable things, and nothing besides, censured according to their own feeling: that it was unworthy of him to have repudiated honours when he had already advanced to the summit; that he certainly seemed to have deserted his children. Those, on the contrary, whose judgement concerning things was excellent and true, extolled the deed of Francis with praises to the skies. For honours, magistracies and the other things admired by the unskilled common people were not to be counted among goods; the happiness of man was to be measured by tranquillity of mind and the worship and knowledge of God, or by nothing. To give oneself up to the service of God, this at last was to rule far and wide, to be free, master and king: because by contempt of earthly things one holds all things beneath oneself, and turns over only heavenly things in one's mind. They commended Francis, who with lofty mind had trodden the goods of fortune underfoot: they also gave thanks to God that He had brought over into these times examples rare even in antiquity; such men as single ages, by God's kindness, had scarcely produced singly.

[72] And so, for the sake of courtesy and respect, noblemen visited him in his hiding. the sounder judge it worthy of praise, First of all Charles Borgia, duke of Gandía, and Alvarus Borgia, his sons: likewise Martin of Aragon, duke of Villahermosa, who had married his sister ^d: the count of Lerma also ^e, and the marquis of Alcañices ^f, his sons-in-law. Many noblemen also, and bishops, greeted him through their people, congratulating him on his condition of life changed for the better. Among these also Bernardine Cárdenas, duke of Maqueda, who was then viceroy of the kingdom of Navarre, was eager to hear the new Preacher, and to hear him discourse in person on the duty of a prince. He therefore sent a member of his household with a letter: that he desired to enjoy his presence at Pamplona ^g, over which he presided, and to receive salutary counsels of life. The courtier having been dismissed with a letter, Francis on the day after that day set out on the road toward Pamplona, two companions being taken along. Here he took the viceroy by surprise with his unexpected arrival, who brought him over to himself to the palace and received him with every kind of courtesy. Many hours were spent on the duties of princes, even far into the night. The viceroy desired that the things which had come to mind should not only be imparted by voice but also, for the sake of memory, consigned to writing; and he took care that what was written should be religiously preserved. Being asked, he frequently spoke to the people in the principal church, and to the families of monks and nuns. When the viceroy's wish and the people's eagerness had been sufficiently satisfied, he returned to Oñate, setting out through the province of Álava, instructing many along the way and cultivating them in the pursuit of piety.

CAP. III.

[73] Nor indeed did the name of Francis spread only through that coast of Spain which is of the Carpetani ^h; above all Louis, brother of the king of Portugal (whose letter on that matter it penetrated even to the furthest bounds of Portugal. Here Louis, prince of the Portuguese, full brother of king John the third and of the empress Isabella, left witness of how much he valued Francis in this letter: "I sent you another letter, excellent Father: to this one, therefore, I shall add only this, that it will be very welcome to me if I once obtain what I had asked of you in that one: yet let it be done at your convenience: to which, although it matters very much to me that it be done, I gladly postpone the feeling and desire of my mind. I call God to witness; although I have as yet deserved nothing of you, yet the love and the will to gratify you, if any occasion offered, have never been lacking, in accordance with my old devotion to the Borgia family: which indeed, in my opinion, while you leave it, and, hiding yourself, follow God, you make immeasurably illustrious. That one thing, though all else were lacking, could have been enough for me to value you more henceforth and to love you more ardently. Wonderful indeed is God in His Saints, and of His mercy there is no number. It is yours, therefore, to give thanks to Him, since your conversion brings far greater fruits to the Church than was expected. Of myself I can affirm this with certainty, that your words, which I still hold in memory, sound in my ears as though I heard you in person; and I seem to see your gait, so grave, as though you were present. But O happy servant of God, who amid this disturbance and tumult of the commonwealth have found tranquillity of mind and the peace of the inner man: which, since it is from God, surpasses all understanding. In which one thing, if there is any in the life of mortals, beatitude lies; and it is a sample and a little portion of that happiness which we all hope for in the better and eternal life. I indeed ask of you most earnestly that henceforth, praying to God, you make remembrance of us; that He may kindly show the path of His commandments: that I may obey His will, not mine; and, He well helping, obtain the blessed life. And if my service will be of use to you in anything, it will be very welcome to me if I am informed through you. Farewell. At Almeirim ⁱ, on the 3rd day before the Ides of Quinctilis ^k, 1551."

[74] as also Borgia's Francis replied to the pious prince in a letter composed not so much for show as for life and conduct. "May the Spirit of God, who is the Father of the poor and likewise of mercies, repay you for consoling us in friendly fashion by your letter, not unmindful of me, a sinner. Which benefit also all the companions, of whom I am the least, frankly confess pertains to them. By this singular kindness of yours, although I was held bound to you by many titles before, a great addition has been made: on which account I devote my service to you, and I ask God daily that, as He adorns you with outward gifts, so He may more and more perfect you with inward ones. Blessed be God, who, as the royal Prophet sings, taketh away the spirit of princes ^l. In which matter, if He has shown Himself terrible toward other princes, toward you He has certainly shown Himself pious and merciful, having extinguished that spirit and pride with which some lords swell, unmindful of God and ungrateful. He has given you the princely spirit, by which the same prophet desires to be strengthened. O happy you, prince, to whom this spirit has fallen, as to few! And O blessed Portugal, which has always produced such princes without the spirit of princes! Would indeed that it could be understood how great a benefit of God this is, that the spirit of princes be taken away from someone and he be strengthened with the princely spirit. Would that the difference of the two were known. For the one is the author of war; the other of peace: the former renders men disturbed, the latter peaceful: the former is of men, the latter of God. It would certainly be a great benefit if mortals bestowed as much zeal on seeking the heavenly spirit as they put into acquiring the goods of fortune and of the body: Try the spirits, says the apostle, if they be of God ^m.

[75] Very many, surely, snatched from the darkness of error, would see more keenly. to him a letter But it comes about through our negligence that that divine spirit so often loses its cause, and that impiously: while the spirit of the flesh stands in judgement and conquers. Each one today follows his own spirit as guide, which is blind; whereas on the contrary one ought to comply with the princely spirit of God. There will come, there will come a day, when, this span of life having been run, the books will be opened of many who, full of human spirit, went headlong, destitute of the spirit which leads to the harbour of eternal beatitude. I therefore give thanks to God when I see you, a stranger to the common spirit of princes, desiring the princely spirit. For this overcomes one's own spirit; as the same royal prophet says: I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm ⁿ. This is the divine spirit, which breathes where it will ^o: which, entering, quickens whom and how it pleases. This the world cannot gather, because the world itself refuses to collect itself. In this we cry: Abba, Father [p]: for it is the spirit of adoption. This must be received with bundles of fragrances and of works in charity. Thus shall we obey the teacher of the nations: Extinguish not, he says, the spirit [q]. I pray God that this may befall you, so that you may also say with the prophet: My spirit hath fainted [r]. Thus it will come about that you understand, will, believe and search out nothing except the spirit of God and the faith of the Catholic Church: and finally that your memory may cling fixed here. That you may account created things beneath you, and employ them only as the service of ladders, by which you may ascend to God, the Architect of the universe: so that from created things you may truly know Him, and, knowing Him, love Him, which is the sum of happiness.

[76] For I shall say this truly, that created things shine more in God are given here) than of themselves, and, seen in Him, delight: on the contrary, sought without Him, they distress and torment: and when possessed they are wont to bring fear, and when lost, grief. If you live in possession of this spirit of God, you will live a blessed life, nor will you seek anything outside Him. By which it will come about that you will truly use that saying: My spirit hath fainted: and with the Mother of God, My spirit hath rejoiced in God my saviour [s]. Of myself, would that I could truly say: My spirit hath fainted. If you look at outward things, I seem such to many, since, having changed my kind of life, by God's kindness I cast away lofty spirits, and was received through no merit of mine into a family of religious men. However that may be, since I am held bound to you by many titles before, as I have said, now I gladly and willingly offer my will and devotion (which alone remain to me, bound as I am by vows): and since God allows Himself to be appeased with these, do you take them in good part; since you yourself accommodate yourself to the will of God. May He increase you with all good things, and advance you to a greater increase of virtue and piety, so that you may at last possess the heavenly kingdom. At Oñate, the 15th of August, 1551."

Francis, a sinner.

CAP. IV.

[77] Great is the force of examples in both directions, so that by them each one is either formed to virtue nay more, his example or driven to vices. When, therefore, the fame of Francis had spread further, some distinguished and noble men set out to him, to be instructed in piety in his school, and, with steps if not equal, at least at no long interval, to follow naked the naked Christ. Among these was Antoninus [t] of Córdoba, son of Lawrence Suarez de Figueroa and Catherine Fernández de Córdoba, marquises of Priego and counts of Feria. He, being both of illustrious birth and Francis's own cousin [u], and endowed with singular virtue and affability of manners, applying himself to his studies at the school of Salamanca, the most celebrated in Spain, by the votes of all

had governed the university: which highest magistracy there is conferred only on men of the first nobility. At that time it was being negotiated, at the request of the prince of the Spains, that he should be enrolled in the college of Cardinals; but he resolved to enter upon another way: for, God calling him, he gave his name to the Society and joined himself to Francis.

[78] distinguished men To Oñate there came with the same purpose and at the same time Sancho Castellano and Peter Lodosa, a Navarrese: likewise two theologians who had studied under John Ávila, a man distinguished in ascetic matters, as we showed above, Diego Guzmán, son of the count of Bailén, and Gaspar Loarte. Both had already for some years before preached through the towns and villages in the diocese of Calahorra [x], had taught untaught men the Gospel, and children too the sum of Christian doctrine: and had helped the needy, to the benefit of many, partly with money, partly with consolation. But the plan of our undertaking does not require that I should list every one of those who even then had flocked to Francis. One, however, I ought not without disgrace to pass over, Bartholomew Bustamante, a priest, theologian and distinguished preacher. He, being secretary to Cardinal John Tavera, archbishop of Toledo, had great authority with the lords of Spain while Tavera was administering the church at Toledo, which is the capital of the Carpetani. But at length, when he had called away his weary mind from public business, far from ambition and avarice, being now weary of earthly things, his mind was driven hither and thither, as happens, concerning the best kind of life to be undertaken: for that deliberation is most difficult. In this doubtful reflection he betook himself, thirsting, to God, the most abundant fountain of life. Offering the divine service, adoring God whom he held in his hand, he prayed that He would show that way of life, entering upon which he might, He well helping, attain salvation.

[79] they imitate, In that prayer, as he was afterwards often wont to narrate from memory and with pleasure, he heard a certain interior voice, that, if he wished to be saved, he should go to Guipúzcoa, a province of Cantabria, and follow the example of Francis Borgia; of whom, now converted to God, he had heard as through a mist: yet such was the force of God calling that on that very day, having bidden his household farewell, thinking that nothing should be delayed, he set out on the road toward Guipúzcoa: which coast indeed Francis had already filled with the repute of his holiness, whom Bustamante met first of all, as soon as he entered Oñate, at St. Magdalen's. He found him carrying in a basket bricks and lime for building the little house in which, if Ignatius allowed, he might lie perpetually hidden with a few. He at once fell at the knees of Francis as a suppliant: he sets out the reason for his coming: he asks him to receive him into the Society. Nor were many prayers needed. And so, having dismissed his servants, Bustamante remained in his company, and was, on account of his singular prudence, the constant companion of Francis in all his business and journeys.

CAP. V.

[80] The arrival of so many and such great excellent men had brought Francis the greatest joy: from the danger of the Cardinalate, for he wished that many should fully enjoy the same tranquillity of mind which he had begun to taste. For association of life no doubt begets a certain honourable and useful emulation of virtue: which, however, should be free from all bitterness of dissensions: and indeed domestic examples invite more than external ones. But someone, I know not who, begrudged him this quiet: as there is nothing in human affairs that is one's own; and joys are tempered mixed with sadness, and sweet things with bitter. For Charles, emperor augustus, having learned that Francis was lying hidden of his own accord, thinking it unworthy that virtue should be concealed, reported to the supreme Pontiff [y] that Borgia, by a spectacle rare in this age and unusual, had abdicated his titles and wished to pass his life perpetually unnoticed and inglorious. That he therefore seemed worthy to be admitted into the number of the purpled Fathers, unless it seemed otherwise to him. For virtue at this time, if ever at another, should be adorned with rewards of that kind, and set as it were in a conspicuous place. That this would be very welcome to him. Nor was there reason for the emperor to labour and doubt: for it was not difficult, as they say, to spur on a running horse. He at once persuaded the Pontiff, to whom the same things had long since come to mind: for he had formerly been on familiar and friendly terms with Francis at Rome. The matter having therefore been brought to the college of Cardinals, all assented.

[81] When Ignatius heard of this at Rome, yet rather late by the prudence of Ignatius, (as is wont to happen to those whom the danger most nearly concerns), he feared lest, as was the case, much would be detracted from the repute of Francis, since everyone is accustomed, from the lust of calumniating, to seize readily on a handle, boasting that hypocrisy reigns far and wide: that Francis had abdicated his goods and titles in order that, as a private man, under the appearance of religion and holiness, he might catch the purple hat for himself; and might enrich his children, he being still alive. Then that this too would be very disadvantageous to the Society: for a window would be opened to ambition, which is the foulest plague, the blight and ruin not only of the families of pious men but of all commonwealths and kingdoms. Wherefore he judged it best done * to protect and enlarge the newly born Society by the contrary arts, namely by poverty and contempt of honours. For by equality of life, and at the same time by similarity of offices and manners, charity, the closest bond of religious union, grows strong. For which reason he strove with all his might to bar access to honours to the companions, and to forbid it by laws enacted. Whence it came about that, having thrown himself at the feet of the Pontiff, he asked and entreated him not to confer the honour on one unwilling: but, to satisfy the emperor and the college of Cardinals, he might indeed offer the hat, but not compel him by force of obedience to take it. For thus both his honour would be provided for, and he would comply with his own mind. That it also mattered very greatly to the Society that its members be kept from honours. Let him kindly grant this at least to the nascent and rising plant of the fellowship.

[82] Ignatius obtained what as a suppliant he had asked with tears in person: he is freed, not without great joy of mind, Francis meanwhile being aware of none of these things and wonderfully captivated by that Cantabrian retreat. He, as soon as he heard, was indeed tormented in mind: but by almost the same message he wiped away his distress, hearing that the matter had been dispelled by the singular prudence and speech of Ignatius. He likewise gave thanks to God, who had conferred this honour on him, which he would gladly give back to Him from whom it proceeded; being ready to offer even the whole world, if he possessed dominion over it, with the same eagerness of mind and contempt of human things. To Pope Julius also he gave a testimony of his grateful mind by letter: praying that, with his kind permission and blessing, he might be allowed to live obscure and private, so that he might bring to completion the beginnings of his life changed for the better: which one thing, and nothing besides, he clearly affirmed had been his purpose when he abdicated the titles and goods of duke.

[83] and he more than once rejects that dignity. Nor indeed had he emerged once only from these dangers, nor was he yet in every respect secure. For the same thing was attempted again and more often by the Pontiffs. By that same Julius III, at the request of Philip, prince of the Spains, who now holds the helm of the kingdom, and may he hold it long: for he had given John Poggio, nuncio of the Apostolic See, afterwards Cardinal, the charge of transacting the matter. But Francis, having met him in the convent of Blessed Dominic de la Calzada [z], learned what business was afoot. He, with a certain eloquence divinely given, discoursed with such weighty reasons that he easily dispelled the matter, and Poggio afterwards dissuaded both the king and the Pontiff from making trouble for Francis, who wished to lie hidden, and taking away his tranquillity of mind: since no honours sufficiently fill the soul and render it blessed. Again two Pontiffs Pius, the fourth and the fifth, tried to create him Cardinal while he was living at Rome, as rumour spread abroad. Not only the mention but even the recollection of this drew tears from him. He therefore frequently prayed God that He who had led him away from the cares and honours of the world and bidden him be poor would not suffer him to be rolled back into the storms of dignities. It is handed down to memory that Gaspar Hernandez, who was accustomed to give him ears as he confessed daily, heard from Francis once, when mention of dignities chanced to be made, that he had long since prayed God that he might be permitted to depart this life before being burdened again, against his will, with titles and goods.

ANNOTATIONS.

c. In Guipúzcoa.

d. Aloysia or Louisa.

k. The 13th of July.

l. Psalm 75, verse 13.

m. 1 John 4, verse 1.

n. Psalm 54, verse 9.

o. John 3, verse 8.

p. Romans 8, verse 15.

q. Thessalonians 5, verse 18.

r. Psalm 76, verse 4.

s. Luke 1, verse 47.

t. Read: Antony.

u. Mary Henriquez, grandmother of St. Francis (of whom more fully above, number 20 and the three following), and Elvira Henriquez, Antony's grandmother, had Henry Henriquez and Mary de Luna as common parents. See Table XVIII of the family of Girón, inserted in volume 3 of Hispania illustrata.

x. Calaguris (in Spanish Calahorra) is an episcopal city in Old Castile on the river Ebro.

y. Julius III.

z. Calciata, as Baudrand writes, is a city of Old Castile on the river Oja, celebrated for devotion to St. Dominic, also called Dominicopolis.

* to do

CHAPTER V.

Having departed from Oñate by order of Ignatius, he gathers abundant fruits through Spain and Portugal.

CAP. VI.

Having left Oñate, It had happened most welcome to Francis that he had avoided the titles of honours as the rocks of the Sirens: and when he was now secure from storm and shipwreck in that retreat at St. Magdalen's, which he had already chosen for himself as the seat of his life and death, behold, unexpectedly, a command was brought from Ignatius that he should go out, and come forth as from the shade into the sun and into view, and bring fruit to others; mindful that he had not been joined to the Society by God in order to study himself alone. Having therefore departed from Oñate as soon as possible, with tears and sighs, as one who would never again see his sweet retreat, he came to the town which they call Casarrubios ^a, belonging to Ferdinand Velasco, constable of the realm: whose wife, Juliana Angela of Aragon, was a cousin of Francis's mother ^b. He learned many things about religion and piety, and indeed about every kind of duty, by diligently asking. Yet, being asked to turn aside into his palace, he refused; content with a humble roof. Thence, having set out for the city of Burgos ^c, he preached in the principal church at the request of the canons and of the senate and people. Departing thence, he went to Pintia of the Vaccaei ^d, where the seat and court of the emperor then was: but a few priests of the Society were living cramped in the small building of the hospice of St. Antony. Soon he set out to the town which got its name from the Bulls ^e, summoned by Joanna, princess of Portugal. Here in the week which some call Greater, others Holy, he discoursed on the torments of Christ in His passion, with great fruit to the hearers. Thence he came to Salamanca ^f: in which university many youths of great promise and substance alike, invited by the example of Francis, of their own accord bound themselves to the Society. Afterwards, having entered Tordesillas ^g, where Joanna, queen of Spain, mother of Charles, then happened to be lying ill, in

he steadfastly declined again to turn aside into the palace.

[85] He travels through various towns of Spain; Thence at Medina del Campo ^h he preached opportunely, for the first Mass of Antony of Córdoba, newly inaugurated into the priesthood: and he took care that the foundations of the college already laid should be carried up to the roof. Here he was summoned again by letter, for the sake of a visit, by the mother of Antony of Córdoba, the marchioness of Priego, and by her sister ⁱ, duchesses of Arcos and of Medina Sidonia ^k. Having set out there, he held continual discourses on divine things, and in a short time implanted love and goodwill toward the Society; so that they themselves not long after invited the companions to dwell in their dominions. I ought not to pass over at present this example of the patience and modesty of Francis. While he was going from the kingdom of Castile to Baetica, attended by his companions Antony of Córdoba and Bustamante, in the rough and broken mountains of Mariana (the inhabitants today call them the Sierra Morena), weary from the road, he entered an inn and public lodging; to refresh his tired body with food while the midday heat was breaking. When he had dismounted on foot and entered the single and empty room of the inn, at once, as is his wont, on bended knees, intent on prayer, he implored the help of God. Meanwhile there returned a Traveller who had occupied it before, having placed his baggage there; and thinking that some cleric of the common sort had entered there and was trying under the appearance of piety to make off with his things by theft, he began in anger to quarrel, to raise his voice, to hurl abuse, and even to threaten blows. Francis, such was his modesty of mind, rising from prayer, said: "Grant me this pardon, and be of tranquil mind. For it is not my purpose to exclude you from the room: nay rather, if I had occupied it first in time, I would gladly yield it to you. The blows with which you threaten me, I confess indeed that I have deserved by my sins." A crowd suddenly gathered at the voice of the man shouting; and when they had placated the quarreller and informed him that those on whom he was venting his spleen were illustrious and famous men, he, coming to himself, with great shame, falling on his knees begs pardon. Francis, having raised him from the ground and embraced him in the Lord, bade him sit beside him: exhorting him to patience, and that henceforth, if he were wise, he should not slacken the reins of anger.

CAP. VII.

[86] When it had become known in Portugal that Francis had set out for Baetica, and thence making his way into Portugal, the king gave Jerome Natalis, who was then staying at Lisbon, and to whom the province of the companions in Spain had been committed, the charge of having him summoned. For he vehemently desired to see him in person and to treat with him of divine things. Natalis, in answer to this, said that he had authority over the provinces of the companions in Spain, by order of Ignatius, except over Francis alone: but that he would ask him by letter what the sovereigns wished. He promises with good hope that he would fly there as soon as possible, such was his zeal for obliging. Nor did his expectation deceive the man. For when the letter had been delivered, since he thought nothing mattered more to the Society, putting off all affairs, he at once hastened; not unmindful how many and how great were the eminent benefits of the king of Portugal (so that he may deservedly be called its patron) toward the Society.

[87] he snatches Bustamante from danger of life, When he had entered on the road with Bustamante, this happened, like a prodigy. While they were getting their beasts over a rock rough and encumbered with stones, which the neighbours call the Seven Pallares, on this side of the river Mondego, not far from Coimbra, Francis was going in front, intent on prayer; Bustamante was following behind, counting prayers to the B. Virgin on beads. On a ledge and in the narrows of the place, formidable even to look at, the beast slipped and fell headlong, rolling over and over, up and down; so that Bustamante, half dead in other respects, had only his voice entire, and called upon Christ and the Mother of God. Francis, quicker than words, at the cry of the shepherds who had shouted at the spectacle, turns back his eyes, often repeating this: "Jesus, help, Father of mercies." When behold (wonderful to tell) the mule at once stopped against a stone: and, what seems incredible, with its body unharmed. Bustamante, drawn out by travellers with ropes as from an abyss, emerged alive and well; ascribing his life to the Virgin, to whom he was then pouring out prayers, and to the vows of Francis. They came at last to Coimbra, where Francis by his presence gladdened the companions. When he preached from the pulpit, the flower of a most celebrated university and of noblemen flocked into the church of the Society.

[88] Afterwards at Lisbon he was received by the sovereigns with singular kindness, and abundant, and heard assiduously on sacred matters, publicly and privately. Queen Catherine was above all delighted with the conversations of Francis, not unmindful that as a boy he had once served her at Tordesillas: both because no shadowy image of holiness shone forth in him; and because he suggested salutary counsels of life and religion. Moreover, Louis, prince of Portugal, was on familiar terms with Francis, according to the old intimacy which had subsisted between them before, when he had set out formerly to the emperor's court to visit his sister the empress: and when he had been present with Charles in Africa as he took Tunis ^l by arms. He lived a celibate life, and, collecting himself, lived without glory, holding up the torch of piety to others: resting assiduously in prayer to God and in the meditation of heavenly things. He was so inflamed by intercourse with Francis that he had resolved to dedicate himself to the Society: but, because he was of weak health and already rather advanced in age, it seemed to Ignatius that he would bring more public advantage if he remained celibate in the retinue of his brother the king, helping him by deed and counsel, as hitherto. For the rest, you would have said he was one of the companions.

[89] For he was content with a humble and inelegant house, without royal splendour and a crowd of servants. at the court He sold the vessels of gold and silver and the tapestries, and indeed all ornament, and with the money raised he paid off all his debts. He bound himself of his own accord by vows of continence and poverty, following the counsels of the Evangelical law, and of obedience, so far as his affairs and dignity allowed. With affability and courtesy of manners, mixed with prudent gravity, he displayed nothing swollen, nothing lofty in his speech. He was wont gladly to relieve the want of others and to cherish the needy with alms. He was accustomed to send a page-boy to the house of the professed companions at St. Roch in the village of Xabregas ^m, to summon some priest, whoever he might be, for the expiation of his sins, as for one man among many. Weeping frequently, he often used these words: "What will become of wretched me, if even an Ethiopian, a household slave, far happier than I, possesses heaven, and I am shut out? And if it goes so splendidly with us that we are both blessed: what if he is happier than I by many degrees, because he loved God more ardently, while I, too much entangled in the cares of the world, neglected my salvation?" Imitating perhaps in this speech Augustine, whose memorable saying is: "The unlearned rise up and take heaven by force: and we with our learning, without heart, behold, wallow in flesh and blood ⁿ." The same man was the author to his brother Henry the Cardinal that he should embrace and cherish the companions, by building a school at Évora ^o, whose church he governed as its prelate. While this was being built, Louis, being then at Évora, daily urged on the work and pressed it forward. He likewise visited the sick companions, regarding them as brothers: he felt the vein and the artery and the region of the heart after the manner of physicians: he examined the onset and the departure of the disease, served them, and consoled them with conversations. These things indeed it has pleased me to report chiefly with this design, that all that change of life for the better is owed to Francis, after God.

[90] chiefly at the court of Lisbon. At that time the foundations were laid of the Professed house at St. Roch: that was a chapel within the precincts of the city of Lisbon, in a deserted place planted with olive groves. The king, with the greatest liberality and munificence, had the site bought up at his own expense, through the agency of Peter Mascarenhas, a most noble man and devoted to the Society: who, being formerly ambassador of Portugal to the Pontiff, was the author of the first companions being sent into East India [p]. The king, with John, prince of Portugal, was present at the sacred rites. Jerome Natalis offered the divine service. Francis discoursed from the higher place on divine things, to the greatest admiration of the hearers [q]. The prince, having come out of the church, said to the lords who were present: "This Preacher indeed pleases me, who performs in deed what he teaches." Therefore an ample house for the companions and an august church began to be built by royal munificence: and the city grew, suburban streets and buildings having been added round about.

[91] he gathers the fruits of his journey: These things having been duly attended to and the wishes of the sovereigns fulfilled, he decided, pressing business urging, to return into the kingdom of Castile. Henry the Cardinal, however, the king's other brother, having learned from Louis's letters what had been done at Lisbon, was himself also eager to see Francis: he asks him to make his journey by that way. And he gives the superior of the companions there the charge of informing him as soon as possible on his arrival. On the day after he entered the city of Évora, having preached in the principal church, he wonderfully refreshed the Cardinal and indeed all the citizens. At the eighth milestone from there Theodosius, duke of Bragança, himself also inflamed with the desire of seeing him, came forward to meet him in the town of Vila Viçosa. Those offices of courtesy, however, tormented rather than delighted the mind of Francis. Yet princes who had deserved well of the Society had to be complied with. In which kind of goodwill that duke excelled many; and his children and posterity have preserved the same devotion toward the companions, handed down from their forebears by right of inheritance.

CAP. VIII.

[92] Having returned from Portugal, he made straight for Pintia, where the court of Philip, prince of the Spains, ruling on behalf of the emperor Charles, then was. having returned into Spain he acts as sacred orator at Valladolid and Alcalá For difficult business invited him there. He turned aside to the companions, who were living cramped in the hospice of St. Antony, so that he seemed to recognize his old retreat of Oñate, in which he had first hidden himself. Nevertheless, even though he lay hidden in a humble house, the lords of Spain frequently visited him. And when they kept up their customary usage in salutations and showy titles, Francis, affected with weariness, sometimes asked on bended knees that they would refrain from titles; lest they seem to reproach God for having conferred on him the eminent benefit of vocation; and lest they make more of what he had cast away than of what he had now taken up. Here he held frequent discourses on the word of God, both to the veiled virgins and in the church of the companions of St. Antony, so that a great change of morals for the better followed. He explained the Lamentations of Jeremiah in sermons, to which he also put an end at Alcalá [r], with a great concourse of learned men of both universities; who said that what he publicly taught proceeded not so much from books as from humble prayer and knowledge given from heaven.

[93] He also did this memorable thing at that very time. The virgins consecrated to God and he leads a colony of the Poor Clares of Gandía into Castile. who hold the austere life and rule of St. Clare he brought over from Gandía into the kingdom of Castile. Of which convent of Gandía this was the origin: about the year 1462 some French matrons consecrated to God by vows, compelled for just reasons to leave their native soil, Marseilles [s], by sea, put in at Barcelona [t], and, kindly received by John, king of Aragon, the second of this name, were sent to Gandía, the church sacred to St. Clare, which some private and pious women possessed, being assigned to them. Nor long after they spread far and wide the odour of piety and of a severer life and continence, so that very many pure virgins, born even of illustrious family, desiring to enter the same way of life (the cares of the world being abdicated), devoted themselves of their own accord to Christ, and a heavenly life on earth

they lived. In this family Francis saw his grandmother [u], likewise his daughter [x], his sisters [y], his cousins and his nieces. From there, as it were, colonies were led out into other provinces, to Gerona [z], to Setúbal [aa] in Portugal (which some think was the Salacia of the ancients), likewise to Valencia of the Edetani [bb], to Ampurias [cc], and to the town of Ilici, or whether it should be named Alona, which today is Alicante [dd] to the natives. Yet up to that day those sacred virgins had not penetrated into the kingdoms of Castile. Francis treated of that matter with Juliana Angela of Aragon, the lady duchess of Frías, and at the same time referred it to Joanna, princess of Portugal, and persuaded her without difficulty. And so, with the kind permission of the Pontiff, there went out from the monastery of Gandía two aunts, Frances, sister of John, duke of Gandía, and Mary, sister of the marquis of Denia. Likewise two sisters of Francis [ee]. Having set out thence from Pintia, they fixed their seat at Madrid. The princess Joanna [ff] built the monastery with her own money: which Margaret of Austria, daughter of the emperor Maximilian, recently made wonderfully illustrious when, spurning the honours and delights of the world, she gave herself to that family.

a. In La Rioja.

p. In the year 1540, ambassador of John III, king of Portugal, to Paul III.

q. On the Kalends of October of the year 1553, on which day possession of that house was entered upon, as Ribadeneira adds, book 2, chapter 7.

r. Which is a town of Hispania Tarraconensis, called Alcalá de Henares by the Spaniards.

s. An episcopal city in Gallia Narbonensis, and a celebrated emporium on the coast of the Mediterranean sea.

t. The principal city of Catalonia, likewise situated on the coast of the Mediterranean sea.

u. Mary Henriquez, or Mary Gabriela.

x. Dorothea.

y. Isabella and Joanna of the Cross; so Alvarus Cienfuegos, book 1, chapter 2, §2.

z. It is an episcopal city in Catalonia, called Girona in Spanish.

aa. A town of Portugal, called Setúbal in the vernacular.

bb. The principal city of the kingdom of the same name in Spain.

cc. A town of Catalonia on the coast of the Mediterranean sea.

dd. A town of the kingdom of Valencia, which Escolano, History of Valencia, book 6, chapter XI, numbers 8 and 9, contends is wrongly called Ilici.

ee. Alvarus Cienfuegos, book 1, chapter 2, §2, calls the one Isabella, abbess of Gandía; the other Joanna of the Cross, abbess of Madrid: but Ribadeneira, book 2, chapter 9, besides the Poor Clares reported here by Schottus, also records the sisters Mary of the Cross and Joanna Baptista, and others whose names he passes over in silence. But not all went out from Gandía at the same time: for in the year 1552, on the witness of John Carrillo in the Life of the princess Joanna, chapter 8, Frances of Jesus (the aunt of St. Francis) went from Gandía to Casarrubios, to whom were designated as companions Mary of Jesus (daughter of Bernard Sandoval and Frances Enriquez, marquises of Denia), Jerónima del Pesebre, Margaret de la Coluna, Isabella of the Incarnation and Anne of the Cross; to whom afterwards others, also from Gandía, were added. They moved to Valladolid in the year 1557, where Frances died in the same year. Finally they were transferred to Madrid in the year 1559, in which at length Joanna of the Cross, sister of St. Francis, summoned from Gandía to Madrid after the death of Mary of Jesus, began to discharge the office of abbess.

ff. Daughter of Charles V, widow of John, prince of Portugal, who died in the year 1554.

CHAPTER VI.

Made Commissary of Spain and the East Indies, he excellently promotes the affairs of the Society; he renders to Charles V an account of having entered the Society, and performs his embassy to Catherine, queen of Portugal.

CAP. IX.

Proclaimed Commissary of Spain and the Indies, Ignatius had seen that Francis managed affairs well, so that whatever things he undertook he brought to a happy outcome. He decided, therefore, to set him over the companions of all Spain. Portugal was even then a separate province: the rest of the Spains doctor Araoz governed by order of Ignatius. But as the number of colleges increased day by day, he said he was not equal to bearing the burden. It pleased Ignatius, therefore, to proclaim a Provincial superior of both Castiles, as they call them today, so that Araoz might have a lighter burden. Two further provinces had been added, Baetica and Aragon. Over these five provinces of the Society in Spain in all, and over the East Indies, Francis was placed by Ignatius, and the care of administering the Society generally was committed to him. He, however, tried to decline the burden, saying he preferred to lie hidden, to live obscure and to give himself to himself and God. But Ignatius, sending him a letter, commanded; that so it had pleased God. Wherefore, as he had done hitherto, let him be obedient, and call the Society to the method of a perfect life by example and counsel: let him increase the number as far as he could, yet with selection and prudence. Let him likewise visit and go round the colleges of the companions, and restore and advance those already begun. Whatever time remained from journeys he should spend at the court: for there it would be convenient both to promote the business of piety and to send letters in every direction.

[95] Francis, such was his lowliness of mind, obeyed and yielded to the commands of Ignatius: he is bidden by Ignatius to temper the rigour of life which he had increased. and indeed, in this difficult manner of administering the province, thinking, as was the case, that he would one day be compelled to render to God an account of the souls entrusted to him, although he had before been a severe inquisitor upon himself, yet he then began to do everything more diligently and accurately: sometimes repeating in his mind this, NOW I HAVE BEGUN ^a. For now, as though released from laws, and lacking an overseer and guardian of his conduct, he punished himself more immoderately with vigils, fasts and scourges, so that he weakened his health not a little. Learning of this, Ignatius, though absent, reproved the deed: that measure must be kept in everything, in ascetic exercises also, so that we may survive. He therefore added an old priest, by whose counsel he should govern the works of penance, and take account of his health, lest he should seem to have harmed it rashly. It can scarcely be said how many and how great benefits he then brought to the companions and to outsiders in Spain. For the Society was at that time still recent, and was assailed by many, as generally happens, especially at its very origin. He resolved to make the beginning from himself, and to ask God above all that He who had laid the burden on his shoulders would also supply strength equal to bearing the burden. Colleges, partly already begun, he advanced and brought to the roof; partly also he began colleges which afterwards took on greater increase.

CAP. X.

[96] Of the many colleges, I am pleased to report the origin of two, illustrious for the memory of posterity, [Bishop Carvajal, founder of the college of Plasencia, through the prayers of Francis] that of Plasencia and that of Seville. Gutierre Carvajal, bishop of Plasencia ^b, drawn by the fame both of Francis and of the companions Laínez and Salmerón, whom he had dealt with at the synod of Trent, had a letter sent to him, asking him to send some companions whom he might call into a share of the cares of the flock committed to him: and that the benefit would be the more abundant if he would join himself to them. Francis, thinking that nothing should be put off, soon set out on the road, taking some companions along: received by the bishop so kindly that greater things could not have come from a parent. Having dealt with the companions at home very familiarly, he found that the reputation was surpassed by the reality, contrary to what usually happens. Gutierre was then rather overbearing in the impetuosity of his temper, and more given than was fair to courtly manners in public, than seemed worthy of the office of a priest, much less of a bishop. Nor did this escape Francis. He therefore prayed to God assiduously, and gave the companions the same task, that for a whole month they should commend the bishop's salvation to God by prayers, fasts and the other exercises. The prudent Man had seen that there is great weight in the examples of princely men for governing the life and morals of citizens. At length, having prayed to God with more intense care and for longer, coming out of his room with eyes aflame, so that you would believe a flame was flashing forth, to the fathers who chanced to meet him he said with a cheerful voice: "I bid you be of good heart: and thanks must be given to God, who has heard our prayers, and has looked with pity on the bishop who has deserved well of us."

[97] he amends his conduct. Nor was it long before Carvajal collected himself. Intent on prayer, and recalling with tears the memory of his past life to its furthest point, he duly confessed and expiated the sins of his whole life. He at once proclaimed by voice of the crier that he wished satisfaction to be made by him to all. If he had perchance knowingly and wittingly injured anyone, by his own agency or that of his ministers; if he had defrauded anyone, let him come boldly to reclaim his property. He besides appointed judges and arbiters, John Ayora, who was then acting as his vicar, and was afterwards bishop of the church of Oviedo ^c: likewise two companions, the one well skilled in theology, the other in Pontifical law. These should settle disputes and render to each his right according to equity and right. He also brought his household at home to thrift and frugality, sending away the crowd of servants and courtiers, content with six priests of singular uprightness of life: whom he also had at his table, furnished with the greatest temperance. And daily a book of the sacred scripture was read by a reader, whereby the mind might chiefly be refreshed. He returned into favour with the canons of the church: and, injuries having been freely remitted, grudges and hatreds were laid aside. He commissioned the visiting of the whole diocese to men especially pious, who should not only teach the untaught but also feed the needy, a great quantity of money being distributed. At his own house he supplied food daily sometimes to three hundred and to a thousand needy persons, and was present in person at the table: the precepts of Christian doctrine likewise being delivered by a companion acting as catechist. This change of life for the better brought admiration to all and offered an example to the rest. All of it is to be credited to the prayers of Francis.

[98] At Seville ^d the demon had at that time begun secretly to sow tares: That a college be founded which evil was provided against in time by the vigilance of the censors of the faith: and that Francis might help in his part, he decided to send companions there as into a colony. He therefore sends to Seville John Suarez, who governed the college of the companions at Salamanca, though not yet sufficiently recovered from a long illness. He bids him seek a humble and narrow house which would hold twelve companions: he promises that he himself would shortly come there to furnish the college. He obeyed, and was carried to Seville about the Kalends of November ^e, John Gutierrez accompanying him. Here Cervantes Salazar, acting as vicar of the archbishop, who was afterwards created Cardinal and archbishop of Tarragona, cherished ours and built the college. To him Suarez presented himself with a suppliant petition, asking power to preach and to say Mass. He produces the Pontiff's diplomas concerning the institute of the Society: he easily won his approval for himself and his affairs. These things done, with the leave of so great a man he set to work energetically, partly by discoursing publicly on divine things, partly to those confessing

by giving them his ears, so that he was thus restored from a lingering disease, as though God had shown him this way of strengthening his health. Ferdinand Ponce de León, a nobleman, captivated by the man's piety, assigned him an ample and spacious house to live in.

[99] Francis is therefore summoned: who, together with Michael Torres, he attends to the college of Seville, and teaches his own Bartholomew Bustamante and Paul Hernandez, when he saw a palace, and that no humble cottages had been sought (being a most ardent lover of poverty), rebuked John Suarez, though modestly; that the seat of poor men seemed too proud, whereas poverty is the greatest safeguard of religion. He remained, however, compelled by the narrowness of the time, because the Nativity of Christ was being kept. Not long after he moved into a humble house, which from age was already cracked and faulty, so that when it rained drops sprinkled the bedroom, and the house dripped on all sides. At first they were afflicted by great want, because the companions still lay unknown to the public. It happened that they had neither food in the house nor copper or money, and that not a few companions had come in from the road; and the midday hour invited them to dinner. Suarez reported to Francis, as was the case, that there was nothing to be set on the table: should the signal therefore be given by which all would assemble in the refectory? He collected himself for a little, as though to pray to God; soon, composing his countenance to cheerfulness, he said: "You may give the signal for dinner, since much of the day is already gone: trust in God; we are His care. Behold, at the door are two men with baskets of bread and food, so much that it overflowed for feeding the poor outside." Isabella Galindo, an illustrious matron, had sent that provision as a gift. Francis had obtained it from God by prayers, and, addressing the companions, said: "Learn, sons, to trust in God: know that if we seek His glory nothing will be lacking to our souls and bodies."

[100] Nor at Seville only, but elsewhere once and again the same thing happened; to trust in divine Providence. namely at Pintia and at Simancas: where likewise food was brought to them unexpectedly, but by men who would not say which mortal sent it; so that the matter seemed to be conducted by the providence of God. And these indeed were the beginnings of the Society in Baetica, small indeed and weak amid so great a want of all things, but such as afterwards grew beyond measure: so that now that rich commonwealth maintains a college of the companions and a Professed house, to the great benefit of its citizens; because the youth are imbued not only with letters but also with piety of conduct.

CAP. XI.

[101] While he was staying at Plasencia, the convenience of the place seemed to persuade him to Charles V to visit the emperor, who was not far away, and to render in person an account of the counsel he had undertaken. For the unexpected affair had given occasion of talk to many, who interpreted it otherwise than was right. And the emperor, a pious prince, having previously been entangled in foreign wars, had scarcely come to know the Society, being newly arisen. He had withdrawn, his age being now weary, into the monastery of the Hieronymite brethren surnamed of St. Justus, in the most pleasant district of Plasencia in Spain: so that he might make over to God whatever span of life remained. It was seen as an example in a supreme emperor rare above all and unheard of in our age. For he who had celebrated such great triumphs over the enemies of the faith and of the religion of our forefathers, the Turks and the heretics, gave up the empire of almost the whole world: so that he might consecrate himself more conveniently to Christ, and expiate the errors of his past life by worthy fruits of penance.

[102] of his having entered the Society Francis therefore thought it worth while to congratulate the emperor in person and to render an account of his deed. He had also often learned, from letters of Joanna, the emperor's daughter, and from others of Ferdinand Álvarez of Toledo, count of Oropesa, that in that retirement the emperor was accustomed to ask what was becoming of Francis. Taking, therefore, the priest Bustamante as companion of the journey, he goes on to the emperor. Charles, glad at his arrival, orders him to be received kindly in his own house by Louis Quixada: and a room was made ready. Leave to greet him having been given, Francis fell on his knees. The emperor at once bids him rise and sit; but he persisted in resisting. "Allow me, I pray, august emperor, with your kind permission, today to treat briefly with you as a suppliant on bended knees. I acknowledge that I am bound to you by many titles, and I avow not unwillingly that I am a devoted client of your Majesty. Which cause has moved me to think that I should at present render you an account of my changed life. For I have heard various rumours spread among the people on that matter. When I was attached to your household, liable to many faults, I offended, I confess, not seldom, and was a stumbling-block to others.

[103] rendering an account, It seemed good at length to God, the most kind parent of souls, through no merit of mine, to draw me to Himself, and to put into me this mind, that I should renounce the cares of the world and give myself into the family of religious men of the Society of Jesus. Into which family above all" (although his mind inclined more to the institute of St. Francis) "I felt myself drawn and attracted day by day while I persevered in prayer poured out to God. Others too, who thoroughly knew the inmost recesses of my mind, having offered the matter to the same God, were my advisers to do the same. Here also I had learned that access was barred to honours, which I had already freely abdicated. I knew it was recent: and indeed, just as, if anyone brings a stock to be grafted into a king's new orchard, the gift would no doubt be more welcome than if he were to bring it into gardens long since planted with trees; so I think it happens in the families of pious men, the pleasure-gardens of God the supreme King. They join action to contemplation: from which institute of life I have never shrunk, and wise men have judged it the most perfect. Certainly I can affirm, from the conviction of my mind, that up to this day I have lived pleasantly in the Society and in the greatest tranquillity of mind."

[104] To this the emperor said: "I marvelled indeed, when you thought fit to refer that matter to me from Rome at Augsburg, what had happened, at the same time it that, changing your sailing, as though weary of your condition, you had induced yourself to reverse the course of your life. And then I marvelled most of all that you had betaken yourself to that new family of the Society: of which I see that most people think and speak otherwise than I would wish. As if, forsooth, there were lacking so many and such great old and pious families, approved by antiquity itself and by use." Here Francis modestly said: "If, great emperor, we despise new religious orders on this ground, that they are recently born; the condition of all is the same, that they took their origin once, and grew by length of time: and this very fellowship will grow old with time itself. Nay, if we wish to judge truly, the nearer a thing is to its origin, the better it sees the truth and the more exact it is. And motion is always swifter and more vehement at its beginning. Similarly, at the heads of springs the water is drunk clearer and purer. The Gospel of Christ and the law of grace produced more excellent men, holier and more learned, the nearer they were to the beginning. As to approval, we see the Society confirmed by the authority and auspices of the supreme Pontiff. That it has found rivals and adversaries, I do not deny. For this happens to all things as proper and perpetual, especially to things newly born. But for the most part those attack us who either do not know the companions and their manner of life; or are led by passions of mind, by hatred and envy. I indeed, if I had disapproved of anything in the companions, would not have set foot in it; or, if I had set foot, on discovering the matter I would at once have withdrawn it."

[105] Soon the emperor interrupts: "But how will you refute this, he defends it excellently. that those of this family are all young men; and that there is no old man whom grey hairs and prudence commend?" Here Francis said: "If the mother is of youthful age, not old, what wonder, I ask, if her children too are younger? And if you look more closely, not a few grey-haired men bind themselves to us. I indeed am now in the forty-sixth year of my age, and this companion of my journey, not to go further" (indicating Bustamante) "gave his name to the Society at nearly sixty, and, a man of singular learning and modesty, by no means declined to go through the novitiate." The emperor bids him come in, and recalled to memory that he had once known him: because, sent once to Naples by John Tavera, archbishop of Toledo, he had treated with him of difficult matters. When he had spent three days with the emperor and was now girt for the journey, Charles had two hundred gold pieces given him by way of alms: testifying that it was modest, but that he now, stripped of his goods, sustained the person of a private man. If he took account of his state and condition, he would acknowledge that he had never on any other occasion received a greater benefit from him ^f.

CAP. XII.

[106] Francis returned to Pintia, where the house was being carried up to the roof, he speaks to the people at Valladolid, and at Simancas and the number of companions was growing daily. He preached frequently both in our church and in other churches. Here, since very many courtiers flocked to him in order to consult their own affairs rather than the salvation of their souls, we have learned that he was accustomed to say: "How few mortals come here from the city of Jerusalem: almost all come from Egypt, that by our labour they may become richer rather than better." He was alluding to the divinely inspired saying of the abbot Antony, of whom Palladius ^g has handed down to memory that he was accustomed to ask of Macarius, when people had sought him while absent: whether they had come from Egypt or from Jerusalem. Signifying that the latter pursued the glory of Christ, the former only their own advantage. Francis could therefore with difficulty be induced to give access to himself to all without distinction: lest, if he opened this window, he should be unable to give attention to divine things. The people of Simancas had just then opportunely offered the Society a house ^h, which Francis seized the more eagerly as he desired the more gladly to withdraw somewhere and betake himself from the waves of business as into a harbour. From the universities of Salamanca and Alcalá young men of great promise flocked to give their names to the Society: but a place where they might be received was lacking. Francis, therefore, thinking that the place which he had already found suitable for himself for solitude and prayer would also be fit for forming novices in piety, decided to enlarge the house by adding wings.

[107] he takes care that a novitiate be erected, For he had observed from long experience of affairs, as the same man testifies in a letter given to the companions, that it is of very great importance to the Society, and indeed to all religious orders, that the novitiate be happily established first and laid down as a foundation. For as a good recruit at length turns out a good soldier: so also in the ascetic institute of life, he who has conquered himself and the passions of his mind at the beginning will happily run the remaining course of life. He therefore established a humble house, such as he had had built at Oñate: labouring himself, carrying materials, lime and stones. Here he enrolled in the Society many, not only young men but also men famous in birth and letters. Over these he set as master of conduct and piety Bustamante, already weighty in age and prudence. And most gladly he joined to the others those who bound themselves to the Society at a more advanced age and in their full vigour: and that for many reasons. First, because with mature judgement, deliberating long and much, they embrace that manner of life; and retain it with the same constancy to their last breath. Then, because the younger must be educated at great expense and through many years, with uncertain outcome too: whereas men, the course of studies having already been run, you see at once rendering useful service to the Society, both by teaching and by preaching; provided only that they be such as have joined the simplicity of little children, as Christ commands, with prudence of conduct.

[108] in which, to the novices, Before these Francis held up the torch by example, and showed the way by exhorting, urging,

consoling and recalling, since some needed the bridle, others the spurs. Through the public streets, a choir of singing boys going before, he discharged the office of catechist. From the higher place likewise he explained the word of God. There was then by chance in the novitiate one who shrank from wiping the filth off the dishes, and undertook this burden unwillingly, though the rest gladly: that he might put off this useless fear, Francis, with him looking on, eagerly drank the water fouled with filth with which he had then washed the plates. The young man, broken by the spectacle, fell at his feet and begged pardon. Having once entered the college of Simancas from Pintia, he went straight to the kitchen: unknown, he asks the cook whether he has any orders: that he would give him his help today. The cook, not knowing him, asks what he knows. "Nothing," says Francis. "But the things I perform more rightly and in which I am wont to err less are these: to sweep the floor, to clean the pots." "Wash, then," says the cook, "those earthen pots, covered with soot." And he: "Gladly too"; and he stayed there a long time, until he was called away by his companion to attend to grave matters.

[109] Having also once set out from Pintia rather late, and delay having occurred on the road, he goes before by example. he reached Simancas, at the second milestone from there, at dead of night. He knocks at the doors of the college. Much snow was then falling from the sky: yet in vain he waits until the second watch of the night for the doors to open, the companions being held in the deepest sleep: for the house stood rather far back from the gate. When at last he was let in, so far was he from taking ill the delay and the inclemency of the sky that he brought back from it too a great fruit of piety. "I believe indeed," he said, "that as a prince takes the greatest pleasure in a wild beast harried in the arena with goads and reed and hunting; so God was delighted today while He pelted me, no better than the wild beasts themselves, with soft balls of snow: which yet did not hurt me, but urged and drove me on. For so the Prophet says: Who giveth snow like wool; scattereth mists like ashes ⁱ." A noble young man had likewise recently been enrolled here among the companions; yet he was so little captivated by the ascetic exercises and that domestic poverty that, repenting of his deed, he sprang back from the institute of life he had undertaken. When the conversations of Francis availed nothing for keeping him constant, he said to the companions, prophesying: "Let him go: for he is not yet ripe. He will return, believe me, and will afterwards correct by deed this very weakness of judgement." Nor was Francis a false augur. For afterwards the same man, abdicating of his own accord an ecclesiastical dignity, returned again to the Society, and lived to his very last day piously and constantly, so as to be a singular example to all the others.

CAP. XIII.

[110] About the same time, in the year 57 of that century, on the 3rd day before the Ides of June, John III, king of Portugal, had died, Sent by Charles to Catherine, widow of John III, king of Portugal, a prince of peace, famous in the arts of war, but most famous for piety toward God and religion. He cherished the Society above all, and was the first to bring the companions over to himself into his kingdom; he assigned them houses with royal liberality, and built colleges from the foundations. He likewise was the first to send companions into East India; to bring to those barbarous nations, the dense darkness having been dispelled, the light of Evangelical truth. That death was mournful both to the whole Christian world and to the Society: which seemed to have lost at the same time a parent and a patron. Francis consoles Catherine, the king's consort, in the common name of the Society, by a pious letter: that kings are indeed like the pillars and props of the Church of God; but that, when it pleases God, they are transferred from the militant Jerusalem to the triumphant. That it went splendidly with him, who had happily exchanged this earthly kingdom for the heavenly: he exhorted her, therefore, not to decline the helm of the kingdom while her grandson Sebastian was growing up to rule.

[111] Not long after, having himself followed into Portugal, by the emperor's command he treated with the same queen and with the lords on great matters. he escapes a twofold danger of death, He had not yet reached Évora when he suffered from a most burning fever, which * the violence of the disease soon turned into a pestilent delirium, to the despair of the physicians. Prayers and supplications were proclaimed by order of the prince Cardinal of Évora ^k. As he lay already in the college of the companions, despaired of and almost given up, the royal physician ^l and the companions were present weeping, to whom Francis unexpectedly said: "Why do you shed tears in vain? Will they snatch me from death, if it has seemed good to God to recall me from this exile of life to the fatherland? But this fruit is not yet ripe to be set on the tables of the supreme king. A great road still remains for us: nay, within four days I shall go on to Lisbon alive and well." That seemed unexpected and beyond belief, and, if you consulted the laws of nature, impossible. Yet on the day after that day, a salutary medicine having been taken, his bowels were purged, and the force of the disease abated, and he was better. The third day had already dawned when members of the household sent by queen Catherine were present: with whom on the next day he committed himself to the journey to Lisbon. But not even here was he altogether free from danger. For as he was crossing the river Tagus, such a storm suddenly arose that nothing came nearer to happening than that he should be overwhelmed by the waters; since not a few other vessels perished in that tempest. The queen, his arrival having been announced, orders him to be carried to Xabregas, a royal villa near the river, famous for its pleasantness and the healthiness of its air: and takes care that he be received with all royal provision. Having stayed here some days, he showed that he was hastening to Lisbon, to St. Roch, the Professed house of the Society.

[112] He therefore bids his baggage be gathered. The royal attendants, thinking, as was the case, that he was hurrying there because he was fleeing that royal luxury, and he experiences divine providence toward him. and far preferred the poverty of the companions to that provision, exhorted him, taking account of his health, not to set out on the road unseasonably. But he did nothing slackly, and pressed on; he refuses to spend the night there. Francis with his companions would no doubt have met with harm, had he not escaped it by a certain providence. For on that very night a storm of winds, blowing more violently from the very furthest bounds of India, brought in a pestilent disease, and many people everywhere were carried off at those seasons of the year. I shall subjoin a not dissimilar example of divine providence. Suero Vega, son of John Vega, president of Spain, once met him on a journey, and they had turned aside to the same inn: and when they had driven off the cold with a fire, Francis, as is his wont, withdrew to pray to God. Vega kept his place. Not long after our Francis hurriedly came out of the room: "Let us flee," he said, "danger is at hand." No sooner said than done: they had scarcely left the house when the roof fell, which would have crushed them all had not Francis taken care. The pious, no doubt, are under the protection of God. Recovered and strengthened from his illness, he greets the queen of Portugal and her grandson Sebastian: likewise the lords of the kingdom, and sets forth his embassy.

ANNOTATIONS.

a. Psalm 76, verse XI.

e. Of the year 1554.

i. Psalm 147, verse 16.

l. Barbosa by name.

* than

CHAPTER VII.

He praises Charles V in a funeral oration; he institutes some missions; he undertakes a second journey into Portugal and to Rome; he is twice appointed Vicar of the Society.

CAP. XIV.

[113] Charles in an oration He returned home: he renders the emperor an account of what had been done: there was frequent conversation about the salvation of the soul and ascetic matters. For Charles was then preparing himself for death, and greatly desired to approve the accounts of his past life and of the empire he had administered to God, the supreme Judge of souls. Francis raised him up as he languished by the remembrance of the mercy and clemency of God. Nor did his augury of the approaching death deceive. For he had scarcely left the monastery and reached Pintia when the sad news was brought that the emperor had died on the 11th day before the Kalends of October, in the year of Salvation 1558. In the testament for executing his last will, which he wished to be held valid, he names Francis. It was, however, very grievous to him that he had not been at hand to Charles in his agony, to render this last office to a patron who had deserved excellently of him, and to close his eyes as he died.

[114] Afterwards, however, being asked, he did not decline to proclaim him in a funeral eulogy at Pintia, he praises in a funeral oration; before a crowded ring of courtiers: using the words of the royal Prophet: "Lo, I have gone far off flying away, and I abode in the wilderness ^a." Proclaiming his deed worthy of a hero; who, after having so often triumphed over his enemies, had at last conquered himself. For, having renounced human affairs, empire and kingdoms, he had withdrawn and lived as a private man. He had of his own accord laid crowns, sceptres, fasces at the feet of Christ crucified; so that, foreseeing death long before, he might more conveniently render an account of the empire he had administered to the supreme Emperor, with good hope of eternal happiness. This among other things was memorable and to be transmitted to posterity; that Charles from the twenty-first year of his age had let no day go by in which he did not give an hour to prayer and meditation, and take it away from business. Finally Francis closed his last discourse with death, which is the door to eternal life.

CAP. XV.

[115] About the same time the plague of depraved opinions in religion had secretly invaded Pintia: the calumny of heresy and that evil, the more hidden the more dangerous, having arisen, as happens, from small sparks, would have set the province of Spain aflame, had not Philip, a truly Catholic king, and the inquisitors of the faith flown in time and eagerly to extinguish the common conflagration. The origin of the evil is related roughly thus. While the flower of the Spanish nobility followed the august emperor into Germany and the other regions infected with this blight, some, contaminated by intercourse, commerce and disputations (which are wont to bring more harm than advantage), had drunk in the poison of heretical depravity, taught by those who, falling away like deserters from the faith of their forefathers, went off into every other kind of blasphemy, impiety and atheism. They dared, therefore, to gather nocturnal conventicles and clandestine meetings (which is generally the beginning of seditions), to spread impious and defamatory little books among the people; and already that corruption had seized virgins dedicated to God.

[116] fastened on the companions, is repelled; Some among these very conspirators had falsely named the companions as accomplices, trying to involve them in the same cause. But they, relying on their innocence, sustained themselves by the consciousness of right; and time, and her daughter truth, washed away the calumny. Ferdinand Valdés, archbishop of Seville, and likewise chief of the censors of the faith, gave the other judges the charge of freeing the companions from the calumny in the churches and streets, and restoring them to their integrity by honourable proclamation. At Seville too in Baetica factious men dared to assail the companions and attack them with calumnies: and, what you would marvel at, those very persons whom it concerned strove with all their might for the truth. Yet good men (such indeed is the force of truth in every direction) consulted our honour; and publicly proclaimed us from the pulpit innocent and upright, even the brethren of the Dominican family themselves. The mind of Francis was in no way broken by these storms and adversities; nay, even more bravely,

like the palm, it strove upward ^b.

CAP. XVI.

[117] Christopher Rojas de Sandoval, who afterwards, from bishop of Oviedo ^c and of Badajoz ^d, died archbishop of Seville, into Asturias lovingly informed Francis that the inhabitants of Asturias and of the mountains around Oviedo lacked not only food, in the extreme difficulty of the times, from a continuous barrenness of some years; but, what is the head of the matter, also the precepts of Christian doctrine and the more frequent use of the heavenly Bread. For the land of the Asturians, though fertile in the best horses, is not so in talents, especially among rustic men. So true is that saying: "Not all things are born under one soil and sky." Without delay Francis reported to Joanna, the most illustrious princess of Spain, who governed in the absence of king Philip in Belgium, the want of the district of Oviedo in sustaining souls and bodies: he implores help: he says that he would come to share the labours and would send companions to teach the rudiments and attend to the sacred rites: but since, in so great a want of all things, as the time of the year was, an empty belly has no ears, he asks her to be pleased to relieve the want of the Asturians. For thus he hoped it would come about that a not regrettable fruit of souls would be gathered. For it is an old and fruitful institute of the Society to run out into the fields of countryfolk and as it were to discharge an embassy of God by teaching and preaching. That princess, as she inclined to all offices of piety, had four thousand gold pieces counted out from the public treasury for relieving the want of the Asturians. To distribute these to the poor man by man, two companions set out, Peter Saavedra and Carvajal, and they so cultivated with the seed of the divine word a land barren of itself that those who up to that day had been blind seemed to themselves then for the first time born and seeing.

[118] and he institutes the mission to Africa: Companions were likewise sent by Francis outside Spain to a city of Mauretania Caesariensis, today Oran ^e, which some think was formerly Icosium, others Madaura, the native place of L. Apuleius ^f. This city, situated on the coast of Africa, captured formerly by the wealth and under the auspices of Francis Ximenes, Cardinal and archbishop of Toledo ^g, is now held by garrisons of the Catholic king against the incursions of the Moors. An army was being transported there by ships from Spain, to subdue those peoples, the fiercest enemies of the Christian name, in the year, I think, 1558. There were sent, then, by Francis from among ours two Peters, the one Martinez, who afterwards died a martyr in Florida by the treachery of the islanders. The other Peter, surnamed Domenech. When the forces were led out against the enemy, to attack Mostaganem ^h, the commander in the war ordered the companions to remain in the city and render service to four hundred sick soldiers who were lying in the hospital. These, although they would have preferred to be present with the soldiers to give them heart in battle, were obedient, and it seemed good to that great Commander, God, that they should be reserved for greater things. For the army having been slaughtered to extermination, and those who had survived the disaster captured, ours escaped the danger. Afterwards, having returned into Spain, they found that they had been counted among the dead, sacred rites even having been duly performed for them.

CAP. XVII.

[119] Having once and again entered Portugal, but only for the sake of business, a second it had not been possible for him to visit the colleges of the companions and bring them consolation at leisure. Just at that very time Henry, prince of Portugal, the Cardinal (who also held the kingdom when Sebastian was slain in the African expedition ⁱ), had entrusted to the faith of the Society a college and university at Évora at his own expense; and had asked Francis by letter that two doctors of the sacred letters should be sent; and that he would not be reluctant to join himself to them. The physicians also affirmed that it was in the interest of his health to call away his mind from the cares by which he was overwhelmed at Pintia, and to relax it by travelling. Having therefore sent ahead two companions, Peter Paul Ferrer and Ferdinand Perez, to teach Theology, he betook himself into Portugal; both to greet out of duty the prince who had deserved well of the Church and the Society, and also to give thanks in the name of the companions. He was received here with every kind of courtesy and charity; with the same affability with which king John III and his brother Louis had formerly embraced him. He preached on almost all the Sundays, in the forty days' fast of spring, in the sacred church, Henry the Cardinal listening most eagerly. Here, when some said that one weary from the road should not be burdened with delivering sermons to the people, the Cardinal insisted: "Nor do I ask," he said, "that he preach eloquently: it will be abundantly enough for the people and for me that he should merely have mounted the pulpit, who of his own accord, for the love of Christ, abdicated all his goods."

[120] Meanwhile a desire had come upon Henry both to visit Francis into Portugal and to inspect the university, since this had never been possible for him while absent. Escorted, therefore, by the flower of the nobility and by all the orders of the university, he enters the college with the companions. Francis was waiting before the doors. "With the best right," he said, "most ample prince, all the orders of every age and learned men escort you for honour's sake, as the parent of learning: this company too, though unlearned" (indicating, namely, himself and the cook) "is yours and devoted to you." He could then by no means be induced, though Henry contended and urged it for a long time, to cover his head: for with steadfast mind he seriously affirmed that honour was owed to him. At that very time there came also the duke of Bragança ^k from the town of Vila Viçosa ^l, to greet Henry, prince of Portugal, and at the same time Francis. Afterwards Francis also visited the college of Braga ^m, recently begun to be built at the expense of Bartholomew, surnamed of the Martyrs, of the family of St. Dominic, archbishop: who had so joined singular piety with learning that it was uncertain in which he excelled. He made known that he wished to use the labour of the companions in the flock committed to him; which he also performed in deed. Afterwards, being of the highest innocence and holiness of life, having of his own accord abdicated the office of bishop, he restored himself again to his cell in the convent and to his brethren. He wrote, after thorough examination of the matter, after the example of Chrysostom and Pope Gregory, ON THE CARE OF PASTORS, an excellent volume.

CAP. XVIII

[121] Francis himself also was hastening to collect himself, journey as is his wont, to prayer and solitude. Having therefore set out to the borders of Galicia, so as to withdraw himself from public business, which kept him too much occupied: he came to Porto, which city today retains its name because it is the port of the town of Cale: and thence, as the writers of Spanish History relate ⁿ, the name was given to the whole province. It overlooks the river Douro about one thousand five hundred paces from where it flows into the Ocean, most healthy in the nature and situation of the place. Here Francis Strada, having formerly stayed, had previously reaped great fruits by assiduous sermons, being keen and vehement in speaking. Our Francis too was brought there about the Kalends of August of the year 1560, and went straight to the hospice of St. Roch Amator. He had scarcely dismounted when Roderick Pinheiro, bishop of Porto, came to greet him. The citizens likewise, in admiration, having learned who Francis had once been, also respected him because of the province of the whole Society in Spain committed to him and for his modesty. They asked that he would send companions there to cultivate that field with the seed of the divine word.

[122] he undertakes, Francis assented, and obtained, with the kind permission of the bishop, a seat and a chapel for the companions. Henry Govea, a nobleman, also helped in the matter, one of those whom Strada had before won for Christ; by his life changed for the better he breathed the odour of virtue on the other citizens. He had been accustomed to feed the poor, and even to serve in person in the hospitals: he offered three sons to God and the Society, and assigned his house. When a plague was raging in the city of Porto, taking care of the poor too incautiously, he died. The arrival of Francis did not escape Catherine, queen of Portugal, to whom he wrote most lovingly about the same time that he rejoiced that he had touched that city on his way; and that the citizens and the bishop with the senate had desired companions to be sent and a college raised. That this had long been her own wish too, and that she wished it ratified ^o. Such was the beginning of the college of Porto. He, unmindful both of his age and of his health, bore all things, did all things, preached, exhorted while holding the Eucharist in his hand, called the children street by street with a bell to learn the rudiments of the faith. Wherefore all looked up to him as a man come down from heaven.

CAP. XIX.

[123] In this secret retreat Francis would gladly have rested, as also by order of Pius V but Pius the Fourth, supreme Pontiff, having sent a letter [p], summoned him for the sake of honour. Nothing was more important to Francis than to obey the commands of Pius, although he was now of weary age, and not sufficiently firm in health, and the heat of the year deterred him from setting out. He soon sets out to the Catholic king Philip what the case was: that he was leaving Spain at the command of the Pontiff; with whom, as acting in the place of Christ, lay the supreme judgement over men and things: he therefore asked that with his kind permission he might be allowed to set out. He set out on the road, the dog-star then still burning, in the year 1561, having taken as companions the priests Peter Saavedra and Gaspar Hernandez, and his old companion Marcus. By the overland route he reached Narbonese Gaul and Provence. When he came to Loreto, he visited as a suppliant the holy house of the Virgin Mother of God of Loreto: moved at once by religion, by the majesty of the place, and by the throng of men.

[124] Afterwards, on the 7th day before the Ides of September, he entered Rome, received with the incredible joy of all the companions. Pius, having learned of his arrival, at once sent the prefect of his inner chamber to greet him, saying that the long-awaited man was here. He asks him to move to his palace. Francis, on the other hand, having courteously given thanks as was his duty, declined. On the day after that day, after it had dawned, although, weary from the road, he had not yet collected himself, he kissed the feet of the Pontiff according to the custom of our ancestors, and, resting on his knees, being bidden three times to rise, he held out, asking and beseeching. At length, by the command of obedience, he stood on his feet with head uncovered. Various conversations having then been held on both sides, the Pontiff, dismissing him honourably, addressed him in these words: "It is ours to take diligent care of you and yours, since by an example rare and unusual in this age you have stripped yourself of your goods."

CAP. XX.

[125] James Laínez, Superior general of the Society, was then by chance absent from Rome, [where, Laínez being absent and then dead, he discharges the office of Vicar of the Society.] having been given by the same Pope Pius IV as companion to Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, legate into France, to king Charles IX and his mother Catherine de' Medici, so that they might take care that the Christian commonwealth in France should suffer no harm from the nascent heresy. Alphonsus Salmerón, one of the ten first companions of Ignatius, superior in the Society of the kingdom of Naples, had then been left at Rome by Laínez. But not long after the Pontiff sent both to the synod of Trent, long since proclaimed and now restored. Francis was ordered to render vicarial service and hold the place. And when he resisted this office, such was his lowliness of mind, he at length acquiesced, obedient to the supreme command of Laínez. At home he exhorted all the companions, visited the colleges, added a spur to piety by deed and counsel: and in short impelled them to virtue by word and example. And publicly he preached on feast days at St. James, to hear whom the purpled Fathers, the ambassadors and indeed all the nobility flocked. He carried on this office at Rome for some years, until, the synod of Trent having been dismissed, Laínez returned; who, having fallen into a grave illness after his return, closed the last day of his life on the 14th day before the Kalends of February of the following year, the sixty-fifth of that century. Laínez, therefore, having died, Francis again held the vacant place, approved by the common suffrage of all, having previously conducted affairs well. Matters having been ordered so far as was permitted, to all the provinces of the Society in Europe, as quickly as possible, the sad news

of the death of Laínez he transmitted: at the same time warning them to hold their assemblies at once, and that two from each should fly to Rome as soon as possible for electing a new Superior.

ANNOTATIONS.

g. In the year 1509.

k. Theodosius.

p. See it transcribed from Ribadeneira, book 2, chapter 23, near the beginning of § XVIII of the Preliminary Commentary.

CHAPTER VIII.

He is proclaimed Superior General, and begins to administer the public affairs of the Society: the favourable disposition of Pius V toward the Society.

BOOK III.

CAP. I.

As Superior General, The companions having been summoned from all sides by letter (who had held assemblies each in his own province, and had sent to Rome with authority two chosen men added to the provincial Superior), Francis, fearing, as came to pass, that, since he saw the eyes of all cast upon himself, they would set him, unwilling and resisting, over the whole Society; thinking that this matter should be met in good time, after mature deliberation he thus addresses Salmerón and a few priests ^a: "Although, Fathers, I know for certain that I am not sufficiently fit to be able to discharge even the least office in the Society, as I examine myself day by day more and more to the nail: yet, since the judgements of men are various and uncertain, I will say what I feel. My mind forebodes, and I fear, that I shall be elected by the companions against my will, and preferred to the others on this ground, that I render vicarial service to the Society since the death of Laínez; and that I cast away I know not what slender name of Duke. Wherefore, unless it seems otherwise to you, it is my intention to entreat all the companions and beseech them by the memory of Ignatius to choose anyone rather than me to discharge this office, for which I can clearly affirm, from the conviction of my mind, that no one out of the whole number is more unfit than I. Which counsel I would wish to have your approval."

[127] though unwilling, But the Fathers, having maturely considered the matter and consulted God by prayers, think otherwise. Then with the greatest consensus of all they answer that they are compelled to go quite the other way: that that counsel therefore seemed to be one to be suppressed in silence. For by this tacit lowliness of mind and ingenious deprecation it would seem that he had rather canvassed for the office than declined it: for the thoughts of mortals are hidden. Perhaps it had come into no one's mind to choose him to administer the Society. So let him dismiss those thoughts, relying on God, by whose Spirit the assemblies of the pious are governed. If he should be chosen, which they easily saw he did not wish, then at last it would be open to him to shuffle and deprecate the burden. He obeyed, saying nothing obstinately in reply to this. Wherefore, the more submissively he conducted himself, the higher was he raised by God, and by the votes of all he was proclaimed Superior general, with the great consensus and joy of all, on the day after the Kalends of Quinctilis, which day is sacred to the Visitation of the B. Virgin. He, struck by the dignity conferred and disturbed in mind, was so far from being able to clear himself in words that the unexpected event altogether impeded his speech, as even his very countenance and colour sufficiently showed. The greatest joy followed thence at Rome, and flowed into the provinces.

[128] Having offered the divine service and given thanks to God, he was conducted according to custom elected, to Pope Pius IV. "It is well done," he said; "you have judged prudently and seen far, in choosing Francis above all out of so great a number of distinguished men. That this is to the advantage of the Church and the Society, the event itself will afterwards show, God, men and I approving." When Francis had returned home with the companions, before dismissing the assembly to the provinces, he spoke to the Fathers: let them consider how great a burden they had laid upon weak shoulders: he asked them, therefore, to come into a share of the labours, lest, dashed to the ground, he should succumb. Let them exhort, admonish, urge, reprove, if, as human affairs are, there should be need, and he should himself fail in his duty. Let them help him by deed and counsel and at the same time by prayers. "I have become," he said, "a beast of burden among you. If it is not equal to bearing the burden, the burden is taken off with the pack-saddle. Do the same: take away the command, if I seem unequal to so great a burden. This will be to the benefit of the divine glory and the Society, very useful to you, Fathers, and finally advantageous and most welcome to me."

[129] At these words Francis rose, the others weeping for joy, he sends companions to Malta to render service to the soldiers, being forbidden to rise: soon, in order, having kissed the feet of each on the ground, he also embraces them, and courteously dismisses them as they depart to the provinces; glad because they had found one worthy to succeed Ignatius and Laínez. About the same time Suleiman, emperor of the Turks, had girded the island of Malta ^b by land and sea with a most close siege ^c: having long before taken Rhodes ^d after a lengthy siege and obstinate effort, while no one brought aid to the knights of St. John, who fought with singular bravery. But Malta we saw liberated by the vigilance of the supreme Pontiff Pius and by the resources of Philip II, a truly Catholic king, and besides by the military valour of the Knights, to whom the emperor Charles V had once handed over that island to be defended ^e. To the forces of soldiers which had been ordered to bring aid, companions were added, from the very number of the assembled Fathers: who should try to add courage and a pious mind to the soldiers ^f.

CAP. II.

[130] His first care now, the companions having been dismissed into the Provinces, in each of the provinces both a novitiate since all things depend on their origin, was to establish a novitiate house at Rome, in which the youths who flocked daily in great numbers from all the cities of Europe, and desired to be enrolled in the Society, might be formed in piety and religious exercises: so that they might not be ignorant how God is to be prayed to, in what way the flesh is to be subjected to the spirit, and the passions of the mind subdued: and finally how children are to be imbued with the catechism of Christian doctrine. God had put this mind into the bishop of Tivoli ^g, to hand over to the companions the church sacred to St. Andrew, which is seen on the Quirinal hill. Not long after He gave the same will of beneficence to Joanna of Aragon, who, a most noble matron married to Ascanio Colonna, was of singular piety toward God and liberality toward the companions. For she assigned a house on the same hill and annual revenues.

[131] [then a house of humane letters, and at Rome he takes care that a magnificent church be built,] Francis ordered the same to be held in all the provinces, that each should have its own house of novices of the Society, in which those who had recently, God calling, bound themselves to the Society might be formed in piety and give a proof of themselves. He likewise caused another college to be established in the provinces, which today is in some places called the Seminary, where they might be imbued with those arts which seemed necessary to a Professor of humanities who could conveniently teach others. And since the Society was then newly born, it was necessary at incredible expense to send all the young men of the Transalpine nations to Rome to be instructed in good arts: for which inconvenience a remedy was applied by the counsel of Francis, that they should be taught the elements in their own provinces. Likewise the sacred building of the Professed house held only a few, while many, at the exhortation of the companions, flocked to the divine service and to the frequent use of the Sacraments and to the preaching of the word of God. God therefore likewise put this mind into the most ample Cardinal Alexander Farnese, that, led both by zeal for piety and by love for Francis, he had a most august church built from the foundations and saw it brought to the roof: august above all, whether you regard the art of architecture or the adornment.

[132] relaxing nothing of his prayers amid very much business. Among the other cares with which Francis was distressed, there were frequent letters from all regions, and indeed from princely men in the commonwealth, so that time had often to be taken from sleep if he wished to satisfy all. For some asked that companions be sent to them: some that colleges be raised among them: others asked that he would pray God for their safety. Which, too, we learn from Athanasius was once the concern of kings: who relates that Constantine was wont to write to the abbot Antony ^h; that he might commend himself and the Christian faith to God by his prayers. And although the frequent letters took away much both of labour and of sleep, yet he suffered nothing to be taken from the time appointed for prayer poured out to God, in which he said the progress of piety was contained. For one must deal above all with God, and seek His kingdom diligently first of all. Next, the salvation of Christian princes, on which that of the rest depended, must be commended to God.

CAP. III.

[133] These things having thus been done according to his mind, in that very year Pius IV had departed at once from life and from the chair ⁱ, and had given place to Michael Ghislieri, The companions an excellent man of the Dominican family, who took the name of Pius the Fifth, and conducted himself in his morals accordingly ^k. He, while still a Cardinal, having been on most familiar and friendly terms with Francis ^l, after he had sat at the helm of the Church, relaxed nothing in his love: nay, in difficult matters he frequently employed his counsel and labour. Just then a letter had been delivered from Portugal, saying that the companions sent as envoys into Ethiopia were hard pressed and toiling against the unfairness of the times, and were making no progress: the hope of gathering a harvest being already cut off: but that in the island of Japan a Bishop was greatly desired for duly attending to the sacred rites at the recent origin of the Church nascent there. Of the companions, Andrew of Oviedo, the patriarch, was traversing the region of Ethiopia: whom Julius III, at the request of John, likewise the III, king of the Portuguese, had once created bishop ^m, together with Melchior Carneiro, a Portuguese. These companions had been added to John Nuñez, the patriarch, setting out for Ethiopia by order of the Pontiff, while Ignatius was still living.

[134] For David, king of the Ethiopians, was asking through the agency of the king of Portugal that there should be sent to him by the supreme Pontiff, to the Japanese and Chinese whom he acknowledged as head of the Church on earth, men who should purge of errors that Church, situated in the remote and dry lands of Africa, almost, I might say, relegated, polluted with Judaism (for the Ethiopians are baptized and at the same time circumcised ⁿ), recall it into the way, and instruct those rude and barbarous nations. Nuñez had scarcely reached Goa ^o, planning thence to go into Ethiopia and preparing to embark, when, bidden to depart to the seats of the Blessed, having fulfilled at once his death and his embassy, he yielded the place and office of patriarch to Andrew of Oviedo, his companion and a bishop. For the companions carried away nothing besides the name of the dignity and the labours, all honours and advantages having been renounced. He, as soon as he came into Ethiopia, was not received kindly enough by king Claudius, who was indeed imbued with the rites of Christians, but a sluggish man: coldly, therefore, the matter

the Christian cause was promoted. But he who next took over the kingdom, Adamas in deed and name, cruel and savage by nature, set about raging, storming and assailing the companions after the manner of wild beasts. For he desired the name of Christ to be extinguished, so that no hope of propagating the Gospel should remain: for the companions were harassed by chains, hunger, want and nakedness, and suffered other hardships and persecutions, as those are wont who will live godly in Christ Jesus.

[135] Wherefore, Ethiopia having soon been conquered by the Turks by the just judgement of God, Pius V the kingdom fell into their dominion and tyranny, vast in other respects and thronged with a multitude of inhabitants. Pope Pius, having learned of the matter on Francis's report, orders Andrew the patriarch to yield to the fury of the Ethiopians and reserve himself for greater things; and, having found a convenient voyage, to cross as quickly as possible to the island of Japan: where he had heard there were many, recently enrolled among the Christians, who could be confirmed and inaugurated into the priesthood by the imposition of hands. A scruple was laid on Andrew, on receiving the diploma of Pius [p], which no one could remove, because the Pontiff ordered that he should leave Ethiopia only when he could do so with religion safe and in security, and when no hope remained of helping that Church, and should cross thence to the populous island of Japan. He, however, always hoped well, by God's kindness, that he would win more for Christ; and he could not leave Ethiopia without falling into the hands of the Turks or of robbers. In these hardships, therefore, he spent his life and closed his last day.

[136] Melchior Carneiro also [q], to whom equal power had been given of ordaining and confirming Christian neophytes, he orders to set out: having been carried to the port of Macao [r], whence the merchant ships of Portugal cross to Japan, having duly discharged his embassy and the office of bishop, departed from life. Within our own memory also Sixtus the Fifth sent Sebastian Morales, who had been superior of the companions of the province of Portugal, into Japan with the title of bishop: but, as the affairs of mortals are uncertain, he had not yet reached the port of Goa when he too, from the weariness and hardships of the long voyage, exchanged life for death. So true is it, as even those ill-disposed toward the companions confess, that by the institute of Ignatius the companions flee ecclesiastical dignities and gladly yield them to others: but labours, dangers, and finally death for the Church, to the greater glory of God, they undergo of their own accord and gladly.

CAP. IV.

[137] There exist moreover more singular proofs of love and goodwill toward the companions of a Pontiff truly Pius, and very necessary in those times. that the penitentiary of Rome should likewise rest with them For by ancient institution at Rome the ministers of penance, monks and priests by Pontifical authority, skilled in theology and canons and in different languages, loosed the knots of conscience and expiated sins. Great is that office of the Church, and arduous, inasmuch as they loose on earth whatever they loose by divine power. It seemed good, therefore, to Pope Pius, since he had seen this office discharged variously by various persons, to commit to the Society that they should undertake the care of penitents, and give ears daily to those confessing in the sacred principal church of St. Peter, and carry a rod in the hand, the proof of power. He therefore sent to Francis Cardinal Alciati, who was then presiding over that office on behalf of Charles Borromeo, to persuade him of a thing in itself useful and necessary to the Church.

[138] Roman, He at first shuffled and tried to escape: soon, when he had collected himself, he presented to the Pontiff in a suppliant petition roughly these heads. That it would be very disadvantageous to the Society: for it could not be taken without complaint from those who up to this day had lawfully administered that office: besides, that there were many families in the Church of God, strengthened by antiquity and illustrious for holiness of conduct, to which it seemed rather to belong; otherwise they would bear it ill to be passed over: finally that it would be a prejudice and loss to the companions privately: because those who discharged that office would at once wish to be released from the laws of the Society and from the bonds of obedience, as ministers already created by the Pontiff. Having read these things, Pius, thinking that nothing should be put off, and that the knots could easily be untied, at once by his own right commits to the Society the office of the Pontifical penitentiary, and assigns a house not far from the principal church of St. Peter and a fixed stipend for food and bodily needs. Francis, obedient to his word, acquiesced, and placed there excellent men summoned from the provinces on all sides, skilled in the sacred letters, and at the same time in the Offices and in languages. Gregory the thirteenth soon sitting at Rome [s], the Society wished to be relieved of that burden, but in vain: and it sustains the office to this very day, to the public advantage, I think.

[139] and he wished it to have the office of preaching before him. He likewise thought that the Pontifical Preacher should then be chosen from the Society, who should frequently discourse on divine things in person before the most ample assembly of the Cardinals. The first to discharge this office, at Francis's command, was Benedict Palmio, an Italian; after him Salmerón, one of the ten first companions of Ignatius, but in the twelfth month after, being doubtless more fond of retirement and intent on the pursuit of commenting on the Holy Scripture, handed the torch to another of the companions, the Portuguese theologian Emmanuel Sa. Soon it passed to Francis Toledo of Córdoba: who acted as preacher continuously under other Pontiffs up to the year 1594 *, in which year, the Society being unwilling and resisting, he is adopted into the college of Cardinals by Clement VIII: and he recently departed from life and dignity on the day after the Ides of September of the year 1596. Nor did the devotion of Pius toward us stop here: for he gave the companions the province of examining those who flock in numbers to Rome and wish to be initiated into Holy Orders, or, being already initiated, to have power given them to hear confessions.

[140] There were at that time (who would believe it?) in the furthest bounds of the kingdom of Naples remnants of the heresy of the Waldensians, who rejoiced to be called the poor men of Lyons [t]: that this evil might be removed as quickly as possible, and he gave other proofs of a mind favourable to the Society he sends from among the companions Christopher Roderiges *, a doctor of theology: who, partly by disputing, partly by admonishing, brought them over to the good side and a better mind, captivated by the man's affability and piety, so that they gladly accepted the penalty imposed by Pontifical power. It was already then well known that the Society's proposed end was to recall, to the best of its power, nations estranged from the faith and heretics to a sound mind. If perchance any storm had again arisen against the companions, Pius was wont at once to fly to them and bring help; to commend the companions to Christian princes, to beseech them, to act by prayers and threats. As in the sedition raised at Avignon he at once extinguished the conflagration. A specimen of this zeal will be one diploma among many, to the bishop of Cologne [u].

[141] Moreover he declared that the companions were in the number of the mendicants; he gave proofs. and willed them likewise to be and to be held exempt; a diploma on that matter, which is extant, having been given in the fifth year of his Pontificate, 1571, on the Nones of July [x]: and that the companions might live safe from injury in the provinces, he permitted that they might themselves choose, with supreme authority, with his kind permission, when the matter required, a patron, whom they call a conservator. Which benefit Gregory XIII, Pius having been taken off by untimely death [y], in the following year gladly granted the companions by a document given [z]. There were not lacking, however, as happens, those who said that Pius intended to change the institute of the Society and also its dress. When this rumour was spreading more widely, Francis, keeping diligent watch for the honour of the Society and anxious in mind, through the agency of Francis Pacheco, Cardinal and archbishop of Burgos, informs Pius of the rumour spread among the people. He, so far was he from having thought of this, that, disturbed by that news as by an adverse matter, he broke out crying in these very words: "Far be this sin from us [aa]. For I see that God is well pleased in these His servants and in the institute of living by which they bring back fruit to the Church. As long as they shall be the same as hitherto, and shall religiously keep their institute, no one who is wise will be troublesome to them or make trouble for them [bb]."

ANNOTATIONS.

c. In the year 1565.

e. In the year 1530.

g. John Andrew Crucius.

p. Ribadeneira reports it, translated into the Spanish tongue, book 3, chapter 3.

q. Proclaimed bishop of Nicaea in the year 1555.

r. A city of the Chinese situated on an island on the coast of the province of Canton.

s. He began to sit in the year 1572.

t. About the times of Adrian VI and Alexander III, or about the year 1160, there lived at Lyons Waldo, from whom they say this sect was named. See his errors in the council of Soissons of the year 1528, volume XIV of the Councils in Labbe, column 436; where express mention is also made of Valdo, column 433.

u. That letter of the Pontiff, given in the year 1568 to the count of Isenburg, Ribadeneira presents in Spanish, book 3, chapter 4: and the one which the same Pontiff wrote in the year 1569, for the innocence of Possevino, who was said to have tried to introduce the inquisition after the Spanish manner into the county of Venaissin, to his nuncio in France, the bishop of Caiazzo, Sacchinus reports at the year 1569, number 145.

x. See volume 2 of the Bullarium collected by Laertius Cherubini, page 343.

y. He died in the year 1572.

z. See the Bullarium just cited, 363 and following.

aa. Ribadeneira, book 3, chapter 4, has: Far be from us this great sin.

bb. Ribadeneira does not have the last words.

* 1593

* Rodriguez

CHAPTER IX.

At Rome he takes care of those stricken by the plague: he sees to the propagation of the faith among the West Indians: the companions are introduced into Poland.

CAP. V.

At Rome, of those stricken by the plague At the beginning of the summer of the year 1566 many at Rome were carried off by the plague of pestilence, so that the contagion of the disease crept more widely. For the waters having become corrupt in that region of the city which was formerly the Flaminian way and is now called del Popolo, because they stagnated, and, full of filth and putrefied, corrupted the cold water of the wells underground, those who drank it felt the infection and present death. So great was the slaughter everywhere in that region of the City that by the foul odour which the corpses gave off they infected others before

they could implore help. Very many of the inhabitants died without being furnished with the viaticum of the mysteries. As soon as Francis learned of the loss, he sent companions to visit the sick from street to street. Here he found the slaughter greater than had been thought. And so, thinking that nothing should be delayed, he at once sends two companions to the Pontiff. He liberally bestowed a great sum of money in alms for relieving the want of the sick: and his saying, worthy of such a Pontiff, was also heard: "That the times were such that he would even be willing to pledge the gilded chalices and the silver crosses, in order to relieve the want of the members of Christ."

[143] By his command also the companions go to the senate and Roman people: he takes care: they ask that they should not fail them in a difficult time. They were heard, and indeed most gladly, and a decree of the senate was passed according to their proposal: that bread, meat and wine should be given free to the needy sick from the public stock. They likewise instruct the aediles to collect alms from all the regions of the City. Twelve noblemen of their body were given the charge of visiting the sick daily together with the companions. And so the companions, the number of the sick having been ascertained through the streets, distribute the City into fifteen regions: to each they assign apothecaries' shops and a storehouse. They themselves, two by two in each region, go to the sick with a physician, and supply the nourishment of soul and body, so that they suffered nothing pertaining to health to be lacking to the needy. Nor was less diligence applied in caring for souls, so that no consolation in evils should be lacking. And so, the sacred rites having been provided and sins confessed, the Bread of Angels was offered to those departing. For Francis judged that, as much as the soul excels the body and eternal things perishable ones, so much greater care must be applied to the sacred things. All that service of the Society was so welcome to Pius and to the senate and Roman people that two years later, when the disease grew worse, though not equally dangerous, the same Pius; and long afterwards also Pope Gregory XIII, Francis Borgia having recently died, again committed the care of the sick to the companions.

CAP. VI.

[144] Very many companions had long since penetrated into East India; companions to the Fortunate Isles, but into the West up to that day none. Francis, therefore, from the time he had begun to lead the family, vehemently desired that a door should be opened there, and the light and truth of the Gospel brought to those uncultivated nations by the labour of ours. The first sent, in the year of Christ 1566, were Diego Lopez and Louis Gomes, priests: likewise Louis Ruiz and Alfonso Simonis, to the Fortunate Isles ^a, which today are called the Canaries: where the cosmographers formerly placed the extremity of the meridian circle. For the rest of the world, recently discovered by the voyages of the Spaniards, where the sun rises and sets, the ancients did not know: yet that it existed and could exist Plato, speaking of the island of the Atlanteans, and Seneca the Tragedian and others divined ^b. These, then, whom I have named, Francis had added as companions to Bartholomew Torres ^c, bishop of the Canaries, a man of singular piety and learning. For his Commentaries on the Trinity are highly approved. He taught the islanders the catechism together with the companions, and visited the diocese walking on foot, omitting no duty of a good pastor.

[145] At that very time Philip, the Catholic king, by a letter sent to Francis ^d, first indeed Peter Martinez with two companions to Florida; on account of the good repute of the Society, asks that twenty-four be sent into the West Indies: that nothing would be lacking on the journey for food and bodily needs, and that this would be pleasing to God, to himself and to the inhabitants. To satisfy the king making so honourable and pious a request, Francis first sent companions chosen out of many: Peter Martinez, from the district of Teruel in the kingdom of Aragon, and John Rogel, priests, and Francis Villareal. These, embarking at the port of Seville on the 5th day before the Kalends of August in that very year, reached the island of Florida ^e on the 8th day before the Kalends of October. Peter Martinez, leaping from the fleet, as soon as he touched land in order to preach the word of God and the Gospel, perished, struck on the head with a pole by the inhabitants, who were then moving about on the shore to prevent the arrival of the Europeans: soon they throw him half-alive into the sea. For his singular zeal of piety toward God he no doubt reaped this fruit, that, as he had long wished, he departed life a witness of the faith. This event was so far from deterring the other companions in Europe from the expedition that it even incited them more, because they themselves too desired with equal zeal to meet death for Christ.

[146] then he sends Father Segura with 7 companions Therefore, two years later, in 1568, another mission of companions was set up to those same shores, over whom Francis placed John Baptist Segura, that he might join himself to John Rogel, the priest, who was still surviving, and to his companion Villareal: who, having taken the port of Havana ^f, had afterwards penetrated into Florida. There was then by chance in the company a certain Cacique (for so they are wont to call a principal man in the island of Florida) whom the commander Peter Menéndez ^g had brought with the fleet into Spain. He, already imbued as a catechumen with the rudiments of the Christian faith, and washed with the salutary laver of Baptism, had received the name of Louis. They believed that, knowing his people and their customs, and at the same time skilled in the language, he would conveniently guide the companions and prepare the way: but the contrary happened. For Baptist Segura, taking seven companions, reached Florida safely: the rest remained in port; and having disembarked from the ships, they went on further on foot, using Louis as guide of the way, without the protection of the Spanish soldiers who offered themselves of their own accord as companions. They carry on their shoulders the furniture for performing the sacred rites and their little books. Having traversed woods, desert places and marshes, their provisions had already failed: they therefore lived on herbs and roots, and slept in the open air: Louis meanwhile turning over treachery in his mind: whose native place they at last reached, situated very far from the sea, inhabited by men of the woods who went about naked.

[147] by the inhabitants He bids the companions stay in the village and wait for him until, having greeted his friends, he returned. Having therefore gone five thousand paces, having promised to return on the appointed day, he delayed: and when that day had come, four more being likewise added, Baptist, weary of the long delay and solitude, sends a priest with a brother to Louis ^h. He, having laid an ambush (it is uncertain whether because he had fallen away from the Christian faith as a deserter, or because he had long been planning treachery in his mind), having armed his whole household, attacked the companions, off their guard, and killed them with the greatest perfidy. The day after that day had scarcely dawned when they fall upon the rest in barbarous fashion and in the silent night, under Louis's leadership, slay the companions, who on bended knees, having poured out prayers to God, met death bravely for the faith. The barbarians strip the corpses: they clothe themselves in the sacred vestments: they mock and wantonly insult them, as though they had accomplished a great thing in slaughtering the unarmed and unresisting. Soon three open a small chest, gaping for treasure.

[148] then slaughtered: There were here the sacred Bible, the Offices of the Mass, pious little books, prayer beads, images, figures of the heavenly Lamb, hair-shirts and scourges: the arms, namely, of religious men, by which they both tame the flesh and put the demon to flight. It also contained an image of Christ fixed to the cross, and as soon as they looked at it curiously they fell lifeless, dashed to the ground, and dead. Their comrades who were present, terrified by the unexpected event, turned their backs and took to flight. These things a Spanish youth ⁱ, who accompanied the companions from the fleet, reported with sure faith as seen with his own eyes: he was not slain because they thought that he had by no means come to overthrow their idols, and since he was still of tender age there was nothing to be feared, but that he should be kept in chains. There died also * Baptist Segura, a native of Toledo of the Carpetani, beloved of Francis for the uprightness of his character, and likewise Louis Quirós, priests. With these were the brothers Gabriel Gomez, Peter Linares, Sancho Zavallos, John Baptist Mendes, Christopher Redondo: and likewise another Gabriel, Solis ^k.

[149] In that very year, as I have learned from the Indian letters ^l, [which befell Francis Lopez also at the hands of the Malabarese. Two likewise to Africa,] for the same constancy in the faith Francis Lopez was slain; while setting out from the college of Cochin ^m to Goa he was captured by Moorish pirates with three companions: and because they saw his shaven crown, they divined, as was the case, that he was a priest: they solicit him to defect from the faith: that thus he would be safe and sound. They promise honours too: finally they mix threats with prayers. But he said: "Should I desert the camp of Christ? May that God whom I serve not permit it. My resolve stands to undergo any kind of punishment rather than depart from the Christian religion." They therefore pierced his flanks with a lance: he departed happily to the seats of the Blessed. They led away one of his companions captive: what was done with the rest I have not learned. In that same year Francis again sent two companions to Oran in Africa, Peter Domenech and Jerome Mur: both of whom we have seen surviving at Valencia ⁿ: these were given as companions to his full brother, Peter Louis Borgia, master of the knights of Montesa, sent by king Philip to hold that coast of Africa by arms and to command the military forces. The companions at this station duly ministered the sacred rites to the inhabitants and soldiers.

CAP. VII.

[150] In that same year, which is the sixty-seventh of that century, and a twin mission into Peruvian India, king Philip by another letter to Francis asks that twenty companions be sent into Peruvian India, by far the greatest of the provinces toward the West: which some think is named in the sacred Letters also Ophir and Pirum ^o, famous for its gold mines and for the commerce of Solomon, king of the Jews. Let them therefore embark at the earliest opportunity, and build colleges and houses, so that, staying in fixed seats, they might propagate the Christian religion, and imbue boys with the best morals and disciplines. On the day after the Kalends of November a few chosen out of many set out from the shrine of Lucifer (which today they call San Lúcar, a port of Baetica), Jerome Portillo, superior of the companions, Antony Alvarez [p], Louis Lopez and Michael Fuentes, priests. To these were added Diego Bracamonte, John Garcia of Jaén, Francis Medina and Peter Lobert. These first led the companions to those shores of Peru, and opened schools of studies: and today all the arts necessary to a future theologian are taught there from the higher place: with incredible fruit both to the Spanish residents who trade there and to the neophytes who, having received the Gospel, have now given their name to Christ. As soon as this matter fell pleasingly on the ears and mind of the Catholic king, he orders another mission to be instituted with the fleet, and there set out with the governor Francis of Toledo five priests and seven other companions [q].

[151] he likewise sent another fleet of missionaries to Mexico. And in the seventy-second year, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of Quinctilis, into New Spain, as they call it, which region is no smaller in extent than ours and indeed greater in wealth, the first fourteen of the companions crossed, at the request of the same Catholic king: whose names I have the more gladly written down because they were the first to prepare the way and carry the Gospel, now spread far and wide in the West Indies. The superior of the companions was Peter Sanchez, a doctor of theology, who had formerly governed the university of Alcalá, and, sustaining the person of a public doctor, having bidden farewell to titles and advantages, had bound himself to the Society. The priests were two Diegos, Lopez and Fonseca [r]: likewise Peters, Diaz [s], Concha, Bazán and Camargo by surname: the rest not yet initiated into Holy Orders: several Johns with these surnames, Sanchez, Mercado, Curiel and Matilla: Bartholomew: likewise Larios [t], Lope Navarro, Martin Gonzales. These things were splendidly done in the province of Peru and in the recently discovered world while Francis was Superior General: nor less in Europe

there was an increase of the Society, as I shall now show.

CAP. VIII.

[152] Among the Sarmatians, while James Laínez was still living, The companions into Poland, king Sigismund assenting. a college was begun for the companions at the expense and under the auspices of Stanislaus Hosius, prelate of Warmia, in the city of Braunsberg in his diocese, to the great benefit of the province of Prussia, which belongs to the Poles. This bishop, on account of his singular learning joined with piety, was adopted into the college of Cardinals of the city of Rome, and was not only present at the synod of Trent, but also presided as legate. The council having therefore been dismissed, in the following year, the sixty-fourth, on account of the service splendidly rendered in the council by the companions Laínez and Salmerón, he summoned the Society and embraced it most lovingly. But Sigismund, who then held the kingdom of Poland, was doubtful in mind what to do with the Society, about which the heretics, as they are wont, had spread unfavourable rumours among the people in gatherings and conventicles; besides, by defamatory little books. And indeed it is now so arranged that in courts princes do not hear the truth, where all things are full of flatterers and parasites (whom the emperor Licinius called the mice and moths of the palace) [u].

[153] the papal legate Commendone taking care, But at length, by the labour of Francis Commendone (who was nuncio of the Apostolic See in Poland, and afterwards also enrolled among the purpled Fathers), the king was freed from fear, by an honourable commendation of the companions: that they were necessary both to all commonwealths and above all to those which, through the fault of the times, are infected with the blight of sects and the monsters of opinions. For they confirm the Catholics: they refute the adversaries: finally they are wonderfully useful in educating piously and honourably the children of the inhabitants: who, since they are the seed-beds of states, everything seems to depend on the instruction of that age, and in it lies the hope of establishing the best condition of a state, and, what is the head of the matter, of the religion of our forefathers. The king, assenting to these speeches, as coming from a pious man, and raised in mind, and having investigated the truth of the matter more diligently, determined to assign the whole school of Vilnius to the Society: so that it might break the audacity, seditions and tumults of the sectaries, which plague had then begun to rage there.

[154] the Society introduced. Pope Pius IV, at the king's request, orders companions to be sent there. But at Vilnius [x] a certain palatine, noble and powerful at home, but tainted with the Arian blight, bore arms against them; nor did he lay them down before, being defeated, he paid the penalty after the manner of our ancestors. The time of peace was thus turned into war and secession, and the matter of the school of Vilnius was deferred [y]: in place of which a new college was established for the companions at Pułtusk, which is an ample city of the province of Masovia in the kingdom of Poland, with the kind permission of the king, who at the royal diet honoured the Society by an honourable diploma [z], which is in our hands. In the following year [aa] a college was established at Vilnius: soon also at Jarosław [bb]: then at Poznań [cc]. At that time they were subject to one provincial superior of Austria: who visited those colleges at fixed times of the year: but because that vast region could not be conveniently traversed, as the number of colleges and colleagues increased daily, the kingdom of Poland was made a province [dd]. For there had been added a college to those situated on the borders of Muscovy which I have just listed, and that of Riga in Livonia [ee].

ANNOTATIONS.

i. Alfonso by name.

p. Died, as Ribadeneira adds, at Panama, in the province of South America which has the name of Tierra Firme.

q. See their names at number 273 of the Preliminary Commentary.

r. Sacchinus, part 3, book 7, number 302, increases the number of priests with Peter Lopez Parra, and in place of Diego or James Fonseca has James Lopez de Mesa.

s. Read: likewise Peter Diaz: the one who follows, called Concha, was Ferdinand.

t. Read: Bartholomew Larios or Larius.

u. An addition of Schottus.

x. Which is the capital of Lithuania.

y. It was begun in the year 1569.

z. Ribadeneira reported it, book 3, chapter 8: it was given at Piotrków at the diet of the kingdom in the year 1565 on the 13th day of March.

aa. Possession of it was entered upon in the year 1566.

bb. In Red Russia. The college, already received by Borgia, his successor Everard duly admitted in the year 1574.

cc. In Western Poland, begun in the year 1571.

dd. In the year 1574: it had hitherto been under the Austrian province.

ee. Stephen Báthory, proclaimed king of Poland in the year 1576, brought the companions to Riga: the same also willed that there should be a college of the companions at Polotsk in Lithuania, begun in the year 1580.

* read: there

CHAPTER X.

The number of colleges increased: the martyrdom of Azevedo and his companions.

CAP. IX.

Among the Spaniards likewise a college in Baetica began to be raised in the town of Marchena by a most noble matron, Mary of Toledo, New colleges wife of Louis Ponce de León, duke of Arcos. She was the sister of Antony of Córdoba, who had long since bound himself to the Society ^a. She pursued this with such zeal, therefore, that she gathered the companions summoned for the benefit of her people, so that for building the college she even sold all her womanly finery, and spent the money raised on maintaining the companions and on the building. A church was built there quite magnificently, and an ample house: in which, because it holds many, the assembly of the companions of the province of Baetica has often been held every third year: out of favour to Roderick Ponce de León and Teresa de Zúñiga, spouses and dukes of Arcos: who seem to have entered upon the piety toward God and devotion to the companions, as though left by their forebears, together with the inheritance itself. At this very time at Toledo of the Carpetani the community of companions passed from the status of a college into the form of a professed house.

[156] In the next year ^b at Pintia of the Vaccaei likewise a house of professed companions was constituted out of the college and church of St. Antony: among the Spaniards, the colleagues moving to the gate of St. Stephen, to what was formerly called the college of Ambrose, the buildings having been bought by the beneficence of a noble matron, Mayor de Vivero. In the year that followed ^c, among the Carpetani, in the town of Caravaca, Michael Reynus, a man famous for his wealth, out of singular devotion to the companions, bequeathed all his goods by testament to the college to be built for the companions: adding this clause full of modesty: "If anyone should add as much and make the work greater, he yielded to him the name and right of founder." In that same region, in the following year, at Segura of the mountains, which the natives today call de la Sierra, Christopher Rodriguez Moya, with the consent of two virgins born of him, Catherine Diaz and Frances Aviles, likewise liberally assigned his goods to the companions ^d: chiefly with this design, that, a college having been built, that region, sufficiently uncultivated, might be cultivated in letters and at the same time in morals. And these things indeed we have learned were then done in Spain.

[157] the French, the Savoyards, In France a college was founded at Avignon: which is a Pontifical city of that kingdom. In the sixty-fifth year companions were first sent to Verdun into a college, as into a colony, the bishop of that city ^e, of the Premonstratensian family ^f, summoning them. A college was likewise begun at Chambéry ^g, which city is the metropolis of the Allobroges. In the province of Austria were then laid the foundations of the college of Olomouc ^h, in the region of Moravia, at the expense of doctor William [i], who held that see as prelate. In the next year ^k companions were first summoned to Speyer of the Nemetes in the Rhenish province, which Jerome Natalis was then visiting, by the goodwill and love of the noble and distinguished college of canons: above all, by the authority of a pious and noble man, Andrew von Oberstein, dean of the cathedral church, as they call it ^l. This man, in addition to the brilliance of his birth, is of such gravity, piety and virtue that he may deservedly be called a light and example of ecclesiastical discipline. And when, by the straits of the times and places, a hindrance was put in the way of so pious a desire, his opinion nevertheless prevailed that, though few and slenderly, ours should nevertheless be maintained. But the Society, founded by the liberality of the pious, grew somewhat, and by its labour at home and abroad performed as much as could be expected from every excellent man.

[158] Nor did the service of that honoured and noble college of canons stop here. the Germans, For when the companions were to be driven from the city by the agency of those who, carried away by the tide of depraved opinions, had gone off into everything else, they interceded, and above all the honourable and noble dean whom I have mentioned, and, striving against it, they prevailed by the authority of the emperor Maximilian. Nay more, they strive to enlarge the house by adding wings, so that a greater harvest may be gathered day by day by spiritual exercises. At Würzburg, in that same province, in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-seven, Frederick ^m, bishop of Würzburg, having summoned companions from Italy, assigned to them the empty monastery of Blessed Agnes: such as you may see many convents in Germany, alas. In the county of Tyrol two years later the college of Hall was founded under the auspices and by the piety of the imperial daughters of the emperor Ferdinand, Magdalena and Helena of the house of Austria: who had devoted themselves as virgins to God and had hidden themselves there, and who treated the companions very kindly as ministers of piety.

[159] Likewise with the kind permission of the Subalpine Prince, at Augusta Taurinorum, colleges are founded for the Piedmontese and the Venetians. which is the metropolis of the Allobroges, a rich man ⁿ builds a college for the companions: Col. 270C begun indeed in the year 1564, before Francis was created Superior General; but three years later the companions set out and were put in possession by the laws. At Brescia likewise, which is a city of the Venetian dominion, the Society from small beginnings in a short time took on a great increase ^o. For a priest of Brescia [p], noble at home, who had long been on familiar terms with the companions (to whom he would also have been enrolled, as he wished, had he not suffered from poor health), exercised offices in common with the companions: giving ears to penitents, exhorting to piety, visiting the sick, carrying out the other things of that kind. He soon found, as happens, about thirty followers, who reverently obeyed him alone, yet bound by no vows of religious men. The commonwealth of Brescia likewise assigned to them two churches, the one of St. Antony, the other by name Calera. But since they were not sufficiently cultivated in the disciplines, and were therefore forbidden to preach from the higher place, it seemed best to all to join themselves to the Society: their goods of fortune also being brought into common. Francis accepted not unwillingly; nay, he even gave thanks to God that so great and so quickly

He had brought a harvest in those places where there was most need. In that very province a novices' house of the Society was raised from the foundations at Novellara, by the benefaction of the counts of that dominion [q], in that very sixty-ninth year [r].

CAP. X.

[160] Nor indeed was the Society propagated only by colleges, For the sake of propagating the faith in the West Indies nor circumscribed by the bounds of Europe; it set out again into the Indies, and watered with poured-out blood those places, vast in their solitude, uncultivated in barbarism and savagery. For as a young plant set in the fields is wont to be watered by the farmers until it has put down deep roots, and then stands unmoved against winds and storms; so God also fostered the nascent Church with the blood of martyrs and with wonderful works while it was growing up, so that, strengthened, it might endure against the violence of tyrants and the snares of heretics. Well known is that saying of Tertullian, that the blood of Martyrs is the seed of Christians. "We become more," he says, "as often as we are mown down by you. The blood of Christians is seed [s]." The event has declared this to be true in our time, when the companions carried the Gospel to the very furthest lands of the Indies. Hear now briefly of the slaughter of thirty-nine companions, while they were setting out for the propagation of the faith * into Brazil, which is an ample and powerful part of the West Indies.

[161] 69 companions, Francis had sent from Porto [t] to that coast Ignatius Azevedo, a Portuguese, distinguished as in birth so also in piety: to visit the colleges of the companions there, and diligently inspect whatever was needed for enlarging the kingdom of Christ and for Evangelical preaching. In which matter he easily approved his fidelity and diligence to all: and, that an account of it might be rendered to Francis as head of the Society, he sets out toward Rome. Here he relates well that the crop indeed is great and white for the harvest, but the labourers few. Francis therefore orders the superior of that province to return there, and to gather companions from Spain and take across into the Indies those who should offer themselves of their own accord. It was likewise permitted him to enrol in the Society some novices, candidates of the Society, who should give themselves freely to that expedition, and to take them with him. For it had been found that young men devoted to piety are more apt for learning languages thoroughly: and likewise become better accustomed to the nature and food of the sky and soil. Having therefore gathered about sixty-nine companions, he divided them among three ships, because it seemed inconvenient that all should be carried together in one.

[162] they set out, under the leadership of Azevedo, Ignatius put forty-four with himself on board the flagship [u]. Peter Diaz, a priest, boarded the second with some companions: the rest likewise the third. Over the fleet, furnished with seven merchant ships, presided Louis Vasconcellos, a Portuguese nobleman, ready and vigorous in action, sent with authority into Brazil: greatly glad of the company of so many and such great companions. For there they lived quietly and amicably no otherwise than in the colleges. They religiously kept the domestic exercises of piety, of praying, examining themselves and reading: and that fruit too overflowed onto the ship's company, the sailors and the soldiers. For they were formed to piety: they were bidden to abstain from evil words: shameless books likewise and idle tales were knocked out of their hands; in their place pious little books were put, and expiatory beads, and images of the heavenly Lamb. They came at last to the island of Madeira. Here the flagship, on which Ignatius had embarked, turned aside from the others, and ran to the island of Palma, one of the Fortunate Isles. Ignatius first calls to himself the companions who were about to depart, and, foreboding, as came to pass, that they would fall into the hands of heretical pirates, gave the option to all, that if anyone of that number declined to meet death for Christ, he should remain in the island of Madeira. Those who persevered constant should, fortified with the Sacraments of the Church, prepare themselves for death.

[163] Only four gave way through fear, not sufficiently prepared for death. of whom, Forty, duly expiated by confession, and having received the heavenly Bread on the vigil of the Princes of the Apostles, Ignatius ministering, who also distributed waxen images of the Lamb and relics of the Saints brought from Rome, cheerfully embark: having embraced among themselves the others who were carried with Peter Diaz in the other ship: as though foreboding that they were embracing one another for the last time. When they had now departed from the Fortunate Isles, there was one and frequent conversation about martyrdom, so that they seemed to have desired that death with vows: so that the companions, borne on as by this boatswain's call, not far from the port of Palma caught sight of five pirate light vessels, which James Soria, a noble pirate, was leading: who, tainted with the Calvinist blight, assailed Catholics with most hostile hatred. At once he came running up, borne in a beaked ship, well armed with every kind of brazen gun. Ignatius, however, found that what he had foreboded in his mind, God suggesting it, was true, the danger of death. Having therefore exhorted all to the fight, and the passengers to constancy, he promises that they will be victors, whether they fell in death slaughtered by the heretics, or conquered the enemy. And so, holding in his hand the image of the B. Virgin brought from Rome in the form in which St. Luke is believed to have painted her, and turning to the companions (who were reciting the Litanies of the Saints with tears and, ready to meet death, were imploring divine help), he addresses them for the last time with brave mind thus: "Today, all of us, most beloved brethren, so my heart leaps, shall depart from life, and shall enjoy the divine banquet in heaven with Christ and the B. Virgin and the other heavenly ones. It will go more splendidly with us, certainly, holding the harbour of heaven than that of Brazil. Intent therefore on prayer, let us prepare ourselves for death, since I believe that this last day has dawned for us."

[164] Meanwhile the pirate attacks the Portuguese flagship, assailed, though not without the blood of his own men, [the ship in which they were carried having been taken by the Calvinists, in hatred of the faith] and boards it: learning that Jesuits (for so most people call ours) were carried in the ship, he orders all to a man to be slaughtered. "Let them perish," he says, "let them perish, the Papists, who import false doctrine into Brazil." Although a little before he had granted life to priests and monks of St. Francis whom he had captured (for so pirates speak whenever they refrain from slaughter which they could inflict by raging by violence and wrong), yet he by no means spared the companions, although most were still novices and young men. When he had come nearer, raising his voice, he says: "Let all those Jesuits be hurled into the sea, Papists, our fiercest enemies." Nor was there delay: soldiers not unlike their leader, and heretics, attack the companions, strip them of their worn garments, inflict wounds with daggers, first on those who were recognized as priests by their shaven crowns. Very many were thrown headlong into the sea, their arms and hands having been cut off, so that there should be no hope of swimming out.

[165] Ignatius, because he added courage to each by exhorting and urging, first Azevedo, then received a wound in the head so that it split asunder. Here, unmoved, awaiting death, pierced by three lances, he falls crying out: "I call mortals and angels to witness that I fall for the profession of the Catholic Roman faith, from which I think one must not recoil even a nail's breadth." And looking at the companions: "Little sons," he said, "do not dread death." The heretics tried in vain to snatch the image of the Mother of God from his hands. Benedict Castro, himself also bearing before him in his right hand an image of Christ hanging from the cross, struck by three balls, did not yet fall. They therefore stab him with the sword by thrust and cut and throw him half-alive from the ship. Emmanuel Alvarez likewise they wound in the face, fasten to the deck, break his arms and legs, crush his bones: and so that the kind of death should be slower and longer, they do not wish him dead. Soon, breathing his last, he was thrown headlong into the waves of the sea. While the rest were on bended knees before the image, the heretics, driven to madness, dash the hilts of their swords against the head of Blaise Ribeiro. From which wound, struck down, he perished. And a soldier pierced the mouth of Peter Fonseca [x] with a dagger, and, loosening his jaw, killed him. Diego Andrada, a priest, who had been placed as substitute to Ignatius, while giving his ears to confessions, they hurl down with his companions: as he was saying: "Let us fight bravely, companions, prodigal of our blood: for we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ."

[166] his 38 companions While this slaughter was being made, Gregory Escrivano and Alvarus Mendez were languishing from illness and the weariness of the voyage. Being sick, therefore, they could have escaped notice and lain hidden, if it had pleased them in mind. But, thinking that the opportunity and palm of martyrdom must by no means be let slip, they leap of their own accord to their feet, and, having thrown on a garment, offer themselves half-naked and their throats. Simon da Costa, because by the dignity of his body he displayed a certain nobility of birth, was presented by the soldiers to the arch-pirate and asked by Soria whether he was a Jesuit? although he could have escaped and slipped away by denying it, yet, though he had only very recently given his name to the Society, he preferred to die for the religion of his forefathers rather than seem a deserter. The pirate, indignant, ordered him to be slaughtered before his eyes and thrown into the sea. Thus thirty-nine companions fell happily on the Ides of Quinctilis of the year 1570 [y].

[167] are slain, one only being spared; I shall list the names of each. Ignatius Azevedo, superior of the province, Diego Andrada, Antony Suarez, Benedict Castro, John Ferdinand of Lisbon, Francis Alvarez of Covilhã, Dominic Ferdinandes, Emmanuel Alvarez, John Mayorga of Aragon, Alfonso Vaëna of Toledo, Gonsalvo Henriquez, deacon, John Ferdinand of Braga, Alexius Delgado, Louis Correa of Évora, Emmanuel Rodriguez of Alcochete, Simon Lopez, Emmanuel Ferdinandes, Alvarus Mendez, Peter Munnos, Francis Magaluninius, Nicholas Dinis of Bragança, Gaspar Alvarez, Blaise Ribeiro of Braga, Antony Ferdinand of Montemor, Emmanuel Pacheco, Peter Pontaureus [z], Simon da Costa, Andrew Gonsalvez of Viana, Amatus [aa] Vasquez, Diego Perez Misceus, John Baeza, Mark Caldeira, Antony Correa of Porto, Ferdinand Sanches of Castile, Gregory Escrivano of Logroño, Francis Perez Godoy of Torrijos, John Zaureus of Toledo, John of San Martín of Illescas, Stephen Zuraire, a Cantabrian: who, being of singular simplicity and candour of manners, when about to depart from Plasencia in Spain, said to a priest of ours: "I set out with a joyful mind, certain of martyrdom." And being asked whence he asserted it so constantly, he answered that it had been revealed to him by God, who is truth itself. One, John Sanchez, escaped the danger thus. While the pirate was separating the passengers from the companions, and examining the hands and clothes of each, looking at this man, ragged and with calloused hands, he said: "Are you the cook of the Jesuits?" He affirmed it, not at all terrified: yet, because he was very young and went about in a shorter garment, and they thought he would be of use to them for cooking, he is snatched from the butchery: and having been carried with them into Aquitaine, he soon took to flight homeward: God no doubt so commanding, that he might report the event with greater credit as an eyewitness: although there were not lacking others also who, having slipped away in flight, related the same things.

[168] But lest one should be lacking to the full number of forty companions, In whose place succeeded a young man, a candidate of the Society. by God's kindness, as Adauctus once to the martyr Felix, a certain one * who, substituted in place of John Sanchez, took on almost the same name, commonly called San Juan, a kinsman of the commander [bb] of the Portuguese fleet. He had not been enrolled among the companions by Ignatius: yet as a candidate he vehemently desired it: wherefore he never left his side, imitating the companions in all pious exercises, assiduously both in praying and in meditating. He, likewise destined for slaughter, without any shuffling, preferred to die rather than seem to have lost the opportunity of eternal salvation. He was therefore slaughtered and thrown into the sea. So too to the forty martyrs at Sebaste under the emperor Licinius, whom Basil and his brother Gregory of Nyssa praised in eloquent discourses, there was added one of the guards, set to watch them: lest one of the forty crowns seen in heaven should be lacking [cc]. Here Soria allowed all the passengers to go away free, content to have stripped them:

but against the companions he raged, not only stripping them, but also slaughtering the innocent: because from boyhood he had drunk in heretical savagery. For it is the disposition of sectaries, especially of those who boast themselves Calvinists and Puritans, to rage against all pious Catholics.

ANNOTATIONS.

b. In the year 1567.

c. In the year 1568.

d. In the year 1569.

h. In the year 1566.

i. Prusinovsky.

k. In the year 1567.

m. Wirsberg.

n. Aleramo Becuti.

o. In the year 1567.

p. Angelo Paradisi.

q. Of Camillo Gonzaga and Barbara Borromeo.

r. Sacchinus, part 3, book 7, number 27, writes that it was accepted in the month of August of the year 1570, and began to be inhabited on the Kalends of November of the following year.

s. At the end of the Apologeticus.

t. Oporto to the Portuguese.

u. The St. James. But, what Schottus adds of his own, it was not the flagship; on which Peter Diaz was carried with his companions, as he himself testifies at number 280 of the Preliminary Commentary.

x. Poussines, book 3 on the Life and death of Azevedo, number 72, reports that Peter Fontoura was slain by that kind of death. He, therefore, is to be understood here; especially since Peter Fonseca is neither in the Catalogues cited at number 279 of the Preliminary Commentary, nor mentioned by Ribadeneira himself or by Schottus a little below, where the names of each are listed.

y. Ribadeneira too, book 3, chapter 10, says that all this happened on the 15th of July of the year 1570; but Simon da Costa was slain on the 16th day of the same month.

z. He was called Peter Fontoura or Fontaura, of whom at letter X.

aa. Read Amarus or Maurus.

bb. Rather, a kinsman of the master of the ship St. James; not of Louis Vasconcellos.

cc. An addition of Schottus. These Martyrs are venerated today on the 10th day of March, at which they have been treated of in our Work: but Felix and Adauctus, of whom a little above, on the 30th day of August.

* supply: for the sake

* supply: was added,

CHAPTER XI.

The martyrdom of Father Peter Diaz and his companions: new increases of the Society: Francis desires to renounce his office: he is joined by Pius V as companion to Cardinal Alessandrino, legate.

CAP. XI.

Nor were the other companions of this voyage free from slaughter and dangers, the Calvinists, who, following Peter Diaz the priest, had remained in the island of Madeira ^a. I omit the tediousness and dangers of a long voyage of more than fifteen months: let us treat of the end. Carried to the islands of the Atlantic sea, to Barlovento ^b, thence to Santo Domingo ^c, soon to Cuba ^d, tossed by various and foul storms, they at last put in at the island of Terceira ^e. Here, anchors having been cast, the fourteen companions who had been entrusted to Peter Diaz boarded the flagship of Louis Vasconcellos. He, compelled to leave the other ships unrigged, as badly built and gaping with cracks, because most of the passengers had either slipped away in flight or were missing through death, fitted out one, and cast off from the coast of Terceira toward Brazil on the day after the Nones of September in the year 1571. When for about eight days, the winds blowing as they wished, they had been carried further, the sails of five light vessels appear. Of these the Frenchman John Cadaville was leading four, in heretical perfidy and in mind toward the companions and all pious men in no way inferior to James Soria. One was of English pirates.

[170] Louis, being skilled in navigation, having recognized, as was the case, Vasconcellos's ship having been stormed, that all were in danger, exhorts them to battle: and the signal having been given, he orders the trumpet to sound and arms to be got ready, and binds them by oath to his words, that each should defend himself, his faith and the religion of his forefathers by arms against the onslaught of the heretics. The companions too persuade them with gentle words that, if they wished to fight happily against the enemy, they should first, having duly confessed, return into favour with God, from whom they were bidden to hope for help. Louis obeyed first, then the ship's master and the rest of the soldiers in order, and time was given for collecting themselves. For night and darkness hindered the battle. The day after that day had scarcely dawned when they assail the flagship heavily with the light vessels and gird it with a siege. The Portuguese resist bravely, fire balls; hurl shot and stones at the enemy, come to close quarters, the matter is carried on by force: so that the victory cost much blood, some pirates having been slain. At length, the ship having been grappled with grappling irons, they board it and invade it captured. Louis, having discharged the office of a most valiant commander, partly by exhorting, partly by fighting, struck by two leaden balls and pierced with wounds at close quarters, fell. The enemy burst in with great force: they strip him, unknown, and hurl him into the sea. The enemy took possession of the rest of the passengers *.

[171] Soon, having entered a cabin, they found Francis Castro, a priest, Peter Diaz and his who was attending the ship's master as he breathed his last from a wound, and giving ears to his confession, and they stab him with many blows of steel, driven by rage, because, senseless, they hate the Sacrament of Penance with hostile mind. Peter Diaz likewise, occupied in the same offices, who had flown to his labouring colleague Castro, together with Gaspar Goes, a mere youth, who would not leave the old man's side, they savagely slaughter. The eleven companions who remained exhorted one another and gave each other courage to fall bravely for the name of Christ and the orthodox faith. Seized, therefore, and affected with blows of fists, wounds and innumerable insults, at length, their hands bound behind their backs, they were shut in a little cabin, a guard of soldiers also being added. Michael of Aragon, because, having received a wound in the arm, he had groaned while the bonds were being tied more tightly, they seized, and together with Francis Paul, who was at his side, hurled into the deep. The nine survivors spend the night in bonds, and meanwhile the heretics lash their ears with insults and blasphemies against God and His spouse the Church. It was already growing light, and the first prayers of the heretics were poured out at dawn, that they might consign the companions to death as, so they proclaimed with full mouth, their enemies the Jesuits.

[172] And so, without the cause being pleaded, and sentence of death having been passed, they put to death all the companions except two, they had first determined to hang them from the yard-arms: afterwards, led by avarice, because they thought a great quantity of gold was being carried from Portugal for building churches in Brazil, they thought there should be delay; when nothing was found, gaping and disappointed in the hope of plunder, with savage and more than barbarous cruelty they beat the innocent men, kick them, trample them on the ground with their feet: they call them besides dogs, robbers, Papists and enemies of God. But the companions, as sheep led to the slaughter, did not open their mouths with a single word against them, but bore it patiently. At last they are hurled into the deep. Two, ignorant of swimming, are at once overwhelmed by the waves; five, skilled in swimming, exhorting and helping one another, held out for some while. At length, having poured out to God that prayer, "To Thee only have I sinned," three sought the bottom. But Diego Ferdinand, picked up by a fishing boat to which he swam, escaped shipwreck. Sebastian Lopez too, having caught sight of a light in the dark night, approached a vessel, but in vain: he was received by the heretics with insulting words, and bidden to go to perdition; such are the dispositions of heretics: received at length by another little boat of a somewhat more humane man, he was covered in a corner and with a garment. These, having come through the dangers, narrated the matter as it was done, seen with their own eyes.

[173] and they exercise their fury upon the sacred furniture. I shall list the names of the twelve companions from the Annals. Two priests indeed led the flock: Peter Diaz and Francis Castro. And the Brothers, Alfonso Ferdinand, Gaspar Goes, Andrew Pais, John Alvarez, the second Peter Diaz, Ferdinand Alvarez, Michael of Aragon, Francis Paul, Peter Ferdinand and Diego Gonsalvez. Nor did this fury and savagery stop here. For the impious, against God and the Saints, not content with having cast the companions to the wild beasts and the monsters of the sea, also scattered and sowed in the waves all the relics of the Saints, and the images and waxen figures of the heavenly Lamb, and the expiatory beads: by which aids the companions desired to soothe the barbarous and uncultivated nations of Brazil and allure them to Christ. Whose departure I have reported more fully for this reason, both that the death of the pious may be a consolation and stand as an example to the survivors, and that whoever reads or hears these things may understand that the faith of our forefathers is even today established by blood, which cries out to God like the blood of Abel. Meanwhile Francis, that we may return to the point from which we digressed, having received this sad news, congratulating the companions on their death, who had fallen bravely and constantly, pitied the lot of the Indians, who had been deprived of such ministers of the Word by the agency and doing of the heretics. He therefore gladly credited to God the blood that had been poured out, and, venerating it, prayed that He would give the same spirit and mind to himself and the other companions. He also often called them happy, who, spending their goods, their life, in short all things for Christ, had departed hence, and happily escaped the calamities of wretched life.

CAP. XII.

[174] And these companions indeed fortified for themselves by blood a way to immortality: While of the companions, their slaughter was so far from deterring others that more companions day by day desired the very same with vows. Nor did the number of companions only grow, but also a great addition of colleges was made at that very time. We shall report most things in order, account being had of places and times, as far as can be done. Among the Portuguese, then, to begin from the furthest bounds of the earth, those kings, of singular devotion and goodwill toward the Society (which they both munificently embraced when newly arisen, and transferred from their native soil into the remote regions of the Indies), raised colleges of the companions in the islands of Madeira and Terceira, to the great advantage of the islanders. For the pious kings desired to extend not so much their own kingdom as that of Christ: and that their subjects, the darkness of errors having now been dispelled, should be imbued with the precepts of the Christian religion, and drink in piety together with their nurse's milk. In the year, therefore, I think, 1570, Emmanuel Sequeira, as rector, embarked with some companions for Madeira. And to Angra, which is the metropolis of one of the Terceira islands, Louis Vasconcellos first sets out. The king assigned from the public treasury a stipend sufficient for maintaining the companions.

[175] and at the same time great At that very time in Baetica the college of Baeza arose from these beginnings. Elvira Ávila, a noble matron, bequeathed her goods by testament for maintaining the companions ^f. To these was added the revenue of the college of St. James, different from that of Compostela, which, not sufficiently endowed by Diego Carillo Carvajal, was not inhabited. With the consent of the patrons, therefore, so that the last will of the testator might be ratified, the Pontiff, asked by a suppliant petition, assigned it to the Society. In the province of Toledo about the same time the college of Huete began to be inhabited [g], begun indeed three years before: in which year Stephen Ortiz, a rich priest and above all zealous for the advantage of his native place, had, when dying, left his goods for the sustenance of the companions and the benefit of the inhabitants. Among the Sicilians likewise at Caltagirone (that town holds the navel of the island, famous for wealth and the harvest of crops) the companions, having been summoned, began to have a dwelling ^h, and to be maintained from the treasury, to bring back the fruit of souls as sheaves.

[176] I return to Spain; in the Castilian

province, of dwellings John, surnamed of San Millán, bishop of that city, a man of singular chastity and austerity of life, established [i] and endowed the college of León. For the most innocent prelate had the purpose, by order of the synod of Trent, of training poor pupils for the dignity of the priesthood, who, when older, should come to share the labour of cultivating the Lord's vineyard. Which hope did not deceive him. For it can scarcely be said with what zeal the companions roused by teaching and preaching the talents that lay dormant in those places and the sparks that had been extinguished. The college of Málaga in the province of Baetica was begun that very year by the liberality of bishop Francis Blanco. He, formerly bishop of Orense ^k, had increased with provisions the college of the companions of Monterrey in the Castilian province: nor was he content with this. For, having been created archbishop of Compostela, he built a house for the companions there with his own money: and liberally fostered the companions who were applying themselves to sacred studies at Salamanca. An old patron of the companions, no doubt, from the time he returned as bishop from the council of Trent into Spain.

[177] The house of Villagarcía forms the novice companions and perfects the veterans. among various nations This a noble and truly generous matron, Magdalena Ulloa, had built from the foundations at immense expense ^l: partly following the authority of her dying husband, Louis Quixada, who, while he lived, was president of the council of the Indies, and of the inner council of Philip the Catholic king, and lord of that town: partly that she might imbue the children of the inhabitants, through the labour of the companions, with the best disciplines and morals. That last college Francis admitted and approved on the Spanish journey, of which more conveniently below. That matron, with the greatest zeal of piety, ordered a second college, that of Oviedo, to be built for the companions ^m: with this design alone, that she had heard that all that region of the Asturians needed cultivation and letters.

[178] Francis, on that very Spanish embassy, in the year which was his last, 1572, in number permitted a college at Bordeaux in France to be built at the expense of the city, and undertook that he would send companions. Likewise another at Nevers, begun by the benefaction of Louis Gonzaga, prince of that dominion. At that time the college of Pont-à-Mousson in Lorraine was established by the liberality of Charles of Lorraine, a most ample Cardinal, a man excelling in the highest prudence, ancient faith, eminent learning and almost singular eloquence: by which arts he always excellently defended the Catholic faith, and this praise is proper and almost singular to the whole family of Lorraine and Guise (for they have always shown themselves prodigal of their blood), as they have left attested to the world. That prudent man certainly had seen far, that this school ought to be set as a mole and a wall against the audacity and tumults of the heretics ⁿ.

[179] the Society is increased, In Germany, in the Rhenish province, the college of Fulda was begun ^o, built for the Society at the expense of Balthasar [p], abbot and prince of the empire. In Poland too, at that time, that of Poznań was established [r] by the prelate of the city [q]. In the province of Austria, at Brno, which is a city situated in Moravia, a house was given to the novice companions from the public stock [s]. And in Italy, in the province of the Insubres, another house of novices at Arona was assigned [t] by Charles Borromeo, a Cardinal of most holy life, who was also the author of the college of Milan: which dwelling indeed, since it was at the sacred church of St. Fidelis, he turned into a house of Professed companions [u], and the college passed thence into the church of Brera. That had formerly been the seat of the Humiliati; which religious order Pius V had extinguished at about that time, and assigned it to the use of the companions, and today it is possessed with the great goodwill and at the same time profit of the citizens. And these colleges indeed I recall as founded by Francis within three years, unless perhaps, as human affairs are, some have escaped us [x].

CAP. XIII.

[180] Occupied for the most part in these things, Francis was held to the great advantage of the Church and the Society: to give up his magistracy yet, such was his lowliness of mind and modesty, while he satisfied all others, he never satisfied himself: he resolved to go out of office and abdicate: hoping that, if another held the same power, he would bring greater fruits to the companions. Then, that he was weary with years, broken with labour and liable to various diseases. That the burden besides was pressing upon him more and more heavily day by day, and that in so great an accession of colleges of the Society the labour would be increased. This too was troublesome, that, being as it were immersed in business, he could not emerge daily, and was as it were swept away by the tide of a Euripus and pulled in various directions: whence it came about that he could not conveniently give attention to sacred prayer in these straits of time: than which one exercise of the mind and divine converse nothing was more important or more delightful to him. He recalled to memory that those who had held the same magistracy before, Ignatius and Laínez, had formerly attempted the same. That Ignatius too had given the companions the opinion of creating another Superior General. "Those most excellent men," he said, "adorned by God with so many and such great gifts, excelling in innocence and holiness of life, when this office of administering the Society was still lighter (of whom, however, I cannot attain even the shadow, though I try with all my might), attempted the same: and so perhaps for me also, far inferior to them, especially at this time, in which this labour has grown beyond measure, what I wish will succeed according to my desire."

[181] Francis desires: Having entered upon that opinion by roughly these reasons, Francis, after the matter had been long and much deliberated, and God consulted by sacrifices and prayers, calls together the Fathers who were wont to assist in deliberations: he discloses what he had thought and had fixed. "It is my purpose," he said, "to proclaim a congregation of the Society for choosing a new Superior General: for, now an old man, of weary age and infirm body, broken likewise by labours, I seem not sufficiently fit for conducting public affairs: nor do I think that this burden, great indeed and heavy, can be borne by me any longer. Even the Roman business alone would be enough for me to succumb in discharging it. And if it was permitted to most holy men, Ignatius and Laínez, with whom I am in no way to be compared, to attempt this very thing; how much more fair is it that it be granted to me, whose strength of body and mind is now failing. It has pleased me, therefore, now to propose to you also, Fathers, this arduous matter, weighed in an even balance and commended to God the Author, may it turn out well. In which matter I beg again and again that you be my supporters. Whereby it will come about that, we being now worn out, one may succeed, sound, who will both wish and be able to handle the common affairs of the Society. It will truly be to the advantage of all the companions, and very welcome to me, and for the greater glory of God. I indeed rightly demand, at this enfeebled age, time to collect myself, so that, free from cares and business, I may prepare myself more rightly for death, which is close on our footsteps."

[182] So he. The Fathers, on the contrary, refuted his speech: but the companions deter him from that purpose: they bid him be silent on this matter, which would be to the detriment of the Society: they praise indeed his zeal to collect himself, but condemn his wishing to carry it out in deed, and say that it would not be with the will of God and men, to whom he had given authority, and whom he had helped very greatly, with great increase of the Society. That these indeed vehemently approved up to that day the form and manner of administration of him whom they had chosen as Superior, carried it before their eyes and observed it. As for the pursuit of prayer and preparation for death, let him hold this: that more merit would accrue to him if, praying to God, he also watched over the advantages of very many, than if as a private man he gave himself to prayer alone. Moreover that death is more safely awaited with right deeds and with very many offices of deserving well of others. And indeed, without the commander's order, it is not permitted to a soldier to leave his post: let him therefore obey God. As for the examples, Ignatius and Laínez had desired the same rather than hoped for it. Neither of them, therefore, had proclaimed a public congregation of the companions for that reason. For they were persuaded that it would be a loss and an expense to the Society: finally, that they would not obtain what they asked. That they now declared the same to him: they bid him therefore be of untroubled mind, that he would never bring it about that those whose votes had conspired in so great a number upon him alone would allow the same man to go out of office: let him proceed steadfastly, as hitherto, to hold the helm straight. By these reasons, since he perceived that he strove in vain, he acquiesced for the present.

CAP. XIV.

[183] While Francis seeks to be released from cares, he not only could not shake off the yoke, But Pius V, the Turks threatening the destruction of Europe, but even took up a weight in no way lighter, certainly a most heavy one. For he was ordered by Pius V to give himself as companion to Cardinal Alessandrino, his kinsman [y], undertaking an embassy to the kings in Spain and France. For Selim, emperor of the Turks, having at that time declared war on the Venetians, had girded the kingdom of Cyprus with a close siege of fleets; and having taken by force the metropolis Famagusta and Nicosia, of which the former is thought to be the Salamis or the Tamassus of the ancients, he had slaughtered the Venetian commanders [z] against the faith given, with the barbarity customary to that nation: because they had bravely defended themselves and their commonwealth by arms. The enemy, as happens, elated by these victories, seemed to gape for Europe and to be hanging over the throats of all. Terror indeed had pervaded all. The Pontiff, as a true parent and a shepherd watching over his flock, moved by the prayers of the Venetians, applied his mind to bringing help to the labouring Christian commonwealth.

[184] Wherefore he judged that the kings and lords of Europe should be called into leagues of concord, lest the commonwealth should suffer any harm. He therefore sent as legate Cardinal Alessandrino, together with Francis Borgia, who should be sharer of his counsels, Cardinal Alessandrino, legate to the kings of Spain and France, because he was strong in prudence and knew how to address kings and handle their minds, as quickly as possible into Spain, so that they might associate Philip the Catholic king and Charles the ninth, king of the French, in a league of war with the Venetian and Pontifical fleet: so that with forces joined they might keep off and repel the perpetual and savage enemy of the Christian name, the Turk, and restrain him from violence. For the insolent victor was said to have consigned all Christians to slavery. The league (to turn aside a little from the road) was struck not so very long after, forces hired and a fleet fitted out. Commander was named John of Austria, who then also commanded the royal fleet in Italy. The battle was fought on the Nones of October at the Echinades islands and Naupactus, at the jaws of the Corinthian gulf, not far from the promontory of Actium; where Augustus overcame Antony with Cleopatra. The Turk was slaughtered to extermination, a few galleys slipping away in flight, so that the sea itself was red, stained with blood.

[185] he orders to accompany. Into this very expedition of naval war the Pontiff sent several companions, over whom presided Christopher Rodriguez, a doctor of theology. These rendered splendid service in good time to the naval allies and the soldiers, partly by exhorting, partly by consoling the sick. When they had been gathered and were about to enter on the journey, this wonderful thing happened. When, kissing the feet of Pius, they asked his blessing, he addressed them thus: "Go and return, happy. Carry this joyful news in my words to John of Austria, supreme commander of the fleet. Courage, great young man, and do not hesitate to fight bravely against the enemy and to join battle, nor by delaying draw out the war and let slip the occasion of conducting the affair well. I wish him to take care that lust be absent from the men of the fleet, and the passion for gambling. One must fight with Christ as leader and patron. So may I see you victor by the kindness of the God of hosts." The event answered the prophecy of the excellent Pontiff. The victory was won, not without blood, and the victorious fleet returned in triumph, richer with the spoils of the enemy taken in the very bosom of the hostile sea. The standards taken were brought home, of the churches

hung on the domes, and are seen today. But, having digressed so far, let us return to our undertaking.

ANNOTATIONS.

f. In the year 1569.

g. In the year 1570.

h. In the year 1571.

i. In the year 1572.

l. In the year 1572.

o. In the year 1571.

p. Von Dernbach.

q. Adam Konarski.

r. In the year 1571.

s. It had as founder John Grodecius, Provost of Brno, afterwards bishop of Olomouc. Gregory XIII confirmed the foundation about the end of the year 1572, on the witness of Sacchinus, part 3, book 8, number 215.

t. In the year 1572.

u. In the same year.

x. Consult §§ XIX and XX of the Preliminary Commentary.

y. Michael Bonelli, grand-nephew of Pius V through his sister.

z. Baglioni, Bragadin, Tiepolo and others at Famagusta: and at Nicosia Dandolo, Priuli, etc., concerning whom consult Peter Giustiniani, History of Venice, book 16.

* that is: captured by the enemy.

CHAPTER XII.

The last journey of Francis, undertaken for the advantage of the Church; his return to Rome and pious death; the form of his body, his character, his writings.

Having set out for Spain Pius, having summoned Francis, addresses him in friendly fashion; that he wished to use his labour for the advantage of the Commonwealth. Could he, with sound health, make a journey into Spain? That he had destined him alone as companion to Cardinal Alessandrino, to help the legate by deed and counsel. Then he sets out in order what he desires to be treated with the kings of France, Spain and Portugal, and, having blessed him well as he set out with voice and sign of the cross, he dismisses him on the fifth day before the Kalends of Quinctilis. And at the end of August they reached Spain safely in the year 1571. Ferdinand Borgia, son of Francis, was sent to the legate in Catalonia in the name of king Philip for the sake of greeting, and offered his Father this royal letter: "Being about to send Ferdinand Borgia to the legate of the Pontiff, I thought I should also give a letter to you, by which you might be informed that yours, given on the day after the Kalends of Quinctilis, has been delivered to me. Concerning the twelve companions to be sent into New Spain of the Indies for spreading the Gospel, it was very welcome to me, and I thank you. That news too was joyful to me, which brought word that you had come safe into Spain, and I shall see you gladly. Your Ferdinand will report the rest from me, whom I have sent to you also with a greeting, which I also expect from you. From the house of St. Lawrence, on the 9th day before the Kalends of September, 1571."

[187] On almost the same subject, but a little more copiously, honourably everywhere another letter ^a was sent by Diego Espinosa, bishop of Sigüenza, president of the royal council and chief of the inquisitors of the faith, at that time dear and acceptable to the Catholic king as few were. When they had set out from Barcelona ^b to Valencia, Charles Borgia, duke of Gandía, his eldest son, came to meet them with a great band of clients. Next after him followed Francis Borgia, his grandson, attended by the flower of the Valencian nobility. Both, falling on their knees, were sent by their Parent to the legate; from whom they received the blessing in solemn manner. The old clients of the family besides, mindful of their Lord, beheld him with incredible joy after so many years. He, however, with the few companions whom he had as companions of the journey, having slipped away from the crowd of those greeting him and avoiding the pomp, withdrew stealthily, and, having entered Valencia secretly, betook himself to the college of the companions.

[188] he is received, Soon the patriarch John Ribera, archbishop of Valencia, visited Francis for honour's sake, and, although it was permitted by business to stay there only four days, nevertheless asks him to ascend the pulpit of the church and speak to the people. One making an honourable request had to be complied with, although he had no time to collect himself. Hither there was so great a concourse of people as to a festival, and to an unusual spectacle, a Duke acting as Preacher of the Word of God. He could scarcely break through to the pulpit: and it is incredible with what eagerness he was heard on his native soil, so that people flocked in numbers even from Gandía to hear and see him. Having set out toward Madrid, turning a little aside from the road, he went to the novitiate of the Society at Villarejo. Here, received joyfully and long expected by the companions, and likewise by the authors of the college, John de Silva, lord of the dominion, and Jerónima Mendoza his wife, he delighted both with conversations and pious discourses. When they came to Madrid of the Carpetani, the king went forward honourably to meet the legate according to custom: he embraced Francis too kindly, and gladly heard him as added to the legate as companion of his counsels, and employed him in all deliberations, the whole matter soon being easily conducted according to their mind: for it was not difficult to persuade a truly Catholic king of a thing in itself necessary, as those times were.

[189] and on departing, to king Philip Before Francis departed toward Portugal, he sent as a gift to the Catholic king, through the marquis of Denia, his son-in-law, a fragment of the Cross of Christ, adding this letter: "I send you, great king, as a gift a particle of that Cross on which the Son of God hung to redeem the human race. This chief of relics seemed worthy of the most august church which you are now having built to God, Best and Greatest, and to His most valiant martyr Lawrence. Next, for relieving the labours of the Cross which you bear daily in administering so many kingdoms. I indeed, a sinner, shall count it in the place of a great benefit if you suffer me to be in the number of your priests and ministers, beseeching God daily for your safety. So may He will you to survive as long as possible for the Christian Commonwealth, that at last, having finished life and labours, you may enjoy the beatitude of heaven."

[190] he gives a particle of the Holy Cross; The king, suffused with wonderful joy, and having venerated the Cross with a kiss, gave thanks to Francis with his own hand. "Your son-in-law, the marquis of Denia, has delivered to me the particle of the Lord's Cross. How gladly I have received it, do not ask: both of itself: for what is more precious than that wood? and because I, if any mortal, am most in need of the protection of the Cross, as you rightly admonish. Finally, because the gift has come from you, in whose hands it would bring back greater fruits; in mine I know not what will come of it. May God grant that I may not seem unworthy of the merits of the Cross. Although I do not doubt that you, with all the companions, offering the sacred rites daily, as you write, for the king's safety, beseech Him who, fixed to the Cross, redeemed us from the tyranny of eternal death, yet I ask again and again that you do the same constantly: and that the more frequently, the more you know the prayers of the pious to be necessary to me for administering the Commonwealth. Hail and farewell."

[191] It had been shown by documents of the clerks and by the attestation of notaries and having exhorted the companions to virtue and constancy, that this was truly the wood of the Lord's Cross: the king nevertheless ordered Francis to subscribe that it seemed the same to him: whose testimony would be the equal of all witnesses. At the royal court the salutations of princes were so many and so frequent that it was not even possible to breathe. The superiors of the provinces of the Society likewise flew there as soon as possible: to consult in common and treat of the public affairs of the Society: whom, as far as the straits of time allowed, he heard and dismissed cheerful. And the colleges, wherever he made his way, he gladly visited, so as to console the companions in person and refresh their minds with divine discourses; and to exhort them to complete the course of life, until from the starting-gates they should happily reach the finishing-post.

CAP. XV.

[192] Thence the legate made his way into Portugal by forced marches for the sake of conducting the business. he makes his way into Portugal, and, the business there having been dispatched, There met him at the borders, sent by the king, Constantine, brother of Theodosius, duke of Bragança, who had been governor with royal authority in the kingdoms of East India, noble as well as pious, and of singular goodwill toward the companions, which is the proper praise of his family. King Sebastian went forward to the shore of the Ocean to meet the legate, attended by all the lords and knights, with that zeal, namely, with which his forebears were wont to receive the legates of the Pontiff. He received Francis too courteously; likewise Catherine, his grandmother, and Henry the Cardinal, prince of the kingdom. Here, the public embassy having been set out, Francis conducted certain private affairs by command of the Pontiff and of king Philip, and brought them to an end.

[193] Soon they return to Madrid: and having stayed there a few days, having returned to Madrid, thence they hasten into France through the Pyrenees ^c, Ferdinand Borgia, Francis's son, attending by the king's order, so that he who had come to congratulate them on their arrival in the king's voice might also escort them on their departure. At the frontier of the kingdom [d], about to say the last farewell, he eats the Bread of Angels from his parent's hands, Mass having been said: for what greater gift could a son receive from a Father in mortal life? Then he addresses him with words and tears. "Fear and love God, my son, in whom are all things: embrace virtue, and flee vices as the face of a serpent. Look above all to the divine honour: let the empty hopes and delights of the world yield to this."

[194] When they had soon entered France, the journey offered was not equally safe and quiet. making his way into France, Aquitaine was full of military forces, from the factions of the heretics, who were bearing arms against the king. Here they saw unwillingly, so that they could not hold back their tears, churches destroyed, altars profaned, monasteries levelled to the ground, in short the face of the Commonwealth deformed. They heard that Catholics had been oppressed by force by the heretics or driven from their native soil. To say it in one word, a kingdom once most flourishing was burning with the flame of civil wars. To Francis, as he looked on these things and turned them over daily in his mind, they were a greater grief day by day, the more he burned with zeal for the house of the Lord. And because, as we have received it handed down by the wisest men, a sick mind is wont to affect the body also, and on the contrary the body the mind, Francis began to be tried by illness, to which disadvantage another also was added: for, Mass having been said in a half-ruined church, the wind pressed upon his languid body, otherwise weakened by the weariness of a long journey, since he had not long enjoyed sufficiently firm health.

[195] Brought at last, at the beginning of the spring time of fasts, to Blois ^e, where the legate found Charles, the ninth of that name, king of the French; and his mother Catherine de' Medici. Both also received Francis kindly and gladly heard him, he treats with Charles IX at Blois: exhorting them with the greatest earnestness of mind that, if they wished the kingdom, once most flourishing, and likewise most Christian, to be safe, they should strive with all their might and strength for the Catholic religion: whose companion is piety toward God, and obedience to kings. Let them, therefore, at once extinguish the newly arisen opinions like a conflagration. He added other things of that kind, which nevertheless came back to the same point. They gave thanks, promising that they would do so to the best of their power: and asked meanwhile that Francis would pray God to drive civil war, a sign of heavenly anger, from the kingdom.

[196] seized with fever, Their business done, they prepare their return into Italy. Soon they come upon a village on the day after the Kalends of February, the feast day of the Purification, which is sacred to the B. Virgin, and is called by the Greeks Hypapante. Having entered the church, therefore, to perform the sacred rites, it appears bare of walls and roof,

and only a stone altar remaining. But Francis would not be without the sacrifice of the Mass. Here, the wind raging, his body, infirm of itself, was injured: and, as the weather was cold, he is seized with a chill. Soon, given over to languor by a burning fever ^f, his mind too was overcome by continual sorrow, taking it ill that the worship of God and His Spouse the Church lay neglected. For he repeatedly recited to himself that saying of the royal Prophet: "O God, the heathens are come into thy inheritance: they have defiled thy holy temple [g]." And with the prophet Elijah he set up the complaint: "Lord, the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant: they have thrown down thy altars, and have slain thy Prophets with the sword ^h." This very calamity of the ancestral faith Francis had foretold ten years before, in a letter sent [i] to Peter Ribadeneira, priest of the Society, concerning the French already disturbing and plotting revolution.

CAP. XVI.

[197] Seized by illness, since Francis could not stand on his feet, the dukes of Savoy resisting in vain having been quickly carried to the borders of the Allobroges, he remained for a longer time in the town of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne [k], overwhelmed by the force of the illness. The prince of the Allobroges [l] at once sent a physician with courtiers to be present with the sufferer, and to carry the sick man to Turin. That was difficult at that time of the year, because the roughness of the Cottian Alps, commonly Mont Cenis, had to be overcome; yet it was done. Here he was treated with every office of piety, so that from modesty he could not prevail upon himself not to wish to fly away as soon as possible, no account being had of his sickness. He therefore demanded his dismissal and extorted it from them unwilling and resisting.

[198] and the dukes of Ferrara, He was carried down the river Po in a vessel fitted out at the duke's expense. Fixed to his little bed, he heard Mass daily, and was fed with the heavenly Bread. The eighth day had already gone when by the same river he reached the territory of Ferrara. Here Alfonso d'Este, duke of Ferrara, forthwith supplied everything that seemed needful. Carried thence into the city, compelled by the force of the illness, which abated nothing, nay grew more and more, he stopped there against his will: and, having stayed many days, he was received at home with every kind of service and courtesy, so that they seemed to regard Francis in the place of a parent. Nor were medicines only sought out from every side; the duke ordered vows also to be publicly conceived at all the churches of the Saints, and proclaimed supplications for the recovery of Francis. All these things were done piously and dutifully: both because he was joined to him by the bond of blood ^m, and from the repute of his holiness. Impatient of such great service, he busied himself to fly hence too as soon as possible, and constantly demanded to be carried to Rome: he yielded, however, to the duke's prayers and to the counsels of the physicians and companions.

[199] Foreboding death in his mind, he asks the duke and the companions again more insistently he seeks Rome, to see to it that he be carried to Rome as soon as possible, so that he might depart from life in the holy City and in the house of the Professed companions, where he knew that his predecessors, Ignatius and Laínez, had expired. Overcome at last by the prayers of Francis, they too yielded, especially since the physicians also despaired of his recovery. Having placed him, therefore, on a little bed, they carry him in a litter toward Rome. Thence he is carried into the holy house of Loreto: for so the dying man had asked, that he might commend his departing soul to the Virgin Mother of God, from whose womb the Son of God, putting on flesh, had come forth into this life. Soon, hastening to Rome with frequent jolting, shut up in the litter nights and days; at length, when he learned that he had entered the city of Rome, stretching his hands and eyes to heaven, he joyfully exclaims: "Now dost thou dismiss thy servant, O Lord." Glad that his life had been spent in the service of the Apostolic See and in an embassy.

CAP. XVII.

[200] Pope Pius V, the author of the embassy and of the league, had departed from life [n] before and having been carried there, two days after Francis had returned home, and had left the Apostolic See vacant to another, Hugo Boncompagni, who afterwards was called Gregory XIII. Whereby it came about that many counsels of Pius, about which he had agreed with the Catholic king and the king's ministers, remained unaccomplished. There was added this disadvantage too, that Francis came to Rome labouring to the despair of the physicians, almost given up and breathing his last. For he had scarcely been two days at Rome when he breathed out his soul. He indeed wished to render to Gregory an account of what had been done in the embassy; but he was at Tivoli, at the eighteenth milestone from the City. Francis therefore sends Louis Mendoza, a priest of the Society, to the Pontiff, to ask suppliantly a blessing for the dying man, and pardon of the sins of his past life. He granted it, and gladly, and liberally from the treasures of the Church, adding this remark, that he pitied the lot of the Catholic Church. For she suffered a great loss by the death of Francis, being bereaved of such and so great a Minister.

[201] Some Cardinals and the ambassadors of kings and princes had come to greet him for courtesy's sake and to congratulate him on his arrival. he dies holily, But he modestly said that it now seemed unseasonable. Let them therefore grant this indulgence. For attention must be given to God alone, the arbiter of life and death. Duly fortified with all the Sacraments of the Church, while he was being anointed with the sacred oil, according to custom, as one about to depart, and the litanies were being recited, he himself answered each with singular piety. The Fathers who were wont to assist him in counsel made this last request, that he would pronounce, according to his judgement, one from the body of the Society who might worthily sustain his functions in the time of the interregnum. He refused, because he remembered that neither of those who had preceded him, Ignatius and Laínez, had wished to name one when near death. Soon, eager for quiet, he gave himself to prayer and meditation: and, sighs drawn from the depth of his breast, he gave back his spirit to God on the day before the Kalends of October, which day is sacred by annual rite to Blessed Jerome, in the year 1572, a little before the third watch of the night ^o, being about sixty-two years old. He was buried in the old sacred building of the Professed house, laid together with the Fathers who had preceded him in the same dignity.

[202] full of merits toward the Church and the Society. Great indeed and many are the merits of Francis toward the Society, whether while still a private man or when acting with authority. For in Spain, his native soil, as soon as, having abdicated all goods and honours, he bound himself to the Society, it is incredible to say what an odour of virtue and solid piety he poured forth from himself and breathed upon others. For from then on the Society began to be better known there, and so loved, that princes vied in taking care that priests of the Society be summoned and colleges raised. And in the seven years in which all the provinces of Spain and of the East Indies were committed to him by Ignatius, very many colleges are to be credited to him. For he stood forth as their foundation and author. And when as General he led the family, he was the first to send companions as into a colony to the remote islands of the Atlantic sea, Madeira and Terceira; likewise into Peru and New Spain of the Indies. From these also, a great number of colleges having afterwards been added, two provinces were made out of such vast places. Hence, then, it appears, if you reckon rightly, that Ignatius, departing to those above, left twelve provinces of the Society established: that he who next took over the magistracy, Laínez, established five added ones: and finally that Francis added two: so that he saw nineteen provinces in all.

CAP. XVIII.

[203] There was in him an elegant form and a dignity of body worthy of command. The form of his body, He was tall of stature, with an oblong face, tempered with whiteness and ruddiness at once. He had a seemly habit of limbs, and a compact body. A broad forehead added majesty: the nose likewise aquiline and long: the eyeballs rather large, of a grey-blue colour: the cheeks and lips ruddy. As a young man he was of a very stout and thick body; but afterwards, by continual fasts and abstinence from food, refraining from supper, he so emaciated himself that he doubled the skin of his belly [p], and could draw the skin like a toga wherever he wished; you would have said it was an empty wineskin. For the rest, although he was of unimpaired strength and firm body and abounded in blood, by that very abstinence by which he had been made leaner he had also weakened his stomach and injured his health. Because he usually prayed for some hours prostrate on the ground, the moisture having been drawn from the earth, his loosened teeth fell out, and his mouth was injured. Through abstinence also he lived with a bad stomach, while he often vomited his food and suffered from indigestion, and continually belched, not without pain of the stomach and the wonder of the physicians, who did not know the unusual kind of disease. And indeed, although he had afflicted the strength of his body by excessive abstinence from food, he had nevertheless increased the affability of his manners, his candour and his cheerfulness of mind.

[204] his character, His talent was lively indeed, but mature and quiet: his perceptive mind quickly suggested what he wished. His judgement was temperate, his memory retentive like a treasury. From boyhood he was of honourable and chaste morals, so that he easily fled light men and avoided parasites and flatterers. His speech was moderate and brief, about necessary things only. He hated the officious words of those who keep one thing shut up in the breast and another ready on the lips. If anyone praised him to his face, he was wont to break off the conversation in good time, but prudently, as though occupied with something else. And although he thought and spoke well of all, yet he entrusted secrets to few: to fewer he disclosed what had been seen by him from heaven, and the feelings of his mind, apart from him who was his confessor. But those whose fidelity he had proved by long use and experience, to these he was accustomed to indulge much. He preferred to be deceived rather than to suspect ill and unjustly of others; likewise to receive an injury rather than to do one. By the goodness of his talent he attained letters above the ordinary, especially sacred letters, in which, as is fitting, he took more earnest delight; partly by study and diligence, partly by pious prayer and the meditation of eternal things.

CAP. XIX.

[205] He wrote, while still sustaining the office of duke, six little books for cultivating piety: and writings. not unfruitful to those who were striving toward the goal of the perfect life, which, published in Latin, are circulated in the translation of Alfonso Deza, a theologian of the Society at Alcalá. I shall now list them one by one. The first is a sermon delivered on that text of Luke, chapter XIX: "When Jesus drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it." Likewise the Mirror of the works of a Christian man. The spiritual Eye-salve, in which he teaches that each one ought to know himself. Then there is the Preparation for receiving the Eucharist worthily: likewise the Exercises of the spirit for the knowledge of oneself. The sixth is the Explanation of that celebrated Hymn: "All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord." These alone, published, the writer acknowledged as genuine. He also commented, I do not deny, on certain other things; but, since they were rough and unpolished, they have not yet seen the light [q]: except the little book "On Evangelical preaching, or on the office of the Preacher." Among these were treatises on the perfections of the soul of Christ from His conception to His very last breath on the Cross. An Explanation of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, which he dictated in the universities of Pintia and Alcalá. Likewise Meditations on the death of Christ the Saviour, distributed through the hours of the day and night. Finally Meditations on the Gospels of Advent, of the forty days' fast, of the Sundays and feast days; proceeding from prayer poured out to God rather than drawn keenly and subtly from books. By which, as by divine darts, he sweetly wounded the minds of his hearers, recalling them to amendment, so as to inflame them to the pursuit of virtue and deter them from vices.

ANNOTATIONS.

d. Of Fuenterrabía.

g. Psalm 78, verse 1.

p. When Thomas, his brother, wished to inspect the skin of the dead man, as Cienfuegos writes, book 5, chapter 18, §4, while he was trying to lift the cloth with which the corpse was covered, his arm three times grew rigid.

q. They were afterwards published at Brussels in the year 1675 by the press of Francis Foppens, through the labour and effort of Don doctor Francis Borgia, a great-grandson of the Borgia stock.

CHAPTER XIII.

The lowliness of mind of St. Francis and his love of poverty.

BOOK IV.

PROLOGUE.

It is pleasing, the Life of Francis having been brought to its end, to add examples of his virtues and his wise sayings: because, as that wise Stoic says, the road of forming morals by precepts is long; but short and effective by examples. But the other things splendidly said and done, which are scattered through the history, I have judged should by no means be repeated, because they can be referred to these heads ^a.

CAP. I.

I shall make the beginning from humility, which is the parent and guardian of the other virtues, Through lowliness of mind Francis because that virtue is proper to Christ and to Christians. For the ancient philosophers and the wise of the world did not attain even its name, much less the thing: who nevertheless put much zeal and labour into the investigation of truth and of the virtues, so that they seem to have attained something great by the force of nature. The Son of God, turning away from their pride, taught that highest virtue by word and example. "Learn of me," He says, "because I am meek and humble of heart." ^b That virtue indeed, as Augustine says, joins men to angels; as, on the contrary, that of pride * made demons out of angels. These things did not escape Francis, since he applied himself diligently to submission of mind; and since Bernard said that humiliation paves the way to humility, he took diligent care to be ashamed and grieved before all created things, once he had begun to know himself perfectly. Hence he drew the beginnings of all his prayers: this was for the most part the matter of his discourse on pious things and duties. Being assiduously occupied in this, he made incredible progress in a short time.

[207] himself a sinner, hell excepted. And so, as soon as he had of his own accord abdicated the titles of Duke, he began to subscribe letters with his own hand: Francis A SINNER: testifying, I believe, what he thought of himself; and imitating Isidore and others, famous for innocence of life, whom we have learned were wont so to subscribe [c]. Ignatius, however, so that he should not give occasion of talk to others, nor offer a handle for speaking otherwise about an unusual thing, ordered him to abstain, so that Francis should subscribe nothing besides. Having gone out from the college of the companions at Pintia [d] to transact business *, with Bustamante as companion, he was seen to walk sadder than usual, and, being asked the reason, he affirmed that he had then risen from the meditation of hell, and that all seemed to look at him as one coming forth from the dead, and, pouring round him, to mock him, casting these words: "Let us ask this man returned from the dead." From which meditation of the punishments among the dead he said he received this advantage, that he burned more ardently with the love of Christ, by whose death the handwriting of death was blotted out. In which, while life lasts, he judged one should rest in thought; lest when dead we be burned, consigned to those punishments; using that saying of the royal Prophet: "Let them go down alive into hell ^e."

[208] On the day of the holier week on which the Church recalls Christ washing the feet of the disciples, unworthy of any place, a beast, and no better than the demon himself speaking to the novices, he said: "I have found no place in the world today. For six years now I had imagined that place for myself at the feet of Judas; now, while I attentively consider Christ prostrate at them, washing, wiping and kissing them, I see no place left to me, being driven thence." When he first entered Pintia, having already abdicated all titles and goods at Oñate in Cantabria, the citizens running up from street to street for the sake of seeing him, as to the spectacle of a new thing, he said to Bustamante his companion: "They have come, I believe, to see a wild beast let out of its cage, and a monster ^f. I indeed would be more savage than any monster without the help of God, who has called me into His religious family." Intent on prayers, he spent at least two hours daily on the knowledge of himself: and whatever he read, heard, saw, he referred all to this, that they should instruct him and instil into him lowliness and shame; frequently giving thanks to God that He had spared him, a sinner indeed, up to that day: and he prayed that He would not desert him, or suffer him to stumble into the crimes into which the crowd does. When he was occupied as usual in this meditation of his vileness, while he was reckoning himself unworthy of the things created by God, this voice was heard: "Be ashamed before me." Which when he perceived to be the demon's, "You admonish rightly," he said: "for the fault of a single thought of pride you burn, and will burn with eternal fires; I however have so often offended God, yet I am not tormented, consigned to the flames."

[209] When about to pray, he perceived his room being disturbed by the agency of the demon; he reckoned himself no better, whom he drove away with these words: "No wonder that you do not depart or flee from me even a nail's breadth: for long ago we used a common table and food." When he was staying in a hospice, they say that a cacodemon in human form was seen by him addressing him proudly thus: "What business have you here? Being so great, how can you live among the dregs of men?" Francis beat back his pride: "I indeed wonder more that you, endowed with so proud a disposition, have deigned to address me, a wretch and a sinner." Thus he vanished like smoke. A possessed person was brought to him, from whom others had tried in vain to drive out the demon by exorcism; and, being asked not to refuse to pray God for him and to recite the Gospel of Mark, when at those words, "In my name they shall cast out devils [g]," he had laid his hands upon him, the demon suddenly yielded and fled, and the man was dismissed joyful. The spectators who were present credited it to his prayer. He, however, such was his modesty, led by bashfulness, said: "What wonder if the demon flees me? For by an old saying too, potter hates potter. And since I was once a stumbling-block to others, no wonder if he hates me. For those given to the same arts are wont to hate one another out of a certain rivalry." Afterwards at Medina del Campo ^h, when the affair chanced to be related in his presence, he blushed with shame, adding this: "Let us grant that what you relate is true: what wonder, since I have so often complied with the demon, that he obeyed me once." And although he could have repelled pride and warded off the evil eye of envy if he had deservedly attributed that power to the words of the holy Gospel, here he nevertheless preferred to be suffused with a blush. Nothing did he bear and hear more irksomely than to be praised to his face and called a Saint. Being asked the reason why he was so distressed by that thing, he added: "I indeed greatly dread the reckoning of the last judgement, when death has been met: which differs beyond measure from the perverse judgements of men."

[210] fleeing obsequious service and honour, he thought lowly of himself, When he was washing his hands, his brother Thomas Borgia was offering him a towel too officiously and with courtly display. He showed anger in his countenance, testifying that he hated those old courtly offices, which he had long since renounced. In the college of Montilla they had imprudently placed a higher seat for him: he, as though he saw the demon, fortified himself with the sign of the Cross. He therefore gladly fled unseasonable occasions of honours; he preferred to be neglected and unknown; so that even on that account he often turned aside from the road to another inn, at the inconvenience both of his health and of his journey, lest honour should be paid him tastelessly, as happens. He was always wont both to think and to speak of himself lowly and abjectly. He therefore used a singular affability: you would have said he was someone of the common people. Moreover, he recalled unwillingly the memory of past time, which nevertheless is the vice of old men. But if necessity extorted it, he so tempered his speech that anyone not altogether unlearned might easily understand that he took no pleasure in himself on that account. Never was it heard or did there fall from him these things commonly met with: "When I was marquis, duke or viceroy." He addressed noblemen so courteously that he easily declared himself inferior to them, superior to no one. For he had learned that this virtue is proper to pious men, that the greater each one is, the more submissively he conducts himself. When Francis entered Lisbon, king John III had sent a nobleman of his household to greet him. And when he had asked, "Was he weary from the road," and repeated again and again the title of Lord: Francis wittily answered him: "I have indeed arrived weary from the road, but more from the title of Lord, with which you burden rather than honour me."

[211] he professed that the title of Duke had profited him in few things, He declared that the title of Duke had been useful to him chiefly for three reasons. First, because he was now held in the number of the dead, as religious men are wont to be; and in the dominion of Gandía, the dukes having died, anniversary Masses are performed daily. Then, when he noticed that candidates were adopted into the Society with difficulty, we have learned that he was wont to say: "This advantage the title of Duke brought me: for I was at once enrolled among the companions. Otherwise, what endowments of talent and learning (pray) were there in me which would have rendered me worthy of the Society? I therefore give thanks to God and to the supreme Pontiff, who made this bridge for me and paved the way of passing into His family and house." Finally, when, on a journey, he had turned aside somewhere, and wished to say Mass daily as was his custom, and the parish priests declined, though he produced the documents of the Society, he whispers * politely in his companion's ear: "Now, for my part, you may name my former titles. Here one must proceed by civil law."

[212] the more he shrank from dignities, the more every lowly thing From this very fountain flowed the sadness with which he was incredibly distressed when they wished to admit him unwilling into the college of Cardinals, as I remember narrating in the second book. Certainly no one ever sought honours with greater zeal of ambition than Francis repudiated them, thinking himself unworthy of honours and poverty most useful to religion. He suppliantly asked king Philip, even then prince of the Spanish youth, by letter, that he would grant this to friendship, that, if any offices existed, he would never burden him, now initiated into Holy Orders, with an ecclesiastical dignity. That he preferred to live private and inglorious, and that with that design he had abdicated his titles. Nor did he think it enough to have fled titles; he also diligently sought, as I said before, vileness and contempt of himself. We have brought forward examples of lowliness in that same book. That from street to street, with a little sack placed on his shoulders, he had begged alms and dole. That he had taught children, summoned with a little bell, the catechism

That he had served the cook at home, waited at table: and was accustomed also frequently to kiss the feet of each one.

[213] Having entered the school of Coimbra [i], the whole province of Spain of the Society having already been committed to him by Ignatius, he discharged more gladly offices, he diligently sought from the prefect of studies the way and method of teaching boys the first rudiments of the Latin tongue, because he seriously wished to discharge this office, as being less honourable and very laborious, so of greater merit. He would have done it at Córdoba [k], had not the companions strongly resisted, who could dissuade him by this one artifice only, that they said he did not seem sufficiently fit even to discharge this office, and would bring discredit on the Society. He desisted therefore, thinking that they spoke the truth, and turned his mind elsewhere. At Évora [l], when the companions had assembled on the sixth day of the week to hold conferences on divine things after the manner of the ancient Fathers, Francis, about to give his opinion, said only this: "Works surpass words." And so, rising, he kissed the feet of all in order on the ground, and moved the companions to tears and admiration. In the college of Cale in Portugal, which town they commonly call Porto, having discharged the office of porter, having taken up the keys, when they had offered a slaughtered pig by way of alms, he carried it, lifted on his shoulders, in silence to the upper part of the house by the stairs, not without labour: and when the companions marvelled, he eluded the commendation of the deed thus: "What wonder," he said, "if a pig has conveniently carried a pig?" Not unlike, surely, is what the Annals of Monte Cassino relate of Carloman. He, having abdicated his empire and left his kingdom to his brother Pepin, coming to Rome while Zachary the supreme Pontiff held the helm, had joined himself to the brethren of Benedict on Monte Cassino. Pasturing the sheep by chance by the abbot's order, he lifted on his shoulders with the greatest pleasure of mind one that was lame, because it could not follow the flock [m]. And indeed offices of that kind, by which before they would have been held in contempt, are most honourable to religious men; and the more illustrious, the greater the dignity in which they formerly excelled others.

[214] In that very college, while he was carrying the keys of the door, and other examples of the greatest lowliness a certain candidate of the Society had come from Seville [n] with good hope that he would be enrolled with the others by Francis, to whom the province had then been committed. Francis sees the nearest room full of filth: "Come," he said, "let us not be idle, let us clean this room." And, having taken up brooms briskly, he swept the room together with him and carried out the filth: so much did he strive to conquer and submit himself. Religious men, whenever he met them, he was wont to greet and to rise for them: also to think and speak honourably of them. He said that in the habit of monks he honoured the service which they rendered to Christ and His Church: and he reverenced them all as soldiers of different standards indeed, but of one legion. He had heard that a certain impostor had been condemned to the galleys because he had feigned and boasted himself to be Francis Borgia. He said he marvelled that anyone should have proved so senseless as to have put on the person of the greatest of sinners. "If he," he said, "renders service in the galleys because he claimed my name for himself; what is it fair should become of me, who bear not the empty name of a sinner, but am also filled with crimes which deserve eternal punishment."

[215] he was wont to give examples. To a most noble lord of Spain who chanced to meet him and lamented his lot, because he walked about needy in a worn garment and neglected himself and his health, he answered acutely: "I take it upon myself that I shall take care of myself. For while I make a journey I am wont to send ahead two forerunners, as scouts and quartermasters, to prepare lodging and table." Being asked again who they were, since they nowhere appeared: "The knowledge of myself," he said, "and the contemplation of the punishments among the dead which I have deserved. Whereby it comes about that to whatever inn I am at last brought, even if all things are lacking, I count it gain, and interpret it as benefits conferred on one undeserving." At Septimanca [o] (the inhabitants today call that town Simancas) there was set before him a dish of mutton entrails, half-raw and badly seasoned. Having tasted it he put it back: thereupon Bustamante whispered in his ear: "If the food were well cooked you would not reject it. It is well," he answered. But Bustamante, when he too had tasted it, said it could not be eaten. To whom Francis said: "What if, Father, you were to taste the food of hell, which God avert?"

CAP. II.

[216] The ally and companion of a lowly mind is the love of poverty: How great in him which virtue it is incredible to say with what zeal Francis cultivated. For like a good merchant, "Having found this precious pearl, he gave all that he had and bought it [p]." He had learned and was persuaded that that oracle of Christ was true, that the poor in spirit would be blessed. As a boy he began to resemble blessed Francis, as in name, so also in conduct. He loved with admiration the poverty proper to that family: and as soon as he bound himself to the Society by vows, he thereafter did not handle money, and, what you would marvel at the more in so opulent a man, he did not know the value of silver and gold. This virtue shone out in all things, in food and bodily attire, bed, room and the rest: as in the paper on which he took down his sermons: finally in laying a fire on the hearth, when the cold pressed. He declined to put on new shoes, scarcely wearing them out in two years. His stockings likewise, although he had them ragged and torn, he did not change. When he was staying in the college of Montilla [q], new breeches were offered him as a gift, which a companion stealthily placed by his little bed at night, the torn ones being taken away. But the Father, on waking, the trick having been discovered, asked for the old ones back and ordered the new ones to be returned to their owner.

[217] of poverty When as a beggar he collected alms from street to street, he tasted morsels of bread offered him more gladly than whole loaves set before him. Having entered upon so many journeys, he could never be induced to allow even a clean linen cloth to be carried as companion for the sake of his health, lest he should seem to have sinned against the rights of poverty. The companions relate that they often saw him lying on straw in the open air or under a thin roof, the winds blowing this way and that, and the sky most chill: yet he showed such cheerfulness that he was a cause of admiration to his people and struck them with shame. On a journey he used no other cloak or mantle, whether it was the season of winter or of summer, than his daily cloak; which he was accustomed to turn inside out and double, lest, soiled with mud, it should be made worse. He could not be prevailed upon to put leggings on his feet. He said one hat was enough for keeping off the injuries of the sky, whether the sun burned, or rain fell, and winds blew. Weary and broken from the road, and drenched by heavy rains, then at last he rejoiced incredibly if he had been brought to an inn which lacked the things with which travellers are wont to be refreshed, fire and bodily food.

[218] About his little bed and room he took no trouble. He suffered no curtain to be hung there, was the love. much less hangings; nay, he even took it ill that a mat or covering should be fixed to the wall at the pillow: proclaiming that comforts of that kind were to be fled, because sleep is called the brother of death: and those laid in the tomb a brief and very inexpensive urn would hold. He, namely, diligently brought it about that he imitated Christ, as far as he could, chiefly by these two arts, of lowliness and of poverty: who, as the Apostle says, "For our sakes became poor, being rich, that through his poverty we might be rich [r]." Emulating which example of his, not a few bound themselves to the Society. Nay, even at the very beginnings of the Society he shone forth imbued with the same zeal for poverty. For he desired to dwell cramped, who had before occupied ample and magnificent houses. Traces of it appear even today in the little building at Oñate built by him, and in the novitiate house of Simancas. Which virtue indeed is the more famous the more goods of fortune he had cast away gladly and willingly: and things which in others might be censured under the name of avarice and meanness turned to Francis's praise: it being known that he was always devoted to poverty: so that, living and dying, he set his foot in the footsteps of Christ, so poor that He had not where to lay His head. When he was dining at Rome with the ambassador of the Catholic king, a certain mime, a teller of tales, threw out: "O wretched and needy Francis, who have abdicated such great goods, unless, death having been met, you possess heaven?" Francis, turning to the ambassador, said: "He tells the truth: but I have already obtained greater goods than those I left." Signifying the tranquillity of his mind and looking to that saying of Christ: "You shall receive a hundredfold, etc. [s]"

ANNOTATIONS.

e. Psalm 54, verse 16.

g. Mark 15, verse 17.

i. In Portugal.

k. In Spanish Baetica.

l. In Portugal.

p. Matthew 13, verse 46.

q. In Spanish Baetica.

r. 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9.

s. Matthew 19, verse 29.

* supply: vice

* supply: for the sake

* he whispered

CHAPTER XIV.

Obedience, zeal for prayer, Prophecies.

CAP. III.

His singular From that very root of humility was born in Francis the virtue of obeying God and the man whom He had set over him. He therefore called obedience a safe vessel, in which, as through the storms of life, religious men may reach port, and laugh at tempests, and sail secure day and night. Since, then, he had set Christ before himself in all things to imitate, and walked in His sight, where he saw His footsteps impressed: then indeed above all he admired in Him the virtue of obedience: who, though He was the Lord of heaven and earth, was nevertheless subject to His parents: which virtue, says Bernard, He preferred to die rather than omit: "Made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross [a]."

[220] toward St. Ignatius and his superiors, He was accustomed so to revere the superiors of the Society that, even though they had now gone out of office, he honoured them with the same respect as before. When letters given by Ignatius had been delivered to him in Spain, on bended knees he prayed God to grant him the faculty of obeying the things that were commanded, and he interpreted them as a voice sent from heaven and observed them religiously. Nor did it escape Ignatius how promptly and eagerly he carried out his commands. He did not, therefore, command thus: "You will see to these things thus." But modestly: "These things have seemed so to us; do you, according to your prudence and the opportunity of the matter, since you are nearer, conduct the affair at your discretion." Nevertheless he did not depart even a nail's breadth from the commands of Ignatius, but most accurately fulfilled what he had commanded; unless there was something that had escaped Ignatius in his absence. When he had recovered from a lingering illness, and was employing a liberal and honourable relaxation of mind for strengthening his health, he heard from a priest: "That Ignatius took less delight in relaxations of that kind." Forthwith, therefore, he abstained, holding it wrong to depart in conduct and opinion from him whom he had carried before his eyes up to that day.

[221] Brother Marcus, If any commands of Superiors seemed harsher than others could bear with even mind, he so tempered them that no one was left any ground of complaint

Before the provinces of Spain had been committed to him, when he entered a college on the road, he would not claim for himself the authority of preaching, which he could use, unless the rector thought it fair and good, or ordered it. For, such was his lowliness of mind and obedience, he preferred to be commanded rather than asked. For the sake of guarding his health Ignatius had added to him a companion, whose name was Michael Marcus. For, severe and rigid toward himself more than was fair, toward others gentle as well as kind, he did nothing remissly, to the great harm of his health. This companion Francis obeyed no otherwise than if he had been set over him with authority: and not only in the matter of food, but in all guarding of his bodily health he consulted him what needed to be done. And so, when food was set before him, he was accustomed to ask whether Marcus had ordered it to be eaten. This brother, if he was away from the house longer on business, gave another the charge. "Command him these things," he said, "in my words." Secure, no doubt, that he would religiously obey. At Lisbon queen Catherine had summoned Francis to the court on business. He consulted Marcus what needed to be done. It seemed to him that he was not sufficiently firm and strong in body. He therefore replied that he would come the next day. With which message the courtier soon returned home.

[222] With not unlike zeal he served the cook at home. the cook. When he was summoned again at Pintia by Joanna, princess of Portugal, the porter brought him the note, to whom he said: "You may ask leave of the cook, whom I now obey." To this the cook said: "Go, Father, but hasten your return: for I still need your help. Tell the princess thus, that you are serving the cook at home, so that you may more easily obtain leave to go." With the same simplicity of mind he was obedient and reported the command. The princess too gladly assented and let him go: all admiring and praising the prompt will in Francis to obey even a cook. The cook had likewise ordered him to bring two brazen kettles, water having been drawn from the cistern. From weakness of body and weariness he rested a little. A companion chanced to come up, who offered his help of his own accord. But he refused: for the cook, whom he was then obeying, had given that task to him. And when the other pressed him with entreaties that he would at least allow him to carry one; he did not permit even this. For the cook had ordered him to carry the two kettles at once.

[223] We have learned that he was wont to say that he hoped the Pontiffs, that the Society, God well helping, would flourish, nay grow greater, chiefly for three reasons. First of all by zeal for prayer and frequent use of the Sacraments. Next, if the innocence of the Society were assailed by many. Finally by the good of obedience. Being asked the reason: "It is ready to hand," he said, "for prayer reconciles and joins us to God: the second leads away from love of the world; for salvation and good faith are not in men. But the third binds us together by the closest bond of fraternal love, as members to the head." While he subjected himself gladly to all, then above all to the supreme Pontiff, as acting in the place of Christ on earth. For, being now near death, he declared that this brought him, in his agony, incredible joy and consolation, that, having undertaken the embassy into Spain with harm to his health, he had obeyed the Apostolic See, may it turn out well, to his very last breath.

[224] Nay, he also gladly complied with princes, contemplating God in them, and princes by obedience. being accustomed to pray daily for their safety. He also taught his children and relatives the same, as though handed down from hand to hand, that they should be at the service of kings, and should assiduously both make and pay vows for the welfare of them and of princes, praying God, in whose hand is the heart of kings ^b: whence also all power flows: and whoever resists it undoubtedly resists the ordinance of God [c]. That, finally, is uncertain, whether I should attribute it to obedience or to patience, or rather to both, that in the retreat of Oñate [d] he could steadfastly obey a superior who, being rigid and laborious toward himself, showed himself such also toward Francis. He therefore, when Francis was in the novitiate, not only did not draw in the reins (lest, as happens at the beginning in fervour of spirit, he should rage too much against himself), but even loosened the reins and applied the spurs: ordering him to carry stones, lime and wood for building the house. He obeyed gladly and promptly, as though he heard the voice of an angel. For by this way he was formed by God to piety, so that he might stand forth as a singular example of obedience to us: imitating, I believe, Bernard, who subjected himself to the commands of a morose and difficult man the more eagerly, the greater the things he commanded to the harm of his health.

CAP. IV.

[225] Since he was poor and obedient, what wonder Accustomed to confess daily, if God adorned him also with zeal for praying? Which one virtue is the root and as it were most abundant fountain of the others. Francis's first care was in preparing purity of heart, so that he might receive more purely the rays of divine knowledge. For the clean of heart are pronounced Blessed ^e, and shall see God. Daily, therefore, and indeed more frequently, every hour of the day, examining and exploring himself to the nail, he went over in memory his words, deeds and omissions: inquiring into himself severely. And having duly confessed twice a day, when about to offer the sacred rites at dawn and when preparing himself for rest in the evening, he let no day pass in which he did not measure himself by his own foot, and reckon up the account of the time spent, if perchance it should have to be rendered to the supreme Judge: lest death, as it is wont, should overwhelm him before his day and unprepared. Those who gave ears to his confession could scarcely find anything which they thought should be reproved and expiated. But he saw more keenly by heavenly light, and always lived fearful: dreading all things and almost trembling. For he said that the judgements of God, living and seeing all things, differ far from the judgement of mortals: let everyone, therefore, who is wise fear God.

[226] and, entangled in much business, for a long time From assiduity in praying he had obtained this advantage, that he carried God about present everywhere. Whereby it came about that even a crowded place and business furnished him with the place of a church and solitude, and indeed supplied matter and a harvest for praying. While he was working through the first part of the summa of St. Thomas Aquinas, he had composed as it were a litany from the several headings of the articles, for the sake of learning and memory and at the same time of piety ^f. When he entered on a journey, although he suffered harm from bodily weariness, yet he said that this turned out splendidly for his mind, that free time, empty of interrupters, was given him on the road for praying. For mountains, woods, rivers and sunny fields, clothed with grasses, vines and trees, invited to prayer and sent forth the voice of a herald: that mortal man should know God, love Him known, praise Him loved assiduously for the sake of created things, and, having praised Him, at last, death having been met, enjoy Him happily. If he had unwillingly to converse with outsiders, to whom Christ had no savour, he silently left the conversation to them: he himself collected himself, so that he seemed to be in retreat and in a hidden place: in mind he addressed and asked God present. And when they were departing he asked, "Did they want anything?" although they had already asked many things of him which, because of divine thoughts within *, he had understood less.

[227] and at night he keeps his mind intent on God; often also rapt out of himself. While thus by day he prayed to God almost assiduously, then he was accustomed to pray most tranquilly and freely after the middle hour of the night: at which time he seemed to be rapt out of himself, so that he judged five or six hours as a moment, and rose as though inflamed with fires. To Michael Marcus, as I have related, he lived obedient: yet when, intent on prayer, he stayed longer than was fair, and Marcus interrupted him that he should make an end of praying for the sake of his health, he said: "Give me a little more time, Brother Marcus, I shall be with you soon." He was accustomed to take such pleasure in praying that he seemed to wrestle with God, like another Jacob, and not to wish to be dismissed without a blessing. Not seldom he seemed to be placed outside himself, so that he was present indeed in body, but in mind was in the heavens. If any disputed in a louder voice, he was not at all moved: and indeed he sometimes interjected things foreign to the matter being treated, especially if profane talk and talk about a trifle had been thrown in. Being therefore admonished by a companion that he sometimes answered beside the point, he said: "I prefer to seem rude and dull than garrulous and to have wasted time." For he thought all time was lost which was not spent either on God or on things pertaining to God. The bishop of Plasencia had visited Francis to greet him. In the midst of the course of conversation he rose, and, as though to escort him for honour's sake, went down. But the bishop, left with Antony Araoz, who chanced to be present then, easily observed, as was the case, that Francis was moved by a divine thought.

[228] He loved those devoted to praying and to examining themselves, and, having long delighted in their company, Daily likewise the Mass, he committed to them the care of the colleges of the Society, so that they might teach that very virtue to the companions entrusted to their faith. He was wont to withdraw himself from the day's business as far as could be done, so as to retire to the mount of prayer. He adored the Sacrament of the Eucharist in its presence assiduously and eagerly: and when he went out of the house he entered churches the more gladly on this account, looking with eyes continually blinking, whether because he was dazzled by the immense splendour of the light, or because he bade his mind attend and be reverently present in that way. With the delights of this heavenly Bread he was so taken that no one given to gluttony was ever more taken with dainties. Whereby it came about that, until he departed life, he let no day pass, as I have noted elsewhere, without saying Mass. Nay, even on the very day of Parasceve and the following Saturday, when on other occasions he was wont to perform the sacred rites with singing, lest on those very days he should be without that divine good, he performed the liturgy. When making a journey, in order to be allowed to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass, he did not hesitate to turn aside from the road even two miles: and gladly bore the inconveniences of an inn, provided he were allowed to perform the sacred rites the next day.

[229] At Évora in Portugal, being gravely ill and seized by a lethargic disease, having prefaced it with long prayer, he celebrates, he was forcibly compelled by order of the physicians to wake up. But when the Eucharist had been brought, as though awakened from heavy sleep and torpor, as he was, he appeared agile and eager, so that, though he had an infirm body, his spirit was nevertheless ready and desirous of the supreme good. When about to perform the sacred rites, he was accustomed to spend some hours in prayer and to examine himself well. Daily likewise, as I have already related, having duly confessed, he said Mass. It was observed that in the middle part of the liturgy tears were wont to flow from him abundantly. Afterwards he gave thanks for a longer time, because He had turned aside as it were into the house of Zacchaeus: so that he was led to dinner only with difficulty and with sighs, after the example of Job and Bernard. At Rome he frequently went to the little room overlooking the high altar in the church of the Professed, whenever he could snatch himself from public business and take away a part of it. In the other colleges of the Society likewise he had a seat of prayer built near the high altar. On rising from bed he was accustomed to kiss the earth, the common parent of all, three times daily with this design. First, that he might remember that, made of the soil and newly born, he had touched it. Then that he might give thanks to Christ, who descended from heaven to earth to free the human race. Finally he prayed that God would transfer him, led away from earthly things, into heaven, as from exile.

[230] He religiously venerates the holy relics. He religiously venerated the relics and images of the Saints, and took care that they be splendidly adorned: affirming that nowhere [are] gems, gold and silver

are more worthily spent and turned than on the worship of God the Author and of the Saints. When he handled them with his hands, he would break out with the greatest pleasure of mind into these words: "Hail, pledges left and deposited by God for us living in this exile and valley of tears: hail, hope and consolation of our salvation. There will come, there will come that day when you ashes, clothed with beauty, blessed guests now, shall enjoy that eternal light: and your souls, whiter than the sun, and your throne shall shine above the firmament." From this very fountain flowed the pious and solemn custom of the Society that every month the names of the Saints are drawn by lot from an urn and distributed one by one. On which day, vows having been conceived and religiously paid, each implores the help of his Saint. Francis had learned this in the ancestral Borgia family: in which I have shown that that custom once flourished [g]. At Oñate also he kept the same; indulging the companions much on the day on which the name of a Saint had fallen to them by lot: he himself besides being accustomed to give even more time to prayer.

[231] and he diligently promotes their cult. To arouse and increase the cult of the Saints (contrary to what the heretics are wont to do, who rage against the images of the Saints, as the iconoclasts formerly did), Francis at Rome sent into all the provinces images skilfully engraved on copper and artistically carved. Nay, he also gave originals to the companions and distributed them. There is seen at Rome in the sacred church of Blessed Mary Major her likeness painted by Luke the Evangelist, as is piously believed; it is also religiously frequented by the pious. This image Francis venerated both for itself and on account of its antiquity and the piety it inspired, and on account of the faith of the painter. He thought, therefore, that he must labour to be allowed, with the kind permission of Charles Borromeo, a most innocent Cardinal, to paint another after the original. He obtained it at last, though with difficulty, and his singular zeal of piety prevailed: and he set it on the ground at the altar, and drew copies at his discretion, and sent them to some lords of Spain and to the colleges of the Society, so that the cult of the Virgin might deservedly grow, because she bears the patronage of mortals.

[232] While praying he is sometimes disturbed by the demon, It was often the demon's endeavour to interrupt him while praying, now mocking him in the form of an ape, now like a giant, of a form greater than human, and terrifying him with spectres. At Pintia, having come out of his room, fortifying himself with the sign of the Cross, he said: "Do you see, Brother Marcus, a black cacodemon, fearful to look at, walking about here and there?" Having said this, Francis grew calm, and, his mind somewhat settled, he blushed: because he had shown fear of a spirit which cannot harm a man, not even by removing a hair of his head, unless God permits. Being asked once by a companion whether he had feared, having seen the demon walking at night through the room and the wing of the house: with eyes cast down he modestly answered: "This, brother, is certainly established, that by God's permission demons sometimes appear: to the wicked indeed, that, terrified, they may abstain from crimes, or be punished; but to the good, that they may be exercised in piety and heap merits upon merits." While he was praying with the greatest ardour of mind at the altar of the Eucharist, a small wooden column chanced to fall from the steps. He, not at all terrified, went on praying, until those who were present picked it up. Such was the cheerfulness, comeliness and maturity of his countenance that the companions, even those endowed with the highest authority, when they felt the warmth of piety grown cold, returned to their former ardour even at the sight of him.

[233] At Medina del Campo [h], Jerome Ruiz Portillo, rector of the college, who was afterwards the first superior of the province of Peru in the Indies, having entered the room of Francis as he prayed, he is sometimes suffused with heavenly light. found Francis shining with light and his face emitting rays like the sun. I have learned that the same befell doctor Ayala of the Society in the village of Berlanga [i]. He, having entered Francis's room at dead of night for the sake of counsel, saw everything shining in the deepest darkness, no otherwise than if torches were burning: he likewise observed that his eyes were dazzled by his countenance. When he entered churches according to custom, he knew with incredible sagacity whether, and on which altar, that heavenly Bread of the Eucharist was kept: so that he rarely erred in affirming or denying: even though a lamp lit was hung at the altar.

[234] When he was staying at Oñate in the year 1552, an old servant of the household of the family, Sampson, delivered a letter given by Charles, duke of Gandía. Prophecies It announced joyfully that he had become a grandfather, and that a first-born had been born to him named Francis, afterwards duke of Gandía. Before the letter had been unsealed, Francis, prophesying, addressed the letter-carrier thus: "You come as one expected, Sampson: is the newborn Francis well?" He was astonished and marvelled what posting courier had got ahead of him, who had made no end of running, "I was indeed thinking," he said, "of demanding from you the reward of the joyful news." To this he said: "I do not wish to deprive you of it: I will recite the Angelic Salutation three times for you and will give my son the duke the charge by letter to take account of you, and to set down to my account whatever he gives." Francis Briones of the Society, not yet initiated into Holy Orders, for some years the companion of Francis's journeys, was gravely ill. He visited him when he was already almost given up and despaired of: and, giving him courage, bade him trust: "This illness," he said, "will not bring you to death, but you will soon recover." Briones related that the same happened to him again when he was ill on a journey. At Segovia [k] in like manner Ferdinand Soler, a doctor of theology, suffering from a tertian fever, while he felt the harmful day and the illness impending, being asked by Francis: "Are matters all well? how are you? As it has seemed good to God," he answered: "I am expecting the fever." "Why do you expect it?" he said. "You, Father," said he, "command that it come not, so that I may not be forced to expect it." He did as he was asked, and commanded the illness. Thence he took himself from his little bed glad and well.

[235] Returning from Spain with Cardinal Alessandrino to Rome through France, he had John Suarez as companion as far as Miranda, he utters some, reconciles a father with his son; which is a village of Aragon on the Ebro. Here, the parting having been made, he foretold to John of himself that he would scarcely return safe to Rome: but that John would again be created superior of the Castilian province: the event itself certainly declared both predictions to have been true. Near death, when wise men affirm that something like the voice of the swan is uttered, he foretold to Brother Marcus that he would sail to the Indies; and so it came to pass, although it had not then come into Marcus's mind even. A certain prince of Spain, gravely at variance with his son, had separated himself so that he could not bear even the sight of him with equanimity. Francis, such was his piety, striving to recall him to concord by conversations, exhorts him to remember that he was a parent. That in receiving his son to himself he would do what was worthy of himself. He, indignant, terrified him with his countenance, bidding him drop that conversation. Francis, therefore, repulsed in words, thinking that he must flee to the supreme Parent, God, venerating Him prays for peace. The man soon went off hunting, and, seized with a burning fever, lay fixed to his bed. Afterwards it came into his mind that he was justly punished by the illness because he had repulsed the sound counsels of a pious Man. He summons Francis forthwith, begs pardon; commits himself to his faith, and returns into favour with his son as soon as possible.

[236] he frees souls from the expiatory fire by his prayers. He had the greatest care for the souls which, released from their bodies, expiate their faults in the purging fire: so that even when duke of Gandía he prayed assiduously for them and had liturgies and Masses offered. On account of which service they relate that souls often appeared to him returning, and gave thanks: and promised also that they would pray God for him in the seats of the Blessed. These things he was wont to relate candidly, as all things, to Jerome Natalis, an excellent priest: who, we have said, was twice sent into Spain by Ignatius and had the provinces of the Society committed to him [l]. I could indeed, I confess, record more kinds of predictions and visions, and cite witnesses beyond all exception, most of whom are even still alive: but I have thought these enough; brought forward by me with this design, that the effects of prayer in Francis may be known: especially since it is my purpose to praise virtues rather than signs of that kind. For the admirable works which holy men have wrought are indeed to be admired: but solid and incorrupt virtue is also to be imitated. Those show the immense goodness of God toward mortals: this also spurs to imitation.

ANNOTATIONS.

i. In Old Castile.

* read: intent

CHAPTER XV.

Penance, and victory over himself.

CAP. V.

Pious men rightly judge in ascetic matters that zeal for praying seems suspect unless victory over oneself also comes as its companion. The body, For so I call what is commonly called Mortification: which teaches that the passions and affections of the mind must be subdued. So Plato seems to have defined philosophy as the meditation of death, by leading the soul away from the body. This heavenly philosophy did not escape Francis, who was long and much exercised in it; of which I have reported many examples here and there, and shall now gather a few. Hearing someone praised in his presence for holiness and innocence of life, he was accustomed to answer: "He will be such if he knows how to conquer himself." He called the body and the flesh a deadly enemy. With which he perpetually refused to make a pact and truce, and even strove to subdue it more and more daily. In which matter he called friends and allies whatever things were wont to bring help. When making a journey in the burnings of the sun and in the greatest heat or cold and rains, he was accustomed to say: "How finely my friends help me!"

[238] In illnesses, always employing the greatest patience, he bore pains constantly, even when sick, he subdues; nay, he even strove to increase them, so that a richer harvest of merit might be gathered. When sick, he drank medicines, however bitter, by sipping, so as to be tormented longer by the bitterness. He was also accustomed for the same reason to chew pills with his teeth, so that those which had once been ministers of pleasure might torment him with punishment. Being once asked the reason, he modestly answered: "I bid that beast" (for so he called the body) "weep: so that the pleasure which the palate took in delicacies it may lose and expiate by abstaining. Let me too remember that Christ the Saviour tasted gall on the cross." At Simancas [a] a novice of the Society, discharging the office of cook, strove to season Francis's food pleasantly to the taste. Having therefore gathered herbs in the garden, he unknowingly gathered wormwood, a bitter herb, plucked among them, and setting a broth before the father, said: "Eat, Father, broth seasoned by my hand." He ate, and indeed gladly, although it was bitter. And being asked whether it had pleased him: "I have never eaten anything in my life more worthy of me," he replied. The companions tasted what was left, and, the matter having been discovered, made the cook blush. He soon fell on his knees and begged pardon for his imprudence. But he said: "The Lord bless you and deal kindly with you. You alone of so many brothers have known my mind, and thoroughly understand what thing above all I need."

[239] Weary from the road he had turned aside into an inn, a humble cottage, with Bustamante; he endures being spat upon in the face, by daily victories over himself they lie down apart on straw in place of a bed. Here Bustamante, suffering from a cough, all night spat upon Francis unawares,

not seldom befouling even his face. But he, not at all disturbed, passed the night in silence, disfigured with spittle, so that he could scarcely be recognized. When it dawned, Bustamante, having discovered what the matter was, begs pardon. To this he said: "There is no reason, Father, that you should trouble yourself about that matter: for there was nowhere in the room a place more worthy than I to be sprinkled with spittle." Having returned into Spain with Cardinal Alessandrino, he was wont to say to his full sister Joanna of the Cross, who presided over the sacred virgins of St. Clare at Madrid: "It is ours, who have consecrated ourselves to the religious life, to prepare ourselves for death four and twenty times daily, so that we may be of the number of those of whom the Apostle says, YOU ARE DEAD ^b. Of myself indeed I can affirm, I die daily." Of the punishments of the purging fire he said that he did not fear them so much on account of the punishments as because no place is left there, as in this mortal life, for merits, good works and penance. "Otherwise," he said, "I would long ago have asked it of God."

[240] He affirmed that it would be a cause of sorrow to him if death should ever chance to overwhelm him unprepared, he prepares himself for death; with scourges, hair-shirts, with no victory over himself and his senses. He therefore kept diligent watch and waged perpetual war with his body. Which, though he wished above all to cover it and keep it concealed, nevertheless leaked out. For he was caught having plucked out his own hair. He put small stones and pebbles and sand into his shoes, so that by their weight and roughness they might bring discomfort as he walked. In inns, so that he should not be heard raging against himself with scourges at night, he resorted to devices by which to draw blood from himself, and plucked and pricked himself. He walked slowly in the burning sun: likewise trod slowly on the snows in winter, and employed other things of that kind by which to conquer himself. While he held Catalonia as viceroy, and afterwards as Superior General of the Society, he had hair-shirts and scourges locked up with keys, and cloths with which to wipe off the blood. The hair-shirts too were so bristling with camels' hair that they struck terror even into one looking at them. Praying to God he long touched the ground with his mouth, from which he lost his molar teeth and his lips were inflamed with fire: so that nothing came nearer to happening than that, endangered by that disease, he should depart from life, had he not taken care in time.

[241] he rages against himself even beyond measure, He had torn his shoulders and loins with scourges so that they seemed to be putrefying: which matter gave him a scruple. Yet he said he trusted and hoped well that God, having pity on him, would pardon him if he had at any time exceeded the measure, because it had been done from pious zeal, and he remembered that the same had happened to others before. They relate that he was wont to say that the way to heaven is paved by penance. Some priests of the Society at Oñate [c], very dear to him, urged him not to conceal perpetually from them his victory over himself. "Since you so wish," he said, "I shall count life bitter and food bitter on any day on which I have not beaten myself with scourges." In which matter he did nothing remissly: so that the companions sometimes counted eight hundred strokes and blows. Nor was the signal given by a clucking sound or by clapping the palms of the hands, as is usual, enough to make him refrain from beating. He also said this, that they should not receive him too luxuriously, softened by delicacies, until he had obtained from God what he wished. For he asked with assiduous prayers that delights might turn to torment, and pains on the contrary be a pleasure. And so, when he saw his daughter, the countess of Lerma [d], sorrowful and sick and complaining, he consoled her with these words: "God sends pains to one unwilling, denies them to one asking." When he was compelled unwillingly to turn aside into the courts of princes, he ate only those dishes which he ate at home in the refectory at a frugal table. If a soft bed, as happens, had been spread, he, without witnesses, placed one mattress, drawn from the frame, on the ground; here he took his sleep, and in the morning he put it back.

[242] and he asks of God to be afflicted with illnesses; How great was the zeal for penance in Francis even this is a proof. He was once asked at Simancas by Bustamante to ask of God for him those things which he was wont to ask for himself. Scarcely three hours had passed when, behold, Bustamante was seized with a most burning fever with pain of the head, so that he seemed to be driven to madness. He learned, no doubt, that this was what he had asked of Francis, and that he bore greater spirit than strength, and was not to be compared with Francis. He desired therefore to be freed from his wishes as from a vow. Let him pray God again, therefore, to drive away the disease. Francis bids him be of good heart: for God does not suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able. Prayers having been poured out again, the disease at once departed: and afterwards Bustamante was wont to narrate the matter not without a blush: shunning his own audacity and self-confidence, he confessed that the strength of a giant was greater than that of a dwarf.

[243] On account of immoderate abstinence and the pains of a weaker stomach, he keeps the laws of fasting even at the danger of his life: and of heart disease, the physicians ordered him for almost twenty years to abstain from eating fish in the time of the forty days' fast, unless he wished to bring his head and life into danger. Not to obey them seemed indeed hard and inconvenient: yet he prevailed by prayer and loftiness of mind. For, having heard that Pius the Fifth, supreme Pontiff, older in age, religiously kept the annual fasts, no account being taken of weary and decrepit age, he thought that he too must try the same even at the danger of his life. And since this turned out well and happily, he went on keeping those long fasts of springtime and of the four seasons of the year and of Advent without detriment to his health: those who knew the weakness of his little body marvelling; but they thought, as was the case, that strength was supplied by God to his lofty mind. Those who had come to console him lying ill observed that he was wont to raise himself on his elbow while they spoke of divine things, whether from desire of hearing sacred things or from zeal for learning. Nay, he was also wont then repeatedly to break out into these words of Jeremiah: "With desolation is all the land made desolate, because there is none that considereth in the heart [e]."

CAP. VI.

[244] Francis had conquered himself, not only by subjecting the body to the spirit by penances, and the love of his kinsfolk but also by subduing the passions of the mind. Of these, whoever has conquered an affection toward kinsfolk greater than is fair will surely overcome the other passions and motions of the mind, not equally violent. "For there are very many," says Gregory, "who not only do not covet the things of others, but even leave all things which they possessed in the world, despise themselves, seek no glory of the present life, separate themselves from the acts of this world, and trample on almost whatever prosperity has smiled upon them; but yet, still bound by the chain of carnal kinship, while they serve indiscreetly the love of kindred, they often return, through affection for their relatives, to those things which they had already subdued together with contempt of self ^f."

[245] But Francis, after he was called by God, he had so extinguished, held nothing more important than "to forget his people and his father's house [g]": so that he seemed to have been brought up from boyhood in the retirement of religion. Nay, he did not allow any love of kinsfolk and relatives to be detected even in his conversation. Others marvelled at this, his kinsmen even were indignant; both, however, had something to learn at home. That Francis, endowed with so happy a memory, had yet so forgotten his relatives that he did not think of them even in the least. But those accustomed to weigh the matter by right reason easily perceived that he had exchanged the love of kinsfolk for heavenly love: and had with the best right preferred the founder and maker of the universe to created things. To the letter of Antony Araoz, therefore, sent from Rome on that matter [h], he steadfastly replied: "I indeed have not ceased to love my own, and, venerating God daily, I pray Him to bid them be safe and sound. And perhaps that prayer is more pleasing to God which has as little as possible of flesh and blood mixed with it. Let that love perish, so that the heavenly one which I seek may live."

[246] When he was staying in the town which we have said is called Casarrubios [i], so that neither it was announced to him from heaven that his daughter Dorothea had died, at the very moment of the hour at which she departed, at St. Clare's at Gandía: but he was in no way changed or disturbed in mind, as though it pertained nothing to him. But it is not equally to be marvelled at that he was not sorrowful at the death of a daughter who from childhood had consecrated her virginity to God; because she had attained the end of her exile, as she had long desired: most people marvelled more at this, that he did not mourn his daughter Isabella, countess of Lerma, a matron endowed with singular virtue and gifts of nature. For at Pintia, when about to enter the court of the princess, he met one who announced the sad and sudden death of his daughter. Having therefore closed his eyes a little, but praying with mind open to God and having blessed the dead woman, he went on. Business having been done at the court, about to depart, he said to the lady princess [k]: "Pray, I beseech you, for the soul of your servant Isabella, whom I have just heard was carried off by an illness by no means slow, but sudden."

[247] at the death of his daughters, To this she said: "Ought so sad a news to be announced to me in passing by one departing? does the death of such a daughter move her parent no more?" "I had received a deposit," he said: "the Lord has asked it back. Let us therefore return it eagerly, as is fitting: and, because He has given us the use of it for so long, let us give a testimony of a grateful mind. There must therefore be no mourning, especially since, released from these miseries of life and the bonds of the body, she has emerged, and has passed, by God's clemency, as I hope and desire, into the seats of the Blessed." When he returned home, having offered Mass for her, he gave no other sign of mourning. On that very day the constable [l] came to bring consolation by his conversation: and when he had noticed nothing sorrowful in his countenance, he said indignantly: "Are you not moved at all, having lost such a daughter?" He modestly replied: "From the time that I dedicated myself to God, I so offered Him my heart gladly and willingly that nothing in human affairs could disturb it." When, therefore, bitter things befell, they relate that he was wont to say chiefly two things: "Human affairs, as things that pertain nothing to us, I count among the least." And this: "Is the hand of the Lord shortened [m], that it cannot save? what then should we fear? if God be for us, who is against us [n]?"

[248] [nor was he moved when the image of his wife was set before him, nor of his children,] He was saying Mass in the house of his daughter, the countess of Lerma. His son-in-law placed on the altar a likeness of his wife Eleanor, but marked with the name of Blessed Catherine. He was in no way changed, but was of steadfast mind: the sacrifice at length being finished, being asked by a companion whose image that was: "Eleanor's," he said. "But it moved us not at all, except to pray God for her more ardently." He added this too: "Bid the count in my words that he may have the likeness in his room: but henceforth let him not place it on the altar, even though he has made Catherine out of Eleanor." The emperor Charles, when he had summoned Francis a second time to his retreat at St. Justus, wished to make trial whether what he had heard was true, that he cared nothing for the children born of him. Mention therefore having been thrown in about his sons, he relates that concerning the eldest, Charles, duke of Gandía, Sancho Cardona, admiral, as they call it, of Aragon, had complained to him that he was holding contrary to right his dominion in the district of Gandía, called the royal one. What do you judge must be done here? and which of the two will lose his case? To this Francis said: "On whose side reason and right stand I cannot say. This only I ask of you most earnestly, emperor, that

not only should right be rendered whole and intact to Sancho Cardona, but you should even show favour to him rather than to my son." "Is it so," said the emperor, "that you plead the cause of your children thus? is it not better to bestow that favour on your children?" Again Francis: "Cardona perhaps needs that favour more than my son." The emperor, wonderfully delighted by the Man's constancy, praised him: and said that it was not without reason that people commonly declared that he had wholly stripped himself of the love of flesh and blood.

[249] Pope Pius the fourth also marvelled at the same virtue in Francis. though he could easily promote For while he was living at Rome, his son Alvarus Borgia desired, with the kind permission and indult of the Pontiff, to marry Joanna of Aragon [o], his sister's daughter, who had already entered upon the inheritance of the marquisate of Alcañices. The Pontiff, having learned that Alvarus was the son of Francis, marvels why Francis had not asked it of him as a favour; since he was seizing on all sides an occasion of deserving well of him. Having therefore summoned him, thinking nothing of it, he asks what the Pontiff wanted, "Whether he had a son Alvarus." He assented. To this Pius said: "Why have you not yet said even a word to me on that matter? knowing how much I desire for your sake and that of yours." Francis replied: "I was indeed assailed, most blessed Father, by many battering-rams from all sides from Spain, and pressed with prayers, to obtain that favour from you for my son Alvarus: but, to say what is the fact, I could not command myself to ask it of you up to this day. For if my son asks what is right and fair, there is no need of me as intercessor with you: but if he asks what is unfair, it is mine to ask that you do not pronounce sentence in his favour, nor deal indulgently with him: as I also now again and again ask. For if I am what I ought to be, it is necessary that I have greater regard for religion and your dignity, and indeed for the reputation of this Apostolic See, than for private advantage: which indeed ought to yield to the public and common good."

[250] Pius, incredibly refreshed by the prudent answer of Francis, business he wished. praised his judgement and mind. "What then do you think should be done?" he said. Here Francis: "Two seek the same bride, bound by the same bond of kinship: the one the brother of her mother, the other of her father: both suppliantly ask favour of the Pontifical See. And since you require my judgement, I am of this opinion, that it would be for the advantage of the bride that free option be left her, that she may marry, with your leave, in the Lord whichever of the two she prefers. Whereby it will come about that you satisfy both, and she obtains as husband the one she has chosen." The Pontiff was astonished at this, proclaiming the man's prudence: here, however, he disagreed with him, pronouncing in favour of Alvarus according to equity and right, that he might with good permission have his sister's daughter in marriage, adding this remark: that it seemed worthy of the Pontifical See that account should be had of one who had rendered it splendid service hitherto: and that the Pontiff should undertake the guardianship of one who for the love of God had abdicated all titles and indeed the love and care of his children. So that hard mind of the Parent profited Alvarus more, God so commanding, than if the Parent had suppliantly asked it. To us likewise, who are in the same family, he has left a domestic example, that we ought, free from solicitude for human affairs, to transfer our love to God, who has and will have care of us.

ANNOTATIONS.

c. In Biscay.

d. Isabella by name.

g. Psalm 44, verse XI.

h. In the year 1556.

l. Ferdinand Velasco.

n. Romans 8, verse 31.

CHAPTER XVI.

Affability of manners, prudence, candour, and the other virtues.

CAP. VII.

St. Jerome rightly praises Exuperius [a], bishop of Toulouse of the Tectosages [b], Francis, severe toward himself, because he himself fasted, and, from his allowance of food *, defrauding his own appetite, spared it ounce by ounce in order to feed other hungry people; and was tormented rather by the hunger of others than by his own. The same befell Francis, who was rigid and severe toward himself, gentle and easy toward others: so that he pardoned himself nothing, others everything. The charity toward his parents, as we have said, he had not extinguished; but he had exchanged the love of flesh and blood for that divine and heavenly one. He used fewer endearments, indeed, toward his relatives; yet if they asked anything with religion safe, they found him a kind parent, partly by consoling, partly by helping with deed and counsel: so that they never desired his help in vain. And his piety toward the sick was eminent, so that he suffered nothing to be lacking to them of what the physicians required. All the companions knew well that everything that tormented them could safely be deposited in his ears and bosom: and that he was wont gladly to wipe away sadness, whether they were suffering from diseases of body or of mind. Nor did they fear that they would be importunate or troublesome. Nor that he would complain, as most are wont, of the straits of time.

[252] toward the rest, From this affability of manners was born his custom of commanding nothing harshly, "Do this": or "See to that": but he addressed them, softened by these endearments, thus: "Do that, I pray, moved for the sake and love of God. Would you dare to set out there, your health being safe? Are you well enough to be able to go on an Evangelical mission? Will it be convenient for you to maintain the title of doctor of this or that art?" Or thus: "It came into my mind to lay this office on you: but it pleased me first to explore the feeling of your mind." By offices of that kind he found them more prompt and eager. If he had learned that anyone was distressed and tormented in mind, he strained every nerve of his ingenuity to find how chiefly the pious Parent could come to share his labours, lighten his burden and bring consolation.

[253] gentle even toward offenders, If anyone, slipping through human frailty, had stumbled in a light matter, he was wont to say nothing more bitter; only this: "May God forgive you, so may I see you holy, brother: how was that said or done by you?" But if he had offended more gravely, he would summon him to himself and address him gently, yet leave nothing unpunished: discharging the office of an excellent parent and physician at once. He would therefore relate the fault, ask that, led by penitence, he should come to his senses. He would declare himself ready to come into a share of the punishment, although he was not akin to the fault, as was shown in the second book [c]. By this sign of charity and piety he easily attained what he had proposed to himself, to recall his men from their errors to a better amendment, using this repeatedly: "That nothing is better for man than affability and clemency. And, That a wise man ought to try all things by counsel before arms." But afterwards, if he who had offended had changed his conduct and disposition for the better, there was the utmost forgetfulness of past errors. In which virtue too we have learned that Ignatius excelled others.

[254] He was wont to say that whoever followed God as leader ought not to attribute to himself one head, condoling with the calamity of others, two eyes and hands, but to have very many members in common with others. "For the things of friends," they say, "are all common." Whereby it would come about that in a common calamity he would think that the feeling of pain pertained to him also. That thus they would all be members of one body; and that which the Apostle says of himself: "Who is weak, and I am not weak [d]? Who is scandalized, and I burn not?" When about to enter on a journey, he gave his companion the charge not to let any beggar met on the road go away ungifted from their slender provisions for the journey: yet using such moderation that the alms might appear to have come even from a beggar: unless some graver necessity should occur, which ought not to be circumscribed by a law. If nothing was available which he might bestow on others, glad in mind because he had of his own accord embraced poverty, he turned over and bore these things in his mind: "If I had it, how gladly I would give it to you!" And this alms is more pleasing to God, who, searching the hearts of men, measures gifts by the mind of the giver: when someone poor in goods, yet with cheerful and beneficent mind, is ready to give the most ample things, than if a rich man offers a gift, but coldly.

[255] While he embraced all with singular charity, so above all those with equal charity all, even those unfair to him, who detracted from his reputation by calumny. For he affirmed that they deserved well of him, because they made him more cautious lest he should knowingly commit anything worthy of reproof. For so wise men formerly judged, that great advantages can and ought to be taken from enemies. Of these very men he was never heard to speak less than honourably; nay, he was wont to think and speak honourably of them. Nay, he never allowed their reputation to be detracted from in his presence, if he was there: using commonly, in familiar fashion, words like these: "He thinks that he has done rightly. Zeal is not to be disapproved." Or thus: "Greater punishments are owed to my sins. If they err in anything, I pray God to pardon them." It is incredible to relate with how serene a countenance he appeared when he heard ill spoken of himself through the fault of others, not his own, so that he seemed to hold harbour as it were in the midst of a storm. Nor was he courteous toward his enemies only in words, but also frequently bound them by benefits, when occasion offered. I could gather more examples of this, but, lest I should seem knowingly to wound anyone, or be compelled to name those who assailed him with hostility and vexed him with calumnies, I shall forbear [e].

[256] He had a lawsuit, not about three little goats, while still bearing the title of Duke, with Frances his stepmother [f]: which lawsuit, being compelled to pursue it with religion safe, lest he should seem through sloth to have defrauded his heirs of their goods, and he embraced his adversaries with charity, and to try it at law, losing the suit at last, Francis was so far from taking it ill that the matter had been adjudged against him that he even showed with cheerful countenance the greatest constancy of mind and indeed joy, and, as he related to his aunt [g], was grateful to the judges. For he desired that the interest of his stepmother, because he honoured her, should be provided for rather than his own. Of such and so great excellence of judgement was he while still a young man, initiated into no Holy Orders, that he preferred charity and tranquillity of mind to all the goods of fortune.

[257] from which he even asked to be sent to the Indies. Laínez, the Superior General, had sent a letter to all the provinces of Spain, that they should write down the names of those to whom God gave this mind, that they were ready either to pour out their life among the Indians in the preaching of the Gospel, or in Europe were not ashamed to teach boys the first elements of the Latin tongue. Francis, to whom Spain was then committed, although he was released from those laws, nevertheless wrote with his own hand to Laínez this testimony of his mind, consigned to writing, that he desired to pour out his blood for the name of Christ among the Indians and to expose his life to dangers. He therefore asked that it be permitted, with his kind permission, to be sent on that expedition

to set out, and that, prayers having been poured out to God, he would further this will of his.

CAP. VIII.

[258] Of a divine, not a human, prudence this one proof is the equal of all: that Francis, with lofty mind, having renounced all goods of fortune and titles, of his own accord followed Christian poverty. He judged prudently, no doubt, that these perishable and empty things which fall under sight are to be counted as nothing and gladly exchanged for eternal ones. Which heavenly wisdom indeed the mind of man, dulled by mist and covered over with darkness, can by no means perceive, unless the light of faith, granted by God's gift, be added. If any wished to give their name to the Society, and were pressed by very small things, as happens at the beginning, from devoting themselves wholly, he was accustomed to grant them small things and give them rope, with religion however safe, and with hope of greater advantage: knowing that it would come about that in time itself those slight and small things (which the demon is wont to set before minds like immense masses, so that the business of salvation may proceed less) would be dispersed like mists by the sun. Of this I have these proofs. A nobleman born of illustrious rank in Spain reported to Francis that he had indeed been called by God to join the Society; yet that he was hindered and deterred by one thing, that he said he could not live comfortably without a servant to undress and dress him in his clothes and shoes. To this Francis said: If nothing else delays you, I undertake to give you one of the companions to serve you, and indeed more promptly than those hired for wages. He had scarcely used his help for eight days when, repenting of his deed, he blushed: he himself began to serve the companions, to kiss their feet and beg pardon, calling himself the servant of all.

[259] to the novices, Another likewise, noble at home, thought one thing hard for himself in the Society, recently entered, namely not to change his shirt daily, as he had been accustomed. Francis assented. "You shall have a shirt," he said, "when you wish, so that this thing may not hinder you from the course of the perfect life." Nor was it long before he too blushed, and was ashamed of his deed, that he had held those empty things among his delights. Soon he exchanged the soft shirt for the roughness of a hair-shirt, and kept it up to his very last day. A priest likewise, of no common learning, who had lived finely and dwelt amply at his home, having been enrolled in the number of the companions at Simancas, on looking at the narrow cells of the novices, began to be distressed and weakened in mind. Francis, having learned what the matter was, assigned him the most ample dwelling of the college: more than this, he allowed him to use the domestic furniture: thus in a short time he overcame the narrow mind of the man. For not long after he was ashamed and regretted his decision, and, having left the room, occupied a narrow cell; and kept poverty above all religiously.

[260] This above all Francis diligently took care of, that none should undertake missions of Evangelical preaching and lay the foundations of a college in choosing missionaries, professors of the arts, preachers, except those whose piety was singular and proven. For as with the foundations of buildings, so also with the beginnings of all things, on which the rest depend, he said that it mattered very greatly by whom they were laid. They relate, therefore, that he was wont to say that only those missions pleased him which brought him sorrow; because he was then deprived of the intimacy of the best companions. And to both he gave this charge above all, that, however many and great the businesses that pressed, they should yet never abstain from the pursuit of praying: nor knowingly and wittingly omit prayer, the food of the soul. As regards studies, he had this judgement in common with Ignatius, that it was lawful for none of the companions to defend new and strange opinions. Nor did he think this was to be guarded against only in Theology, the queen of the best arts, where sin is committed with greater danger to souls, but also to be held in the method of philosophizing. For those who dared here to defend things unheard of and contrary to the opinion of all, he said, would dare the same in the graver disciplines. To the preaching companions he likewise stood forth as adviser, and committed his counsel to writing, that they should employ spirit in preaching, and move both the force of speaking and the hearts of the hearers. That they should not compose their discourse for empty pomp and the display of talent. That they should touch the prelates of the sacred rites and princes cautiously and prudently. If they found it necessary to reprove anything, they should show that they did it compelled by grief, not led by anger or hatred: for by the former even an iron mind is softened; by the latter the hearers are even irritated. He confirmed this by his own example. "For when I reproved vices sharply," he said, "I seemed to be rebuking myself. Whereby it came about that I spoke with greater impetus and moved others to compassion."

[261] When pestilence was raging in some provinces of Italy and Spain, and in time of plague his prudence was: Francis was consulted by the fathers of the Society what seemed needful to be done in so great a common danger, so that account might be had of charity, and yet the colleges not be utterly exhausted by death. He himself entered upon and devised this salutary method. Those who devoted themselves to the common good of the commonwealth should report their names to the several rectors. From these, a selection having been made, those should be left as a garrison like soldiers at their post who both excelled in holiness of life and were of firm health, and endowed with a loftier mind: and who besides could be exposed to dangers with less loss to the Society. These, separated from the others, he wished to apply themselves to the salvation of their neighbours. Whereby it came about that many held out and rendered service diligently in the provinces of both Hesperias, where the plague was then devastating the cities, with great patience of labour, to the admiration of the citizens too, and with no small reward to the companions who perished. For we read in the Roman Calendars of the Martyrs and in Eusebius that those were held even in the number of the Martyrs who rightly discharged this office of charity [h].

[262] some of his The Brothers whom we commonly call Coadjutors Francis was accustomed to call the Wise men of God, who, with simplicity of manners and humble obedience, both prayed piously and duly discharged the domestic offices. He knew that God is for the most part wont to suggest to them while they pray those things which the wise men of the world cannot draw from books. He said that those who presided over others ought not to measure all who obeyed by one rule: but to imitate good soldiers, who fill that engine of war with sulphurous powder according to the capacity of the barrel, lest it burst. When they related that someone had fallen through human frailty, of whom least was feared, examining himself in silence, and conscious of human weakness, he had in his mouth that common saying: "I am a man, I think nothing human foreign to me." Being consulted by the fathers of a college, who were also maintained by alms, whether they rightly accepted alms from a certain man who was indeed rich, but of bad repute. To this he said: That the Prophet Elijah [i] and Paul the Anchorite had received food daily from a raven: let them not doubt, therefore, that they were fed by God through the agency of the raven. For by these alms and by prayers, as is wont, a good mind for coming to his senses would be given him by God: so that from a raven, a carnivorous bird, he might at last turn out a dove.

[263] judgements on various matters He marvelled at those who claim and arrogate to themselves as much honour in greeting as they have detracted from others: and wish to seem great by this, when they have addressed others meagrely, with whom they ought to vie in courtesies. Hence hatreds and quarrels arise, detraction springs up, friendship is violated. He judged, therefore, that a measure should be set to titles, so that so many hatreds should not be born, as a price is wont to be set on goods in well-constituted commonwealths. He himself, however, was by no means restricted in giving titles, nay most liberal and kind, if he understood that anyone was delighted by these fumes of the palace. "If one must sin in one direction or the other," he said, "I prefer to offend by excess rather than if I take anything away." A certain companion had imprudently entered the refectory naked, in order to rage against himself with scourges, striving, I believe, to imitate the example of blessed Francis [k]. Ours, not without reason, took it ill, and inflicted a penalty; repeating that saying of Cassian: "That certain deeds of the Saints are to be admired, not imitated."

[264] judgements, proceeding from the same virtue, He was wont to say that the life of religious men is a perpetual cross and martyrdom: because one must conquer oneself daily, and must perpetually obey by vow. Let superiors see to it, therefore, that they temper and lighten burdens: and not devise new ones, and lay the burden according to each one's strength. He had given a priest charge of administering a college for a time. And when he acted remissly, thinking that this time would be short: and that therefore he need not labour much, Francis, indignant, sharply rebuked him. "Thus," he said, "even for a few days the affairs of the Society ought to be conducted as though the office were perpetual. For he who administers affairs coldly does harm, so that in a moment of time, through negligence, there is lost what was gained in many years past and with sweat." Even warfare teaches this to be true, when cities are lost in a short time which came into one's power, taken by a long siege.

CAP. IX.

[265] Ambrose rightly praised, at the funeral, in his brother Satyrus a prudence which with Evangelical eminent, however, for candour of disposition and simplicity of manners [l]: who suspected nothing ill of others. The same praise is proper to Francis, who added to the prudence of the serpent the simplicity of the dove according to the precept of Christ [m]: and tempered affability with gravity. It did not escape him that the wise men of the world are wont to judge otherwise: namely that prudence consists in cunning. Yet that virtue is more excellent and more perfect which is seasoned with candour and at the same time simplicity. That he might not suspect anything ill of others, he had commanded and prevailed upon his mind. And so he did not allow a false judgement of anyone to creep in. That the recesses of a man are hidden and secret: and that therefore the mind of each is known with difficulty and is for the most part rashly condemned. Wherefore judgement of others is not easily to be passed. For we are often deceived, err and are misled in judging. That it seems safest to think and speak well of all: and to take the errors of others in good part and, as far as is permitted, to excuse them.

[266] He affirmed that he preferred to be deceived by others rather than to suspect rashly: with simplicity, whereby it came about that those who displayed a feigned appearance of piety not seldom deceived him. Which virtue indeed is the more admirable in Francis, both because he had been brought up from boyhood in a court, where all things are done cunningly and said with artifice; and because he had held magistracies, and as viceroy had handled judicial cases, and well knew the wiles of the children of this world. Yet he retained his candour so far that all true things pleased him, false things displeased him. He was also wont to say that saying of the Tragedian: "That the speech of truth is simple"; not painted, not composed to please, and therefore devoid of art: that a good man does not wish to deceive, but measures all things candidly from his own mind. Francis's speech was such that in affirming and denying it agreed with the thing itself; and, as the old saying goes, called a fig a fig.

[267] It would be long and full of tedium to go through the several kinds of virtues. he closely joined with the kinds of the other virtues. For what need is there to speak of chastity? since, while still a young man, when about to visit noble ladies out of courtesy, he was accustomed to fortify his body with the cuirass of a hair-shirt, and brought the untouched flower of virginity to marriage, as was shown in the first book [n]. Afterwards, when already enrolled in the Society, he never allowed his swollen feet to be handled by women, not even by his daughter [o], the countess of Lerma, when he chanced to lie in her house with an illness of the joints. He so tempered severity and affability that severity seemed affable, and, on the contrary, affability severe, when the matter required. I pass over his maturity and prudence in giving counsels: his endurance in adversities: his constancy in undertakings:

and finally his greatness of mind in contempt of human things: and the other plainly heroic virtues. This one thing I shall add, that he always lived grateful and mindful of the divine benefit that he had been joined to the family of the Society, on account of which he gave thanks daily: sometimes also using this saying: "If the state of religious could be tested as wines are by tasting, any lord, drunk with the sweetness of the divine liquor, would eagerly give himself into the families of religious; but because the sweetness cannot be tasted except over a long time, it comes about that most, terrified by the roughness, flee back." And these things I have thought should be said about the life of Francis Borgia. May the Parent of souls grant that we may constantly express in our conduct this exemplar of life and virtues set before us for imitation.

ANNOTATIONS.

n. Chapter 3.

* supply: from