With these sentiments, both of affection and esteem, he depended absolutely on his superior.  “If I believed,” says he, writing from the Indies to Father Simon Rodriguez, “that the strength of your body were equal to the vigour of your mind, I should invite you to pass the seas, and desire your company in this new world; I mean, if our Father Ignatius should approve and counsel such a voyage:  For he is our parent, it behoves us to obey him; and it is not permitted us to make one step without his order.”

In this manner, Xavier had recourse to Ignatius on all occasions, as much as the distance of places would permit; and the orders which he received, were to him inviolable laws.  “You shall not suffer any one,” so he writ to Gaspar Barzaeus, rector of the college of Goa, “to receive the orders of priesthood, who is not sufficiently learned; and who has not given, for the space of many years, sufficient examples of his good life in our Society; because our Father Ignatius has expressly forbidden it.”  For the same reason he exactly observed the constitutions of the Society.  “Make not haste,” writes he in the same letter to Barzaeus, “to receive children which are too young; and totally reject such sorts of people, whom Father Ignatius would have for ever excluded from our order.”  But nothing, perhaps, can more clearly discover how perfect the submission of Xavier was, than what his superior himself thought of it.  At the time when Xavier died, Ignatius had thoughts of recalling him from the Indies; not doubting, but at the first notice of his orders, this zealous missioner would leave all things out of his obedience.  And on this occasion he wrote to him a letter, bearing date the 28th of June, in the year 1553.  Behold the passage which concerns the business of which we are speaking:  “I add,” says Ignatius in his letter, “that having in prospect the salvation of souls, and the greater service of our Lord, I have resolved to command you, in virtue of holy obedience, to return into Portugal with the first opportunity; and I command you this in the name of Christ.  But that you may more easily satisfy those, who are desirous of retaining you in the Indies, for the good of those countries, I will present you with my reasons:  You know, in the first place, of what weight are the orders of the king of Portugal, for the confirmation of religion in the East, for the propagation of it in, Guinea and Brasil; and you can rightly judge, that a prince so religious as he, will do all things necessary for the advancement of God’s honour, and the conversion of people, if one of your ability and experience shall personally instruct him; And besides, it is of great importance, that the holy apostolical see should be informed of the present state of India, by some authentic witness; to the end, that Popes may issue out spiritual supplies, as well to the new as to the ancient Christianity of Asia; without which, neither the one nor the other can subsist, or cannot subsist without much trouble; and nobody is more proper than yourself for this, both in respect of your knowledge in the affairs of the new world, and of your reputation in these parts.