were influenced to conform to his views and observe the religious exercises prescribed in a book he had written, which is one of the most complete methods of subjugation of the flesh and mind and soul and conscience ever produced by man. One might look far for so striking an exhibition of the power of mind over mind. This forlorn outcast, unlearned, poor, dishonored in his own country, forsaken by his family, a student on charity, a stranger in a strange land, yet by his sanctified air and solemn warning everywhere repeated with the same terrible earnestness,-"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"—had won over to his cause men of the first ability for wealth, culture, and influence, men who afterwards made themselves, with their remarkable leader, renowned in the "Company of Jesus."

There must have been a strange power of fascination about this man, to captivate and rivet to himself such men as these, and bring them willingly to cast aside every social tie, every worldly interest, every lofty earthly ambition, and subject themselves entirely to his will. Loyola was eminently one of that class who are born to rule.

And now a scene occurs which might well employ the genius of an artist.

Night has folded the great city of Paris in its dark embrace. Its thousands are hushed in sleep, unconscious of a meeting on the summit of Montmartre of more significance to Europe than anything, except it were Luther's bold protest against the granting of indulgences.

That act of the German professor and preacher was the beginning of the Reformation that would carry him and his followers outside of the Church. This act was a reformation from within the Church, which it must have, or die.

There under the glittering canopy of heaven, on this lonely hill-top, at a time when the Church was rotten with corruption, these eight men with solemn mien,- men of influence, men of high standing, men of varied culture and attainment,- are met to take upon themselves the irrevocable vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. A

surrender it was, total and complete, of all that the world is wont to regard most desirable; subjection it was, total and complete, to the hardest fate, "ad majorem Dei gloriam," "for the greater glory of God."

They would act or wait, dare, suffer, or die, yet all in unquestioning submission to the authority of the superior mind in whom they recognized an agent of divine authority itself."

Within the Church were various orders and brotherhoods like the Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights, with their military ideas, or like the Benedictines, Dominicans, and Franciscans, with their monastic discipline; but, though partaking in some degree of both, the "Company of Jesus" was unique among religious orders.

Theirs was an active, aggressive work, not passive and retiring; a work in the world and for the world, not a work out of the world and from the world. "Habitual intercourse with the world was a prime duty, excluding external regulations of dress, rule, and austerities when necessary to enable its emissaries to act in every place," in a king's court, or in a university chair, or the lonely life of a missionary.

We find Loyola in the early part of the year 1537 in the city of Venice, with nine associates, about departing for their holy work in Jerusalem, in which purpose they were thwarted by an existing war between the Venetians and Turks.

Disappointed in this, Loyola attached himself to one Caraffa, a leader in a movement of ecclesiastical reform, and the head of the religious order of Theatines. Their methods were austere, and their offices embraced somewhat different conditions than were common in other orders. It is supposed that Loyola, by his connection with them, was led to form the plan of his Company, which he would soon appeal to the pope to sanction.

In November, 1537, Loyola announced to his associates his intention to name their fellowship the "Company of Jesus" and that they would offer themselves to the pope

Parkman, Jesuits of North America.

as a special militia. Loyola, Faber, and Laynez, after some days spent in prayer, betook themselves to Rome, while the rest of the fellowship began their work as home missionaries in the towns of Northern Italy. Now they are before the pope, Paul III.,- these men who are ready with their lives. in their hands to do his bidding.

A cold reception awaits their proposal for a new order. Already a convention of cardinals had reported "that the conventual orders were such a scandal to Christendom that they should all be abolished." *

"There was a strong and general feeling that the monastic system had broken down utterly, and could not be wisely developed further"; and though the pope (Paul III.), on perusing Loyola's papers, is said to have exclaimed, "The finger of God is here!" still he was loath to extend his favor, and his cardinals sustained him to withhold acquiescence. But a more careful study of the papers changed his mind, and at length, on Sept. 27, 1540, the bull was published confirming the new order, limiting its members to sixty, which restriction was removed by a later bull in March, 1543. So came into existence "the Company, or Society of Jesus,- the strongest and most remarkable institution" (considered all in all) "of modern times." †

On April 7, 1541, Loyola, over his personal protest, was unanimously chosen superior; a week later he entered on his new office; and on April 15 the newly constituted society took its formal corporate vows, as a religious order, in the Church of St. Paul-without-the-Walls.

Its members were now sent in various directions,-Salmeron and Brouet on a secret mission to Ireland; Bobadilla to Naples; Faber first to the Diet at Worms, and then to Spain; Laynez and Le Jay to Germany; Xavier to the fardistant Indian mission at Goa; while the general, besides keeping his watchful eyes upon every man, buried himself further in work close around him, also perfecting the orig

* Encyclopædia Britannica.

White's Christian Centuries, p. 435.

inal draft of the Constitutions, in itself a work of ten years' time. What was enjoined on every member of the Company was in turn exacted of him. Loyola was revered as "God's anointed." His command was to his followers as the will of God, and no less to be regarded. Self-conquest must be achieved as preliminary to subduing others.

To acquire these ends, Loyola considered a life of activity was of more importance than a life of secluded meditation. Only as much of the latter was prescribed as to fit one to be master of himself. He saw also that a system of education "on Catholic principles, as opposed to the free intellectual training of the modern world," would be the means of gaining great power. Hence arose the excellence of the Jesuit schools and colleges, which were recognized as the best in the land. Again, he saw the importance of firmly establishing his faith in new countries, thus laying the foundations of the great structure which was to assume the religious domination of the world. Added to education and self-sacrifice was the power of the confessional, through which the Jesuit could touch the secret springs of the heart and lay it bare.

But where were men to be found, in a world given up to luxury, to renounce all for the service of complete subjection of body, mind, and soul, to the will of one man?

They were to be made; and it is just here we see the almost superhuman power of Loyola. He not only made. the men he drew to him in a certain degree machines, but they were machines with minds capable of conducting their own movements, yet never swerving from the principle of the one cause to which they were pledged. He thus made men, and his system still makes them, when united for good, able to do more than any company of men in the world, and on the contrary, when joined in evil, the strongest power for darkness. It is said, "Every one who enters the Company is first tried like a musket," and if not able to stand the trial is rejected. They sift and sift, and can afford to reject till they get the right man. Having been received, he must forsake everything,- parents, home,

friends, cut loose from every tie, and bind himself to hold no intercourse with the world save to carry out the one idea, the will of his superior.

Unswerving obedience in thought, deed, and word is the first and unfailing principle. As upon the wings of the wind, the "Company of Jesus" spread to all parts of the world. No mission too distant, no hardships too great, no work too laborious for these devoted men. Missions were established in India, China, Japan, Paraguay, in the mines of Peru, in the islands of the Indian Ocean, in the wilderness of North America.

From the very first, the most devoted of Loyola's Parisian converts was the noble youth Xavier, brilliant, accomplished, loyal to death. There was no one of the eight who took those solemn vows in the midnight on Montmartre who combined so thoroughly the requisite qualities for a missionary. At the farthest ends of the earth he could be trusted. He was accordingly commissioned by the pope, at Loyola's suggestion, to plant the seeds of the Romish faith on the shores. of the Indian Ocean, and forthwith took passage for Goa in Hindustan. The voyage was attended with much suffering. He shared the lot of the humblest, performing cheerfully the most menial offices for the many sick on board the vessel.

The motto the Jesuit missionaries adopted upon setting out for a foreign shore was these words: "I will go. I shall never return." So went Xavier to his distant mission, to literally fulfil it, paralleling in his heroic labors the example of the Apostle Paul. Ten years he wrestled like a giant hero in those benighted countries, establishing in that time missions in Japan and China, the islands of the Indian Ocean, and a chain of posts through all India. His travels were equal to a distance twice around the world. But there is a limit to human endurance; and even the iron constitution of Xavier, which had been proof against torture and self-inflicted lacerations of the body, exposure to deadly malaria, fatigue, and suffering of every description, to a degree almost incredible, at last gave way. Having taken passage on a vessel about leaving the coast of China, he was at