e come into existence, and that the
Society would thus have wanted one of its brightest ornaments. This
argument naturally had great weight with St. Ignatius, the rather as he,
too, was my countryman. Much also was said of the charity I had shown to
the exiled Jews, which St. Dominic was pleased to say made him feel ashamed
of himself when he came to think of it; for my having fed my people in time
of dearth, instead of contriving famines to enrich myself, as so many
Popes' nephews have done since; and of the splendid order in which I kept
the College of Cardinals. Columbus said a good word for me, and Savonarola
did not oppose. Finally I was allowed to come upstairs, and exercise my
profession on earth. But mark what pitfalls line the good man's path! I
never could resist tampering with drugs of a deleterious nature, and was
constantly betrayed by the thirst for scientific experiment into practices
incompatible with the public health. The good nature which my detractors
have not denied me was a veritable snare. I felt for youth debarred from
its enjoyments by the unnatural vitality of age, and sympathised with the
blooming damsel whose parent alone stood between her and her lover. I thus
lived in constant apprehension of being ordered back to the Netherlands,
and yearned for the wings of a dove, that I might flee away and be out of
mischief. At last I discovered that my promotion to a higher sphere
depended upon my obtaining a testimonial from the reigning Pope. Let a
solemn procession be held in my honour, and intercession be publicly made
for me, and I should ascend forthwith. I have consequently represented my
case to many of your predecessors: but, O Alexander, you
seventeenth-century Popes are a miserable breed! No fellow-feeling, no
_esprit de corps. Heu pietas! heu prisca fides_! No one was so rude as your
ascetic antecessor. The more of a saint, the less of a gentleman.
Personally offensive, I assure you! But the others were nearly as bad. The
haughty Paul, the fanatic Gregory, the worldly Urban, the austere Innocent
the Tenth, the affable Alexander the Seventh, all concurred in assuring me
that it was deeply to be regretted that I should ever have been emancipated
from the restraints of the Stygian realm, to which I should do well to
return with all possible celerity; that it would much conduce to the
interests of the Church if my name could be forgotten; and that as for
doing anything to revive its memory, the