The Bollandists tell us* that Ignatius sought lodging in a hospital of which St. Cajetan of Thienna was director. This must have happened some time after the letter which we have cited; and we advert to this circumstance because it may have afterwards given occasion to the story given by Castaldi the Theatine, in the Life of St. Cajetan, where he says that Ignatius besought this Saint to receive him into the Order which he had lately founded, but that he refused his request, believing it to be more to the glory of God that Ignatius himself should found a different Order, wholly consecrated to the salvation of souls. But a more authentic version of the story is that the Cardinal Caraffa, associated with St. Cajetan in founding the Theatine Order, and afterwards Pope under the name of Paul IV., wished to fuse the two Orders into one. Ribadeneyra, in fact, recounts that Laynez, on his return from Venice, in the month of April, 1545, communicated to St. Ignatius in his presence the desire expressed by many of the most considerable of the Order of the Theatines that they should be received into his Society, but that the Saint replied, he thought it best for the service of God that each Order should remain as Providence had established it. In truth, it is impossible that St. Ignatius could have taken a step which would have overthrown all the plans of his life, and have thwarted the marvellous order of events arranged by God for their accomplishment. But a fact which more than any other proves this story to have been pure invention, is that St. Cajetan was during that time at Naples, and not at Venice. In fine, Ignatius would in this case have been obliged to forego his Spiritual Exercises, a means he looked upon as so especially efficacious in the conversion of sinners, and would have done this precisely at the time when he wrote the following letter to Miona, his former Confessor at Paris

I have a great desire to know of your welfare, which is not surprising, since I am under the obligations to you of a son to a father in spiritual matters. Besides, it is right that I should correspond to the love and devotedness which you have ever felt towards me, and which you have proved by acts. I know of no other means in this life of making some return for all that you have done for me, than to induce

* N. 212, sec. xxii.

you to make the Spiritual Exercises for a month with the person whom I have named, and who has offered himself for the purpose. If then you have made this trial and have derived satisfaction from it, I beg you in the name of God our Lord to write and tell me of it. And if you have not yet made the Exercises, I entreat you for His love, and for the sake of His dolorous Passion and death for us, to enter on them now, and should you ever repent of having done so, I engage to submit to whatever penalty you inflict on me, and to be regarded by you as a man who mocks the Clergy-to whom, indeed, I owe so much. As in writing to one I write to all, I have not yet written to you personally; but Faber will acquaint you with all you may desire to know in my regard, and you can learn this also by reading the letter which I address to him. I beg of you, twice and three times, and, indeed, as many times as I can, to do what I have asked you for the glory of God our Lord, that I may not have hereafter to reproach myself for omitting to urge you with every argument in my power to do that which seems to me the best method of all that can be seen, thought of, or understood in this world, and the most conducive, not only to the good of each one in particular, but also to the direction of others into the way of virtue, by assisting them and being useful to them. And though you may not feel their want for yourself, you will see much to be drawn from them beyond your expectation for the good of others. I beseech the infinite goodness of God our Lord to give us the grace to know His most holy will and to accomplish it perfectly in all things-juxta talentum omnibus commissum, if we would not have Him one day say to us, Serve nequam sciebas, &c.

Venice, 16 Nov., 1536.

Ignatius made still greater use of the Exercises here than he had done at Paris, and by means of them gained three new companions, James d'Hozez, of an ancient family of Cordova, and the two brothers James and Stephen d'Eguia, whom he had known at Alcala, and who were then at Venice on their return from Jerusalem. Besides these, many others also made these Exercises without entering into the Society of St. Ignatius. Among them Peter Contarini, nephew of the Cardinal of the same name, who became afterwards Bishop of Paphos, in the Isle of Cyprus, and with whom Ignatius always continued to correspond by letter.

CHAPTER XIII.

IGNATIUS REJOINS HIS FRIENDS FROM PARIS.

HE RECEIVES THE PRIESTHOOD. THEY SEPARATE AND GO INTO THE

DIFFERENT VENETIAN STATES.

THEIR RETURN ΤΟ

VENICE. JOURNEY OF IGNATIUS TO ROME.

THE year 1536 had not yet closed while Ignatius was thus engaged, ere he and his companions were overtaken by the war which broke out between Charles V. and Francis I., King of France, on account of the Milanese, after the death of the Duke Francis Sforza. Those who remained at Paris were in consequence obliged to leave that city before the time appointed, lest their road should be closed by the troops of the hostile armies. Accordingly, they left on the 15th of November for Italy, passing through Lorraine and Switzerland. Ignatius, before hearing of their departure, wrote to the Confessor of the Queen of France "Master Faber and his company will have to make a very painful journey, and will be reduced to extreme necessities." He on this account recommended them to his care, and they had, in fact, many sufferings. and dangers to encounter in a journey made on foot in winter time through foreign countries, disturbed by war and by religious strife. Their joy was the greater when they had the pleasure of embracing Ignatius at Venice, on the 6th of January, 1537, and of being under his paternal care.* They shared between them the two principal hospitals, that of the Martyrs SS. John and Paul and that of the Incurables, where they lodged, serving the sick with a tenderness and devotion which soon drew upon them the esteem and

According to Ribadeneyra and Orlandini they arrived on the 8th, but the Bollandists adduce a manuscript of Laynez, extant at Rome, in which it is said, "We arrived at Venice on the 6th of January," and we can more safely rely on this authority.

admiration of poor and rich alike. Ignatius and his companions, immediately after their meeting at Venice, resolved to go to Rome, in order to obtain from the Pope leave to pass on to Jerusalem, and to remain preaching the Gospel there without its being in the power of any one to hinder them, and that they might also receive Holy Orders under the title of voluntary poverty. Their journey, however, was delayed by the approach of winter, and did not take place until the commencement of Lent. Ignatius remained behind, as there were in Rome two very influential persons. whom he thought prejudiced against him, and likely to raise opposition to the work on his account. He therefore judged it to be more prudent not to go there, as we find in the manuscript of Laynez, preserved in the archives at Rome "We went to Rome. During the time we were at Venice two persons were spoken of as opposed to us; one of these (Caraffa) took the side against us, and the other (Dr. Ortiz) received us, thanks be to God, with the greatest kindness." Indeed, Ignatius himself names the persons who decided him upon not accompanying his two associates to Rome. He had already learned at Venice the unfavourable dispositions of Caraffa towards him, who was created Cardinal towards the close of the year 1536. The cause of this ill-will is enveloped in obscurity, and must be looked for, not so much in what took place between the two, as in the irritable temper of Caraffa, to which Ignatius gave umbrage. The Dr. Ortiz, then one of the most famous Professors of Theology at the University of Paris, had come to Rome as Procurator of the Emperor with the Holy See in the affair of the divorce of Catherine, the Emperor's aunt, and wife of Henry VIII., King of England. As he was one of those who had most contributed to render Ignatius suspected by the Inquisition at Paris, there was good reason for mistrusting him. But Ortiz had laid aside his prejudices, and now showed true greatness of soul by speaking in praise to Pope Paul III. of the eminent qualities of the new-comers, and by recommending them to his notice. By this he gave the Pope a desire to make their acquaintance, and convince himself of their learning by a personal interview. Paul III. was fond of listening to learned discussions during his repast, and accordingly

invited one day to his palace the companions of St. Ignatius, to hold disputation in his presence with other Roman theologians on certain matters. After the repast was over, as the Holy Father had been greatly pleased with them they were admitted to kiss his feet, and Paul, stretching out his arms as if to embrace them, said to them-"I am truly happy to find so much learning joined to so much humility; if I can assist you in anything, I will do so willingly." They asked his blessing and permission to go to Jerusalem. "I willingly give you permission," he replied, "but, notwithstanding, I do not think that you will go." The doubt expressed by the Pope was founded on the treaty which he had concluded with the Emperor against the Porte, and in consequence of which a war was about to break out. However, Faber presented his supplication for himself and his twelve companions, and, on the 27th of April, obtained from the Cardinal Grand Penitentiary, Antonio Pucci, permission to go to Jerusalem, and leave for those who were not yet Priests to receive Holy Orders from any Catholic Bishop. They received also, as alms for their journey, from the Pope himself and from some fellowcountrymen, two hundred crowns, which they afterwards restored on finding out that the journey was impossible.

On the 24th of June, 1537, Ignatius and those of his companions who had not yet received Holy Orders were ordained Priests by the Bishop of Arba, Vincent Nigusanti, after having made, in the hands of the Nuncio Veralli, the vows of poverty and chastity. Ignatius resolved to devote a whole year to his preparation for saying his first Mass, and afterwards added six other months to the time, owing, perhaps, to his not having yet given up all hope of going to Jerusalem, and of celebrating for the first time the Holy Sacrifice on Calvary, or in Bethlehem at the shrine of the Holy Nativity. And the reason for thinking this is that afterwards, when in Rome, he chose for saying his first Mass the Chapel of the Holy Crib in St. Mary Major's, that there he might find his Bethlehem. But however great his desire was to go to the Holy Land, God gave him clearly to understand, by the circumstances which followed, that this was not what He wished of him. The Republic of Venice was, during this very year, at war with Soliman