PRACTICE OF PERFECTION AND CHRISTIAN VIRTUES PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY JOHN GR~FFIN, ROEHAMPTON FATHER ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ, S.]. PRACTICE OF PERFECTION AND CHRISTIAN VIRTUES tf /- ~/~ {~t· ;- . BY 1/11.- ~ ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ .au> !/ OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS I . DONE INTO ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME DIRECT FROM THE SPANISH BY JOSEPH RICKABY OF THE SAME SOCIETY IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME ONE TREATISES I-XI LONDON. THE MANRESA PRESS: ROEHAMPTON. 1929 IMPRIMI POTEST: HENRICUS KEANE, S.]., Praep. Provo Angliae. LONDINI, DIE II FEBRUARII, 19~9. IMPRIMATUR: + FRANCISCUS, Episcopus Menevensis. 13 FEB., 1929. " There is no doctrine, however·good in itself, that may not be made bad use of by one who does not know how to apply it properly." No hay doctrina par buena que sea de que no pueda uno usar mal 5i no la sabe aplicar como conviene. TR. viii.,CH. go. /1"'~~-IZ L I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I TRANSLATOR'S PREPACE i\.LPHO~SUS RODRIGUEZ (not to be confounded with his ~anoni~~d namesake, a Jesuit laybrother) ~~~~9I!!=c,~ YCillCicl01idi~152~, entered th~Society?f,jesus in 1546, ~nd di~d;-;>Ir~b~~~~EYl"=!§!9~,,~'B~tfor~C:;~~O'~srt'to Rome, where he sat in the Fifth General Congregation of the Society, h~~~P~}2!~hi,§"whol~.lif~!!_!_~P§lj.g,~ tea~Jling Moral Theology, gov~.rni9-La..,,,CQUeg~a§.EectQx,,.,~.£!h2g_a~m" M_e:ts,.!er of Novices atld ~pir!.!t:1a)"fatherand composing this work. It came out in three parts, all which appeared together in 1609. Of its composition he tells us Himself: "It being the custom in our Society for an Exhortation to be addressed to the Comnlunity at least every fort- S night, and I having been engaged in that office for more /L ~...r than forty years, addressing as well the novices as their Seniors in Religion, I have gathered together much I~C matter which my Superiors thought it would be for the service of God for me to revise and put in order." The first cotnplete English translation came out in 1699. The anonymous translator has recently been identified as Sir John Warner, S.J., Bart. Father Warner, most unhappily, overlooking the original Spanish, translated the French version of Regnier des Marais. Des Marais took considerable liberties with th~ text in putting the somewhat rugged Spanish into an elegant Louis Quatorze garb. His loose renderings, and more besides, passed into the English translation. Cor rections were made in the Kilkenny edition of 1809; but never to this day has the baleful influence of Des Marais been wholly eliminated. It has cost the present translator a world of toil and trouble. Inmyvenerationfor thequaint old seventeenth century version, still read amongst us, I x TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE endeavoured to base my work upon that, instead ofdoing what I was ultimately forced to do, translating straight from the Spanish. The translation has been revised throughout by a native Spaniard, who is also a competent English scholar. To him I return my hearty thanks. I have borne in mind, and beg my reader to bear in mind, that I am a Translator only, and not an Editor. It has been Rodriguez's good fortune inourday,laudari a laudato viro. Writing to the Heads of Religious Orders on the training of their young religious, His Holiness Pius XI. says, 19 March, 1924: "Most useful to read through and study will be the writings of St. Bernard, and'of the Seraphic Doctor St. Bonaventure, as also of Alphonsus Rodriguez. So far from the virtue and efficacy of these works having failed and become exhausted by lapse of time, it seems to have grown and increased" (Acta Ap. Sedis, vol. 16, p. 142). The temptation has been great to correct or explain here and there some of the forced or even untenable applications of Holy Scrip-~~ ture, and some of the stories which ar,e historically in-~~ accurate. On reflection however we prefer to leave them as they are; they profess to be but illustrations of the lesson.s he desires to teach. Some day we',may see an historico-critical edition of this classic work; for the Ejercicio de Perfeccion y Virtudes Cristianas is a classic; and we present it as Rodriguez wrote it, our one object being to produce an English translation as accurate as possible. It is presumed that no one will read Treatise xxiii. on Manifestation of Conscience, in ignorance of the new Canon Law, Canon 530. In references to the Psalms, since they are'generally so short, only the number of the Psalm, as,found in the Vulgate, has been given. JOSEPH RICKABY, S.J•