Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/518

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. i:>-2 IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA. wpII. l.ilcrari) llistury uf Karly I'hrinlianily ( l.onilon. IS'.ta) ; lliiriiaok, Vlironuluyii- dcr all- clirisllichen l.illerutur (Leipzig, 18'.>7); Von dcr (Jolt/., Ignaliun roii Aniiocliicii (Leipzi;;, 1894); Smith .iiul Wiuf. niclinnnnj of Christian liiog- ru)iliii, iirti<'le '■.Stint Ifiiiatiiis." IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, lAy.VlA, S.mnt ( 14'.ll or I I'.'.'p l.").")!', I I liv luiiiiilfr of the .Ipsuits. Ifiifro l.oppz lie Hecalile was the yoiiti;.'est of thirteen ehildreti. of a nohle family. I'nlil re- cently he was said to have been born on Christ- M>as night. U'.H. hut the Bollandists and Polanco are authority for the eliange to 140."). He was born in the ancestral Castle of lyoyola, near Azpeitta, in the Basque Provinces, not far from the Trench frontier. At fourteen, ifter a scanty education, he became n pape at the Court of Ferdinnnd the Catholic. Court life trrew dis- tasteful after some years, however, and he he- came a soldier under his relative, the Duke of Nnjera. in 1.517. He fought bravely against the Xavarrese. the Moors, the Portuguese, and the French. He had reached the rank of captain when, while directing the defen.se of Pamplona against the French in the war between Francis I. and Charles V.. he was wounded severely. May 20, 1521. He was taken prisoner and conveyed to the Castle of Loyola. As a result of the wound, one leg was badly deformed. This would have bfH>n very unsightly in the fashionable hose of the day, and he bade the surgeon reduce the deformity at any cost. The leg was rebroken and he bore the operation and consequent sufTer- ing without complaint. His convalescence was prolonged, and time hung heavily on his hands. He asked for some romances of knight-errantry then popular, hut there were none in the castle. Instead they brought him a translatiim of Ludolf of .Saxony's life of Christ, and some lives of the Saints. Ignatius's life as a .soldier had been far from a nmdel. Polanco saj-s: "L'p to the ape of twenty-six his life had been divided between the love of women and sports, and quarrels over points of honor." For want of anything better to do, however, he read and reread these pious books. The spiritual achievements of Saint Francis and Saint Dominic came to replace the deeils of his knightly heroes in his imagination. As soon as he was able, in the garb of a beggar he went to the shrine of the Virgin at Montserrat. where after a confession of his whole life on the vigil of the . nunciation. March 24, 1,522, he hung up his arms as a votive ottering and a symbol of his renunciation of his military care<'r and of his entire devotion henceforth to the spiritual warfare. Then, barefoot, he went to the neigh- boring town of Manresa and served the sick and poor in trie hospital. He lived in a cave, and his austerity finnlly imp.iired his health, though it was at this time that his Spiritual Excrcines, from which he drew great spiritual strength, took form in his mind. After this he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and would have staved at .Terusalem to spread the gospel among the infidels, hut was discouraged by the local authorities. He returned to Barcelona in 1.524. Realizing now that to do good he must have more knowledge, he began, at the age of thirty- three, the rudiments of grammar in a public school beside hoys. After two years he went to the new I'niversity of .lcalA and later to Sala- manca. Because of public religious teaching with what was thought insufficient education. he incurred the censure of ecclesiastical authori- ties at both places. In 1528 he repaired to Paris to continue his studies. He was robbed by a companion and had to lodge in a hospital, where he did menial work for his sup|)ort while atteniling the university. During his sunnner vacations he visited Spanish merchants in .Ant- werp, Bruges, and London so as to obtain money to contiiuie his stuilies. During his student years he had no resources but the ciiarity of the faith- ful. .At Paris lie formed, with chosen com- panions, a pious confraternity, out cff which de- veloped later the Society of Jesus. (See Jesiits.) Ignatius's genius for knowing men can be inferred from the fact that of his earliest companions chos<>n thus at the University of Paris, oiie became later the great Apostle of the Indies. Francis Xavier. and three. Lainez. Sal- meron, and Lejay, Ix'came the leading theological advisers to the Council of Trent. One of the others. Faber, received the honors of beatification from the Church, In the crj-pt of the Church of the Martyrs, on Montmartre, on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1534, the little band took their vows as ,Iesuits. At first their inten- tion was to evangelize Palestine. They made their way to 'enice for this purpose, but the war between the Christians and the Turks closed the way to the Hoh- Land, so they resolved to offer themselves to the Pope for any service he mi'jht assign. Paul III. received them with great kind- ness. The pulpits of various churches were as- signed to them, and their burning discourses and saintly lives soon attractcil attention. Xo other of them was so cfTcctivc as Ignatius himself, who spoke as the plain, blunt, but intensely earnest, soldier. In IS."?'.) Ignatius asked for Papal approbation of his Order.. In spite of opposition to the erection of another religious Order in the Church, the Pope read the draft of the Constitu- tions, and .said: "The finger of fJod is here." While occupied with his constantly growing so- ciety, Ignatius found much to do besides its direction and the writings of the Constitutions. Though a Spaniard, he devoted himself to the care of the .Jewish converts, and .secured the correction of many abuses in the treatment of those who wished to remain orthodox Jews. He founded a house for fallen women, and was not ashamed to be seen conducting them to it through the streets. He tried to prevent the occasions of their fall by providing a home for friendless girls. He established orphan asylums for boys and girls. The influence he acquired can be understood from the fact that he was able to end a dispute between the Pope and .lohn III. of Portugal that threatened serious harm to re- ligion at the moment, and another between the citizens of Tivoli and their ruler, Margaret of Austria. His writings consist only of the Constitutions and rules of the Society of .Jesus, his Letters, and the Exercitia Spiritualia. This last little book of scarcely a hundred duodecimo pages has proved one of the most influential works ever written. From the very beginning it formed the basis of the spiritual training of the ,lesuit3 themselves, and the mold in which their re- treats and missions to the people were cast. It has come to be the acknowledged model after which the missions and retreats given by most of the other religious Orders of the Roman Catholic Church are conducted. Three things