taken the Almanack into the number of the Saints and canonized it under the name of St. Almachius solemnizeth its memory on the first day of January and giveth to it an illustrious Character in the Martyrology This probably proceeded from the mistake of some ignorant Monk about the seventh or eighth Age who finding the word S. Almanacum Sanctum Almanacum written in the front of the Calendar and not knowing what to make of that barbarous term with which he was before unacquainted imagined it to be some ancient obscure Saint who took up the first place in the Calendar Being possessed with this Error it was no hard matter to make S. Almachius of S. Almanacum written in the old way of Abbreviation Having thus framed the Saint out of good manners he placed him after the Circumcision of our Lord the memory of which is celebrated upon the same day but yet to keep the former Order as much as possible immediately after it as it now continueth in the Roman Martyrology This unhappy mistake was thence transcribed into many other Copies and so encreased the Rabble of the Romish Saints with the addition of St. Almanack Afterwards a goodly Story was framed of him that he suffered Martyrdom at Rome under the Presecture of Alipius where reprehending the Gladiators in the Amphitheater for their bloody sports he was killed by them That my Conjecture is just manifestly appears from the constant silence of all ancient Writers concerning any such Martyr None makes mention of him before Alcuinus and he doth it in such a manner as sheweth that he knew not what to make of him For as for the Martyrologies of Beda Usuardus and Ado they have received so many Interpolations from latter hands that no Arguments can be drawn from them Baronius is grievously perplexed about this S. Almachius One while he makes him to have suffered under Honorius another while under Theodosius and supposeth him to have been the same with the Martyr Telemachus of whom Theodoret makes mention But so prodigious a change of Telemachus into Almachius is somewhat incredible and that Telemachus was stoned whereas Almachius is said to have been stabbed Add to this universal silence of the Ancients that S. Almachius is placed exactly in the beginning of the Calendar on the first of January immediately after the Circumcision of Christ and the matter will be rendred highly probable The only Objection which with any shew of reason can be opposed is that the word Almanacum seems not to have been so ancient as the time of Alcuinus as being received from the Arabians But this is no other than a vulgar Error For Porphyry used the word 1400. years since where speaking of the many different Horoscopes he saith of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose names are contained in the Almanacks which may also give a probable reason how the letter h crept into Almachius For as anciently in spelling words derived from the Greek they kept much more closely to the Greek Orthography than we now do it is not unlikely that when this word was first adopted by the Latins it was writ Almanachum These Arguments will at least create a probability of my Assertion that this fictitious Saint arose from the unhappy mistake of some ignorant Writer If our Adversaries of the Church of Rome shall yet persist to defend the honour and truth of their Calendar it will concern them to produce better Arguments for the existence of St. Almachius than I have now proposed against it But to return from St. Almanack to St. Ignatius it cannot be pretended by our Adversaries that the Character of Enthusiasm or Falsity which I have affixed to him and the Miracles attributed to him may equally be fastned on the Actions and Miracles of Christ and his Apostles altho both Ignatius and St. Francis in acting their Extravagances flattered themselves with the thoughts of a perfect imitation of Christ. As for the reception of the Faith by extraordinary Illumination and in many cases acting by Divine Impulse that in the first propagation of Christianity when it was both necessary and convenient was no argument or character of Enthusiasm but only in subsequent times after the Faith had been once published and an ordinary Rule whether Scripture or Tradition was fixed which by natural means might divulge the knowledge of it Nothing childish or ridiculous can be discovered in the Actions of Christ and his Apostles none of those frantick Motions or irrational Extravagances which are so eminently conspicuous in the whole Conduct of Ignatius At least none of their Miracles are subject to those Objections which intirely ruine the credit of those ascribed to Ignatius They were all well attested performed before whole multitudes of Enemies as well as Friends delivered to us by Eye-witnesses and that without any fluctuation or mutual repugnance of their Testimony were not destructive of the Laws of Corporeal Beings nor included any contradiction contained nothing monstrous or indecent in them and were in all respects intirely conformable to the Majesty of that God who wrought them and the gravity of that Religion which was confirmed by them It will perhaps be pretended with greater shew of reason that the actions and Histories of many famous Monks and Anchorets of the Ancient Church give no small countenance to the Conduct of Ignatius and by the authority of their Examples rescue it from the force of our Objections that consequently the Ancient Church is no less subject to the Charge of Enthusiasm than the Church of Rome and both equally concerned in it Altho the deformity of Enthusiasm cannot be palliated by any Authority whatsoever yet the regard which I have to Truth and the great reverence which the Church of England not unjustly beareth to the more pure and ancient times of Christianity obligeth me to remove this prejudice and preclude the force of any such Objection before I dismiss the Reader First then however it cannot be denied that many Persons who obtained to themselves an extraordinary repute of sanctity in the Ancient Church committed many gross irregularities in the conduct of their Devotion practised immoderate Austerities and were sometimes guilty of ridiculous Actions yet the Ancient Vniversal Church is not in the least concerned in all this nor receiveth any prejudice from the indiscreet Zeal of these private Bigots She gave no countenance to their Extravagances never recommended them to the practise or imitation of her Children much less approved them by any solemn and publick Act. Whereas the Church of Rome hath in the highest and most solemn manner espoused the Follies and Whimsies of her Enthusiastick Saints by canonizing them celebrating their Memories with Festivals and pompous Ceremonies invoking them in her publick Offices and recommending their Examples to the World as the best and greatest Patterns of Christian Perfection This alone might suffice to overthrow all pretence of Antiquity in this case Yet to clear the matter somewhat
however Ribadeneira and Maffeius knew very few Miracles of Ignatius later Writers had abundant Information of them At the Examination preceding his Canonization in the Year 1609 Bouhours tells us That 660 Bussieres 665 Witnesses juridically interrogated deposed concerning the Holiness of his Life and that 200 Miracles well attested were produced at the same time altho Vitelleschi assures us That 13 Years after at his Canonization no more than 140 Miracles could be heard of when he saith that 175 Witnesses were examined by order of Gregory XV. Two or three years after Vitelleschi comes out the Glory of Ignatius which enlargeth the number of the Miracles to above 200. and the Witnesses to 675. Now even altho we should take the lesser Account it is utterly incredible that so many Witnesses of the Miracles and Holiness of Ignatius should be alive in the year 1622. 66 years after his Death If it be a merit to believe Contradictions in Faith it is none to believe lies in History The Miracles of St. Francis and Apollonius labour with the same difficulties for to mention no more of St. Francis than the Miracle of the Five Wounds of Christ imprinted in his Body which however Bonaventure proposeth it as a thing past all dispute and attested by Infinite Multitudes of Spectators it is certain that presently after his Death Pope Gregory IX would not believe one word of it insomuch as the poor Saint was forced to appear to him in the Night and draw a whole Porringer of Blood out of the Wound in his side to convince him of the Truth of it As for Apollonius Moeragenes who was Contemporary to him and writ his Life immediately after his Decease knew little of his Miracles Philostratus comes a hundred years after and giveth a large Legend of them altho at last he confesseth himself to be so far ignorant of his Actions that he knows not whether he died Eighty Ninety or an hundred years old and by what kind of Death Philostratus himself pretends no more than one Person to have been raised from the Dead by Apollonius and even relates that so doubtfully that he delivers it as his own Opinion that the Person was not really dead An hundred years after him Vopiscus doubted not confidently to assert that Apollonius raised to life many dead Persons But Miracles may so easily be obtruded upon the World after a long distance of time and are so securely received by the credulous Multitude that nothing less than a strict Examination can defeat the hopes of Impostors and confute the Lies of their devoted Historians If all the Miracles of Ignatius in general want a sufficient Attestation much less will those deserve our Belief the Truth of which was never attested by any Spectators but depends upon his own sole Credit and Authority and that not only because it is unreasonable to believe a Person witnessing in his own Cause but chiefly because it is foolish to imagine that God should concur with Ignatius to work Miracles in secret which could tend to no other end than to foment his vain glory by increasing in him an Opinion of his own Merits Yet if we examine his Miracles we shall find many of them attested by his own sole Authority All his Illuminations and Visions were of this Nature of which none could be conscious besides himself When in his Journey to Rome he stept alone into a little ruinous Chappel and there enjoyed that wonderful Vision of the two first Persons of the Trinity Vitelleschi tells us that he was environed with a great brightness This could depend only upon his own Testimony as also the hovering of a flame of Fire over his Head like the Cloven fiery Tongues of the Apostles while he writ the Constitutions of his Order in his private Chamber and indeed Bouhours pretends to no other Testimony of this Miracle but only saith it appears from a Paper-Book writ with his own Hand His driving away Devils from an haunted Chamber and producing a light in his Chamber when he had commanded the Candle to be carried away which we before mentioned are of the same nature Thus St. Francis while he prayed alone in Woods or solitary Places was wont to be raised from the Ground and continue in that pendulous Posture environed with a bright Cloud His five Wounds in the likeness of Christ's he received in secret and would never shew them to any but his own Confidents St. Mary Magdalen Pazzi was yet more careful to prevent any discovery of her Imposture She pretended to have the five Wounds of Christ engraven in her Heart It is more than probable that if her Heart had been opened they would have disappeared and must have been searched for in her disturbed Brain It would be no less irrational blindly to believe those Miracles of Ignatius which are delivered to us upon the Testimony of one single Witness who possessed perhaps with a vast Opinion of his Sanctity fancied somewhat extraordinary to be in all his Actions and mistook every Motion for a Miracle to which himself could not assign a Cause Not to say That in some Persons the Vanity of lying and spreading wonderful Reports surmounts all considerations of Shame and moral Honesty That he was often raised from the Ground in Prayer and continued in that pendulous Posture in the Air is delivered to us upon the sole Authority of Iohn Pascal a poor ignorant Youth his Chamber-fellow at Barcelona who thought sometimes that he saw him elevated from the Ground and surrounded with Light when he arose in the Night to pray The Widow and Children of this Pascall deposed upon Oath that they had heard their Husband and Father say that he had often seen Ignatius in an Extasy environed with Light raised from the Ground five or six Yards high This was admitted as an undoubted Testimony and most certain proof of a prodigious Miracle altho if we remember that Pascall's house was a poor Cottage and that another Author assures us that he always lodged in a low Chamber which could not admit any such Elevation of his Body we shall have great reason to suspect the Miracle However it is irrational to imagine God the Author of so unuseful a Miracle which could tend only to make the foolish Saint believe that God heard him better hanging in the Air than kneeling on the Ground That Miracle was more notorious which Lucian assures us he saw publickly performed in the Temple of Hierapolis of the Image of Apollo hanging for some while and caried about in the Air yet must we ascribe it to any thing else rather than the Divine Omnipotence The same Pascall being reduced to great Necessity after the Death of Ignatius and imploring his Assistance one morning in a Church heard a melodious sound and saw Ignatius appearing attended with a beautiful train of young Clergymen After a while the Canons enter
farther I will observe that these indiscreet Actions and Childish Irregularities were the products of latter and degenerate Ages in the Ancient Church unknown to the first four Ages when Christianity flourished in its greatest purity In the three first Ages not the least footstep or shadow of them can be found and in the fourth Age they were very rarely practised and wholly confined to the Desarts of Egypt or Palestine As for the Follies related of St. Antony in his Life ascribed to St. Athanasius and those of other Saints in the Vitae Patrum said to have been writ by St. Hierom all Learned Men are now agreed that the former Work is miserably corrupted the latter wholly spurious After the fourth Age many Childish Impertinencies and trifling Superstitions began to be practised by the Monks and Hermits whose Follies are celebrated and magnified by injudicious Writers of the same Order and time such as Palladius Heraclitus Sulpicius Severus Cassian and Moschus but augmented with a large addition of Fables and absurdity by the latter Legendary Writers of the Church of Rome In the next place it deserveth farther to be considered that in the Ancient Church none but obscure and inconsiderable Persons confined to a Mountain or a Desart who obtained neither authority nor reputation in the Church were guilty of such foul mistakes and irregularities The great and famous Doctors and Fathers of the Church who drew the eyes of the whole World upon their Actions and acquired to themselves an universal veneration cannot be accused of such fatal miscarriages which were so far unworthy of them On the contrary they sharply opposed the misguided Zeal of these ignorant Devotoes censured their imprudent Actions slighted their external shews of apparent Piety and deplored the evil consequences of their irregular Practices What the wisest of the Ancients disowned deserve not to be excused and defended by us And indeed the trifling Devotions and wild Impertinencies of the Monastick Order were the greatest blemish to those latter Ages of Antiquity and laid the foundation of all Corruptions whether of Faith or Manners which infected succeeding Ages Towards the beginning of the fifth Age Eunapius the Heathen Historian could find no more plausible or rational objection against Christianity than the sordid Actions and ridiculous Conduct of the Monks certainly no objection was then more visible or less capable of a refutation But then the Actors of these Follies never obtained that respect and admiration from the publick suffrage of the Ancient Church which Enthusiastick Saints have received from the Church of Rome The former commemorated none in her publick Offices but Martyrs Confessors and famous Persons who had been eminently instrumental in the service of the Church and filled not her Diptychs with Monks and Anchorets The latter hath scarce canonized any other than such as were chiefly eminent for Enthusiasm Lastly to say no more Even the highest Extravagances of these Ancient Bigots come far beneath the Enthusiasm of Ignatius and other admired Saints of the Church of Rome They might perhaps commit many gross absurdities and indecent actions and entertain Childish notions of Religion but never proceeded so far as to pretend to extraordinary Illuminations reception of the Faith by supernatural Revelation and continual Impulse of the Divine Spirit nor took upon them to publish their own Whimsies by preaching to the People without any commission from the Governours of the Church which are the genuine and most essential Characters of Fanaticism If the Miracles related of them be sometimes found to lye open to the same Objections which are opposed by me to those of Ignatius the honour of the Ancient Church suffers no prejudice thereby which far from building her Authority and Reputation on them hath frequently disowned and rejected them as appears among other Arguments from that Passage of the Learned Author of the Opus Imperfectum which I have produced in the following Discourse None will be concerned in the truth of these ancient Monkish Miracles but that Church only which hath proposed them to the People in her publick Offices and Ecclesiastical Legends In representing the Actions of Ignatius I have chiefly made use of the Authority of F. Dominick Bouhours a French Iesuit altho one of the latest Writers of his Life because in publishing the Life of Ignatius of late among us that Author was thought fit to be preferred before all others and his Relation of him translated into our Language However in whatsoever he proposeth he wants not the attestation of more ancient and authentick Writers For he seems to have taken his whole Relation from Orlandinus his History of the Society of Jesus printed at Colen in the Year 1615. with the approbation of Claudius Aquaviva the General I have seldom produced any other Writers of Ignatius his Life but when the first is either wholly silent or giveth a different Relation If I have sometimes inserted Observations from the Life of Apollonius Tyaneus that tendeth as well to illustrate the nature of Enthusiasm in general as to do justice to the common Cause of Christianity against the pretences of an Impostor whom the latter Heathens set up in opposition to our Blessed Saviour To conclude I hope our Adversaries will not pretend that I have misrepresented or falsified the Actions of Ignatius since I have all along to every particular Action so carefully annexed in the Margent the Author who relates it and the place where it may be found The pretence of misrepresentation is the last refuge of a baffled Cause and therefore made use of by our Adversaries as the only remaining expedient upon all occasions particularly by the Author of the Monomachia who not being able to answer the Objections brought by a Friend of mine against the Authorities of his Speculum Ecclesiasticum pretended to overrule the concurrent Testimonies of Labbé Oudin Du Pin and other Romish Criticks because the particular places of their Books to which those Passages related were not adjoined and insinuated a suspicion of some insincerity as if that omission had proceeded from a fear lest the truth of those Citations should be examined What the ignorance or artifice of this Author will not permit him to do at least all judicious Persons will allow that it were both unuseful and impertinent to stuff the Margents with particular mention of the places of such Critical Writers who in giving their Censures upon Ancient Authors proceed either Alphabetically or in order of time and may consequently be immediately recurred to without any difficulty But a lame excuse must serve the turn when the badness of the Cause will admit no better THE ENTHUSIASM OF THE CHURCH of ROME c. SO great and venerable an Idea of God is by nature imprinted in the minds of men so visible and convictive are the Arguments of his Omniscience and Veracity that all Divine Revelations are no sooner proposed than admitted and esteemed to command no less than to deserve our
to be always in a moving Condition In like manner his Book of Meditations is formed in a Military way where he represents to us our Saviour as a King inviting his Subjects to accompany him in a Military Expedition for the Conquest of the whole Earth and assures them of their share in the Booty and Glory of the Conquest in Proportion to their Fatigues in War. He describes Christ coming to Preach his Doctrine to the World with the Devil standing in the Front before him and both under the resemblance of Generals who raise Troops spread their Ensigns take the Field and exhort their Men to follow them It seems the Propagation of the Gospel by force of Arms is connatural to the Order of Jesuits only the Wisdom of latter Years hath changed these Spiritual into carnal Weapons But to come a litle nearer one of the most necessary Ingredients of Knight-Errantry is a Lady who by the auspicious Charms of her Beauty may protect the Knight and receive the Trophies of all his Victories The choice therefore of Dulcinea del Toboso cost Don Quixot no less than the serious Consultation of eight Days and the choice of the Blessed Virgin cost Ignatius a tedious Preparation at his first setting out when at last he prostrated himself one night before her Image and consecrated himself to the Service of the Son and the Mother vowed inviolable Fidelity to her made her his Protectress and ever after esteemed himself to be obliged to her by the Laws of Knighthood Another necessary Qualification of Knight-Errantry is to be solemnly dubbed Knight and watch a whole Night in Armour before the undertaking of that Profession And therefore Don Quixot at his first setting out had a terrible scruple of Conscience because he was not yet dubbed Knight whereupon he immediately caused himself to be dubbed by the Inn-keeper and kept his Vigils in his imaginary Chappel Ignatius was not forgetful of this Ceremony and therefore in Imitation of it he watched a whole Night in his Pilgrims Weeds the Armour of Saints before the Altar of our Lady at Montferrat praying and devoting himself to Jesus and Mary according to those warlike Ideas which were still in him as Bouhours expresseth it Departing he hung up before the Altar his Sword and Poniard For where-ever a Knight-Errant performs his Vigils his Arms are forfeited to the use of the Chappel and must be redeemed if he will have them But to proceed Don Quixot carried no Money about him because no Knight-Errant ever did ordered Sancha Pancha to provide no Necessaries aforehand saying Knights-Errant ought to rely on Gods Providence and ever pleaded that by the Priviledg of his Order he was exempted from paying any Reckonings or any other Debt whatsoever So Ignatius thought it a Crime to carry Money with him relied so far upon the Providence of God that he would accept of no Provivisions for a Journey altho offered to him and in his Journey to the Holy Land by Sea pleaded always that as a Saint he ought to be excused from paying any Fraight and would never pay it tho Money were given to him for that purpose Don Quixot believed every one bound to confess believe and maintain whatsoever he avouched whether they had seen it or no. So Ignatius established it for the primary Rule of his Order that every one should obey the General that is himself while alive with the same implicite Faith as they would God himself Lastly to omit many other Instances of this nature As the Inn-keeper excused Don Quixot when he had done many outragious Injuries as a Fool and distracted Coxcomb so the Spanish Captain excused upon the same account the Extravagant Incivilities of Ignatius when he was brought before him But the most remarkable Instance remains behind Don Quixot in Obedience to the Laws of Knight-Errantry in all his Exploits left it to the Discretion of his Horse whether he would go believing the essence and being of all his Adventures to consist in that In like manner Ignatius ever submitted himself blindly to the Dictates of his Confessor and when he was wanting to the Direction of his Horse as may appear from this Story Ignatius presently after his Conversion made a Pilgrimage to Montserrat By the way he fell in Company with a Moor and disputed with him about the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. The Moor stifly opposed it and as it should seem was too hard for Ignatius upon the point as well he might arguing against an ignorant Disputant and being on the righter Side At this Ignatius transported with anger and zeal was in doubt with himself whether his Faith and Allegiance due to the Blessed Virgin ever since his solemn dedication of himself to her did not oblige him to revenge her honour by the death of the Mahometan Not being able to resolve the Doubt and fearing to be wanting in his Duty he resolved to follow the Moor and do what God should inspire him Thus riding on he came where the Road parted One way led to Montserrat the other the Moor took No Divine Inspiration yet appearing and the Case admitting no longer delay he abandoned all farther expectation of Divine Impulse and committed himself to the direction of his Horse although all will not allow him to have rid upon so learned a Beast Maffeius saith It was a plain Ass or at least a Mule. Ignatius therefore coming to the Division of the Road stopt his Horse and loosned the Reins resolving if the Beast took the same way which the Moor had done to set upon him and kill him if the other to let him pass unrevenged The Beast by good luck took the way leading to Montserrat whereupon Ignatius most rationally concluded that God did not require at his hands that he should revenge the Blasphemies of the Moor. This the Writers of his Life call a Miracle tho an honest Heretick would rather call it Chance Now the Romish Saints may well be impeccable if God must work Miracles to perserve them from sin tho a sober Casuist would not fear to conclude that Ignatius by making such an irrational Resolution was really guilty of Murther It is well his Countryman St. Dominick did not live in his time For he denying the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgn if Ignatius had met him in this mood and his Ass had not been wiser than himself the two Saints must have fought a Duel about the Immaculate Conception and then surely by the common Privilege of Saints each would have fought for Truth That Ignatius in his Conversion was acted with these ambitious Principles and reformed his Life not out of any sense of Piety but meerly through an immoderate desire of Vain-glory is so undeniable that even the Writers of his Life cannot dissemble it This appears from the account given by them of the motions excited in his Imagination by reading Romances and the Lives of Saints at his first Conversion which
was before mentioned and may be farther demonstrated from what Bouhours adds that in exercising all his Religious Austerities he had at first no other aim than to imitate those holy Penitents whose Lives he had read and to expiate his Sins This last clause was annexed only to save the Credit of the Saint For in his Life published by order of Mutius Vitelleschi General of the Jesuits it is freely confessed that Ignatius his first Resolutions were to exercise great Austerities and perform extraordinary Penance not so much to expiate his Sins which then presented themselves to his view as because he imagined that in these rigours the utmost perfection of Christianity consisted having no higher Idea of it and desiring with passion to acquire that perfection as the only means of obtaining the repute of Sanctity And indeed if we examine his first Adventure after his Conversion we hear of no extraordinary acts of real Piety and Devotion but only Pilgrimages Sackcloth Fasting Whipping and Begging the effects of an Ambitious Desire to imitate the Actions of the most Renowned Saints which then wholly possest his Imagination and with the thoughts of which he continually amused himself so far as to employ his whole time in painting the famous Actions of Christ and his Saints upon a Book and then admiring the glory of them However this was somewhat better employment than that wherewith St. Francis at first busied himself to make Crucifixes in Mortar with his own hands although both equally proceeded from Childish Notions of Religion and Devotion If then Ambition had so great a part in the Conversion of Ignatius if an excessive desire of Glory and foolish emulation of the Honour of other Saints chiefly induced Ignatius to embrace a Religious Life with what pretence or shew of truth can the Writers of his Life ascribe his Conversion to the Providence of God and operation of the Holy Ghost A Conversion which themselves cannot deny to have been the effect of Ambition and other unruly Passions and in which without any breach of Charity the Devil had far more influence than God. Divine Conversions never proceed from such unlawful Principles and correct the Errors of the Judgment as well as purge the Corruptions of the Will whereas Ignatius after his Conversion continued in the same Ignorance of all Divine Matters and true Piety and retained his former Ambitious Inclination which alone may create a reasonable suspicion of insincerity in the whole conduct of his Life It cannot be pretended that Ignatius was at first induced by motives of Ambition and Vain-glory to undertake the Severities of a Religious Life but afterwards proceeded wholly upon Principles of disinteressed Piety The Writers indeed of his Life assure us that immediately after his Conversion all Reliques of Ambition were by an immediate operation of the Holy Ghost extinguished in him but the subsequent conduct of his Life demonstrate the contrary The ambition of founding a new Order in the Church had strongly possest his Imagination and was the grand motive of all his Austerities To this all his Actions were directed and by this he was encouraged to undertake and conquer the greatest Difficulties Orlandinus plainly confesseth no man would have taken so much pains as he did unless he had carried such a Design in his head and Bouhours that he had designed to institute an Order under the name of the Society of Iesus ever since his retirement at Manreza immediately after his Conversion The Ambition of instituting a peculiar Sect was ever the chief Motive of all Heresiarchs and Impostors who thought nothing more glorious than to acquire an arbitrary command over the Understandings of their deluded Followers This incited Apollonius Tyaneus St. Francis and Ignatius to gather to themselves Disciples as soon as they had obtained a popular repute of sanctity and that the World might take notice of their great success they all agreed to lead their Disciples as it were in triumph into the Capital City of the World Ignatius and Francis on pretence to receive the Pope's Blessing and Commands but Apollonius upon a more generous Design to brave the Tyant Nero and let him know that he detested his Actions and scorn'd his Threats No wonder the supposed Merits of the Design and sanctity of the Profession which Ignatius had undertaken should raise his Pretensions since he might rationally promise to himself an extraordinary veneration on Earth and a more exalted Throne in Heaven Don Quixot fancied that all Knight-Errants went to Heaven or at least to Purgatory and surely Saint-Errants deserved to be placed in an higher degree than they The Indian Philosophers had assured Apollonius that both dead and living he should be esteemed a God. A pious Frier had seen St. Francis's Soul in the shape of a bright Star carried in a Cloud upon many Waters into Heaven and another holy Brother being wrapt into an extasy had seen an empty Seat prepared in Heaven more eminent than the rest shining with great splendor and adorned with precious Stones and at the same time heard a Voice from Heaven saying that it was kept for St. Francis. Bonaventure who was himself a Saint had stiled him the Angel ascending from the East having the Seal of the Living God and might not Ignatius reasonably expect a Place of equal dignity in the Court of Heaven yes surely and that we may not doubt of it St. Mary Magdalen Pazzi in an extasie saw his Soul in a glorious Seat in Heaven As for reverence to be obtained by them whilst alive Apollonius was commonly saluted by the People with the Title of Divus and esteemed so great a Favourite of the Gods that crouds of Clients daily flocked to him desiring him to intercede with Heaven for them St. Francis enjoyed the Title of Christianissimus Pauper or the Most Christian Beggar and thereby stood in competition with the Most Christian King but Ignatius being more ingenious assumed the Title of Pauper Pauperum and thereby emulating that of Servus Servorum exceeded St. Francis as much as the Pope exceeds all Secular Princes However both are now attended with crouds of devout Supplicants altho in this Apollonius hath the advantage of them in point of Judgment and Learning For they favoured such Invocations while alive and are now supposed gladly to receive them when dead whereas the Heathen Philosopher wisely rejected the Petitions of those who desired his Intercession with God telling them that if they were really devout Persons they needed no Intercessor but might themselves boldly approach to God and offer up their Petitions to him I might instance in several other Actions and Circumstances which clearly manifest an immoderate desire of Vain glory His Resolution of preaching the Gospel among the Infidels in the Holy Land the great stage of Knight-Errantry in former Ages without any probability of success arose from this principle of Ambition Thus Apollonius affecting
Rome imagine might reasonably recommend him not only to the Mercy but even the Favour of God. Yet notwithstanding all these Advantages he fell into a most horrible Despair which Bouhours thus describeth Soon after his penitential Austerities performed at Manreze he began to be afflicted with Scruples and want his former interior Consolations and he finds himself precipitated into a state of desolation and darkness His Scruples and Despair increase He doubteth whether he had confessed all his Sins and with all their circumstances altho his Confession had lasted three whole days To dissipate these Doubts he hath recourse to Prayer but the more he prays the more his Doubts and Fears increase upon him Every step he made he thought he stumbled and offended God imagining there to be sin where there was not the least shadow of it and always disputing with himself about the state of his Conscience not being able to decide what is sin and what not In these conflicts of mind he groans he sighs he crieth out he throws himself upon the ground like a man tormented with pain but for the most part keeps a mournful silence Being wont to communicate every Sunday it now happened to him more than once that being ready to communicate his troubles of mind so redoubled upon him that he retired from the Holy Table full of confusion and desolation After many unprofitable debates wherein his Understanding was lost it entred into his thoughts That obedience only could cure him and that his pains would cease if his Confessor should command him entirely to forget all things past He doth so but his Scruples continue He redoubleth his Exercises of Piety but finding no relief either from Earth or Heaven he believeth that God had forsaken him and that his Damnation was most certain The Dominicans out of pity take him into their House but can give him no comfort He falls into a dark melancholly and being one day in his Cell he had the thought of throwing himself out of the Window to end his misery But Heaven by force restrained him against his will. Then remembring the precedent of an old Hermit he set himself to fasting and resolved to eat nothing till God should hear him Accordingly he fasted seven whole days without eating or drinking but without success His Confessor at last commanded him to break his fast He doth so and is on the sudden for ever freed from all his Scruples Certainly if all irregular conducts of the Will be Sins and an irrational Despair the greatest of all Sins this of Ignatius was such a complicated Sin as few examples can equal But it seems Heresie alters the nature of Vertue and Vice. Such a Despair in a Protestant would have deserved damnation whereas in a Romish Saint it was so far meritorious that if we may believe Bouhours God in reward of it bestowed upon him the gift of curing Scrupulous Consciences Upon occasion of this ready obedience paid by Ignatius to the Commands of his Confessor I will take farther notice of the same blind submission observed by him through the whole course of his Life Whether the Principles of the Church of Rome do not naturally lead to such a blind obedience to the dictates of every private Confessor and thereby resolve the Faith of all particular Christians into the private opinion of an ignorant and perhaps Heretical Priest I will not now enquire but certainly Ignatius practised this blind submission in the utmost extravagance insomuch as if he had adhered to his own Principles or we may judge from his other Actions he must have renounced Christianity and even natural Religion if his Confessor had so commanded him His notion of a perfect obedience which we before mentioned sheweth this and his Actions put it beyond all doubt He declared upon all occasions his resolution blindly to obey his Ecclesiastical Judge and when he preached at Venice he proposed this as a first principle to all That true Christians ought to submit themselves to the decision of the Church with the simplicity of an Infant Being tried before the Inquisitors for no less than a capital Crime he refused to answer till his Ecclesiastical Superiors should command him Apollonius in a like case had refused to move his Tongue after a Vow of five years silence when he was falsly accused of an horrid Crime and in great danger of being executed However if it be a venial Sin for a Man to sacrifice his Life to his Folly it is no less than a mortal one deliberately to commit an action which he is perswaded in his own Conscience to be unlawful Ignatius in his Voyage to Ierusalem thought it utterly unlawful and contrary to Evangelical Poverty to carry any Provisions along with him Yet being resolved by his Confessor to the contrary he boldly did that out of obedience which he durst not do of himself and made provision for his Voyage This Folly at last proceeded so far that renouncing the liberty of his Will and use of his Reason he would not venture upon any indifferent Action without consulting his Confessor as if with St. Francis he wanted a Guardian who might in all things direct his Actions and command his Will. When an unskilful Physician in his sickness administred to him hurtful remedies and proceeded contrary to the nature of his Distemper and Ignatius fully knew all this he would not once open his mouth against it because he esteemed it meritorious and a point of Religion to obey in all things When he was unanimously elected General of his Order by a method of Election which himself prescribed he refused to accept the Office unless he should be commanded by his Confessor So the Iew refused to go on Shipboard on the Sabbath-day till he was beaten thither by the Janizary whom he had hired to do it If then an irrational despair of the Mercy of God and an intire Renunciation of the use of Reason may be accounted Sins we have abundantly demonstrated the Pope to have been widely mistaken in celebrating the Sanctity of Ignatius If we should carry our Enquiries yet farther we might perhaps discover other no less Infirmities which would ruin the supposed Sanctity of Ignatius and the Truth of the Papal Assertion of it at the same time We might suspect him to have been guilty of many other Vices after his Conversion For before it all Writers allowed him to have been abandoned to the utmost degree of Debauchery and Immorality His mean and unworthy thoughts of the Nature and Excellency of God appear from many Actions before related and may be farther manifested from his frequent imagining to see God and the Holy Trinity before his Eyes in a corporeal Representation from his endeavouring to bribe him in favour of his Order by offering up to him three thousand Masses and from his seeking to acquire the favour of God by the practice of foolish Superstitions We cannot but
set it on foot was a little Spanish Visionary Lastly his Book of Exercises was accused of Heresie in Spain by the Learned Melchior Canus who asserted it to be the work of a Brain-sick Enthusiast From this universal contempt of Ignatius in his life-time and frequent suspicions of Heresie Enthusiasm and Sedition entertained of him by the Governours of the Church it may be farther evinced that all the Reports of his Miracles are absolutely false and either not yet invented or generally disbelieved at that time For it is not credible that such contempt should attend him or such suspicions be entertained of him if he had indeed performed so many and so great Miracles It remains that we examine the truth of these Miracles more particularly by some general Observations which may be framed of them It might indeed be sufficient to oppose to them what Eusebius doth to the Miracles of Apollonius that we are not inclined to believe them but because our Adversaries are not ashamed to produce them as undoubted arguments of the truth of their Cause I will oppose some few Considerations to them And first it may be enquired To what purpose should God work so many Miracles in the midst of Christian Countries many Ages after the Faith had been fully setled in them Were those Countries devoid of true Religion This is not pretended Was the Church of Rome at that time grieviously corrupted with Errors and Superstition This our Adversaries will by no means allow Or lastly Did the Evangelical Counsels of Poverty Abstinence Humility and renunciation of the World which were the grand Topicks of Ignatius want the recommendation of Divine Miracles This Ignatius himself would not approve For he was wont to say that if Miracles were to be desired of God they were much rather to be desired in confirmation of the Precepts than of the Counsels of the Gospel It remains therefore that God should perform all these Miracles meerly in testimony of the extraordinary Sanctity of Ignatius to manifest his favour to him and procure to him honour and esteem among all Christians a Design so unworthy of God and contrary to the excellence of his and imperfection of our Nature that the very pretence of it is an unpardonable boldness and a manifest argument of Imposture and immoderate Ambition and that even altho we should allow Ignatius to have been indeed as great a Saint as the Writers of his Life do represent him And therefore the Author of the Opus Imperfectum upon St. Matthew argueth excellently that there is no way now left to find out the true Church or the true Faith but only the Scripture that at the first Institution of the Gospel it was known indeed by Miracles who were true and who false Christians since the latter could either perform no Miracles or none such as the former did For the Miracles of true Christians were perfect and tended rather to the use and Interest of the Church than to procure the admiration of the World whereas the Miracles of false Christians were imperfect and of no use and tended wholly to raise admiration By this means true Christians might formerly be discerned from false But now all working of Miracles is ceased and is found only among false Christians among whom Miracles are yet feigned to be wrought as St. Peter cited by St. Clement assureth us even the Power of working true Miracles shall be given to Antichrist This Passage is so offensive to our Adversaries that it is ordered to be expunged in the Indices Expurgatorii and was accordingly left out in all subsequent Editions till it was restored by Fronto Ducoeus If yet the Church of Rome will pretend her Miracles to be true and real we are content provided she assumeth the title affixed by St. Peter and this Author to the Workers of true Miracles in latter Ages If She refuseth the Title She renounceth her claim to Miracles But the Temptation of lying and feigning Miracles for the Reputation of an Order is in that Church far more perswasive than the evidence of Reason A Catalogue of Miracles is as necessary to a Romish Saint as a list of wonderful Cures is to a Mountebank no Canonization can be obtained without them When Ignatius therefore was to be promoted to the dignity of a Saint his Disciples set their Inventions on the rack to raise a Fund of Miracles every flying Report was taken up and every Old womans Tale advanced into a Miracle and the most Illustrious wonders of his Life then first feigned without any ground This the Honour of the Order required to which all considerations of Truth and Honesty were betrayed that so the Founders of it might be rendred no less Illustrious than those of other more Ancient Orders by an equal number of Miracles and Prodigies Vitelleschi produceth a Catalogue of 140 Miracles wrought by Ignatius in divers parts of the World drawn from the Registers and Process of his Canonization He cured Twenty five Persons of divers Mortal Diseases Ten of Diseases apparently incurable Thirteen of Blindness Nineteen of Collick Head-ach Tooth-ach and Belly-ach Four of the Stone One of the Plurisie c. That the far greatest part of these Miracles were feigned many years after his Death we have just reason to suspect for when Ribadeneira who was his familiar Companion first published his Life in the Year 1572. he made a long Apology in it in defence of Ignatius maintaining that it was no way derogatory to his Sanctity that he had performed no Miracles Afterwards in the Year 1610 publishing a second Edition of his Life he was so far enlightned in this matter that he giveth to us a long Catalogue of the Miracles of Ignatius but withal confesseth That the Reason why he had not inserted them in the first Edition was because they were not then sufficiently certain and uncontested Now it cannot be imagined how the Miracles of Ignatius who died in the Year 1556 should be unknown or at least uncertain Sixteen years after when the Memory of them was yet fresh if any such indeed there were and after Fifty four Years when the greatest part of the Witnesses must be supposed to have been dead should be advanced to undoubted Certainty In like manner Maffeius writing the Life of Ignatius in the Year 1605 when his Canonization was not yet thought on relates very few Miracles performed by him and concludes in these words Beside these many other wonderful actions are related of Ignatius which because they are not sufficiently certain I thought not fit to insert especially since the holiness of famous men consists not so much in Signs and Miracles as in the Love of God and Innocence of Life And after all Bussieres confesseth That many wonderful things related of Ignatius in his Life written by Nierembergius are by no means testified with incontestable Proofs and that we may justly doubt of the Truth of them But