He worked miracles. A lady had two splinters of wood; the one was unnotable, the other was a Relique of the True Cross: but which was the Relique was not known. Padre Francisco, to decide, broke them both; from one, Blood dropped upon a piece of paper. An Infanta of Spain put him to a similar test: but in this case the relique was said to be a piece of the skin of St. Bartholomew Apostle (he was flayed alive), with another. Padre Francisco tore both skins; and again blood dropped from one on linen. The blood-stained paper and the blood-stained linen, with both reliques, are in the monastery of Poor Clares at Madrid. Multitudes came to see the quondam duke as hermit; they said that they saw a radiant nimbus lighting the pallor of his brow; and to prevent Padre Francisco from becoming puffed up, (an excessively unnecessary precaution, one would think,) his superior at Oñate, Padre Ochiva, set him to hard menial labour, to dig, saw, carry stones, chop wood, light fires, help in the kitchen, and wheel barrows of manure. The General, to whom every detail was reported, sent Padre Francisco to preach in Portugal, where the Company of Jesus was little known; and his mission met with great results. With himself he was most severe. All physical beauty was gone from his once gracious body, macerated in ceaseless austerities. He took the habit of signing his letters _Francisco Pecador_, “Francis the Sinner”: but his sapient General promptly stopped that practice, saying that Singularity was not the seed of Sanctity. All letters which came to him addressed to The Duke of Gandia, he returned, inscribed _Not for me_, _Francisco S.J._ The Lord Julius P.P. III issued a Brief, offering him a scarlet hat. He sent a firm refusal in reply. It has been said that he feared to accept the cardinalate, lest he should be elected Pope at the next Conclave. The statement is absurd; because (α) in theory, the election of the Successor of St. Peter is the work of the Holy Spirit; and _ubi Spiritus ibi libertas_, where the Spirit is there is liberty: not cardinals alone, but humble priests as well, or newly tonsured clerks, or any Christian male, is eligible:—there is no such absurd thing as a restriction on the Right of the Divinity to choose his Vicar; and Padre Francisco, therefore, was as liable in black, as he would have been in scarlet: (β) if he had been elected Pope, it was open to him to refuse or to accept the Call. Some Roman Catholics hold that he _could_ not have refused. But Popes can abdicate, and have abdicated! But _would_ he have refused? Would he have been allowed by the General of the Company of Jesus to refuse? There is no knowing. Such a case has never occurred.