Chapter V. Zeal for the salvation and perfection of our neighbour

Article I

Motive for zeal, " He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him, how doth the charity of God abide in him T 1 John iii. 17.

These words of the beloved disciple of Jesus Christ are to be understood also of spiritual goods, and should fill with trembling many religious and ecclesiastics, who having received so large a share of the riches of the science of salvation and of the full knowledge of grace, see millions of souls perishing in ignorance of the truths of faith, without being touched by their misery, and without imparting to them of their abundance.

This consideration affected most powerfully the heart of St. Francis Xavier, as he testifies in some of his letters.

Article II

WhAit use we ought to trwke of knowledge, after the eocamph of St. Ignatius, St. Ignatius, when he was already full of the Spirit of God, applied himself to the study of letters, with the view of giving weight and authority to the functions of the apostolic life, to which he felt himself called. Already he possessed that heavenly science, which was all he needed to teach others the ways of salvation. But his zeal and prudence convinced him of the necessity of joining to this infused science, that which is acquired in the schools, because without this he would not have been permitted to employ himself in instructing his neighbour.

Are there not some among us who do the very reverse ? While they are still devoid of the interior spirit, do they not devote themselves to study in a manner altogether human, without uprightness or purity of intention, without moderation, perhaps from motives of vanity, contemplating already the emplojrments which their pride covets, and looking upon knowledge as a means of attaining the object of their ambition, an ambition altogether opposed to the spirit of St. Ignatius, and the end to which the studies of the Company are directed?

And what will be the fruit of knowledge acquired out of vanity, for ends so far removed from the greater glory of God 1 St. Ignatius employed acquired science to give authority to the infused science which he had received from Heaven. Alas, are there not those to be found, who, improvided with the gifts of grace, employ their natural talents and knowledge to gain the esteem of men !

Article III

The mea/na by which the reputation and influence of the Company are to he maintained.

The means to be employed to maintain and increase the reputation and influence of the Company are humility, the practice of Christian virtues, zeal for souls; not the visits and the friendship of the great of this world.

St, Ignatius desired Father Laynez and the others, his first companions, to tell their faults to each other daily, to wait on the poor in the hospitals, and teach the catechism to children. F. Laynez, Provincial of the Company at Bome, did, in fact, employ himself in teaching the catechism, when St. Ignatius sent him the second time to the Council of Trent, to take part therein as one of the Pope's theologians. F. Antony Araoz, by adopting a different course in Spain, was near ruining the Company.

To maintain the authority of the Company in the classes and in the other offices, without being willing to endure any humiliation, is to work its destruction.

It is incredible what good our functions would effect, if they were watered with the blessings which contradictions and humiliations draw down from heaven. St. Ignatius suffered an incalculable amount of contempt and persecution in the exercise of his zeaL St. Francis Xavier, when departing for the Indies, would not accept any offers that were made him ; and when it was represented to him that he would lower his dignity of apostolic legate, if he was seen washing his own linen and preparing his own meals, he replied that he fully hoped to be able to wait on himself, and wait on others, without dishonouring his character, or impairing the authority which the Holy See had entrusted to him ; that it was this human respect, and these false ideas of propriety, which had reduced the Church to the state in which they then saw it. Let a regent take an affi*ont from one of his scholars without displaying any feeling of irritation ; God will be honoured by this act of patience, and will not fail to repair, in the presence of the scholars themselves, the injury inflicted on this good religious.

The Company must be maintained and perfected by the same means by which it was established, that is to say, by such as are supernatural. Accordingly, we must not desire that our Fathers should be cardinals or confessors to kings. It would be an insult to our Lord to look to the countenance of princes as a support to a work of which He is Himself so visibly the Author ; and to expect its preservation from the favour of the powers of this world. God, and its own virtues, will preserve the Company.