Letter III. To Martín García de Oñaz

JHS.

May the grace and love of Christ Our Lord be always with us.

I have received your letter, and have greatly rejoiced with your daughter in the Divine Majesty, in His service and in His love, as also because of your decision in regard to your son. May all our intentions be pleasing to the highest goodness, and directed to His service and praise; and may He aid you to persevere and prosper in them whenever you decide to put them into execution. If you are not better advised I think it would be preferable to apply him to theology rather than to canon law; for that is a subject which is more likely and fitted to secure for him riches that will last for ever, and for yourself greater satisfaction in your old age. To secure that I do not think that you would find anywhere in Christendom such facilities as in this university; for the cost, including tutor and other requisites of study, I think that fifty ducats regularly supplied would suffice. I presume of course that being in a foreign land, differing from and colder than his own, you do not wish that your son should feel any want, a thing which in my opinion might interfere with his studies. If the cost is a consideration to you, you will find an advantage in this university, for he will derive more benefit here in four years than he will in six in any other that I know; and: if I said more I do not think I should be departing from the truth. If you are of the same opinion with me, that he should be sent here, it would be as well if he came eight days before the feast of St. Remigius, which is the first of October next, for on that day the course in the liberal arts begins; if he arrives even a little late he will be compelled to wait for a whole year, until the course again begins on the next feast of St. Remigius. I will busy myself as much as I may be able in supplying his literary deficiencies, so that he may study the better, and in keeping him from evil company. You say in your letter: “If you determine that he should reside in the same place as yourself, I ask you to let me know what the cost of each year will probably be; and if you could relieve me of it, circumstances permitting, you would do me a favour.” I take these words to mean exactly, unless there is some mistake, that you would be pleased if your son studied with me here, and that during the time I should endeavour that you had no expenses to meet because of him. As to this interpretation, unde illud proveniat, seu quo tended, non satis percipio, a Let me know if this is what you mean; for subject to justice and reason I do not think that God Our Lord will leave me in want, seeing I am actuated solely by a desire for His holy service, your accommodation, and the good of your son, if you should decide upon this; course of action.

You say, you are very pleased to discover I have abandoned the intention I had formed of not writing to you. Do not be surprised. In order to cure a grievous wound men apply first one ointment, then a second, and a third. So at the beginning of my journey a certain course of treatment was necessary for me; a little further on a different one does me no harm; saltern? feeling that it did me no harm, I have not looked for a second or a third. Non mirum b that it should have happened so with me, for St. Paul soon after his conversion has to say: Datus est mihi stimulus carnis, angelus Sathanae, ut me colafizet; alibi: Iuvenio aliam legem in mem - bris meis, repugnantem legi mentis meae; carp con - cupiscit adversus spiritum, spiritus autem adversus carnem ? And there was such rebellion in his soul that he comes to say: Quod volo bonurrt, non ago; quad nolo malum, jllud facio; quod operor t non intelligo. d Then at another time he says: Cettyls sum quia nec mors, nec vita, nec angeli, nec instantia, nec futura, nec creatura alia poterit me separate a charitate domini nostri Jesu Christi. a In the beginning I have borne some resemblance to him; in the middle and at the end may it please the highest goodness, and may His entire and very holy grace not refuse, that I should resemble, imitate, and serve all those who are His true servants; and if in anything I were about to displease Him, and if in one single /point I were to relax in His holy service and praise, may He beforehand take me out of this life.

But as to this particular matter, for the last five or six years I would have written to you frequent - ius, b if two things had not stood in the way. One was constant hindrances owing to my studies, and owing to frequent conversations, though not on temporal things; the second, that I saw no likelihood, nor would I even conjecture it to be possible, that my letters could be of any service or praise to God Our Lord!, or of any satisfaction to my connections and relatives secundum carnemf to the end that we might become secundum spiritum d as well, and simul help one another in the things that are to last for ever. For this is the truth: My love even in this life for another grows in proportion as he exerts himself in the service and praise of God Our Lord, quia non ex corde Deum diligit, qtd aliquid propter se et non propter Deum diligit * If two persons serve God Our Lord in an equal degree, one related to us by kinship and the other not, God Our Lord wills that we should come nearer to, and should have more affection for the natural rather than for the one who is not; for the benefactor and relative than for the one who is neither; for the friend and acquaintance than for him who is neither the one nor the other. The reason for which we venerate, honour, and love the chosen apostles more than other inferior saints is that they served more and more, and loved more and more God Our Lord, quia charitas, sine qua nemo vitam consequi potest, dicitur esse dilectio, qua dUigtmus Dominum Deum nostrum propter se, et omnia alia propter ipsum: etiam Deum ipsum laudare debemus in sanctis ejus, autore Psalmista. b I desire greatly, and more than greatly, if I may so speak, that in yourself, in your relations and friends, there should be an abundance of this true love, and increased strength in the service and praise of God Our Lord, for that would make me love and serve you more and more. For in ministering to the servants of my Lord lie my victory and my glory; and it is this reasonable love and sincere and open will that urges me to speak,

« “For he loves not God with his heart who loves anything for its own sake and not for the sake of God.“and write, arid exhort, and ex anirrio a long and desire that others in their turn would exhort, and stir, and correct me, cum quadam syncera humili - tote \et non gloria prophana et mundana. h That a man during this life should spend sleepless nights, anxieties and cares upon building and extending walls, increasing revenues and position, to leave a great name and lasting memory upon earth, non est meum \condemnare, laudare autem nequeo; c for, according to St. Paul: Rebus ipsis debemus uti tan - qucton non utentes, possidere tanquam non possi - d&ntes, adhuc uxorem habere tanquam non haben - tern, quomam figura kujus mundi brevissima est. F arson, et utinam forsan. d If at any time in the past or in the present you have felt anything of this, then I beg of you, for the reverence and love of God Our Lord that you endeavour by every means in your power to gain honour in heaven, fame and remembrance before the Lord Who is to be our judge, and Who has given you earthly things in abundance. With them gain eternal things; give good example and sound instruction to your children, your dependents, and your relatives; on one bestow good words, on another just punishment, a “From my heart.”

tamen without any anger or passion; to one show the favour of your house, to another give money and means; spare not your benefactions to poor orphans and those who are in need. He to whom God Our Lord has been so prodigal must not himself be niggardly. The more we do in this life, the greater rest and peace we shall find; and as you are able to do much in the country where you live, iterum iterumque te oro per amorem Domini nostri Jesu Christif that you greatly endeavour, not only to meditate on all this, but to move the will so as to put it into effect, quoniam volentibus nihil difficile, maxime in his quae fiunl propier amorem Domini nostri Jesu Christif

Don Andres Loyola 6 has written me a letter. I do assure you that I would rather meet him facie ad faciem c than write much at this time, quando non est ad rem. d Hence by writing this letter I must crave excuse from all; let each of you look on it as addressed to him.

I have determined to write this at some length, semel, 9 that I might answer the different items of your letter, and that you might be better informed.

You will kindly ask the lady of the houjse 7 with all her family as well as all those who you will ii think will be pleased at being remembered by me, to recommend me greatly in Domino, qui nos est judicaturus. a To whom I belong, praying that through His infinite and highest goodness He may give us grace to feel His most holy will and carry it out entirely.

Anno 1532.

On the twentieth day of this month of June I received your letter. As you ask me to answer as promptly as possible I send this with two other copies by three different ways, that your good intention in Domino Nostro Jesu Christo may not remain without effect. If you receive this letter in time, and if it can be arranged that your son arrive here before St. Remigius, with twenty days to spare, so much the better; and even earlier if it can be, so that he may acquire some rudiments before entering the course. This is also the mind of a nephew of the Archbishop of Seville who is to come to this College of St. Barbara to attend the lectures before the next feast of St. Remigius; both could then together take the opportunity to learn the first rudiments, for the company and the means are abundant. May it please the highest Goodness that everything may be arranged with a view to His holy service and continual praise.

Poor in goodness, *

IftIGO.

• “In the Lord, who is to judge us/*

Notes on the text

• a “I do not clearly understand either its origin or its object.** a “At least.”

• 1 > “No wonder.”

• c II Cor. xii. 7: There was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me. Rom. vii. 23: I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind. Gal. v. 17: For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. — It will be noticed that the Saint’s quotations are from memory and are not strictly accurate.

• d Rom. vii. 15: For that which I work I do not understand. For I do not that good which I will, but the evil which I hate, that I do. a Rom. viii. 38, 39: I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels,... nor things present, nor things to come,

• ... nor any other creature shall be able to separate me from the love... of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• h “More frequently.

• c “According to the flesh.

• d “According to the spirit.** b “For charity, without which no one can attain to life, is defined as the love by which we love God our Lord for His own sake, and all other things for Him; moreover God Himself we ought to praise in His saints, as says the Psalmist.*’ (Cf. Ps. d. .) b “With true humility and free from profane or worldly glory.” i ■ j

• c “It is not for me to condemn, but to praise I am not able” t *!

• I Cor. vii. 29-31: We ought to use things as if we used them not, to possess them as if we possessed them not, even to have a wife as if we had one not, since the fashion of this life is very short. a “Again and again I beseech you, through the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.’*

• b “For nothing is hard to those who have a will, above all in those things that are done for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

• c “Face to face.”

• d “When it serves no purpose.”

• • “Once for all.”