ference between him and Ignatius as to knowledge how to direct a soul was the difference between a child and a sage." And Gonzalez records:

Father Ignatius has many skillful ways to learn a man's feelings and inclinations. One is to touch upon a world of topics, counting on the probability that the other will, apropos of some topic, reveal what there is in his mind. [And adds:] In conversation, Ignatius is so complete a master of himself and of the person with whom he is talking that even Polanco is as inferior to him as a little boy to a sensible man.

He was always just, and his knowledge of human nature told him when to be harsh and when to be tender. Gonzalez says:

It is remarkable how Father Ignatius uses contrary means in what seem to be similar cases. He treats one man with great severity, and another with great gentleness; and after the episode is over, it is always obvious that, though you could not tell beforehand, he employed the right remedy. But he is much more inclined to love, and so completely so, that his whole behaviour seems love. And he is so universally beloved by all, that there is not a man in the Society who does not feel deep affection for him, and does not believe that Father Ignatius is very fond of him.

And he explains their affection by Loyola's conduct toward them: first, his affability; second, the extreme care that he took of their health; and, third, his habit of giving disagreeable orders through his subordinates as if the orders emanated from them, but of bestowing all favors and privileges himself. This he did because he felt it of the utmost importance to the unity of the Society and to the spirit of loyalty within it, that all the members should be kindly disposed towards their General.

Of his care of the sick, of his concern with all the details of the infirmary, of their food, of the doctor's attendance,

there can be no doubt. And he wished all the officers of the Society to be equally solicitous. His theory was that all reasonable care should be taken of the body, and if then sickness came it was to be accepted as a divine visitation and put to use as a means of spiritual regeneration. Of this solicitude there is an anecdote. The rector of the Collegio Romano, Dr. Olave, a stern man, not inclined to make allowances for ill health, was himself taken sick; Ignatius charged Ribadeneira with this message: "Tell Dr. Olave from me that we have a good Master, who teaches us that we should have compassion upon others." It was the same with other matters that affected his household; Ignatius omitted nothing to make its inmates happy. But his kindness went much further than this. Though he was sparing of praise, he made it a point to say what good he could of everybody, and not to speak of faults, except so far as might be necessary to cure them. Ribadeneira says that he does not remember hearing him say a single cross word in disparagement of anybody. His refraining from all detraction, or evil speaking, was so perfect and wonderful, that his interpretations to excuse other people's failings, whether members of the Society or not, became a sort of proverb among them. Besides that, when he heard that anybody was spoken ill of, he cast about for something commendable in him, and repeated it to those who spoke against him. He liked to encourage those under him by praising their good qualities. And what, perhaps, was more admirable still, he would listen with the greatest patience to the futile talk of outsiders, and also to long discourses from members of the household that might well have been cut short, and yet when he joined in he gave the conversation a turn to spiritual things, so that it was plain enough where his thoughts had been. And he used to talk to his disciples about how wrong it was to write biting words. People had often written very harsh things to him, and even though he had a good retort, he never answered back, for he did not wish to return evil for evil. Ita maternum sancti Patris cor omnem amovebat a se, non tantum actum, sed umbram ipsam novercalis animi (as a Polish father said).

("In this manner our saintly Father's maternal heart rejected not only a stepmother's deeds, but even the shadow of a stepmother's disposition.")

A further reason for his hold upon his disciples is to be found in his devotion to the Society. The disciples were filled-I speak of the large majority-with a love of God and a desire to help their neighbors, but they also had a very strong esprit de corps, a pride in the Society. The General's loyalty to this corporate body, in which they all were members for the greater glory of God, inspired them with enthusiasm. I doubt if a day went by without some display of his love for the Society. He was wont to say to them that this thought often came to him: "Was it possible that some new, unheard-of thing, sad or bitter, could happen, that would trouble him and upset the composure of his mind? And after he had thought over everything he could only think of one thing: Suppose the Pope should dissolve the Society, and forbid its existence! But even if that should happen, after praying for a quarter of an hour, he would be able to lay aside his trouble and return to his former serenity." And a familiar remark of his was, that if anything could make him wish to live long, it would be to make it difficult for anyone to enter the Society. There is more than an abundance of evidence of his passionate interest in every matter that touched it. Over one chapter of the Constitution he had prayed and deliberated for forty days, over another for three, and he would not rest content with any provision in it until he felt that it had received God's sanction; even the least important he pondered over on seven separate occasions, with tears and prayers. And besides this, the brothers felt pride and confidence in his wisdom and in his holiness. When Nadal asked him how a man might attain to perfection, he answered: "Master Nadal, pray God to give you grace to suffer much for His sake, for in that good gift of His many others are enclosed." And all knew that he turned neither to right nor left for any human consideration when he beheld the gleam of God's glory leading him on.

CHAPTER XXXI

HIS PIETY

LOYOLA'S especial distinction, that sets him far apart from other men-I can think of no parallel except St. Bernardis that he not only possessed a genius for practical affairs, deep-seated piety, talents for meditation and contemplation, but also belonged to the little band called mystics. To begin with, he was profoundly religious minded; he believed, not as a theory only, but as a guide for living, that the controlling power in the universe is Spirit, that it is man's duty to serve that Spirit with all his might and main, and that the true way to serve is to do what the Holy Catholic Church, Roman and Apostolic, may direct. Spiritual powers, conceived under many forms and names, were as real to him as the phenomena of heat, light or falling bodies. He lived in this spiritual world, as a book-lover lives in a world of books; he ate, walked, slept, talked and did his daily duties in the world of sense, and then on his knees in his cubicle, or at the office of mass, or walking in the street, he would be rapt into the world of spiritual imaginings, to return to earth with the conviction that he had come down from peace everlasting to a temporary battlefield, where all good soldiers of God should hazer de veras guerra al diablo, make war in dead earnest against Satan.

He had trodden the purgative way and the illuminative way, and now, not with effort but by merely dropping the reins on the neck of his desire, he could transport himself into the immediate presence of God, unirse con Dios. Such almost involuntary sanctifications may have been more frequent in the early days of his conversion, but in his latter days he had more light on things divine, and a greater security of constancy and steadfastness. In a conversation

with Father Gonzalez, after he had finished dictating the Memoirs, from which I have frequently quoted, Ignatius said, that in his later years his power of communing with God had increased, that whenever he wished he could find God, and that he often had visions when he had important matters to decide, especially of Jesus Christ, who appeared to him like the sun.

After his death a note-book was found that contained notes of his spiritual experiences during the time he was at work on the constitution of the Society. He had noted down his most intimate cogitations, and the heavenly light and the visits that God vouchsafed him. For forty days he gave his whole thought to the question whether the churches joined to the professed houses should accept an income for their maintenance; and he recorded all his spiritual experiences throughout those forty days, at his morning meditations, while celebrating or attending mass, and while preparing for it. The notes reveal the scrupulousness with which he examined his conscience, the fervor of his prayers, his tears, the spiritual comfort descending bountifully upon him that betrayed itself externally by a paralysis of voice and breath, by violent pulsations in his veins, and inwardly by the almost continuous revelations that illumined his soul concerning the Trinity, the Divine Essence, the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, in short, many of the qualities and operations of Godhead. These divine visitations were very frequent, occurring in his cell, at table, indoors and out, day after day, and ravished him from himself as if his soul were in heaven and his body only left on earth. I will quote a few lines, word for word, from the note-book:

Saturday, fifth mass of the Holy Trinity. At the usual prayers, nothing very much at the beginning; then, towards the middle of prayers, a sense of spiritual comfort, and the sight of something very resplendent. When the altar was being made ready, Jesus presented Himself to my soul, and I felt moved to follow Him, in the conviction that He is the chief and captain of the Company-(This conviction is the