726 L O Y 
at his fall, the garrifon immediately furrendered at dif- 
cretion ; and the French ufed their victory with modera¬ 
tion. Out of refpeft for the valour which Loyola had 
difplayed, they haftened to his affiftance, and carried him 
to the quarters of their general, where his broken leg was 
let; and, as foon as he was in a fit (fate for being removed, 
they fent him in a litter to his native place, which was at 
no great diftance from Pampeluna. During the progrefs 
of a lingering cure, he happened to have no other amufe- 
ment than what he found in reading the lives of the faints ; 
the effefif of which on his mind, naturally enthufiallic, 
but ambitious and daring, was to infpire him with a de¬ 
fire of emulating the glory of the moft celebrated among 
them, particularly of St. Dominic and St. Francis. See 
Jesuit, vol. x. p. 785. From this time he refolved to 
renounce the vanities of the world ; to vifit the Holy Land, 
and to devote himfelf to an auftere religious life. In 
purfuance of this refolution, as foon as he was cured he 
undertook a pilgrimage to our Lady of Montferra.t, to 
hang up his arms near her altar. Being arrived at Mont- 
ferrat, he adopted a new method of confecrating himfelf 
to the fervice of the Virgin, borrowed from the practice 
in ancient chivalry of knights-errant watching their arms 
all nighr, before the day of their admifiion into the order. 
On this occafion, he ftripped off his clothes, which he gave 
to a poor man, put on a coarfe garment of fackcloth, 
girded himlelf with a cord, from which was fufpended a 
gourd for carrying water, put a matted fhoe on one foot 
■which had not yet recovered the injury produced by his 
wounds, leaving the other naked and his head expofed to 
the violence of the weather, and fubftituting in the place 
of his lance a plain crab-tree ftaff. Thus equipped, he 
prefented himfelf before the altar of the Virgin, hung his 
l'word and other arms on a pillar near the altar, and watched 
all night, fornetimes kneeling and fometimes handing, de¬ 
voting himfelf as a champion to the fervice of the Virgin 
and of Jefus. Early on the morning, after he had gone 
through this ceremony, Loyola departed on foot for Man- 
refa, three leagues from Montferrat, where he intended 
going through a courfe of penance, by way of preparation 
for his expedition to the Holy Land. Here he ftaid about 
a year, living chiefly with the poor of the hofpital, beg¬ 
ging his bread from door to door ; occafionally retiring to 
a cavern in a mountain near Manrefa; and for a fhort 
time inhabiting a cell in the Dominican convent. This 
time he fpent in the inoff rigorous mortifications of 
every kind; not indulging himfelf with any other food 
but bread and water, excepting a few herbs on Sundays ; 
failing fix days in the week ; wearing a coarfe hair-cloth 
next his fkin ; whipping himfelf three times a-day ; fpend- 
ing feven hours every day in vocal prayer; buffering his 
hair and nails to grow, till he became fo fqualid a figure, 
that the boys hooted at him and pelted him whenever he 
made his appearance abroad ; lyingonly on the bare ground, 
and permitting himfelf very little fleep ; and enduring 
numerous fpiritual conflicts, during which, like other f'u- 
perftitious and melancholy enthufiafls, he was more than 
once tempted to put an end to his life. At length, hav¬ 
ing perfuaded himlelf that he had obtained a complete 
viiiory over the devil by thefe penances, and that God 
had given him a fpecial call to convert finners from their 
wickednefs, he moderated his auftefities ; rendered his 
perfon lefs repulfive, by cleanfing himfelf from his filth, 
and wearing a decent habit of coarfe cloth ; and com¬ 
menced his labours of fpiritual exhortation, both in pri¬ 
vate families and in public places. At Manrefa all'o he 
wrote his book of Spiritual Exercifes ; but whether it was 
his own compofition, or llolen from the works of others, 
as fome Benediflines have maintained, we leave to the 
confideration of thofe readers who may deem it a fubjedt 
delerving of enquiry, whom Bayle has furnilhed with the 
evidence on both Tides the queition. Intent, however, on 
his vifit to Palelline, Loyola departed from Manrefa in the 
year 1523, and embarked on-board a veffel at Barcelona, 
3 
O L A. 
from which he landed in five days at Gaeta, Being now in 
Italy, he proceeded without delay to Rome, that he might 
receive the pope’s bleffing ; and, having arrived at that 
city on Palm-Sunday, his holineis Adrian VI. gave him 
his benediction, and his leave to purfue his pilgrimage to' 
Jerufalem. From Rome he travelled on foot, begging his- 
bread from day to day, till he arrived at Venice. Here he 
procured a paffage to the eafl, and after a voyage of about 
fix weeks arrived at Joppa on the laft day of Auguft, and 
at Jerufalem on the fourth of September. After viliting 
the fcenes of our Saviour’s principal tranfaftions in that 
city and the furrounding country, and going through the 
exercifes ufually performed by pilgrims, Loyola formed 
the defigu of remaining in Palelline, for the purpofe of 
devoting himfelf to the converlion of the inhabitants of 
the eaft. This defign he communicated to the father 
guardian of the Francifcans, who referred him to the fa¬ 
ther provincial That father, well knowing the danger 
to which an attempt at carrying fuch a defign into exe¬ 
cution would expofe not only Loyola himfelf but all the 
Chrillians at Jerufalem, exercifed the authority with which 
he was inverted by a papal bull, and obliged our pilgrim 
to return to Europe. During his voyage on-board a vef¬ 
fel bound to Venice, while reflecting on the great objeit 
which he had principally at heart, that of employing him¬ 
felf in the work of converting finners, he became fully 
fenfible of his lamentable deficiency in the learning and 
knowledge requifite for fuch an undertaking. He there¬ 
fore determined, though he was now about thirty-three 
years of age, to go through a courfe of ftudies, commen¬ 
cing with grammar-learning; and, as he was acquainted 
with the mailer of the public fchool at Barcelona, and 
trulled that he fhould be able to find the means of fubfift- 
ence there, he determined to repair as fpeedily as pofiible 
to that city. He had therefore no fooner landed at Ve¬ 
nice, than he proceeded without delay to Genoa, where 
he obtained a paffage by fea to Barcelona. Here he firft 
began to learn the rudiments of grammar, in the year 
1324 ; and when, after much difficulty and labour, he had 
made fo much progrefs as to be able to underftand a Latin 
author, he began to read the Enchiridion Militis Chrif- 
tiani of Erafmus. But that book, in which a purity of 
Ityle is united with the moft fage rules of Chriftian mo¬ 
rality, did not fuit the fanatical tafte of Loyola, who re- 
linquiflied it for the ltudy of Thomas a Kempis. Eraf- 
mus’s work, he faid, was like fo much ice, which abated 
the fervour of his devotion, and cooled the fire of divine 
love in him ; on which account he took an averfion to it, 
and would never read any of that author’s writings, nor 
fuffer his difciples to read them. In two years time, Loyola 
was judged to have made fuch a progrefs-in grammar-learn¬ 
ing, as to be qualified for entering on academic ftudies; 
and, in 1526, he went to the univerfity of Alcala de He- 
nares. Here he parted through his courfes of philofophy 
and divinity, but with little fuccefs, becaufe, as father 
Maffei relates in his life, he was in too much hade, and 
obferved no method or regularity in his ftudies ; render¬ 
ing his mind confufed by attending feveral confeftors 
every day, and attempting at the fame time to become ac¬ 
quainted with rhetoric, logic, metaphyfics, natural phi¬ 
lofophy, and, above all, fcholaftic divinity. Belides, he 
was diverted from his ftudies by the very conliderable 
portion of his time which he devoted to fpiritual exer¬ 
cifes and contemplations, to the fervice of the fick at the 
holpitals, to his begging excurfions, and to the pious 
inftrufilions and exhortations which he delivered to the 
people. 
Loyola had now affociated •himfelf with four compa¬ 
nions, who imitated his courfe of life, and went clothed, 
like him, in brown woollen habits. An account of their 
extraordinary manner of living, and of the crowds who 
followed to hear their exhortations, being brought to To¬ 
ledo, the jealoufy of the inquifitors was awakened, who 
inftiluted enquiries relative to Loyola’s doftrine and be¬ 
haviour ,• 
