The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16

A devout virgin, whose name was Isabella Casalini, seeing him at the altar, judged him to be a man of God; and was led by some interior motion to speak to this stranger priest when his mass was ended. She was so much edified, and so satisfied with the discourse of Xavier, that she immediately informed her uncle, at whose house she lodged, of this treasure which she had discovered.

Jerome Casalini, who was a very considerable clergyman, both in regard of his noble blood, and of his virtue, went in search of this Spanish priest, upon the account which was given of him by his niece; and, having found him at the hospital, he importuned him so much to take a lodging in his house, that Xavier could not in civility refuse him. But the holy man would never accept of his table, of whose house he had accepted. He begged his bread from door to door according to his usual custom; and lived on nothing but the alms which was given him in the town.

Every day, after having celebrated the divine mysteries in St Lucy's church, of which Casalini was curate, he there heard the confessions of such as presented themselves before him: after which he visited the prisons and the hospitals, catechised the children, and preached to the people.

'Tis true, he spoke but very ill; and his language was only a kind of Lingua Franca, a confused medley of Italian, French, and Spanish: but he pronounced it with so much vehemence, and the matter of his sermons was so solid, that his ill accent and his improper phrases were past by. His audience attended to him, as to a man descended from above, and his sermon being ended, came to cast themselves at his feet, and make confession.

These continual labours, during a very sharp winter, threw him into a relapse of sickness, much more dangerous than the former; as it were to verify the prediction of St Jérome; for he was seized with a quartan ague, which was both malignant and obstinate; insomuch that it cast him into an extreme faintness, and made him as meagre as a skeleton. In the mean time, lean and languishing as he was, he ceased not to crawl to the public places, and excite passengers to repentance. When his voice failed him, his wan and mortified face, the very picture of death, seemed to speak for him, and his presence alone had admirable effects.

Jerome Casalini profited so well by the instructions and example of the holy man, that he arrived in a short space to a high degree of holiness: the greater knowledge he had of him, he the more admired him, as he himself related. And it is from this virtuous churchman chiefly, that we have this account of Xavier, that having laboured all the day, he passed the night in prayer; that on Friday saying the mass of the passion, he melted into tears, and was often ravished in his soul; that he spoke but seldom, but that all his words were full of sound reason, and heavenly grace.

While Xavier was thus employing his labours at Bolognia, he was recalled to Rome by Father Ignatius; who had already presented himself before the Pope, and offered him the service both of himself and his companions. Pope Paul the Third accepted the good will of these new labourers; enjoining them to begin their work in Rome, and preach under the authority of the Holy See. The principal churches were assigned them; and that of St Laurence in Damaso was allotted to Xavier.

Being now freed from his quartan ague, and his strength being again restored, he preached with more vigour and vehemence than ever.

Death, the last judgment, and the pains of hell, were the common subject of his sermons. He proposed those terrible truths after a plain manner, but withal so movingly, that the people, who came in crowds to hear him preach, departed out of the church in a profound silence; and thought less of giving praises to the preacher, than of converting their own souls to God.

The famine, which laid waste the city of Rome at that time, gave opportunity to the ten stranger-priests, to relieve an infinite number of miserable people, oppressed with want, and unregarded. Xavier was ardent above the rest, to find them places of accommodation, and to procure alms for their subsistence. He bore them even upon his shoulders to the places which were provided for them, and attended them with all imaginable care.

In the mean time, James Govea, a Portuguese, who had been acquainted with Ignatius, Xavier, and Le Fevre, at Paris, and who was principal of the college of Saint Barbe, when they lived together there, being come to Rome on some in portant business, for which he was sent thither by John III. King of Portugal, and seeing the wonderful effects of their ministry, wrote to the king, as he had formerly done from Paris, on the reports which were spread of them, that such men as these, knowing, humble, charitable, inflamed with zeal, indefatigable in labour, lovers of the cross, and who aimed at nothing but the honour of Almighty God, were fit to be employed in the East-Indies, to plant and propagate the faith. He adjoined, that if his majesty were desirous of these excellent men, he had only to ask them from the Pope, who had the absolute disposition of them.

John III., the most religious prince then living, wrote thereupon to his ambassador, Don Pedro Mascaregnas, and ordered him to obtain from his Holiness, six at least of those apostolic men, which had been commended to him by Govea. The Pope having heard the proposition of Mascaregnas, remitted the whole business to Father Ignatius, for whom he had already a great consideration, and who had lately presented to his Holiness the model of the new order, which he and his companions were desirous to establish.

Ignatius, who had proposed to himself no less a design than the reformation of the whole world, and who saw the urgent necessities of Europe, infected with heresy on every side, returned this answer to Mascaregnas, that often, which was their whole number, he could spare him at the most but two persons. The Pope approved this answer, and ordered Ignatius to make the choice himself. Thereupon Ignatius named Simon Rodriguez, a Portuguese, and Nicholas Bobadilla, a Spaniard. The first of these was, at that time, employed at Sienna, and the other in the kingdom of Naples, as they had been commissioned by the Holy Father. Though Rodriguez was languishing under a quartan ague, when he was recalled from Sienna, yet he failed not to obey the summons; and shortly after embarking on a ship of Lisbon which went off from Civita Vecchia, carried with him Paul de Camerin, who, some months before, had joined himself to their society.

As for Bobadilla, he was no sooner come to Rome, than he fell sick of a continued fever; and it may be said, that his distemper was the hand of heaven, which had ordained another in his stead for the mission of the Indies. For sometimes that which appears but chance, or a purely natural effect in the lives of men, is a disposition of the Divine Providence which moves by secret ways to its own proposed ends; and is pleased to execute those designs, by means as easy as they are powerful.

Mascaregnas, who had finished his embassy, and was desirous to carry with him into Portugal the second missioner who had been promised him, was within a day of his departure, when Bobadilla arrived. Ignatius seeing him in no condition to undertake a voyage, applied himself to God for his direction, in the choice of one to fill his place, or rather to make choice of him whom God had chosen; for he was immediately enlightened from above, and made to understand, that Xavier was that vessel of election. He called for him at the same instant, and being filled with the Divine Spirit, "Xavier," said he, "I had named Bobadilla for the Indies, but the Almighty has nominated you this day. I declare it to you from the vicar of Jesus Christ. Receive an employment committed to your charge by his Holiness, and delivered by my mouth, as if it were conferred on you by our blessed Saviour in person. And rejoice for your finding an opportunity, to satisfy that fervent desire, which we all have, of carrying the faith into remote countries. You have not here a narrow Palestine, or a province of Asia, in prospect, but a vast extent of ground, and innumerable kingdoms. An entire world is reserved for your endeavours, and nothing but so large a field is worthy of your courage and your zeal. Go, my brother, where the voice of God has called you; where the Holy See has sent you, and kindle those unknown nations, with the flame that burns within you."

Xavier, wholly confounded in himself with these expressions of Ignatius, with tears of a tender affection in his eyes, and blushing in his countenance, answered him, that he could not but be astonished, that he should pitch upon a man, so weak, and pusillanimous as himself, for an enterprize which required no less than an apostle: that nevertheless he was ready to obey the commands of heaven; and that he offered himself, with the whole power of his soul, to do and suffer all things for the salvation of the Indies. After which, giving leave to his internal joy to break out, and to diffuse itself, he more confidently said to Father Ignatius, that his desires were now accomplished; that for a long time he had sighed after the Indies without daring to declare it; and that he hoped, from those idolatrous nations, to have the honour of dying for Jesus Christ, which had been denied him in the Holy Land.

He added, in the height of these transports, that at length he saw that clearly, of which God had often given him a glimpse, under some mysterious figures. In effect, Xavier had frequently dreamed by night, that he carried on his shoulders a gigantic and very swarthy Indian; and opprest with this strong imagination, he groaned and sighed, in that uneasy slumber, as one out of breath, and labouring under an intolerable burden; insomuch that the noise of his groans and heavings waked those who were lodged in the same chamber; and, one night it happening that Father Laynez being awakened by it, asked him what it was that troubled him: Xavier immediately told his dream, and added, that it put him into a sweat, with big drops over all his body.

Besides this, he once beheld, either in a dream, or in a trance, vast oceans full of tempests and of rocks, desart islands, barbarous countries, hunger and thirst raging every where, nakedness, multiplicity of labours, with bloody persecution, and imminent dangers of death and of destruction. In the midst of this ghastly apparition, he cried aloud, "yet more, O my God, yet more!" and Father Simon Rodriguez heard these words distinctly; but however he importuned him to declare their meaning, he would discover nothing at that time, till embarking for the Indies, he revealed the mystery.

Such ideas, always present in his imagination, filled his familiar discourses with notions of a new world, and the conversion of infidels. While he was speaking on that subject, his face was on a fire, and the tears came into his eyes. This was testified of him by Father Jerome Dominic, who, before he entered into the Society, had conversed with him at Bolognia, where a strict friendship was made betwixt them.

As Xavier was advertised of this voyage to the Indies but the day before Mascaregnas departed, he had but time enough to piece up his cassock, bid his friends farewell, and go to kiss the feet of our Holy Father.

Paul III., overjoyed, that under his pontificate a gate should be opened to the gospel, in the Oriental Indies, received him with a most fatherly affection, and excited him to assume such thoughts, as were worthy of so high an undertaking; telling him for his encouragement, that the Eternal Wisdom is never failing to supply us with strength, to prosecute the labours to which it has ordained us, even though they should surpass all human abilities. He must, indeed, prepare himself for many sufferings; but the affairs of God succeeded not but by the ways of suffering, and that none could pretend to the honour of an apostleship, but by treading in the steps of the apostles, whose lives were but one continual cross, and a daily death; that heaven had employed him in the mission of St Thomas, the apostle of the Indies, for the conquest of souls; that it became him to labour generously, in reviving the faith in those countries, where it had been planted by that great apostle; and that if it were necessary for him to shed his blood, for the glory of Christ Jesus, he should account it his happiness to die a martyr.

It seemed that God himself had spoken by the mouth of his vicegerent, such impression had these words on the mind and heart of Xavier. They inspired into him a divine vigour; and in his answer to his Holiness, there shone through a profound humility such a magnanimity of soul, that Paul III. had from that very minute a certain presage of those wonderful events which afterwards arrived. Therefore the most Holy Father, having wished him the special assistance of God in all his labours, tenderly embraced him, more than once, and gave him a most ample benediction.

Xavier departed in the company of Mascaregnas the 15th of March, in the year 1540, without any other equipage besides his breviary. In giving his last adieu to Father Ignatius, he cast himself at his feet, and with all humility desired his blessing; and, in taking leave of Laynez, he put into his hands a small memorial, which he had written, and signed.

This memorial, which is still preserved at Rome, contains, that he approves, as much as depends on him, the rules and constitutions, which shall be drawn up, by Ignatius and his companions; that he elects Ignatius to be their general, and, in failure of him, Le Fevre; that he consecrates himself to God, by the three vows, of poverty, chastity, and obedience, in the Society of Jesus, when it shall be raised into a religious order, by the apostolical authority.

The conclusion of that affair was daily expected; and indeed it was happily finished, before the ending of the year, in that almost miraculous manner, as is related in the Life of St Ignatius.

His journey from Rome to Lisbon was all the way by land, and was above three months. Xavier had a horse allowed him, by order from the ambassador; but they were no sooner on their way, than he made him common. The Father often alighted to ease the servants who followed on foot; or exchanged his horse with others, who were not so well mounted. At the inns he was every man's servant, even to the rubbing of the horses, by an excess of humility, which, on those occasions, caused him to forget the dignity of his character. He resigned his chamber and his bed to those who wanted them; and never lodged but either on the ground, or on the litter in the stable. In the rest of his actions, ever cheerful, and pleasant in discourse, which made all men desirous of his company; but always mixing somewhat with that gaiety, which was edifying both to the masters and the servants, and inspired them alike with thoughts of piety.

They went by Loretto, where they rested at the least eight days; after which they continued their journey by Bolognia. From thence, Xavier wrote to Ignatius, in this manner:

"I received, on the holiday of Easter, the letter which you wrote and inclosed in the packet of my lord ambassador. God only knows my joy in receiving it. Believing, as I do, that we shall never entertain each other in this world, by any other way than that of writing, and that we shall never see each other but in heaven, it concerns us, that little time we have to live in this place of exile, to give ourselves the mutual consolation of frequent letters. The correspondence, on my part, shall be exactly kept; for being convinced, by the reasons which you gave me at our parting, that a commerce of this nature ought to be established, in a regular method, betwixt the colonies and the mother country, I have resolved, that in whatever parts of the world I shall reside, or any members of our Society with me, to maintain a strict communication with you, and with the fathers at Rome, and send you as large an account, as possibly I can, of any news concerning us. I have taken my opportunity of seeing the Cardinal of Invrea, as you gave me in command, and have discoursed at leisure with him. He received me with much goodness, and offered me, with great civility, his interest, for our common cause. In the midst of the discourse, which we had together, I threw myself at his feet, and kissed his hand, in the name of all our Society. As much as I can gather by his words, he extremely approves the manner of our living.

"As concerning my lord ambassador, he loads me with so many favours, that I should never conclude, if I began to relate them. And I know not how I could suffer the many good offices he does me, if I had not some hope of repaying him in the Indies, at the expence of my life itself. On Palm-Sunday I heard his confession, and after him many of his domestic servants; I communicated them afterwards, in the holy chapel of Loretto, where I said mass. I likewise confessed them, and gave them the communion, on Easter Sunday. My lord ambassador's almoner recommends himself to your good prayers, and has promised to bear me company to the Indies. I am more taken up with confessions here, than I was in Rome, at St Lewis. I heartily salute all our fathers; and if I name not every one of them in particular, I desire them to believe, 'tis neither from my want of memory, or affection.

"Your brother and servant in Jesus Christ, FRANCIS." from Bolognia, March 31. 1540.

The whole town of Bolognia was in motion at the approach of Father Xavier: they were wonderfully affected to him, and in a manner esteemed him their apostle: both great and small were desirous of seeing him, and most of them discovered the state of their conscience to him; many of them proffered themselves to go along with him to the Indies; all of them shed tears at his departure, as thinking they should never more behold him.

Jerome Casalini, curate of St Lucy, who had lodged him the year before, was most particularly kind to him at his return: he obliged him to accept of his house once more; and his church became as it were the public rendezvous, where Xavier heard an infinite number of confessions.

In the rest of this long journey, there happened two or three passages, which were sufficiently remarkable. A domestic servant to the ambassador, who rode before as harbinger, to take up lodgings for the train, a violent and brutal man, being reprehended by his lord for having been negligent in his duty, fell into a horrible fit of passion, as soon as he was out of Mascaregnas his presence. Xavier heard him, but took no notice of it at that time, for fear of provoking him to any farther extravagance. But the next morning, when the same person set out before the company, according to his custom, he spurred after him at full speed. He found him lying under his horse, who was fallen with him from a precipice, the man sorely bruised, and the horse killed outright. "Wretched creature," said the father to him, "what had become of thee, if thou hadst died of this fall?" These few words made him sensible of his furious expressions, for which he sincerely asked pardon of Almighty God; and Xavier alighting, mounted him on his own horse, and walked on foot by him, to their lodging.

Another time, the gentleman of the horse attempting to pass a small river, which was very deep and rapid, the current carried away both man and horse, and the whole company gave him for lost. Xavier, moved with compassion for the danger of his soul, because, having had a call from heaven to enter into a religious life, he had not followed the motions of grace, but remained in the world, began to implore God in his behalf. The ambassador, who had a great kindness for him, joined in that devout action, and commanded the whole train to follow their example. They had scarcely opened their mouths for him, when the man and horse, who were both drowning, came again above water, and were carried to the bank. The gentleman was drawn out, pale in his countenance, and half dead. When he had recovered his senses, Xavier demanded of him, what thoughts he had, when he was at the point of perishing? He freely acknowledged, that the religious life, to which God had called him, then struck upon his soul; with dismal apprehensions, for having neglected the means of his salvation. He protested afterwards, as Xavier himself relates, in one of his letters, that, in that dreadful moment, the remorse of his conscience, and the sense of God's judgments on souls unfaithful to their vocation, were more terrible to him, than the horrors even of death itself. He spoke of eternal punishments, with expressions so lively and so strong, as if he had already felt them, and was returned from hell. He frequently said, (as the saint has assured us,) that, by a just judgment of eternal God, those who, during their life, made no preparations for their death, had not the leisure to think on God when death surprised them.

The ambassador, and all his people, doubted not, but the safety of this gentleman was to be ascribed to the merits of the saint: but Xavier himself believed it to be the pure effect of the ambassador's devotion; for thus he writes to father Ignatius concerning it – "Our Lord was pleased to give ear to the fervent prayers of his servant Mascaregnas, which he made with tears in his eyes, for the deliverance of the poor creature, whom he looked upon as lost; and who was taken from the jaws of death by a most evident miracle."

In passing over the Alps, the ambassador's secretary alighting to walk in a difficult way, which he could not well observe, by reason of the snows, his foot happened to slip on a sharp descent, and he rolled down into a precipice: he had tumbled to the very bottom, if, in falling, his clothes had not taken hold on one of the crags of the rock, where he remained hanging over the depths without ability, either to disengage himself, or get up again. Those who followed, made towards him, but the horror of that abyss stopt short the most daring: Xavier only made not the least demur; he descended the precipice, and lending his hand to the secretary, by little and little dragged him up.

Being gotten out of France, and having passed the Pyreneans, on the side of Navarre, when they were now approaching Pampeluna, Mascaregnas bethought himself, that Father Francis, for by that name Xavier was usually called, had not spoken one word of going to the castle of Xavier, which was but little distant from their road: he remembered him of it, and was even so importunate with him, as to say, that since he was about to leave Europe, and perhaps never more to see it, he could not in decency dispense with giving a visit to his family, and taking his last leave of his mother, who was yet living.

But all the arguments of Mascaregnas wrought no effect upon a man, who, having forsaken all things for the love of God, was of opinion, that he had nothing remaining in this world; and who also was persuaded, that flesh and blood are enemies to the apostolical spirit. He turned not out of the road, but only said to the ambassador, that he deferred the sight of his relations till he should visit them in heaven; that this transient view would be accompanied but with melancholy and sadness, the common products of a last farewell, but in heaven he should eternally behold them with pleasure, and without the least allay of sorrow.

Mascaregnas had already a high idea of Xavier's virtue; but this wonderful disengagement from the world yet more increased the esteem which he had of him; insomuch, that before they reached Portugal, he sent an express to King John III. with no other errand, than to inform him of the holiness of this second missioner to the Indies.

They arrived at Lisbon towards the end of June; and Xavier retired to the hospital of All Saints, where Rodriguez, who came by sea, had taken up his lodging. He found him much weakened with a quartan ague, which had not left him; and embraced him just at the moment when his fit was coming on him. But whether it were, that the extreme joy which Rodriguez found, so unexpectedly to see him, dissipated the humour which caused his disease, or that the embraces of Xavier had from that time an healing virtue; certain it is that the fit came not, and from thenceforward the sick man entirely recovered of that distemper.

Three or four days after, they were both called to court. The king and queen, who were in company together, received Xavier as a saint, on the report of Mascaregnas, and entertained him with all imaginable shews of kindness. They asked them diverse questions concerning their way of living; by what accident their new Society came to be formed; and what was the ground and ultimate design of it; and at last desired to be informed by them, from whence proceeded that strange persecution, which was raised in Rome against their body, which had made so great a noise over all Europe. Xavier made answer to all these demands in few words, but so very pertinently, as much satisfied both their majesties: they gave great approbation, (as himself relates in his letter from Lisbon to Ignatius,) to what he said, concerning the discipline of our houses, the quality of our ministry, and the spirit and model of our foundation.