cs free from excommunication,
he could dispense from vows in case a pilgrimage to Rome could not be
undertaken. Even engagements entered into on oath he could declare null
and void, in case they militated against the welfare of the Church.
Should he finally attain to the higher ranks, he could then grant
dispensation from all church punishments even for those given as
penalties for schism and heresy, yea even for the falsification of
apostolic letters, he was then in a position to invest with the effect
of deep penitence an insufficient repentance and to turn mortal sins
into venial, not to make any mention of the profound mysteries of the
Sacraments. All this he might and could do, or should soon have the
power to do, and instead of being proud thereat and raising his head
several inches higher, he dragged along weary and heavy-hearted by the
side of his talkative companion, who inwardly thought that he did not
see why in Venice they had set so much importance on this melancholy
dreamer. Reading their prayers, or exchanging monosyllables the two
sons of Loyola had ascended the steep rocks at whose base foam the
green waters of Lake Garda. Then it came out during the evening at the
inn at Arco, that Brother Paul had not even noticed that during the day
they had passed through water, and over rocks and snow. His companion
shook his head and thought: he will indeed become a Doctor Ecstaticus.
The following day he therefore altered his tone and whilst wandering
through the dreary Sarcathal to Trent, Father Antonius began to praise
the especial protection, which the gracious Mother had ever extended
over the Society of Jesus. The Madonna had herself watched over the
blessed Ignatius during his last illness, as she now shielded his Sons
under her mantle. She appeared lately in a vision to a brother in
Catalonia, who was so entranced at her unspeakable beauty that he was
seen floating in the air stretching his arms out towards her. In the
Collegio at Rome lived a holy penitent in his cell without any food
whatever, for the holy Virgin appeared to him night after night and
suckled him at her breast as if he were an infant. Countless miracles
could the loquacious Father relate, worked by pieces of her veil, or
the fair hair which St. Mark had brought with him to Venice. Maria
should therefore ever be an object of especial veneration for the
order, for like the Pope she wore a threefold diadem. She was the
daughter of the Father,