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LOYOLA, IGXATIU3. 



LOYOLA, IGNATIUS. 



9)1 



in tha year 1491, at the castle of Loyola, in that part of Spanish Biscay 

 afterwards called the province of Guipuxcoa. In early youth he was 

 attached to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, in the quality of a 

 page ; but the vivacity of his disposition little suited him for a situation 

 so devoid of excitement, while the recital of the noble deeds of the 

 Spanish knights, who had lately freed their country from the yoke of 

 the infidel, rendered him desirous of emulating their fame. His father, 

 when he sent him to the court of Spain, had placed him under the 

 care of his relation, Don Antonio Manriquez, duke of Najara. This 

 nobleman, perceiving the military bias of his young ward, got him 

 instructed in the art of war, and afterwards received him in his suite. 

 The ardent imagination of Ignatius was in the meanwhile kept in 

 constant excitement by the eager perusal of the various romances in 

 which were idealised the religious spirit of Spanish chivalry ; to this 

 was added the example of his brothers, who were following with dis- 

 tinction the profession of arms. After joining the army he soon 

 rendered himself conspicuous by his gallant bravery on every occasion; 

 his conduct, in other respects, is described as ha-ving partaken in all 

 the dissipations generally incident to a military life ; one vice however, 

 that of gambling, he appears constantly to have avoided. 



He was in his thirtieth year when he assisted in the defence of 

 Pampeluna, against the French; in the assault he was severely 

 wounded, his right leg having been fractured by a cannon-ball, and his 

 left, at the game time, injured by a splinter. The French, into whose 

 hands he had fallen prisoner, respecting his misfortune and admiring 

 his bravery, had him conveyed to the castle of Loyola, which was 

 situated at a small distance from Pampeluna. A long and painful 

 confinement was the result of his wounds, and a cruel operation was 

 resorted to, which, though endured with characteristic courage, 

 reduced him to the last extremity. His recovery from the effects of 

 the operation, though he saw in it a miracle, appears to have produced 

 no change of conduct. A second operation however became neces- 

 sary, owing to a deformity which had resulted from the first, and its 

 consequences entailed a longer and more tedious confinement. To 

 relieve its weariness he requested to be provided with those records of 

 ancient chivalry which had been the delight of his former years, but 

 instead of them he was furnished with works of mystical devotion and 

 the lives of saint*. Of a disposition naturally visionary and romantic, 

 deprived of the means of pursuing a career in which he hoped to 

 attain the highest honours, the attentive perusal of these records of 

 the zeal and suffering of holy men infused in his mind an ardent 

 desire to imitate them. As he eagerly pondered over the recital of 

 the actions of a St. Douiinick, or a St. Francis, he was wont to ask 

 himself what prevented him from imitating their deeds ? But often 

 were these heavenly aspirations clouded by the intervention of worldly 

 thoughts and of temporal affairs. At other times, when in this 

 spiritual combat the spirit was obtaining a mastery over the flash, his 

 vivid imagination would portray to him visions of celestial glory which, 

 in that hour of struggle, encouraged and inspired him. He has 

 graphically described tiie various scenes through which he passed iu 

 his introduction to a religious life, in his ' Spiritual Exercises,' the 

 origin of which may be referred to the same time as his first awakening 

 from worldly slumber. This remarkable work is not a book of 

 doctrine, it is the description, to use his own words, of " the longings 

 of a soul seeking to be appeased, not by much knowledge, but by the 

 sense and relish of inward things." He first minutely details a variety 

 of rules for the guidance of spiritual life ; he then exhorts to the 

 study of sacred history, to whose events he too frequently gives a 

 fanciful interpretation ; he afterwards gives an allegorical representa- 

 tion of the convert's progress from the prison of this world to the 

 realms of celestial bliss. Loyola but detailed, his own feelings in this 

 extraordinary production. 



From this time all his desires were directed to one great object, an 

 entire devotion to the service of God. For this purpose, renouncing 

 all worldly pursuits, he tore himself from the paternal home, from his 

 kindred, and from his friends. Regardless of the kindly opposition 

 of his eldest brother, become by the death of his father the head of 

 the home of Loyola, he resolved upon retiring to a Benedictine 

 monastery at Mount Serrat, in order to prepare himself for a pilgrimage 

 to the Holy Laud. He became acquainted in that monastery with 

 one of the brothers named John Chanones, of high reputation for 

 austere and self-denying piety, and he was anxious to unfold to him 

 the confession of his former sins and the confidence of his religious 

 aspirations. While journeying towards Mount Scrrat, he arrived at a 

 village at the base of the hill on which it is situated, and he was then 

 (truck with the reflection that, though a destined pilgrim for Jerusalem, 

 he was still clad in the garments of Babylon, and he exchanged his 

 usual dress for the coarse raiment of a beggar. 



The night of the 24th of March 1522, the vigil of the Annunciation, 

 was a memorable period in the life of Loyola; he passed it in the 

 exercise of the most austere devotions in the church of the Holy 

 Virgin at Mount Serrat ; on its altar lie hung up his arms, the trophies 

 of bit worldly triumphs, and, in the spirit of chivalry, vowed constant 

 obedience to the demands of God and of his church. The better 

 to put into execution his holy resolutions he determined to perform 

 barefoot hU intended pilgrimage, in order that this severe penance 

 might excite in his mind a deeper remorse for sin. On leaving Mount 

 Serrat, he directed his steps towards Manresa, a small town within 



three leagues of this monastery. There he repaired to tha hospital 

 of the Dominican convent, and, while attending upou tho poor ani 

 sick, imposed upon himself a series of new and severe penances. His 

 deeds of charity soon acquired for hiin celebrity iu that town, and, 

 though clad in the rags of destitution, he was unable to walk the 

 streets without attracting the importunate admiration of the multi- 

 tude. To avoid the temptation of vain glory, he retired to a cavern 

 hallowed in a rock at a short distance from Manresa, where he 

 redoubled the severity of his penances, and waa one day found in a 

 state of inanimate exhaustion at the door of his cell, and was borne 

 back to the Dominican hospital. On his recovery, his mind, weakened 

 by mortifications and fastings, fell into a state of spiritual despondency. 

 His doubts and despair, his fears and temptations, are described with 

 edifying minuteness in his own writings and by his early historians. 

 It does not appear that any particular doctrine had made an impression 

 on the mind of Loyola. He lived, as it were, within himself, and his 

 emotions were actuated by .the alternate inspirations of good and 

 evil ; he has taught ua in his ' Spiritual Exercises ' the manner in 

 which he distinguished their influences ; the aoul being gladdened by 

 the one and depressed by the other. One day, at length, he awakened 

 as from a dream, his imagination had portrayed to his mind the 

 visible representation of heavenly mysteries. With tears of joy, he 

 gratefully acknowledged the blessings vouchsafed to him, and, 

 refreshed in spirit, he arose a new and a mightier man. 



After residing ton months at Manresa, he left that town for Barce- 

 lona, from whence ho embarked for Rome. In that city he remained 

 a few days, in order to obtain the blessing of the Pope Adrian VI. 

 upon his enterprise; he then resumed his journey, passing through 

 Padua and Venice, travelling alone and on foot, fasting daily, and 

 begging alms as he went. His voyage from Venice to Cyprus pre- 

 sented a fresh trial for his patience and constancy, his pious efforts 

 for the conversion of the crew of tha vessel in which he sailed being 

 met by coarse insults and contumelies. From Cyprus he embarked 

 with some pilgrims for the Holy Land, and reached Jerusalem on the 

 4th of September 1523. He there visited with holy veneration the 

 hallowed spots which religious tradition has consecrated. To accom- 

 plish the objects of his journey, he was desirous not only of contributing 

 to the edification of the believers, but also to the conversion of the 

 infidels. His projects however were defeated by the refusal of a per- 

 mission of residence from the primate of the Church of Rome at 

 Jerusalem. He then re-embarked for Europe, and arrived at Venice 

 in January 1524, and from thenco he returned to Barcelona. In this 

 town he determined upon making some stay, in order to acquire by 

 study a greater influence in the conversion of souls. He addressed 

 himself for that purpose to Jerome Ardebala, while a pious lady, 

 Isabella Rosel, undertook to provide him with the necessary means. 

 His early education had been greatly neglected, and the dissipations 

 of a camp had obliterated from his mind the little be had learnt. At 

 the age of thirty-three he began with zealous industry to apply him- 

 self to the rudiments of grammar. But his active mind found extreme 

 difficulty in applying, itself to its tedious minutiae ; and, absorbed in 

 religious contemplation, each word he met with excited a train of 

 pious thoughts. Still by constant application he appears to have made 

 some progress iu learning. He continued at Barcelona till the zealous 

 attempts on his part to reform some irregularities which existed in a 

 convent of nuns exposed him to the vengeance of those who had 

 partaken iu their disorders. He then retired to tho University of 

 Alcala, which had lately been founded by Cardinal Ximenes, iu order 

 to prosecute his studies. A religious address which he delivered to the 

 students was the occasion of his dismissal from that university, and 

 the obligation to study theology during four years, before he could 

 again be permitted to teach in public, was imposed upon him. In 

 1527 he retired to Salamanca, where, having imprudently resumed his 

 public teaching, he fell under the displeasure of the Inquisition, who 

 punished him by a severe confinement, aud dismissed him from their 

 city with a similar injunction. 



Discouraged by the rude reception which his pious labours had met 

 with in his native country, he repaired to Paris, at that time the most 

 renowned seat of learning in Europe. He arrived iu February 1528. 

 The slender means which had been provided for him by the charitable 

 generosity of his friends were purloined by the dishonesty of a fellow- 

 student, and ho was again compelled to have recourse to begging for 

 his subsistence. He however zealously applied himself to the studies 

 of the university : obliged to recommence his rules of grammar and 

 the principles of philosophy before he could be admitted as a theological 

 student, he humbly placed himself in the class of the youngest and 

 least advanced scholars, and besought their teacher to treat him as one 

 of them. His time in Paris appears to have been spent partly in the 

 laborious acquisition of knowledge, and partly iu the endeavour to 

 obtain a salutary influence over his compauious. In the latter pursuit 

 he was eminently successful. Two students shared his rooms, Peter 

 Faber, or Le Fevre, a native of Savoy, of humble origin and simple 

 manners, aud Francis Xavier of Navarre, of noblo ancestry and aristo- 

 cratic demeanour. These young men, of such different dispositions 

 and habits, were the first-fruits of Loyola's labours. From that tima 

 the three companions formed the closest intimacy, dividing their gains, 

 and sharing each other's toils. Shortly after three more students, 

 named Lainez, Bobadilla and Rodriguez, acknowledged the influence 



