how the romances of the mountain-keep of Loyola, the mysticism of Montserrat, and the struggles of Manresa should have brought the founder of the Jesuits to these results.  Yet, if we analyze the problem, it will yield a probable solution.  What survived from that first period was the spirit of enthusiastic service to the Church, the vast ambition of a man who felt himself a destined instrument for shoring up the crumbling walls of Catholicity, the martial instinct of a warrior fighting at fearful odds with nations running toward infidelity.

He had no doubt where the right lay.  He was a Spaniard, a servant of S. Peter; and for him the creed enounced by Rome was all in all.  But his commerce with the world, his astute Basque nature, and his judgment of the European situation, taught him that he must use other means than those which Francis and Dominic had employed.  He had to make his Company, that forlorn hope of Catholicism, the exponent of a decadent and rotten faith.  He had to adapt it to the necessities of Christendom in dissolution, to constitute it by a guileful and sagacious method.  He had to render it wise in the wisdom of the world, in order that he might catch the powers of this world by their interests and vices for the Church.  He was like Machiavelli, endeavoring to save a corrupt state by utilizing corruption for ends acknowledged sound.  And, like Machiavelli, he was mistaken, because it will not profit man to trust in craft or the manipulation of evil.  Luther was stronger in his weakness than the creator of the Jesuit machinery, wiser in his simplicity than the deviser of that subtle engine.  But Luther had the onward forces of humanity upon his side.  Ignatius could but retard them by his ingenuity.  We may be therefore excused if we admire Ignatius for the virile effort which he made in a failing cause, and for the splendid gifts of organizing prudence which he devoted to a misplaced object.

Under his direction, the members of the Society spread themselves over Europe, and always with similar results.  Wherever they went, hundreds of adherents joined the Order.  Paul III. and Julius III. heaped privileges upon it, seeing what a power it had become in warfare with heresy.  Ignatius spared no pains to secure his position in Rome, paying court to Cardinals and prelates, visiting ambassadors and princes, soliciting their favors and offering the service of his brethren in return.  Profitable negotiations were opened with the King of Spain and the Duke of Bavaria, which, under cover of reforming convents, led to a partition of ecclesiastical property between the Jesuits and the State.  Good reasons seemed to justify such acts of spoliation; for the old orders were sunk in sloth and immorality beyond redemption, while the Company kept alive all that was sound in Catholic discipline, preaching, and instruction.  In Italy the Jesuits made rapid progress from the first.  Lainez occupied the Venetian territory, opposing Protestant opinions