CHAPTER IX. HIS NEIGHBOUR. HE IS HIS FIRST DISCIPLES CHARITY OF IGNATIUS FOR DENOUNCED AND PERSECUTED. SOME indications which have been preserved to us relative to this period enable us to comprehend how much the idea of founding a new Order occupied the mind of Ignatius, and how strongly he felt the vocation of God to this work. During one of his visits to Flanders, he received hospitality in the house of a Spanish merchant named Cuellar, and there met a young man, also a merchant, of the name of Peter Quadrato, of Medina del Campo. One day as they were seated together in the company of several merchants, and were at the moment a little removed from the other guests, Ignatius took him aside and said, "Since you are to be at a future time one of the benefactors of my Society, it is but right that we should make friends with one another. I wish you to know that I shall be much indebted to you, for you will one day found a College for the Society of Jesus." This fact has been affirmed on oath by persons present, and in verification of it, Peter Quadrato later on actually founded in his country a College of the Society. Another circumstance shows, though less distinctly, what were at this time the intentions of St. Ignatius. He had been much befriended while at Bourges by Louis Vivès, a man of considerable learning. It is likely that in some of his conversations with him he had given hints of his design, for Vivès remarked one day to some of his friends, "This man is a Saint, who will for certain found a new Order." There is little doubt that Ignatius, soon after his arrival at Paris, sought for new disciples, with a view to carrying out this object. He at first addressed himself to his fellow countrymen, of whom there were a great number at the University, and with whom community of language made relations more easy for him. He followed the same course with the students at Paris that he had done in Spain, seeking to gain them by spiritual entertainment, and then to form them by the Exercises. He succeeded quickly in influencing three young persons, of whom the first, John de Castro, of Toledo, a man of distinguished talents, was already Doctor of the Sorbonne. The second, still a student, was named Peralta; and the third was a young Biscayan gentleman of the family of the Amadori. These three resolved to renounce the world and to consecrate themselves to God in entire poverty. They accordingly sold all that they had, and gave the money to the poor. They then took lodgings at the Hospital of St. James, and lived by begging alms. This sudden change excited the astonishment and the anger of all their compatriots, and especially of a Portuguese named Govéa, a Professor of some note, whose lectures Amadori attended. This man was so exasperated at such conduct, as to declare publicly that if St. Ignatius showed himself at his College of St. Barbara, he would have given him, for decoying away this youth, a public correction of a most humiliating nature, which was called aulam dare, or the "giving a hall.” The chief cause of scandal was the sight of the new converts begging alms in public, which was considered a disgrace to their families. It is true that all those who had as yet made the Exercises, had begged alms in imitation of our Lord's example; but this was not the main object proposed by the Saint. Some opposition, therefore, was useful to set bounds to these exterior manifestations--which in themselves, and without the proper motive to inspire them, are of no value-lest they should become, in persons of an enthusiastic turn, the chief and only object. Ignatius' adversaries did indeed render him this service by their opposition, so that the disciples who joined him afterwards. were warned by it to avoid all extravagance, and to keep always in view the main object of the Exercises-namely, the renovation of the spirit of Christianity. But as the principle on which these exterior practices were carried out wholly escaped the notice of the authorities, to whom, as being men imbued with the ordinary ideas of the world, these practices were very displeasing, they could attribute them only to bad motives, and thus suspected Ignatius of bewitching those who frequented his company. This suspicion easily became exaggerated into a formal accusation of sorcery, and from this into a denunciation to the Tribunal of the Inquisition. Add to this that letters came from Spain to the same purport, in corroboration of the suspicions already conceived. The opponents of Ignatius, filled with zeal not according to knowledge, clung to their prejudices against him all the more firmly the less they knew of him; and thought they were justified in disseminating these calumnious reports concerning him, which, though incredible to all not predisposed against him, were but too greedily received by those who are ready to listen to anything that people say. Many persons were led by these reports to keep aloof from the Saint, and to avoid all kind of connection with him, through the imaginary fears engendered in their minds. But we must not be too severe on his contemporaries, since at the present day, in the midst of the so-called enlightenment of civilization, the same phenomenon may be observed. While these reports were flying about, Ignatius, after the example of his Divine Master, preserving the peace of his soul, quietly continued on his course, and left it to his own conduct to answer the charges against him. In the midst of this effervescent feeling, he had the opportunity of showing what he truly was. The fellowlodger who had squandered the Saint's little means of support, when making his way back to Spain was obliged to stop at Rouen on account of a grievous malady, which seized him at the moment when he was about to embark. In his distress he could think of no better expedient than that of writing to the man to whom he had been so ungrateful, and telling him the extreme necessity he was in. Ignatius, immediately upon receiving this letter, betook himself to the church of the Dominicans to consult with God and consider whether he ought to go to the succour of this unfortunate man, for anticipating what was to ensue, he felt a kind of repugnance for the journey; this feeling, however, left him during his prayer. The next day, at the moment of rising, the same feeling returned, and it was accompanied with so great bodily weakness that he could hardly stand. In spite of this he had the courage to set out barefoot before sunrise, and arrived at Argenteuil without having broken his fast. There, after he had mounted a little rising ground, he suddenly felt himself so revived and strengthened in body and mind that he could make the journey to Rouen without feeling hunger or fatigue, although it took him three days. The first night he passed in a hospital, and the second in the open air upon straw. He tended the sick man until he recovered, when he procured for him a passage in a vessel to continue his voyage, and gave him letters of recommendation to his disciples and friends in Spain. But before he quitted Rouen he received a letter from one of his friends in Paris, telling him that during his absence he had been denounced to the Inquisition, owing to the rumours spread about him, and on account of the three students whom he was accused of having led from their duty. He was in the street when the messenger gave him this letter, and immediately went with him to a notary, that he might obtain a certificate signed by two witnesses attesting that he had set out for Paris immediately on the receipt of the letter. He then set out on his road, accompanied for some way by the notary and the witnesses, and no sooner had he arrived in Paris than he went straight to the Inquisitor to submit himself of his own. accord to an inquiry, after showing his certificate to him. For he wished to prevent suspicion, and to prove to his opponents that the object of his journey had not been to escape from the prosecution laid against him. Matthew Ori, the judge, a Dominican and Doctor of Divinity, had set aside the accusation of sorcery as without foundation, and had up to that point abstained from proceeding against Ignatius. His quick return and appearance before him confirmed him in his good opinion, and he dismissed him, saying that he had nothing to fear. The unreasonable zeal of his opponents thus met with a check from the good sense and understanding of the judge. But they were more successful with the scholars whom they looked upon as deluded by the Saint. These resisted the entreaties and representations of their friends so long as . they confined themselves only to words and to threats; but when they came to actual measures and dismissed them from the hospital under pretext that they must first finish their studies, and then might act as they pleased, they began to yield by degrees, and ended by quitting Ignatius. John de Castro was afterwards a preacher in Spain, but ashamed of advising others to renounce the world which he himself had not had the courage to do, he soon entered into the House of the Carthusians at Valencia, and remained always bound in close ties of union with his former master in the spiritual life. These events occurred while Ignatius was repeating his rhetoric in the year 1529. When, during his study of philosophy, this storm against him abated, one of his intimate friends, the Dr. Fragus, said to him, "See how they have changed their sentiments in your regard—those who were your adversaries have become your warmest partisans how can you accouut for that?" Ignatius replied, "Wait till I am freed from these bonds and have finished my philosophy, and then you will know the reason of this calm. My opponents are quiet, because I am quiet; but as soon as I move again I shall stir up new tempests, and they will attack me on all sides." These words came true sooner even than he had expected. He had ceased, it is true, to give the Spiritual Exercises to the scholars, but he took the practical way, making use of these to exhort them to live a Christian life, and to join piety to knowledge, and holding with them conferences on spirituality, recommending them at the same time to approach the Sacraments every Sunday and holiday, and to avoid all irregularity. He soon had at his conferences more scholars and Masters than the Professors of the College. It was then a custom that the students held public academies on the mornings of holidays, but these sittings were becoming less frequented, because so many of the scholars were making their devotions in the churches on these days. Peña, one of the Professors, was displeased at this, and several times warned Ignatius not to meddle in what did not concern him by busying himself with the students, otherwise he would have him for his enemy. But as he could not oblige his pupils to neglect their Christian duties to attend exercises the time |