and to him was assigned the task--aided by Lainez--of preparing what
should be the constitutions of the society.

During the interval between the concerted organization of the order and
the formal recognition of Loyola as the general he found several
occasions highly favorable for extending and for enhancing his
influence, as well among the common people as among ecclesiastical
dignitaries. One such opportunity was afforded, soon after the
above-mentioned exculpation of the fathers, by the occurrence of a
famine during an unusually severe winter. The streets of Rome presented
the spectacle of hundreds of half-naked and starving wretches who
fruitlessly implored aid or who silently expired unaided. Loyola and his
colleagues, themselves subsisting from day to day on alms, felt
often--we are told--the nip of hunger, yet they needed no incitement
which these scenes of woe did not spontaneously supply. They were at
once alive to the claims of humanity and to the requirements of
Christian duty. They begged for the perishing, took them to such shelter
as was at their command, carefully and tenderly ministered to the sick,
and, withal, used the advantage which these offices of kindness afforded
them for purposes of religious instruction. Hundreds, rescued from death
through cold and hunger, were thus brought to repentance on the path
which the Church prescribes. A great impression in favor of the Jesuit
fathers was made upon all classes by this course of conduct. In
humanity, self-denying assiduity, and Christian zeal they had
immeasurably surpassed any who might have pretended rivalry with them.

It was now, therefore, that Loyola sought from the Pontiff that formal
recognition which his personal assurances of regard and approval seemed
to show he could not refuse. Paul III was, however, cautious in this
instance, and seemed unwilling to commit himself and the Church at this
critical moment, except so far as he knew himself to be supported by the
feeling and opinion of those of the cardinals whom he most regarded. He
referred Loyola's petition to three of them. The first of these was
Barthelemi Guidiccioni, who had often declared himself to be decisively
opposed to the multiplication of religious orders. The Church, he
thought, had too many of these excrescences already, and, instead of
adding another to the number, he would gladly have reduced them all to
four. His two colleagues were easily induced to concur with him in this