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friends, here's t' ye, with all my heart; you are all very welcome." When he had tipped that off, and given the tall-boy to the pretty creature, he lifted up his voice and said, "Oh most holy decretals, how good is good wine found through your means. "This is the best jest we have had yet," observed Panurge. "But it would still be a better," said Pantagruel, "if they could turn bad wine into good."

"O seraphic sextum!" continued Homenas, "how necessary are you not to the salvation of poor mortals! O cherubic elementine! how perfectly the perfect institution of a true Christian is contained and described in you! Oh, angelical extravagants! how many poor souls that wander up and down in mortal bodies, through this vale of misery, would perish were it not for you! When, ha! when shall this special gift of grace be bestowed on mankind, as to lay aside all other studies and concerns, to use you, to peruse you, to understand you, to know you by heart, to practise you, to incorporate you, to turn you into blood, and incentre you into the deepest ventricles of their brains, the inmost marrow of their bones, and most intricate labyrinth of their arteries? Then, ha, then ! and no sooner than then, nor otherwise than thus, shall the world be happy!"

"Then, ah then!" continued Homenas, "no hail, frost, ice, snow, overflowing, or vis major; then plenty of all earthly goods here below. Then uninterrupted and eternal peace through the universe, an end of all wars, plunderings, drudgeries, robbing, assassinates, unless it be to destroy these cursed rebels the heretics. Oh, then, rejoicing, cheerfulness, jollity, solace, sports, and delicious pleasures over the face of the earth. Oh! what great learning, inestimable erudition, and godlike precepts, are knit, linked, rivetted, and morticed in the divine chapters of these eternal decretals!"

"Oh! how wonderfully, if you read but one demy canon, short paragraph, or single observation of these sacrosanct decretals, how wonderfully, I say, do you not perceive to kindle

in your hearts a furnace of divine love, charity towards your neighbour, provided he be no heretic, bold contempt of all casual and sublunary things, firm content in all your affections, and ecstatic elevation of soul even to the third heaven.' (Book IV., c. 51.)

How, BY THE VIRTUE OF THE Decretals, Gold IS SUBTLELY drawn out of France to ROME.-"I would," said Epistemon, "it had cost me a pint of the best tripe that ever can enter into gut, so we had but compared with the original the dreadful chapters execrabilis: de multa: si plures: de annatis per totum: nisi essent: cum ad monasterium: quod delectio: mandatum; and certain others, that draw every year out of France to Rome, four hundred thousand ducats and more."

"Do you make nothing of this?" asked Homenas. “Though methinks, after all, 'tis but little, if we consider that France, the most Christian, is the only nurse the see of Rome has. However, find me in the whole world a book, whether of philosophy, physic, law, mathematics, or other human learning, nay, even, by my God, of the Holy Scripture itself, that will draw as much money thence? None, none, pshaw, tush You may look till your eyes drop out of your head, nay, till doomsday in the afternoon, before you can find another of that energy; I'll pass my word for that.

none can.

"As for you other good people, I must earnestly pray and beseech you to believe no other thing, to think on, say, undertake, or do no other thing than what's contained in our sacred decretals, and their corollaries, this fine sextum, these fine clementinæ, these fine extravagantes, O deific books! So shall you enjoy glory, honour, exaltation, wealth, dignities, and pre ferments in this world; be revered and dreaded by all, preferred, elected, and chosen above all men.

"For there is not under the cope of heaven a condition of men, out of which you'll find persons fitter to do and handle all things, than those who by divine prescience, eternal pre

destination, have applied themselves to the study of the holy decretals.

"Would you choose a worthy emperor, a good captain, a fit general in time of war, one that can well foresee all inconveniences, avoid all dangers, briskly and bravely bring his men on to a breach or attack, still be on sure grounds, always overcome without loss of his men, and know how to make a good use of his victory? Take me a decretist.—No, no, I mean a decretalist." "Ho, the foul blunder," whispered Epistemon.

"Would you in time of peace find a man capable of wisely governing the state of a commonwealth, of a kingdom, of an empire, of a monarchy; sufficient to maintain the clergy, nobility, senate, and commons in wealth, friendship, unity, obedience, virtue, and honesty? Take a decretalist.

"Would you find a man who, by his exemplary life, eloquence and pious admonitions, may, in a short time, without effusion of human blood, conquer the holy land, and bring over to the holy church the mis-believing Turks, Jews, Tartars, Muscovites, Mammelucs, and Sarrabonites? Take me a decretalist.

"What makes, in many countries, the people rebellious and depraved, pages saucy and mischievous, students sottish and duncical? Nothing but that their governors, esquires, and tutors were not decretalists.

"But what on your conscience was it, d'ye think, that established, confirmed, and authorized those fine religious orders with whom you see the Christian world everywhere adorned, graced, and illustrated, as the firmament is with its glorious stars? The holy decretals.

"What was it that founded, underpropped, and fixed and now maintains, nourishes and feeds the devout monks and friars in convents, monasteries, and abbeys; so that did they not daily and nightly pray without ceasing, the world would be in evident danger of returning to its primitive chaos? The sacred decretals.

"What makes and daily increases the famous and celebrated

patrimony of St. Peter in plenty of all temporal, corporeal, and spiritual blessings? The holy decretals.

"What made the holy apostolic see and pope of Rome, in all times, and at this present, so dreadful in the universe, that all kings, emperors, potentates, and lords, willing, nilling, must depend on him, hold of him, be crowned, confirmed, and authorized by him, come hither to strike sail, buckle, and fall down before his holy slipper, whose picture you have seen? mighty decretals of God.

The

"I will discover you a great secret. The universities of your world would have commonly a book, either open or shut, in their arms and devices: what book do you think it is?" "Truly I do not know," answered Pantagruel, “I never read it." "It is the decretals," said Homenas, "without which the privileges of all universities' would soon be lost. You must own, I have taught you this; ha, ha, ha, ha!"

"I was saying, then, that giving yourselves thus wholly to the study of the holy decretals, you'll gain wealth and honour in this world; I add that, in the next, you'll infallibly be saved in the blessed kingdom of heaven, whose keys are given to our good God and decretaliarch. O my good God, whom I adore and never saw, by thy special grace open unto us, at the point of death at least, this most sacred treasure of our holy mother church, whose protector, preserver, butler, chief larder, administrator, and disposer thou art; and take care, I beseech thee, O Lord, that the precious works of supererogation, the goodly pardons, do not fail us in time of need; so that the devils may not find an opportunity to gripe our precious souls, and the dreadful jaws of hell may not swallow us. If we must pass through purgatory, thy will be done. It is in thy power to draw us out of it when thou pleasest." Here Homenas began to shed huge, hot, briny tears, to beat his breast, and kiss his thumbs in the shape of a cross. (Book IV., c. 53.)

LOYOLA, IGNATIUS DE-1491-1556.*

Loyola, the founder of the "Society of Jesus" (the Jesuits), who 43 years after his death was declared beatus by Paul V., and subsequently canonized by Gregory XV., was without doubt a good and remarkable man. It is therefore the more regretable that we have no record upon which implicit reliance can be placed as to many of the details of his life. Deified by his admirers, and traduced by the enemies of the Jesuits, plaudits and denunciations must equally be taken cum grano salis. The narrative, as given by the author adopted, is in brief this :

Born in his father's castle of Loyola, in Guipuscoa, Spain, he was the youngest of the eleven children of a Biscayan noble. In early life he was for some time attached to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, from which he, however, soon retired, and, following the example of seven of his brothers, entered the Spanish army, where he speedily attracted attention by his bravery and gallantry.

In 1521, André de Foix, at the head of a French army, laid siege to Pampeluna; Loyola was the soul of its defence, and when the gates were opened to the enemy, he retired to the citadel, destitute of men and ammunition, relying on his own personal courage for its defence. He rejected a proffered capitulation, and, sword in hand, awaited the enemy at the breach. During the assault a splinter of stone struck him on the left leg, and almost at the same moment a cannon ball broke his right leg. He fell, and with him fell the citadel. So great, however, was the admiration of the French at his bravery, that they attended to his wounds, and subsequently conveyed him to the Castle of Loyola.

The limb having been badly set, it became necessary to reset

* The matter of this sketch is derived from the "Histoire Réligieuse, Politique et Litteraire de la Compagnie de Jésus," par J. Crétineau-Joly, Paris, 1859.

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