No literary remains of sufficient extent to afford a proof of Wyttenbach's scholarly abilities are in exist- ence. A few Letters, mostly contained in the archives of Biel, are extant, which show him to have been a man of convictions and a courageous defender of truth and right. See Schenrer, Mausoleum (largely incorrect), pt. i; Kuhn, Reformatoren Berns ; Blosch, Gesch. d. Stadt Biel, etc., and particularly the section Manuale Dominorum Colleyii ISti. Vincentii Bernensis from A.D. 1488 to the Reformation ; Hallcr to Zwingli in 1523, in Zwingli's O}^}^. i, 294. — Herzog, Real-Encijklop. s. v.
X.
Xavier, Francis, one of the most celebrated mem- bers of the Order of the Jesuits, was born of noble par- entage at the Castle of Xavier, in Navarre, April 7, 150G. He was the youngest child of a large family, and fondly loved by his doting parents. Early devel- oping remarkable talents, and devoted to literary pur- suits, he was sent, at the age of eighteen, to the College of St. Barbara in Paris. The straitened circumstances of his parents threatened to cut short his course of study; but the affection of his eldest sister, and her al- most prophetic insight into his wonderful future career, prompted to the practice of the strictest econom\' in home expenditures that this gifted brother might have the means to complete his collegiate education. It was not long before, as a public teacher of philosophy, he was able to procure the means for his own support and begin to make that impression in the world for which he afterwards became so renowned. It was at this time that he became acquainted with Ignatius Loyola, who threw around the brilliant young man the fascination which he was unable to resist, and in due time he was enrolled as a member of the Society of Jes- uits. He followed his leader with an unquestioning obedience to Rome, and united with him in his effort to raise a band of devoted missionaries, who should go forth in all directif)ns to extend the triumphs of the Church and bring the nations under the sway of the Christian faith.
After the discoveries of Vasco de Gama, the Portu- guese had sent out colonies to India. By them the city of Goa was founded. Acting in accordance with the spirit of the age, John HI, king of Portugal, re- solved to set up the Christian Church in his Eastern
territories, and by the suggestion of Loyola and of his own envoy at Rome, Govea, he selected Xavier to com- mence the enterprise. "A happier selection could not have been made, nor was a summons to toil, to suffering, and to death ever so joyously received." He embark- ed in a ship which bore a regiment of a thousand men, sent out to reinforce the garrison of Goa. A long, dis- mal, sickly, and in many instances deadly, voyage was the fearful experience through which they were des- tined to pass. Xavier, although himself weakened by constant sea-sickness, was an angel of mercy and kind- ness to his fellow-voj-agers, and "lived among the dy- ing and the profligate the unwearied minister of con- solation and peace." Five months were passed in this dreary voyage when the ship reached Mozambique. Here Xavier was brought to the borders of the grave by a raging fever, and so slow was the return of his strength that it was months before he set foot in the city of (Joa. A dismal moral scene met his eye, and a less heroic spirit would have been appalled in view of the mighty task he had undertaken to perform. But with apostolic zeal he commenced and prosecuted his work. Wearing the coarsest garments, and pale and haggard with his long sickness, he traversed the gay streets of Goa, swinging a large bell in his hand, and calling everywhere upon the parents whom he met to place their children uiuler his spiritual care, (iather- ing these little ones under his tuition, he taught them the rudiments of religion, and sent them to their homes to carry to their parents the lessons which they had been taught by the missionary of the Cross. The wretched and the diseased were not forgotten by him. He frequented the most loathsome hospitals, and had
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words of sympathy and kindness for the stifferinsf ones whom he found there. ]More than a year did lie re main in Goa; and wiien his work there was done, the city was not what it was when first he took up his abode within its walls.
On the coast of Malabar there was then, as there is now, a pearl-fisher}\ Those engaged in this dangerous business formed a low and degraded caste, which seem ed to be forsaken of God and man. Thither Xavier directed his steps. Once more were heard the tones of his ringing bell calling the rude, neglected children to his side and giving them such religious instruction as he had to impart. He prepared for them a catechism, from which they could learn the elements of Christian doctrine. He remained among these degraded pearl- fishers for fifteen months, sharing in all the hardships of their abject lot, and living among them in the humblest and most self-sacrificing way, if by any means he might win them to the acceptance of the faith which he taught. He found inexpressible joy in his mission- ary work, "I have nothing to add," thus he wrote to Loyola, "but that they who came forth to labor for the salvation of idolaters receive from on high such conso- lations that, if there be on earth such a thing as hap- piness, it is theirs,"