gospel, upon the sepulchre of the holy apostles. He had the opportunity of speaking more than once before the Pope: for the whole company of them being introduced into the Vatican, by Pedro Ortiz, that Spanish doctor whom they had formerly known at Paris, and whom the emperor had sent to Rome for the affair concerning the marriage of Catharine of Arragon, queen of England, Paul the Third, who was a lover of learning, and who was pleased to be entertained at his table with the conversation of learned men, commanded that these strangers, whose capacity he had heard so extremely praised, should be admitted to see him for many days successively; and that in his presence they should discourse concerning divers points of school-divinity.

Having received the benediction of our holy father for their voyage to the Holy Land, and obtained the permission for those amongst them who were not in sacred orders, to receive them, they returned to Venice. Xavier there made his vows of poverty and perpetual chastity, together with the rest, in the hands of Jeronimo Veralli, the Pope's nuncio; and having again taken up his post in the hospital of the incurable, he resumed his offices of charity, which his journey to Rome had constrained him to interrupt, and continued in those exercises till the time of his embarkment.

In the mean time, the war which was already kindled betwixt the Venetians and the Turk, had broken the commerce of the Levant, and stopt the passage to the Holy Land; insomuch, that the ship of the pilgrims of Jerusalem went not out that year, according to the former custom.

This disappointment wonderfully afflicted Xavier; and the more, because he not only lost the hope of seeing those places which had been consecrated by the presence and the blood of Jesus Christ, but was also bereft of an occasion of dying for his divine Master. Yet he comforted himself in reflecting on the method of God's providence; and at the same time, not to be wanting in his duty to his neighbour, he disposed himself to receive the orders of priesthood, and did receive them with those considerations of awful dread, and holy confusion, which are not easy to be expressed.

The town appeared to him an improper place for his preparation, in order to his first mass. He sought out a solitary place, where, being separated from the communication of man, he might enjoy the privacies of God. He found this convenience of a retirement near Monteselice, not far from Padua: it was a miserable thatched cottage, forsaken of inhabitants, and out of all manner of repair. Thus accommodated, he passed forty days, exposed to the injuries of the air, lying on the cold hard ground, rigidly disciplining his body, fasting all the day, and sustaining nature only with a little pittance of bread, which he begged about the neighbourhood; but tasting all the while the sweets of paradise, in contemplating the eternal truths of faith. As his cabin did not unfitly represent to him the stable of Bethlehem, so he proposed to himself frequently the extreme poverty of the infant Jesus, as the pattern of his own; and said within himself, that, since the Saviour of mankind had chosen to be in want of all things, they who laboured after him for the salvation of souls, were obliged, by his example, to possess nothing in this world.

How pleasing soever this loneliness were to him, yet, his forty days being now expired, he left it, to instruct the villages and neighbour-towns, and principally Monteselice, where the people were grossly ignorant, and knew little of the duties of Christianity.

The servant of God made daily exhortations to them, and his penitent aspect gave authority to all his words; insomuch, that only looking on his face, none could doubt but he was come from the wilderness to instruct them in the way to heaven. He employed himself during the space of two or three months in that manner: for, though there was no appearance that any vessel should set sail for the Holy Land, yet Ignatius and his disciples, who had obliged themselves to wait one year in expectation of any such opportunity, would not depart from the territories of the republic till it was totally expired, that they might have nothing to upbraid themselves, in relation to the vow which they had made.

Xavier being thus disposed, both by his retirement, and his exterior employments, at length said his first mass at Vicenza; to which place Ignatius had caused all his company to resort; and he said it with tears flowing in such abundance, that his audience could not refrain from mixing their own with his.

His austere, laborious life, joined with so sensible a devotion, which often makes too great an impression on the body, so much impaired the strength of his constitution, that he fell sick, not long after his first mass. He was carried into one of the own hospitals, which was so crowded, and so poor, that Xavier had in it but the one half of a wretched bed, and that too in a chamber which was open on every side. His victuals were no better than his lodging, and never was sick man more destitute of human succours. But, in requital, heaven was not wanting to him.

He was wonderfully devoted to St Jerome; and had often had recourse to that blessed doctor of the church for the understanding of difficult places in the scripture. The saint appeared to him one night, refulgent in his beams of glory, and gave him consolation in his sickness; yet, at the same time, declaring to him, that a far greater affliction than the present was waiting for him at Bolognia, where himself and one of his companions were to pass the winter; that some of them should go to Padua, some to Rome, others to Ferrara, and the remainder of them to Sienna.

This apparition fortified Xavier so much, that he recovered suddenly; yet whether he had some doubts concerning it, or was of opinion that he ought to keep it secret, he said nothing of it at that time. But that which then happened to him made it evident, that the vision was of God: for Ignatius, who was ignorant of what had been revealed to Xavier, having assembled his disciples, gave them to understand, that since the gate of the Holy Land was shut against them, they ought not any longer to defer the offering of their service to the Pope; that it was sufficient if some of them went to Rome, while the rest of them dispersed themselves in the universities of Italy, to the end, they might inspire the fear of God into the scholars, and gather up into their number some young students of the greatest parts. Ignatius appointed them their several stations, just as they had been foreshewn by St Jerome; and that of Bolognia fell to the share of Xavier and Bobadilla.

After their arrival at Bolognia, Xavier went to say a mass at the tomb of St Dominic; for he had a particular veneration for the founder of that order, whose institution was for the preaching of the gospel.

A devout virgin, whose name was Isabella Casalini, seeing him at the altar, judged him to be a man of God; and was led by some interior motion to speak to this stranger priest when his mass was ended. She was so much edified, and so satisfied with the discourse of Xavier, that she immediately informed her uncle, at whose house she lodged, of this treasure which she had discovered.

Jerome Casalini, who was a very considerable clergyman, both in regard of his noble blood, and of his virtue, went in search of this Spanish priest, upon the account which was given of him by his niece; and, having found him at the hospital, he importuned him so much to take a lodging in his house, that Xavier could not in civility refuse him. But the holy man would never accept of his table, of whose house he had accepted. He begged his bread from door to door according to his usual custom; and lived on nothing but the alms which was given him in the town.

Every day, after having celebrated the divine mysteries in St Lucy's church, of which Casalini was curate, he there heard the confessions of such as presented themselves before him: after which he visited the prisons and the hospitals,