THE

BRITISH MAGAZINE.

JANUARY 1, 1835.

ORIGINAL PAPERS.

F. XAVIER'S MIRACLES.

THE church of Rome has seldom or never abstained from any opportunity of claiming for herself and her agents the exercise of more than human power. Miracles have been announced with all the assurance and devotion of reality, and have been published on the spot, and at the very time, where and when they professedly took place. There never has been any backwardness on these matters; nor have her emissaries been deterred by any fear of scandal or detection. A singular hardihood has characterized their proceedings at all periods and under all cir

cumstances.

To the paper on Xavier's Miracles, in a former Number, it may be interesting to add some extracts from the apparently authorized and official abridgment of the transactions of the Jesuit Missionaries in the East Indies, published at Cologne, 1574, under the title of "Rerum a Societate Jesu in Oriente Gestarum volumen, continens Historiam jucundam lectu omnibus Christianis, præsertim iis, quibus vera religio est cordi, In qua videre possent, quomodo nunquam Deus Ecclesiam suam deserat, et in locum deficientium a vera fide, innumeros alios in abditissimis etiam regionibus substituat." The dedication, dated 1570, states, that among other ends, the publication of these matters "would greatly strengthen and corroborate, by human and divine testimonies, atque miraculis (and miracles), the truth of the catholic religion, the majesty of the apostolic see, and the supreme power of the Roman pontiff, which, at the present day," continues the writer," is especially assailed by all kinds of oppression and deceit." The first paper of this book gives an abstract of Xavier's journey to India, (1541,) his labours, his piety, temperance, and other virtues; it also distinctly attributes to him the power of

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working miracles. That this account of his holiness, and his exercise of divine power, was made on the spot, and at the time, may probably be denied ; but there seems to be no reason for doubting that an authorized statement was formally drawn up very soon after his decease. Xavier, after eleven years' toil in India, died in 1552. Before that period, the fame of his wonderful performances had reached Portugal; and, some short time after, King John, "moved with the magnitude and excellence of the things he had heard, commanded his governor of India, by his letter, to give an accurate account of Xavier's acts and miracles." A copy of the king's letter, dated 1556, is given in this book, and though the word miracula does not occur in it, yet an equivalent phrase does. The substance is, the king directs" that all the wonderful actions of this man, and the things beyond the power of nature (super naturæ vires) which our Lord hath effected by him, while yet living or dead, should, on the best evidence, be authentically drawn up, substantiated, and attested." This was accordingly done. So that it is clear that a cotemporary reputation of Xavier's working miracles existed, and that every possible pains were taken by authority to disseminate his fame and character.

It would be a curious task to compare the accounts of conversions by the Jesuit Missionaries with those given by some of our modern societies. The numbers turned from idols by the former, in a short time, seem prodigious. In one town 25,000 were converted by Xavier, in 1547; and, at another place, 10,000 in one month, and "he hoped that, in the course of that year, he would make 100,000 Christians."

In all the accounts of miracles, a similarity with those of the Scriptures may be generally noticed. They seem, in fact, to be versions of the same transactions. The Jesuit relaters, however, are seldom content with equalling the scripture miracles; but commonly attach some more extraordinary circumstances and details. Thus Xavier is represented as answering questions and doubts, not singly and in order (as our Saviour did), and as the other Jesuit fathers did; but by one and the same answer “he solved ten or twelve different propositions as satisfactorily as if he had given to each its appropriate reply." And this, of course, is considered as effected by his divine power! The following is, however, the general summary of his "admirable acts beyond human power in Japan :"-he gave speech to a dumb manthe use of his limbs to one that was lame-hearing to one deafand divinely restored soundness to another deaf or dumb." But in another region (Cape Comorin), "he not only divinely cured many sick persons, given up by the physicians, and cast out unclean spirits, but also recalled dead persons to life." An instance is there related of a young man having died, who had many rela