carious condition. But Ignatius never lost courage; he ordered quests to be made for alms, and bore the burden alone. This perseverance and disinterested charity gave such satisfaction to King Ferdinand that he paid from his exchequer 400 gold florins yearly to the German College.

However, as all good things are strengthened amid contradictions and persecutions, the lot of this rising College was no exception to the rule. A student dismissed for bad conduct out of revenge disseminated false accusations against the house, pretending that the discipline was too severe, and that the food was bad and insufficient. Those who from the first had endeavoured to ruin it took advantage of this circumstance, and exaggerated these false reports, in order to prejudice and drive away the ignorant. Canisius wrote on this subject to Ignatius, and the Saint exposed the falsehood of these reports in a letter, from which the historian of the German College gives the following passage—”

The report that the German College will not succeed can only come from the devil. The truth is that, with the help of God, it prospers as much as can be desired. During these unfortunate times the students are in want of nothing, either as regards necessaries for the body or for what will assist their progress in science and virtue. The College numbers at present thirty scholars in several classes, according to the different subject-matter of their studies, and we have good hope that they will distinguish themselves hereafter to the greater glory of God. It is our ardent desire to increase the number of the good. One had been admitted of a disobedient and mutinous spirit, and he has been dismissed. Choose for us some young men with good dispositions and send them to us. They are treated here, firmly I believe, with so much gentleness that I am surprised any one can regard the discipline as too severe. They go twice a week for recreation to the villa-house. So far from the least rigour being used in their regard, they are treated with the greatest sweetness of government so long as they are willing to observe an edifying behaviour.

If the constancy of Ignatius was not shaken by these calumnies, it was no less unmoved by the storms which burst in the wars between Paul IV. and Philip II., and which threatened the very existence of the Roman College, which was the Saint's favourite work. Rome, in fact, was at the point of being besieged and taken for the second

Colleg. Germ. Hist., auctore Jul. Cordara, S.J. Rome, 1770.. The date he gives is incorrect; the letter was written in 1555.

time during the century, for the Spaniards marched to the gates of Rome and the city prepared for its defence. Famine soon succeeded, and Ignatius found it impossible to give food to his German students, but for all that he did not dismiss them-he divided them among the different Houses of the Society which were nearest to Rome. In this extremity all thought the establishment undone for ever, and even the Cardinal of Augsburg, Otho Truchses, wrote to the Saint to say that there was no other alternative but to give up an undertaking which for four years had struggled against so many difficulties, that he had done all that man could do, and that he must take occasion of the war to free himself from these cares and annoyances. But Ignatius declared that they who were weary of the cares and trouble which this work had cost might lay them upon him, for that his resolution was unshaken, and that so long as he lived he would support this College, and rather sell himself than abandon his Germans; that the help of man of little account, and greater must be the trust put in God. And God recompensed this admirable confidence by favouring him with a prophetic light, by which he predicted in the most positive manner that there would be one day a Pope who should be the founder of this College. Gregory XIII. accomplished this prophecy in the fullest. manner. However, the precarious condition of the German College continued until the death of Ignatius, which took place in this disastrous war between Spain and Paul IV., who took the side of France.

was

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE ZEAL AND CHARITY OF ST. IGNATIUS FOR

GERMANY.

ALTHOUGH Le Jay had for some time been teaching theology at the University of Ingoldstadt, no member of the Society had been invited to Germany to found a College there, or fill a Professor's chair in a permanent official capacity, until the year 1549. In this year William, Duke of Bavaria, the first of all the German Princes to do so, preferred a request to Pope Paul III. for two Professors of Theology to teach in the schools of Ingoldstadt. The Pope commissioned the Cardinals Ste. Croix and Maffei to communicate this request to St. Ignatius. But he replied that he could employ the Religious of his Order in a manner far more useful for the general good than by sending them to fill for a time a chair in the Universities; that if the Duke had a mind to render great services to religion he could do as the King of Portugal had done, who, having at first only two members of the Society, had established afterwards a Seminary in his country, so that there were now 250 Religious, who could do good in all the vast dominions of that Prince; that he would consent to send the Duke the Fathers he asked for, but upon condition that he would found a College of the Society in which natives of the country might be educated. This condition being approved of by the Pope and Cardinals, and agreed to by the Duke,* Ignatius sent for Fathers Canisius and Salmeron to Rome, and, at the express desire of the Duke William, for Father le Jay also. They were to stop on their way at Bologna, to take the degree of Doctors in Theology, because much is thought in Germany of that

* No writer of the Society has, as far as I am aware, made mention of these negotiations.

title. Ignatius, in sending the Duke the two men he asked for, wrote him the following letter, in which he alludes to the agreement made between them—

The two theologians whom I have promised, according to the order of our Holy Father, will present your Excellency with this letter. One of them is Alphonsus Salmeron, a Spaniard, the other, Peter Canisius, of Gueldres; I have summoned them both from Sicily. They are distinguished for their irreproachable life and profound knowledge of Holy Scripture, with a cultivation of mind of the highest Christian character. They are both Priests of the Order known by the name of the Society of Jesus. Our Holy Father has not the least doubt that they will fully answer to the views of your Excellency, and that they will give instruction in a most effectual manner throughout your great country by their lives as well as by their doctrines. I also send the excellent theologian, Dr. Claude, whom your Excellency asked for by name. Although he cannot remain with you very long,* he will nevertheless be of great assistance to you for some days or months, to aid in founding this excellent and useful establishment. The College of the Society has but one sole object in its studies, labours, and cares-to amend the corrupt morals of the age, to convert hearts by example, to promote the sanctification of souls, and, by learning and science founded on the pure and true faith and the sacred teaching of Jesus Christ, to bring men back from the pernicious seductions of pleasure to a good and holy life, from the flesh to the spirit, from the world to God. In these our times, and especially in Germany, where a wild boar would uproot and a savage beast trample on the vine which the hand of the Lord has planted, can there be a teaching more suitable than this to strengthen the souls of the good in their sentiments of piety, and to restore the wandering sheep to the fold of Christ? May it please your Excellency to receive these Fathers, in so many ways worthy of all respect, with special friendship and goodwill. As the rule of their Order requires that they look to no temporal interests of their own, but only to those of Jesus Christ, and that they live on voluntary alms, full of confidence in their Lord and Master and in the greatness of your goodness, they are convinced that they will want for nothing of the necessaries of life. It is, moreover, just that they who sow in spiritual things should reap what is requisite for the body. There is every reason to hope that souls will be found which, filled with admiration for so perfect a life and such holy rules, will give themselves up to the direction of these Fathers. If this be the case, and the Lord look upon His vineyard, your Excellency will honour these new labourers with your favours and graces, and will be rejoiced to see their number increase. How great will be your merits before God and His holy Church when this vineyard, cultivated by the new Seminary and watered by the pious liberality of your Excellency, shall produce new buds and shoots! Our Holy Father the Pope has a special interest in this matter, and it will be very

He was the confessor of Hercules, Duke of Ferrara, who would only consent to part with him for a time.

pleasing to him to hear that these three Fathers-men of such piety and learning—have been treated by your Excellency with all possible affection and goodness.*

Rome, 1549.

Salmeron could not long remain at Ingoldstadt, for Ignatius received orders from Pope Julius III. to send him to the Bishop of Verona, who had asked the Pope for him. The Saint acquainted the Duke Albert, who had lately succeeded his father William in the government, with this new appointment. He informed Salmeron of it also, though he says at the same time that he would have preferred to leave him in the post which he occupied. He adds that he would not willingly offend the Duke in anything, and that he is willing to take any pains to win his favour and goodwill; that he does not wish to do any injury to that famous University, but rather to render it any service; and, therefore, that he sends Dr. Gaudan and Father Schorich to replace Salmeron. He wrote also to the Duke to explain all that had passed, and to recommend to him the new Professor, who, being born in Flanders, belonged to Germany, and might be very useful for public lectures and sermons. He added, that if the College intended by his father were established, he would send Professors of the other faculties, so that the Society might contribute its aid to the pious undertakings of the Duke for the good of his country and of the whole of Germany.†

Things remained in this condition until the year 1551, and the project which had been first agreed upon at Rome seemed to be abandoned; for the Duke always delayed the foundation of the promised College, and so the Society was baulked of its object. In fact, if the Company could not propagate in the country, it could not be expected to take away some of its most distinguished members from other parts and employ them in a place where they must remain without producing fruit for the body, or making it any compensation for its sacrifice of them. The Fathers, there

*This letter is to be found in the collection at Rome, but it bears no date of the day or of the month. It must have been written in the month of August, or, at the latest, in September, since it was sent by these three Fathers, who received their Doctor's degrees at Bologna October 4th (Orlandini, ix., 51).

+ Collection at Rome.