"It would occupy too much space here to enumerate all the frauds committed by the author of the Abridgment of the Life of St. Joseph Calasanzio, (edition of 1753, printed at Rome, by John Zempel). A few examples will more than suffice to convince the most prejudiced minds.

"In book IV, chapter III, page 156, of his work, Tosetti asserts that Father Pietra-Santa, making common cause with the disturbers, endeavored to oppress the holy founder and bring about the abolition of the Scuole Pie. A little further on, Tosetti affirms that the accounts written by Pietra Santa testify to his attempts upon that point. "The summary for the year 1714 is before us. At page 24 will be found the authentic narrative of Father PietraSanta, divided into fifteen sections. It is the panegyric of the Order of the Scuole Pie; and the formally expressed desire of the Jesuit is, that the Cardinals would reinstate Joseph Calasanzio in his office of General. At page 36 will be found a letter of Pietra-Sauta, in which he declares that 'Calasanzio is a most worthy religious; that his intentions are most holy, and his morals most deserving of commendation.' Nor does the Jesuit stop here. He says, further, that he has written a memorial praying for the reinstatement of the founder, and has entreated the Cardinals, composing the Congregation charged with the cause of the Scuole Pie, to act in accordance therewith.'

"On page 17, of the summary of 1719, are classified the acts of the Congregations of Cardinals, and, in every place, it is found that Pietra-Santa strongly urges 'that the order should not be abolished, and that the General should be reinstated in his office.'

"In following, step by step, Tosetti's misrepresentations, the only conclusion that can be come to is, that those who sided with the cause of St. Joseph Calasanzio make use of the words of Pietra-Santa to prove the heroism of the virtues of him whose life the Jesuit had been charged

with calumniating. It was upon the statements of the same Jesuit that they relied to refute the 'Promoter of the Faith.'*

"In the fourth book, chapter VI, page 176, Tosetti pretends that Father Pietra-Santa proposed to reduce the Order of the Scuole Pie to a congregation, and the annalist points out the document in which this writing has been preserved. It is, says he, at page 25 of the Summary of 1719. This document is still in existence; but, on the first page, it will be found that it was composed by Father Stephen Cherubini, a religious belonging to the Scuole Pie. This proof furnishes something still more peremptory. The pamphlet in question is refuted on the margin, and the refutation is taken from the accounts and writings of Pietra-Santa on that affair.

"According to the text itself of the process of canonization, Mario Sozzi, Cherubini, and other members of the Scuole Pie, were the only persecutors of Joseph Calasanzio. These records are as authentic as history itself. This, however, has not prevented Tosetti and his followers from accusing a Jesuit of an act which he was the first to condemn and denounce."

VII.

DAIFOOSAMA, Emperor of Japan, died on June 1, 1616, leaving to his son Xogun a crown which he had usurped. This change of rulers, for awhile, put a stop to the persecution of the Christians; but the missionaries of the Society of Jesus, while they profited by this interval of quiet to visit these colonies, were extremely prudent, in order not to excite the anger of the Bonzes, who, in their untiring watchfulness, never lost sight of them. The

*This is the title of the one who, in the process of canonization, officially resists the beatification of the saint. He is humorously called the "Devil's Advocate."-TR.

missionaries of the other orders blamed the prudence of the Jesuits. They considered it incompatible with the zeal with which they felt themselves animated, and they refused to be bound by such conduct. The Jesuits foresaw that the storm would soon burst.

Toward the end of the year, a Mexican vessel arrived at Nangasaki, and landed twenty-four heroic Franciscans on those shores which had so often been moistened by Christian blood. A report had spread in Mexico that the Spanish had entered into a treaty of commerce with Xogun, and that all missionaries of their nation would be allowed to preach the Gospel in Japan, on the sole condition that they did not belong to the Society of Jesus. The Franciscans, carried away by their zeal, had not taken time to assure themselves of the truth of this report. They embarked on the first vessel sailing to the Chinese waters and Japan, and landed at Nangasaki, a neutral city, open to foreigners, who were drawn thither for the purpose of commerce.

Xogun, alarmed at their number, as much as by their appearance, doubted not but that they were sent by the Spanish to prepare for the subjugation of the Japanese, and he issued a decree which condemned to death all subjects of the Emperor who might be rash enough to give shelter to a missionary. This penalty was even to extend to all the inhabitants of the ten houses nearest that in which an apostle of the Gospel might take refuge. The Jesuits had, from that moment, no other shelter than the forests and ravines. They exercised their holy calling only in secrecy, under a disguise the most likely to divert the attention of the Bonzes, and they counseled their neophytes to use the greatest moderation. The Franciscans, on the contrary, fearing to compromise their conscience by submitting to this line of prudence, openly braved the imperial anger. Xogun immediately gave

orders to Sancho, the apostate King of Omura, to have the European Bonzes at Nangasaki imprisoned. A Jesuit, Father Juan Machado, and a Franciscan, Peter of the Ascension, fell into the hands of the agents of Sancho, and, on the 21st of May, 1617, they were beheaded. Three days after, a Dominican and an Augustinian friar erected a chapel, and there celebrated the holy sacrifice of the mass. They, too, were executed without delay. A few others, imitators of this excess of zeal, suffered a like penalty. The Jesuits, ever prudent when the welfare of souls and the greater glory of God imposed upon them the sacrifice of that martyrdom which they had come to find and to merit, always visited the Christians in secret, and found means of increasing the number prodigiously.

The Pagans, marvelling at the constancy of their faith in presence of the threats of the Emperor, wished to become acquainted with that religion which had already produced so many martyrs; and Almighty God seconding, by His all-powerful grace, the explanations given to them, they solicited the grace of becoming His children and those of His Church, in order that they, also, might have the happiness of dying for Jesus Christ, who had died for them. To these fervent converts, thirsting for tortures, the Fathers recommended prudence, above all, in order not to endanger or impair the progress of Christianity, by provoking an excessive persecution, which might annihilate it for the martyrs succeeded each other, without intermission, in the dungeons and at the place of execution. Father Spinola was kept concealed in the house of a Portuguese, at Nangasaki. Being discovered, in the month of August, 1619, with the coadjutor Ambrosio Fernandez, both were chained and taken before the Governor. The time of prudence was past for the valiant soldier of the Society of Jesus, and that of heroism had arrived. He appeared before his judge with a serene

After an

countenance and a humble but firm demeanor. examination, which left no hope of vanquishing the heroes, the Governor had them conveyed to prison with two Dominicans, who had been arrested the same day. On beholding their prison, the missionaries commenced intoning the Te Deum, and, when arrived within those walls, which they hoped never to quit but to meet their death, they heard two other voices answering their own, and singing, in like manner, the canticle of gratitude. and love. These were two religious-one a Franciscan, the other a Dominican-who had been confined for a year in this place of torment, and who received, with accents of joy and thanksgiving, the companions of their captivity. Meeting each other face to face, their canticles concluded in a mutual embrace of love and charity.

The Governor of Nangasaki had a prison erected for the missionaries, of which he himself had furnished the plan, and the sight of which he hoped would deter and dishearten the European Bonzes, and disgust them with the apostleship of Japan. This prison, which was built on a small promontory, was a palisaded inclosure, which had no shelter from the scorching rays of the sun in summer or the piercing blasts of winter, and in the middle of which was placed a sort of cage, ninety-six inches high by sixty-four wide. It was in this that Father Charles Spinola and Brother Fernandez were confined, with fifteen Franciscans and Dominicans. Seven Japanese, immured in that prison where space was already wanting for the many heroes it contained, sued for the honor of being admitted into the Society of Jesus. Charles Spinola received them into the novitiate in that cage, where they suffered the pangs of hunger, the torture of thirst, and were subject to all sorts of infection, but where their souls blessed God with so much love for having thought them worthy of this long, sorrowful, and continuous mar