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He, too, went to school at La Roche, under the saintly schoolmaster, Peter Villiardus, and though the school was very large, he may have known Lefèvre. He stayed there for many years and studied theology with the head master, perhaps he became one of the staff; at any rate he did not go to Paris and matriculate at the Collège de Sainte Barbe until the autumn of 1534. The next year he took his degree as licentiate, and, after that, probably, was ordained priest, and the year after, perhaps at the same time with Lefèvre, was made master of arts. It does not appear that he had any personal acquaintance with Ignatius at this time, and we may assume that he joined the saintly fellowship under the influence of Lefèvre. His after life must have crowned the expectations of his schoolmaster, but I know of neither special traits nor strange adventures that distinguished his laborious apostolic life from the lives of the other First Fathers. One anecdote I will repeat, of the year 1537, while the comrades were engaged upon their evangelical missions in Venetia, before the Society received its charter from the Pope. He and Rodriguez went together to Ferrara. I quote from the latter's narrative:

There was fog, a frosty air, and bitter cold, immoderate rains, and cloudy sky. We lodged in the most povertystricken hospice in the city, a great big habitation of clay, damp as could be, with the winds blowing through wherever they listed. This hospitable lodging was entrusted to the care of a shrewish little old woman, who would not let anybody get into bed with any garment on. Before she retired, she compelled every poor man to take off his outer clothes and his undergarments right under her eyes, so that in case they had sores or any infectious disease, they might be sent elsewhere. If they passed inspection, they had to lay their clothes on a remote bench, before they got into bed, in order that sheets and blankets should not be fouled with lice. The brothers behaved with as great modesty as was possible in this very delicate situation. As soon as they woke from their first sleep they got up, struck a spark and lit a little lamp, and putting on their miserable gar

ments, began to recite their morning prayers; and so spent their nights in pious orisons. The little old woman, however, used to keep a sharp eye on what these brothers did so quietly and secretly. Besides, she observed that they ate very little, and taught Christian principles to the other poor people, and coming to the conclusion that they were overlaid with sanctity, proclaimed her opinion in a most laudatory fashion. Now it happened that the very noble and virtuous Marchesa di Pescara [Vittoria Colonna] was living in the city at the time, and had long in mind to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to see the holy places, and she wished to learn about the character and religious life of the Fathers, not by gossip, but by authentic information. She had often seen them in one of the city churches, so she went up to one of them and asked him, if he did not belong to that group of theologians from Paris, who were said to be waiting for an opportunity of sailing to Jerusalem. When she learned that they did, she asked where they lodged; and as she knew the hospice, she went there privily while we were out, and asked the woman in charge of the hospital ward, who and what sort of men we were. The woman answered most garrulously and most satisfactorily. She said: "They are saints, anybody can see, and they deserve great praise for their spotless behaviour and their blameless habits, and their teaching is wonderfully true. They neither eat nor drink; they are on their knees all night long and pour out their prayers. I have seen them often with my own eyes and spied on them sharply." So the brothers finally accepted food from the Marchesa, and by her kindness they were transferred to a more commodious poorhouse, where they had a room, and bed and food every night, and lived a little less pinched, although still slenderly.

In later years Father Jay labored in various places in Germany, and for a time occupied the chair of theology in the University of Ingolstadt, left vacant by the death of Johann Eck, Luther's famous opponent. I notice that in one letter to Loyola he writes: "Non ci manca la croce per

multi rispetti; non di meno il Signore ci consola. We are not without our crosses, but the Lord comforts us"; and in another, "As to the fruits of my teaching and preaching I can't say; but if what a good many people have said to me is true, they have been more satisfactory to others than to me." In one German town threats were made to throw him into the river. "It is as easy," he said, "to go to heaven by water as by land." He also was a good deal of the time in Italy, including two years in Ferrara, where he won the favor and affection, it would seem, of the duke, Ercole II, son of Lucrezia Borgia. Jay died a few years before Ignatius.

The next to join was Paschase Broët, a Frenchman, who came from a little town in Picardy. He was a few years older than the other disciples, and had already been made a priest. His personality was of no very marked character, but he was so good and innocent that Loyola used to call him the angel of the Society. He did his duty as he saw it, "nullis parcens laboribus, nullis fractus adversitatibus, he passed his life striving to lead his fellow-men away from the company of the vicious into the perfectness of Christian life." His most remarkable experience was the mission to Ireland, which I shall relate in another chapter. After this we find him in Italy, at Faenza or Bologna, but the chief work of his manhood lay in Paris. He was put at the head of the French province, and there he labored with great prudence for ten years, when he died of the plague. His last written communication is an index of his unselfish life.

I Paschase Broët declare that since I caught the plague, I have not been to the garret, and I have touched nothing, I have not even gone to the old refectory, I have not touched the books in the library. In my room I have touched some little books of devotion in manuscript, and three or four others in print, such as the breviary, the book on medicines, and a little book of advice about the plague. I have touched some coins, some of which are in the wooden box beside the window by the stalls in the library, the rest I gave to John the cook. I commend my soul to the

Reverend Lord God, and to all the court of Heaven, and to our Reverend Father General and to all the Society, and to all of you scattered on account of the plague, and I beg you all to pray the Lord God to forgive all my sins. I also ask forgiveness of all whom I have offended. I hope that through the prayers of the Society the Lord God of His mercy will forgive me.

September 11, 1562.

PASCHASE BROËT.

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Of the third of these three new disciples, Father Coduri, there is little to say, for he lived but a scant year after the founding of the Society, and the few references merely speak of him as sharing in the general experiences of the fellowship. One incident, however, casts a little light upon his character. While the ten comrades were still tarrying, during the year of waiting for a ship to Jaffa, Coduri and a young man, Hoces, who had come under Loyola's influence in Venice, went to Padua, and there the "Bachelor,' as Hoces was called in distinction to the others who were all masters of arts, died. In life he was an ugly youth of swarthy complexion, but as he lay dead, to the loving eyes of Jean Coduri, his countenance looked beautiful, like the face of an angel, so that Coduri wept for joy, and could not gaze upon the dead face enough. After the foundation of the Society, because of his poor health, he stayed in Rome, working in the garden. There he died, and if—so his comrades thought-integrity of life, love of his neighbor, and sanctity at death availed, he went from earth to Heaven; and it became the fashion among them to speak of him as "el buen Magistro Juan, che está en gloria."

These three new brothers took the same vows as the others, and on the first and second anniversaries of the day of self-consecration at Montmartre, repaired thither with them, and all shared in a repetition of the sacred ceremony.

CHAPTER XVI

BACK IN SPAIN (1535)

LOYOLA did not complete his course in theology at the University. His health gave out. At this time, and all his life long, improper and insufficient nourishment played havoc with his stomach. It was imperative to change his mode of life, and apart from the physician's advice, there were various reasons for going to Spain. It had been said that he was a fugitive and durst not go back; naturally he wished to prove this accusation false; and it was proper to acquaint the families of his Spanish disciples with their purposes, and important to make some arrangements whereby the families should continue to support them, as well as to obtain assurance from his own friends in Barcelona, or elsewhere, that they would continue to make provision for him. He left early in the year 1535. Having appointed Pierre Lefèvre to act as father, in his stead, of the little flock, and having enjoined upon them frequent communion, penitence, prayer, and daily meditation over holy thoughts, he mounted a little horse, which his friends had provided for his sickly body, and rode off, probably by way of Orléans, Tours and Bayonne, and over the border, direct to Azpeitia, where his elder brother lived. Here Loyola insisted upon a behaviour that bears to our eyes a look of ostentation, or at least of exaggerated humility. But we must beware of our modern judgments; for we are all inclined to regard ways and customs that clash with our own as outlandish, as barbarian or Gentile. Ignatius lays it down, in the Spiritual Exercises as a principle, that if a choice of conduct is in itself a matter of indifference in that it does not affect the glory of God, nevertheless, if one way means a closer walk in the footsteps of Christ, a way of poverty, of reproach and con

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