body well, you can do much; but if your body is sick, I don't know what you can do. A healthy body is a great help both for doing good and doing evil; much evil to those whose will is depraved and morals bad, much good to those who set their whole will on God, and whose way of life is virtuous.

Above all, remember that our Lord loves you (for I do not doubt that), and repay Him with the same love; and do not vex yourself about thoughts, though they are evil, sexual or shameful, or about trifles, or lukewarmness, provided that they are against your will, for neither St. Peter nor St. Paul was able to prevent such thoughts from coming. And if you do not succeed in expelling them, you can do much by paying no heed to them. Just as my salvation does not depend on the good works of good angels, so I shall not be damned for the weaknesses and evil thoughts which wicked angels-the world and the fleshspread before me. God wishes my soul to conform to His will, and then the soul, by such conformity, makes the body also, willy-nilly, conform to the divine will. That is our fighting ground. Such is the pleasure of Eternal Goodness. May He, of His infinite grace and mercy, keep us always in His hands.

De bondad pobre,

To Father Manuel Miona, in Paris

IÑIGO.

VENICE, November 16, 1536. May the Grace and love of Christ bless us and keep us always.

I want very much to know how things have gone with you, and no wonder, for I owe you so much in spiritual matters, as a son to his father. And since it is my duty to repay so much loving affection as you have always had for me and shown in your actions, I do not know what better I can do for you in this life than to get you to practise the Spiritual Exercises for a month with the person I named; besides you said you were ready to do so. And

please, for God's sake, if you have tried and enjoyed them, write me about it; and if not, I beg you by His love and by the bitter death He suffered for us, to practise them. And if you regret doing so, besides the pain you will give me, which I will submit to, put me down as a mocker of the spiritual persons to whom I owe everything.

I have not written to you personally up to now, because when I write to one of you I write to all; and besides Lefèvre can tell you all you want to know about me; you can get it from my letters to him.

Twice, thrice, and as many more times as I can, I beg you for God's sake to do what I ask, so that hereafter His divine Majesty shall not ask me why I did not beg you with all my might. For these exercises are the best thing I can imagine, or feel, or understand, in this life, first to help a man win advantage for himself, and second to be able to help and benefit many others and render them fruitful. For if, as to the first, you shall not feel a need of them, nevertheless as to the second you will see beyond all measure how much it shall be of service to you.

So, I conclude, supplicating the infinite mercy of God to give us grace to learn His holy will, and to perform it fully, according to the talents committed to each of us, so that He shall not say to us "Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not,” etc. Wholly yours in the Lord,

IÑIGO.

In Venice, Ignatius was again the object of suspicion and slander. It was said that he had been condemned several times, that he had been burned in effigy both in Spain and in Paris, and that he had fled to Venice in order to escape death, and what not. He took the same stand that he had done under similar circumstances in Paris, at Salamanca and Alcalá-he went to the ecclesiastical judge, Dr. Gaspar de Doctis, deputy of the Apostolic Legate, asked for an investigation and offered to appear at any time; a proceeding was held, a time was set for all to appear that might wish to testify against him, depositions were taken and wit

nesses examined in behalf of the accusations and also for the defense; and after the matter had been duly considered, judgment was finally given on October 13th, 1537. The charges were dismissed as frivolous, empty and false, and Loyola declared "to have been and to be a priest of good and religious life and orthodox belief, as well as of very high reputation, and to have taught religion and morality in Venice up to this day."

CHAPTER XVIII

FROM VENICE TO ROME (1537-1538)

IGNATIUS passed a whole year in Venice, waiting for the time agreed upon when his companions were to come. The agreement had been that they should set forth from Paris on January 25, 1537, but in the preceding summer war broke out anew between the King of France and the Emperor, and the Fathers in Paris, apprehensive lest the Spaniards among them should be arrested, or the area of battle extend to the north and bar the roads into Italy, decided to forestall such contingencies, and left Paris abruptly on November 15, 1536. A letter from Ignatius to the confessor of the French Queen, sister of Charles V, a Spanish priest who had accompanied her Majesty to Paris, reveals his perturbation over their journey:

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ always bless us and help us.

I remember well the kind and obliging good will which, from your love and service toward God, you have always shown to me, in spite of my unworthiness, and so I have come... to ask for still more kindness to the end of serving and praising Almighty God. . . . Master Pierre Lefèvre and some companions are about to start on a very hard journey, of which you can get full information from them. I am fearful because of the wars and troubles that, on account of our sins, have grown so great in Christendom, lest they find themselves in great distress. So for God's sake, please help them as God may prompt you and as may be feasible. All will be for the love and glory of God, and I shall regard whatever you do as if done for me personally.

The little band might turn their backs on the world and rise superior to national ambitions and enmity, nevertheless the war "kindled by our wickedness" as they humbly

said, affected them, not only directly by obliging them to make a premature start and interfering with the progress of their journey, but also, in a less obvious but more permanent manner, by its indirect effect upon the policy of the Pope and of the various princes and states of Italy. And, therefore, before taking up the narrative of their journey and further doings, I shall make a short digression in order to refresh the reader's memory of the political situation.

For several years Charles V and Francis I had held to the treaty of peace that had followed rather lamely upon the battle of Pavia, but circumstances had altered, and fortune looked with a more smiling face upon France. Great factors in European politics veered towards her side. Henry VIII, who in earlier years had usually inclined to his nephew the Emperor, now that he had divorced Catherine of Aragon and broken with the Papacy, leaned toward France; the Protestant princes of Germany had organized a league and looked to Francis as a protector; Prince Henry of Orléans, Francis's second son, had married the Pope's niece, Catherine de' Medici; and the Turks were threatening Austria. These favoring circumstances confirmed the French King in his purpose to recover Milan when he should get a good chance, and he pressed his advantages. He grew more and more cordial to the Protestant princes, and even invited Melanchthon to come to Paris to discuss ways and means of mutual understanding and reconciliation between the new opinions and the old; and he made a secret alliance with the Sultan of Turkey against their "common enemy." To his disappointment, Clement VII died, and the Medici marriage lost its political value, but he believed that he could win the good will of the new Pope, Alessandro Farnese, Paul III, and despatched a very clever man as special ambassador, Jean du Bellay, archbishop of Paris. At this juncture Francesco Sforza, who had been reseated upon the ducal throne of Milan by the Emperor after having been ousted by the French, died without children. This afforded Francis his opportunity to revive the French claim. Making a pretext of civil war in Savoy, he overran that duchy and entered Piedmont. The