and the martyrdom of Father Antonio Criminal: That he had communicated to
his Holiness his intentions of founding many colleges for the Society, to
the end the East might be filled with apostolical labourers; and that, in
the mean time, he had ordained, that all the seminaries established in
the Indies, for the education of youth, should be put into the hands of
the Society, in case it was not already done: Lastly, it was told to
Father Xavier, that the viceroy of the Indies, and the captains of the
fortresses, had orders from King John III. to defray the charges of the
missioners in all their voyages; and that this most religious prince had
discharged his conscience of the care of souls, by imposing it on the
Society; obliging the Fathers, in his stead, to provide for the
instruction of the infidels, according to the ancient agreement which had
been made with the Holy See, when the conquests of the East were granted
to the crown of Portugal.

Amidst so many occasions of joy and satisfaction, the ill conduct of
Antonio Gomez gave Xavier an exceeding cause of grief. Before his voyage
to Japan, he had constituted him rector of the college of St Paul,
according to the intention, or rather by the order, of Father Simon
Rodriguez, who had sent him to the Indies three years after his
noviciate; and who, in relation to these missions, had an absolute
authority, as being provincial of Portugal, on which the Indies have
their dependence. Gomez was master of many eminent qualities which
rarely meet in the same person: He was not only a great philosopher,
divine, and canonist, but also an admirable preacher, and as well
conversant as any man in the management of affairs; and, besides all
this, was kindled with a most fervent zeal for the conversion of souls;
always prompt to labour in the most painful employments, and always
indefatigable in labour: but wonderfully self-opinioned; never guided by
any judgment but his own, and acting rather by the vivacity of his own
impetuous fancy, than by the directions of the Holy Spirit, or the rules
of right reason. As he was of a confirmed age at his entrance into the
Society, so he had not soon enough endeavoured to get the mastery of
those headstrong passions which ran away with his understanding. And when
he had once taken upon him the charge of rector, he began to govern by
the dictates of his own capricious humour, even before the face of
Xavier, ere he departed from the Indies for Japa