his
majesty had to build a college, or a house for the Society: and we ought
to make this acknowlegment to the king," said he, "to engage him thereby
to begin the building."

The news which he received from Father Ignatius, and the other Fathers
who were at Rome, gave him infinite consolation. "I have received your
letters, which I expected with much impatience; and have received them
with that joy, which children ought to have in receiving some pleasing
news from their mother. In effect, I learn from them the prosperous
condition of all the Society, and the holy employments wherein you engage
yourselves without intermission." He could scarcely moderate his joy,
whensoever he thought on the establishment of the Society. Thus he wrote
from the Indies to Rome: "Amongst all the favours which I have received
from God in this present life, and which I receive daily, the most
signal, and most sensible, is to have heard that the institute of our
Society has been approved and confirmed by the authority of the Holy See
I give immortal thanks to Jesus Christ, that he has been pleased his
vicar should publicly establish the form of life, which he himself has
prescribed in private to his servant, our Father Ignatius."

But Xavier also wished nothing more, than to see the Society increased;
and he felt a redoubling of his joy, by the same proportion, when he had
notice of their gaining new houses in the East, or when he heard, from
Europe, of the foundation of new colleges.

To conclude, he had not less affection for the particular persons, who
were members of the Society, than for the body of it. His brethren were
ever present in his thoughts; and he thought it not enough to love them
barely, without a continual remembrance of them. "I carry about with me
(thus he writes to the Fathers at Rome) all your names, of your own
handwriting, in your letters; and I carry them together with the solemn
form of my profession." By which he signifies, not only how dear the sons
of the Society were to him, but also how much he esteemed the honour of
being one of their number.

The love which he bore to gospel-poverty, caused him to subsist on alms,
and to beg his bread from door to door, when he might have had a better
provision made for him. Being even in the college of Goa, which was well
endowed, he sought his livelihood without the walls, the more to conform
himself to the poverty of his blessed Saviour. He was always very meanly
clothe