changing the aspect of affairs, and causing us to know that only
His power can conquer hearts; and He so subdued theirs that the very
persons who had fled desired us again, in a few days, and complained
that we visited them but seldom. When our fathers did repair to them,
they would not let them depart at once, maintaining that they did not
tarry long enough. Some of them sought with great earnestness and
fervor holy baptism, and the Christians adopted the Christian mode
of life with love, ardor, and satisfaction. Accordingly, they could
be seen at prayer, both morning and evening, repeating the sermons,
and chanting the doctrine in their houses and fields and boats (when
they are traveling in these, they carry a little bell to ring for the
Ave Marias). They were very careful in attending church, and devout
in confessing, especially during that first Lent; and showed great
fervor in disciplining themselves, particularly during Holy Week;
in the procession on that occasion there were many who scourged
themselves until the blood came, and still others accompanied them,
bearing four hundred lights, all preserving great silence and order. It
was learned in many individual cases, that God our Lord chose very
opportunely to influence them through various means to receive His
holy faith, and afterward to confirm them in it, by marvelous and
supernatural visions, of things both good and bad, and causing both
joy and terror--miraculously healing, for example, many who lay at
the point of death, and bestowing special inward inspirations. One of
these Christians passed in front of a house where a minister of the
Devil was offering to the demon his abominable sacrifice; and this
very demon told him to prevent that Christian from entering; "for,"
he said, "I am afraid of those Christians." How could those who heard
this refrain from following that powerful God, when they saw that he
whom they considered as such feared not only Him, but also, on account
of their being Christians, those who formerly feared and worshiped