No More Learning

The Paravas, who were his
first children in Jesus Christ, were overjoyed at the sight of their
saint, and good Father, as they called him. All the villages came to meet
him, singing the Christian doctrine, and praising God for his return. The
satisfaction of the saint was not less than theirs: but above all things
his consolation was unspeakable to see the number of Christians so much
augmented, by the labours of his brethren. There were in that place many
of the society, of whom the chief were Antonio Criminal, Francis
Henriquez, and Alphonso Cyprian; for Father Xavier having written from
Amboyna for the greatest number of missioners whom they could spare,
towards the cultivation of those new plants at the coast of Fishery, all
those who came from Portugal, after his own arrival in the Indies, went
thither, excepting the three who went to the Moluccas, and two who stayed
at Goa, for the instruction of the youth.

The fervency of those new converts did not less edify Xavier than their
number. In visiting a certain village, they shewed him a young man, a
native of the country, who, having embarked in company of a Portuguese,
had been cast, by tempest, on the coast of Malabar. The Saracens, who
inhabit that place, having murdered the Portuguese, would have forced his
companion to renounce his faith. Thereupon they brought him into a
mosque, where they promised him great store of money and preferments, in
case he would forsake the law of Jesus Christ, and take up that of their
prophet Mahomet. But seeing their promises could not prevail, they
threatened him with death, and held their naked weapons over his head to
fright him; but neither could they shake his resolution with that
dreadful spectacle: then they loaded him with irons, and used him with
extraordinary cruelty, till a Portuguese captain, informed of it, came
suddenly upon them with a troop of soldiers, and rescued the young man
out of their hands. Xavier embraced him many times, and blessed Almighty
God, that his faith was imprinted so lively in the heart of a barbarian.
He heard also, with great satisfaction, of the constancy of some slaves,
who, having fled from the houses of their Portuguese masters, and living
amongst Gentiles, far from being corrupted with the superstitions of the
Infidels, complied exactly with the obligations of their baptism, and
lived in a most religious manner. It was reported to him of these slaves,
that when any of them died, they suffered not his body to be burnt,
according to the custom of the Pagans, neither would they leave it
without sepulture; but buried it according to the ceremonies of the
church, and set up a cross over the grave.

Though these infidels, whom they served, did not hinder them from
continuing in Christianity, and that every one of them in particular was
resolved to persevere in his faith, even in the midst of idolatry, yet
they had a longing desire to return into the company of the faithful,
where they might be supplied with those spiritual succours which they
wanted, and lead a life yet more conformable to their belief: so that as
soon as they had the news of Father Xavier's return, who had baptized the
greatest part of them, they came to desire him, that he would make their
peace with their masters, whom they had left to free themselves from
slavery, and declared, that they were content once more to lose their
liberty in prospect of the salvation of their souls. Xavier received them
with open arms, as his well-beloved children, and afterwards obtained
their pardon.

After he had visited all the villages, he made some stay at Manapar,
which is not far distant from Cape Comorine. As the only end which he
proposed to himself, was to plant the gospel in the Indies, and that in
order to it he must there establish the society, he began to regulate all
things according to the principles, and in the spirit of Father Ignatius,
general of the order. Having reassembled all the labourers in the gospel
of that coast, he examined their several talents and virtues, in familiar
conversation with them, by causing them to give an account of what passed
betwixt God and them in their own hearts. After he had assigned to each
of them the places which were most convenient for them, both in regard of
their bodily strength, and of their spiritual endowments, he constituted
Father Antonio Criminal superior of all the rest: and to the end they
might be more capable of serving that people, he ordered every one of
them, with all possible care, to apply himself to the study of the
Malabar language, which obtains through all that coast. Upon this
account, he commanded Father Francis Henriquez to reduce that tongue into
the rules of art, and to compose an exact grammar of it, according to the
method of the Greek and Latin grammars. The work seemed impossible,
especially to one who was newly come from Europe, and who had little
knowledge in the Indian tongues; nevertheless Henriquez compassed it in a
small time, which was apparently a miracle of obedience. In the mean
while, Xavier judging that the exposition of the Christian doctrine,
which he had made for those of Molucca, might be of use to his dear
Paravas, ordered a Malabar priest, who was well versed in the Portuguese,
to translate it into his own language. But to the end that the conduct of
the missioners might be uniform, and that the same spirit might animate
all of them, besides the instructions which he gave them by word of
mouth, he gave them the following rules in writing.

In the first place, "Wherever the lot of your ministry shall fall, be
mindful of baptising infants newly born, and perform it yourselves,
without trusting the care of it to any other person: there is nothing at
present of more importance. Do not wait till the parents bid you come; as
they may easily neglect it, it behoves you to run through all the
villages, to enter into the houses, and to christen all the infants you
can find.

"After the great concernment of giving baptism, you ought to be careful
of nothing more than of entering those little children into the
principles of faith, who are grown capable of instruction. Not being able
to be in all places, you shall cause the Canacapoles, and the teachers of
the catechism, to perform their duty, and religiously to observe the
customs established. To which purposes, when you visit the villages, to
take an account of what passes there, assemble the masters, with their
scholars, and know from the children, in the presence of those who are
accustomed to instruct them, what they have learned, or forgotten, since
your last visit; this will double the ardency of the scholars, and the
diligence of their teachers.

"On Sundays, gather the men together in the church to repeat their
prayers; and observe well, whether the Pantagatins, or chief of the
people, are there present. You are to expound the prayers which they
repeat, and reprove them for the vices then in fashion, which you are to
make them comprehend, by using familiar examples. In fine, you are to
threaten the more stubborn sinners with the wrath of God; and tell them,
that if they do not reform their lives, their days shall be shortened by
all manner of diseases; that the Pagan kings shall enslave them, and that
their immortal souls shall become fuel to the everlasting flames of hell.

"When you come to any place, you shall inform yourselves what quarrels
are stirring in it, and who are the parties; after which, you shall
endeavour to reconcile them. These reconciliations are to be made in the
church; where it will be fitting to assemble all the women on Saturdays,
as the men on Sundays.

"When the Malabar priest shall have translated the exposition of the
creed, you shall take copies of it, which you shall cause to be carefully
read to the women on Saturdays, to the men on Sundays. If you are there
present, you shall read it yourselves, and add to the exposition what you
think convenient for the farther clearing it.

"Distribute to the poor those collections which are made for them in the
churches, by the charity of the congregation; and beware of taking any
part of them for your own uses.

"Fail not every Saturday and Sunday to put the faithful in mind of giving
you notice when any one falls sick, to the end you may visit them; and
give them to know, that if they do not advertise you, and that the sick
person dies, you will not allow him burial amongst Christians, in
punishment of their neglect.

"When you visit the sick, take especial care that they repeat to you the
apostles' creed in their mother tongue. Interrogate them on every
article, and ask them if they believe sincerely. After this, make them
say the confiteor, and the other Catholic prayers, and then read the
gospel over them.

"For the burial of the dead, you shall assemble the children; and, coming
out of the church with them, the cross being at the head of the
procession, you shall sing the Christian doctrine, coming and going. You
shall say the prayers of the church at the house of the dead person, and
before he is put into the ground. You shall also make a short exhortation
to the assembly before the corpse, upon the necessity of death, the
amendment of life, and the practice of virtue.

"You shall give notice to the men on Sunday, and to the women on
Saturday, to bring their sick children into the church, that you may read
the gospel over them for their cure; and that the parents from thence may
receive increase of faith, and respect to the temples of our Lord.

"You shall yourselves determine all litigious causes; and, if you cannot
end them on the place, defer them to the next Sunday; and, after divine
service, cause them to be expedited by the principal inhabitants of the
place. Yet I will not that these sort of affairs should take up too much
of your time, nor that you prefer the care of your neighbour's temporal
concernments before works of charity, which respect the salvation of
souls; and am of opinion, that when any important business of that kind
shall happen, you should remit it to the Portuguese commandant.

"Do all things in your power to make yourselves beloved by those people;
for by that you will be able to do more good upon them, than by being
feared. Decree no punishment against any person but by the advice of
Father Antonio Criminal; and, if the commandant of the Portuguese be
present, do nothing without his order. In case any man or woman shall
make a pagod, or idol, banish them from the village, if Father Criminal
consent to it. Testify great affection to the children who frequent the
Christian schools; pardon, and wink at their faults sometimes, lest a
severe usage should fright them from us.

"In presence of a Portuguese, abstain from reproving and condemning the
natives of the country who are Christians; on the contrary, commend and
excuse them on all occasions; for, considering how lately they have
embraced the faith, and what assistance is wanting to them to live like
good Christians, it is only to be admired that they are not more vicious.

"Be serviceable in all you can to the Malabar priests, in what relates to
their spiritual advantage; take care that they confess themselves, and
say mass, and give good examples, and write nothing against them to any
person whatsoever.

"Live so well with the Portuguese commandants, that no misunderstanding
be ever perceived betwixt you and them. For the rest of the Portuguese,
use all sort of means to make them your friends: Have never any quarrel
with any of them, though they should bring you into law, or quarrel with
you without the least provocation on your part. If they use the new
Christians hardly, oppose them, but with much mildness; and, if you find
your opposition may be likely to succeed, make your complaint to the
Portuguese commandant, with whom I once again beseech you never to have
any difference.

"Let your conversation with the Portuguese be always confined to
spiritual subjects; of death, of judgment, of purgatory, of hell, of the
frequentation of sacraments, and the exact observation of God's
commandments; for, if you never speak to them but concerning these
matters, they will never rob you of those hours which are set apart for
your function.

"Fail not to write to Goa, to the fathers and brothers of our society,
giving them an account of the fruit of your labours, and proposing to
them what you think may be to the advancement of piety. You shall write
also to the bishop, but with much reverence and submission, as to the
common father, and pastor-general of this new world.

"What, above all things, I recommend to you, and which I can never
sufficiently repeat, is, that whatsoever voyage you make, and wheresoever
you shall be, you shall endeavour to gain the love of all people, by your
good offices and fair demeanour, by which means you will have greater
opportunities for the gaining of souls, which God Almighty grant you all
the grace to do, and abide for ever with you. "

Things being thus regulated on the coast of Fishery, the Father would
pass into the isle of Ceylon before his return to Goa. His design was to
gather the fruit of that precious blood which two years before was shed
by the king of Jafanatapan; or, at least, to see what inclination those
people had to receive the gospel, who had heheld the constancy of the
martyrs. Indeed, the death of the two young princes converted, who
pretended to the crown of Jafanatapan, destroyed almost all hopes of
planting Christianity in that isle. Notwithstanding which, Xavier
converted the king of Candè, who is one of the kings of Ceylon. After
which he went to the tyrant, who had treated the Christians with so much
cruelty, to try if he could work him, though against all human
appearances, to suffer the law of Jesus Christ to be preached in his
dominions, and to bring him also to be a Christian.

As reasons of state prevail most with princes, so the Father represented
to this infidel, that his throne could never he established but by the
arms of the Portuguese; that, if he once contracted with them a strict
alliance, he had nothing farther to apprehend, either from his enemies or
his subjects. The barbarian, who feared all things, both from within and
from without, forgetting that Don Alphonso de Sosa would have made war
upon him in favour of the two baptized princes, hearkened to the
propositions of peace, and even permitted the Father to explain to him
the mysteries of the Christian faith. The instructions of the saint
wrought so much upon the tyrant, that being changed, in a very short
space of time, he promised to embrace the faith, and labour to bring his
subjects into it; offering for the pledge of his word, to put his kingdom
into the hands of the king of Portugal, and to pay him such tribute as
should be thought fitting, without any farther demand in his own behalf,
than of two things. The one was, that the governor of the Indies should
conclude a firm alliance with him, as he had clone with other Indian
kings, who had made themselves vassals to the crown of Portugal; the
other, that, in order to hinder those revolts and troubles which might
arise from the change of religion, he might have a company of Portuguese
soldiers, to be entertained at his own charges.

Father Xavier, well satisfied to have thus succeeded beyond his
expectations, set sail for Goa, with an ambassador of the infidel king,
and arrived there on March the 20th, in the year 1548. Understanding
there, that the viceroy Don John de Castro was at Bazain, towards the
gulph of Cambaya, he embarked anew, notwithstanding that the season was
improper for navigation; as judging that a business of such consequence
could not be too soon concluded, and that delays frequently ruined the
most hopeful affairs. Castro had never seen Xavier, but all he had heard
related of him, gave him an earnest longing to behold him. He received
him with all those honours which are due to a saint at the first meeting,
and willingly accepted what the king of Jafanatapan had offered, on the
conditions above mentioned; but he retained for some time the man of God,
both to hear him preach, and to consult him on some difficult affairs,
where the interests of state and those of religion were joined together.

In the mean time, he designed Antonio Monis Barreto, a man of authority,
and very brave, for the garrison of Jafanatapan, with an hundred
soldiers, well disciplined, and worthy of such an officer. At the same
time he ordered a magnificent entertainment for the ambassador, who
remained at Goa; and that if any of his train would receive baptism, no
cost should be spared at that solemnity. But the king of Jafanatapan
failed afterwards in fidelity, both to God and man; and in all
probability, it was that failure which drew the last misfortunes on his
person and his kingdom.

The stay which Xavier made at Bazain was not unprofitable to a young man
of quality, who was much debauched, called Rodrigue Segueyra, whom he had
known two years before. For Segueyra having committed a murder at
Malacca, when the Father made his first voyage to the town, retired into
the hospital, to avoid the pursuit of justice. There it was that the
Father knew him, and grew into his familiarity, by his engaging ways of
mildness and courtesy, which always succeeded with him. When he had
gained the affection of Segueyra, he spoke to him of eternity with so
much power, that the young gentleman entered into serious thoughts, and
made a general confession to him. Xavier, to engage him the more in the
ways of goodness, and to free him from that confinement of the hospital,
where his crimes had forced him to take sanctuary, made up the business
with his adversaries, and obtained his pardon from the governor of
Malacca; but seeing the soft and dissolute manner of living in Malacca
was capable of ruining all his good intentions, he advised him to leave
the Indies, and return into Europe. Segueyra, who was sensible of his own
weakness, and desired to save his soul, promised the Father to obey him,
and put himself into a condition of executing his promise. In effect, he
took the way of Goa, with design from thence to go for Portugal. But
being made a receiver of the public revenues by the viceroy Don John de
Castro, he thought no more of Portugal, but relapsed into his first
debauches.

Xavier was wholly lost to his remembrance when he happened to meet him at
Bazain. The sight of the Father surprised him at first, and almost
confounded him; but straight recovering, he came up boldly to him, and
took his hand, to have kissed it according to his former custom. The
Father, as courteous and civil as he was, yet thrust him back sternly
enough; yet, mollifying himself a little, "How, my son," said he, "are
you still in the Indies? Were you not advised to leave Malacca, and
return to Portugal? "

The Portuguese, in great disorder, and not knowing how to excuse himself,
laid all the blame upon the governor, who had detained him, in some sort,
against his will. "But," replied Xavier, with a holy indignation, "is it
the governor who has obliged you to lead the life of a beast, and to
continue for two years without going to confession? However it be,"
continued the Father, "know, that we two shall never be well with one
another, so long as you are upon ill terms with God. " At these words,
Segueyra, pierced with a lively sorrow, asked pardon of the Father for
his breach of promise, and his unfaithfulness to the Divine Grace. He
confessed himself the same day; and wholly changed his life, under his
direction, whom God had sent to bring him back into a better way.

Don John de Castro, who was desirous of profiting by the Father's
counsels for the regulation of his own life, would have been glad to have
retained him longer; but, seeing him resolved on going, gave him leave to
depart; yet, begging him at the same time, that he would pass the winter
at Goa, that, after his own return thither, he might use his assistance
in the affairs of his conscience.

The Father returned very seasonably for the good of Cosmo de Torrez, a
Spanish priest, and native of Valentia, one of the greatest wits, and
most knowing persons of that age. Torrez was embarked on the fleet which
came from Mexico to the Molucca islands; and which having sailed over so
many seas to little purpose, stayed at Amboyna, as we have already
related. He there met Xavier, and was so charmed with his manner of life,
that he had thoughts of becoming his disciple. But, besides that the
labours which are inseparable from the ministry apostolical somewhat
shocked him, he judged, that he ought to undertake nothing but by the
counsel of the bishop of the Indies; insomuch, that he left Amboyna
without forming any resolution, and even without opening himself to
Father Xavier.

When the Spanish fleet was arrived at Goa, he presented himself to the
bishop, who, being in want of spiritual substitutes, gave him one of the
chief vicariats of his diocese. Torrez was of opinion, that God required
nothing farther of him; and for the space of four or five months,
performed all the functions of that office, which the bishop had given
him in charge. But the continual disquiets of his soul rendered him
suspicious of his own condition, and brought him to believe, that God had
punished him, for not following the new apostle of the East.

Being one day much troubled in his mind, he went to the college of St
Paul, and opened himself to Father Lancilotti, desiring him to unfold to
him the nature of that institute, with which he was so much taken, by
seeing Father Xavier at Amboyna. As some interior motions had of late
pushed him on to the performance of somewhat that was great, and of
suffering all things for the glory of Jesus Christ, he found the
institute of Ignatius so conformable to the present dispositions of his
soul, that, without farther balancing the matter, he was resolved to go
through the spiritual exercises, to fit himself for the change of his
condition. From the second day, he received such light, and so much
comfort from above, that he believed himself in heaven already. He could
not sufficiently admire, that those plain and easy truths, which he had
often read without any taste of them, should make such lively impressions
in him, as now they did. And he discovered this to Lancilotti, with
expressions full of astonishment. Nevertheless, being affrighted at the
prospect of a perpetual engagement, and perhaps tempted by the devil, he
could not settle to it, and was every day more and more irresolute.

Xavier arrived just at that point of time. He had scarcely seen Torrez,
when behold a man, fixed on the sudden, and resolved, and pressing to be
received amongst the children of Ignatius. The apostle received him, and
took pains himself to form him, according to the spirit of the society.
He also admitted some Portuguese, who had great talents for the mission,
and were inflamed with the zeal of souls.

They lived together in the college of St Paul, where that fervour
reigned, not only amongst the Jesuits, but also amongst those of the
seminary, whose number increased daily. The Japonese, Anger, was amongst
them, leading a most regular life, and breathing after that baptism,
which had been deferred till the return of the holy man.

Xavier did not satisfy himself with having instructed him anew; he
consigned him over to the care of Torrez, who fully explained to him all
the mysteries of faith. Anger, with his two servants, who received the
same instruction, were at length solemnly baptized, on Whitsunday, by the
bishop of Goa, Don John d'Albuquerque; so that the church began to take
possession of the most remote nation in the world, on the same day of
Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit, descending on the apostles, gave them
their mission to carry the gospel to all the people of the earth.

Anger was desirous to be named Paul de Sainte Foi, in memory of the
college belonging to the Society of Jesus, where he had received the
particular knowledge of the divine law, which was sometimes called the
College of St Paul, and sometimes the Seminary of the Holy Faith. One of
his servants took the name of John, and the other of Anthony. In
receiving baptism, he received the peace of soul which he never could
obtain before; and writ word of it to Rome, the same year, in a letter
to Father Ignatius, dated November the 25th.

But to the end, that the new converts might have the true principles of
Christian morality, and that their behaviour might be answerable to their
belief, Father Xavier intrusted Torrez with giving them the spiritual
exercises of the society.

During the thirty days that these Japonians were in retirement, it is not
to be expressed, what celestial illuminations, what holy thoughts, what
interior delights, the Holy Spirit infused into them. Anger could speak
of nothing but of God; and spoke of Him with so much fervency, that it
seemed even to burn him up. The mystery of the passion moved him above
all the rest; and he was so ravished with the goodness of God, so
possessed with love, in considering a God crucified, that he breathed
nothing but martyrdom, and the salvation of his brethren. So that he was
often heard to cry out, in the midst of his devotions, "How glad should I
be to die for thee, O my God! O my dear Japonians, how much are you to be
lamented, and what compassion do you raise in me! "

The master and servants came out of their retirement with so much ardour,
that Xavier wrote into Europe, that he was animated by their example to
the service of God, and that he could not look on them without blushing
at his own cowardice.

In conversing with them, he understood what he had formerly learnt by
hearsay, from George Alvarez, and other Portuguese, that the empire of
Japan was one of the most populous in the world; that the Japonese were
naturally curious, and covetous of knowledge, and withal docible, and of
great capacity; that being generally ingenious, and very rational, if
they were instructed in the morals of Christianity, they would easily
submit to them; and that, if the preachers of the gospel lived according
to gospel rules, the whole nation would subject itself to the yoke of
Jesus Christ, not perhaps so readily at first, but in process of time,
and after clearing of their doubts.

There needed no more to induce Xavier to carry the faith into Japan. The
mildness, the civility, and the good parts of the three baptized
Japonians, made him conceive a high opinion of all the rest; and the
Portuguese merchants newly returned from Japan, confirmed it so fully to
him, that in these three he had the pattern of the whole nation, that he
doubted not, but that the Christian religion would make an admirable
progress there. But that which Anger told him, that there were in his
country many monasteries of Heathen priests; that some of them led their
lives in solitude and contemplation; that every monastery had its
superior, who was a person venerable for his age and learning; that they
came abroad from their lonely abode once a week, with mortified looks,
and uncouth habits, to preach to the people; that, in their sermons,
they drew such lively figures of hell, that the women wept, and cried out
at those dismal representations: All this, I say, appeared to Xavier as
so many doors and inlets for the faith; and he praised God, that, by the
admirable conduct of his providence, which secretly manages the salvation
of men, the spirit of lies had thus prepared the ways for the spirit of
truth.

He adored also the wisdom of the same Providence, which, taking the
occasion of a man who fled from justice, and sought repose for his
troubled conscience, had led three Japonians from their native country,
and brought them to Goa, that they might serve for guides to a missioner;
but, that these guides might be the more serviceable, he thought fit they
should learn to read and write in the Portuguese language. Anger, whom
from henceforth we shall name Paul de Sainte Foy, was easily instructed
in all they taught him; for, besides that he was of a quick and lively
apprehension, he had so happy a memory, that he got by heart almost all
the gospel of St Matthew, which Father Cosmo de Torrez had expounded to
him before his baptism.

In the mean time, Don John de Castro was rigging out a fleet, with design
to possess himself of Aden, one of the strongest towns of Arabia Felix,
and situated at the foot of a high mountain, which reached even to the
sea by a narrow tongue of earth. This port is of great importance to shut
up the passage of the Indies to the Turks and Saracens, who go thither by
the Red Sea; and from this consideration it was, that Albuquerque the
Great endeavoured to have mastered it in the year 15_13_, but the
vigorous resistance of the Achenois forced him to forsake the siege.
After that time, they were desirous, of their own accord, to have
delivered it up to the Portuguese, thereby to free themselves from the
tyranny of the Turks. Yet it was not then done, through the fault of a
captain called Soarez, who, having no orders to take possession of the
town, was so weak a politician as to refuse it when it was offered to the
crown of Portugal.

That people, whom the Turk used worse than ever, testified the same
inclination under the government of Castro; and it was on that occasion
that he sent a fleet towards the Strait of Mecca, under the command of
his son Alvarez de Castro. Eight foysts of Goa, full of soldiers, set out
for the expedition of Aden. Amongst these there was one very brave
fellow, renowned for his military actions, but blackened with all sorts
of crimes, and more infamous by his debauched manners, than known by his
valour. He seemed a kind of savage beast, who had no more of man in him
than the bare figure, nor any thing of a Christian besides the name.
Above eighteen years he had abstained from confession; and that he once
presented himself to the bishop of Goa, was less to reconcile himself to
God, than to take off the imputation of being either a Mahometan or an
idolater.

Father Xavier had cast an eye upon this wretch, and waited only an
opportunity to labour in so difficult a conversion. Understanding that
this soldier was embarking on one of the foysts, which were going to join
the fleet, he went out of the college of St Paul, at the first notice of
it, taking nothing with him besides his breviary, and entered into the
same vessel. It was believed by those who saw the Father, that he had
orders from the viceroy to accompany his son Alvarez; and every one was
glad of it, excepting only he, for whose sake he came. He drew near the
soldier, and when they had weighed anchor, began to make acquaintance
with him, and grew familiar to that degree, that the rest of the
soldiers, who were less debauched, could not sufficiently admire it; and
some of them said of Xavier, what a Pharisee said formerly of our Lord,
"If this man were indeed a prophet, he would discern what manner of man
he was, in whom he takes so much delight. "

These discourses did not at all daunt the Father. He saw his soldier
playing whole nights together, for he was a great gamester. He took no
notice of his extravagancies, and sometimes heard him swear without
seeming to regard it. Only one day he said to him, that gaming required a
composed spirit, and if he took not the better heed, that passion, which
he had in play, would make him lose.

The soldier, brutal as he was, grew insensibly to have a kindness for a
man, who was so much concerned in his advantages, and took pleasure in
hearing him discourse not only of war, and sea affairs, but also of
religion and morality. In conclusion, he made some reflections on the
horror of his life, and felt even some remorse of conscience for it.
Being one day together with the Father, in a private part of the ship,
Xavier asked him, to whom he had confessed himself before he went on
shipboard? "Ah Father," said the soldier, "I have not been at confession
these many years! " "And what do you imagine would become of you," said
the holy man, "supposing you should be killed in this action, and in the
condition you now are? " "I would once have confessed myself," replied the
soldier, "at least for fashion and decency, but the vicar of Goa would
not so much as hear me, but told me I was a reprobate, and deserved
nothing but hell-fire. " "The vicar was, in my opinion," said Xavier,
"somewhat too severe, to treat you in that manner. He had perhaps his
reasons for that usage, and I have mine to treat you otherwise. For
indeed the mercies of our Lord are infinite, and God would have us as
indulgent to our brethren, as he himself is to us. Thus, when the sins,
of which you find yourself guilty, are a thousand times more numerous and
more crying than they are, I shall have the patience to hear them all,
and shall make no difficulty of giving you absolution, provided you take
those thoughts and resolutions which I shall endeavour to infuse into
you. "

By these words he brought the soldier to a general confession. He
disposed him for it, by causing him to recal into his memory his past
life, and drawing him into the particulars of those sins, which a man of
his character and profession might possibly have committed. While they
were upon these terms, the ship cast anchor at the port of Ceylon for
refreshment. Many of the fleet went on shore, and, amongst the rest, the
Father and the soldier. They went together to a wild solitary place;
there the soldier made his confession with abundance of tears, resolved
to expiate his crimes, with whatsoever penance the Father should enjoin
him, were it never so rigorous. But his confessor gave him only a
paternoster and an ave to say. Whereat the penitent being much amazed,
"from whence proceeds it, my Father," said he, "that, being so great a
sinner as I am, you have given me so light a penance? " "Be content,"
answered Xavier; "O my son, we shall appease the divine justice:" and at
the same instant, he withdrew into a wood, while the soldier performed
his penance. There he did what he had formerly done on the like occasion:
he bared his shoulders, and disciplined himself so rigorously, that the
soldier heard the noise of the strokes, and came running to him,
beholding the Father all in blood; and rightly judging what was the
motive of so strange an action, he snatched the discipline out of his
hands, and crying out, "it was the criminal who ought to endure the
punishment, and not the innocent to bear the pains of sin;" he
immediately stripped himself, and chastised his body with all his
strength. Xavier oftentimes embraced him, and declared, that it was for
his sake alone that he came on shipboard. So having given him
wholesome admonitions to confirm him in the grace of God, he left him,
and returned to Goa in the first vessel which went out of the port where
they made the stay. As for the soldier, he followed the fleet; and after
the expedition of Aden was ended, he entered into religion, chusing one
of the most austere orders, where he lived and died in extraordinary
holiness.

Not long after the Father was returned to Goa, the governor Don John de
Castro returned also; but very ill of a hectic fever, which had been
consuming him for some months before. Finding himself in a daily decay of
health and strength, and doubting not the end of his life was near
approaching, he quite laid aside all business, and substituted others to
supply his place; after which his thoughts were wholly employed on death,
and the great concernments of eternity. He had many long conversations
with Father Xavier on that subject, and refused to see any one but him.
During these transactions, a ship which came from Lisbon brought letters
to the viceroy from the king of Portugal, who gave great praises to his
management, and continued him for three years longer in the government of
the Indies. As Don John was much beloved, so on this occasion public
rejoicings were made over all the town. But the sick viceroy, hearing the
discharge of the artillery, and seeing almost from his bed the bonfires
that were made, could not forbear laughing at it, though he was almost in
the agonies of death. "How deceitful and ridiculous is this world," said
he, "to present us with honours of three years continuance, when we have
but a moment more to live! " The Father assisted him, even to the last
drawing of his breath; and had the consolation to behold a great man of
this world, expiring with the thoughts of a saint in holy orders.

Xavier being master of himself, in some manner, after the disease of Don
John de Castro, who had desired him not to stir from Goa, during the
winter, had thoughts of visiting once more the coast of Fishery before
his voyage to Japan; his resolutions of which, he had not hitherto
declared. But the incommodities of the season hindered him; for at one
certain time the sands so choke up the channels of the isle, that no ship
can either go out of the port, or enter into it.

In waiting until the navigation became free, the saint applied himself
particularly to the exercises of a spiritual Life, as it were to recover
new strength after his past labours, according to the custom of
apostolical men, who, in the communications which they have with God,
refresh themselves after the pains which they have taken with their
neighbour.

Then it was, that, in the garden of Saint Paul's college, sometimes in
walking, at other times in retiring into a little hermitage, which was
there set up, he cried out, "It is enough, O my Lord, it is enough! " and
that he opened his cassock before his breast, to give a little air to
those flames which burnt within him, by which he declared, that he was
not able to support the abundance of heavenly consolations; and at the
same time gave us to understand, that he would have rather chosen to
suffer any torments for the service of God, than to have enjoyed all
those spiritual delights; so that his true meaning, was a prayer to God,
that he would please to reserve for him those pleasures in another life,
and in the mean time, would not spare, to inflict on him any pains or
sufferings in this present world.

These interior employments did not hinder him from the labours of his
ministerial vocation, nor from succouring the distressed in the hospitals
and prisons. On the contrary, the more lively and ardent the love of God
was in him, the more desirous He was to bring it forth, and kindle it in
others. His charity caused him often to relinquish the quiet of solitude,
and the delights of prayer; therein following the principle of his Father
Ignatius, that it was necessary to forsake God for God.

The season began to be more moderate, and Xavier was disposing himself to
set sail for the Cape of Comorine, when a Portuguese vessel arrived from
Mozambique, which brought in her live missioners of the society. The most
considerable of these missioners, and of five others which came along
with the fleet, was Caspar Barzæus, a Fleming by nation. Father Francis
had already heard speak of him, as an excellent labourer, and a famous
preacher; but his presence, and the testimony of all the ship, gave the
saint such great ideas of his merit, that he looked on him from
thenceforward as an apostle of the eastern countries.

He passed five days with these new companions, on the fourth of which he
caused Father Gaspar to preach before him, that he might see his talent
for the pulpit; and discovered in him all the qualities of a perfect
preacher. Many Portuguese gentlemen, who had been much edified by the
virtues and conversation of Barzæus during all the navigation, which had
been exceeding dangerous, came and fell at the feet of Xavier, desiring
that he would please to receive them into the society. The captain of the
ship, and the governor of one of the chief citadels, which the Portuguese
enjoy in India, were of the number. He admitted some of them before his
departure, and deferred the rest till his return; but he would that all
of them should perform the spiritual exercises of Father Ignatius.

At length Xavier embarked, on the 9th of September, for the fishing
coast. There he comforted and confirmed the faithful, who were
continually persecuted by the Badages, those mortal and irreconcileable
enemies of the Christian name. He also encouraged the gospel labourers of
the society, who, for the same reason, went in daily hazard of their
lives. Having understood, that Father Francis Henriquez, who cultivated
the Christianity of Travancore, was somewhat dissatisfied, and believed
he lost his time, because some of those new converts, shaken either by
the promises or threatenings of a new king, who hated the Christians, had
returned to their former superstitions, he writ him letters of
consolation, desiring him to be of good courage, and assuring him, that
his labours were more profitable than he imagined; that when all the
fruit of his zeal should be reduced to the little children who died after
baptism, God would be well satisfied of his endeavours, and that, after
all, the salvation of one only soul ought to comfort a missioner for all
his pains; that God accounted with us for our good intentions; and that a
servant of his was never to be esteemed unprofitable, who laboured in his
vineyard with all his strength, whatever his success might prove.

Father Xavier was not content to have fortified the missioners, both by
word and writing, in his own person; he desired of Father Ignatius, that
he would also encourage them with his epistles, and, principally, that he
would have the goodness to write to Henry Henriquez, a man mortified to
the world, and laborious in his ministry.

Having ordered all things in the coast of Fishery, he returned by Cochin,
where he staid two months; employing himself, without ceasing, in the
instruction of little children, administering to the sick, and regulating
the manners of that town. After which he went to Bazain, there to speak
with the deputy-governor of the Indies, Don Garcia de Saa, whom Don John
de Castro had named, upon his death-bed, to supply his place. The Father
was desirous to obtain his letters of recommendation to the governor of
Malacca, that, in virtue of them, his passage to Japan might be made more
easy.

It is true, the news he received, that the Chinese, ill satisfied with
the Portuguese, had turned them out of their country, seemed to have
broken all his measures, because it was impossible to arrive at the isles
of Japan, by the way of Malacca, without touching at some port of China;
but it is the property of apostolical zeal, to make no account of those
seeming impossibilities, which appear in the greatest undertakings.
When Xavier was come back to Goa, and it was known that he designed a
voyage to Japan, his friends made use of all their endeavours to divert
him from it. They first set before him the length of the way, which was
thirteen hundred leagues; the certain and inevitable dangers to which he
must expose his life, not only by reason of pirates, which continually
infest those seas, and murder all who come into their hands, but also for
the rocks, unknown to the most skilful pilots, and of certain winds
called Typhons, which reign from China even to Japan, in a vast extent of
sea. They said, "That those impetuous hurricanes were used to whirl a
vessel round, and founder it at the same moment; or else drive it with
fury against the rocks, and split it in a thousand pieces. " They added,
"If, by miracle, he should happen to escape the pirates, and avoid the
tempests, yet he could promise no manner of safety to himself in the
ports of China, from whence the Portuguese were expelled; and, for what
remained, if he were possessed with an unsatiable zeal, there were other
vast kingdoms of the East, where the light of the gospel had not shone;
that even in the neighbourhood of Goa there were isles remaining, and
territories, of idolaters: that he might go thither in God's name, and
leave the thoughts of those remote islands, which nature seemed to have
divided from the commerce of mortals; and where the power of the
Portuguese not being established, Christianity could not be able to
maintain itself against the persecution of the Pagans. "

Xavier was so well persuaded that God would have him travel to Japan,
that he would not listen, to the reasons of his friends. He laughed at
their fears, and told them, "That perhaps he should not be more
unfortunate than George Alvarez, or Alvarez Vaz, who had performed the
voyage of Japan, in spite of all those pirates, and those hurricanes,
with which they would affright him. " This he said smiling; after which,
resuming a serious air, "Verily," said he, "I am amazed that you would
endeavour to hinder me from going for the good of souls, whither you
yourselves would go out of the sordid consideration of a small transitory
gain; and must plainly tell you, I am ashamed of your little faith. But I
am ashamed for myself, that you have prevented me in going thither first,
and cannot bear that a merchant should have more courage than a
missioner. " In conclusion, he told them, "That having so often
experienced the care of Providence, it would be an impiety to distrust
it; that it had not preserved him from the swords of the Badages, and the
poisons of the Isle del Moro, to abandon him in other dangers; that India
was not the boundary of his mission; but that in coming thither, his
design had always been, to carry the faith even to the utmost limits of
the world. "

He then wrote to Father Ignatius, to give him an account of his intended
voyage, and of the thoughts of his heart concerning it. "I cannot express
to you," said he, "with what joy I undertake this long voyage. For it is
all full of extreme dangers; and he, who out of four ships can preserve
one, thinks he has made a saving voyage. Though these perils are
surpassing all I have hitherto proved, yet I am not discouraged a jot the
more from my undertaking; so much the Lord has been pleased to fix it in
my mind, that the cross shall produce great fruits in those countries,
when once it shall be planted there. "

He wrote at the same time to Father Simon Rodriguez, and some passages of
the letter well describe the disposition of the holy man. "There are
arrived here some ships from Malacca, who confirm the news, that all the
ports of China are armed, and that the Chinese are making open war with
Portugal; which notwithstanding, my resolutions still continue for Japan;
for I see nothing more sweet or pleasing in this world, than to live in
continual dangers of death, for the honour of Jesus Christ, and for the
interests of the faith. It being indeed the distinguishing character of a
Christian, to take more pleasure in the hardships of the cross, than in
the softness of repose. "

The apostle, being upon the point of his departure for Japan, established
Father Paul de Camerine, superior-general in his place, and Father
Antonio Gomez, rector of the seminary at Goa. At the same time he
prescribed rules to both of them, in what manner they should live
together, and how they should govern their inferiors.

Behold, in particular, what he recommended to Father Paul: "I adjure
you," said he, "by the desire you have to please our Lord, and by the
love you bear to Father Ignatius, and all the society, to treat Gomez,
and all our fathers and brothers, who are in the Indies, with much
mildness; not ordering them to do any thing without mature deliberation,
and in modest terms, without any thing of haughtiness or violence. Truly,
considering the knowledge I have of all the labourers of the society, at
this present day employed in the new world, I may easily conclude, they
have no need of any superior; nevertheless, not to bereave them of the
merit of obedience, and because the order of discipline so requires, I
have thought convenient to set some one above the rest, and have chosen
you for that purpose, knowing, as I do, both your modesty and your
prudence. It remains that I command and pray you, by that voluntary
obedience which you have vowed to our Father Ignatius, to live so well
with Antonio Gomez, that the least appearance of misunderstanding betwixt
you may be avoided, nay, and even the least coldness; but, on the
contrary, that you may he always seen in a holy union, and conspiring,
with all your strength, to the common welfare of the church.

"If our brethren, who are at Comorine in the Moluccas, or otherwhere,
write to you, that you would obtain any favour for them from the bishop
or the viceroy, or demand any spiritual or temporal supplies from you,
leave all things, and employ yourselves entirely to effect what they
desire. For those letters which you shall write to those unwearied
labourers, who bear the heat and burden of the day, beware that there be
nothing of sharpness or dryness in them; rather be careful of every line,
that even every word may breathe nothing but tenderness and sweetness.

"Whatsoever they shall require of you for their diet, their clothing, for
their preservation of health, or towards their recovery of it, furnish
them liberally and speedily; for it is reasonable you should have
compassion on them, who labour incessantly, and without any human
consolation. What I have said, points chiefly to the missioners of
Comorine and the Moluccas. Their mission is the most painful, and they
ought to be refreshed, lest they sink under the burden of the cross. Do
then in such manner, that they may not ask you twice for necessaries.
They are in the battle, you are in the camp; and, for my own part, I find
those duties of charity so just, so indispensible, that I am bold to
adjure you in the name of God, and of our Father Ignatius, that you would
perform your duties with all exactness, with all diligence, and with all
satisfaction imaginable. "----

Father Xavier, since his return, had sent Nicholas Lancilotti to Coulan,
Melchier Gonzales to Bazain, and Alphonso Cyprian to Socotora. Before his
departure, he sent Gasper Barzæus to Ormuz, with one companion, who was
not yet in orders. This famous town, situate at the entry of the Persian
Gulph, was then full of enormous vices, which the mingle of nations and
different sects had introduced. The saint had thoughts of going thither
himself, to prepare the way for other missioners; according to his own
maxims, to send none of the priests to any place, which he knew not first
by his own experience. But the voyage of Japan superseded that of Ormuz.

How great soever his opinions were of the prudence and virtue of Father
Gasper, yet he thought fit to give him in writing some particular
instructions, to help him in the conduct of that important mission. I
imagine those instructions would not be unpleasing to the reader; I am
sure, at least, they will not be unprofitable to missioners; and for that
reason I shall make a recital of them. You shall behold them, neither
altered, nor in that confusion which they are in other authors; but
faithfully translated from the copy of a manuscript extant in the
archives of Goa.

"1. Above all things, have care of perfecting yourself, and of
discharging faithfully what you owe to God, and your own conscience. For
by this means you will become most capable of serving your neighbour, and
of gaining souls. Take pleasure in the most abject employments of your
ministry; that, by exercising them, you may acquire humility, and daily
advance in that virtue.

"Be sure yourself to teach the ignorant those prayers, which every
Christian ought to have by heart; and lay not on any other person an
employment so little ostentatious Give yourself the trouble of hearing
the children and slaves repeat them word by word after you. Do the same
thing to the children of the Christian natives of the country: they who
behold you thus exercised, will be edified by your modesty; and as modest
persons easily attract the esteem of others, they will judge you proper
to instruct themselves in the mysteries of the Christian religion.

"You shall frequently visit the poor in the hospitals, and from time to
time exhort them to confess themselves, and to communicate; giving them
to understand, that confession is the remedy for past sins, and the
communion a preservative against relapses; that both of them destroy the
cause of the miseries of which they complain, by reason that the ills
they suffer, are only the punishment of their offences. On this account,
when they are willing to confess, you shall hear their confessions, with
all the leisure you can afford them. After this care taken of their
souls, you are not to be unmindful of their bodies; but recommend the
distressed, with all diligence and affection, to the administrators of
the hospital, and procure them, by other means, all relief within your
power.

"You shall also visit the prisoners, and excite them to make a general
confession of their lives. They have more need than others to be stirred
up to it, because among that sort of people there are few to be found,
who ever made an exact confession. Pray the Brotherhood of Mercy to have
pity on those wretches, and labour with the judges for their enlargement;
in the mean time, providing for the most necessitous, who oftentimes have
not wherewithal to subsist.

"You shall serve, and advance what lies in you, the Brotherhood of Mercy.
If you meet with any rich merchants, who possess ill-gotten goods, and
who, being confessed, are willing to restore that which appertains not to
them, though of themselves they entrust you with the money for
restitutions, when they are ignorant to whom it is due, or that their
creditors appear not--remit all those sums into the hands of the
Brotherhood of Mercy, even though you know of some necessitous persons,
on whom such charities might be well employed.

"Thus you shall not expose yourself to be deceived by those wicked men,
who affect an air of innocence and poverty, and who cannot so easily
surprise the Brotherhood, whose principal application is to distinguish
betwixt counterfeits and those who are truly indigent.

"And, besides, you will gain the more leisure for those functions, which
are yours in a more especial manner, which are devoted to the conversion
of souls, and shall employ your whole time therein, some of which must
otherwise be taken up in the distribution of alms, which cannot be
performed without much trouble and distraction. In fine, by this means,
you shall prevent the complaints and suspicions of a sort of people who
interpret all things in the worst meaning, and who might perhaps persuade
themselves, that, under the pretence of paying other men's debts, you
divert the intention of the money given, and employ in your own uses some
part of what was entrusted with you.

"Transact in such manner, with secular persons, with whom you have
familiarity or friendship, as if you thought they might one day become
your enemies: by this management of yourself, you will neither do nor say
any thing of which you may have reason to repent you, and with which they
may upbraid you in their passion. We are obliged to these precautions, by
the sons of a corrupt generation, who are continually looking on the
children of light with mistrustful and malignant eyes.

"You ought not to have less circumspection in what relates to your
spiritual advancement; and assure yourself you shall make a great
progress in contemning of yourself, and in union with God, if you
regulate all your words and actions by prudence. The Examen, which we
call particular, will assist you much in it. Fail not of doing it twice a
day, or once at least, according to our common method, whatsoever
business you have upon your hands.

"Preach to the people the most frequently that you can, for preaching is
an universal good; and amongst all evangelical employments, there is none
more profitable: but beware of advancing any doubtful propositions, on
which the doctors are divided: take for the subject of your sermons clear
and unquestionable truths, which tend of themselves to the regulation of
manners: set forth the enormity of sin, by setting up that infinite
Majesty which is offended by the sinner: imprint in souls a lively horror
of that sentence, which shall be thundered out against reprobates at the
last judgment: represent, with all the colours of your eloquence, those
pains which the damned are eternally to suffer. In fine, threaten with
death, and that with sudden death, those who neglect their salvation; and
who, having their conscience loaded with many sins, yet sleep in
security, as if they had no cause of fear.

"You are to mingle with all these considerations that of the cross, and
the death of the Saviour of mankind; but you are to do it in a moving
pathetical manner; by those figures which are proper to excite such
emotions, as cause in our hearts a deep sorrow for our sins, in the
presence of an offended God, even to draw tears from the eyes of your
audience. This is the idea which I wish you would propose to yourself,
for preaching profitably.

"When you reprove vices in the pulpit, never characterise any person,
especially the chief officers or magistrates. If they do any thing which
you disapprove, and of which you think convenient to admonish them, make
them a visit, and speak to them in private, or, when they come of
themselves to confession, tell them at the sacred tribunal of penance,
what you have to say to them: but never advertise them in public of it;
for that sort of people, who are commonly proud and nice of hearing,
instead of amendment by public admonitions, become furious, like bulls
who are pricked forward by a goad: moreover, before you take upon you to
give them private admonition, be careful to enter first into their
acquaintance and familiarity.

"Make your admonition either more gentle or more strong, according as you
have more or less access to them: but always moderate the roughest part
of your reproof, with the gaiety of your air, and a smiling countenance;
by the civility of well-mannered words, and a sincere protestation that
all you do is but an effect of the kindness you have for them. It is good
also to add respectful submissions to the pleasingness of your discourse,
with tender embraces, and all the marks of that consideration and
goodwill you have for the person of him whom you thus correct. For, if a
rigid countenance, and harsh language, should accompany reproof, which of
itself is hard of digestion, and bitter to the taste, it is not to be
doubted but men, accustomed to flatteries, will not endure it; and there
is reason to apprehend, that a burst of rage against the censor, will be
all the fruit of the reprimand.

"For what concerns confession, behold the method which I judge the
fittest for these quarters of the East, where the licence of sin is very
great, and the use of penance very rare. When a person, hardened in a
long habit of vice, shall come to confession, exhort him to take three or
four days time of preparation, to examine his conscience thoroughly; and
for the assistance of his memory, cause him to write down the sins which
he has observed in all the, course of his life, from his childhood to
that present time. Being thus disposed, after he has made his confession,
it will not be convenient that you should be too hasty in giving him
absolution. But it will be profitable to him to retire two or three days,
and abstain from his ordinary conversation and dealings with men, and to
excite himself to sorrow for his sins, in consideration of the love of
God, which will render his sacramental absolution of more efficacy to
him. During that little interval of retirement, you shall instruct him in
the way of meditation, and shall oblige him to make some meditations from
the first week of exercises. You shall counsel him to practise some
mortification of his body; for example, to fast, or to discipline
himself, which will help him to conceive a true sorrow for his offences,
and to shed the tears of penance. Besides this, if the penitents have
enriched themselves by sinister ways, or if, by their malicious talk,
they have blasted the reputation of their neighbour, cause them to make
restitution of their ill-gotten goods, and make reparations of their
brethren's honour, during the space of those three days. If they are
given to unlawful love, and are now in an actual commerce of sin, cause
them to break off those criminal engagements, and forsake the occasions
of their crime. There is not any time more proper to exact from sinners
those duties, the performance of which is as necessary as it is
difficult; for when once their fervour is past away, it will be in vain
to demand of them the execution of their promise; and perhaps you will
have the trouble of seeing them fall back into the precipice, for want of
removing them to a distance from it.

"In administering the sacrament of penance, take heed of discouraging
those who begin to discover the wounds of their souls to you, by
appearing too rashly and too hastily severe. How enormous soever their
sins may be, hear them, not only with patience, but with mildness; help
out even their bashfulness, by testifying to them your compassion, and
not seeming to be amazed at what you hear. Insinuate into them, that you
have heard in confession sins of a much more crying nature: and, lest
they should despair of pardon for their faults, speak to them of the
infinite mercies of the Lord.

"When they declare a crime in such a manner that you may perceive they
are in trouble how to speak, interrupt them, by letting them know, that
their sin is not altogether so great as they may think; that by God's
assistance you can heal the most mortal wounds of the soul; bid them go
on without any apprehension, and make no difficulty of telling all. You
will find some of them, whom either the weakness of their age or sex will
hinder from revealing to you their most shameful sins. When you perceive
that bashfulness has tied their tongue, be before-hand with them; and, by
the way of a charitable prevention, let them know, that they are neither
the first, nor the only persons, who have fallen into disorder; that
those things which they want the confidence to tell you, are little in
comparison of what you have heard from others on the same subject. Impute
some part of their offence to the corruption of nature, to the violence
of the temptation, and to the unhappiness they had to be engaged in such
occasions and pressing circumstances, where their fall was almost
unavoidable. In fine, I must advertise you, that to remove from such
persons that unseasonable shame-facedness which keeps them silent; from
such persons, I say, whom the devil has made as bashful after a crime as
they were impudent before it, it may be necessary sometimes to discover
to them, in general, the frailties of our own past lives. For what can a
true and fervent charity refuse, for the safety of those souls who have
been redeemed with the blood of Jesus Christ! But to understand when this
is proper to be done, how far to proceed, and with what precautions, is
what the interior spirit, and your experience, must teach you, in those
particular conjunctures.

"You will ordinarily meet with some Christians who believe not the truth
of the holy sacrament of the altar, either by not frequenting it, or by
their conversation with Pagans, Mahometans, and Heretics, or by the
scandal which is given them by some Christians, and principally (which I
speak with shame and sorrow) by such priests whose life is not more holy
than that of the people. For beholding some of them approaching the altar
without any preparation, assisting at it without modesty and reverence,
they imagine that Jesus Christ is not, as we say he is, in the sacrifice
of the mass; for if he were there present, he would never suffer such
impure hands to touch him. Make it your business, that those misbelieving
Christians should propose to you all their doubts, and discover to you
all their imaginations, which being known, then prove to them the real
presence of Jesus Christ, by all those reasons which are capable of
establishing it; and shew them, that the surest means for them to come
out of their errors, and leave their vices, is often to approach that
sacrament, with suitable preparations to it.

"Though your penitents may be well prepared for confession, think not,
when they shall declare their sins, that your business is done. You must
dive into the bottom of their conscience, and, by examination, draw out
of them what themselves know not. Ask then of them, by what ways, and
in what manner, they make advantage of their money; what are their
principles, and what their practice, in their sales, in their borrowing,
and in all their business. You shall find usury reigning throughout their
traffic; and that they who have no stings of conscience, in relation to
unjust dealings, have by indirect ways scraped together the greatest part
of their estates. But in things where money has to do, many are so
hardened, that, being charged with rapine, they have either no scruple
concerning it, or so very light, that it never breaks their sleep.

"Use particularly this method towards the governors, the treasurers, the
receivers, and other officers belonging to the revenue. Whensoever they
present themselves before you in the sacred tribunal, interrogate that
sort of people, by what means they grow so rich? what secret they have to
make their offices and employments bring them in such mighty sums? If
they are shy of telling you, turn and wind them every way, and the most
mildly that you can, make them speak, in spite of themselves. You shall
soon discover their tricks, and secret ways of management, by which an
inconsiderable number of those they call men of business, divert, to
their own private advantages, what was designed for the public profit.
They buy up commodities with the king's money, that, by selling them
again, they may be able to make up their accounts: And by taking up all
the commodities in the port, they put the people upon a necessity of
buying at their price, that is, at most intolerable rates.

"Too often also, they make men languish at the treasury, with long
delays, and cunning shifts, or some other captious trick; men, I say, to
whom the exchequer is owing, that they may be driven to compound with
those sharks of state for half their due, and let them go off with the
other half. This open robbery, this manifest villainy, those gentlemen
call, by a mollified name, 'the fruits of their industry. ' When you have
squeezed out of them the confession of these monopolies, and the like, by
wire-drawing them, with apt questions, you will come more easily to the
knowledge of their ungodly gains, and what they ought to make restitution
of to their neighbour, in order to their being reconciled to God, than if
in general you should interrogate them concerning their injustice. For
example, demand of them, what persons they have wronged? they will
immediately answer, that their memory upbraids them not with wronging any
man; and behold the reason! Custom is to them in the place of law; and
that which they see done before them every day, they persuade themselves
may be practised without sin. As if custom can authorize, by I know not
what kind of prescription, that which is vicious and criminal in its own
nature. You shall admit of no such right, but shall declare to such
people, that if they will secure their conscience, they must restore what
they possess unjustly.

"Remember especially, to obey the vicar of the bishop. When you are
arrived at Ormuz, you shall go to wait on him, and, falling on your knees
before him, you shall humbly kiss his hand. You shall neither preach, nor
exercise any other employment of our institute, without his permission;
above all things, have no difference with him for any whatsoever cause;
on the contrary, endeavour, by all submissions, and all possible
services, to gain his friendship, in such sort, that he may be willing to
be taught by you, to make the meditations of our spiritual exercises, at
least those of the first week. Use almost the same method with all the
other priests; if you cannot persuade them to retire for a month,
according to our custom, engage them to a retreat of some few days, and
fail not to visit them every day, during that recess, to explicate to
them the subjects of those meditations.

"Pay a great respect to the person of the governor, and make it apparent,
by the most profound submissions, how much you honour him. Beware of any
difference with him, on whatsoever occasion, even though you should
observe, that he performs not his duty in matters of importance; but
after you perceive, that your demeanour has instated you in his favour
and good graces, go boldly to visit him; and after you have testified the
concernment you have for his safety and his honour, by a principle of
good will to him, then declare, with all modesty and softness of
expression, the sorrow you have to see his soul and reputation
endangered, by what is reported of him in the world.

"Then you shall make known to him the discourse of the people; you shall
desire him to reflect on the bad consequences of such reports; that they
may possibly be put in writing, and go farther than he would willingly
they should, if he bethinks him not in time of giving satisfaction to the
public. Nevertheless, take not this upon you before you are in some sort
satisfied of his good disposition, and that it appears probable to you
that your advertisement may sort to good effect.

"Be yet more cautious in charging yourself with bearing to him the
complaints of particular persons; and absolutely refuse that commission,
by excusing yourself on your evangelical functions, which permit you not
to frequent the palaces of the great, nor to attend whole days together
for the favourable minutes of an audience, which is always difficult to
obtain. You shall add, that when you should have the leisure to make your
court, and that all the doors of the palace were open to you at all
hours, you should have little hopes of any fruit from your remonstrances;
and that if the governor be such a man as they report, he will have small
regard to you, as being no way touched, either with the fear of God, or
the duties of his own conscience.

"You shall employ, in the conversion of infidels, all the time you have
free from your ordinary labours which indispensably regard Christians.
Always prefer those employments which are of a larger extent to those
which are more narrowly confined. According to that rule, you shall never
omit a sermon in public, to hear a private confession; you shall not set
aside the catechising, which is appointed every day, at a certain hour,
to visit any particular person, or for any good work of the like nature.
For the rest, an hour before catechism, either you or your companion
shall go to the places of most concourse in the town, and invite all men,
with a loud voice, to come and hear the exposition of the Christian
doctrine.

"You shall write, from time to time, to the college of Goa, what
functions you exercise for the advancement of God's glory, what order you
keep there, and what blessing God gives on your endeavours. Have care
that your relations be exact, and such that our Fathers at Goa may send
them into Europe, as so many authentic proofs of what you perform in the
East, and of what success it shall please God to bestow on the labours of
our little Society. Let nothing slip into those accounts which may
reasonably give offence to any man; nothing that may seem improbable;
nothing which may not edify the reader, and give him occasion to magnify
the name of God.

"When you are come to Ormuz, I am of opinion that you should see
particularly those who are of greatest reputation for their probity, the
most sincere, and who are most knowing in the manners of the town. From
such, inform yourself exactly what vices are most reigning in it, what
sorts of cheats; enter most into contracts, and societies of commerce,
that so understanding all things thoroughly and truly, you may have your
words and reasons in a readiness, to instruct and reprove those who,
being guilty of covert usuries, false bargaining, and other wicked
actions, so common in a place which is filled with such a concourse of
different nations, shall treat with you in familiar conversation, or in
sacramental confession.

"You shall walk the streets every night, and recommend the souls of the
dead to the prayers of the living; but let those expressions which are
used by you be proper to move the compassion of the faithful, and to
imprint the thoughts of religion in the bottom of their souls. You shall
also desire their prayers to God for such as are in mortal sin, that they
may obtain the grace of coming out of so deplorable a condition.

"Endeavour at all times to make your humour agreeable: keep a gay and
serene countenance, without suffering the least shadow of choler or
sadness to appear in it; otherwise those who come to visit you will never
open their hearts to you, and will not repose all that confidence in you
which it is necessary they should have, to the end they may profit by
your discourse. Speak always with civility and mildness, even in your
reprehensions, as I have already told you; and when you reprove anyone,
do it with so much charity, that it may be evident the fault displeases
you, and not the person.

"On Sundays and saints' days you shall preach at two o'clock in the
afternoon, at the church of the Misericordia, or in the principal church
of the town; sending first your companion about the streets, with his
bell in his hand, to invite the people to the sermon.

"If you had not rather perform that office in your own person, you shall
carry to church that exposition of the apostles' creed which I have put
into your hands, and the practice, which I have composed, how to pass the
day in Christian duties. You shall give copies of that practice to those
whose confessions you hear; and shall enjoin them, for their holy
penance, to do for certain days that which is contained in it. By this
means they shall accustom themselves to a Christian life, and shall come
to do, of their own accord, by the force of custom, that which they did
at the first only by the command of their confessor. But, foreseeing that
you cannot have copies enough for so many people, I advise you to have
that practice written out in a fair large hand, and expose it in some
public place, that they who are willing to make use of it may read and
transcribe it at their own convenience.

"They who shall be desirous of being received into the society, and whom
you shall judge to be proper for it, you may send them to Goa with a
letter, which shall point out their design, and their talents for it, or
else you may retain them with you. In this last case, after you have
caused them to perform the spiritual exercises for a month together, you
shall make a trial of them, in some such manner as may edify the people
without exposing them to be ridiculous. Order them, therefore, to serve
the sick in the hospitals, and to debase themselves to the meanest and
most distasteful offices. Make them visit the prisoners, and teach them
how to give comfort to the miserable. In fine, exercise your novices in
all the practices of humility and mortification; but permit them not to
appear in public in extravagant habits, which may cause them to be
derided by the multitude;--suffer it not, I say, far from imposing it
upon them. Engage not all the novices indifferently to those trials which
their nature most abhors; but examine well the strength of each, and suit
their mortification to their temper, to their education, to the advance
they make in spirituals, in such sort, that the trial may not be
unprofitable, but that it may produce its effect according to that
measure of grace which is given them. If he who directs the novices has
not all these considerations, it will fall out, that they who were
capable of making a great proficiency in virtue, with good management,
will lose their courage, and go backward; and besides, those indiscreet
trials, too difficult for beginners, take off the love of the master from
his novices, and cause his disciples to lessen their confidence in his
directions. In the mean time, whoever forms young people to a religious
life, ought to leave nothing untried to bring them to a candid and free
discovery of their evil inclinations, and the suggestions of the devil,
at the same moment when they are tempted: for without this they will
never be able to disentangle themselves from the snares of the tempter;
never will they arrive to a religious perfection. On the contrary, those
first seeds of evil being brooded over, and nourished, as I may say, by
silence, will insensibly produce most lamentable effects; even so far,
until the novices come to grow weary of regular discipline, to nauseate
it, and at length throw off the yoke of Jesus Christ, and replunge
themselves in the pollutions of the world.

"They amongst those young men whom you shall observe to be most subject
to vain-glory, and delighted with sensual pleasures, and other vices,
ought to be cured in this following manner: Make them search for reasons,
and for proofs, against those vices to which they are inclined; and when
they have found many, help them to compose some short discourses on them.
Cause them afterwards to pronounce those discourses, either to the people
in the church, or in the hospitals, to those who are in a way of
recovery, so as to be present at them, or in other places;--there is
reason to hope, that the things which they have fixed in their minds, by
constant study and strong application, will be at least as profitable to
themselves as to their audience. Doubtless they will be ashamed not to
profit by those remedies which they propose to others, and to continue in
those vices from which they endeavour to dissuade their hearers. You
shall use proportionably the same industry towards those sinners who
cannot conquer themselves so far, as, they commonly say, to put away the
occasions of their sin, or to make restitution of those goods which they
have gotten unlawfully, and detain unjustly from other men. After you
have endeared yourself to them by a familiar acquaintance, advise them to
say that to their own hearts which they would say to a friend on the like
occasion, and engage, as it were for the exercise of their parts, to
devise such arguments as condemn their actions in the person of another.

"Sometimes you will see before you, when you are seated in the tribunal
of penance, men who are enslaved to their pleasures and their avarice,
whom no motive of God's love, nor thought of death, nor fear of hell, can
oblige to put away a mistress, or to restore ill-gotten goods. The only
means of reducing such people, is to threaten them with the misfortunes
of this present life, which are the only ills they apprehend. Declare
then to them, that if they hasten not to appease Divine Justice, they
shall suddenly suffer considerable losses at sea, and be ill treated by
the governors; that they shall lose their law-suits; that they shall
languish many years in prison; that they shall be seized with incurable
diseases, and reduced to extreme poverty, without any to relieve them; in
fine, that they and their posterity, becoming infamous, shall be the
objects of the public hate and curses. Tell them, by way of reason for
those accidents, that no man who sets God at nought remains unpunished;
and that his vengeance is so much the more terrible, by how much longer
his patience has been abused. The images of these temporal punishments
will affright those carnal men who are not to be wrought on but by their
senses, and will bring forth in their insensible souls the first motions
of the fear of God,--of that saving fear which is the beginning of
wisdom.

"Before you treat with any one concerning his spiritual affairs,
endeavour to understand how his soul stands affected. Whether it be calm,
or tossed with any violent passion; whether he be ready to follow the
right way when it shall be shewn to him, or whether he wanders from it of
set purpose; whether it be the tempter, or the bias of his own
inclination, which seduces him to evil; whether he be docile, and
disposed to hear good counsel, or of that untractable humour on which no
hold is to be fastened,--it will behove you to vary your discourse
according to these several dispositions: But though more circumspection
is to be taken with hardened souls, and difficult of access, you are
never to flatter the disease, nor say any thing to him which may weaken
the virtue of the remedy, and hinder its effect.

"Wheresoever you shall be, even though you only pass through a place, and
stay but little in it, endeavour to make some acquaintance; and inquire
of those who have the name of honest and experienced men, not only what
crimes are most frequently committed in that town, and what deceits most
used in traffic, as I have already taught you in relation to Ormuz; but
farther, learn the inclinations of the people, the customs of the
country, the form of government, the received opinions, and all things
respecting the commerce of human life: for, believe me, the knowledge of
those things is very profitable to a missioner, for the speedy curing of
spiritual diseases, and to have always at hand wherewithal to give ease
to such as come before you.

"You will understand from thence, on what point you are most to insist in
preaching, and what chiefly to recommend in confessions. This knowledge
will make, that nothing shall be new to you, nothing shall surprise or
amaze you; it will furnish you with the address of conducting souls, and
even with authority over them. The men of the world are accustomed to
despise the religious as people who understand it not: But if they find
one who knows how to behave himself in conversation, and has practised
men, they will esteem him as an extraordinary person; they will give
themselves up to him; they will find no difficulty, even in doing
violence to their own inclinations, under his direction, and will freely
execute what he enjoins, though never so repugnant to their corrupt
nature. Behold the wonderful fruit of knowing well the world:--so that
you are not, at this present, to take less pains in acquiring this
knowledge, than formerly you have done in learning philosophy and
divinity. For what remains, this science is neither to be learned from
ancient manuscripts nor printed books; it is in living books, and the
conversation of knowing men, that you must study it: with it, you shall
do more good, than if you dealt amongst the people, all the arguments of
the doctors, and all the subtilties of the schools.

"You shall set apart one day of the week, to reconcile differences, and
regulate the interests of such as are at variance, and are preparing to
go to law. Hear them one after the other, and propose terms of
accommodation to them. Above all things, give them to understand, that
they shall find their account in a friendly reconciliation, sooner than
in casting themselves into eternal suits, which, without speaking of
their conscience, and their credit, ever cost much money, and more
trouble. I know well, that this will not be pleasing to the advocates and
proctors, whom the spinning out a process, and tricks of wrangling, still
enrich. But trouble not yourself with what those bawlers say; and make
even them comprehend, if it be possible, that by perpetuating suits, by
these numberless formalities, they expose themselves to the danger of
eternal damnation. Endeavour also to engage them into a retirement of
some few days, to the end their spiritual exercises may work them off to
other courses.

"Stay not till your arrival at Ormuz before you preach. Begin on
shipboard, and as soon as you come there. In your sermons, affect not to
make a show of much learning, or of a happy memory, by citing many
passages of ancient authors; some few are necessary, but let them be
chosen and fitted to the purpose. Employ the best part of your sermon, in
a lively description of the interior estate of worldly souls. Set before
their eyes, in your discourse, and let them see, as in a glass, their own
disquiets, their little cunnings, their trifling projects, and their vain
hopes. You shall also show them, the unhappy issue of all their designs.
You shall discover to them, the snares which are laid for them by the
evil spirit, and teach them the means of shunning them. But, moreover,
you shall tell them, that if they suffer themselves to be surprised by
them, they are to expect the worst that can happen to them; and by this
you shall gain their attention; for a man never fails of attentive
audience, when the interest of the hearer is the subject of the
discourse. Stuff not out your sermons with sublime speculations, knotty
questions, and scholastical controversies. Those things which are above
the level of men of the world, only make a noise, and signify nothing. It
is necessary to represent men to themselves, if you will gain them. But
well to express what passes in the bottom of their hearts, you must first
understand them well; and in order to that, you must practise their
conversation, you must watch them narrowly, and fathom all their depths.
Study then those living books; and assure yourself, you shall draw out of
them the means of turning sinners on what side you please.

"I do not forbid you, nevertheless, to consult the holy scriptures on
requisite occasions, nor the fathers of the church, nor the canons, nor
books of piety, nor treatises of morality; they may furnish you with
solid proofs for the establishment of Christian truths, with sovereign
remedies against temptations, and heroical examples of virtue. But all
this will appear too cold, and be to no purpose, if souls be not disposed
to profit by them; and they cannot profit but by the ways I have
prescribed. So that the duty of a preacher is to sound the bottom of
human hearts, to have an exact knowledge of the world, to make a faithful
picture of man, and set it in so true a light, that every one may know it
for his own.

"Since the king of Portugal has ordered, that you shall be allowed from
the treasury what is needful for your subsistence, make use of the favour
of so charitable a prince, and receive nothing but from his ministers. If
other persons will give you any thing, refuse it, though they should
offer it of their own mere motion. For as much, as it is of great
consequence to the liberty of an apostolical man, not to owe his
subsistence to those whom he ought to conduct in the way of salvation,
and whom he is bound to reprove, when they go astray from it; one may
truly say of those presents, that he who takes, is taken. And it is for
this, that when we are to make a charitable reprehension, to such of whom
we receive alms, we know not well how to begin it, or in what words to
dress it. Or if our zeal emboldens us to speak freely, our words have
less effect upon them, because they treat us with an assuming air of
loftiness, as if that which we received from them had made them our
masters, and put them in possession of despising us. What I say, relates
chiefly to a sort of persons, who are plunged in vice, who would
willingly be credited with your friendship, and will endeavour by all
good offices to make way to your good will. Their design is not to profit
by your conversation, for the amendment of their lives; all they pretend
to, is to stop your mouth, and to escape a censure, which they know they
have deserved. Be upon your guard against such people: yet I am not of
opinion, that you should wholly reject them, or altogether despise their
courtesy. If they should invite you to their table, refuse it not; and
yet less refuse their presents of small value, such as are usually made
in the Indies by the Portuguese to each other, and which one cannot
refuse without giving an affront; as, for example, fruits and drinks. At
the same time, declare to them, that you only receive those little gifts,
in hope they will also receive your good advice; and that you go to eat
with them, only that you may dispose them, by a good confession, to
approach the holy table. For such presents as I have named, such I mean
as are not to be refused, when you have received them, send them to the
sick, to the prisoners, or to the poor. The people will be edified with
this procedure, and no occasion left of suspecting you, either of
niceness or covetousness.

"For what relates to your abode, you will see at your arrival; and having
prudently considered the state of things, you may judge where it will be
most convenient for you to dwell, either in the hospital, or the house of
mercy, or any little lodging, in the neighbourhood. If I think fit to
call you to Japan, you shall immediately give notice of it, by writing to
the rector of this college by two or three different conveyances, to the
end, he may supply your place with one of our fathers, a man capable of
assisting and comforting the city of Ormuz. In fine, I recommend you to
yourself; and that in particular, you never forget, that you are a member
of the Society of Jesus.

"In the conjunctures of affairs, experience will best instruct you what
will be most for God's service; for there is no better master than
practice, and observation, in matters of prudence.