religious a prince.
Six missionaries had been asked for. Loyola, with the consent of the
Pope, assigned two--Rodriquez and Bobadilla--to his service. The latter,
however, falling ill--so it is affirmed--Francis Xavier was appointed in
his place. Xavier, it is said, leaped for joy when summoned, at a
moment, to set out toward Portugal commissioned to convert India to the
Christian faith. A few hours sufficed for his preparations; by noon of
the next day he had sewed the tatters of his attire with his own hand,
had packed his bundle, had bid adieu to his friends, and was forward on
the road to Lisbon. Upon this desperate enterprise he set forward with
his eye steadily fixed upon objects far more remote and more dazzling
than the sunny plains of Hindostan. The immeasurable difficulty of his
mission was to him its excitement; its dangers brightened in his view
into martyrdom; its toils were to be his ease; its privations his
solace, and despair the aliment of his hope. But at this initial point
of his course we must take leave of Francis Xavier--the prince of
missionaries. Bobadilla, with Loyola's consent, remained in Portugal,
where his zeal found scope enough.

At length--but it does not appear in what manner this change of opinion
had been brought about--Cardinal Guidiccioni professed himself favorable
to the suit of Loyola; probably an enhanced conviction that the Romish
hierarchy was encountering a peril which called for extraordinary
measures, and that the new order was likely to meet the occasion, had
prevailed over considerations less urgent and of a more general kind.
This opponent gained, no obstacle remained to be overcome. On October 3,
1540 (or September 27th), was issued the bull which gave ecclesiastical
existence to the new order under the name of the "Company of Jesus." At
the first the society was forbidden to admit more than sixty professed
members, but three years later another bull removed entirely this
restriction.

The time was now come when the decisive step must be taken which should
enable the new institute to realize its intention, which should render
Jesuitism _Jesuitism_ indeed. This was the election of a chief,
individually, who thenceforward should be absolute lord of the bodies
and souls, the will and well-being, of all the members. Until this
election should be made and ratified, the society was a _project_ only;
it would then become a dread reality.

Those of the fathers who could leave