Natale

Natale (Latin Natalis), IERONIMO, a Spanish Jesuit, was born at Majorca in 1507. An intimate friend of Ignatius Loyola, he entered the Society of Jesus in October 1545. After having executed several commissions at the Council of Trent, in Africa, and in Sicily, he established at Messina a college, in which he taught theology and Hebrew from 1552. He was afterwards charged by the founder of his order to promulgate in Sicily, Portugal, and Spain the constitutions of the society. November 1, 1554, he was made vicar-general to Ignatius Loyola. Pope Julius III designated Natale in the following year to accompany cardinal Morone, legate of the holy chair, to the Diet of Augsburg, June 19, 1558, after having declined the chief command of the society, which was given to Lainez, he was nominated assistant for Germany and France, and undertook in the interest of the order several missions to Spain under Philip II. In March 1566, he energetically sustained before the Diet of Augsburg the rights of the Church and of the holy chair, and on his return to Rome solicited, as vicar- general of Francis Borgia, the confirmation of the Order of Ignatius from Gregory XIII. At last he spent several years in Flanders, where he consecrated his time to the work by which he is principally known, and which is much sought after by amateurs for the engravings with which it is ornamented. He died at Rome April 3, 1580. His principal work is, Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia quae in sacrosancto missae sacrificio toto anno lequntur, cum eorumdem Evangeliorum concordantia historiae integritati suficienti. Accessit et index historiam ipsam Evangelicam in ordinem temporis vitae Christi distribuens (Antw. 1594, fol., engraved title, 595 pages). This work, of which the price is still very high, is ornamented with 153 plates engraved upon copper by Jerome brothers, Wierix, and Collaert, from designs by Martin de Vos and Bernardin Passeri. These engravings, copied and engraved upon steel, have served to illustrate a Vie de Jesus Christ, by abbot Brispot (Paris, 1853, 2 volumes, fol.), at the head of which is found a notice of Natalis and an explanation of the engravings: — Scholiae in Constitutiones et Declarationes sancti Patris nostri Ignatii et admonitiones pro superioribus (preserved in MS. form in the library of the Jesuits at Rome). See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.