the heretics," answered Paul, "would teach a
cognition of God, for the Protestants desire to comprehend God, to
think and understand Him. The holy Ignatius has on the other hand shown
in the book, how man can feel and experience God, taste his entire
sweetness. Not through knowledge, says he in the introduction, is the
desire of the soul after God satisfied, but only through inward
experience, and the idea of these _exercitia spiritualia_ is to guide
this perception. These _exercitia_ are practical prayers, by which we,
through the exertion of our senses, through the extending of our hands
and whole body, through wrestling and prayer struggle to feel him near
to us, and thus ourselves come nearer to God. The holy man traces out
here in outline the objects on which man should direct his attention
with his entire energy. They are identical with those accepted by the
heretics, the fall of the angels, the mystery of the redemption, the
incorporation of the _logos_, eternal damnation and the everlasting
pains of hell. Yet understand, noble Lady! The Lutheran believes this,
he ponders over these things, he endeavours to conceive them. But only
to hear or read concerning these things does not bring us nearer to the
Supreme Being. The soul must see all these things, it must become aware
of their truth through the consciousness of the senses, it must raise
itself even to vision. This little book only contains the directions by
which we succeed, in seeing, tasting and feeling with all our senses
the eternal splendor. Opposed to calvinistic vapidness this book wishes
to bestow on the poor frozen soul the sweet fire of the old faith. He
only who has seen the Mother of God and the saints, as Saint Franciscus
and St. Katherina saw them, is one of us. That is the godly doctrine of
the 'Application of the senses' as imagined by the holy Ignatius.
Permit me therefore, most gracious Countess, to exercise this the only
effectual method on the pupils."

The Abbess remained silent, and distrustfully turned the leaves over
and over. "Is that really the whole of the discipline?" she then asked
the Magister, remembering many scandals which had come to her knowledge
with reference to such _exercitia_.

"Flagellation, expiation through blood, even fasting, we cannot
introduce again," replied Laurenzano, "at least not yet, but the pious
maidens can by prayers at the foot of the cross, by kissing the
implements of torture applied on the martyrs,