Letter XVIII. To the Jesuits Banished from Cologne

Rome, End of 154.4.

(A fragment).

Though you are separated from one another in body and in habitation, still with the help of God you will easily secure that brotherly affection should continue to exist and be manifested among you; seeing that both by your voluntary acceptance of your obligations, your common desires in life, and the vows you have duly taken, you have bound yourselves by so firm a bond to one another for the glory of Jesus Christ. By this cement, if I may so call it, it is right that our whole family should be

7 2 cemented and united together. For the rest let it belong to the protection of God that He for whose sake you endure these things, may in His own time reassemble the scattered house of Israel.

Notes on the text

• a We venture upon this version as the nearest equivalent to a play upon the word “tierra” in the original.