LOYOLA, IGNATIUS, DON Demo Lorez DE Iteosasse, more gene rally known under the name of Loyola, was tho youngest child of Don Bertram, lord of Ognez and Loyola, a nobleman of high birth and distinction in his proviucc, and of Marina Sacs de Baldi. Ho was born in the year 1491, at the castle of Loyola, in that part of Spanish Biscay afterwards called the province of Guipuscoa. In early youth he was attached to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, in the quality of a page ; but the vivacity of his disposition little suited him for a situation so devoid of excitement, while the recital of the noble deeds of the Spanish knights, who had lately freed their country from the yoke of the infidel, rendered him desirous of emulating their fame. His father, when he sent him to the court of Spain, had placed him under the care of his relation, Don Antonio 31anriquez, duke of Najara. This nobleman, perceiving the military bias of his young ward, got him instructed in the art of war, and afterwards received him in his suite. The ardent imagination of Ignatius was in the meanwhile kept in constant excitement by the eager perusal of the various romances in which were idealised the religious spirit of Spanish chivalry; to this was added the example of his brothers, who were following with dis tinction the profession of arms. After joining the army he aeon rendered himself conspicuous by his gallant bravery on every occasion ; his conduct, in other respects, is described as having partaken in all the dissipations generally incident to a military life; one vice however, that of gambling, he appears constantly to have avoided.
He was in his thirtieth year when he assisted in the defence of Pampeluna, against the French ; in the assault he was severely wounded, his right leg having been fractured by a cannon-ball, and his left, at the same time, injured by a splinter. The French, into whose hands he had fallen prisoner, respecting his misfortune and admiring his bravery, had him conveyed to the castle of Loyola, which was situated at a small distance from Pampeluna. A long and painful confinement was the result of his wounds, and a cruel operation was resorted to, which, though endured with' characteristic courage, reduced him to the last extremity. His recovery from the effects of
the operation, though he saw in it a miracle, appears to have produced no change of conduct. A second operation however became neces sary, owing to a deformity which had resulted from the first, and its consequences entailed a longer and more tedious confinement. To relieve its wearinesa he requested to be provided with those records of ancient chivalry which had been the delight of his former years, but instead of them he was furnished with works of mystical devotion and the lives of saints. Of a disposition naturally visionary and romantic, deprived of the means of pursuing a career in which he hoped to attain the highest honours, the attentive perusal of these reoords of the zeal and suffering of holy men infused in his mind an ardent desire to imitate them. As he eagerly pondered over the recital of the actions of a St. Dominick, or a St. Francis, he was wont to ask himself what prevented him from imitating their deeds I But often were these heavenly aspirations clouded by the intervention of worldly thoughts and of temporal affairs. At other times, when in this spiritual combat the spirit was obtaining a mastery over the flash, his vivid imagination would portray to him visions of celestial glory which, in that hour of struggle, encouraged and inspired him. He has graphically described the various scenes through which he passed iu his introduction to a religious life, in his 'Spiritual Exercises,' the origin of which may be referred to the same time as hia first awakening from worldly slumber. This remarkable work ie not a book of doctrine, it is the description, to use his own words, of "the longings of a soul seeking to be appeased, not by much knowledge, but by the sense and relish of inward things." Ile first minutely details a variety of rules for the guidance of spiritual life ; he then exhorts to the study of sacred history, to whose events he too frequently gives a fanciful interpretation; he afterwards gives an allegorical representa tion of the convert's progress from the prison of this world to the realms of celestial bliss. Loyola but detailed_ his own feelings in this extraordinary production.