in all six or seven cells, twenty feet in length and breadth, whence there was a view, and an entrance into the garden, which was watered by a fountain, with flowers and apples, oranges and lemons, growing close to the windows. Thus nature easily returns to its state and stature, if ambition, which inflated and disarranged it, should die away and truly, whoever had observed his greatness of soul in resigning such an immense empire over sea and land, or his constancy in that mode of life which he adopted within that cloister, during these two years which his victory lasted, or the holiness of his end, at which he did not arrive by a sudden fall, but after intense meditation, and, what is most difficult, ordaining his death while alive; such a man will be of opinion that it was not a light or unworthy cause which moved the emperor, but that it was a pious motive, and evidently from Heaven." So far Strada; and to the like effect concludes Godelevæus. 66 This action of Charles V. by which he abdicated empire, is a most beautiful and memorable example of the utmost modesty and humanity, which should remind all kings and princes that they will have to render an account to God as soon as they depart from the world, that they should study to be of service to mankind, that they should devote themselves to God and to the Divine worship, embracing continence of life, temperance, and charity; so that, passing to those celestial countries from this miserable life, quasique lachrymarum valle, they may enjoy the vision of the great God and of his angels, along with holy kings and patriarchs, and faithful servants of Christ." Among remarkable conversions of great knights and warriors, there is not one more memorable than that of St. Ignatius Loyola. St. Ignatius was born 1491, in the castle of Loyola, in Guipuscoa, a part of Biscay that reaches to the Pyrennean mountains. His father, Don Bertram, was lord of Ognez and Loyola, head of one of the most ancient and noble families in Spain. His mother, Mary Saez de Balde, was not less illustrious by her extraction. They had three daughters and eight sons. youngest of all these was Inigo, or Ignatius; he was well shaped, and in his childhood gave proofs of a pregnant 1 P. 391. The wit, a discretion above his years, was affable and obliging, but of a warm and choleric disposition, and had an ardent passion for glory. I have seen his portrait by Titian, in the Earl of Hardwicke's house, at Wimpole; and a more sublime portrait does not exist in the world. He is painted with a long and dark visage, marked with much of benevolence, and with deep-sunk eyes of fire, which indicate somewhat more than an ordinary mortal. οὐκ ἄν τις μιν ἐρυκάκοι ἀντιβολήσας. Νόσφι θεῶν, ὅτ ̓ ἐσᾶλτο πύλας πυρὶ δ ̓ ὄσσε δεδῄει. He was bred in the court of Ferdinand V. in quality of page to the king, under the care and protection of Antony Mauriquez, duke of Najara, grandee of Spain, who was his kinsman and patron; and who, perceiving his inclinations led him to the army, took care to have him taught all the exercises proper to make him an accomplished officer. The love of glory, and the example of his elder brothers, who had signalised themselves in the wars of Naples, made him impatient till he entered the service. He behaved with great valour and conduct in the army, especially at the taking of Najara, a small town on the frontiers of Biscay; yet he generously declined taking any part of the booty, in which he might have challenged the greatest share. He hated gaming as an offspring of avarice, and a source of quarrels and other evils. He was dexterous in the management of affairs, and had an excellent talent in making up differences among the soldiers. He was ge nerous, even towards enemies; but addicted to gallantry, and full of the maxims of vanity and pleasure. Though he had no learning, he made tolerable good verses in Spanish, having a natural genius for poetry. Charles V. who had succeeded King Ferdinand, was chosen Emperor, and obliged to go into Germany. Francis I., king of France, having been his competitor for the empire, resented his disappointment, and became an implacable enemy to the house of Austria. He declared war against Charles with a view to recover Navarre, of which Ferdinand had lately dispossessed John of Albert, and which Charles still held contrary to the treaty of Noyon, by which he was obliged to restore it in six months. Francis therefore, in 1521, sent 1 Il. xii. 465. a great army into Spain, under the command of Andrew de Foix, younger brother of the famous Lautrec, who, passing the Pyrenneans, laid siege to Pampeluna, the capital of Navarre. Ignatius had been left there by the viceroy, not to command, but to encourage the garrison. He did all that lay in his power to persuade them to defend the city, but in vain. However, when he saw them open the gates to the enemy, to save his own honour, he retired into the citadel with one only soldier, who had the heart to follow him. The garrison of this fortress deliberated likewise whether they should surrender, but Ignatius encouraged them to stand their ground. The French attacked the place with great fury, and with their artillery made a great breach in the wall and attempted to take it by assault. Ignatius appeared upon the breach, at the head of the bravest part of the garrison, and with his sword in his hand, endeavoured to drive back the enemy; but, in the heat of the combat, a shot from a cannon brake from the wall a bit of stone which struck and bruised his left leg. The garrison, seeing him fall, surrendered at discretion. The French used their victory with moderation, and treated the prisoners well, especially Ignatius, in consideration of his quality and valour: they carried him to the general's quarters, and soon after sent him, in a litter carried by two men, to the castle of Loyola, which was not far from Pampeluna. Being arrived there, he felt great pain; for the bones had been ill set, as is often the case in the hurry after a battle. The surgeons, therefore, judged it necessary to break his leg again, which he suffered without any concern. But a violent fever followed the second setting, which was attended by dangerous symptoms, and reduced him to an extreme degree of weakness, so that the physicians declared that he could not live many days. He received the sacraments on the eve of the feast of Saint Peter and Paul, and it was believed he could not hold out till the next morning. Nevertheless, God, who had great designs of mercy upon him, was pleased to ordain otherwise. In the night, Ignatius had a vision, and he thought he saw St. Peter, to whom he always had a singular devotion, and that the apostle touched him. When he awoke he was out of danger, and his pains had left him. So that he ever after looked upon this recovery as miraculous, though he still retained the spirit of the world. After the second setting of his leg, the end of a bone stuck out under his knee, which was a deformity. Though the surgeons told him the operation would be very painful, he caused this protuberance to be cut off, merely that his boot and stocking might sit well; and he would neither be bound nor held, and scarce even changed countenance, whilst the bone was partly sawed and partly cut off. Because his right leg remained shorter than the left, he would be for many days together put upon a kind of rack, and with an iron engine he violently stretched and drew out that leg; but all to little purpose, for he remained lame his whole life after. During the cure of his knee he was confined to his bed, though otherwise in perfect health; and finding the time tedious, he called for some books of romances, for he had been always much delighted with fabulous histories of knight-errantry. None such being then found in the castle of Loyola, a book of the lives of our Saviour and of the Saints was brought him. He read them first only to pass away the time, but afterward began to relish them, and to spend whole days in reading them. He chiefly admired in the Saints their love of solitude and of the Cross. In the fervour of his good resolutions he thought of visiting the Holy Land, and becoming a hermit. But these pious motions soon vanished; and his passion for glory, a secret inclination for a rich lady in Castile, again filled his mind with thoughts of the world; till, returning to the lives of the Saints, he perceived in his own heart the emptiness of all worldly glory, and that only God could content the soul. Taking at last a firm resolution to imitate the Saints in their heroic practice of virtue, he began to make use of those means which seemed most likely to secure it. During his midnight devotions, it is recorded that he had visions. Why should any man, professing Christianity, call such testimonies into question? Is it not expressly prophesied that young men should see visions? These visions, it is said, replenished his soul with spiritual delight, and made all sensual pleasure and worldly objects insipid to him ever after. The saint's eldest brother, who was then, by the death of their father, lord of Loyola, endeavoured to detain him in the world, and to persuade him not to throw away the great advantages of the honour and reputation which his valour had gained him. But Ignatius, being cured of his wounds, under pretence of paying a visit to the Duke of Najava, who had often come to see him during his illness, and who lived at Navarret, turned another way; and sending his two servants back from Navarret to Loyola, went to Montserrat. This was a great abbey of near 300 Benedictine monks, of a reformed austere institute, situated on a mountain of difficult access, about four leagues in circumference, and two leagues high, in the diocese of Barcelona. There lived at that time in this monastery, a monk of great sanctity, named John Chanones, a Frenchman, who being formerly vicar-general to the bishop of Mirepoix, in the thirty-first year of his age resigned his ecclesiastical preferment, and took the monastic habit in this place. He lived to the age of eighty-eight years, watching great part of the night in prayer, dividing his whole time between heavenly contemplation and the service of his neighbours, and giving to all Spain an example of the most perfect obedience, humility, charity, devotion, and all other virtues. To this experienced director Ignatius addressed himself, and made his confession with abundance of tears, and made his vows, and dedicated himself with great fervour to the divine service. At his first coming to this place, he had bought, at the village of Montserrat, a long coat of coarse cloth, girdle, a pair of sandals, a wallet, and a pilgrim's staff, intending, after he had finished his devotions there, to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Disguised in this habit, he remained at the abbey. He received the blessed eucharist early in the morning, on the feast of the Annunciation of our Lady in 1522; and on the same day left Montserrat for fear of being discovered, having given his horse to the monastery, and hung up his sword on a pillar near the altar, in testimony of his renouncing the secular warfare, and entering himself in that of Christ. He travelled with his staff in his hand, a scrip by his side, bare-headed, and with one foot bare, the other being covered because it was yet tender and swelled. He had bestowed his rich clothes on a beggar at his coming out of Montserrat. Three leagues from Montserrat is a large village, called Manvesa, with a con |