victorious. But suppose they are not. What then? Will the Dissenters derive any advantage from that war when Prussia is a suppliant? Will the English Church have increased her influence at Constantinople, the great dividing line between the East and the West, when Victoria is glad to terminate the war at every sacrifice? Will Rome be thankful for the issue of a struggle that dates from the 10th century, when the armies of France again melt away in central Europe, and her throne is overthrown by her own rebellious children? To ask such questions is enough.

In conclusion, we have to repeat that we do not believe the Czar has the dove-like simplicity of first or second childhood. He has bribes and threats; he has enough of cunning emissaries and astute diplomatists, to take care of himself, as against all whose case demands the use of such weapons. But we believe that in this great Eastern struggle the morale has been mainly in his favor. We believe he has had solemn guarantees, in the form of renewed treaties, for that which Turkey is not now willing to grant. We believe that this claim has been held to be just by the representatives of all Europe. We believe he has tried to obtain redress of grievances, in a manner at times almost to suggest a suspicion of a want of military power to enforce his rights. We believe that the Czar has not yet shown any reason to make us doubt (what is so natural to an Eastern ruler) that he does regard the religious privileges of his rite as of vast importance; and finally, that, though there are superstitions in the Greek church, and doctrines, too, which we lament, yet, looking at the matter from English and American points of view, the interests of religion will be far better subserved by encouraging the Greeks, and relieving them from Mohammedan oppression, than by the only alternative-the dominant political and ecclesiastical policy of France.

LOYOLA AND THE JESUIT REACTION.

R. P. Aloysii Bellecii, Soc. Jesu SS. Theologiæ Doctoris Medulla Asceseos, Seu Exercitia S. P. Ignatii De Loyola Accuratiori et menti ejus propriori Methodo Explanata. Editio Secunda. MONASTERII Westphalorum. 1846.

In some respects our age resembles the age of Ignatius Loyola. The Reformers of the sixteenth century, just as they counted upon the mind of Europe as their own, were startled by the opposition of a power that seemed to turn back the hand upon the dial of time and restore the yoke of Hildebrand to the necks of nations ready to rejoice in the liberty of Luther. Our boasted modern illumination, based not so much upon the Bible and Theology as upon Nature and Science, is startled by a similar reaction; and even in free England and America, the champions of progress are confounded to see the ghost of Loyola crossing their path and leading on a band of priests and proselytes of temper and form not very ghostlike. New interest, therefore, attaches to the rise and progress of the old Jesuitism, and our chapter from history may serve as a tract for our own times.

In this article we propose to consider the powerful reaction in favor of the Roman Catholic Church under the guidance of a man whose life, when looked upon without the least exaggeration, would seem to be a romantic fiction or legendary tale, were there not solid facts and significant movements in our own day to prove that he has lived and his spirit has not yet died.

After Luther had done his most daring deed, by burning the papal bull in the market place of Wittenberg, and had been sheltered from violence in the mountain castle of Wartburg, he little knew of the sort of antagonist who was then confined to another castle in Europe, and there preparing himself unconsciously to battle with the Reformation and make the world tremble once more beneath the thunders of Rome. In that year, 1521, there seemed to be a lull in the great storm that had arisen-a quiet, the prelude of a fiercer tempest. Luther in his friendly prison, at work upon the Bible, and anxious to carry forward his reforms-Calvin just

at Paris, entering upon his collegiate studies-Cranmer at Cambridge poring over the scriptures with the comments of the accomplished Erasmus, little thinking of the eventful life before him-these three persons present certainly images of great serenity. Turn to Spain; enter the castle of the noble family of Loyola and the picture is complete, for we have before us, in their repose, the leading actors of the impending struggle. Upon a bed in that ancient fortress rests a man of thirty years, pale, emaciated, and hourly expecting to die. He is the youngest son of the family, a brave soldier, who has never known fear in battles. His rash valor on a recent occasion, at the siege of Pampeluna, has brought him to this strait. His leg had been broken by a cannon-ball and had been unskilfully set. He ordered that it should be fractured again. Still, a bone projected near the knee; he commanded the physicians to cut off the projecting part. Still the leg was shorter than the other, and he had himself stretched on a rack to lengthen it. In vain. The young noble, reared at the court of Isabella, the gay cavalier, elegant in manners as brave in battle, must now see that he is hopelessly deformed. Never before did a cannon-ball do a work like that. It destroyed the courtier and soldier, it created the devotee of a new age and the founder of a mighty empire-in a word that cannon-ball, sped by a French gunner, gave to the world Ignatius Loyola and the Society of Jesuits. Let us rapidly trace his preparation, labors, and influence.

I. His preparation. Every man's education is coëval with his whole life, his entire experience, and is far from being confined to books and schools. This was eminently the case with Loyola who was far more a man of action than of books. His career as a soldier was an important part of his discipline, for it gave him the chivalrous spirit that so tinged his devotion, and the ideas of subordination that so strongly marked the rules of his order. His military life may be considered as the first stage of his preparation.

The second stage began with his wound and sickness. Before this he had been, like most of his young companions, an attendant upon the services of religion without having any strong personal interest in the subject. He had partaken of the communion as was the custom of all Catholics of adult age, but had not felt the deep significance of the rite. Even when the priest came to prepare him for death, his mind seems to have wavered between the claims of religion and allurements of the world. The night in which he expected death, did not pass without bringing a change over him.

When left to himself, doubting whether he were dead or alive, he thought he saw the form of a venerable man approach his bed-side, and heard him say, "I am Peter, and I am sent of God to heal and serve thee." When the slumbering watchers went, towards morning, to the sick man's bedside, they found him in a placid sleep that indicated a favorable crisis.

He awoke a changed man, yet without any definite convictions, but rather a feverish thirst for some excitement that might at once gratify his active habits and his new sensibilities. Lives of the saints, especially of that chief of devotees, St. Francis, were brought to him. The daring of these men, together with their impassioned piety, fell in at once with the current of his own feelings. He, too, might be a hero of the cross. He, the poor cripple, might rise from his sick-bed, and do deeds such as he had never dreamed of in his hair-brained warfare. He might become a soldier of Christ, and win the smiles of her whose favor, instead of bestowing the fading wreaths of a tournament, dispensed heavenly benedictions, -even the holy Mary, whom he called the Virgin Mother of

God.

His friends saw the change, feared that he would do some insane thing, and tried to calm his excitement and keep him quiet. All in vain. His purpose is decided, and he goes forth from the halls of his fathers, never more to care for human ties, to forget father and mother, brother and sister, in his devotion to Christ and the church. Still his course was very vague, and dependent upon circumstances. He was an adventurer in the army of the cross, in search of a post. He climbed the hill of Montserrat, there confessed his sins, and sought absolution of a ghostly father in the monastery there. For three days, he hardly rose from his knees at the confessional. He then gave his rich attire to a beggar, and put on the humble dress of a common pilgrim, at midnight hung his sword upon a pillar near the shrine of the Virgin Mary, received the communion, and waited an opportunity to sail for the Holy Land. For about a year he was delayed, and passed the time in the most self-sacrificing labors and agonizing experiences. In the hospital of Manresa, he can find no offices too menial for him to perform. In a neighboring cave, he struggles with temptation, and submits himself to tortures severe enough to destroy the life of a less resolute soul. His good spirit triumphed, and he brought forth, as the fruit of this dreadful struggle in the cave, the substance of that book

of Spiritual Exercises which has prepared so many of his followers for their work.

Now an opportunity comes for his journey to the Holy Land. Stopping at Rome for the Pope's benediction, he reaches Palestine, has ecstatic visions amid the scenes of Christ's labors, sufferings, and death; yet finds a cold reception from the priests at Jerusalem, and is forbidden to remain there. He returned to Italy, then to Spain. His vision evidently widens. He sees that the cause of the church must depend upon something more than enthusiasm, however flaming. He must have learning, to do his work of converting the heathen and reclaiming Palestine. As yet he is a sorry scholar, and can hardly read and write. At the age of thirtythree, this proud noble takes his place among the children in the elementary schools of Barcelona and Salamanca. Truly "the cavalier of the court of Ferdinand, the hermit of the rocks of Manresa, the bold pilgrim of Mount Tabor, now confines his mystical soul to grammar. He who has had visions of heaven, learns the conjugations, and spells out Latin.' Still his higher education goes on. From the Imitation of Christ, the pious book of Thomas à Kempis, he takes lessons in piety, and from the schools of Alcala learns the oracles of philosophy. All the while, he devotes himself to the sick, zealous alike for the good of the body and the soul. not understood by the formalists around him, and suffers reHe is peated persecutions and imprisonments. He is released from the dungeons of the Inquisition only upon condition of studying four years in a regular theological school.

He turns now towards France, the grand metropolis of learning; and in the year 1528, at the age of 37, he became a student of the University of Paris. Seven years of his regenerated life had now passed. The third stage of his preparation begins. At Paris he breathes a freer air, and came, of course, in contact with various opinions; for the new doctrine had already made considerable progress there. It may be that Loyola met Calvin, for both were residents of the city at the same time. For six years, he pursued his studies and furthered his plans. He made but six converts-on an average, but one a year; yet of these six, one was Francis Xavier, the most powerful missionary since the days of Paul; and another was James Laynez, the ruling spirit of the Council of Trent, and the most influential theologian since St. Augustine. The year 1534 was the period at which the order of the Jesuits may be said to have begun. Then, in a subterranean chapel on the heights of Montmartre, Loyola, with his fellow-students,