often makes too great an impression on the body, so much impaired the
strength of his constitution, that he fell sick, not long after his first
mass. He was carried into one of the own hospitals, which was so crowded,
and so poor, that Xavier had in it but the one half of a wretched bed,
and that too in a chamber which was open on every side. His victuals were
no better than his lodging, and never was sick man more destitute of
human succours. But, in requital, heaven was not wanting to him.

He was wonderfully devoted to St Jerome; and had often had recourse to
that blessed doctor of the church for the understanding of difficult
places in the scripture. The saint appeared to him one night, refulgent
in his beams of glory, and gave him consolation in his sickness; yet, at
the same time, declaring to him, that a far greater affliction than the
present was waiting for him at Bolognia, where himself and one of his
companions were to pass the winter; that some of them should go to Padua,
some to Rome, others to Ferrara, and the remainder of them to Sienna.

This apparition fortified Xavier so much, that he recovered suddenly; yet
whether he had some doubts concerning it, or was of opinion that he
ought to keep it secret, he said nothing of it at that time. But that
which then happened to him made it evident, that the vision was of God:
for Ignatius, who was ignorant of what had been revealed to Xavier,
having assembled his disciples, gave them to understand, that since the
gate of the Holy Land was shut against them, they ought not any longer to
defer the offering of their service to the Pope; that it was sufficient
if some of them went to Rome, while the rest of them dispersed themselves
in the universities of Italy, to the end, they might inspire the fear of
God into the scholars, and gather up into their number some young
students of the greatest parts. Ignatius appointed them their several
stations, just as they had been foreshewn by St Jerome; and that of