on which his imagination had been doting. His first step in prosecution of his purpose, was to devote himself to the Virgin, as her true and faithful knight; which he did at the Benedictine Monastery of Montserrat, observing the ceremony of watching his arms before her miraculous image, in token of his consecration to her service. At Manreze he entered upon the course of his austerities, adopting the penury, but rejecting the cleanliness of the beggar, and retired to a cave at a short distance from the city, where he remained concealed for some time, undergoing the discipline of voluntary privation and self-inflicted severities. In this state he was found and carried to Manreze, where the Dominicans endeavoured to cure him of his distraction. In their hospital he affected to receive illuminations from heaven; and a trance of eight days duration is particularly recorded by his biographer, in which he was permitted to contemplate the construction of the order which he conceived himself commissioned to establish.

But it was not to these pretended spiritual communications that the frenzied visionary confined himself. Although his highest literary attainment was the capability of reading his native language, yet he undertook to compose a book of Spiritual Exercises, the revelations of which a Jesuit writer has declared, with the gravest

2 Ribadeneira.-See History of Ignatius, Vol. I. p. 38.

3

blasphemy, to have been sent to him from God by the angel Gabriel. Amongst the impious extravagances which it contains, the " Meditation of the Two Standards" describes a contest between the armies of heaven and the legions of Satan, as an image of the martial order which the enthusiast projected.*

The first great scheme which he designed to execute, was a visit to the Holy Land for the establishment of the Romish faith. Arrived at Barcelona in his way, he was one day seated before the altar, in devout attention to the public instruction which he heard, when the Lady Roselli witnessed the radiant illumination of his saintly head. Thence pro

ceeding to Rome, he did homage at the feet of Adrian VI., and received the papal benediction previously to the commencement of his intended pilgrimage. At Venice he procured an introduction to the Doge, who permitted him to embark in a vessel which was on the point of sailing for Cyprus, where he found a number of pilgrims ready to proceed to Palestine; and accompanying them to the port of Jaffa, he went forward on his way to Jerusalem.

After visiting with devout curiosity, the site and wonders of the once Holy City, he was admonished by the provincial of the Franciscans,

3

History of Ignatius, Vol. I. p. 41.

4 Ibid. p. 42.

under the authority of a bull from the Pope granting him discretionary power for that purpose, to return to Europe; and Ignatius, the patron of obedience, assuredly gathering that he ought not to resist the command of God by despising the authority of his vicar, withdrew himself quietly from Palestine, leaving the Mahometans but little affected by his visit. On his return to Barcelona, he attempted to repair the deficiencies of his education by striving to acquire a knowledge of the Latin language. He was at that time thirty-three years of age; and by patient perseverance he succeeded in surmounting the difficulties of declension; but, unhappily for the romantic student, he found that Satan' had concealed himself in the present tense of the first verb which he attempted, and his classical progress was suspended until he had solemnly vowed that he would not yield to interruption for the space of two years. of two years. He was indefatigable in the fulfilment of his vow, but still he did not advance.

When the judges of ungrateful Salamanca evinced their distaste for fanaticism by prohibiting his public preaching, the hero retired in disgust from the dishonour of his own country, with the intention of pursuing his studies in the enlightened university of Paris. His poverty obliged him to become dependent upon the hospital of St. James,

5 History of Ignatius, Vol. I. p. 64.

where he was fortunate in escaping public flagellation, for having converted three young Spaniards to his fanatical follies. Destitute of the means of subsistence, he devoted his vacations to a profitable mendicity; and after visiting Flanders and England, he returned to Paris enriched with the alms of the benevolent.

It was at this time that Ignatius gained two companions, Peter Le Fevre and Francis Xavier of Navarre, who were afterwards distinguished for their exertions in the extension of his order. Their example was quickly followed by two young Spaniards of superior abilities, James Lainez, of Castille, and Alphonso Salmeron, of Toledo, who had heard, at Alcala, of the miracles which were ascribed to the wandering fanatic. They came to Paris, and, with Alphonso Bobadilla, of Leon, were added to the number of his disciples. The sixth companion was Simon Rodriguez, a native of Portugal, who resigned himself, with the blindest submission, to the will of his infatuated guide.

With this accession of numbers, Ignatius imagined that he could subdue the world. He proposed, and the proposal was received by all his associates with enthusiastic joy, to pass a second time into Palestine, to gratify their ardent desire of spiritual conquest. They engaged to bind themselves to the enterprize by a vow, from which they were to be released at the expiration of a year, if a favour

able opportunity for the adventure should not be found. In failure of the possibility of reaching the Holy Land, they resolved to proceed to Rome, to offer their services to the Pope, and with submissive obedience to his mandate, to go whithersoever he would send them, either to confirm the papal power in the kingdoms where it already subsisted, or to establish it in those which were not reduced to its yoke.

The seven companions assembled at Montmatre, and solemnly bound themselves by the vow, which they often afterwards renewed. As they had not completed the course of their theological reading, Ignatius resolved to extend the period; for he had severely experienced the inconvenience of such deficiency in himself. Before the expiration of the appointed time, Le Fevre had added three new converts to their number at Paris,--Le Jay, Codure, and Brouet, who afterwards took the vow at Montmatre.

In the meanwhile, Ignatius determined to visit his family at Loyola, before the commencement of his pilgrimage. Thence he proceeded to Venice, where he became acquainted with Caraffe, Archbishop of Theate, who was afterwards raised to the rank of cardinal, and finally to the papal chair.“ This prelate had founded an order for the reformation of the lives of the dissolute ecclesiastics, and

6 Paul IV.-History of Ignatius, Vol. I. p. 117.