of St Jacques; and, following the advice of a Spanish monk, spent his vacations in Flanders, where he was helped by the rich Spanish merchants. At Bruges he became acquainted with the famous Spanish scholar, Juan Luis Vives, with whom he lodged. In the summer of 1530 he went to London, where he received alms more abundantly than elsewhere. As he could only support himself at Paris with difficulty, it was impossible to send for his companions in Salamanca. Others, however, joined him in Paris, and to some of them he gave the Spiritual Exercises, with the result that the Inquisition made him give up speaking on religious subjects during the time he was a student. At the end of 1529 he came into contact with the men who were eventually to become the first fathers of the Society of Jesus. He won over the Savoyard Pierre Lefèvre (Faber), whose room he shared, and the Navarrese Francis Xavier, who taught philosophy in the college of St Barbara. Afterwards he became acquainted with the young Castilian, Diego Laynez, who had heard of him at Acalá and found him out in Paris. With Laynez came two other young men, the Toledan Alfonso Salmeron and the Portuguese Simon Rodriguez. Nicholas Bobadilla, a poor Spaniard who had finished his studies, was the next to join him. The little company of seven determined to consecrate their union by vows. On the 15th of August 1534, the Feast of the Assumption, they assembled in the crypt of the church of St Mary on Montmartre, and Faber, the only one who was a priest, said Mass. They then took the vows of poverty and chastity, and pledged themselves to go to the Holy Land as missionaries or for the purpose of tending the sick; or if this design should prove impracticable, to go to Rome and place themselves at the disposal of the pope for any purpose. But, whatever may have been the private opinion of Ignatius, there was on this occasion no foundation of any society. The vows were individual obligations which could be kept quite apart from membership in a society. A provision was made that if, after waiting a year at Venice, they were unable to go to Jerusalem, this part of the vow should be cancelled and they should at once betake themselves to Rome.
At this time Ignatius was again suffering from his former imprudent austerities; and he was urged to return for a while to his native air. He left Paris for Spain in the autumn of 1535, leaving Faber in charge of his companions to finish their studies. During the absence of Ignatius, Faber gained three more adherents. But before leaving Paris Ignatius heard once more that complaints had been lodged against him at the Inquisition; but these like the others were found to be without any foundation. When he arrived near Loyola he would not go to the castle, but lived at the public hospice at Azpeitia, and began his usual life of teaching Christian doctrine and reforming morals. Falling ill again he went to other parts of Spain to transact business for his companions. Then, sailing from Valencia to Genoa, he made his way to Venice, where he arrived during the last days of 1535. Here he waited for a year until his companions could join him, and meanwhile he occupied himself in his usual good works, gaining several more companions and meeting Giovanni Piero Caraffa, afterwards Paul IV., who had lately founded the Theatines. What happened between the two does not appear; but henceforth Caraffa seems to have borne ill will towards Ignatius and his companions. At Venice Ignatius was again accused of heresy, and it was said that he had escaped from the Inquisition in Spain and had been burnt in effigy at Paris. These charges he met successfully by insisting that the nuncio should thoroughly inquire into the matter.
After a journey of fifty-four days his companions arrived at Venice in January 1537; and here they remained until the beginning of Lent, when Ignatius sent them to Rome to get money for the proposed voyage to Palestine. He himself stayed behind, as he feared that, if he went with them, Caraffa at Rome, together with Dr Ortiz, a German opponent in Paris and now Charles V.’s ambassador at the Vatican, would prejudice the pope against them. But Ortiz proved a friend and presented them to Paul III., who gave them leave to go to Palestine to preach the Gospel, bestowing upon them abundant alms. He likewise gave licence for those not yet priests to be ordained by any catholic bishop on the title of poverty. They had returned to Venice where Ignatius and the others were ordained priests on the 24th of June 1537, after having renewed their vows of poverty and chastity to the legate Verallo. Ignatius, now a priest, waited for eighteen months before saying Mass, which he did for the first time on the 25th of December 1538 in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
The year of waiting passed away without any chance of going to the Holy Land. Finding it impossible to keep this part of their vow, the fathers met at Vicenza, where Ignatius was staying in a ruined monastery; and here after deliberation it was determined that he, Laynez and Faber should go to Rome to place the little band at the disposal of the pope. It was now that the Society began to take some visible form. A common rule was devised and a name adopted. Ignatius declared that having assembled in the name of Jesus, the association should henceforth bear the name of the “Company of Jesus.” The word used shows Loyola’s military ideal of the duties and methods of the nascent society.
On the road to Rome a famous vision took place, as to which we have the evidence of Ignatius himself. In a certain church, a few miles before Rome, whilst in prayer he was aware of a stirring and a change in his soul; and so openly did he see God the Father placing him with Christ, that he could not dare to doubt that God the Father had so placed him. Subsequent writers add that Christ, looking at him with a benign countenance, said: “I shall be propitious to you”; while others add the significant words, “at Rome.” Ignatius, however, says nothing about so important a matter; indeed he understood the vision to mean that many things would be adverse to them, and told his companions when they reached the city that he saw the windows there closed against him. He also said: “We must of necessity proceed with caution; and we must not make the acquaintance of women unless they be of very high rank.” They arrived in Rome in October 1537; and lived at first in a little cottage in a vineyard and near the Trinità dei Monti. The pope appointed Faber to teach Holy Scripture, and Laynez scholastic theology, in the university of the Sapienza. Ignatius was left free to carry on his spiritual work, which became so large that he was obliged to call his other companions to Rome. During the absence of the pope, a certain hermit began to spread heresy and was opposed by Ignatius and his companions. In revenge the hermit brought up the former accusations concerning the relations to the Inquisition, and proclaimed Ignatius and his friends to be false, designing men and no better than concealed heretics. The matter was examined and the legate ordered the suit to be quashed. But this did not suit Ignatius. It was necessary for his own good repute and the future of his work that a definitive sentence should be pronounced and his name cleared once and for all. The legate demurred; but on the pope’s return sentence was formally given in his favour.
The life of Ignatius is now mainly identified with the formation and growth of his Society (see Jesuits), but his zeal found other outlets in Rome. He founded institutions for rescuing fallen women, started orphanages and organized catechetical instructions. He obtained, after difficulty, the official recognition of his Society from Paul III. on the 27th of September 1540, and successfully steered it through many perils that beset it in its early days. He was unanimously elected the first general in April 1541; and on the 22nd of that month received the first vows of the Society in the church of San Paolo fuori la mura. Two works now chiefly occupied the remainder of his life: the final completion of the Spiritual Exercises and the drawing up of the Constitutions, which received their final form after his death. These two are so constantly connected that the one cannot be understood without the other. The Constitutions are discussed in the article on the Jesuits. In these he taught his followers to respond to the call; by the Spiritual Exercises he moulded their character.
The Book of the Spiritual Exercises has been one of the world-moving books. In its strict conception it is only an application of the Gospel
