that his ideas of divinity and morality were the haziest imaginable. If his enthusiasm was not running mad, his chivalry was certainly not allayed by the assault of the devil, and the familiar greeting of the Virgin. In fact, I do not think it proven that Ignatius really spared the Moor if he did not kill the infidel, that result did not, perhaps, depend either upon his will, or the mercy of However, such a miraculous guidance had, in a manner, occurred before; for in the year 1136, about two hundred thousand crusaders, commanded by Emico, Clarebald, and Thomas, abandoned themselves to the conduct of a goat and a goose, whom they believed to be divinely inspired, to conduct them from Hungary to Jerusalem, as we are gravely told in the Chronicles of the Holy City.1

his ass.

arms.

Being arrived at the town, which stands at the foot of the mountain, he bought a coat of coarse cloth, a rope to serve him as a girdle, a gourd, a pair The vigil at of sandals, and a great cloak; and placing this furniture of a religious warrior on his saddle-bow, soon the "gentle knight was pricking on the plain," to the shrine of his lady. He clomb the sacred hill, and reached the monastery. There he found a holy Father, a Frenchman, a man of great austerity and devotion,

Bartoli, as well as Bouhours, who follows him in general, pointedly alludes to the saint's moral obliquity on this occasion. Bartoli flatly calls him "an unexperienced novice, who as yet did not well distinguish between the sentiments of a Christian and the impulses of a knight"-" inesperto novizio in cui ancora non si distinguevan bene i dettami di Christiano, e gli spiriti di cavaliere." L. i. 9. Certainly if Hasenmüller may be credited in spite of his acrimony, the Moor was truly fortunate if he escaped. By his account, stated to be from Bobadilla, a Jesuit, Ignatius was as cruel and blood-thirsty as he was chivalric. "Bobadilla, unus ex primis Jesuitarum patribus, fatetur eum fuisse hominem armis castrisque assuetum, et tam truculentâ animi ferocitate præditum, ut quemvis obvium, etiam caprinam ob lanam sibi resistentem, gladio vel hastâ transverberare fuerit ausus."-Hist. Jesuit. Ordin. p. 12.

Les Chroniques de Jerusalem, lib. i. apud " De Selva," Hist. de Dom Inigo.

whose duty it was to shrive the pilgrims. He had the pleasure of listening to the darksome catalogue of the Caballero's transgressions, which required three days for the transfer-not without many interruptions by bitter groans and similar tears. After his confession he gave his rich garments to a beggar, and being stripped to the shirt, he donned the accoutrements of the new order of knighthood which he was founding, in great jubilation of heart devoutly kissing the penitential sack a thousand times, girding his loins, hanging his gourd at his side, and, pilgrim-staff in hand, he passed the live-long night before his Lady's altar, alternately kneeling and standing, but always praying, whilst he spent the indispensable "Vigil at Arms," as the paladins called it, according to the usages of ancient chivalry,— being now after his own invention,

1 Amadis de Gaul, trad. par le Comte Tressan, 1780. There is an English translation by Dr. Southey. See Sismondi, i. 151; ii. 150, for an account of the work.

At the break of day he hung up his sword and dagger on a pillar near the Virgin's altar, as a standing memento of his election, and in such exultation as may be conceived but not expressed, he set off, with bristling resolves, to Manreza-then a little obscure town not far from Montserrat, but since rendered extremely interesting and extravagantly famous by our knight of the Virgin, for the penance he there performed—a penance which is with reason more extolled than that of Amadis de Gaul on the desolate rock, renewed by the admirable Don Quixote de la Mancha, if you remember, on the black mountain.'

Thus is Ignatius fairly or foully, as you please, embarked on his new and unknown ocean of adventure. What is his object? It is difficult to say; but the immediate result will be fasting, prayer, and bodily maceration. The distant result, however, will be something more to the purpose. How far his present design, to rival in austerities the greatest saints before him, will give him greater honour in your

Reflections.

1 All the biographers exultingly. Hist. de Dom Inigo, i., &c. &c. The following is curious :-"It is not as yet fully ten yeeres since I was in the same Church of Montserrat, where I saw a Benedictine Monke show very many superstitious Relicks, Idols, and other fopperies, unto Pilgrimes, and other people that were come thither: some upon devotion, and a blind, foolish, superstitious zeale, and others of curiositie (as myself and many more, God forgive us) to see their impostures, deceits, and couzenage, but I could not see Ignatius his Sword and Dagger: whereupon I requested the Sacristan that kept the Relickes, to let me see those two holy Bilbo-blades: he told me that there was never any such Sword or Dagger there. I seeming to wonder at the matter, showed him the Life of Ignatius, written by Peter Ribadeneira, a Spanish Jesuite, in the Spanish tongue, and printed at Valladolid, Anno 1604, where it is said that Ignatius left his Sword and Dagger there. Upon this, the Monke, in a Spanish fustian-fume, cried out No me se de nada de las mentirias de los Teatinos: that is to say, I care not for the Jesuites lyes or fables."-Speculum Jesuiticum, p. 3, printed in 1629. The Jesuits were confounded with the Theatines. That phrase seems to prove the anecdote to be authentic.

estimation, is yet to be decided; but unquestionably there is in the man no common purpose. And it has gripped his heart as a ravening tiger fangs its unresisting prey. Heart and soul the man is in his resolveand you 'll find him in his work. I have a notion, for which I crave your indulgence. It seems to me that Providence, which equipoises the tides of the ocean, alternately ebbing and flowing, and leaving no constant preponderance, permits something of the kind in the religious and political affairs of men and nations. The fortunes of men and of nations perpetually suggest the fact, I mean the result, though, having your own notions of good and evil, you will not always attribute prosperity to good, nor' adversity to evil. Nothing is more certain than that the notions of good and evil have suffered very remarkable changes among men. In fundamental laws, promulgated on divine authority, a decided change has been, on the same authority, declared imperative. For instance, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.1 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil : but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." Again: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy 2 But I say unto you, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you : That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."-Matt. v. It is to the adorable motive here

:2

1 Ex. xxi. 24; Lev. xxiv. 20; Deut. xix. 21.

2 Lev. xix. 18.

suggested that I call your attention. The most consolatory doctrine of Providence over all, issues from that motive for universal charity and brotherhood. This is not the place to evolve the beautiful theory wherein God's justice and bounty are not at variance. Suffice it to say that whilst God endures man in any state, in every condition of belief and morality, "for he maketh his sun," &c., man, on the contrary, rises up a fierce exterminator on both scores, and in so doing, “thinks he has a good conscience." There have been times when that impulse rushed through humanity like a fiery meteor, or spread like epidemic pestilence. From the general excitation, as it were a general advertisement goes forth for a saviour, a defender. The state of affairs is the standing advertisement. Read through all political histories, you will never find a great, or a slashing, or a crushing mind, needed for any particular mission without his starting to the stage as the imp of incantation. You will find the same result in religious histories. About the same time, in the same year, 1521, when Luther stood forth the champion of Protestantism at the Diet of Worms, Ignatius conceived his resolution to dedicate himself to his spiritual career; and now, when Luther issues from the Wartburg, again to do battle in his cause, Ignatius has taken his vow, and begins his pilgrimage, (not to Jerusalem, forsooth, though he went thither,) but to Rome, whose rampart he is to become. Luther's entry into Wittemberg took place only eighteen days ere Ignatius passed his "Vigil at Arms" before the Virgin of Montserrat. When Luther attacked indulgences, he knew not that he would become the champion of the Protestant movement: when Ignatius resolved to imitate St. Dominic and St. Francis, he