which he showed in
consequence; but the later historians declare that the saint threw the
crucifix into the sea in order to still a tempest, and that, after his
safe getting to land, a crab brought it to him on the shore. In this
form we find it among illustrations of books of devotion in the next
century.

But perhaps the best illustration of this evolution of Xavier's miracles
is to be found in the growth of another legend; and it is especially
instructive because it grew luxuriantly despite the fact that it was
utterly contradicted in all parts of Xavier's writings as well as in the
letters of his associates and in the work of the Jesuit father, Joseph
Acosta.

Throughout his letters, from first to last, Xavier constantly dwells
upon his difficulties with the various languages of the different tribes
among whom he went. He tells us how he surmounted these difficulties:
sometimes by learning just enough of a language to translate into it
some of the main Church formulas; sometimes by getting the help of
others to patch together some pious teachings to be learned by rote;
sometimes by employing interpreters; and sometimes by a mixture of
various dialects, and even by signs. On one occasion he tells us that a
very serious difficulty arose, and that his voyage to China was delayed
because, among other things, the interpreter he had engaged had failed
to meet him.

In various Lives which appeared between the time of his death and
his canonization this difficulty is much dwelt upon; but during the
canonization proceedings at Rome, in the speeches then made, and finally
in the papal bull, great stress was laid upon the fact that Xavier
possessed THE GIFT OF TONGUES. It was declared that he spoke to the
various tribes with ease in their own languages. This legend of Xavier's
miraculous gift of tongues was especially mentioned in the papal bull,
and was solemnly given forth by the pontiff as an infallible statement
to be believed by the universal Church. Gregory XV having been prevented
by death from issuing the Bull of Canonization, it was finally issued by
Urban VIII; and there is much food for reflection in the fact that the
same Pope who punished Galileo, and was determined that the Inquisition
should not allow the world to believe that the earth revolves about
the sun, thus solemnly ordered the world, under pain of damnation, to
believe in Xavier's miracles, including his "gift of tongues," and the
return of the cru