Philip, notwithstanding his goodwill to the Society, was obliged in the beginning of his reign to conciliate the minds of his Ministers in Belgium, and he could not therefore use his power and authority by a decisive step, especially since his Belgian advisers thought and spoke a different language from his Spanish counsellors. The negotiations were therefore long protracted, the King having put the affair into the hands of the Bishop of Arras and the President of the Council, Vigilius Zwichen, who was a declared opponent of the Jesuits. Both raised difficulties, according to Ribadeneyra's account, because the Bishops and Parish Priests were not willing to allow the Fathers of the Society to preach and hear confessions. We have already seen that Ignatius gave orders to his envoy to retire for a time to Cologne. But shortly after this Polanco wrote to him in the name of Ignatius, to make a declaration that the Society had no interests in the matter of establishing itself in Belgium, and only desired to enter there because it was necessary that able labourers-learned and truly Catholic men-should be employed in that country, in which heresy had already made much progress, and that this was a point which concerned, not only the honour and wisdom, but the conscience also of those who were called to the government of those countries; that as for the opponents of the Society, they were either persons infected with the contagion of error, or else ecclesiastics who, instead of supporting the Jesuits in their ministry, as it was their duty to do, opposed them because they thought their interests at stake, on account of the rule of the Society to give freely what it had freely received.*

But the Saint did not live to see the result of his labours. The influence of the Count de Feria,t and of Mary, the King's sister, obtained thus much, that the Society should be acknowledged and allowed in Belgium, although under many restrictions, which Philip afterwards removed. The terms of agreement were settled three days after the death of Ignatius.

Ribadeneyra was also commissioned to explain in the Colleges of Lower Germany the true sense of the Consti

*Collection at Rome.

+ His son Antonio, whom Charles V. wished to propose as a Cardinal in 1552, became a Jesuit this same year.

tutions, and to put them into force. Ignatius informed the Fathers of the Society in that country of this by a letter, which at the same time accredited Ribadeneyra to the performance of this duty. This letter deserves a place in this history. In it, then, the Saint writes thus—

As it is absolutely necessary that the members of our Society should be animated with the same spirit and observe the same manners of conduct, according to the prescriptions of our Institute, and the more so as they live very far separated from one another, and in distant countries, and as our dear brother in Jesus Christ, Peter Ribadeneyra, knows perfectly our thoughts concerning the Constitutions and customs introduced into our Society for the glory of God and our own spiritual progress and that of our neighbour, we have thought it good to send him to you for our mutual consolation, and to bind still closer the ties which unite us. As the spirit of our vocation is the same, and makes us all tend to the same end—the glory of God and the salvation of souls, so we ought all to be agreed, both in our manner of acting, and, as far as is possible, in the means we employ. You will therefore receive him with all the kindness and affection that you can, and will repose an entire confidence in all that he shall say to you in my name, with regard to the Constitutions, the Statutes, and all other things.*

Rome, Oct. 20, 1555.

* This letter is taken from the manuscript life of Father Ribadeneyra.

CHAPTER X.

DEATH OF ST. IGNATIUS.

WE have come to the last days of the life of St. Ignatius. But before relating his death we must touch on several points concerning him. His health had always been very weak. In the autumn of 1554 it began to cause alarm; and as his occupations increased, his Consultors begged him to choose an assistant to share his labours. He had already earnestly demanded to be freed from his office, but now they wished to give him a Vicar without his asking for one. At first he refused, foreseeing that an associate, unless he took upon him the whole of the business, would give him little alleviation. However, as he was so humble and so detached from self-will, he very soon returned to the first resolution, and accepted the proposition made to him. A letter of Polanco to Jerome Domenech, the Provincial of Sicily, gives us information on this subject—

Father Natalis [he says] is expected with impatience by our Father, and by us in particular who compose the council for the general good of the Society; for on the one hand the multiplicity of business consequent on the increase of the Society, and on the other the frequent and almost continual indisposition of our Father, who for the most part has kept his bed for nearly a year, makes us desire more ease and help for him than he has had hitherto. We have therefore given him notice that it seemed convenient that he should choose some one to govern the Society in his place. He ordered all the Priests we have at Rome, with the exception of two or three who are Novices, to assemble together, and after being informed of the necessity of choosing some one to assist our Father, should say Mass thrice for this intention, and say also other additional prayers for the same end. He wished also that each one should have liberty to consult others and take the necessary informations, after which they should all write on a billet the name of him whom they elected. He wished that the Lay-brothers should also assemble, and name four Fathers as electors to vote in their stead. We assembled on All Saints' Day to the number of thirty-four, out of whom thirty or thirty-two elected Father Natalis. Our Father confirmed

W

the election, and Father Natalis began to fulfil the duties of his office, to the satisfaction of all, easing our Father of the burden of affairs which he had borne upon his shoulders.*

Natalis, with great discretion, would accept of no title, so as to preserve the authority of the General intact. Indeed, Ignatius soon recovered his health; sufficiently so, at least, as to be able to dispense with his services, and to employ him for the ensuing autumn in a more useful manner in Spain. We have seen with what activity and energy the Saint continued to expedite business during the last year of his life. The only alleviation which he allowed himself was to name in the month of March, 1555, Father Pezzano Procurator General of the Professed House at Rome, and to hand over to him the temporal administration of that House. But early in the summer of 1556 his malady began to increase in such a manner that it was evident he had not much longer to live. He himself was well aware of this, and wrote to his friend Doña Elenora Mascareña to this effect, in reply to her request that he would pray earnestly for Philip II., whom she had nursed in his infancy. He answered her that while Philip was a young Prince he had prayed for him every day, but that since he had succeeded to the throne of his father he had redoubled his prayers for him. Then he adds, "This is the last letter I shall write to you. I shall soon pray to the Lord for you in Heaven." He announced to some of those about him, though in a less positive manner, his approaching end, when in a conversation one day with them he said, "I have desired above all others three things; and thanks be to God, I see them all accomplished--that the Company should be confirmed by the Pope, that the book of the Spiritual Exercises should be approved by the Holy See, and thirdly, that the Constitutions should be completed and observed in the whole Society." His hearers fully understood what he meant by these words. He showed by another incident that he knew that his end was near, for wishing to receive among the Professed, Father Wirik, who had displayed his zeal in the foundation of Colleges in Sicily, he did not, as was his custom in all such cases, make him come to Rome, but

*Collection at Rome.

commissioned Father Domenech, the Provincial, to receive his profession, saying that he must not be called away from Catana. However, he had made others come from much greater distances, and this was not the real reason for his resolution. He foresaw that this Father would not find him alive if he came to Rome.

A little time before his death, he abandoned the government of the Society to three Fathers, John Polanco, Christopher Madrid, and Jerome Natalis, and retired to the villa which he had built for the sick and the recreation of the students, near the Baths of Antoninus. But the excessive heats of the summer made him very ill, and after having been taken with the fever two or three days, he wished to be carried back to the Professed House. The circumstances of his death are related in the account sent by Father Polanco to the Provincials. It is the recital of an eye-witness, and has all the freshness of such a narrative, and therefore is best fitted to give us a faithful picture of the last moments of the Saint.

The peace of Christ. I announce by these present letters to your Reverence and all the Brothers under your care, that it has pleased God on Friday the last day of July, to call to Himself our blessed Father Master Ignatius. On the eve of St. Peter ad Vincula, God has broken the bonds which kept him prisoner in this mortal flesh, in order to admit him to the liberty of the elect, having thus heard at last the prayers of his servant. For although he bore with much patience and courage the pains of his pilgrimage and the burdens which he sustained upon his shoulders, nevertheless he long since desired to praise and contemplate in the heavenly home His Master and Creator, Who, by His divine providence has left him to us up to this time, that this little Society which He Himself begun by his means, might enjoy the benefit of his example, his wisdom, authority, and prayers. But now that its roots have to all appearance struck deep, He has removed him to Heaven, that being more closely united to Himself, the Plenitude of all Good, he may obtain for us a more abundant measure of grace, and that this plant may increase and grow abundantly, together with its fruit, in the various countries of the world.

It is true that the loss of the presence of so good a Father must needs be painfully felt in this House and all the Colleges of the Society, but this feeling of deprivation is without pain; and in the tears which we have shed as orphans who have lost our father, there is a sweet affection, an assured hope, and a more than usual fervour of spirit. If we look to ourselves it seems that so far from having lost him, we hope that he will aid us more than ever by his ardent love, and that the divine mercy by his intercession will increase, for the general good of the Church, the number and the benefactors of our Society.