NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 5 



Xavier tells us that the ambassador prayed for the safety of the 

 young man, but the biographers tell us that it was Xavier who 

 prayed ; and finally, by the later writers Xavier is represented as 

 lifting horse and rider out of the stream by a clearly supernatu- 

 ral act. 



Still another claim to miracle is based upon his arrival at Lis- 

 bon and finding his great colleague, Simon Rodriguez, ill of fever. 

 Xavier informs us in a very simple way that Rodriguez was so 

 overjoyed to see him that the fever did not return. This is en- 

 tirely similar to the cure which Martin Luther wrought upon Me- 

 lanchthon. Melanchthon had broken down and was supposed to be 

 dying, when his joy at the long-delayed visit of Luther brought 

 him to his feet again, after which he lived for many years. Fi- 

 nally, Xavier, finding a poor native woman very ill, baptized her, 

 saying over her the prayers of the Church, and she recovered. 



Two or three occurrences like these form the whole basis for 

 the miraculous accounts, so far as Xavier's own writings are con- 

 cerned. 



But shortly after Xavier's death in 1552 miracles of a different 

 sort began to appear. At first they were few and feeble ; and two 

 years later Melchior Nunhez, Provincial of the Jesuits in the 

 Portuguese dominions, with all the means at his command, and a 

 correspondence extending throughout all those regions, had been 

 able to hear of but three. These were entirely from hearsay. 

 First, John Deyro said he knew Xavier had the gift of prophecy ; 

 but, unfortunately, Xavier himself had reprimanded and cast off 

 Deyro for untruthfulness and cheatery. Secondly, at Cape Co- 

 morin many persons affirmed that Xavier had raised a dead per- 

 son. Thirdly, Father Pablo de Santa F6 said that in Japan Xa- 

 vier had restored sight to a blind man. This seems a feeble begin- 

 ning, but little by little the stories grew ; and in 1555 De Quadros, 

 Provincial of the Jesuits in Ethiopia, had heard of nine miracles, 

 and laid stress upon the fact that Xavier had healed the sick and 

 cast out devils. The next year, being four years after Xavier's 

 death, King John III of Portugal, a very devout man, in a let- 

 ter, taking these wonderful works in all parts of the East for 

 granted, directed his viceroy, Barreto, to draw up and transmit 

 to him an authentic account of Xavier's miracles ; urging him 

 especially to do the work " with zeal and speedily." We can well 

 imagine what treasures of grace an obsequious viceroy, only too 

 anxious to please a devout king, could bring together by means 

 of the hearsay of ignorant, compliant natives through all the little 

 towns of Portuguese India. 



A vast mass of testimony was thus brought together and taken 

 to Rome ; but it appears to have been thought of but little value 

 by those best able to judge, for when, in 1588, thirty-six years 



