Brouet. Philip Neri.-Xavier.-Nadal.-Kessel at Cologne.-Roman College.-Letter.-Olave.-Ciarlat.-St. John of the Cross.-Circular Letter. --Bernard Olivier.--German College.-Frusis.-Letters.—The ‘Adelphi.' -Giovanna Colonna.-Mission to Ethiopia.-Corsica.-The Gesù at Rome. -Death of Joam III.-Marriages in the Family of Loyola.-Letters.— Germany. The Turks.-Jerusalem.-England.-Augsburg.-Julius III. leaves the throne to Marcellus II.-Paul IV.-Poverty.-Persecution.— Letters.-Sta. Balbina.-Belgium-Spread of the Society.-Prague.— Ingoldstadt.-Letters.-Inquisition in Portugal.-Letters.- Loretto.Manares.-Nadal sent for.-Quirogaga at Rome.-The Physician.-Rules. -Belgium.-Letters.-Ledesma.-Brussels.-Letter.-Death of Ignatius. -His surviving companions.-Conclusion. PASCHASE BROUET. 411 BOOK IV. THE LAST YEARS AND DEATH OF IGNATIUS. PASCHASE BROUET was not long at Ferrara; Ignatius recalled him to Rome; thence Cardinal Santa Croce, whose Confessor he was, sent him, for his health's sake, to the baths of Monte Pulciano. About 1552 he was made Provincial for France; this was partly in order to please the Cardinal of Lorraine. Brouet was wont to say that all his life he had been asking of God the grace of humility, but he had not yet attained it. Once, travelling (as usual) on foot from Billom to Paris, he came to a village where several men were thrashing grain; they mocked his mean attire, and heaped abuse on him; possibly they were sectaries, irritated by his clerical dress. He stood slightly leaning on his staff, till they seemed to have said enough, then said, with a pleasant countenance, 'Que le bon Dieu vous bénisse et vous fasse du bien mes enfans.' He lived to see five colleges for the Jesuits founded in France. His death was suitable to such a life. When the plague was rife in Paris, he attended the sick, refused to leave the Maison de Clermont, sent away the young ones and novices, and at last was left with only one lay brother; then Brouet caught the disease, shut himself up, not allowing the lay brother to attend him, and died alone. He had first written on a paper, left conspicuous on his table, a notice that he had touched certain objects in the house which might communicate the infection. The lay brother sent word to Billom that the Provincial was ill, and Ponce Cogordan came immediately; but he found only a silent house: the lay brother, too, had caught the plague, and both were dead. In the year 1551 another eminent servant of Christ, destined like Ignatius for great things, entered the ecclesiastical state. Philip Neri, then thirty-six years old, received deacon's orders in the church of St. John Lateran. He had formed three years before a small Community at San Girolamo della Carità. The modern Oratorians give a charming description of their earliest Fathers: These servants of God lived in that house with great charity, without any kind of particular customs, or any rule, but the love and reverence they bore to one another. They had no Superior, but observed only the order of seniority; and so they lived a tranquil and almost a heavenly life, rivalling each other in the service of the Church, and in ministering to their neighbours.' They were in number about fifteen, 'simple persons and poor, but full of life and piety.' Philip had the utmost veneration for Ignatius-he said he had learned from him the art of mental prayer. He introduced at Rome the devotion of the Quarant' Ore, which on the first Sunday of Advent is commenced at the Pope's Chapel, and thence goes on at one church or other throughout the year. Ignatius adopted this observance for his Company in the latter part of his life. There was much similarity in the characters of these two Saints. Both placed charity foremost among Christian duties. Philip Neri, like Ignatius, was a great lover of cleanliness, and held dirt in abomination; he often quoted the saying of St. Bernard, Paupertas mihi semper placuit, sordes vero nunquam.' With the Jesuits this was always a rule. Baronius applauded it; the martyr Campion, in his description of a perfect priest, includes, thorough ablutions' among the duties of every day. There was nevertheless an outward contrast between these two holy men: the demeanour of Loyola was full of a noble gravity; Neri would hop and skip in the streets, and when he was asked to show his library brought out a jest book. He said he did these things that people might not fancy him a saint. These differences did not hinder a close intimacy. It was a popular saying that the Jesuits wore no buttons on their cassocks because Philip Neri, talking in his familiar earnestness to Ignatius, had pulled them all off; and Neri often said that the face of Ignatius frequently seemed to him shining with a divine |