zed with a quartan
ague, which was both malignant and obstinate; insomuch that it cast him
into an extreme faintness, and made him as meagre as a skeleton. In the
mean time, lean and languishing as he was, he ceased not to crawl to the
public places, and excite passengers to repentance. When his voice failed
him, his wan and mortified face, the very picture of death, seemed to
speak for him, and his presence alone had admirable effects.

Jerome Casalini profited so well by the instructions and example of the
holy man, that he arrived in a short space to a high degree of holiness:
the greater knowledge he had of him, he the more admired him, as he
himself related. And it is from this virtuous churchman chiefly, that we
have this account of Xavier, that having laboured all the day, he passed
the night in prayer; that on Friday saying the mass of the passion, he
melted into tears, and was often ravished in his soul; that he spoke but
seldom, but that all his words were full of sound reason, and heavenly
grace.

While Xavier was thus employing his labours at Bolognia, he was recalled
to Rome by Father Ignatius; who had already presented himself before the
Pope, and offered him the service both of himself and his companions.
Pope Paul the Third accepted the good will of these new labourers;
enjoining them to begin their work in Rome, and preach under the
authority of the Holy See. The principal churches were assigned them; and
that of St Laurence in Damaso was allotted to Xavier.

Being now freed from his quartan ague, and his strength being again
restored, he preached with more vigour and vehemence than ever.

Death, the last judgment, and the pains of hell, were the common subject
of his sermons. He proposed those terrible truths after a plain manner,
but withal so movingly, that the people, who came in crowds to hear him
preach, departed out of the church in a profound silence; and thought
less of giving praises to the preacher, than of converting their own
souls to God.

The famine, which laid waste the city of Rome at that time, gave
opportunity to the ten stranger-priests, to relieve an infinite number of
miserable people, oppressed with want, and unregarded. Xavier was ardent
above the rest, to find them places of accommodation, and to procure alms
for their subsistence. He bore them even upon his shoulders to the places
which were provided for them, and attended them with all imaginable care.

In the mean time,