was confirmed by the Pope. _The
Constitution of the Order_ and _Spiritual Exercises_ were
written by him in Spanish. The object of these comrades was
to battle for the Church in that time of religious warfare,
to stop the spread of heresy, and especially to stay the
progress of Protestantism and win back those who had
abandoned the old faith. Exempting themselves from the
routine of monastic duties, the members of the new order
were to have freedom for preaching, hearing confessions, and
educating the young.

After considering and abandoning various plans for work
abroad, the band of fathers at last decided to devote
themselves to serving the Church within its own domains, and
the first step was a visit of some members of the fraternity
to Rome for the purpose of obtaining papal confirmation.

Loyola himself, with his chosen colleagues, Faber and Lainez, undertook
the mission to Rome, while the eight others were to disperse themselves
throughout Northern Italy, and especially to gain a footing, if they
could, and to acquire influence at those seats of learning where the
youth of Italy were to be met with; such as Padua, Ferrara, Bologna,
Siena, and Vicenza. Surprising effects resulted, it is said, from these
labors; but we turn toward the three fathers, Ignatius, Lainez, and
Faber, who were now making their way on foot to Rome.

If Loyola's course of secular study, and if his various engagements as
evangelist and as chief of a society, had at all chilled his devotional
ardor, or had drawn his thoughts away from the unseen world, this fervor
and this upward direction of the mind now returned to him in full force:
we are assured that, on this pilgrimage, and "through favor of the
Virgin," his days and nights were passed in a sort of continuous
ecstasy. As they drew toward the city, and while upon the Siena road, he
turned aside to a chapel, then in a ruinous condition, and which he
entered alone. Here ecstasy became more ecstatic still; and, in a
trance, he believed himself very distinctly to see Him whom, as holy
Scripture affirms, "no man hath seen at any time." By the side of this
vision of the invisible appeared Jesus, bearing a huge cross. The Father
presents Ignatius to the Son, who utters the words, so full of meaning,
"I will be favorable to you at Rome."

It is no agreeable task thus to compromise the awful realities of
religion, and th