Japan and the Japanese

MISSltN OF XAVIER TO THE EAST. 45
general might appoint and remove at pleasure. The general
received monthly reports from the provincials and vice-provincials,
quarterly ones from the superiors of professed houses, and rectors
of colleges, and half-yearly ones from every professed member.
Every member was bound to report to his immediate superior his
own misconduct or that of any of his companions.
John III., of Portugal, though very desirous of sending out a
competent supply of spiritual laborers to his dominions in the East,
could hardly find the means for it at home. There was but a
single university that of Coimbra in all Portugal, and that not
much frequented. John, it is true, had exerted himself in behalf
of that institution, by inviting professors not only from Spain, but
from Germany and Italy; but as yet the few Portuguese who
devoted themselves to study sought their education, for the most
part, at Complutum, or Salamanca, and some of them at Paris.
In this dearth of Portuguese laborers, having heard some rumor
of the new order of the Jesuits, John charged his ambassador at
Home to request the founder, Ignatius, to send him for service in
who had other
India not less than six members of it. Loyola,
schemes on foot, could spare only two, one of whom, Rodriguez, the
original Portuguese of the order, remained behind in Portugal to
organize the society there, where he established at Coimbra the first
Jesuit college. The other was Xavier, to whom, as a test of his
obedience though, the order being as yet not formally authorized,
Loyola had no legal authority over him the command for his
departure was communicated only the day beforehand, leaving him
scarcely time, before setting out upon so distant a journey, to say
farewell to his friends, and to get the rents mended in his tattered
and thread-bare cloak. He was indeed able to get ready the easier
not
having, like our modern missionaries, the incumbrance or the
comfort of a wife and children, and no baggage to impede hia
movements, beyond his prayer-book and the clothes on his back.
Arriving at Lisbon, he waited on the king, but immediately
upon leaving the palace proceeded, as was his wont, to the public
hospital, devoting all his time, till the ships were ready, to the
care and consolation of the sick and dying. While here he received
from the Pope the appoir tment of apostolic nuncio for India, with
full powers. Of all the offers made to him of an outfit for the