The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) by John Dryden

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THE WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN,

_NOW FIRST COLLECTED IN EIGHTEEN VOLUMES_.

ILLUSTRATED WITH NOTES,
HISTORICAL, CRITICAL, AND EXPLANATORY,

AND A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

BY WALTER SCOTT, ESQ.

* * * * *

VOL. XVI.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR WILLIAM MILLER, ALBEMARLE STREET,
BY JAMES BALLANTYNE AND CO. EDINBURGH.

1808.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME SIXTEENTH.

PAGE.
The Life of St Francis Xavier, of the Society of
Jesus, Apostle of the Indies, and of Japan, ... 1
Dedication to the Queen, ................... 3
The Author's Advertisement to the Reader, .. 8
Book I ..................................... 14
Book II .................................... 59
Book III ................................... 116
Book IV .................................... 191
Book V ..................................... 288
Book VI .................................... 408

THE LIFE OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER,

OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS,

APOSTLE OF THE INDIES, AND OF JAPAN.

TO THE QUEEN.[1]

MADAM,

The reverend author of this life, in his dedication to his Most Christian
Majesty, affirms, that France was owing for him to the intercession of St
Francis Xavier. That Anne of Austria, his mother, after twenty years of
barrenness, had recourse to heaven, by her fervent prayers, to draw down
that blessing, and addressed her devotions, in a particular manner, to
this holy apostle of the Indies. I know not, madam, whether I may presume
to tell the world, that your majesty has chosen this great saint for one
of your celestial patrons, though I am sure you will never be ashamed of
owning so glorious an intercessor; not even in a country where the
doctrine of the holy church is questioned, and those religious addresses
ridiculed. Your majesty, I doubt not, has the inward satisfaction of
knowing, that such pious prayers have not been unprofitable to you; and
the nation may one day come to understand, how happy it will be for them
to have a son of prayers ruling over them.[2] Not that we are wholly to
depend on this particular blessing, as a thing of certainty, though we
hope and pray for its continuance. The ways of Divine Providence are
incomprehensible; and we know not in what times, or by what methods, God
will restore his church in England, or what farther trials and
afflictions we are yet to undergo. Only this we know, that if a religion
be of God, it can never fail; but the acceptable time we must patiently
expect, and endeavour by our lives not to undeserve. I am sure if we take
the example of our sovereigns, we shall place our confidence in God
alone; we shall be assiduous in our devotions, moderate in our
expectations, humble in our carriage, and forgiving of our enemies. All
other panegyrics I purposely omit; but those of Christianity are such,
that neither your majesty, nor my royal master, need be ashamed of them,
because their commemoration is instructive to your subjects. We may be
allowed, madam, to praise Almighty God for making us happy by your means,
without suspicion of flattery; and the meanest subject has the privilege
of joining his thanksgiving with his sovereigns, where his happiness is
equally concerned. May it not be permitted me to add, that to be
remembered, and celebrated in after ages, as the chosen vessel, by which
it has pleased the Almighty Goodness to transmit so great a blessing to
these nations, is a secret satisfaction, which is not forbidden you to
take; the blessings of your people are a prelibation of the joys in
heaven, and a lawful ambition here on earth.

Your majesty is authorized, by the greatest example of a mother, to
rejoice in a promised son. The blessed Virgin was not without as great a
proportion of joy, as humanity could bear, when she answered the
salutation of the angel in expressions, which seemed to unite the
contradicting terms of calmness, and of transport: "Be it to thy
hand-maid, according to thy word."

It is difficult for me to leave this subject, but more difficult to
pursue it as I ought; neither must I presume to detain your majesty by a
long address. The life of Saint Francis Xavier, after it had been written
by several authors in the Spanish and Portuguese, and by the famous Padre
Bartoli in the Italian tongue, came out at length in French, by the
celebrated pen of Father Bohours, from whom I have translated it, and
humbly crave leave to dedicate it to your patronage. I question not but
it will undergo the censure of those men, who teach the people, that
miracles are ceased. Yet there are, I presume, a sober party of the
Protestants, and even of the most learned among them, who being
convinced, by the concurring testimonies of the last age, by the
suffrages of whole nations in the Indies and Japan, and by the severe
scrutinies that were made before the act of canonization, will not
dispute the truth of most matters of fact as they are here related; nay,
some may be ingenuous enough to own freely, that to propagate the faith
amongst infidels and heathens, such miraculous operations are as
necessary now in those benighted regions, as when the Christian doctrine
was first planted by our blessed Saviour and his apostles.

The honourable testimonies which are cited by my author, just before the
conclusion of his work, and one of them in particular from a learned
divine of the church of England,[3] though they slur over the mention of
his miracles, in obscure and general terms, yet are full of veneration
for his person. Farther than this I think it needless to prepossess a
reader; let him judge sincerely, according to the merits of the cause,
and the sanctity of his life, of whom such wonders are related, and
attested with such clouds of witnesses; for an impartial man cannot but
of himself consider the honour of God in the publication of his gospel,
the salvation of souls, and the conversion of kingdoms, which followed
from those miracles; the effects of which remain in many of them to this
day.

But that it is not lawful for me to trespass so far on the patience of
your majesty, I should rather enlarge on a particular reflection, which I
made in my translation of this book, namely, that the instructions of the
saint, which are copied from his own writings, are so admirably useful,
so holy, and so wonderfully efficacious, that they seem to be little less
than the product of an immediate inspiration. So much excellent matter is
crowded into so small a compass, that almost every paragraph contains the
value of a sermon. The nourishment is so strong, that it requires but
little to be taken at a time. Where he exhorts, there is not an
expression, but what is glowing with the love of God; where he directs a
missioner, or gives instructions to a substitute, we can scarcely have a
less idea than of a St Paul advising a Timothy, or a Titus. Where he
writes into Europe, he inspires his ardour into sovereign princes, and
seems, with the spirit of his devotion, even to burn his colleagues at
the distance of the Indies.

But, madam, I consider that nothing I can say is worthy to detain you
longer from the perusal of this book, in which all things are excellent,
excepting only the meanness of my performance in the translation. Such as
it is, be pleased, with your inborn goodness, to accept it, with the
offer of my unworthy prayers for the lasting happiness of my gracious
sovereign, for your own life and prosperity, together with the
preservation of the son of prayers, and the farther encrease of the
royal family; all which blessings are continually implored from heaven,
by,

MADAM,
Your Majesty's most humble,
And most obedient subject and servant,
JOHN DRYDEN.

[Footnote 1: Mary of Este, wife of James II.]

[Footnote 2: The superstitious and, as it proved, fatal insinuation, that
the birth of the Chevalier de St George was owing to the supernatural
intercession of St Francis Xavier, was much insisted on by the
Protestants as an argument against the reality of his birth. See the
Introduction to "Britannia Rediviva," Vol. X. p. 285. In that piece, our
author also alludes to this foolery:
Hail, son of prayers, by holy violence
Drawn down from heaven!--]

[Footnote 3: The Reverend Richard Hackluyt, editor of the large
collection of voyages to which Purchas' Pilgrim is a continuation.]

THE AUTHOR'S ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER.

Having already presented you with the Life of St Ignatius, I thought
myself obliged to give you that of St Francis Xavier. For, besides that
it was just that the son should attend the father, it seemed to me, that
these two saints being concerned so much together, the history of the
apostle of India and Japan would give you a clearer knowledge of him
who was founder of the Jesuits. I may add likewise, that many
considerable persons, and particularly of the court, have testified so
great a desire to see a complete history of St Xavier in our language,
that I thought my labour would not be unacceptable to them; and that in
satisfying my own private devotion, I might at the same time content the
curiosity of others.

The writings out of which I have drawn this work, have furnished me with
all I could desire for the perfection of it, in what regards the truth
and the ornaments of this history: for without speaking of Turselline and
Orlandino, I have diligently read Lucena and Bartoli; the first of which
Wrote in Portuguese with this title, "The History of the Life of Father
Francis Xavier, and of what was done in the Indies by the Religious of
the Society of Jesus." He informs us, that he had in his hands the
authentic copies of the informations which were made by order of John
III. king of Portugal, concerning the actions of the blessed Father
Xavier, and the originals of many letters, written from the Indies on
that subject, which are to this day deposited in the archives of the
university of Coimbra. As for Bartoli, who is so famous by his writings,
and who is accounted amongst the best of the Italian authors, he has
extracted from the archives of the Casa Professa at Rome, and from the
acts of the canonization, what he relates of our saint in the first part
of the History of the Society, intitled, Asia.

Though these two historians have in some sort collected all that can be
said concerning St Francis Xavier, I omitted not to take a view of what
others have written on that subject; and chiefly the book of Nieremberg,
which bears for title, "_Claros Varones_, or Illustrious Men;" the
History of India, by Maffeus, and that of Jarrio; the Church History of
Japan, by Solia; the Castilian History of the Missions, which the Fathers
of the Society have made to the East Indies, and the kingdoms of China
and Japan, composed by Lewis de Gusman; and, lastly, the Portuguese
History of the Travels of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto.

But seeing St Francis Xavier himself has written some parts of those
accidents which have befallen him in India and Japan, I have faithfully
copied his letters, and from thence have drawn those particulars which
have much conduced to my information, and clearing of the truth. These
letters have also furnished me with materials to make the narration
appear more lively and moving, when you hear the saint himself speaking
in his proper words, and mixing his own thoughts and reflections with his
actions. I had almost finished this my work, when I received from Spain
and Italy two other lives of St Francis Xavier, which before that time I
had not seen: the one very new, which was written in Italian by Father
Joseph Massei; the other more ancient, written in Spanish by Father
Francis Garcia. I found nothing in those two books which I had not
observed in others; but read them with great pleasure, as being most
exactly and elegantly written, each in their several tongue.

For what remains, amongst all those historians which I have cited, there
is only the author of the new Italian Life, who has not followed the
common error, in relation to the age of St Francis Xavier: for the rest
of them not precisely knowing the year and day of his birth, have made
him ten years older than he was; placing his nativity about the time
when the passage to the East Indies was discovered by Vasco de Gama.

But Father Massei has taken his measures in that particular, from Father
Poussines, that judicious person to whom we are owing for the new letters
of St Xavier, and who has composed a dissertation in Latin, touching the
year of our apostle's birth.

He produces, in the said treatise, a Latin paper, written in all
appearance in the year 1585, and found in the records of the house of Don
Juan Antonio, Count of Xavier. That paper,--wherein is treated of the
ancestors and birth of the saint, and which very probably, as Poussines
judges, is the minute of a letter sent to Rome, where Dr Navara then
resided, to whom it refers you,--that paper, I say, has these words in
it: _Non scitur certo annus quo natus est P. Franciscus Xaverius. Vulgo
tamen invaluit, a quibusdam natum cum dici anno millesimo quadragintesimo
nonagesimo-sexto_: which is to say, the year is not certainly known, in
which Father Francis Xavier was born; but it is generally held, that some
have reported he was born in the year 1496.

But it is to be observed, that these words, _Non scitur certo annus quo
natus est P. Franciscus Xaverius_, are dashed out with the stroke of a
pen. There is also a line drawn over these other words, _Natum eum dici
millesimo, quadragintesimo, nonagesimo-sexto_: and this is written over
head, _Natus est P. Franciscus Xaverius anno millesimo quingentesimo
sexto_. Father Francis Xavier was born in the year 1506. There is also
written in the margin, _Natus est die 7 Aprilis, anni 1506_. He was born
on the 7th of April, 1506.

That which renders this testimony more authentic, is, that at the bottom
of the letter, these words, in Spanish, are written by the same hand
which corrected those two passages of which I spoke: _Hallo se la razon
del tiempo que el S. P. Francisco Xavier nacio, en un libro manual de su
hermano el Capitan Juan de Azpilcueta: la qual saco de un libro, de su
padre Don Juan Jasso; viz_. "The time when the blessed Father Francis
Xavier was born, is found in the journal of his brother Don Juan de
Azpilcueta, who extracted it from the journal or manual of his father Don
Juan Jasso." 'Tis on this foundation, that, before I had read the Life
written by Father Massei, I had already closed with the opinion of Father
Poussines.

As to the precise day of the father's death, I have followed the common
opinion, which I take to be the most probable, in conformity to the bull
of his canonization. For the historians who have mentioned it, agree not
with each other, on what clay he died. 'Tis said in Herbert's Travels to
the Indies and Persia, translated out of the English, "St Francis Xavier,
the Jesuit of Navarre, died the 4th of December, 1552." Ferdinand Mendez
Pinto, the Portuguese, affirms, that he died at midnight, on Saturday the
2d of December, the same year. A manuscript letter, pretended to be
written by Anthony de Sainte Foy, companion to Xavier for the voyage of
China, the truth of which I suspect, relates, that the Saint died on a
Sunday night at two of the clock, on the 2d of December, 1552. Now 'tis
most certain, that in the year 1552, the 2d of December fell on a Friday;
so that it is a manifest mistake to say, that St Xavier died that year
either on Saturday or Sunday the 2d of December.

I should apprehend, lest a life so extraordinary as this might somewhat
shock the profaner sort of men, if the reputation of St Francis Xavier
were not well established in the world, and that the wonderful things he
did had not all the marks of true miracles. As the author who made the
collection of them has well observed, the mission of the saint gives them
an authority, even in our first conceptions of them: for being sent from
God for the conversion of infidels, it was necessary that the faith
should be planted in the East, by the same means as it had been through
all the world, in the beginning of the church.

Besides which, never any miracles have been examined with greater care,
or more judicially than these. They were not miracles wrought in private,
and which we are only to believe on the attestation of two or three
interested persons, such who might have been surprised into an opinion of
them; they were ordinarily public matters of fact, avowed by a whole city
or kingdom, and which had for witnesses the body of a nation, for the
most part Heathen, or Mahometan. Many of these miracles have been of long
continuance; and it was an easy matter for such who were incredulous, to
satisfy their doubts concerning them. All of them have been attended by
such consequences as have confirmed their truth, beyond dispute: such as
were--the conversions of kingdoms, and of kings, who were the greatest
enemies to Christianity; the wonderful ardency of those new Christians,
and the heroical constancy of their martyrs. But after all, nothing can
give a greater confirmation of the saint's miracles, than his saint-like
life; which was even more wonderful than the miracles themselves. It was
in a manner of necessity, that a man of so holy a conversation should
work those things, which other men could not perform; and that, resigning
himself to God, with an entire confidence and trust, in the most
dangerous occasions, God should consign over to him some part of his
omnipotence, for the benefit of souls.

THE LIFE OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER.

BOOK I.

_His birth. His natural endowments, and first studies. His father
purposes to recal him from his studies, and is diverted from that
resolution. He continues his studies, and sets up a philosophy lecture.
He is preserved from falling into heresy. His change of life. His
retirement, and total conversion. He consecrates himself to God, by a
vow. What happened to him in his journey to Venice. What he did at
Venice. He goes to Rome, and from thence returns to Venice. He prepares
himself to celebrate his first mass. He celebrates his first mass, and
falls sick after it. St Jerome appears to him. He goes to Bolognia, and
labours there with great success. He relapses into his sickness, and yet
continues preaching. He is recalled to Rome by Father Ignatius, and
labours there with great success. The occasion of the mission into the
Indies. He is named for the mission of the Indies. God mysteriously
reveals to him his intended mission to the Indies. He takes his leave of
the Pope, and what his Holiness said to him. He departs from Rome. How he
employed himself during his journey. His letter to Ignatius. Some
remarkable accidents in his journey to Lisbon. He passes by the castle of
Xavier without going to it. He arrives at Lisbon, and cures Rodriguez
immediately after his coming. He is called to court. The manner of his
life at Lisbon. He refuses to visit his uncle, the Duke of Navarre. The
fruit of his evangelical labours. The reputation he acquired at Lisbon.
They would retain him in Portugal. He is permitted to go to the Indies,
and the king discourses with him before his departure. He refuses the
provisions offered him for his voyage. He goes for the Indies, and what
he said to Rodriguez at parting_.

I have undertaken to write the life of a saint, who has renewed, in the
last age, the greatest wonders which were wrought in the infancy of the
church; and who was himself a living proof of Christianity. There will be
seen in the actions of one single man, a new world converted by the power
of his preaching, and by that of his miracles: idolatrous kings, with
their dominions, reduced under the obedience of the gospel; the faith
flourishing in the very midst of barbarism; and the authority of the
Roman church acknowledged by nations the most remote, who were utterly
unacquainted with ancient Rome.

This apostolical man, of whom I speak, is St Francis Xavier, of the
society of Jesus, and one of the first disciples of St Ignatius Loyola.
He was of Navarre; and, according to the testimony of Cardinal Antonia
Zapata, who examined his nobility from undoubted records, he derived his
pedigree from the kings of Navarre.

His father was Don Juan de Jasso, a lord of great merit, well conversant
in the management of affairs, and who held one of the first places in the
council of state, under the reign of King John III. The name of his
mother was Mary Azpilcueta Xavier, heiress to two of the most illustrious
families in that kingdom; for the chief of her house, Don Martin
Azpilcueta, less famous by the great actions of his ancestors, than by
his own virtue, married Juana Xavier, the only daughter and remaining
hope of her family. He had by her no other child but this Mary of whom we
spoke, one of the most accomplished persons of her time.

This virgin, equally beautiful and prudent, being married to Don Jasso,
became the mother of many children; the youngest of whom was Francis, the
same whose life I write. He was born in the castle of Xavier, on the 7th
of April, in the year 1506. That castle, situated at the foot of the
Pyrenean Mountains, seven or eight leagues distant from Pampeluna, had
appertained to his mother's house for about two hundred and fifty years;
his progenitors on her side having obtained it in gift from King Thibald,
the first of that name, in recompence of those signal services which they
had performed for the crown. 'Tis from thence they took the name of
Xavier, in lieu of Asnarez, which was the former name of their family.
This surname was conferred on Francis, as also on some of the rest of
his brothers, lest so glorious a name, now remaining in one only woman,
should be totally extinguished with her.

That Providence, which had selected Francis for the conversion of such
multitudes of people, endued him with all the natural qualities which are
requisite to the function of an apostle. He was of a strong habit of
body, his complexion lively and vigorous, his genius sublime and capable
of the greatest designs, his heart fearless, agreeable in his behaviour,
but above all, he was of a gay, complying, and winning humour: this
notwithstanding, he had a most extreme aversion for all manner of
immodesty, and a vast inclination for his studies.

His parents, who lived a most Christian life, inspired him with the fear
of God from his infancy, and took a particular care of his education. He
was no sooner arrived to an age capable of instruction, than, instead of
embracing the profession of arms, after the example of his brothers, he
turned himself, of his own motion, on the side of learning; and, as he
had a quick conception, a happy memory, and a penetrating mind, he
advanced wonderfully in few years.

Having gained a sufficient knowledge in the Latin tongue, and discovered
a great propensity to learning, he was sent to the university of Paris,
the most celebrated of all Europe, and to which the gentlemen of Spain,
Italy, and Germany, resorted for their studies.

He came to Paris in the eighteenth year of his age, and fell immediately
on the study of philosophy. 'Tis scarcely credible with how much ardour
he surmounted the first difficulties of logic. Whatsoever his
inclinations were towards a knowledge so crabbed and so subtle, he tugged
at it with incessant pains, to be at the head of all his fellow students;
and perhaps never any scholar besides himself could join together so much
ease, and so much labour.

Xavier minded nothing more, than how to become an excellent philosopher,
when his father, who had a numerous family of children, and who was one
of those men of quality, whose fortunes are not equal to their birth, was
thinking to remove him from his studies, after having allowed him a
competent maintenance for a year or two. He communicated these his
thoughts to Magdalen. Jasso, his daughter, abbess of the convent of St
Clare de Gandia, famous for the austerity of its rules, and established
by some holy Frenchwomen of that order, whom the calamities of war had
forced to forsake their native country, and to seek a sanctuary in the
kingdom of Valencia.

Magdalen, in her younger days, had been maid of honour and favourite to
the Catholic queen Isabella. The love of solitude, and of the cross, had
caused her to forsake the court of Arragon, and quit for ever the
pleasures of this world. Having chosen the most reformed monastery of
Spain for the place of her retreat, she applied herself, Avith fervour,
to the exercises of penitence and prayer; and became, even from her
noviciate, a perfect pattern of religious perfection.

During the course of her life, she had great communications with God; and
one day he gave her to understand, that she should die a sweet and easy
death; but, on the contrary, one of her nuns was pre-ordained to die in
strange torments. The intention of God was not thereby to reveal to the
abbess what was really to happen, but rather to give her an opportunity
of exercising an heroic act of charity. She comprehended what her
heavenly Father exacted from her, and petitioned him for an exchange.

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