PAUL IV. AND ST. IGNATIUS.

247

founder of the Society of Jesus. Later on Ignatius himself acknowledged to a confidant, that all the bones of his body had trembled at that moment.1 This election might indeed be the means of destroying the whole of his life's work.

Ignatius and Carafa had got to know one another in Venice, as early as 1536, and had exchanged their views on many points of the religious life. Many differences in their opinions had thus come to light.2 Carafa conceived a deep prejudice against Ignatius, which soon became still more bitter.3 These two men, so essentially different in character, had yet another hostile encounter when, in the years 1553-1555, the relatives of a Jesuit novice of noble family sought to induce him to leave the Order, and Carafa procured a Papal indult for them. Ignatius, by counter-representations, succeeded in getting the indult withdrawn. Carafa must have felt all the more hurt as he had thus received a rebuff in a matter which caused a considerable sensation in Rome. Even before this, the list upon which the Cardinals wrote down their contributions for the support of the German College did not contain the name of Carafa.5

On

It was, therefore, no wonder that the news of Carafa's elevation filled Ignatius with apprehension. After a short prayer, however, he quite regained his self-possession, and now did all in his power to win the heart of the new Pope. May 25th he informed his brethren of the election, and praised the very distinguished qualities of the new head of the Church." A few months later he gave an account of the Pope's zeal for

1" Todos os ossos se lhe reuoluérão no corpo." Ser. 4, I., 198.

2 Cf. Vol. XII. of this work, p. 24.

3 Cf. ASTRAIN, II., 29 seqq.; NADAL, Epist., II., 15.

Mon. Ign.

4 A whole number of letters are concerned with this affair; cf. Mon. Ign. Ser. 1, vols. 5-10, Register s. v. Cesari; Epist. mixtae,

vols. 3-5; POLANCO, vols. 3-6, Register s. v. Cesari.

5 STEINHUBER, I., Tab. II.

* See GONÇALVEZ: Mon. Ign. Ser. 4, I., 198.

7 Mon. Ign. Ser. 1, IX., 75 seq.

reform, and of the kindness he had so far shown to the Society of Jesus.1

Indeed, Paul IV. seemed as Pope to have forgotten the irritability of Cardinal Carafa. The first Jesuit who visited him was Bobadilla. The Pope received him in the most friendly manner, and embraced and kissed him. He spoke to Cardinals Morone and Truchsess in very favourable terms of the new Order. He then summoned Ignatius, insisted on his talking to him with his head covered, walked up and down with him in friendly conversation, and granted the favour which Ignatius asked. His actions also corresponded to his words. The Pope appointed Salmeron to accompany the nuncio Lippomano on his mission to Poland, and discussed his plans for reform with Bobadilla, who was ordered to give him his opinion quite frankly. Paul IV. thought still more highly of Lainez; he forbade him to leave Rome, as he needed his advice, had a special room prepared for him in the Vatican, and thought of raising him to the dignity of Cardinal.3 As members of the other Orders were allowed to preach in the chapel of the Vatican on great festivals, before the Pope and Cardinals, the Jesuits first received this honour under Paul IV.4 It specially pleased the Pope that the Jesuits gave instruction in Christian doctrine to the poor people in the streets of Rome, he used often to praise them highly on this account.5

In spite of all this, however, the mistrust with which Cardinal Carafa's mind had been filled soon again got the upper hand. While the relations between Rome and Spain were daily becoming more strained, a report arose that the Jesuits, who were nearly all Spaniards, were collecting arms, in order, under certain circumstances, to come to the assistance of their countrymen, and Paul IV. ordered a search to be made at their house. Ignatius did not lose his head at this unexpected

THE GERMAN COLLEGE.

249

suspicion. The governor of Rome wished to refrain from making the investigation, if Ignatius gave his word that there were no weapons concealed in the house. Ignatius thanked him for his confidence in him, but insisted that the house should be thoroughly searched from top to bottom. The suspicion was thereby proved to be quite unfounded.1

The fact that Paul IV. did not further his favourite undertaking was a far greater trial to Ignatius than this occurrence. The Pope did nothing for the Roman College, which Ignatius cherished as the apple of his eye; it is true that at first he made promises to provide it with revenues, but all hope of getting anything from him soon disappeared.2 Paul IV. had no sympathy with the German College;3 the support given by Julius III. was not continued, and in consequence most of the Cardinals withdrew the contributions they had promised. The college therefore got into terrible difficulties, and was brought by the high prices of 1555 to the very brink of dissolution.4 Even in September, 1555, Ignatius, being unable to receive nine young Bohemians, whom King Ferdinand had sent for the Germanicum, had to give them shelter in the professed house of the Jesuits.5 The forty-eight young men who had been promised in the autumn of 1555 for the German College, had all to be refused. For two years no German entered the college. As early as February in the same year even Cardinal Otto von Truchsess, the zealous champion of the Germanicum, was so discouraged that he wished to abandon the undertaking.?

The inflexible firmness with which Ignatius, with steadfast trust in God, held fast to what he had once begun, was proved in the most remarkable manner in this very difficult position Prices were so high in Rome that the Cardinals and wealthy

1 ASTRAIN, II., 32.

2 Mon. Ign. Ser. 1, X., 533.

3 Steinhuber, I., 33 seqq.

4 Cf. Hos epist., II., 673.

5 Mon. Ign. Ser. 4, I., 161 seq.

6 STEINHUBER, I., 34.

7 Mon. Ign. Ser. 4, I., 405.

nobles had to dismiss some of their attendants. In addition to the Germanicum, Ignatius had to support the Roman College, and the professed house. He had no money, and could obtain no loans from his friends or from the banks, on account of the exhausted state of credit. In spite of this he declared to his intimates that he would face the future with no less confidence than when Julius III. and Marcellus II. had promised him their support. The Roman College, he declared, would have overcome the worst of the present difficulties within six months,1 and as for the German College, the time would come when it would possess too much rather than too little. Filled with this trust, he caused it to be intimated to Cardinal Truchsess that he would take the whole burden of the German College on his own shoulders, if the Cardinal should withdraw, and that he would sooner let himself be sold as a slave than give up his Germans.2 And indeed good friends were raised up for him in his perplexities; the German students whom he could not receive in Rome, he distributed among the Jesuit colleges in Italy and Sicily, and there they were maintained like the other members of those houses.3 It is true that the German students were, until 1558, reduced to a very small number, but when, in that year, they began to increase, Lainez combined a college for paying pupils of other nationalities with the Germanicum, and from the sums received from these the German students could be maintained1

It must have affected Ignatius even more painfully than the danger to his establishments in Rome, that he was to see his real life's work, the foundation of the Society of Jesus, just then fully completed, endangered at the end of his days. In view of the peculiar ideas of Paul IV., there was always reason to fear that he would unite the struggling Order with the Theatines, or alter its constitutions in such a manner that the special character of the Society of Jesus would be destroyed.

1 Mon. Ign. Ser. 4, I., 352, 404-405.

2 Ibid. 257. STEINHUBER, I., 36.

3 Mon. Ign. Ser. 4, I., 352, 404 seq. STEINHUBER, I., 36. 4 Steinhuber, I., 45 seq., 49 seq.

THE POPE AND THE JESUITS.

251

These fears only took a definite form after the death of Ignatius.1 Pending the election of a new General, Lainez had been chosen as his representative. When, in September, 1556, he appeared before the Pope and begged his blessing for the impending General Congregation of the Order, Paul IV. at first received him in a very friendly manner, but soon adopted a sterner tone; the General Congregation had to understand, he said, that they could decide nothing without the confirmation of the Pope; too much importance should not be attached to former Papal guarantees, for what one Pope had granted. another Pope might repeal.2 As the principal duty of the General Congregation was, apart from the election of a General, finally to arrange the constitutions of the order, it was quite plain what this remark portended. Harsh remarks of the Pope regarding the founder of the Order, who, he said, had been a tyrant, did not tend to improve matters.3

The Congregation had been fixed for the spring of 1557, but the Spanish Jesuits were unable to come at that time, since, on account of the war between Paul IV. and Philip II., all Spaniards were forbidden to go to Rome. The idea, therefore, occurred to the fathers assembled in Rome, of holding the Congregation in Spain. This suggestion was very necessary, as it was of the greatest importance to the Order to have the constitutions, and, with them, the legal basis of its existence,

1 Cf. for the following, ASTRAIN, II., I seq., 7 seqq.; NADAL, Ephemerides (Epist. II., 12-16, 50-59) and the documents in NADAL, Epist. IV., 98-147, 729-734.

2 Astrain II., 7.

3 NADAL, Ephemerides (Epist. II., 50): "Erat enim minatus P. Ignatio o colui, etc., Dixerat P. Ignatium tyrannice gubernasse societatem (cf. ibid., 54). Ignatius, he said, had been the idol of his followers (ibid., 15).

4 Already on October 28, 1556, Francis Borgia had written that they would rather have held the Congregation, say at Avignon, as Rome was too far from Spain (S. FRANC. BORGIA, III., 267). At the beginning of February, 1557, the Portuguese and Spanish Jesuits were all ready to start for Rome, when the fresh outbreak of war compelled them to remain (ibid., 276, 279).