Ghost with the same tears and in the same devotion it seemed to me that I saw him in a singular brightness in the colour of a flame of Fire in an extraordinary manner and that he spoke to me While the Altar was prepared and while I put on the Habits and while I celebrated Mass I had great interior Commotions strong Tears and vehement Palpitations which often hindred my Speech Afterwards I had a powerful Commotion and I saw the Holy Virgin near the Eternal Father who seemed to me mightily disposed to assist me Insomuch as in the Prayers addressed to the Father and at the Consecration it seemed to me that I comprehended and saw evidently that the Mother of God hath a very great share in the distribution of Grace and that she is the gate whereby to arrive at Glory I saw moreover at the Consecration that her Flesh was contained in the Flesh of her Son which I saw with so clear a perception and so tender a sentiment that it is not possible to express it In the ordinary Prayer from the beginning to the end I had a very great devotion and all full of light Without doors in the Church and in saying Mass I saw the Heavenly Countrey in its Sovereign Monarch as it were by knowledge of the three Divine Persons seeing the Second and Third Persons in the Father Entring into the Chappel to pray I received an illumination and supernatural assistance by the help of which I knew or to speak more properly I saw the most Holy Trinity and Jesus Christ who served me in quality of a Mediator and disposed me to this Intellectual Vision In this Sentiment and in this Vision I was overwhelmed with a torrent of tears and filled with an extraordinary love Saying Mass with the same tears and in the same devotion I had on the sudden the same Vision of the Holy Trinity my love for the Divine Majesty continually increasing In beginning the Te igitur I knew and saw not obscurely but with a vey clear light the Divine Existence or Essence as the Sun but much more luminous than that Sun which we see and it seemed to me that the Father proceeded from this Divine Essence yet so that the Essence appeared to me with the Father And in this representation of the Divine Existence without any distinction of Persons I felt a very ardent devotion for the thing represented with great emotions great effusion of tears and a great love towards the Holy Trinity After which having finished Mass and praying before the Altar I saw a-new the same Essence in the similitude of a Globe and I saw in some manner the three Persons to wit the Father on one side on the other the Son and on the third side the Holy Ghost which took their original from the Essence without being yet divided from the Globe which I saw And in this Vision I had new emotions and new tears He proceeds to relate other Visions and Representations of the Trinity his clear perception of its Essence and being swallowed up in the love of it his union with the Divine Majesty and fresh Visions of the Trinity sometimes with and sometimes without any distinction of Persons his wonderful Illuminations which gave him in a moment greater knowledge of Divine Matters than could have been obtained by the study of many years his elevated and innumerable perceptions in Spirit and those so clear that there remained nothing further to be comprehended in the Holy Trinity his flaming love towards the Person of the Father because in him the other Persons were especially contained his frequent sight of Jesus whithersoever he turned himself accompanied with abundant tears inexpressible sweetness and strong internal motions In short it appears from this extravagant Account of his Visions and Illuminations that no Enthusiast in any Age hath exceeded him either in the number or extravagancy of his Imaginary Visions That they were indeed imaginary and no other than the effects of a disturbed Brain I need not insist to prove since the very nature and constitution of Christianity requires it which would be dissolved if after a determinate Rule of Faith were setled extraordinary Revelations in matters of Faith should be admitted or Religion were to be learned not from that Rule but from private Inspiration Besides the absurdity and impertinence of these Pretended Revelations of Ignatius the crude and indigested Notions contained in them demonstrate them to have proceeded from a Principle of Disorder not the Divine Omniscience But since the Writers of his Life contend these Inspirations to have been real and Divine and the Church of Rome in the process of his Canonization alledgeth them as the grand argument of his Sanctity I will oppose one reason to the truth of them If indeed Ignatius received a perfect knowledge of the Christian Religon by extraordinary Illumination if in these inward Inspirations he obtained distinct Notions of all Matters of Faith and was enabled to publish his Inspirations in such proper and sublime Expressions that the most Learned admired him and the most Ignorant were instructed by him as is pretended how came it to pass that for many years after he was still esteemed a Fool and an Ideot that in learning of any Science whatsoever he was so insuperably dull and stupid that after some years study upon a particular examination by the Inquisitors of Alcala and Archbishop of Toledo he was adjudged not to have been sufficiently instructed in Matters of Religion and therefore ordered by them to continue his studies of Divinity some years longer but above all how can it be imagined that after so many and so clear Illuminations any Learning should be necessary to him yet after all Bouhours tells us that being conscious to himself of his Ignorance and convinced that Learning was necessary to his intended purpose of Conversion he applied himself to study But to proceed when once the belief of Divine Illuminations is received by the deluded Enthusiast and he imagines himself to be frequently inspired by God it is natural for him to resign himself wholly to the supposed conduct of that inward Light and act solely in obedience to it Thus he mistaketh every whimsie of his Fancy for the Dictate of the Holy Ghost and every motion of his Brain for the Impulse of the Spirit Then he believeth himself infallible and pretends to act always by Divine Inspiration This indeed is an high degree of Fanaticism but which above all is apt to draw the admiration and delude the Judgment of the common People who being not willing to undertake the labour necessary for discovery of truth greedily embrace every pretence of infallibility which may ease them of a laborious search and in appearance secure them from all error Philostratus ascribes the Actions of Apollonius and Bonaventure of St. Francis to Divine Impulse The latter founded his Order by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost was incited
Pretences extatick Motions severe Austerities and Macerations of the Body a mortified Look extraordinary Acts of apparent Humility ridiculous Actions which may imply a contempt of the World perpetual canting about Spiritual Matters and delivering them in such a manner as may seem to proceed from the immediate Revelation of God and withal in impenetrable Nonsense Such Pretences and Actions will excite the Admiration of foolish Persons and by amusing their Judgment with specious Shews create in them an extraordinary Veneration for their Enthusiastick Prophet All the Whimsies of his disturbed Phantasy shall then pass for Oracles and his foolish Austerities for so many certain Indications of a real Sanctity When this Opinion is once entertained then the pretence of Miracles may securely be set on foot and the grossest Cheat may pass undiscerned among credulous Spectators who will be deterred by a religious Awe from examining the Truth of the Miracles of their admired Impostor whose own Word shall without Scruple be received for Miracles pretended to be done by him in Secret or at least the single Testimony of one credulous Woman or fanciful Ideot shall be esteemed an undoubted Certainty Whosoever examines the Miracles of the Romish Saints will find them all to have been at first believed upon such slender Motives and afterwards amplified and increased by the Writers of their Lives at least that this was the case of the Miracles pretended to be done by Ignatius Loyola I doubt not to demonstrate Thus the Folly and Credulity of Mankind hath opened the way and facilitated success even to designing Impostors who are conscious of the falsity of their own Pretences and are disquieted with a perpetual fear of Discovery But then the way is more open and success more easy to such Enthusiasts who imagine they really enjoy and receive from God those Illuminations and Impulses which they vent to their deluded Followers Such Persons are inspired with a false Zeal and in proposing the Phrensies of their disturbed Brains imagine themselves to act in Obedience to Heaven and for the benefit of Mankind which renders all their Actions vigorous and themselves unwearied in the Prosecution of them That there have been and are still many such Enthusiasts in the World the History of all times and our own Experience demonstrates beyond all doubt and that there should be such we shall cease to wonder if we consider the nature of things Such Persons are commonly endued with weak Brains and diseased Bodies often suffer irregular motions of the Blood which creates gross and turbulent Spirits and fills the Brain with strong and active Vapours These continuing a violent motion in the Brain will reproduce so strong and lively Images of those things which have been the most frequent Objects of their Meditations and made deepest Impression in them that they will really believe themselves to act those things which they only imagine and to see hear and feel all those Objects which are so lively represented to them This is manifest even in Melancholly and Hypochondriack Persons who are so far deluded by the Action of the undigested Vapours of their Bodies upon their Brain that they frequently believe the reality of those things which their disturbed Imagination representeth to them If the motion of the Spirits be very irregular and their action upon the Brain exceeding strong it will produce various effects upon the Body according to the different Constitution of it or peculiar irregularity of the motion and disorder of the Spirits Sometimes violent and extraordinary motions of the Body shall be effected at other times all the Spirits flowing to the Brain the Nerves will be emptied and thereby all the visible Actions of Life will be suspended and both ways an Extasy will be produced And all this may happen involuntarily without or even against the consent of the Will. All these Effects will be much more sensible and apparent when the Enthusiasm is affected and contracted by a long habit of distempered Imagination This frequently happens in ignorant and melancholy Persons whose Thoughts are not serene and calm but accompanied with vehement Passions and turbulent Motions Such are wont to affix their whole Thoughts to certain Objects and employ all their Spirits in continuing their Ideas of them which being gross and hurried with an irregular Motion create a mighty Fermentation in the Blood whence new Clouds and Vapours are transmitted into the Brain and render the Imagination more intense and strong The Spirits being put into this irregular and rapid Motion various Effects will follow in the Body according to the different Constitution of it or present Disposition of the Spirits Either violent and extraordinary Motions of the whole Body will be produced or all the sensible Actions of Life will be suspended And all the while the Mind amuseth it self with monstrous and extravagant Ideas of things which are often rendred pleasing and delightful by their infinite Variety When once the Art is obtained of exciting the Passions and disturbing the Spirits of the Body at the Meditation of certain Objects no sooner will the Ideas recur to the Mind but the same Motions will return into the Body and all the aforementioned Effects will naturally be produced Thus a habit of Enthusiasm at last is formed and extasies may be produced as often as the convenience or whimsies of the Enthusiast shall require it In this state the Soul is detained with unaccountable Notions and monstrous Ideas of things which enables even the most ignorant Persons to talk boldly and fluently of those things whose imagination then disturbs the mind which are commonly Divine Matters but withal in an incoherent and unintelligible manner However the Enthusiast himself believes all this to proceed from a Divine influence and mistakes the phrensies of his Brain for the dictates of the Holy Ghost and the credulous Multitude which ever refers those things to a Divine original whose causes it cannot comprehend proclaimeth his Dreams to be Inspirations ascribeth the extatick motions of his Body to the operation of the Spirit acting in him and admireth his high-flown Nonsense as Divine Sublimity These Enthusiasts as they are commonly Persons of weak understandings and narrow capacities are easily led away with false appearances of Religion and grosly mistake the nature and genius of Christianity They imagine Religion to consist in a rigorous and severe exercise of those external actions which in the Countrey they live in are generally esteemed the indications of Piety and Christian Vertue and fancy that the farther they carry these practices the more nearly they approach to the utmost degree of perfection Thus in the Church of Rome the profession of Evangelical poverty a beggarly habit a severe mortification of the Body continual telling over of Beads going in pilgrimage and other childish actions are at least by the common people esteemed the best characters of a refined and exalted Vertue Hence Enthusiasts of that Communion corrupted with these prejudices while they
aim at an extraordinary perfection and purity propose to themselves long pilgrimages terrible austerities continual prayer and a thousand other ridiculous actions which their deluded fancy suggests to be meritorious They employ their thoughts in the perpetual meditation of these imaginary perfections and in their extasies and raptures are amused with them and form pleasing Ideas of them arising from the apprehension of any exceeding merit or veneration to be obtained by the practice of them In this religious phrensy they imagine to have received the Divine approbation of them mistaking a foolish satisfaction of a deluded judgment for the suffrage and voice of the Holy Spirit acting in them and at last proceed so far as to fancy the reception of a Divine Command for the commission of these extravagancies No wonder then if after such a false perswasion they proceed to act all the whimsies and follies which a disturbed brain and violent imagination can suggest if they put off all sense of shame and modesty and setting no bounds to their extravagance deliver themselves up to the conduct and direction of an irrational fancy which inciteth them to commit such follies and trifles as are beneath the dignity of a rational Being and contrary to the dictates of common sense such ridiculous fopperies and elaborate extravagance as may justly provoke the laughter of sober Heathens and indignation of wiser Christians Such ridiculous Fanaticism is the utmost degeneracy of Christian Religion than which nothing can be more contrary to its Genius and destructive of its Principles Christianity was intended to exalt and perfect the Reason of mankind to create true notions of the nature of all moral and religious Actions and introduce the practice of a manly and rational Piety Whereas this Enthusiasm debaseth the Reason and Understanding of mankind introduceth false Ideas of Religion and Piety and exposeth both to the scorn and derision of the more judicious and intelligent World as if none but Fools and Ideots could be perfect Christians and the highest degree of madness were the most certain mark of piety Such absurd Opinions cannot but scandalize all considering Persons and cause them to conclude that either these absurdities are gross corruptions and deviations from Christianity or else Christianity it self is a grand Imposture unworthy the belief and veneration or even attention of mankind The former is not easily discernible by those who have no other notions of Christianity than what they receive from the general practice and currant opinions of their Countrey and are from their infancy prepossest that there is no true Christian Society besides their own where if such Fanaticism be publickly practised or countenanced it cannot but create in them a detestation of all Christianity But as for those who are convinced of the truth of Christianity in general and enquire after the true Doctrines of it among so many divided Communions of the Christian World they may rationally and infallibly conclude that particular Church which favours or promotes this Superstitious Enthusiasm to be infinitely corrupted and degenerate from the true Spirit and Principles of Christianity If we view the several Churches and Communions of the Christian World we shall find no Society of Christians more free from Fanaticism than the Church of England or more guilty of it than the Church of Rome It hath been the peculiar happiness of the Church of England to create a right sense of Religion and Piety in all her Communicants and secure to them the practice of a rational Devotion She makes no pretensions to private Inspirations and extraordinary Illuminations of the Holy Ghost and all her Children are more apt to deride than admire the follies and extasies of Enthusiasts If any of her Members have at any time through ambition or ignorance embraced Fanaticism they have at the same time departed from the Communion of the Church and becoming Schismaticks proclaimed themselves her Enemies Yet so far hath the sober and judicious practice and example of the Church of England influenced even their conduct that the most extravagant among them have been less Fanatical than the most admired Saints of the Church of Rome and whensoever the sense of their Duty and Providence of God shall induce them to return to the bosome of the Church which we heartily wish they can do it no otherwise than by deserting even all Reliques of Fanaticism Not so the Church of Rome which in all her Offices and publick Ceremonies promotes and foments it hath on many occasions given publick applause and approbation to it and oweth the greatest part of her peculiar Doctrines and present prosperity to the Enthusiasm of her Followers If we consult the publick Offices of that Church we shall find nothing intelligible directly proposed to the common People but the Prayers performed in an unknown Tongue and their Senses in the mean while amused with antick Gestures Images Processions and pompous Representations The first enforceth the minds of ignorant Persons to betake themselves to the entertainment of their own thoughts and direct their Devotion according to their own crude and indigested Ideas and then the latter inspires them with childish and absurd notions of Religion and Divine Matters and both together cause them to form wild and Enthusiastick Apprehensions of Religious Actions and direct their Conduct according to those Apprehensions If we examine the peculiar Doctrines of the Church of Rome we shall find many of them to derive their original from Enthusiastick Visions and Revelations I will instance only in Purgatory and Transubstantiation whereof the former however at this day defended was at first set a foot upon the sole Authority of these Fanatick Visions which imaginary Visions of this kind were so frequent among the Enthusiastick Monks of the sixth seventh eighth and tenth Ages that large Volumes might be compiled of them as indeed I have seen several voluminous Collections of them in Manuscript composed before the Reformation in proof of Purgatory As for Transubstantiation as it was first forged in the Cell of a Visionary Monk so it chiefly gained credit and belief in the World from the pretended Visions of supposed Saints for whose sake God divested the Sacramental Elements of their usual Accidents and offered them to their sight under the very Species of an Humane Body Scarce a Monkish Saint of any eminence after the ninth Age can be found in whose life such a Vision is not related Lastly if we view the Religious Orders of the Church of Rome where Religion and Piety is supposed to flourish in its utmost perfection and which are esteemed the grand Patterns of refined Christianity we shall find them to be so many Societies of Fanatical Enthusiasts who if we except vicious and irreligious Persons among them wholly busie themselves in wild Imaginations and ridiculous Ceremonies If any religious Persons among them escape this contagion and surmount this imperfection it is owing to the excellency of their Genius and advantage of their
Learning not the Rules of their Order which naturally lead them to it But in nothing is the Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome more apparent than in her approbation and veneration of Enthusiastick Saints The Church of Rome in her Calendars Offices Legends and Bulls of Canonization hath placed such a rabble of Saints in Heaven that if a Lucian or Iulian should arise anew to write Satyrs againts the Inhabitants of Heaven and criticise upon the vulgar conceptions of them I fear they would find greater matter of laughter among the Christian Saints than the Heathen Gods. Of these Saints no small part had never any existence and many no such existence as is commonly ascribed to them I mean acted no such things as their Legendary Lives relate Of those which remain many were vicious and wicked Persons Traytors to their Prince and Countrey or furious Persecutors of the supposed Hereticks of latter Ages whom nothing but a blind zeal for the Interest of the Court of Rome caused to be canonized As for the Saints of latter Ages who were canonized by solemn Bulls and Ceremonies For the Ancient Saints never enjoyed that honour they were generally chosen out of the Monastick Orders and were either downright Enthusiasts or chiefly admired for those Actions which included somewhat of Enthusiasm In these Canonizations it is enquired not whether the Candidate of that sacred Character exercised all the offices of Piety Temperance and Charity in the highest perfection not whether he procured some illustrious benefit to the Church or was ever ready to suffer Martyrdom for the Profession of Christianity but whether he ran about the World barefoot and professing Evangelical Poverty begged his bread from door to door whether he wore an iron Chain an hair Shirt or a knotted Cord and affected to appear ridiculous in all his Actions whether he macerated his Body with prodigious Austerities and went in Pilgrimage to the Holy Land and other famous Shrines whether he enjoyed extraordinary Illuminations of the Holy Ghost acted by the sole impulse of the Spirit and had frequent extasies and raptures of mind lastly whether any of his credulous Followers would adventure to testify any Miracles done by him either seen by themselves in secret or received from others by Tradition What a miserable corruption of Christianity must this needs be to give such solemn and publick approbation to the extravagances of Fanaticks to applaud their Follies admire their Phrensies and propose them as the great Objects of imitation not to say of worship to the People to solemnize Festivals in their memory and invoke them in the publick Liturgies and give thanks to God for the great and glorious Examples of those who were fitter for Bedlam than the Blessed Society of Apostles Prophets and Martyrs Such fond Credulity and irrational Conduct might be somewhat excusable in the common People whose ignorance and inexperience might plead their pardon But when the representative Church of Rome commit such Follies and deliberately form such Canonizations which are afterwards approved and received by the whole Roman Communion we cannot but conclude that Church to have grosly perverted the Design of Christianity and widely deviated from the primitive Purity of that most Rational as well as Holy Religion That the Charge of Enthusiasm upon the Saints of the Church of Rome is most just and deserved will appear from a particular view of their Lives and Actions and that not only of those who lived in the more barbarous and ignorant Ages of the Church but of those who flourished in these last more learned and refined Ages after so many Reformations of Ecclesiastical Discipline and so great improvements of Reason For in those Countries where Popery is freely professed and without fear of Heretical Observers Fanaticism retains as great applause as ever and by a fatal Contagion whether of pernicious Examples or prevailing Ignorance the latest Saints are the greatest Enthusiasts This might be abundantly demonstrated from the Lives and Actions of St. Philip Neri of St. Teresa St. Mary Magdalen Pazzi and St. Rosa but I chuse rather to prove it from the Conduct of St. Ignatius Loyola as well because he is one of the most eminent and illustrious Saints in the Roman Calendar as because he was Founder of the most celebrated and learned Order of the Church of Rome If after a strict examination he shall appear to have been a most extravagant Enthusiast we cannot hope to discover a more rational Devotion in the obscure and more inconsiderable Saints of that Church In forming this Enquiry I shall begin with the Qualities necessarily required to constitute and compleat an affected Enthusiast among which an ardent desire of Glory and immoderate Ambition obtains the first place For none would prostitute the Dignity of his Nature to the Follies and Impertinencies of Enthusiasm deny to himself the common benefits of Life and undergo Poverty Nakedness Hunger and a thousand other Inconveniencies incident to that Profession if he were not transported with a violent Ambition and sustained with the pleasing hopes of obtaining thereby unusual Glory and extraordinary Admiration Ignatius was in a most particular manner indued with this Heroick Quality and that both natural and acquired That he was by nature ambitious all the Writers of his Life assures us Thus Bouhours tells us That above all he had an ardent Passion for Glory that he was naturally Haughty and his Fancy wholly filled with Gallantry and Vanity and in all his Actions he only followed the false Maxims of the World. This as the same Father relates naturally incited him to the love of Poetry and made him keep a kind of Decency even in his Irregularities They pretend indeed that Ignatius was possest with this ambitious Temper only before his Conversion when it was abolished by a particular gift of God but besides that even that is sufficient for our purpose if we may judg from his subsequent Actions we have no great Reason to believe them as shall be shown hereafter This natural Ambition of Ignatius was fomented and increased by his extraordinary Addiction to read Romances and the Lives of Saints The same Historian relates of him That he was a diligent Reader of Romances and in particular a great Admirer of Amadis de Gaul and such Books of Knight Chivalry and wonderfully tickled with Adventures and Feats of Arms related in them This filled his Head with false Ideas of Glory and heated his Brains with vehement desires of Imitation Thus Don Quixot began his Knight-Errantry with the reading of such Romances which even made him run Mad with ambition and desire of Glory And as it happens most unluckily Ignatius and Don Quixot were both inspired with reading the same Book the Adventures of Amadis de Gaul whom the Don always proposed to himself as the grand Pattern of all his Exploits and Ignatius imitated as far as the difference of Saint-Errantry would give him leave But it was the reading the
Spain through Valentia into Italy he happened on Iohn de Castro a Religious Hermit to whom he made known his Intention of going into the Holy Land. Castro spends all the Night following in Prayer comes out of his Cell next Morning in a transport of joy and tells Ignatius that he was commissioned by Heaven to let him know that his Design should succeed and turn to the good of all Christendom and for a sign that he did not speak at random offered himself to be his Companion and Disciple Ignatius received this Testimony of Castro as an Oracle of the Holy Ghost but would not suffer him to accompany him Whence Bouhours concludeth that Persons inspired from Heaven in behalf of others are not always so for themselves He might more reasonably have concluded that the whole Inspiration was fictitious and a meer whimsie of the Hermites Brain with which both Parties were not unwillingly deluded For Ignatius his Design did not succeed He never went after that to Palestine as he intended and consequently his Design was not in the least beneficial to the Cause of Christianity and then Castro equally pretended a Divine Inspiration for his entrance into the same Design as for Ignatius his success in it so that either Castro received no real Inspiration or Ignatius resisted the Holy Ghost But to proceed Ignatius travelling from Venice to Rome he stept alone into a little ruinous Chappel upon the Road following the motion of the Spirit which possest him to recommend his Company to God. Scarce had he begun his Prayer but he was wrapt in spirit environed with a great brightness and saw the Eternal Father who presenting him to the Son who stood before him laden with an heavy Cross recommended him to his protection who receiving him graciously said I will be propitious to you at Rome Removing soon after to Monte Cassino he saw the Soul of Hozez one of his Companions who at that time died at Padua at the very moment of his expiring in a glorious and shining Habit enter into Heaven and thereby had the good fortune to equal St. Benedict who in that very place saw the Soul of his Sister Scholaria in form of a Dove and the Soul of Germanus Bishop of Capua environed with exceeding light ascending into Heaven But now for the Honour of Ignatius whereas St. Benedict had but a transient view of the ascending Souls our Saint had the same Vision more than once For presently after hearing Mass he saw Heaven open and his Companion in the middle of the Saints See the Merits of the Society more resplendent than the rest However it must be remembred in favour of St. Benedict that in his time Enthusiasm was but in its infancy which in latter Ages was advanced to greater perfection St. Ignatius scorned to draw his model from an imperfect Copy but chose rather to imitate St. Francis a more Illustrious Visionary He assured his Companions that he often enjoyed the Corporeal Presence of Jesus Christ who appeared to him in his private Prayers nailed to the Cross and at other times under the form of a Cherub having six wings bearing a Crucifix in his Breast and fluttering before him for a long while in the Air. Not only were Divine Visions of this nature frequently by Heaven granted to them but also liberally communicated to others whensoever their Interest or Advantage required it Thus Ignatius coming to Barcelona to take Ship for the Holy Land a certain Lady called Isabella Rosella saw him at Church and heard a Voice within her crying Call him Call him Hereupon she invites him to her House and desires him to lodge there But he declared that he was called by Heaven to another place and so denied her Request Certainly one of these Calls must have been an Illusion For if the Lady was indeed commanded by God to invite him he ought to have accepted the Invitation if he was sent by God to another Place she ought not to have diverted him But not to be too critical upon the Actions of the Saints since it is the peculiar privilege of the Church of Rome that no Contradictions can prejudice the truth of its Assertions From Barcelona Ignatius travelled to Venice where entring late he takes up his Lodging upon the stones in the Piazza Heaven thought this too mean a Lodging for so great a Saint and therefore Marco Antonio Trevisani a Senator was immediately commanded by a Voice in a Vision to rise and invite him into his House When Rodriguez one of his chief Disciples was tempted by the Devil to leave Ignatius and become an Hermite God to prevent so great a loss sent an Angel from Heaven who taking a Gigantick Body and putting on a terrible Aspect met him going out of Town with a naked Sword in his hand and brandishing his Sword against him forced him to return with all speed altho the Countrey People who admired the precipitate and as they imagined causeless flight of Rodriguez could see neither Sword nor Giant To produce but one Instance more A Recluse near Vicenza slighting Ignatius and esteeming him a Madman God to vindicate the honour of the Saint appeared to him and told him or as Bouhours hath it he understood by a Light from above that Ignatius was a Vessel of Election filled with the Spirit of God. In like manner a Priest of Assisium who despised Saint Francis was assured by a Divine Vision that he was some great and venerable Person Hitherto their Visions are pretty equal but St. Francis had one adventure which Ignatius could never equal Being prostrated one day before a Crucifix he received exceeding consolation of spirit in praying and with his bodily Ears thrice heard a Voice proceeding from the Cross saying Francis go and repair my ruined House This was wonderful indeed but Ignatius never attained to this perfection For as the Devils and Oracles vanished and disappeared at the coming of Christ so the Romish images ceased to speak at the first appearance of the Reformation The last which we can hear of is that of Bern in Switzerland which performed the Miracle few years before the Reformation These Visions and Apparitions are so plainly owing to the whimsies of a disturbed Imagination that no art can palliate the Delusion The Ideas which these Enthusiasts conceived of God Christ and Angels were so gross and corporeal and by long habit attended with such violent motions of the Spirit that every cloud in their Brain was mistaken for that Object whose Idea did then accompany it This is evident in the case of Ignatius who in Mount Cassino remembring the famous Vision of St. Benedict in that place and then hearing the death of Hozez imagined he saw a Vision of the like nature and in visiting the holy Places in Palestine always fancied to see Christ before his eyes in that habit which the remembrance of the Place suggested to his
Imagination born in the Grotto at Bethlehem crucified in Mount Calvary and ascending in Mount Olivet This was solely to be ascribed to the delusion of a violent and strong Imagination wherewith all the precedent Actions and Arguments demonstrate Ignatius to have been endued To which may be added this following Circumstance When Ignatius first set himself to learn Grammar at Barcelona he found his Spirits by long habit so stongly enclined to these Enthusiastick Imaginations that he could not divert them any other way Whence instead of conjugating the Verb Amo he did nothing but form Acts of Love. I love thee my God said he thou lovest me he could think of nothing else for many months However if this Illusion had stopt in his own Breast it had been no great loss but when it imposeth upon multitudes of credulous Believers and draws them into pernicious mistakes when after a juridical Inquiry the reality of such Apparitions is allowed and attested by the publick suffrage of a large Christian Church in the Canonization of the Visionary we cannot but deplore the Credulity of Mankind and Corruption of that Church If the truth of all Christian Religion depended upon the attestation of such a Church as is pretended well might all sober Heathens suspect the Miracles of Jesus Christ or even deny the existence of such a God who chooseth the greatest Fools for his highest Favourites and obsequiously attendeth the Motions of every petty Visionary More rationally did Philostratus proceed in writing the Legend of Apollonius Tyaneus to whom he ascribes no more than two Visions and both of them undertaken for the improvement of Knowledge the first an Apparition of Achilles's Ghost to him for the resolution of divers Critical Questions the other of himself after death to a company of Friends to assure them of the Immortality of the Soul. If the external Visions of Ignatius were rare and wonderful the internal Illuminations of his Understanding were more extraordinary From these he pretended to have received a more perfect knowledge of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion than could have been drawn from the ordinary Rule of Faith to have learned all the Secrets of the Trinity and seen the very Essence of God. The pretence of this Infused Knowledge is the chief and most essential Character of Enthusiasm others may be properties or effects of it but this constitutes the very nature of it Thus Apollonius pretended to know all things by Divine Inspiration to act by a particular Illumination to know the state and adventures of his own Soul before it was united to his Body according to his notion of Transmigration and to discern the Souls of Ancient Heroes imprisoned in the Bodies of Beasts By this Divine Illumination he knew Domitian had laid snares for him and if we may believe Hierocles performed all his Miracles not by Enchantments or Spells as was commonly believed but by an hidden and preternatural knowledge of Divine Matters Saint Francis understood many secret things by the Spirit knew all the Mysteries of Scripture not by the help of Learning but by Divine Revelation unfolded many things to his Disciples by the assistance of Divine Visions which transcended Humane Capacity preached always Sermons to the People not composed by his own Industry but ex tempore suggested by the Spirit and lest you should suspect these Discourses to have been highly impertinent Bonaventure assures you they were not empty or ridiculous but full of the vertue of the Spirit piercing the very marrow of the Heart and ravishing all his Hearers with mighty admiration But to raise your Opinion yet somewhat higher of the wonderful Illuminations of this Saint Christ corporally appearing to him revealed to him many things which it was unlawful for him while he lived to publish and the great and wonderful Mystery of the Cross wherein all the gifts of Graces and treasures of Wisdom lay hid concealed from the Wise and Learned Men of the World were at once fully revealed to St. Francis. Yet all this is inconsiderable when compared to the infused Knowledge of Ignatius Iohn de Avila a famous Spanish Doctor declared that he knew no man more interiour nor filled with more supernatural Wisdom than Ignatius and Oviedo one of his Disciples out of a long experience of him gave his Opinion when Ignatius desired to be eased of the Office of General that he ought not to be opposed since being a Saint he had Lights which ordinary Christians had not Soon after his Conversion at Manreze he began to receive Visions and Illuminations He was hitherto meanly instructed in the Mysteries of the Faith but now he is elevated in the Spirit and hath all particularly the Trinity so clearly represented and revealed to him by an internal Light that he can speak of nothing but the Trinity and that with so much unction and light in such proper and sublime Expressions that the most Learned admired him and the most Ignorant were instructed by him The Illustrations which were communicated to him upon this Subject cannot be expressed how often our Lady and the three Persons of the Holy Trinity appeared to him and taught him what was their will touching this Article how many internal Consolations he received and how great Secrets were revealed to him In one of his Visions he saw the Blessed Trinity as plainly as we do one another under a corporeal representation The very notions of his Institute were obtained by Illumination and all the rules of his Order composed by the assistance of an internal Light. Immediately after his Conversion in time of Mass at the elevation he had an intuitive knowledge that the Body and Blood of Christ were truly contained under the Elements and in what manner they were there nay He saw with his bodily Eyes Iesus Christ and his Blessed Mother which kindled in his Soul new desires of following the Cross. One day he had a profound knowledge of all the Mysteries of Religion together and at another time praying before the Cross all which he had formerly learnt were set before his eyes in so full a light that the verities of Faith seemed to him to have nothing obscure in them and he remained so enlightned and convinced of them that he hath been heard to say that had they never been recorded in Scripture he should still have believed them and that had the Scriptures been lost no part of his Faith had been diminished But none raiseth the Merits of Ignatius in this respect so high as the Anonymous Author of his Glory who relateth his Divine Illuminations in these words Before he had yet learned any thing he was so fully instructed in a sublime manner by an intellectual Vision of the unity of the Essence and Persons of the Trinity that being but an Idiot he was enabled to write a Book concerning the Trinity in the beginning of his
by Divine Visions to write the Rules of it to which end retiring to a Mountain by the guidance of the Spirit he composed it not by his own industry and invention but writ down every thing as it was divinely revealed to him according as the Holy Ghost suggested to him in prayer as if he had taken the very words from the mouth of God. He never prayed but by the Impulse of the Spirit and whensoever that Impulse came he forthwith kneeled down whether in the Road in the Street or in the Dirt. But all this is inconsiderable to the Merits of Ignatius In him if we may believe Busssieres Reason never commanded but by the motives of Grace and the dictates of the Spirit In all acts of Religion he was rather passive than active Particularly his manner of prayer consisted in passively receiving the Impressions of the Divine Spirit and he told Laynez that God acted in him much more than he acted himself When he went to Paris to re-commence his Studies he acted in obedience to a strong Inspiration and when he waited on the Principal of his College there to deprecate his punishment of being whipt publickly he followed the inward Light which directed him His very playing at Billiards must be ascribed to the Impulse of the Divine Spirit and that the Rules of his Order as well as those of St. Francis might obtain a Divine Original being about to write them he confulted God with the simplicity of an Infant as if he had nothing to do but to write down that which God should dictate to him When he had written it he laid it on the Altar after he had said Mass desiring that God would correct it himself and miraculously blot out all which should not be Orthodox After many Prayers the interior Answers which the Holy Ghost made to him gave him at least an intire assurance and perfect quiet in his Vnderstanding concerning the Resolution he had made Not only were the Constitutions of each Order divinely inspired but the Pope and whole Conclave must be compelled by particular impulse to confirm them Innocent III. refused to approve St. Francis's designed Order till he was overruled by a Divine Vision When Ignatius first presented the project of his Institute to the Pope Paul III. he gave it to the Cardinals to be examined Most opposed it and Cardinal Guidiccione the chief Commissioner writ against it To remove these Obstacles the Pope was powerfully incited by an inward Impulse the Holy Ghost changed the heart of the Cardinals and Guidiccione being at the last on the sudden changed he knew not why was forced to say I cannot indeed approve new Religious Orders yet this I dare not disapprove For I find my self so disposed in mind that whither my Reason doth not lead me thither the Divine Will inclines me and I am driven thither by Inclination whither before I could not be brought by Arguments Indeed no memorable Action of Ignatius was performed without a particular Impulse and as if he had derived an eternal contagion of Fanaticism upon St. Peter's Chair many years after his death Paul V. found within himself a strong impulse to have him honoured as a Saint among all the Faithful Lastly to advance the Merits of Ignatius beyond all possibility of comparison or even comprehension contrary Impulses of the Holy Ghost acted in him and his Disciples at the same time Some Ladies of Alcala his Disciples had resolved to profess Evangelical Poverty and go in Pilgrimage to Guadalupe Ignatius earnestly dissuaded it and drawing Arguments from Truths divinely revealed to him laid before them the folly of their Undertaking yet the Ladies pursued their Design and no wonder for they were moved to it by the impulse of the Spirit This Enthusiastick Pretence of Divine Impulse proceeded so far in the College of Jesuits at Conimbria while Ignatius was yet alive that every one took upon himself to be his own Director in matters of Piety and Mortification only consulting his own Spirit and following the heat of his Devotion Ignatius who never approved in others the same methods of Perfection which he embraced himself and could endure no Competitors of Divine Inspiration writ an Epistle of Obedience to them wherein he layeth down three Rules of Perfection The first and lowest consists in doing what we are commanded The second in not only executing the Orders of our Superior but also conforming our Will to his The third to believe that what he orders us is best and most reasonable and upon this ground alone because the Superior doth judge it so to be However this Advice of Ignatius may seem to check the Fanaticism of his Followers yet it infinitely tendeth to promote his own For if the Commands of the Superior must be judged best and most reasonable for this Reason alone because the Superior judgeth them so to be it must necessarily be supposed that the Superior in giving all his Commands is acted by a Divine Inspiration which renders him infallible This not only created in others the belief of a Divine Impulse perpetually acting in him but conduced to feed his Ambition and augment his Glory And indeed the whole design of his Order and practice of his Life tended to produce in others a belief of his own Infallibility and thereby create to himself a little less than Divine Authority Summoning all his Companions to Rome in the Year 1538. to treat with them about the constitution of his intended Order he perswaded them besides their Vow of Poverty and Chastity which they had before made at Paris to add a third of Obedience and resolve to this end to elect a superior General whom they must all obey as God himself He knew very well that the Election would most certainly fall upon him and accordingly after he was chosen his Companions made their vows of Poverty Chastity and Obedience to which they added a fourth Vow of a Blind-obedience to the Pope with this difference that Ignatius the General made his promise immediately to the Vicar of Jesus Christ and the rest made theirs to him as to their General and Chief Afterwards sending twelve Disciples into Sicily he required them to subscribe to this Article among others That they did believe whatever their Superior should prescribe to them was most proper for them and most conducible to their eternal good Lying upon his Death-bed among other Rules left as a Legacy to his Order he requireth them to believe all things which the Superior enjoyns to be good for them even altho their own judgment should suggest the contrary This is a degree of Infallibility beyond whatever the Pope claimed For however many have asserted him to be infallible in defining Matters of Faith none ever yet denied that he might publish Constitutions prejudicial to the real Interest of the Church But Ignatius ever affected somewhat
And this however it deserves the scorn and contempt of judicious Persons tendeth not a little to raise the Reputation of the Enthusiast among ignorant men who ever admire what they cannot penetrate and suppose the obscurity of his Discourse to proceed from the Divine Mysteriousness of it If we consult the Writings of Ignatius we shall find them full of this foolish Canting His Book of Spiritual Exercises talks much of the love of Christ in a most unintelligible manner and his Letter to a Religious Person of Barcelona concerning the two manners whereby God teacheth us is most remarkable upon this account While he was yet a Novice in Philosophy he professed the knowledge of Mystical Divinity and indeed never knew any other In prescribing the duty of the General of his Order he saith that all Learning is necessary for him yet the Science of the Saints is that which is far most necessary for him to discern the divers interior Spirits of men This Science of the Saints is commonly too mysterious for Learned men and therefore Barth Torrez writing in defence of Ignatius's Book of Spiritual Exercises accused of Heresie in Spain by the Learned Melchior Canus saith there is a great difference between the Sciences learnt in Schools and the Sciences of the Saints His Followers pretend his Constitutions to be filled with the Spiritual Vnction of Grace and himself to have drank largely of the Wine of Heaven which is too strong and heady for the Vessels of the Earth Thus St. Francis is said to have been wholly absorpt in God in time of prayer and all swallowed up in the flame of the Divine Love as it were a burning coal And indeed it may be affirmed in general of all the Romish Saints that their Writings are wholly unintelligible and nothing else but a rhapsody of sublime Nonsense The grossest and most impertinent of our English Fanaticks come far beneath them and were never able to equal their Mysterious Follies We may indeed hear them talk of being Christed with Christ and Godded with God but the Science of the Saints was never among theâ—â—â—â—vanced to that perfection which it obtaineth it 〈◊〉 Church of Rome There remains nothing to compleat the Enthusiâ—â—â— but to fancy himself commissionated by God to puâ—â—lish his Imaginary Revelations to the World and thereupon without any respect to the Rules of Ecclesiastical Discipline instituted by Christ to invade the Office of preaching This is indeed the last and highest degree of Fanaticism not to contain the whimsies of their disturbed Fancy within their own Breasts but imagining them to be necessary Truths for all Christians to propagate them with a blind and unwearied zeal to believe that Christ hath not openly and plainly delivered to the Church in the rule of Faith all necessary Articles of Religion or that sufficient means were not provided for the propagation of them unless they intruded themselves into the Holy Office against all the Rules of Decency and Ecclesiastical Policy The Author of the Lawful Prejudices against the Calvinists affirms the guilt of this disorder alone to be a sufficient argument why all their Pleas should be rejected without any farther consideration Whether and how far the Calvinists are guilty of this irregularity I will not enquire but affirm that the most Illustrious Saints of the Church of Rome have been inexcusably guilty of it Particularly the supposed Merits of St. Francis and Ignatius are chiefly founded upon this apparent zeal for Souls and preaching their wild notions to the People without any ordinary mission from Christ or delegation from the Church St. Francis immediately after his Conversion while he was yet an ignorant Layman fell to preach repentance to the People in the Streets and Markets and being asked by some Robbers setting upon him in the Road who he was as if he were another Iohn Baptist he answered I am the Preacher and Messenger of the Great King. As soon as he had got together seven Disciples he sends them forth to preach the Gospel in these words Go ye and declare peace unto men preaching repentance for the remission of sins Then taking one Companion to himself he proceeds to one part of the World sending the other six by couples into the other three parts of the World. This was a phrenzy beyond the power of Hellebore and which exceeds even the Follies of our English Fifth-Monarchists Surely whatsoever Bonaventure may pretend the Holy Ghost had no share in this Undertaking and therefore no wonder it met with no better success St. Francis himself prepares to preach the Gospel to the Sarazens in Syria but by contrary Winds is driven upon the Coast of Sclavonia and forced to return back The Spirit still moving him he disposeth himself to convert the Moors and Miramolins of Africk but detained in his Journey by sickness loseth his Courage and quits the Design At last he resolves firmly to convert the Soldan of Babylon Away he goeth to Syria ragged and barefooted and yielding himself Prisoner to the Soldan's Guards boldly demands to be brought to his presence The Soldiers after they had soundly beaten him bring him to their Emperor He asketh him who he is Francis answers That he is sent by God to preach Salvation to him and his People and for proof of the Christian Faith undertakes to enter into the fire The Soldan laughs at him and having made sufficient sport with him dismisseth him for a Fool. Ignatius at his very first conversion proposed to himself to preach the Gospel in the Holy Land. Accordingly in the Year 1523. he enters upon the Journey guided by that inward motion which had first prompted him at his conversion Coming thither the Guardian of the Franciscans whom he had acquainted with his Resolution disapproved such irregular usurpation of the Holy Office and commands him to be gone upon pain of Excommunication The poor Saint is forced to return without success however he quits not his Design Studying at Barcelona he began to preach conversion to his Neighbours Removing to Alcala he falls to reform the dissolute Manners of Scholars Clergy-men and others and to Catechize Youth But being suspected of Sorcery he is clapt into the Inquisition To free himself from Prison he professeth himself willing blindly to obey his Ecclesiastical Judge At last the Inquisitors dismiss him but withall forbid him to explain to the People the Mysteries of Religion upon pain of Excommunication and Banishment Ignatius notwithstanding his promise of blind obedience would not readily submit to this Command doubting whether it were a lawful Command and fearing that in not preaching he should be wanting to his Call and Vocation To get rid of this difficulty he removes to Salamanca and there preacheth openly to the People in the Streets and Fields altho many good men were scandalized at it saying it was never heard that a simple Layman should instruct the People and perform
the whole Office of a Pastor in directing their Consciences Upon this he and his Companions are thrown into Prison by the Inquisitors where they do nothing but sing Psalms and preach to the People flocking to them through the windows and chinks of the doors Being examined by the Inquisitors he pretends that he did not preach but only hold forth to the People sitting on Horseback or getting upon the Stalls in the Market concerning Vertue and Piety Being driven from that Plea he flieth to the pretence of an Extraordinary Vocation Being confuted in that he refuseth to give any farther account of his Authority to preach till his Ecclesiastical Superiors should command him At last he is absolved upon condition to preach no more He dislikes the Condition and therefore resolves to leave Spain Coming to Paris he falls upon his old work of preaching and converting Upon this he is accused to the Inquisitor but upon intercession of Friends dismissed Now he falls hard to study and wholly omits preaching but soon after begins to talk of Heaven and Hell so vehemently to the Scholars that he forced them to intermit their studies and was thereupon condemned to be publickly whipt in the Hall by all the Regents as a Disturber of the Colledge However soon after his zeal for conversion of Souls mightily increased upon him and he clearly saw that God had appointed him to establish a company of Apostolick Men to that end Hereupon he begins to gather Disciples and first sets upon Peter Faber a poor Spanish Youth acted with sentiments of Vain-glory and after a deal of Cant acquaints him with his Resolutions to go into the East and employ himself wholly in the conversion of Infidels Faber takes fire at this and resolves to follow him through all dangers After he had gained five other Disciples by the like Artifices he calls them together opens his Design and perswades them to vow a Journey into the Holy Land to preach the Gospel there altho none of them were yet ordained except Faber The Design being resolved on Ignatius takes a progress into Spain and there preacheth every Sunday and two or three days in the Week with great concourse of People The Church not being able to contain the multitude of his Auditors he holds Field-Conventicles and there inveighs powerfully against Cards and Dice I suppose Mince-pies were not yet in fashion perswading the People to throw them all into the River Coming to Venice he waits for his Companions and in the mean while employs himself in preaching When his Companions were all met they most unhappily could get no passage to the Holy Land and therefore go to Rome to receive the Directions of the Pope Here they obtain to be ordained Priests yet that they may as much as was possible continue their Enthusiasm refuse to preach in a regular way but dispersing themselves through the great Cities of Italy commonly get upon some Stone in the middle of the Market-place and whirling their Caps over their heads invite the People to hear them with a loud voice when having got a confluence of People about them they vented their undigested Notions of Religion in a canting and mysterious stile altho for the most part with such ill success that many of them were clapt into Prison by the Inquisitors We have long since deplored and our Adversaries of the Church of Rome have upbraided to us the Divisions of our Church arising from the unlawful usurpation of the Pulpit by Enthusiastick Preachers Yet could we never charge them with such gross follies and irregularities as those now mentioned nor can the Papists justly accuse them of any since in acting this Disorder and Enthusiasm they imitated the Great Ignatius and his Disciples and perhaps learnt it from them At least our Adversaries cannot now deny that Jesuits have sometimes preach'd in Conventicles Thus we have past through all the chief and most essential Properties of Enthusiasm and demonstrated Ignatius to have possest them all in an high degree I will next consider some of the more ordinary effects and consequences of it and compare them with the Actions of our Saint For these essential Errors of Enthusiasm in mistaking the turbulent Motions of the Spirits for the Dictates of the Holy Ghost and the Tempests of the Brain for Divine Inspirations cannot but betray the Judgment of the Enthusiast to a thousand other Errors and Absurdities inspire him with false notions of Religion misguide his Zeal and corrupt his Devotion Every immoderate excess of Vertue will then appear an extraordinary Perfection and the foulest Superstition shall be accounted meritorious Hence among other follies the Enthusiast will imagine it no small Perfection to pray continually suppose it to be a sign of a nearer familiarity with God thence flatter himself with the belief of his own extraordinary Merit and by gratifying his mistaken Ambition create to himself even a sensual pleasure in the performance of it Thus St. Francis was wont to pray incessantly if not vocally at least mentally and in praying used to receive great caresses from the Holy Ghost to be ravished in his mind and wholly swallowed up in a certain wonderful light and ofttimes in an excess of contemplation to be put beside himself insomuch as being wrapt in Spirit and perceiving somewhat beyond humane sense he was ignorant of what was done before his Eyes Ignatius after his conversion spent seven hours every day in the Church in prayer upon his knees and was immediately so recollected that he often continued many hours together without any motion In his long retirement at Manreze not satisfied with his seven hours of prayer he did nothing but pray When he was ordained Priest he retired to a poor solitary Cottage and living like an ancient Hermit fasted daily prayed incessantly and there received such overflowing Consolations that through the abundance of tears his sight was endangered To produce no more Instances all the Actions of his Life were directed by the Illuminations of the Spirit supposed to be received in prayer as we before shewed Yet himself when the Reputation of any other devout Enthusiast was to be diminished could alledge against it that such as made long Prayers ought to take great care not to abuse that commerce which they have with God. That there are a sort of People of a wilful nature who by much praying without observing the rules of discretion and found judgment dry up their Brains and are so possest with their own Imaginations that there is no getting them out of their head That others there are who perswaded that all comes from God which enters into their thoughts in time of prayer take their own Fancies for their conduct and so by following only the impulse of Nature which they mistake for that of Grace fall into most gross Errors Another ordinary effect of Enthusiasm is the expectation of extraordinary assistance from God
into an Hospital fasts whole weeks with Bread and Water except Sundays when he eat a few boiled Herbs but sprinkled over with Ashes girded his Reins with an Iron Chain wore an Hair Shirt disciplined himself thrice a day slept little and lay upon the ground resolveth to continue these Austerities all his Life to go barefoot to the Holy Land and then choose a wild Desert for his Abode Removing to Manreze the Spirit grows more violent He adds to his Hair Shirt and Iron Chain a Girdle of certain Herbs full of little thorns and prickles and remembring that Knights-Errant use not to eat sometimes in two or three months together he lengthens his Fasts as far as Nature will permit and continueth sometimes two or three days together without taking any thing feeding only on the Honey of Celestial Consolations This was indeed a considerable advance towards the imitation of Romantick Heroes but not comparable to the following Adventure Ignatius had read in his beloved Romance how the admired Amadis de Gaul being once despised by his Mistress Oriana retired to the Poor Rock like an Hermit where he snivelled and whined and cried and shed tears unmeasurably till Heaven took pity of him spent most of his time in Prayer made a Rosary of Acorns and confessed himself to an Hermit In imitation of this Heroick Penance Ignatius resolves upon a retreat and having found out a dark and deep Cave in the hollow of a Rock opening into a solitary Valley called the Vale of Paradice so hideous that none would ever venture into it dark and obscure the Mouth overgrown with bushes and brambles he enters into it and makes his Abode The horror of the Place inspired him with a new Spirit of Penance he whips his Body five times a day with an Iron Chain beats and cuts his Breast with a Flint-stone fasts unmeasurably and prays without ceasing till his Friends finding him draw him out of his Den by force He was then reduced to a very weak condition but as a Knight-Errant must not complain tho his Guts be coming out of his Belly so neither must a Saint-Errant tho his Bones be coming out of his Skin Ignatius will not renounce his Austerities but continueth all his life to sprinkle his Meat with Ashes To produce but one Instance more of this extravagant Mortification Ignatius when he first began to gather Disciples at Paris and had gained Peter Faber to him used with him to lye abroad in Winter Evenings upon the Snow and Ice gazing upon the Heavens and then stripping themselves to their Shirts lay the remaining part of the Night upon the Coal-heap If to be bedawbed with Coaldust be so great a Perfection when the granting of Indulgences comes next in fashion we may hope to see erected an holy Confraternity of Catholick Chimney-sweepers If it be irrational to mortify the Body with excessive Austerities and deny to it the common benefits of Nature it is no less folly to court the laughter and industriously procure the contempt of Mankind much more to be ambitious of Afflictions and Sufferings or refuse to be delivered from them This is the utmost degeneracy of Humane Reason to imagine that our Nature receiveth any perfection from contempt or misery an Opinion which overthroweth the very Laws of Creation and is highly injurious to the Honour of God as if God in creating us had not intended some benefit and happiness to Mankind even in this World or afterwards in revealing Christianity had resolved to render us miserable and ridiculous Such fatal Mistakes doth Enthusiasm introduce while it affecteth excesses in all Actions and disliketh all sober Vertue Yet no wonder even these gross Mistakes should be admitted which so naturally tend to inflame the Pride and foment the Ambition of the Enthusiast who hence imagins himself dear to Heaven assumes the title of Martyr conceives a vast opinion of his own Merits and misapplies to his Follies all the Blessings and Rewards promised to those who suffer for Righteousness sake S. Francis desired nothing more than to be reviled and when by his extravagant Actions he had acquired in his own Countrey the character of a Mad-man and was thereupon usually persecuted with a train of Boys flinging dirt stones and jeers at him he sought not to undeceive the opinion of the Multitude or avoid their importunate Clamours by withdrawing himself but ravished with joy walked along as it were in triumph blessing himself that he was thought worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. Thus Ignatius also thought it highly meritorious to be on any account derided and if by chance any insolent Person threw stones at him while he preached or rotten Oranges he returned to his Lodging so contented and satisfied as cannot easily be imagined Being accused of heinous Crimes to the Inquisitors of Alcala he would not accept of an Advocate which was offered to him that so he might not lose through his own fault so fair an occasion of partaking in the Ignominies of the Cross. Upon his refusal to plead the Inquisitors clapt both him and his Companions into Prison and load them with Chains as Hereticks and seditious Persons Hereupon they sing Psalms and give thanks to Heaven all night long for being thought worthy to suffer for Righteousness sake The other Prisoners brake Prison and binding the Guards make their escape Ignatius and his Disciples will not make use of this opportunity but stay in the Prison This is exaggerated by the Writers of his Life as an extraordinary mark of Christian gallantry altho we shall have no great reason to admire it if we remember that their Legs were chained However it cannot be denied to the honor of Ignatius that he never blushed at any Reproach nor was ashamed of the most ridiculous Action When he preached at Rome in Italian that he might obtain the laughter and scorn of his Auditors he would often intermix Spanish words talk Gibberish use Solecisms and break the Rules of Grammar But of all his Actions of Humility the most illustrious was his Adventure at Bologna Going over the Draw-bridge there he fell into the Ditch and crept out soundly drencht and bedaubed with dung In this condition he entred into the Town and that he might the better triumph over the vanity of the World and obtain the happiness of an universal Derision he walked through all the larger and more frequented Streets of the City begging of Alms all covered with dung as he was This no doubt procured the desired effect diverted the Rabble pleased Ignatius loaded him with merit and made him proof against all shame These effects of Enthusiasm which I have already mentioned however they be highly irrational and contrary to the simplicity of the Christian Religion yet at least they carry some shew of Piety Abstinence Humility and Mortification along with them which may dazle the eyes of unwary People and in an Ignorant Age