When Father Maggio was made provincial, Father Antonio, a Portuguese Jesuit, became court preacher, but so little to his own satisfaction that he repeatedly appealed to the empress and to the General for his release.  He bewailed his unfitness for a post requiring so much exceptional virtue, and expressed his desire to be sent to foreign missions.  If such were not the will of his superiors, he entreated that he might have some humble office in a house of novices, where he might live unnoticed by the world, and labour for his soul’s health.

The General, Father Mercurian, replied, on the 18th March 1576, that he had no one to replace him at court, and that he must perforce remain where he was.  Previously to this, Father Antonio had besought the empress to dismiss him, but she had answered that she counted on his ministrations at the hour of death.  A month after Father Mercurian’s refusal to remove him, he again wrote to the General, begging that he might apply to the empress for, at least, a year’s leave of absence, during which time a locum tenens might be dispensed with.  Two days later, he followed up this letter with another, giving the General his opinion why it was inexpedient for any member of the Society to remain at court for more than a short term, such as a month or two.  There was, he said, no bishop, ambassador, or person of consequence who did not desire to have several of the Fathers about him; the door which, at their profession, they had shut on the world, seemed in a certain sense to be reopened by a residence at court; unfortunately, men were not wanting who aspired to such offices, and great inconveniences ensued thereby.  Some grew accustomed to a certain independence, little in accordance with the rules of the Society, some were altogether spoiled, and brought disgrace on the Order.  It was, perhaps, not astonishing that after this letter the General showed even less inclination than before to remove Father Antonio.  One who thus appreciated the dangers of the world would be less likely than another to fall a prey to them, and was as safe at court as in fulfilling the humblest duties of the noviceship.

But when all was said and done, the influence of the Jesuits at the Court of Vienna was not very great.  Their El Dorado was the Archducal Court at Gratz, where reigned Ferdinand’s son, Charles ii.  Here their power was at least supposed to be so great that their enemies declared that they possessed the master-key of all the doors in the palace, and could pass through all the rooms composing the apartments of the Archduchess at will.  This, however, with other things, she declared solemnly to be nothing but lies—­nur lautere Lugen—­and an attack on her honour.*

* Hurter, Ferdinand ii, 3, 578.