of the commandant; and we are invited to admire the fortitude of this stout, active young fellow of twentyseven in that he actually takes the hour's walk into town on foot.1 He has chilblains; and we hear (in the panegyrics) the gurgling of the blood as it gushes through his stockings and gaiters and stains his foot-prints in the snow. A bridge being broken, he crosses the stream on a plank; and his biographers roll their pious eyes and lift up adoring hands in admiration of the miracle. Later in his career, when as bishop he visits the valleys of Chamounix and Sixt, his admirers will not be content unless we join in their wonder at the sublime courage and self-denial with which he adventures himself in those dreadful places whither it is the delight of tourists from all the lands of the earth to follow him.2

When Francis de Sales entered on his mission in the Chablais, in September, 1594, that region had been Protestant for fifty-eight years. Thirty years before, in 1564, it had been receded to Savoy by the Bernese, in the treaty of Nyon, with the stipulation that the exercise of the Protestant religion therein should not only not be molested, but should be protected and maintained by the Catholic sovereign-a stipulation conceded for the express reason that the people of the ceded province were so heartily attached to their faith that it would be impossible to detach them from it without great violence. Under this treaty the Chablais abode in peace and prosperity for sixteen years, until the death of the just and liberal-minded

1 In the Life by Loyau d'Amboise, the one league stretches to three, "that the fatigue may touch hard hearts," pp. 70, 72.

2 Francis was a lover of natural beauty (see Sainte Beuve, Port Royal, I., 218) and fully capable of enjoying the magnificent scenery of his diocese. Mr. Gaberel, the venerable historian of Geneva, makes the curious remark, in his work on Rousseau et les Genevois, that the earliest mention to be found in extant

literature of the natural beauties of the region of the Leman is in Auguste de Sales' life of his uncle.

duke who made the treaty, and the accession of his son, Charles Emmanuel, a prince the depth of whose religious convictions is indicated by his declaration that he held it to be "the duty of a good Christian to fight the Genevese, all pledges and oaths to the contrary notwithstanding." His deed was as

good as his word. Plots of treachery and secret violence against the heretic city succeeded each other so frequently that at last the magistrates decided that a state of open war was better than such a peace; and in 1589 war was declared by the little town against its powerful and warlike neighboura war that horribly devastated the entire neighbourhood, and drained Geneva of blood and treasure, but left it covered with glory and strong in religious faith. In the course of this war, Thonon, the capital of the Chablais, being attacked by the Genevese with their Swiss and French allies, surrendered, doubtless with small regret on the part of its Protestant population. When, at the beginning of an unstable peace, in 1594, the treaty of Nyon was reaffirmed, the duke did not forget the coldness of the people of Thonon in the war against their fellow-believers, and had not long to wait for an opportunity of revenge.

That very year the duke resolved to convert the Chablais. The time was well chosen. The people had suffered miserably in the war, and had little heart to resist injustice; the Protestant pastors had been harried out of the country, and only three or four of them allowed to return; public worship had ceased in most of the villages, and the children were growing up without instruction; little heroic Geneva crouched behind her walls, panting in utter exhaustion; and what was more to the purpose, Berne, the other party to the treaty of Nyon, that had the right, under its terms, to insist on the maintenance of the stipulation in favour of the Protestant

religion, had shown very plainly that she had no more stomach for fighting on account of others, so that there

was little danger of any hindrance growing out of that document, unless it were, peradventure, some scruple of honour on the duke's part, or some diplomatic remonstrance from Berne.

Accordingly the duke sent a letter to the old Bishop of Geneva, at Annecy, asking him to send missionaries into the Chablais, and promising to aid them in their work with the whole force of his authority, to give them commissions accrediting them as employed in the ducal service, and to charge all commandants of posts to help the work to the utmost of their power. Perhaps the history of Christian missions has never offered an opening with so many attractions to an enterprising and devoted clergyman, and so few drawbacks, as that now presented to the brilliant and active young Provost of the Chapter. Francis volunteered at once, and started for his mission-field without delay, accompanied by his cousin Louis, the canon.

He had every imaginable advantage for success in his enterprise-young, handsome, ardent and enthusiastic, noble of birth, bold and persevering, sustained by family influence that gave him admission to all the best society of the province, peculiarly insinuating in the society of ladies, quick-witted, diplomatic, and adroit, rarely losing his temper in controversy, but maintaining the imperturbable suavity of his manner even when his practical operations were of the severest and cruellest; he was at the same time a man of strong convictions - strong, that is, with the strength that comes of an obstinate and conscientious resolution never to ponder an objection; of graceful though effeminate eloquence; of intense mystical piety; and-what proved in the end to be of even greater importance to his undertaking a versatile readiness in applying means to ends without being embarrassed by squeamish scruples of honour and conscience. Leaving out of consideration the alleged miracles 1 See, for a single instance, Letter xi., p. 57. Ed. Rivingtons.

by which his work was aided, it might almost be said that if a man so gifted and so favoured should not be successful in a good cause, it would be itself a miracle as great as some of those ascribed to him in the act of canonization.

Naturally, the mission organized under such auspices directed itself at once to the fortress of Allinges, the head-quarters of the military governor of the province, from which, by means of a powerful garrison, he held in subjection not only the neighbouring city of Thonon, but the whole of the harassed and wasted province. To him the missionaries presented their letters from the duke enjoining him to render them all the protection and support in his power. The governor was just the man for the occasion. A good Catholic, a zealous subject, a brave and cruel soldier, the Baron d'Hermance was also a family connection and an old personal friend of the Apostle. A plan of campaign was soon settled. They were to begin with the mildest measures, reserving the use of violence as a last resort.1 This was a course both congenial to the feelings of Francis, and in accordance with the ideas of the Duke, who was not without fears lest his perfidy should provoke the Bernese to armed interference. The old soldier further advised the missionaries that it would be safer for them to spend their nights at the fort. The people of the Chablais, so he assured them, were a goodnatured, simple, rude sort of folk, but very obstinate when they had made up their minds; they had a very bad opinion of the Roman Church, and were convinced that their liberties and privileges depended on their holding fast to their religion-a notion that proved to be not far from right. The next morning the mission was appropriately inaugurated by a review of the troops, and the governor, pointing to his force of artillery, remarked significantly to Francis, "If the Huguenots over there will give you a

2 Marsollier, Liv. ii.

Advancing bravely from his fortified base, Francis presented himself to the magistrates of Thonon with letters commanding them to render all possible services to the missionaries, and to attend upon their preaching, and warning them that any injury offered to the priests would be avenged on the whole city of Thonon. The impression thus made may have been salutary, but the mild and inoffensive ways of Francis gave little provocation to violence. The presence of two such commissioners as he and his cousin naturally provoked a temporary agitation in the town, which, however, soon subsided, and the mission went on quietly but diligently. He was free to use the great church of St. Hippolyte, and there, day by day, he gathered the little handful of about a dozen Catholics, mostly strangers, to hear him preach. It was natural to expect that the uncommon attractions of the man himself, and the prodigious combination of influences by which he was backed, would at least win now and then a straggling townsman or peasant to listen to the famous preacher. But it was not so.

He

bewails his disappointment in successive letters. "We had hoped that some would come to hear us either out of curiosity or out of some lingering love for the old religion. But they have all resolved, with mutual exhortations, not to do it." 2 "Their heart is hardened. They have said to God, we will not serve thee. They will not hear us, because they will not hear God." And yet the governor had been as good as his word, and used his personal persuasions to induce persons to hear the Apostle. But the result

1 Thus the biographers generally; but the quotation is mitigated by English editors. Cf. Bull of Canonization, § xv.

2 This and the following citations are from his letters of this period. In one of them Francis alleges that a municipal law was made forbidding attendance on his sermons. But this is very unlikely. In the Ed. Blaise (Paris, 1821) the letters may be found in chronological order.

is summed up by Francis in these words: "I have been preaching at Thonon now seven months on every holiday, and often in the week besides. I have never been heard but by three or four of the Huguenots, and these only came four or five times, except secretly." Having utterly failed in drawing the people to hear him, he went down among the people, and taking his stand in the public square on market-days, attempted to catch their attention whether they would or no. This was equally in vain. The peasants were as obdurate as the citizens. In the country villages they refused not only to hear him, but even to give him so much as a lodging on payment. At the end of a year's toil, wishing to draw together all the results of his mission, he announced far and wide that he would preach on St. Stephen's Day in a church near the Allinges. The concourse consisted of seven persons. Up to this time, Thonon had not furnished a single convert. The father of Francis wrote to him that all the wisest and most sensible people considered his further persistence in the mission as a mere tempting of Providence, and that the only way to bring back such heretics to the faith was by the mouth of the cannon.

Nevertheless, with admirable persistence, Francis resolved to keep at it for another year, concentrating all his efforts on the town of Thonon. Already he had made use of the press to circulate his doctrines in little tracts and broadsides. He now devoted himself to discussions, private and public, and to the preparation of a book in exposition of Catholic doctrine. The aim of his teaching, both oral and printed, was characteristic of the man. It was conciliatory, dwelling on the points of resemblance between the two Churches, rather than on the points of difference, and seeking to produce the impression that the change from Protestant to Catholic, which would be attended by such vast worldly advantages, was not so difficult a matter

as some were disposed to think. It was charged against him by some of his own brethren that he was not honest in this matter; and it is either very fortunate or very unfortunate for his reputation as a Catholic saint and doctor, that the book that would have settled the question-the book above mentioned should completely and mysteriously have disappeared from the face of the earth.1

as

Finding townsfolk and peasantry as steadfast as ever in their faith, Francis turned to the provincial gentry. Helplessly dependent these were on the Duke's favour for promotion, whether in a military or in a civil career, it was not difficult to bring strong motives to bear upon them to persuade them to give a hearing to the message of salvation. Among them, the Baron d'Avully, a man of great influence, was the husband of a zealous Catholic lady, a devoted admirer of Francis. Her "prayers and tears," combined with the arguments of the missionary, made a deep impression on this gentleman; but before announcing his conversion he asked to hear a discussion of the points at issue. A meeting was arranged between Francis and Pastor La Faye of Geneva, at which the discussion lasted three hours. The affair being reported only by the friends of Francis, it is needless to say that the wretched Protestant was overwhelmed argument at all points; "frantic with rage, he broke out in a torrent of insulting language." It is again unfortunate that we have no report of the language used; but the papers of a subsequent discussion between the same parties are to be seen in the Library of Geneva, and afford us some ground of conjecture. To his antagonist's argument our saint meekly replies: "Your book is utterly worthless. It is packed with absurdities, lies, and blasphemies. It is

with

1 This is all the more remarkable, since, with the exception of this important work, every scrap of Francis's writing has been so religiously preserved.

the work of a poor, arrogant, brokenwinded minister who has gone crazy with passion and rage; a foolhardy, blind, impudent impostor, a charlatan, a Proteus, a chameleon, an excessively ignorant ex-monk and ex-priest." In answer to these gentle words, the heretic bursts forth with his furious insolence as follows: "I am not a Proteus nor a chameleon; ever since I have known God's truth I have steadfastly followed it. It is a small matter to be judged of man's judgment. We must stand or fall to our own Master, to whom all our service is due. The Christian's fairest ornament is a humble mind. Let him that thinketh himself wise take heed lest he fall." If the above is an accurate report, it is truly painful to see how far the tender, gentle nature of the saint had changed places with such a rude creature as this Geneva pastor.2

con

Beside d'Avully, there was verted a noted lawyer named Poncet. Of these accessions the utmost was made. D'Avully was honoured with a brief from the Pope's own hand, couched in the most flattering terms, and assuring the neophyte of the distinguished favours of the duke. But the hopes inspired by these two successes were disappointed. At the end of the second year's toil, the list of converts amounted to just twelve, and the disgusted apostle declares to the duke, "Your Chablais is a ruined province. Here have I been labouring twenty-seven months in this miserable country; but I have sown among thorns or in stony places. Certainly, except M. d'Avully, and Poncet the lawyer, the rest of the converts are not much to talk of. I

3

2 The citations are from Gaberel, Hist. de l'Eglise de Genève, ii., 596. But the later editions of Francis's Works are expurgated of insulting words and adapted to the modern taste. Ibid. 642.

The list of them is given in the original Life by Auguste de Sales; but according to the current biographies the converts in Thonon alone were long before this to be counted by hundreds. See, for example, Loyau d'Amboise, p. 88.

pray God for better luck; and I am sure that your highness's piety will not permit all our efforts to be in vain." 1

For many months it had been growing plain to Francis and his friends that measures of a more vigorous sort must be used if anything was to be accomplished. This is the point of his appeal to the duke's piety. A year before, his friend President Favre had condoled with him on the inefficient support he received from the authorities; and the apostle himself had complained to the Jesuit Canisius that "His Serene Highness would not use violence to bring these people back into the Church, on account of the treaty on that point with Berne." But on December 29, 1595, he applies to the duke to have President Favre sent with a commission to compel the citizens to attend his preaching. "This gentle violence," said he, "will I think constrain them to accept the yoke of your holy zeal, and make a great breach in their obstinacy." 2

So absolute was the necessity, that notwithstanding the unfavourable season, he crossed the Alps in November, 1596, for a personal interview with the duke at Turin. The new

1 Disc. au Duc de Savoie, le 9 déc, 1596. Euvres de St. François de Sales. Ed. Blaise, vol. xiv., Opuscules, p. 75.

2 To this earlier period of the mission belong the stories of attempted assassination from which the saint escapes, sometimes by miracle and sometimes by "sweetness," but always magnificently scorning the protection of the secular arm. There is every reason to believe that they are all falsehoods. Francis never alludes to them. His parents at home did doubtless fidget about the safety of their favourite son. But a letter to him from his friend President Favre says:- "My only trouble is that your good father worries so for fear some harm will come to you, that I can hardly persuade him that you are perfectly safe, and that, as I believe, there is not the slightest occasion to suspect danger for you. comfort him all I can, often protesting (what I am sure you do not doubt) that I never would have left you if I could have perceived the slightest danger to be feared." After Francis's death these assassination stories had a double value, as contributing to the materials of canonization, and as blackening the character of the Protestants.

I

programme for the conversion of the Chablais which he submitted to the duke in council, is reported by Lady Herbert with great 66 sweetness" as consisting chiefly in "three things:The re-establishment of the mass at Thonon; the restoration of the property belonging to the Church; and the appointment of a certain number of priests and teachers, at fixed revenues, throughout the province. He also urged the establishment of seminaries and schools; the prohibition of heretical and atheistical publications; and the foundation of a House of Mercy at Thonon." 3 Some trifling matters besides are contained in the memorandum of Francis, which have escaped her ladyship's attention, but which we add as an illustration of the saint's business-like ways:

"The minister of Thonon to be sent away to some place where he can have no intercourse with his people.

"The heretic schoolmaster to be removed and a Catholic put in his place until the Jesuits can be settled.

"Liberalities to be shown towards some seven or eight old persons who have remained Catholic.

"Heretics, within a brief time, must be deprived of all public offices, and Catholics appointed into their places.

"Good promotion in the army for Catholic young men,

"One of the senators to summon all the citizens of Thonon to turn Catholic.

"All Protestant books to be burned. "Your highness to show liberality to the new converts.

"It is necessary to scatter terror through the whole population by wholesome edicts."4

3 The Mission in the Chablais, p. 84. 4 See the copy of the original memorandum in Etudes Biographiques sur St. François. Chambéry, 1860. This work, although pub lished anonymously, is valuable and accurate. There is also a scholarlike and conscientious thesis by Pastor Guillot of the Geneva Church, entitled François de Sales et les Protestants. Genève, 1873. The two chapters on Francis de Sales in Mr. Gaberel's Histoire de l'Eglise de Genève, vol. ii., have been violently attacked in a pamphlet by the Abbé Fleury (magni nominis umbra), entitled St. François de Sales, le P. Cherubin, et les Ministres de Genève. Paris, 1864. The writer clearly convicts his antagonist of some loose quotations, but leaves him safe in his main posi