The new provincial had occasion, in January 1582, to write to the General about the sermons of a certain Father John Reinel, which were, he complained, too lengthy and too violent.  In regard to the first fault he had improved somewhat, but no admonition had succeeded in causing him to desist from his biting attacks on the heretics.  His Paternity was, therefore, requested to command him to observe more moderation and gentleness, and instead of handling the heretics angrily and roughly, to teach and exhort them with Christian charity.  In this manner he would convert a far greater number, as every one maintained.  But if he continued as heretofore, Father Blyssem would be obliged to send him to another college, where he would have to adopt a different style or give over preaching altogether, and take up another occupation.

But the removal of Father Reinel was not so simple a matter as it at first appeared.  Towards the end of the year, Father Blyssem again wrote to Aquaviva on the same subject.  It had been decided during the preceding summer to send the unmanageable preacher to another sphere of activity, he having been already so long a time at Gratz, where he was too much engrossed in the court, which he had recently, against the wishes of his superiors, accompanied in its journey of several months through Bavaria and Suabia, to the neglect of the pulpit at Gratz.  Moreover, his harsh and aggressive manner of preaching was as repulsive to the Catholics as to the Lutherans, but when, according to his instructions, he was on the point of starting for Vienna, the archduchess, whose confessions he sometimes heard in Father Blyssem’s temporary absence, was so much aggrieved at the change, that she entreated her husband with many arguments and tears to prevent his departure.  Accordingly, the archduke begged the provincial to defer Father Reinel’s removal on account of his consort’s distress, and this he apparently did, but he wrote to the General asking him to insist on the order being carried out, and to persuade the archduke to agree to it.

Sometimes varying reports were sent to the General concerning the behaviour of certain Fathers at court.  Thus, the rector of the college at Gratz wrote somewhat severely of Father Saxo, who also was a favourite in the most exalted circle.

But Father Blyssem in a letter to Aquaviva, dated gist December 1585, defended him, saying:—­

“Your Paternity appears to be incorrectly informed as to Father Saxo.  In my judgment, and in that of other Fathers of consideration, he has very greatly improved in his manner and conduct towards others.  When I was at Gratz last year he was in possession of a costly little alarum, which he had received as a present from a nobleman.  He was well pleased that the clock should be taken from him, and sold for the benefit of the noviceship.  The seal which he used at missions, and which he would willingly have kept afterwards, he gave up at once at the instance of his superior.  He had received a great many books as presents in the course of his missions, to assist him in preaching, and these he delivered up for the common use, after very little delay.  The Fathers whom I questioned answered that they had noticed nothing in Father Saxo that might give scandal, nor had they ever heard anything of the kind about him.”