Vincent de
Priest and Philanthropist,
1576=1660. £ |
By E. K. SANDERS
VINCENT DE PAUL
OF THE
VNfVE
OF
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Vincent de Paul
PRIEST AND PHILANTHROPIST
1576— l66o
BY
E. K. ^ANDERS
AUTHOR OF
ange*liq,ue OF PORT ROYAL," ETC., ETC.
WITH EIGHT REPRODUCTIONS FROM ENGRAVINGS
IN THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALS
HEATH, CRANTON & OUSELEY, LTD.
FLEET LANE, LONDON, E.C.
INTRODUCTION
A recent work by a learned and brilliant writer contains
the following passage: " It was the age of S. Vincent de
Paul, patron Saint of practical philanthropists. The air
was thick with orphanages and hospitals, with Sister-
hoods of Charity, with schemes for evangelizing the in-
ferior clergy. But practical philanthropists seldom escape
a touch of superficiality. They may be content with
little, with small profits and quick returns; but a brisk
turnover they must have."*
This — if we can eliminate the note of scorn — is repre-
sentative of the popular view of Vincent de Paul. He is
accepted as the pioneer of social reform and organized
charity — the charity of Annual Reports and Balance
Sheets. The biographical study contained in the follow-
ing pages is an attempt to pierce the veil with which the
celebrity of his achievements has enshrouded him. His
own choice, undoubtedly, would have been to remain
unknown, but as fame has been forced upon him, it is well
to connect it as nearly as we may with the reality of his
labours and of his aspirations.
An endeavour to show that he was not chiefly a philan-
thropist does not involve any denial of the value and
success of his philanthropic labours. He was born in the
sixteenth century, and by a combination of inspiration
and experience he arrived at conclusions which are re-
garded as discoveries in the twentieth. He dealt almost
single-handed with problems of destitution involving
many thousands of lives, and devised remedies for some
* " Pascal," by Viscount St. Cyres, p. 266.
v
288989
vi INTRODUCTION
of the diseases of social life which are still in use. Of the
difficulties that harass and discourage the benevolent
there were very few that did not come under his eye, for
the whole field of social service lay open before him. He
realized and met the need for the teaching and tending
of the young, the nursing of the sick, the aiding of the
prisoner, and passed on to the more difficult enterprises
that concern the fallen and the wastrel. In his old age a
grateful nation hailed him as " Father of his Country,"
and in the ungodly Paris of the present day his effigy may
still be seen presiding at the corner of those streets where
the poor will find assistance for their wants.
His undertakings were in almost every instance crowned
with the most astonishing success ; but if they had all
been failures, his life would still be worthy of record. To
himself external success came to be merely an unimportant
incident. He loved his fellow-men, and planned and
laboured for them untiringly; but he did not claim to
know what was best for their welfare, and he showed no
anxiety as to the results of what he did. The self -devoted
philanthropist or the eager social reformer of the present
day may claim him as a comrade, but it is not with them
that he has community of thought; the later years of
his life — though they were passed in the midst of sensa-
tional events and pressing responsibilities that made
demands on almost every hour — were dominated by the
habit of prayer to a degree that lifted them into super-
natural regions. In fact, if we would trace the real life
of M. Vincent, we must be prepared to revise both the
standard of value that is ordinarily applied to human
existence and the accepted division betwixt the real and
the unreal; we shall not need to discount his reputation
for charity, but we shall find that the full meaning of his
charity is the " ascent of the ladder of love M of which Ruys-
broeck writes, and that his labours were a fragmentary
expression of something much greater than themselves.
It is essential, moreover, to remember the importance
INTRODUCTION vii
of his priesthood. He held the Catholic faith simply and
sincerely, and he was a priest. From this it follows that
external events, however sensational, did not affect him
so deeply as the processes of his own interior development,
and his vast undertakings were never so engrossing as to
distract him from his life-long endeavour after self-puri-
fication. M Ruinez en moi Seigneur tout ce qui vous y
deplait." Those words — on his lips in his extreme old age
— represent the aspiration of his later years. To over-
look, even momentarily, the spiritual bias of all his actions
is to fail in comprehension of their purport ; to remember
his charitable achievements and to forget the hours of
prayer in which they germinated is to miss the real
interest of his life. It is, after all, only a colourless
semblance of M. Vincent that is familiar to pilgrims on
the broad highway of social service. He may have
power to inspire new endeavour and to deepen perse-
verance in those who have only partial knowledge of him,
and it is certain that his name is revered by many who
have no understanding of his true purposes; but if we
would find the real Vincent de Paul we must seek him
on the steeps of Carmel, it is there only that we shall
hear even an echo of his message.
Vincent de Paul had no advantages of fortune. He was
the son of a peasant proprietor in the South ; and though
an attempt* has been made to prove that he was of noble
descent, and that his repeated references to his humble
origin merely show his humility, the case for the advo-
cates of aristocracy remains, to say the least, not proven.
There are, indeed, many incidents in his long career that
support his own assertions. He was born when the con-
flict between Henry of Navarre and the Guises was raging,
and through the distracted period preceding the accession
of that gallant monarch to the throne of France was
calmly pursuing his studies at Dax, at Toulouse, and at
* See " Recherches sur la Famille de S. Vincent de Paul." Oscar
Poli, 1879.
viii INTRODUCTION
Saragossa. In all probability, the horrors enacted in
Paris and Touraine reached him only as a distant rumour,
and stirred him neither in experience nor in imagination;
in after-years he makes no reference to them. During
the twelve years of reconstruction, extending from 1598
to 1610, the course of his destiny had no connection with
the history of his country. He was the bearer of some
message from Rome to Henri IV. in 1608, but we have
no knowledge of the nature of this business, nor had it
any notable effect on the fortunes of the messenger.
Then and for yet another decade the life of Vincent de
Paul was hidden; other men had time to rise to eminence,
to win a place in history, and pass out of the world, while
he was still serving his apprenticeship. The confusion
that prevailed during the minority and youth of
Louis XIII. touched him as little as did the miseries of
the Valois rule; he had lived nearly half a century before
he had part in th e national life, and yet before his death
he had rendered more effectual service to his countrymen
than any Frenchman of that epoch.
A remarkable feature of his transition from insignifi-
cance to an important place in social and political life is
that his ascent was not self-chosen; it was an unavoidable
consequence of an aim in another direction. The reason
of his settling in Paris was the foundation of the Congre-
gation of Priests of the Mission, of which he was the
original Superior, and the object of that foundation was
completely spiritual. A few priests gathered together to
journey into isolated country villages and preach Christ
to the working people; they were given a house in Paris
for their headquarters, and endowed with a small income
for their support. In their journeyings they gathered
knowledge of the lives of the people outward and inward,
and of the immensity of their need. They could not have
embarked on their original enterprise if they had not
possessed enormous faith; and to their faith in God it
was necessary that they should add a certain confidence
INTRODUCTION ix
in their fellow-men. Their Mission work could hardly
have been sustained without an assurance that no sinner
has gone so far as to be hopeless.
M. Vincent's confidence in the virtue latent in human
nature gave him a power of another kind. Seeing wealth
on the one hand and destitution on the other, he assumed
that the selfishness of the rich was merely the result of
ignorance, and that they would welcome a summons to
give of their superfluity. It is difficult at the present
time to realize that such a theory could possibly be true,
but when M. Vincent came to Paris the divisions of class
were so profound that the distresses of the one were out-
side the limit of ordinary consideration for the other.
Undoubtedly he was able to become a link between the
two. He had the wisdom to demand personal service as
well as money from those who were able to give, and the
instinct of sympathy, once stirred, spread rapidly. We
hear of " Madame la Princesse," mother of the great
Conde, insisting on carrying a bowl of soup with her own
hands to a needy invalid in a garret, and coming home
with her clothes caked with the mud of the streets; and,
despite an element of absurdity and exaggeration, there
is plentiful evidence of an awakening to the conception
of charity that brings all classes into community of love
and labour. The awakening found its first expression in
simple things and under normal conditions. In town
and country Confraternities were started for the assistance
of the sick and unfortunate; the idea of organizations for
relief became familiar, and in the years of distress to
which France presently doomed herself there was oppor-
tunity to discover the worth of M. Vincent's regulations.
It was by the widening of the great circle of charity he
had devised that M. Vincent came into touch with Anne
of Austria, first as Queen Consort, and afterwards in the
days of her misused power as Queen Regent. There
were no outward experiences in the whole life of M. Vin-
cent so painful as those which he owed to his connection
b
x INTRODUCTION
with the Court, but, though even a passing association
betwixt him and Mazarin is unseemly, the taint of the
Court did not affect him; he was as much the simple
Mission Priest at the Palais Royal as at S. Lazare. It
was the strain of the devote in Anne of Austria which
accounts for his summons thither, but that strain did not
prevent her from being a type of the voluptuary. She
desired comfort for her own soul, and she desired physical
comforts for those that needed them; but these desires
had no weight against the ruling passions of her existence
after she became Regent. Only, in moments of spiritual
uneasiness, it seems to have been a source of consolation
to her to reflect that in affairs concerning the Church she
had asked the advice of M. Vincent, and that occasionally
she had taken it.
To M. Vincent the contact with the life of the Court
involved by giving advice to the Queen was a source of
endless misery. He was a witness of the whole deplorable
struggle of the Fronde; it is likely that he understood the
sins and weaknesses on all the contending sides which
were responsible for it, and assuredly he had fuller know-
ledge than anyone else of the appalling suffering it brought
to the thousands who had no desire or comprehension of
revolt. The years of the Fronde rebellion were hard ones
in which to maintain the vision of universal charity ; M.
Vincent was seventy before the Fronde began, yet it was
in those years — when all the natural leaders of the people
were righting each for his own hand — that he was given
power to proclaim the real meaning of charity; for he
had the simplicity that strips obligation bare. It was
through no fault of their own that the peasantry were dying
of starvation during the civil wars, and to a proportion of
them it was possible to supply food if money were forth-
coming. But the numbers to be fed were enormous, and
the sums needed of corresponding immensity. The dis-
asters that meant actual death to the poor meant lessened
incomes and consequent discomfort to the rich, and the
INTRODUCTION xi
civil dissensions in progress were of a ind to rouse all
that was worst in human nature. It was an unpropitious
moment for an appeal to the instinct of generosity, but
to M. Vincent the necessity of giving was so obvious that
response was a foregone conclusion. A follower of Christ
must sacrifice vanity to save the lives of fellow-Christians.
If a woman had jewels that were her own to give, she
could not retain them when their price would give food to
those dying for lack of it. It must be remembered that
there was no complication in the position ; it was ex-
tremely simple. The soldiery wrought havoc in the
provinces; houses were burnt, farms destroyed, cattle
driven away. There was literally nothing to eat, and no
means of obtaining clothes. But the people could be
gathered in the towns; food could be prepared in vast
quantities and at the smallest possible cost, and supplied
to all who were destitute. The distribution of relief was
organized by M. Vincent; it was under the close super-
vision of persons appointed by him and under obedience
to him; it was he who made known the intensity of the
need for funds. Probably the power of his personality
had much to do with opening hearts and purse-strings,
so that the stream of beneficence was kept in flood until
the time of agony had passed. For more than twenty
years it had been possible to watch M. Vincent in all his
doings; he had had enemies and slanderers, and had
shrunk from no criticism, and he was known as a righteous
man. Therein lay his power. He was not afraid to pro-
claim the real consequence of Catholic belief, for he ac-
cepted it himself, and he could not admit that there was
any alternative. The man or woman who would not sacri-
fice personal desires was repudiating membership with
Christ. To those who came under his influence — and
they were many — it was this simplicity in his demand
that made it irresistible, and as a result the lives of the
poor were saved by the bounty of the rich.
It was just that the miracles of generosity of which
xii INTRODUCTION
France was witness in her hour of trial should reflect glory
on M. Vincent; he was acclaimed as the Father of all who
suffered, and when peace came, and there was leisure to
see what he had accomplished, all Paris rang with ap-
plause. But, in his view, the work which stirred his
fellows to enthusiasm was the least of the tasks that God
had given him. The same power that moved the rich to
prodigies of liberality he had used in other fields, and its
hidden work was incomparably greater in real importance
than all the organizations of relief for the victims of civil
war and famine which was attracting the world's acclama-
tion. It seems that the true vocation of M. Vincent was
as little recognized by his contemporaries as it is at the
present day, but if he had evaded it, he would have failed
to accomplish those philanthropic feats that are the
obvious sources of his fame. As has been pointed out
already, the root of his power was his complete sincerity*
He was given vision for the misery and degradation of his
countrymen, and his life was thenceforward consecrated
to the endeavour to help them. But he was a priest; the
treasures offered by the Church to him were priceless,
and the bodily needs of the poor had far less importance
in his eyes than their spiritual desolation. Through every
quarter of France, almost without exception, the people
were as sheep having no shepherd. There were no vacant
benefices, it is true, and in time of peace an authorized
person would administer the rite of baptism, of marriage,
and of burial, according to the ordinances of the Church,
and would also exact payment for such service. The
Church had representatives everywhere, and almost
everywhere an ignorance more dangerous than that of
the heathen was left unremedied. "It is the priests
living as most of them live to-day who are the greatest
enemies of the Church of God " — that was M. Vincent's
verdict after years of wide experience.
To raise the priesthood from its degradation came to
be his chief desire. He began by an attempt to do some
INTRODUCTION xiii
of the work that had been left undone, to proclaim the
Church's message to Christians who had never heard it.
" I have only one sermon," he said in the early days of
his preaching, " and that is on the fear of God "; but he
soon realized that he and his fellow-labourers could only
touch the fringe of the work that needed doing. It was
not sufficient to awaken sleeping souls; there must be
provision for their future sustenance and encouragement,
and that provision could be made only by those who
lived amongst them, by the cure who was in truth re-
sponsible for the progress of his flock. When this know-
ledge dawned on M. Vincent he came at once face to face
with an enterprise whose difficulty far exceeded that of the
most baffling problem of relief. He had the highest
ideal of the sanctity of priesthood, and believed himself
to be altogether unworthy of its privileges, and he was
forced to regard in detail the practices common to the
priests of that period. In his eyes, the one hope for his
countrymen lay in the revival of the true spirit of sacer-
dotalism, but only an actual and living faith that with
God all things are possible could have given him courage
for his attempt to cause such a revival. As his life unfolds
itself we obtain increasing knowledge of the vast scope
of his vocation as a spiritual reformer, but it was a point
of infinite importance to the fruitfulness of his labours
that the handful of fellow-workers who had settled with
him at his first establishment in Paris were of the type to
inspire imitation. Year by year their numbers increased,
until the Congregation of the Mission was known, not only
in every part of France, but far beyond her frontiers. And it
was the part of the Congregation of the Mission to train and
teach the teachers of the poor as well as the poor themselves,
and to show by their own lives that the idea of sacerdotal
holiness was not impossible of realization. As they laboured
with that intent, other fields opened before them; but
M. Vincent cautioned them that their original objects
must never become secondary. Under a rule of poverty
xiv INTRODUCTION
and humility, their lives were always to be devoted to
the service of the poor and the sanctifying of the priest-
hood.
It is in the foundation of the Congregation of Mission
Priests that we find the real centre of M. Vincent's life-
work. It was in and through them that his influence was
most deeply felt in his own day, but it is characteristic
that that which was most intimate in connection with
him should be most hidden; his Sons of S. Lazare were
nearest to his heart, but in our knowledge of his relations
with them we may penetrate only a little way. That
which we know, however, in its revelation of strength, of
courage, and of insight, is immeasurable in its value, and
the reserve which guards the closest records of his life
from publicity is in accord with the spirit of personal
reticence that ruled him while he lived.
On the other hand, his intercourse with the other great
Company which bears his name has been generously laid
open, and M. Vincent, as he stands among the Sisters of
Charity, teaching, consoling, and reproving, becomes so
vivid and human a personality that it is hard to realize
how great is the lapse of years which divides us from him.
The Sisters of S. Vincent de Paul came into being to
supply a need felt, on the one hand, by the generous upper
class whose method of giving it was difficult to regulate,
and on the other by the Mission Priests whose spiritual
labours were hampered by the constant claim to minister
to bodily necessities. We shall find that the Mission
Priests, individually and collectively, reached heights of
self-devotion and heroism where they may hardly be sur-
passed; but the Sons of M. Vincent, if they were true in
their vocation, had the constant spur of the sense of their
priesthood, and their sacrifice of self deepened and renewed
the realization of their privilege. If we turn from them
to regard M. Vincent's Sisters of Charity, the difference
between the privilege of the one order and the deprivation
of the other is notable.
INTRODUCTION xv
The Company of Sisters of Charity — which was even
more humble and more indefinite in its beginning than
that of the Priests of the Mission — was formed of persons
belonging to the working class. A Sister of gentle birth
was the exception in their early period. They performed
the duties of parish nurse and Mission woman; when the
hospitals in provincial towns had fallen into disorder,
they were sent to reform them, and afterwards in many
instances were established as the permanent staff for
nursing and supervision. As charitable institutions of
various kinds grew up in Paris, their services were con-
tinually demanded to secure good government. In time
of war they were called upon to face the horrors of mili-
tary hospitals ; in time of famine or of plague the organiza-
tion of relief and the struggle against death was carried
on under their leadership. It was a lawless and unsettled
period, and a Sister of Charity braved many dangers
besides those of infection. The work required of her was
incessant and often was so much beyond physical capacity
that many a Sister seems to have died from sheer exhaus-
tion. She was vowed to an extreme practice of poverty.
If any chance gave her an interval of leisure, she was
exhorted to employ it in working for her own maintenance.
The obedience required of her was of the most searching
kind. Although her duty took her into the streets and
gave her intercourse both with rich and poor, she had no
freedom and no right of independent action even in her
own most personal and spiritual concerns. And yet she
was not a Religious, and was often reminded that she
must not claim the privilege of the religious life. Her
obedience was due, not only to her recognized Superiors,
but to all and sundry of the benevolent ladies who supplied
funds for the assistance of the poor (and many of them
were difficult to please). If she was in attendance on the
sick, it was her duty to carry out the orders of the doctors
in every detail; if she was attached to a parish, she was
to follow the directions of the cure. And a Sister of
xvi INTRODUCTION
Charity whose aptitude for her duties made her so friendly
with the people that she identified herself with the little
circle of the hospital or the parish was immediately re-
moved elsewhere. If, having sacrificed herself, she looked
for human solace, her sacrifice was regarded as of none
effect. " I tell you," said M. Vincent to them, not once
only, but many times, u that you will never be true
Sisters of Charity until you have sifted all your motives,
have rooted up every evil habit, and stamped out every
personal desire." Nevertheless, by the free acknowledg-
ment of M. Vincent himself, there were very many true
Sisters of Charity.
It is well to consider this Company of women — a large
proportion of them unable to read, almost all lacking in
any sort of culture — banding themselves together for the
service of God and of their neighbour, accepting every
sort of physical hardship as part of a daily routine, and,
when occasion offered, vying with each other in eagerness
to accept posts that involved the acutest danger to life.
There was no promise, nor even any possibility, of reward.
They did not retire out of sight and sound of the world's
allurements; they escaped no outward difficulty or toil,
and, even to the most imaginative, it must have been hard
to invest their rough and arduous conditions with any
halo of the picturesque. But the Company of Sisters of
Charity grew very rapidly, and the vitality which has
preserved it to the present day was evident while its
original members were still living. These facts, regarded
dispassionately, present a problem, and its solution bears
close relation to the comprehension of M. Vincent's life.
The teacher and first Superior of the Sisters of Charity
was Louise de Marillac, known as Mile. Le Gras. The
nucleus of them gathered beneath her roof; she vowed
herself to their service long before they were bound to-
gether by a common vow, and she watched over their
interests, both spiritual and temporal, with scrupulous
and unremitting care. But, though she was possessed of
INTRODUCTION xvii
remarkable capacity for government and organization, she
referred every decision to M. Vincent, and it was at her
suggestion that in 1634 ne gave the &®t of his "Con-
ferences'' to the Sisters assembled in the Church of S.
Lazare. Thenceforward, until within a few weeks of his
death, more than twenty-five years later, the " Confer-
ences " were continued, and not only do they bring him as
a person nearer to us than any other record, but they con-
vey the homely persuasiveness of his method, so that its
charm seems to be still alike. We may picture him stand-
ing in the midst of the rows of grey-gowned Sisters, clearing
his mind as he regards them from all the crowded interests
and anxieties of his own difficult life, and gathering all his
knowledge of their aims, their sorrows, and their tempta-
tions. It was his habit to give notice of his subject and to
elicit the ideas of the Sisters before he conveyed his own ;
by this means he got into touch with them, and formed
an estimate of their limitations. The " Conferences "
were friendly gatherings. The Sisters would sometimes
volunteer observations; occasionally they seem to have
interrupted. They were given an opportunity of revealing
difficulty or distress, and very often they made use of it.
There is nothing rigid or formal in the proceedings — M.
Vincent is as a father among his children. Nevertheless,
it is in this familiar intercourse that we learn the meaning
of the spirit of austerity as M. Vincent understood it ; it
is here that we grasp what was involved in the vocation
of Mission Priest or Sister of the Poor according to M. Vin-
cent's vision, and simultaneously we may discover the
secret of attraction in that undeviating routine of self-
repression. M. Vincent does not vary in his standpoint in
all the course of the " Conferences " (though a quarter of
a century separates the first from the last) ; there is always
a naked reality in his representation of the claim on the
Christian which he will not drape or shelter. As for the
great lady, it was a matter of obligation that she should
not cling to her jewels while her neighbour died for lack
xviii INTRODUCTION
of bread, so for the man or woman who had entered on
the special service of Christ there could be no reservations.
We find in him a severity which is only deepened by his
sympathetic understanding of the weakness of his
listeners. He has the courage to refuse to humour them;
he shows them their temptations one by one, depicting
each with graphic touches; he declares to them the
motives that have caused their sin, and will palliate
nothing. In his hands life is stripped bare of every small
indulgence, not only in the domain of external enjoyment,
but in the hidden world where self-love snatches delight
even from the practices devised for its own undoing.
There could be nothing simpler than the form of these
discourses, yet they sum up all that is tragic in the life of
penitence :
" Quoi ! dira quel qu'une, toujours se mortifier ?"
" Out, toujours !"
M. Vincent knew that that question must occur to the
minds of many of those who heard him, and his answer is
always unflinching. That undoubtedly is the reason of
his power; yet, though he was not afraid to accept and to
insist on the full consequence of a real belief in Christ and
in His teaching, he can — having so insisted — show the joy
that underlies the hardness. " Remember that mortifica-
tion is not so bitter as it seems, and holds more of comfort
than of pain for those who practise it for the love of God.
Yes, there is no greater delight than that of a soul that is
really mortified. You ask how that can be. Ah ! my
Daughters, this comes to pass when privation is not a
thing of itself, but is united with the desire to please God.
When it is the expression of love for Him, God so touches
the soul as to fill it with happiness far greater than that
which it renounced. Thus renunciation ceases to be
difficult. In truth> what joy can be so great as the
thought that we have done something that pleases God ?
There is a sense of happiness in this which nothing equals.'*
The Sisters, as they listened, knew that they had the
INTRODUCTION xix
opportunity of practising; instead of the grumbling and
bickering that often soiled their service, they might raise
their daily toil and hardship, and test the truth of M. Vin-
cent's assurances. They must have known that he was
speaking from experience, and, as he stood among them,
the great force of his conviction infected them. They
went back to their diverse tasks and responsibilities, to
dangerous journeys, to new undertakings of infinite diffi-
culty, but they took with them the sense that their renun-
ciation— if it was complete — was their privilege. A ten-
derness that would have softened their conditions and
have given them relaxation could not have kept them
steadfast. u The spiritual life," says Pere Grou, " is of
the nature of a bargain." In that truth we find the ex-
planation of the Sisters of Charity. It was the complete-
ness of self-offering that brought recompense: " a sense of
happiness that nothing equals."
M. Vincent did not hesitate to spur them on towards
endeavour which may seem beyond the limit of human
capacity. " Hold yourselves always in the presence of
God," he said to them, " and remember that that which
will always preserve and sustain you as a Sister of Charity
is to keep God always as witness of your thoughts and
actions, and to do everything for love of Him."
As we come to more detailed knowledge of all that they
accomplished and endured, we realize that these " pauvres
filles des champs " (as their Founder loved to call them)
required the supernatural atmosphere in which he strove
to place them. They rendered practical service to the
poor, and that was the nominal reason of their being ; but
if their outlook had been limited to the practical, they
could not have continued. To Vincent de Paul that fact
was so obvious as to need no assertion, but, looking back
towards him, it is worth remembering that the great
foundation which still does honour to his name was due
to his position as a man of prayer. His compassion for the
poor — great as it was — was not a force sufficient to gene-
xx INTRODUCTION
rate and support a movement so vast and so permanent
in its importance as the institution of the first uncloistered
nuns. " The thought of this was never mine; this is the
work of God; man has no part in it." This was his own
constant protestation regarding his own supposed suc-
cesses.
M. Vincent lived to be eighty-five, and he passed nearly
forty years in Paris. He came in contact with many
celebrated personages, and the course of his later life is in
touch with the developments of history, so that we cannot
trace his career without linking it to the politics of his
period. But though we must follow him into the Palais
Royal and on his journeys to Saint Germain in obedience
to the call of duty — although the cause of charity drew him
to one and another of the great houses in the Luxembourg
and Marais Quarters, in all of which he was welcomed and
revered — yet it is not enough to recognize his public life
or to catalogue his achievements. He cannot live for us
again unless we can win entrance to the circle of those
who were not content to revere, but attempted also to
share with him. Among the Mission Priests and Sisters
of Charity in their labour and suffering he does to some
degree reveal himself; for them his fifty years' apprentice-
ship bears fruit, and he attempts to impart what he him-
self has learnt. He gave them no golden rules that would
lessen the difficulty of prayer; he did not show them how
they might dispense with any of the toil of the spiritual life ;
nor, in practical matters, has he any simple theory for
the relief or prevention of destitution. From his know-
ledge and vast experience there is very little that could
be gathered for a handbook on any subject, and he never
wrote anything for publication. Much has been recorded
of him, however. A great collection of his letters has
recently been issued. His utterances, as set down by his
listeners, have been carefully compared and guarded. The
voluminous biography which was compiled by Louis
Abelli, his personal friend> from the contributions of those
INTRODUCTION xxi
who shared his daily life, was published only four years
after his death, and seventy years before he was canonized.
It will be seen, then, that there is no lack of material for
an attempt to find him as he was to those who knew him.
And in the end, when all available authorities have been
studied and the great mass of information falls into some
sort of shape, there emerges one idea, overmastering all
details, definite, infinitely impressive : here is a man
who has learnt humility. His charge to his Sons and
Daughters as they listen for his teaching, or kneel to re-
ceive his blessing, is constantly repeated, and varies but
little in its form.
" As for us, we are of no account; we are ignorant and
sinful, and we must remain hidden as being of no use in
ourselves, and unworthy of a thought."
That was the effect of all the praise he heard on the lips
of rich and poor, of all the acknowledged success of his
enormous labour, and in him it was no simulated virtue;
his self-abasement is consistent and unfailing. If proof
were needed that all his wisdom was learnt in those hours
that he spent upon his knees, we should find it in his
humility. The man who had achieved as he did, and
allowed himself the thought that his achievement was due
to his own brains and energy, could not continue humble.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION ------ v
PART I
VINCENT DE PAUL AND THE WORLD
CHAPTER
I. THE YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP - 3
II. IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI - - 22
III. M. VINCENT AND THE PRIESTHOOD - - "45
IV. THE ORDERING OF CHARITY - - - -67
V. RENAUDOT, THE FRIEND OF THE POOR - "91
VI. M. VINCENT'S FELLOW-LABOURERS - IO4
VII. THE QUEEN REGENT AND THE COUNCIL OF CONSCIENCE 120
VIII. THE FRONDE REBELLION - - - - 1 38
IX. M. VINCENT AND THE PEOPLE - l6o
X. CARDINAL DE RETZ ----- 181
PART II
THE COMPANIONS OF VINCENT DE PAUL
I. MLLE. LE GRAS ------ 207
II. THE RULE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY - - 230
III. M. VINCENT AND HIS DAUGHTERS - 249
IV. THE LADIES OF CHARITY - - - - 26l
V. THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS - - - 281
VI. M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS - - - - 304
VII. THE VOCATION OF A MISSION PRIEST - - - 328
VIII. THE FOREIGN MISSIONS - - - - 349
IX. S. LAZARE AND PORT ROYAL - - - - 367
X. THE LAST DAYS ----- 389
APPENDICES
NOTES ------- 409
LIST OF AUTHORITIES - - - - - 4I3
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE - - - - "415
INDEX - - - - - - - - 417
XX1U
PART I
VINCENT DE PAUL AND THE WORLD
VINCENT DE PAUL
CHAPTER I
THE YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP
The parents of Vincent de Paul were natives of the South.
His father, Jean de Paul, owned a very small property
called Ranquines, in the parish of Pouy, near Dax, and
married Bertrande de Moras in 1572. Vincent, their
third child, was born April 24, 1576. It is clear that from
his early childhood he was required to work, but his father
was thrifty, and the family enjoyed a certain prosperity.
Jean de Paul seems to have been in the position of a small
farmer; besides his house and the land surrounding it, he
owned cattle and sheep, and it was as shepherd to his
father's flocks that Vincent was initiated in the meaning
of work and duty.
Afterwards he would have liked to forget the humble
surroundings of his childhood. We know by his own
testimony that when he was a student in the College at
Dax, and received a visit from his father, he was ashamed
to acknowledge him before his schoolfellows. It was a
period when good birth was an enormous advantage, and
a peasant origin a heavy handicap to any advancement,
therefore the temptation is an obvious one; but the
memory of this weakness remained with M. Vincent, and
he never wearied of reminding those who treated him
with reverence in later years that he was a peasant, and
the son of a peasant.
Tradition says that he was generous in giving before
his right to give was well established. In touching on the
3
4 VINCENT DE PAUL
childhood of a Saint, it is wisest to leave detail to tradition,
and in the case of Vincent there are no authentic incidents
to mark the first decade of his long record. At twelve
years old his father took him to Dax, to the Convent of
the Franciscans, that he might be educated. This fact sug-
gests that he had shown intellectual and spiritual capacity
beyond that of his brothers, and that his family destined
him for the priesthood. But in this there was nothing re-
markable; many a country priest was of peasant origin,
and the lot of such persons was not an exalted one. The
country folk, indeed, were given but poor provision for
their spiritual needs in those latter years of the sixteenth
century, and the parish priest who really attempted to
represent his Master would have to take a line that
differed sharply from that pursued by his fellows. But
it was not required of Vincent deliberately to choose his
way of life; his progress — begun under such peaceful
auspices — was curiously chequered, and it needed no effort
of his to make his course distinct from that of others who
had sprung from similar conditions. Circumstances im-
posed upon him the test of violent experience; it was in
his use of it that he gave proof of his qualities.
Moderate good fortune attended his student years. He
worked hard under the guidance of the monks, was
selected as tutor to the two sons of M. de Commet, a legal
magnate in the town of Dax, and for four or five years
retained this post, which enabled him to continue his
studies without expense to his parents. In December,
1596, he received the tonsure in the church at Bidache,
near Bayonne. His further education was pursued first
at the College of Saragossa, and afterwards at Toulouse.
To provide for these new expenses his father sold a yoke
of oxen, but — though this may have meant considerable
sacrifice — the provision was insufficient for a college
course of four years, and Vincent was obliged to find more
pupils. He seems to have had several boys under his
care during a part of his sojourn at Toulouse, and the
THE YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP 5
death of his father in 1599 must have forced him to support
himself; but the records of this period are indistinct.
On September 23, 1600, he was ordained priest in the
chapel of Saint Julien (now known as Chateau TEveque)
by Francois de Bourdeille, Bishop of Perigueux. There
is nothing to give any real indication of his character
before this date. Apparently he was an eager student,
and, although it was his habit to refer contemptuously to
his own mental equipment, he did, in fact, acquire a
deep fund of learning, but of his inner life we have no
knowledge. At the moment of his ordination we get the
first suggestion of the Vincent de Paul of the future ; the
awe of his own privilege so far possessed him then, that
his first Mass was said in the solitude of the little moun-
tain chapel of Our Lady of Grace at Buzet, where he had
no witnesses but a priest and a server. He was only on
the threshold of life, and subsequent events betray that
he was very far from his own future standard of what a
priest should be ; but even then he was untouched by the
lax custom of the times, and his Offering at the Altar
was the chief event of every day. Almost fifty years
later he wrote this message for two of his Company at their
ordination :* " Tell them, if you please, that I have prayed,
and shall still pray, that Our Lord may give them an ever
new desire for the Sacrifice, and grace that they may never
offer It merely from habit"
For the next four years there are no data from which
to construct an idea of M. Vincent except the fact that
he remained as a student at Toulouse, and took a degree
there in 1604. He was then twenty-eight, and unless he
pictured for himself a career very different from that of
the ordinary country priest, he would hardly have devoted
so long a time to the acquisition of learning. It is likely
that he had already given tokens of unusual capacity, and
was fired with ambition; but in after-life he never gave a
hint of the nature of his early dreams. We know only
* April 25, 1648. "Vincent de Paul et le Sacerdoce."
6 VINCENT DE PAUL
that at the close of his University life there lay before him
a possible prospect, which, although shrouded in mystery,
indicates that worldly advancement was not without
attractions for the young priest of the Bearnais. For
some reason Vincent was summoned to Bordeaux, and his
visit there involved him in expenses that were far beyond
his means. This fact is established, but the explanation
is not forthcoming. One of his friends, M. de Saint-
Martin, declared that there was question of a bishopric,
and of an interview with the Due d'Epernon as a pre-
liminary thereto. If this be true, it would throw an inter-
esting light on the change that time and circumstances
wrought in Vincent's point of view, but there is no evi-
dence to corroborate it; it can stand only among prob-
abilities.
Something there was, however, that tempted him to
overstep the boundary of prudence, and he returned to
Toulouse no richer in preferment, and burdened with
debts beyond his power to pay. An unexpected solution
of his difficulties was presented at this moment by a
legacy from an old woman who had profited by his minis-
trations. The position is best recorded in his own words :
" You shall now be informed," he wrote to M. de
Commet,* H of my discovery, when I returned from Bor-
deaux, of a will made in my favour by a good old woman
of Toulouse. My inheritance consisted of some furniture
and of a little property that had been assigned for 300 or
400 crowns owed by a bad debtor. I went thither to effect
the sale of it, by the advice of my friends and by reason
of my pressing need of money to discharge the debts I
have already incurred, also for the great expense in which
I shall be involved if I want to bring about the affair
which I don't dare name. Having arrived there, I found
the rascal had left the neighbourhood by reason of a
warrant the old lady had out against him on account of
these same debts, and I was told that he was doing very
* "Lettres," vol. i., No. 1, July, 1607.
THE YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP 7
well at Marseilles, and had plenty of money. Whereupon
my attorney advised, and the condition of affairs de-
manded, that I should journey to Marseilles, and by
arresting him possess myself of 200 or 300 crowns. Not
having the money to do this, I sold the horse I had hired
at Toulouse, intending to pay on my return. My ill luck
in being so delayed is as great as my dishonour at allowing
my affairs to be so tangled. It would not have happened
like this if God had given me the success in my venture
which it seemed to promise. I went to Marseilles accord-
ingly, caught my man, had him imprisoned, and after-
wards released for 300 crowns, which he was then glad
enough to pay."
This letter is of extraordinary interest if we consider it
in connection with the Vincent de Paul of S. Lazare.
Sixteen years of smooth development and mild success
lay behind him when he wrote it ; his mind was full of his
own interests and of " the affair which I don't dare name ■'
— perhaps the possible bishopric — and in pursuit of these
things he ceases to be scrupulous either in kindness or in
honesty. It may be that even at that moment he was
better fitted for ecclesiastical preferment than most of
those who obtained it, but France lost nothing because
the force of a real destiny swept Vincent de Paul out of
reach of the goal of his ambition.
On his way back from Marseilles he was persuaded to
journey as far as Narbonne by sea. For the description
of the sequel we still have his own words, addressed to
M. de Commet:*
" The wind would have been sufficiently favourable to
bring us to Narbonne, fifty leagues, the same day, if God
had not permitted three Turkish sloops coasting the Gulf
of Lyons to give chase to us, and make so sharp an attack
upon us that two or three of us were killed and the rest
all wounded, even I myself receiving an arrow wound
which has left its reminder for all my life. We were thus
* "Lettres," vol. i., Nos. 1 and 2.
8 VINCENT DE PAUL
constrained to yield to these pickpockets, who were fiercer
than tigers, and, as a first expression of their rage, hewed
our pilot in a thousand pieces to avenge the loss of one of
theirs. After seven or eight days they set sail for Bar-
bary, the robbers' den of the Grand Turk, where, when we
had arrived, we were put up for sale with a certificate of
our capture on a Spanish vessel, because otherwise we
should have been freed by the Consul who is kept there
by the King to safeguard French trading.
" We were paraded through the streets of Tunis, where
we were brought for sale, and, after having gone round
the town five or six times with chains on our necks, we
were brought back to the ship that we might eat, and so
show the merchants that we had received no mortal injury.
* I was sold to a fisherman, and by him to an aged
alchemist, a man of great gentleness and humility. This
last told me he had devoted fifty years to a search for the
Philosopher's Stone. My duty was to keep up the heat
of ten or twelve furnaces, in which office, thank God, I
found more pleasure than pain. My master had great
love for me, and liked to discourse of alchemy and still
more of his creed, towards which he did his best to draw
me, with the promise of wealth and all the secrets of his
learning. God maintained my faith in the deliverance
which was to be an answer to my continual prayers to
Him and the Virgin Mary (to whose intercession I am
confident my deliverance is due).
" I was with this old man from September, 1605, to the
following August, when he was summoned to work for
the Sultan — in vain, for he died of regret on the way.
He left me to his nephew, who sold me very soon after his
uncle's death, on account of a rumour that M. de Breve,
the King's Ambassador, was coming — armed with powers
from the Grand Turk — to emancipate Christian slaves. I
was bought by a renegade from Nice in Savoy, and taken
by him to his dwelling-place among the mountains in a
part of the country that is very hot and arid. One of his
THE YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP 9
three wives, a 'Greek, who was a Christian, although a
schismatic, was highly gifted, and displayed a great liking
for me, as eventually, and to a greater degree, did another
of them, who was herself Turkish, but who, by the mercy
of God, became the instrument for reclaiming her husband
from his apostasy, for bringing him back within the pale
of the Church, and delivering me from slavery. Her
curiosity as to our manner of life brought her daily to the
fields where I worked, and in the end she required me to
sing the praises of my God. The thought of the Quomodo
cantabimus in terra aliena of the children of Israel, captive
in Babylon, made me, with tears in my eyes, begin the
psalm, Super flumina Babilonis, and afterwards the Salve
Regina and other things, in which she took so much de-
light that it was amazing. In the evening she did not
fail to say to her husband that he had made a mistake in
deserting his religion, which she believed to be a very
good one by reason of the account of our God which I
had given her, and the praises of Him which I had sung
in her hearing. In hearing these she said she had felt
such pure delight that she could not believe that the
paradise of her fathers, and that to which she one day
aspired, would be so glorious, or afford her anything to
equal this sensation. This new representation of Ba-
laam's ass so won over her husband that the following
day he said he was only waiting for an opportunity to fly to
France, and that in a short time he would go such lengths
as would be to the glory of God. This short time was ten
months, during which he offered me only vain hopes, but
at the end we took flight in a little skiff, and arrived on
the 28th of June at Aigues-Mortes, and soon afterwards
went to Avignon, where Monseigneur the Vice-Legate gave
public readmission to the renegade, with a tear in his eye
and a sob in his throat, in the Church of Saint Pierre, to
the glory of God and the edification of all beholders.
" Monseigneur kept us both with him till he could take
us to Rome, whither he went as soon as the successor to
io VINCENT DE PAUL
his three-year office arrived. He had promised to gain
entrance for the penitent into the convent of the Fate ben
fratelli* where he made his vows, and he promised to find
a good living for me. His reason for liking and making
much of me was chiefly because of certain secrets of
alchemy which I had taught him, and for which he had
been vainly seeking all his life."
The rest of the letter is occupied with business directions
in connection with the papers of his ordination, and the
old distress touching his creditors (among whom one may
hope the horse-dealer of Toulouse was numbered), for
whose satisfaction he intended to devote a sum of about
ioo crowns given him in proof of gratitude by his former
master. The story of these two years thus briefly given
claims an effort on the part of the reader for realization
of the suffering, mental and physical, which it represents.
In it there is no record of sensation, no self-conscious ex-
citement in the memory of past endurance; there is little,
indeed, that is not a statement of fact, but in the fact
there lies a clue to the real character of the writer, which
no deliberate attempt at self-expression would have
afforded us. The venerable priest whose influence was
a terror to Mazarin — who had power to work miracles in
the social order of Paris — is one with the Christian slave
labouring for his pagan owner without apparent hope of
deliverance. In both the mainspring of thought was a
reliance on the will of God, so simple and unswerving that
no detail of life escaped its influence; and that early
discipline — so terrible in possibility that the modern
imagination fails in grasp of it — secured for Vincent the
foundation of certainty in the Divine protection and
guidance which made his great heights of after-achieve-
ment possible to him.
But his deliverance from captivity, wonderful though
it was, did not bring with it deliverance from the diffi-
culties in which his mysterious rashness, three years
* Name commonly given to the Fraternity of S. John the Divine.
THE YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP n
earlier, had involved him. In spite of the generosity of
his repentant master, his letters show that the burden of
debt weighs on him to the exclusion of other considera-
tions. His ruling desire is " quelque honeste benefice en
France,1' and he gives an ingenuous description of the
means by which he enlisted the interest of Pierre Montorio
the Vice-Legate. Apparently, the dignitaries of the Church
then resident in Rome had a taste for curious arts, and the
lore that Vincent acquired from the Turkish sage, who
had been for many months his owner, was eagerly sought
after. Among the thousand other things which he had
learnt, and which his patron was eager to acquire, there
was a trick whereby a skull appeared to speak ; and so
great was the value set upon these secrets, that he was
discouraged in holding communication with anyone else,
Monseigneur being anxious to keep a monopoly of them
and have the satisfaction of producing them for the
edification of His Holiness and the Cardinals.
Possibly, while he imparted one form of knowledge,
Vincent was imbibing another. He who originated the
Congregation of Mission Priests may have found a part of
his incentive in the memory of his experience in Rome. A
desire for reform can spring only from knowledge of an
evil, and the thought of the good living, the cure of souls,
that was to be his as reward for tricks learnt from a
heathen wiseacre must have given him some insight into
the levity with which spiritual responsibilities were in-
curred. It is evident that his own ruling desire at that
time was the honourable satisfaction of his creditors, and
he could not have fulfilled his vocation of ministry with a
clear conscience until his debts within his family, as well
as outside it, were paid to the last farthing. The diffi-
culties in obtaining certificates of his ordination combined
with Montorio's pleasure in his society to delay prefer-
ment, and finally, when he left Rome (early in the year
1609), it was as envoy on secret business from the Pope,
Paul IV., to Henri IV. Such a mission would, to many
12 VINCENT DE PAUL
a young clerk of high ability, have been the first step in
a swift upward progress, but Vincent's gifts needed the
leaven of worldly wisdom, and he failed to secure any of
Fortune's prizes for himself. In fact, his stay in Rome
was fruitless in visible benefit; he brought away nothing
except experience and such learning as he had acquired in
a year of study with the Dominicans at their College of
La Sapienza. The thread of natural advancement in the
diocese where he had been ordained was snapped by his
period of slavery, and his peasant origin left him unsup-
ported by family interest. Therefore, at the time of his
return to France, he being then thirty-three years old,
his prospects were gloomy ; no opportunity to employ his
fine abilities presented itself, and every hope that arose
ended in disappointment.
Vincent seems to have accepted discouragement with
the same valiant spirit that had supported him in cap-
tivity. Already, it may be, the instinct that made him
pre-eminently the servant of the poor was alive within
his breast, and, eschewing the cultivation of interest
where he might have been secure of finding it in the house-
hold of Cardinal or Bishop, he gave his services to the
Hospital of Charity* in Paris, and so began his ministry
to the sick and suffering. The task he set himself was
one to be fulfilled in obscurity, and its interruption must
have been completely unexpected. The manner of it
brings us into contact with that juxtaposition of extremes
which characterized the Paris of the seventeenth century.
It is an indisputable fact that if deliberately we seek
acquaintance with the Saints of those dark days, we cannot
fail to come in contact with the sinners. Thus at the
opening of the real life of Vincent de Paul stands Mar-
guerite de Valois.
Even a superficial survey of the years prior to the birth
of Vincent, and those during which he was passing
through his childhood and his studious youth, reveals the
* Built by Marie de Medici.
THE YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP 13
peril that threatened the existence of France as a separate
kingdom ; and the historian, gravely considering the swift
yet vigorous growth of the power of Spain, and realizing
the probable effect of Spanish despotism and Spanish
bigotry on the history of European nations, is moved to
exalt the King of France, who as a soldier and a states-
man was the deliverer of his country, into a hero with an
unquestionable claim upon the homage of mankind. The
lover of romance with equal justice applauds the gallant
figure of the Gascon Prince as he stands contrasted with
the degenerate and miserable Valois brothers. Henri IV.
is a popular hero, and it would be an invidious task (even
if its fulfilment were a possibility) to depose him from his
pedestal. He, the first of the Bourbon Kings, was born
beneath a lucky star; to those great capacities as General
and as diplomatist which he possessed was added the
magic of personal charm that bewitches a man's contem-
poraries into a conspiracy to deceive posterity. In fact,
Henri IV. did not rise a hair's breadth above the corrup-
tion of his age. The poisoned deformity of social life
under the dominion of the Queen-Mother might be found
reflected in the Huguenot Court at Nerac, and the son of
the Puritan Jeanne d'Albret was not behind the sons of
Catherine de Medici in supplying material for the most
lurid pages of the Court chroniclers.
Marguerite de Valois becomes less isolated in ill-repute
if we realize how far Henri was impregnated by the pre-
vailing corruption, but in that year (1610) when M. Vincent
crossed her path it is difficult to conceive of any link
between them strong enough to make their connection
more than momentary. It was only five years since
Marguerite had been permitted to return to Paris, and,
although old age was very near, her way of life even then
did not tend to edification.* M. Vincent could not have
failed to have some knowledge of it, and it is not without
* A description of the life of Queen Marguerite in Paris is given
by Lestoile (" Journal de Henri IV.").
i4 VINCENT DE PAUL
an impulse towards regret that we find him enrolled
among the number of her dependents. No doubt Queen
Margot desired to salve her conscience with charity, and
preferred that the charity itself should be administered in
the best possible way. But it was a proof of singular
discrimination, either in herself or her advisers, when
she singled out the humble peasant priest to be her
almoner.
Almsgiving, perhaps, was but a doubtful virtue in one
whose debts were always far beyond possibility of pay-
ment, but this was by no means the only time in bis life
when M. Vincent's tolerance was strained by the doings of
exalted personages, and he was far more likely to serve
his generation by the practice of an exaggerated charity
than by any violence of criticism. To realize his position
towards Queen Margot, and afterwards towards Anne of
Austria, we must remember the extraordinary force of
Royalty. These ladies were on a different plane from the
human beings for whose moral condition he might be
more or less responsible, and the fact that the divorced
Queen had never deviated from her profession of the
Faith gave her an additional claim upon him. He might
justly have been moved by pity for her also. She was a
lesson in the vanity of earthly glories. Her father, three
of her brothers, and her husband had been Kings of
France, yet the kingdom can hardly have contained a
more unhappy woman than she was in those days. For
her the sharpest bitterness of living lay in the fact that
she had been so often within sight and hearing of the
happiness which she perpetually missed. She was, in the
common phrase, her own worst enemy, but she was what
her birth, her surroundings, and her consciousness of her
own brilliant wit and beauty made her. She had been
bred to bigotry, to that abhorrence of the heretic which
was in part superstitious and in part political. She was
forced into a marriage that outraged principle and inclina-
tion, and found, when it was once accomplished, that she
THE YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP 15
had been utilized as the bait to lure her brother's enemies
into the trap prepared.
The wedding of the Valois Princess and the Huguenot
King, and the crime of S. Bartholomew's Eve, were
matters of very long ago history, when Queen Margot and
Vincent de Paul came into contact. At this time she had
recently left the Hotel de Sens (the residence allotted to
her by the King when she was allowed to return to Paris),
and was established south of the river near the Hospital
of Charity. It was in a hospital ward that one of her
household noticed M. Vincent, and by reason of his good
offices to the sick that he was appointed to be her almoner.
Probably, he did not have very much personal intercourse
with his patroness, but he was eminently fitted for the
administration of charity, and must surely have earned
her respect ; and she — though she was a divorced Queen
and of sensational reputation — was also by birth a Prin-
cess of France. It is not unlikely that the magic touch
of her royalty did clear away some of the shadows that
hid M. Vincent from the notice of those who could help
him to use his great capacities. The employment she
gave him was the first he had received since his captivity,
and for all who can read the stained pages of Marguerite's
romance with commiseration there is a certain charm in
the thought that she, as she neared the last of her many
years of thriftless self-pleasing, was allowed to be of service
to Vincent de Paul at the time when he was friendless
and unknown.
There is no record of the details of M. Vincent's life in
Paris at that time; contemporary letters and memoirs
make no reference to him, and his later celebrity failed
to awake any reminiscence of him in former days. He
was an unnoticed unit in a city where there were many
things and people worthy to attract notice, and he did
not aspire to be anything else. The one letter written
at this period* that remains to us may be taken as a real
* "Lettres," vol. i., No. 3, February, 1610.
16 VINCENT DE PAUL
indication of his desires for the future. It is addressed
to his mother :
" My delight in the assurance which M. de S. Martin
gives me of your good health is as great as is my distress
at finding myself unable to offer the service that I owe
you. The necessity of retrieving my fortunes, which have
been so disastrously injured, keeps me in this city, and I
have great confidence that by the grace of God my efforts
may be blessed, and I may soon be given the possibility
of retirement, that I may spend the rest of my days near
you. I long to know all the news of home, and if my
brothers and sisters and the rest of my friends and rela-
tions are well. I wish that my brother would make a
student of one of my nephews, but my misfortunes and
inability to be of any service to the family may, very
naturally, quench his desire to do so. He must remember,
however, that present distress may lead to future pros-
perity. I pray constantly to God for your health and
for the welfare of all at home."
It is quite clear that the Vincent de Paul of those days
aspired only to do his duty in peaceful retirement, and
assist his relatives as soon as he had opportunity in
return for the sacrifices that had been made for him ; the
ideals which were so clear to him in after-years were not
then outlined in his mind. We do not know by whose
interest he obtained the Abbey of S. Leonard des Chaulnes,
in the Diocese of Saintes, but he held it from 1610 to
1616, and probably derived his living from it during that
period; for the dependents of Queen Margot were ill-
advised if they relied on any salary from her. At first
he had a lodging in the Rue des Saints Peres, that he
might be near to the Hospital of Charity, the scene of his
ministrations. He shared it for a time with a lawyer
from Bordeaux who had come to Paris on business, and,
in consequence of this temporary fellowship, found himself
involved in a very painful experience. He had remained
in bed on account of illness while his companion went out.
THE YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP 17
The doctor came to see him, and brought a boy to carry
his medicines. While the doctor was engaged with the
patient the boy extracted from an unlocked drawer a
considerable sum of money which had been left there by
the lawyer. When the loss was discovered, M. Vincent
was held responsible. There was no proof of his guilt, it
is true, and after one denial he refused to make any pro-
testations of his innocence; but the impoverished lawyer,
moved by a natural desire to vent his indignation, told
the story wherever he could find a listener, and sought
out especially those who had any acquaintance with the
supposed culprit. Vincent de Paul was insignificant of
origin, and had achieved nothing that could bring him
reputation. Dishonour of this kind might well have
proved a serious drawback to his career, and his calmness
in the face of it is remarkable. " God knew the truth,"
he said ; but it was only after six years that the confession
of the real culprit gave proof of his innocence.
When thirty years later the " Conferences " at S. Lazare
gave opportunity for illustrating a principle by a real
experience, he told the story in the third person. " If
the offence of which we are accused has not been com-
mitted," he said, " let us remember that we have com-
mitted many others, on account of which we ought to
welcome disgrace and accept it without justifying our-
selves, and without having the smallest resentment against
our accusers. Let us acknowledge, my brothers, that in
ourselves we have capacity for all evil, and let us leave to
God the charge of declaring the secrets of guilt and of
innocence."*
The significance of the adventure lies in the opportunity
it gave to M. Vincent to put in practice in the earliest
years of maturity the principles which were the root of
his teaching in later life. Complete resignation, complete
humility — these may be necessary qualities in the fol-
* " Vie du Venerable Serviteur de Dieu, Vincent de Paul,"
par. L. Abelli.
2
18 VINCENT DE PAUL
lowers of Christ, but it is rarely that the Christian can
produce them to meet the exigency of an unexpected test.
In the insignificant priest who neither trembled nor cried
out under the whip of calumny we find in embryo the
character that afterwards had force to brave the enmity of
Mazarin and to withstand the Queen when royal wishes
clashed with principle.
But in those days there was no foreshadowing of an
important future. M. Vincent probably knew that his
family had formed great hopes from the promise of his
studious youth, and that they must regard him as a
failure; and he was not buoyed up by any secret reliance
on his own capacities.
We do not know what the circumstances were which
brought him into contact with de Berulle, the future
Cardinal and founder of the Congregation of the Oratory
in France. Their first meeting was an important event
to M. Vincent, for de Berulle became his guide in affairs
both spiritual and temporal, but with characteristic re-
serve he makes no reference to it. In November, i6n»
de Berulle and four other priests took up their abode at
the Hotel de Petit Bourbon in the Faubourg S. Jacques,
and two years later the Papal Bull sanctioning the estab-
lishment of the Oratorians in France was given by Paul V.
For a time Vincent de Paul lived with de Berulle and the
new-born Congregation, and his adoption of a standard of
rigorous austerity in personal life may be traced to this
experience. Moreover, his connection with the Oratorians
was important to his career in its external aspect ; for one
of them, Pere Bourgoing, resigned the cure of Clichy when
he joined de Berulle, and the vacant post was given to
M. Vincent. The two years which he spent at Clichy as
a parish priest may seem to be merely an insignificant
episode in his history ; they have no direct bearing on any
event that came after, but it is likely that the memory
of them influenced him enormously in the days — then
so very far ahead — when he was Superior at S. Lazare.
THE YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP 19
His knowledge of the needs of a poor parish might
have been supplied by observation, but he could only
gauge the possibility of satisfying them by actual experi-
ence. That the true status of the parish priests should be
recognized appeared to him a point of infinite importance,
it was on them that the spiritual welfare of their flock
depended, and he was strenuous in imposing on them a
very rigorous standard. Such an endeavour is apt to
arouse the wrath of the easy-going, and if his own conduct
during his time at Clichy had been open to criticism, his
exhortations to others would not have passed unchal-
lenged. But, in fact, the deliberate devotion and con-
secration of his life to the service of his Master had begun.
He pictured a parish priest as one who was at once the
leader and the servant of his flock, who held every capa-
city that God had given him — of energy, of physical
strength, of mental endowment — as a trust for the use of
those he served. His own love of his people took form in
the spending of himself for them. He studied their
material interests and laboured for their spiritual awaken-
ing. He won their friendship, he taught them, he prayed
for them. The ideal that he set up seems to have been
fulfilled. It should, however, be remembered that he held
his charge for a period of many months, but not of many
years, and therefore was not able to prove that an isolated
individual can go on maintaining so strict a personal rule
and so rigorous an attack upon the devil.
Outwardly, as well as in the hidden life of the little
town, the sojourn of M. Vincent at Clichy was memorable.
He found the church in ruins, and those who desired to
worship there could not supply the funds to save its down-
fall. As it stands now, it is the memorial of his presence,
and also of his amazing power in awakening the rich to a
sense of their responsibility. Many years later that power
was in perpetual use in a time of exceptional misery, and
to it was due the preservation of unnumbered lives; but
at that more peaceful moment it was the needs of the
20 VINCENT DE PAUL
poor folk of Clichy for opportunity of prayer and worship
that the rich citizens of Paris were required to supply. It
is possible that at that time money was supplied to him
more freely because he had been almoner to Queen
Margot, but it was by reason of a personality that uncon-
sciously claimed implicit trust that then and always his
demands were acceded to when those of others were fruit-
less.
If it is possible to judge of a situation so long passed by
modern standards, we should pronounce that M. Vincent
had found at Clichy a niche for which he was admirably
fitted, that from the little town his influence and his ex-
ample might go out far and wide, until at length, by some
direct development of events, a larger sphere for which his
parochial life had been a preparation opened before him.
But the life of M. Vincent cannot be adapted to any human
design. Superficially there is no coherence between its
stages ; in fact, the design was so far beyond human con-
ception that conventional systems of cause and effect
were bound to prove at fault.
As he laboured at the work for which he was so pre-
eminently suited, another door was thrown open, and he
was invited to pass through it into a field of endeavour
that had had no attractions for him hitherto, and of which
he had not the smallest experience. Monseigneur Philippe
de Gondi, Comte de Joigny and General of the Galleys,
needed a tutor for his children. The need was represented
to de Berulle. He was director to Vincent, he had be-
friended him in Paris and sent him to Clichy, there was
much outward reason for the strength of his influence; but
its true root was the spirit of submission which M. Vincent
had fostered in himself, till it grew into real humility.
The proffered post had great external advantages. Many
a priest stepped from the humble footing of chaplain or
tutor in rich and noble houses to high ecclesiastical prefer-
ment, but Vincent was without this species of ambition.
He loved the people and his work among them. To leave
THE YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP 21
Clichy for a more arduous task might have been matter
for regret, but to leave it for conditions of ease and of soft
living was the sharpest test of self-surrender imaginable,
It was this that was required of him. To those who
looked on, the experiment must have seemed a strange
one. Even to the most far-seeing there was no clue to its
eventual result.
CHAPTER II
IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI
When Vincent de Paul joined the household of Philippe
de Gondi, General of the Galleys, he was, ostensibly,
quite as far from the discovery of any clear purpose in the
use of life as when he depended on the patronage of Mon-
torio in Rome. He was nearing his fortieth year, and
there was not as yet the least indication that his develop-
ment was of any importance to his fellow-countrymen.
Except in the pulpit at Clichy — which was then in the
country and out of touch with Paris — he does not seem
to have delivered a sermon ; he was certainly as unknown
in learned circles as he was among the frivolous, and his
link with Royalty in the person of Queen Margot was not
conspicuous enough to lend him dignity in the eyes of
ordinary persons. De Berulle, who was only one year
senior to Vincent de Paul, held a position among French
ecclesiastics which was second only to that of Francois de
Sales, and for twelve years he had been eminent. The
contrast between the two contemporaries is remarkable,
and assuredly at the moment that M. Vincent abandoned
Clichy and returned to Paris (with his personal possessions
on a hand-barrow, as Abelli tells us) he appeared a most
unlikely subj ect for celebrity. Even then there lay before
him eight years of uncertainty, but these contained the
events that were to give him his directions for the future.
The experiences that lay behind him when he accepted his
post as tutor to the children of de Gondi, had been educa-
tional and fruitful of result for himself rather than for
others. As we consider that long apprenticeship, we find
22
IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI 23
reflection of it in certain words of his spoken forty years
after it ended in a " Conference " with the Sisters of
Charity.*
" Let us see/' he said to them, " why God allows those
who serve Him to suffer. My daughters, we are each like
a block of stone which is to be transformed into a statue.
What must the sculptor do to carry out his design ?
First of all he must take the hammer, and chip off all that
he does not need. For this purpose he strikes the stone
so violently that if you were watching him you would say
he intended to break it to pieces. Then, when he has got
rid of the rougher parts, he takes a smaller hammer, and
afterwards a chisel, to begin the face with all the features.
When that has taken form, he uses other and finer tools
to bring it to that perfection which he has intended for his
statue. Do you see, my daughters, God treats us just in
this way. Look at any poor Sister of Charity, any poor
Mission priest, when God drew them out of the corruption
of the world they were still as rough and shapeless as un-
hewn stone. Nevertheless, it was from them He intended
to form something beautiful, and so He took His hammer
in His hand and struck great blows upon them."
Disappointment, captivity, and failure had done their
work on M: Vincent; he was ready to be treated by the
lighter tools; the time had come for the features of the
statue to disclose themselves beneath the hand of God;
but it is clear that he was not aware that he had found at
last the opportunity for his true development. At Clichy
his work was congenial, and it was only under obedience
that he left it; he was out of his element among magnifi-
cent and luxurious surroundings, and he does not seem to
have possessed special aptitude for teaching and training
children. The two boys placed under his care were de-
scribed by their aunt, Mme. de Meilleraye, as " vrais
demons," and there is not the faintest evidence that Vin-
cent de Paul obtained any influence over either of them.
* No. 65, July, 1656.
24 VINCENT DE PAUL
The younger did not survive his boyhood, and the only
record of him that remains is his expressed desire to be a
Cardinal, that he might take precedence of his brother ;
the eldest was a brave soldier, but he was not distinguished
for piety. There was also Jean Francois de Gondi, the
most celebrated representative of his race, but he was not
educated with , his brothers. He was very much the
youngest, and could not have shared with them ; therefore
it would be unjust to attribute the training of the future
Cardinal de Retz to M. Vincent. The result of a strong
influence in childhood, nevertheless, is often felt through
life, and the notorious Cardinal was not a credit to the
associations of his infancy.
It becomes evident, then, that Vincent de Paul did not
find his vocation in his office as tutor ; he must have seen
at once that he was not suited to his new position, and,
though we have no reminiscences of that period, he would
hardly have been human if he had not felt the chill of deep
discouragement. Yet perhaps the understanding of voca-
tion which was afterwards so strong in him was then
taking hold upon his mind. For him vocation — a term
that is constantly made synonymous with conscious apti-
tude and strong desire — meant the fulfilment of God's will,
and as life advanced he tried to be true to it in complete
simplicity. At that moment of upheaval it may have
become real to him for the first time, and his feet at
length were set on the right path. For he was not merely
submissive; his acceptance was so complete that with
every successive step his will seems to grow a little nearer
to the Divine Will. It should be recognized that it was
not by the spur of a fine and pure intention for the future,
deliberately conceived, that he kept himself steadfast to
his vocation, but by the continual withholding of inten-
tion, by a most faithful yielding of himself.
His direct connection with de Gondi lasted for a period
of ten years. It was in November, 1613, that M. Vincent
left his labours at Clichy, and was established in his new
/
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IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI 25
capacity at the Chateau de Montmirail. His patron was
one of those aristocrats of France over whom history
casts a glamour hard to define and impossible to dispel.
The Courts of Henri IV. and of his successors were un-
speakably licentious. We know that coarseness of speech
matched depravity of morals, and that the reality would
inspire abhorrence, if by bridging the centuries it were
possible faithfully to reconstruct it. But an impression
of brilliancy is quite independent of all sober and reason-
able conviction. Neither Gui Patin nor Tallemant des
Reaux, nor any of the other witty scribblers who have
perpetuated the ugliness that surrounded them, can rid us
of the half-envious admiration we accord to their glittering
contemporaries. In spite of everything, the French aris-
tocrat of that period remains superb, and that quality of
superbness, of complete and unassailable self-assurance,
has its own historic value. It was not only for posterity
that they were impressive ; in the eyes of the class below
them — that bourgeois class which was so much better en-
dowed intellectually — they were possessors of a magic with
which no power that a man may acquire for himself can
possibly compete.
And here it is well to prepare ourselves for the unques-
tionable fact that to accomplish those great and far-
reaching schemes which were to revolutionize the social
life of Paris Vincent de Paul contrived to use the magic
of the noble. Possibly it was easier for him to use it by
reason of the enormous width of the gulf that separated
his natural position from that of his clients, and dispelled
any misgiving on their part lest he should presume upon
their bridging of it. The bourgeois priest, however
spiritual, had more prejudices to overcome before he could
attain to satisfactory terms with the aristocrat than had
the peasant. But Vincent's relations with other men
were too unusual to be affected deeply by considerations
of convention or of class. Even in those early times he
was learning to be humble, and the exterior manifestation
26 VINCENT DE PAUL
of his humility gave him from the first a special security
of foothold. He went to the Chateau de Montmirail in
the position of a dependent, but he so ordered his ways
that it would have been impossible to cast a slight upon
him. He would never appear among the great folk of the
Chateau unless specially sent for; when his young charges
were not in need of his services, " il demeurait dans cette
grande Maison comme dans une Chartreuse," says a con-
temporary. He laid down as a maxim for his own
guidance that among the many perils and temptations
surrounding him, his sole protection was the choice of
silence and retirement whenever choice was possible, and
his room became to him as the cell of the Religious. This
choice of retirement, however, was in no wise slothful ; he
was on the lookout for every duty that had relation to
his office. His own position towards the many grades of
servants in that huge establishment might suggest great
possibilities of difficulty, but he was so self-forgetful that
he ignored any such trammels, and he applied himself to
the task of winning their confidence. When a great fes-
tival approached, he tried to assemble them and remind
them of their privilege as Catholics and all that it entailed.
Such an enterprise demanded courage. Under the most
Catholic monarchs who ruled France while Vincent lived
it did not, perhaps, present such insurmountable obstacles
as would a similar effort with a Reformed Church in the
twentieth century; but lackeys in all places and at all
times have a tendency to scoff, and the peasant priest
gave signal proof of entire self-abnegation when, in the
new world on which he had just entered, he made this
venture.
Here, again, it is quite clear that he was not consciously
training himself for the future that did, in fact, lie before
him. There was an after period of uncertainty and doubt
which shows conclusively that he had no prevision of his
career. And such experiences of his as seem to have been
a preparation for his destined work were so utilized by
IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI 27
reason of the extraordinary spiritual energy that was
developing within him. To such a development no cir-
cumstances are a hindrance, but the Chateau de Mont-
mirail did not offer any notable advantages.
Philippe Emmanuel de Gondi was not distinguished for
special saintliness of life. He held the office of General of
the Galleys, and from boyhood stood high in Court favour.
It is true that his uncle, his brother, and afterwards his
son, were Cardinals, and the episcopal throne in Paris was
held in succession by four members of the de Gondi
family; but, without detailed study of Church history in
France, we may understand that preferment was possible
without corresponding spiritual endowment, and, in fact,
the de Gondi furnished examples of just such abuses in
the Church as Vincent de Paul in later years made it his
mission to attack. But if Philippe de Gondi was not the
ideal patron for a man of Vincent's calibre, his wife* soon
showed herself capable of appreciating the privilege de
Berulle had obtained for her and her children. She was
still a young woman, but she had reached the fourteenth
year of her wedded life, and, in spite of the temptations
of her high position and great personal beauty, she seems
to have kept herself unspotted by the world. She was
by nature a dreamer, one of those beings whose purity of
soul is admitted and admired, but who hold themselves
so far aloof from ordinary experience that as a rule they
accomplish nothing. The records of fact which concern
her are quite sufficiently explicit to show the transforma-
tion which was wrought — not suddenly, but in process of
years — by Vincent de Paul. Some months after his
arrival at the Chateau de Montmirail, the birth of her
youngest and most celebrated son, Jean Francois, took
place, and it was during her time of physical weakness
that she discovered the degree to which Vincent was
worthy of her confidence. The natural outcome of her
* Francoise Marguerite de Silly, daughter of Antoine, Comte de
la Rochepot.
28 VINCENT DE PAUL
growing trust was her choice of him as spiritual director,
but she seems to have had sufficient discrimination to fore-
see that he would not welcome such a suggestion, and to
obtain his compliance she resorted to the intervention of
de Berulle. Vincent was thus coerced by a double claim
of obedience, and he accepted the charge; but it is evident
that he was never entirely reconciled to the delicate posi-
tion it entailed.
The fashion of professing sanctity did not come into
vogue till some sixty years later, when Mme. de Maintenon
reigned at Versailles, and the doings of the Ladies of
S. Cyr furnished inexhaustible topics for the chatterers;
but even in those early days of Marie de Medici's regency,
as in the wild times of the Valois, the instinct of the devote
(which is never eradicated in the French nature) declared
itself in unexpected quarters. And at all times the devote
is difficult to deal with. When — as in the Chateau de
Montmirail — we find a high-born lady, possessing every
advantage that this world can give, living in comparative
seclusion, with one of her dependents as confessor, we
recognize elements of danger. Vincent's own develop-
ment had hardly reached the point that would teach him
to be moderate with others. Already he ruled himself by
a law of sacrifice before which ordinary human nature
quails, and in his new penitent he had just the material
out of which might have been made one of those astound-
ing examples of conversion in high places with which
Fenelon and Bossuet and the Directors of Port Royal
edified their contemporaries. We may search in vain,
however, for anything sensational in the record of his
dealing with Mme. de Gondi. The charge which he
accepted in fear and trembling he held in a spirit of com-
plete personal humility.
It is much to be deplored that there is no record of this
period of M. Vincent's life. His failure with the children
was counterbalanced by success with their parents, but
the gradual process by which that success was attained is
IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI 29
hidden; his references to the years at Montmirail are very
rare, and all they convey is the impression that he avoided
any sort of self-assertion, and regarded the authority of
his employers as of Divine appointment. Abelli gives us
one incident, nevertheless, which proves his courage. It
was the age of duelling; Richelieu was not yet in power,
and no attempt to check the savage practice had been
made. De Gondi was a notable duellist, but the influence
of his wife or his years of association with M. Vincent had
drawn him into practices of piety. With the childlike
inconsistency that distinguished the Catholics of that
period, he went to Mass on a morning when he proposed
to fight. M. Vincent celebrated. When the other wor-
shippers had gone, M. de Gondi remained — praying, per-
haps, for success in the forthcoming contest. It was then
that the duty of the priest became so clear to M. Vincent
that his own natural diffidence was put to flight.
M Monsieur," he said, approaching the kneeling figure,
u will you let me say something — with all humility. I
have heard on good authority that you intend to fight a
duel, but I tell you as a message from my Saviour, Whom
you have just beheld, Whom you have been adoring, that
unless you will renounce your intention His judgment will
fall on you and on your family.' '
He was the dependent admonishing the seigneur, the
priest interfering in affairs of which he had no knowledge.
In either aspect the attempt was dangerous, for the
Church had grown loose in discipline, and the great nobles
were imperious. Yet he succeeded. Probably the honour
of M. de Gondi was unassailable, and he approached a
duel in the spirit of the sportsman rather than in that of
the bully, so that for him there was less difficulty in re-
fusing a contest than for many others ; but he would not
have listened to the suggestion of a priest in such a matter
unless a foundation of respect for the priest as an indi-
vidual and for the Church he was representing had been
laid. M. Vincent desired that his life during those years
30 VINCENT DE PAUL
at Montmirail should be hidden, and his desire has been
fulfilled, but we know by his effect on those who were with
him that he must have lived in the practice of personal
holiness.
It was natural that Mme. de Gondi should wish to share
with others the privilege that she valued so highly, but
she had reason to regret her generous instinct. M. Vin-
cent was not fully occupied by his duties to his charges,
for they had much to learn in the department of sport and
swordsmanship, and therefore he had many hours of
leisure. At first he remained in retirement^ but the
march of events forced him into prominence, and the deep
respect with which he was regarded by Mme. de Gondi
increased the difficulty of his position. One incident in
particular that was to have great effect upon his after-
life had immediate influence at this juncture; it is, indeed,
as important to the development of his character as of
his actions, for it seems to have come as the most searching
test of his humility. It was in humility that he found
himself wanting, and in agreement with S. Augustine he
believed that this was the essential virtue of the spiritual
life. The form of his temptation and his violent method
of dealing with it shows us that he had reached a stage
when his regard for the progress of his own soul was para-
mount over every other consideration.
The momentous incident occurred in 1617. He had
accompanied Mme. de Gondi to the Chateau de Folleville
in Picardy, and, while there was summoned to the bed-
side of a peasant in a village on the estate. The sick man
was respected by his neighbours and believed to be a
faithful son of the Church, but when M. Vincent came to
him and he knew that death was near, the bonds by which
for years he had confined his conscience snapped, and the
fear of hell possessed him. Vincent de Paul, in the
ministrations that are part of the ordinary duties of a
parish priest, was awakened to a new understanding of
the possibilities of human nature. This Folleville peasant
IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI 31
had not neglected the Sacraments, but he had misused
them ; he had lied to God and to himself, and the deadly
poison of this constant secret sacrilege had almost
destroyed his soul. The depth of his repentance, how-
ever, spurred him to an act which had results of immense
importance. His shrinking from confession had involved
him in the most fatal form of deceit, but having recognized
his sin, he was not content with the shame of the confes-
sional. He desired that Mme. de Gondi, as representing
his liege lord, might come to him, and to her he made
open acknowledgment of his misdoing. Of the nature
of his original crimes we know nothing, nor is there any
record of his name. Having played his unconscious part
in the development of future events, he died.
Mme. de Gondi and M. Vincent shared this experience,
and it made a vivid impression on them both. It was
not a matter of hearsay ; they had each been personally
concerned, and actual touch with such a spiritual tragedy
as this suggested to the minds of both the possibility of a
great spiritual need for which there was no provision.
The imagination of the devout Catholic shrinks from con-
templating the fate of those who, by making a practice
of untrue confession, deprive themselves of every means
of grace. The idea that thousands of souls might be in
such a plight was brought home to the minds of these two,
to whom the Church's Sacraments were so much more
precious than life itself. It seems that M. Vincent
received a sudden revelation of the spiritual conditions
under which the peasantry of France were living, and
that the course of his life was altered in consequence.
At the moment he took action. On January 25 he
preached a sermon in the church at Folleville, on the
reality and necessity of the Sacrament of penance. While
he meditated on his theme, Mme. de Gondi prayed that
he might be inspired by the Holy Spirit. This was, in
fact, the first of the Mission sermons, and its effect on
those who heard it was so great as to suggest that
32 VINCENT DE PAUL
M. Vincent had found the remedy for a wide-spread
disease. Great schemes for the sanctifying of all the
country folk on her vast and scattered estates filled the
brain of Mme. de GondL Her enthusiasm knew no
bounds, and it would seem that it reached beyond the
schemes themselves, and was fixed on the personality on
which, as she believed, success depended. M. Vincent
found himself the object of an admiration which was no
less intense because completely spiritual.
Simultaneously he was becoming conscious of the call
of his real vocation. It had not taken definite shape; it
may have appeared to him as the stirring of ambition, for
we know absolutely nothing of the progress of his thoughts
at that period, but it is clear that it made a claim on him
which could not be satisfied without action. The action
which he took was sensational. In the July following
his first Mission Sermon, he left his post in the de Gondi
household, and established himself at Chatillon, in the
province of La Bresse. Mme. de Gondi took leave of him
without any suspicion that he would be absent more
than a few days. His excuse — which was a true one —
that his personal affairs called him away deceived her
completely, and he was settled in the parochial work of
his new cure before the truth dawned on her. For two
months she was expecting his return from day to day,
and then in September a letter from her husband — who
was then in Provence — opened her eyes. The best record
of the position is to be found in this letter, and others
succeeding it, which Abelli has preserved :
" I am in despair," wrote M. de Gondi,* " over a letter
which M. Vincent has sent me, and which I enclose in the
hope that you may find a means to avert such a misfortune
as his loss would be to us. I am utterly astonished that
he should have told you nothing of his resolve and that
you had no warning. I beseech you to use any means
to keep him with us, for if the reasons he gives be the real
* Abelli, vol. i., chap. ix.
IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI 33
ones, they do not seem to me worthy of consideration.
There are none of them so important as is my salvation
and that of my children. I know that he will some day
be able to aid us in this, and will help me in those resolu-
tions of which I have often spoken to you, and which I
am now more than ever eager to make. I have not yet
replied to him, and shall wait to do so till I hear from you.
You must decide whether my sister, de Ragny — who is
not far from where he is — would do good by interference.
But I think the best hope is from M. de Berulle. Tell him
that even if M. Vincent has not the gift of teaching
children, that he may have a man under him ; and that in
any case I desire most ardently to get him back under
my roof, that he may live there as he may choose; for,
if he is with me, I myself shall some day live as a
righteous man."
By his eagerness and incoherence, M. de Gondi shows
us what deep importance he attached to M. Vincent's
presence in his home; but to him, in the midst of a busy
and active life, the shock of their sudden loss was not so
overwhelming as to his wife. Of her we are told that
for days she did nothing but weep, and could neither
sleep nor eat. She had accustomed herself to accept
M. Vincent's decisions in the spirit of obedience, but it is
plain that resentment very nearly mastered her. A
confidential letter to an intimate friend discloses her
mind to us :
" I should never have thought it possible," she wrote.
" M. Vincent has shown too great charity towards me to
desert me like this. God be praised, however, I do not
blame him — far from it. I believe he has only acted under
God's special guidance and touched by His grace. But
it is very strange, truly, that he should have gone away.
I confess I can see no reason for it. He knows how
greatly I need his direction and all the business on which
I ought to consult him; the sufferings of soul and body
which have been the result of losing him ; the good which
3
34 VINCENT DE PAUL
I am longing to do in our villages, but which can come to
nothing without his help. In short, I am in a most
pitiable state. You know how indignantly M. le General
has written, and that my children are losing ground daily ;
that all the good he was doing in my household and
among the seven or eight thousand souls on the estate
has come to an end. Yet are not these souls bought by
the Blood of Our Lord as truly as are those in Bresse ?
Are they not equally dear to Him ? I do not know how
M. Vincent regards it, it is true; but to me these things
seem so important that I shall spare no means to get him
back again. He only desires the Glory of God, and I
desire nothing that is against His Holy Will; but I do
beseech Him to give him back to me. I pray the Holy
Mother, and should pray even more vigorously, if my own
personal need was not so intertwined with that of M. le
General, of my children, our household, and our tenants."
The pendulum swings rapidly betwixt the mood of
submission, which was an acquired virtue, and the impe-
rious wrath, which was the natural instinct of one of her
class. Mme. de Gondi shows herself very human in this
outpouring, and it is hard to understand how M. Vincent
reconciled his conscience to a desertion that seems
strangely unfeeling in its method. He had, without ques-
tion, received abundant kindness from his employers;
they had made a visible effort to conform their way of
life to his standards, and the extent of his influence could
not have been hidden even from his own eyes. We
cannot arrive at any explanation with complete certainty,
for we have only outward facts by which to judge his
conduct; but it is possible that M. Vincent reached the
crisis of his life in that year of the first Mission, and that
the stirring of his soul towards his real life-work brought
him to that deep spiritual experience which is termed
Conversion. If this was indeed the case, he was impelled
to his sudden flight by a force that he could not resist ; he
had no choice. The Call of God had come to him to leave
IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI 35
the familiar things among which he had prospered so
notably and to sojourn among strangers, that he might
test the standards of his life. It was imperative that he
should obey, for his sense of vocation was synonymous
with such obedience, and the great enterprise of the
Missions — which he seemed to be evading — may have
been dependent on the complete submission of his will.
Whether this is the true explanation of his action or
not, his use of the years before and after the experiment
at Chatillon seem to prove that his sensational escape
was not the result of a sudden whim or a desire for
novelty. The episode remains mysterious, but, con-
sidered in its practical aspect alone, it has immense im-
portance. It lasted less than six months, but it gave
M. Vincent knowledge of the conditions of a provincial
town which it would have been hard to acquire otherwise.
It brought him into touch with a class of persons who
were new to him, and — as we shall see in connection with
the foundation of the Confraternities of Charity — it was
while he was cure at Chatillon that he received a sugges-
tion from which sprung vast undertakings in the future.
The hope cherished by M. and Mme. de Gondi that
de Berulle's authority would restore M. Vincent to them
was a fallacious one. In fact, de Berulle was the con-
fidante of M. Vincent's intention, and procured for him
the cure that made fulfilment of it possible; and
Chatillon was an admirable field for his energy. There
were many priests attached to his church there, and they
seem to have been lively persons addicted to field sports
and the wearing of lay attire. His conception of the
obligations of priesthood must have come as a surprise
to them; but, if tradition may be trusted, his influence
and example brought them back to duty. At this time
only did M. Vincent win celebrity by effecting some of
those sensational conversions of private individuals,
which suggest Port Royal rather than S. Lazare. He
found the society of a little town frivolous, undisciplined,
36 VINCENT DE PAUL
and silly. He came with all the force of novelty as well
as the fire of conviction, and some of those he touched
were not again what they had been before he came to
them. The popular fashion — against which M. Olier at
S. Sulpice afterwards made war — of attending Mass in
the most extravagant attire, and chattering behind a
fluttering fan during its progress, was prevalent at
Chatillon, but it was one for which M. Vincent had no
tolerance. He tried the experiment of insisting upon
outward seemliness. The power of the priest appeared
almost to have lapsed through the habit of laxity in the
confessional, but the inheritance of the faith, even in the
most frivolous of Catholics, is an incalculable force.
Where reverence for Divine worship was in question,
M. Vincent became severe, and the result of his severity
was a sensational reform, not only in the outward ap-
pearance, but in the private life of the chief ladies of the
town. Philanthropy took the place of amusement, and
some of them seem to have accomplished useful work,
which was continued when the direct personal influence of
M. Vincent had been withdrawn. There was the case,
also, of a certain M. Beyrier, a young man in whose house
M. Vincent hired a lodging. He was so celebrated for
his riotous hospitality that the priest was urged not to
countenance him ; but perhaps the fact that he had been
brought up a Huguenot and had abjured those errors,
even though he did not attain to the full practice of any
other faith, gave him a special claim. M. Vincent re-
mained under his roof in spite of the expostulations of
the well-meaning, and in due course the young men of
the town awoke to the unwelcome knowledge that the
gayest of their playfellows was taking life seriously, and
becoming a devout Catholic, as well as a good and sober
citizen.
And, finally, to this short episode in M. Vincent's career
belongs the romantic story of the Comte de Rougemont
the great seigneur of the district, who had been cele-
IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI 37
brated far and near for his wild life, and was one of the
most notable of duellists. From the lurid and rather
fantastic tradition regarding this gentleman's youth, it
would seem that he had not the least respect for any prin-
ciple of mercy or of charity; as a type he presented as
sharp a contrast to M. Vincent as is conceivable. That
fact in itself may possibly have had an effect on him.
The new parish priest, whose influence was stirring the
town of Chatillon, was animated by aims and instincts
that were altogether outside the experience of that mag-
nificent personage, Balthazar de Rougemont, Baron de
Chandes. Out of curiosity, he joined the congregation
that gathered to hear one of M. Vincent's sermons; still,
it may be, out of curiosity, he sought personal intercourse
with the preacher, and the force of contrast between this
man's life and his own, the promise of magnificent useful-
ness in the one and the certainty of evil effectiveness in
the other, impressed and absorbed him. Little by little
the man of peace conquered the duellist, the estates of
Rougemont were sold — with a recklessness characteristic
of their owner — and the proceeds were given for the
support of works of charity ; the festivities of the Chateau
de Chandes where he made his abode ceased for ever, and
the only guests were the needy. The most severe of the
Hermits of Port Royal could not have outdone him in
rigour of renunciation. It is told of him — and if the story
is inaccurate in detail, it is true in spirit — that when his
conversion had gone far and he had learnt to deprive
himself of all those desires and possessions which had been
his by right, he made the discovery that his sword, the
companion of his adventurous career, was very precious
to him; and thereupon he drew it from its sheath and
struck it against a rock until it fell in fragments. So
great was the sacrifice that afterwards he had no difficulty
in obeying any demand his conscience might make upon
him; for him the joy of life was represented by his sword,
and without it the only way was that Way of the Cross
38 VINCENT DE PAUL
to which it seemed that Christ had summoned him.
M. de Rougemont did not live to old age, but while life
lasted he maintained the practices of asceticism and peni-
tence he had adopted.
Records of this kind are rare in biographies of Vincent
de Paul because it was only at this stage that he had
close connection with the class whose conversion appeals
to the imagination. The poor and ordinary were the
chosen objects of his spiritual energy, and these had no
individual history. In his intercourse with the rich it
was his part to guide those who were already the declared
followers of Christ, rather than to retrieve those who for-
got Him; and in his dealing with the priesthood it is
likely that he was himself responsible for the careful con-
cealment of well-known names.
During these months of labour in new fields he seems
to have shown no sign of compassion for the distress of
Mme. de Gondi ; but his silence did not check her in her
efforts to win him back. She went to Paris and succeeded
in enlisting M. de Berulle in her cause. She devoted all
her thoughts and energies to it, and all her projects of
benefiting her tenants slipped into abeyance. Her state
of mind is represented by the following letter which she
wrote to M. Vincent :
" I told you often of my fear of losing your help, and
it was not a vain fear, because now I have indeed lost it ;
I could not bear the misery of it if it were not for a special
grace of God of which I am unworthy. If it was only for
a time I should not be so unhappy, but when I reflect on
all my need of direction and advice, for dying and for
living, my distress overwhelms me. Do you think either
soul or body will be able to bear this trouble for very
long ? I am not able to seek or to accept any help else-
where, for you know very well that it is only to very few
that I can disclose the needs of my soul. M. de Berulle
has promised me to write to you, and I call on God and on
the Blessed Virgin to restore you to us for the salvation
IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI 39
not only of my family, but of so many others who need
your charity. And once again I beseech you to extend
this charity of yours towards us, for the sake of your
love for Our Lord. I yield myself to His Will, even though
I fear greatly that I shall not be able to continue to do
so. If you still refuse me, I hold you responsible before
God for all the evil that may come to me and for all the
good I fail to do for lack of help. You expose me to the
risk of being often deprived of the Sacraments because
in my great distress there are so few who are able to help
me. You know that M. le General has just the same
desire (with which God has mercifully inspired him). Do
not forego the good that you might do in helping towards
his conversion, for it might at some future time affect so
many others. I know that my own life, being only an
offence before God, there is no reason that it should not
be endangered, but my soul needs preparation for death.
Do you remember my terror in my last illness when I was
in the country ? I am on the verge of even greater
misery, and the dread of it alone does me so much harm
that I fear — unless something counterbalances it — it may
kill me."*
There was no immediate result from this appeal, and it
is extremely likely that it obtained no reply. M. Vincent
held strongly to the view that no soul can depend on
individual direction, that all help of this kind is fallacious
unless it be recognized as derived from God and given
or withheld according to His Will. It was on M. de
Berulle that Mme. de Gondi made an impression. We
have no means of knowing the extent of his interference.
In October M. Vincent began to show signs of wavering.
He had worked hard, and would have been content to
remain working hard in his retreat ; but probably, when
the pressure of distractions that had preyed upon him
was removed, he was able to see his life in truer proportion.
As the weeks drew out and the appeals from those he
* Abelli, vol. i., chap. ix.
40 VINCENT DE PAUL
had left behind grew more and more insistent, some mis-
givings may have been mingled with his relief. He con-
sented to see M. de Fresne, secretary to M. de Gondi, and
at his suggestion he went to Lyons to discuss his position
with the Superior of the Oratory there. The hopes of
Mme. de Gondi may well have risen at the first rumour
that M. Vincent was reconsidering his decision. The
arguments for his return to her and to all the work she
offered him were far more weighty than the claim of
Chatillon on its new cure. But the Superior at Lyons
was prudent and discreet, and by his advice there was
to be further time taken for reflection. As a result of
their interview a letter was despatched informing M. de
Gondi that before the year ended Vincent de Paul was
coming to Paris to take counsel with certain devout
persons there. The reply was prompt :
" I received that which you wrote me from Lyons two
days ago, and I note your resolve to make a journey to
Paris at the end of November. I am greatly rejoiced at
this, hoping to see you then, and that you will grant —
at my entreaty and at the advice of your best friends —
the favour that I ask of you. I say no more, because you
have seen the letter I wrote to my wife; I only ask you
to remember how likely it seems that God wishes that
the reform of the father as well as of the children should
be effected by you."*
For another two months the people of Chatillon had the
benefit of M. Vincent's presence, and then he bade them
farewell and started for Paris, arriving there December 23.
Ostensibly he sought the advice of M. de Berulle, but
the substance of that advice was not doubtful for M. de
Berulle had joined forces with Mme. de Gondi, and
on Christmas Eve Vincent de Paul returned to the
de Gondi household, under a pledge to remain the spiritual
director of its mistress so long as her life lasted.
In fact, M. Vincent's retreat had made him a far more
* Abelli, vol. i., chap. ix.
IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI 41
notable personage than he would have been if he had
accepted the ordinary progress of events. He had been
the theme of endless discussion and correspondence, and
his subsequent position with the employers he had
deserted could not have been that of an ordinary de-
pendent. The step taken to break up his growing reputa-
tion had just the opposite effect ; on his return he found
it more firmly established. But, whether his flight from
Montmirail was, or was not, an error, it must be regarded
as a landmark in the career of M. Vincent. After it
there is no longer any uncertainty in his progress ; he had
definite ends before him, and he went forward steadily
in pursuit of them.
Mme. de Gondi had awaited his aid to put into shape
the shadowy ideas awakened by the incident at Folleville.
She had seen the plan of a Mission spring — almost of
itself — from the actual and intimate experience of an
individual need, and its success had made a deep im-
pression upon her. She was weighed down by a sense
of responsibility towards the large numbers of tenants
on her husband's estates, and she thought she recognized
a Divine summons to provide for their spiritual necessities
by the assistance of M. Vincent. The Folleville sermon
that had so stirred the hearts of the people was to be
the first of a long series; the personal influence which
had done so much to deepen its after effect was to touch
as many as possible of the thousands who were needing
it. There was no shadow of self-glorification in her
scheme. From the haven of her home M. Vincent was
to go forth on his mission of succour to famished souls.
All the material support he needed she and her husband
were to supply, but in the work itself he, and he only,
would be God's agent. Her purpose only grew stronger
during that long autumn of suspense, and when M. Vincent
was at last restored to her, she lost no time in attempting
to fulfil it. She offered to endow — with the sum of
16,000 livres — a band of preachers who would engage to
42 VINCENT DE PAUL
make a complete circuit of her estates in the course of
every five years. Vincent approved the idea; he was
ready to assist, but he considered himself unworthy to
lead, and he recommended that these preachers should
be chosen from some existing community. He approached
Pere Charlet, a Jesuit, in the hope that he would under-
take the work, but sanction could not be obtained from
Rome ; and when he turned to his old friends the Ora-
torians, among whom it seemed certain that exactly the
right persons might be found, he was met by direct and
uncompromising refusal. These and other tentative nego-
tiations with existing bodies of Religious spread over
years without producing any result, and Mme. de Gondi
chafed at the delay. It was obvious to her that Vincent
himself was the fittest person for the post he was inviting
others to fill, and that the discouraging reception that
was accorded him was an acknowledgment of this fact.
In her eyes, indeed, he was the only person able to bring
the idea to the fruition that she pictured, and as she had
at her command just the ecclesiastical influence most
likely to be serviceable, she brought it into play.
The See of Paris had become almost an hereditary
possession of the de Gondi. Jean Francois, who held
it at that time, was the first Archbishop, and to a son
of the Church, as loyal and as humble as was M. Vincent,
his authority would have infinite weight. With him
M. and Mme. de Gondi held conclave, and there and
then their plan took form. A new Congregation was
to be founded, having for headquarters the College des
Bons Enfants, which stood near the Porte S. Victor.
Its members were to be persons who renounced ecclesias-
tical preferment, and devoted their lives to preaching in
the villages. They were to avoid towns of any importance,
and were to be wayfarers defraying the necessary expenses
of travel from a fund held in common. Their selection
was to be made by their Superior.
Mme. de Gondi and the Archbishop then made a joint
IN THE SERVICE OF M. DE GONDI 43
appeal to Vincent to be the first Superior, and his consent
was a foregone conclusion. The scheme was in accord-
ance with his most cherished desires. Clearly it was only
humility that withheld him from volunteering to in-
augurate it. In March, 1624, the Archbishop made
over the College des Bons Enfants to be prepared for its
new uses. Just a year later M. and Mme. de Gondi
executed the Contract of Foundation. The clauses of
this contract embodied the original scheme, and were
simple and uncomplicated. The Founders were sincerely
desirous of providing for the spiritual needs of the poor,
and, departing from the usage of their kind, made no
demand that Masses should be said for their own welfare.
But all the holy zeal with which Madame was animated
did not lessen her need of Vincent's support and actual
presence, and the deed that sets forth the duty, responsi-
bility, and authority vested in the " Sieur de Paul "
provides that he shall, notwithstanding, make his abode
continually and actually in the house of the Founders,
to the end that he may continue to render to them and
to their family the same spiritual guidance as for many
long years they have received.
Since the summer day when he had fled from tempta-
tion, M. Vincent had grown in spiritual capacity. If he
was sincerely anxious that the new Company should fulfil
the purpose of its Foundress, he must have deplored a
provision that condemned him to certain inefficiency;
but he was able, from its earliest beginning, to confide
it and its development to God. And events proved that
it was the Will of God that it should grow, and that it
should grow under his guidance. A new Order will not
prosper under a Superior who is perpetually an absentee,
and Vincent was pledged to remain with Madame for the
rest of her life. She was greatly his junior, so that the
prospect was not promising. But two months after
signing the Contract of Foundation the Foundress was
taken ill, and died in a few days. She had Vincent with
44 VINCENT DE PAUL
her, and her end was peaceful, though her husband was
far away in Provence. When she was laid to rest in the
Carmelite Convent in the Rue Chapon, the Superior of
the new Congregation hastened south to break the news
to M. le General, and through the sadness of that mission
there glowed the welcome certainty that the chain which
bound him to the uncongenial life of these noble persons
was finally broken.
In vain had Mme. de Gondi attempted to command the
future by her Will, and with the force of a voice from the
dead implored Vincent to remain with her husband and
her sons, while with equal fervour she laid a last command
on those nearest to her to " keep him with them, and to
remember and to follow all his directions." There is
extraordinary pathos in this woman's confidence in the
power of the pure soul it had been her lot to encounter,
to shield those whom she loved against all evils that might
beset them; and she is essentially womanly in her dis-
regard for all consideration of proportion when she claims
to monopolize this power in the interest of her own family.
But the attempt was ineffectual. By the free consent of
M. de Gondi, Vincent moved to the College des Bons
Enfants a few weeks after the death of Madame, and so
entered upon the fulfilment of his real vocation. Two
years later the magnificent General of the Galleys aban-
doned all his state and dignity, and was admitted to the
Congregation of the Oratory.
CHAPTER III
M. VINCENT AND THE PRIESTHOOD
Vincent de Paul was now forty-eight years old. He
stood high in the estimation of those who knew him, but
he had earned no great renown; his name was known
to a small circle only. For ten years he had been a
dependent in a rich man's household, and although he
had made for himself an exceptional position, he could
not escape some of the drawbacks attendant on that
state. He was a peasant by birth, he had never held a
post of any importance, and had he died at the end of
fifty years of a devout and rather toilsome existence
there would have been nothing notable to record about
him. But, in fact, that fifty years was his apprenticeship.
In action and in judgment he was deliberate; he had not
been less so in development.
At their end he accepted a divine commission to revive
the faith. He had seen the fields lying ripe for harvest,
and he entered almost alone upon the labour of gathering.
No great and penetrating appeal, such as might arouse
the sluggard heart and conscience, was made from the
pulpit of Notre Dame. No Court influence spread the
knowledge of the need. There was nothing stirring or
eventful to mark an epoch of reform. Vincent went to
the College des Bons Enfants, and his faithful friend,
M. Portail, joined him. It is well that we should have
the description of their inauguration in his own
words.
" We had with us a good priest to whom we gave
30 crowns a year," he told the Company thirty years
45
46 VINCENT DE PAUL
later,* " and we went about all three together from
village to village preaching and holding missions. When
we started we gave the key to a neighbour, and asked
him to go and sleep in the house. Such was our custom
when certain other priests bore witness that the blessing
of God was on our labours by wishing to join us."
The new recruits were du Coudray and de la Salle, and
on September 4, 1626, a formal Act of Association was
drawn up between Vincent de Paul and his three first
companions by which they all pledged themselves to the
service of the poor in the country according to the
Foundation, and to live together as a community; and
the three companions promised obedience to Vincent
de Paul as Superior, and to his successors in that
office, f
A few months later their numbers were doubled, but
there was no excitement about them, no moment when
a crown of volunteers was knocking for admittance at the
great doors of the house in the Rue S. Victor. Their
growth was gradual but it was steady, and in January,
1632, the Company was so far established as to receive
formal recognition from the Pope (Urban VIII .) . Thence-
forward it was to be known as the Congregation of the
Mission.
It was at this early stage in the history of the Congrega-
tion that the Superior was also the leader in the actual
work of country missions. Later, as was inevitable, it
became very difficult for him to leave Paris, and his
responsibilities were too great and too numerous to allow
of a wandering existence. Probably, those early days
were a cherished memory, his references to them in after-
years are frequent. The cause of the poor from the point
of view of spiritual neglect and ignorance was very dear
to him, and he said that when he decided to return to
Paris, after a course of village missions, it seemed to him
as if the gateway of the city ought to fall on him for
* Conference, May 17, 1658. f See Appendix, note 1.
• /. Kilometre
A First Abode of Vincent de Paul.
B Hotel de Petit Bourbon- 2n,,Abode
C. Hotel deGondi 3r<1M>od«
D. College des 5ons Enfanfs.
E House of Madu-<LeGras
F Mother House of Sisters of Charity
G Hopital de Id Chante
H Hotel Dieu
I EnfantsTrouves- temporary
J. Enfants Trouves - established
K . Hopital du Nom de Jesus.
L Hopital 5 Louis.
M. Hopital de laTrimfer
N tfopitaldela Pihe
O Tour des Galenens
P. Bureau d'Adre»e'S'gno»
the Cock
l{.Orafoire
R.Je suites.
5. Carmelites.
T. Hotel de la Reine Marmot
U Hotel d'Aiguillon.
V Hotel de Conde
W. Hotel de Chevreuse
X Hotel de Liancourt.
Y Hotel de Bretonvtlhers
Z. Hotel Rambouillet and
Hotel de Vigean
THE PARIS OF VINCENT DE PAUL
To face page 47.
M. VINCENT AND THE PRIESTHOOD 47
turning away from the innumerable souls whom he left
in need.*
He would have been content to pursue his work on a
humble scale, but his Foundation was destined for a
certain outward greatness. In 1630, two years before
the Papal sanction had been given, there came one day
to the College des Bons Enfants an ecclesiastic of position
and repute — M. Adrien le Bon, Prior of the Augustinian
Order of Chanoines Reguliers, established at S. Lazare.
This gentleman desired a private interview with M.
Vincent, and M. Vincent, being at all times humbly
accessible to those who had need of him, the private
interview took place forthwith. It was memorable in
the history of the Company, although the visitor who
had sought it went away downcast. Long afterwards
the details of it were made known. M. le Bon — like
many another Prior in that period of lax discipline —
had had difficulties with the Community. Possibly some
cross current of new idea set afloat by de Berulle or by
Vincent de Paul had been wafted to him, and his eyes
had opened suddenly to irregularities practised habitually
under shelter of his jurisdiction. Possibly he was pre-
cipitate in acting on the impulse of the new revelation.
It is clear that he found his authority inadequate to
accomplish a reform which he conceived to be necessary.
In his dilemma he went to M. Vincent with a suggestion
(to which the Community must have agreed) that
S. Lazare should in future be the headquarters of the
Mission priests, and that the new-born Company should
join forces with his Augustinian monks. He thought —
with some reason — that the inducements he could offer
for his scheme were, to say the least, worthy of con-
sideration by the head of a small and struggling Order,
but Vincent's refusal was direct and absolute. The time
had come at last when he saw his aim in life clear-cut
and definite, and he would not deviate from the pursuit
* Abelli, vol. ii., chap, i., sect. 3.
48 VINCENT DE PAUL
of it. There might be need of reform among the Augus-
tinian monks of S. Lazare, there was great likelihood that
the influence of his own small band might accomplish
much that was needed, but he did not recognize the
claim: his little company had more work than it could
do already, and even at that early stage he grasped the
necessity of concentration. Many a time in after-years
he heard the call of work that needed doing, of work that
probably he could have done, but which lay outside the
limit of that which he had undertaken; and always he
stood firm, realizing — as smaller minds cannot — that
only by the rigorous preservation of the limit that he
recognized could he fulfil the gigantic task assigned to
him.
In 1630, therefore, M. le Bon failed to obtain any help
in his difficulties from the Superior of the College des
Bons Enfants. But he seems to have been notably
pertinacious, and he enlisted others in his cause. There
was a learned Doctor of the Sorbonne, M. de Lestocq,
who set to work to break down M. Vincent's resolution
touching the proffered establishment at S. Lazare.
Against the offer in its original form Vincent's decision
was unalterable, but the offer was changed, and the
advocates of acceptance were persuasive. " We cried
after him," says M. de Lestocq in describing the affair,
" as did the woman of Canaan after the Apostles." The
strange suggestion of amalgamating the two Orders was
dropped, and instead Vincent and his Company were
invited to take up their quarters at S. Lazare. There
was no valid reason for refusal, and at length he con-
sented to refer the question to another Doctor of the
Sorbonne, M. Andre du Val, and to abide by his decision.
No impartial judge could have hesitated. The Com-
pany of Mission priests was growing steadily, it showed
every sign of life. The College des Bons Enfants which
had sufficed for the pioneers was quite inadequate as
the headquarters of an important movement. S. Lazare,
M. VINCENT AND THE PRIESTHOOD 49
on the other hand, was so finely situated, and carried
with it so much of the dignity that was adherent in the
seigneurial buildings of Paris, that its occupation by an
Order that had become demoralized and effete was in
itself a subject for regret.* To the onlooker it seemed
that M. le Bon had been directly moved by the inspira-
tion of God in furtherance of the designs of Vincent de
Paul. But then and always, as we shall see, Vincent
himself held back, lest an appearance of success should
tempt him into presumption. It was more than a year
after the original proposition before he showed any signs
of wavering, and when, after the advice of M. du Val,
he could no longer shirk acceptance, he showed no desire
to inspect the splendid property which was so miracu-
lously given into his hands. At the last moment, indeed,
it seemed likely that he would break off negotiations on
a clause in the agreement that to others seemed of in-
finitesimal importance. M. le Bon desired that his monks
should have the benefit of association with the Mission
Priests, and sleep in the same dormitories; but on this
point Vincent was obdurate. To him his Company
appeared as a sacred trust from God for a sacred purpose.
His indifference to their temporal fortunes was sincere;
he knew that his responsibility towards them was the
development of his ideal for their inner life, and their
outward establishment was nought in comparison. Years
of varied experience lay behind him. He had acquired
knowledge of human nature, he knew the temptations
to which his Missioners would be exposed by the roving
and unsettled life which was part of their vocation, and
here at the very beginning of his appointed work he
stood firm. The rule which had protected him amid
the distractions of a ducal household he now laid down
for them. " The true Missioner," he said, " must be
as an Apostle in the world, but as a Chartreux at home,"
* Tradition says that in 1630 the only occupants of these vast
buildings were eight Augustinians and five imbeciles.
4
50 VINCENT DE PAUL
and no advantage to be gained from the possession of
S. Lazare would compensate them for the injury of
association with demoralized Religious. But S. Lazare
was the destined home of the Congregation of the Mission,
and M. le Bon gave in on every point. In January,
1632, Vincent de Paul entered into possession, and al-
though before the year was out his right was disputed by
another community, no power proved strong enough to
oust him.
This great change in outward circumstances opened a
new field of labour. For eight years the Mission Priests
had travelled from village to village striving to awake
the country people to spiritual life. M. Vincent declared
that no one knew so much about the peasantry of France
as did his Missioners, and there was good reason that that
statement should be accurate. But this knowledge went
beyond the people themselves, and touched those on
whom lay the real responsibility of their ignorance. It
was the experience gained in country missions that
showed Vincent de Paul the need for the reforming of
the clergy, and it is necessary to cast a glance at the
conditions prevalent, before we consider M. Vincent's
measures for dealing with them.
In 1628 a Bishop, writing to him of his own diocese,
declared " Qu'il y a presque 7,000 Pretres ivrognes ou
impudiques qui montent tous les jours a I'Autel et qui
n'ont aucune vocation." The extent of evil conveyed
in that short sentence is baffling to the imagination, but
many contemporary records bear out the same impres-
sion. The monasteries were centres of licence and dis-
order, their Superiors were appointed solely for mer-
cenary reasons, and the idea of obedience became an
absurdity. Henri de Bourbon, son of Henri IV., was
Abbe of S. Germain des Pres, and held ecclesiastical
authority over that quarter of Paris ; he held other pre-
ferment of the same nature, and became Bishop of Metz.
He was never a priest, however, and in his old age he
M. VINCENT AND THE PRIESTHOOD 51
married.* The priests of gentle birth were more likely
to prosper if they were well known in society and welcome
for their wit ; the humbler sort were not hampered by
complete ignorance of their duties. M. Vincent, addressing
his Company, f put on record the experience of Mme. de
Gondi in this matter. " My late lady," he said, " having
made confession to her cure, noticed that he did not give
her absolution. He murmured something between his
teeth, and did the same again at other times when she
confessed to him, which troubled her somewhat. At
length she asked a Religious who came to see her to set
down in writing the formula of absolution, which he did.
And the lady, when she next went to confession, asked
the cure to give her the words of absolution on the paper,
which he did. And she continued to do this every time
she confessed, to him, always giving him the paper,
because he was so ignorant he did not know the words
that should be used in absolution. And having heard
this, I began to pay more special attention when I myself
confessed, and I found that it was really the case, and
that there were some who did not know the words of
absolution." But it was not only for the administration
of the Sacrament of Penance that elementary knowledge
was lacking, M. Vincent drew the attention of the
Company also to the variety of methods of celebrating;
he describes the diversity of ritual, the rearrangement
of the Canon. " I was once," he said, "at S. Germain
en Laye, and I saw seven or eight priests all saying Mass
in a different way."
He was speaking, in 1659, °* a period forty years
earlier, to the end that his sons might know how impera-
tive the need had been when the Company first entered on
its labours ; and, over and over again, he made the evils
of the time the theme of his discourse. " The Church has
* See Rohrbacher, "Hist, de l'Eglise Catholique," vol. xxv.,
p. 244.
t Conference, May 13, 1659.
52 VINCENT DE PAUL
no enemies so dangerous as the priests," he told them.
" It is due to the priests that the heretics have flourished,
that vice has gained its mastery, and that ignorance is
so prevalent among the people. Is it not worth any
sacrifice that you can make, Messieurs, to help to their
reform, so that they may live in conformity with the
greatness and dignity of their calling, and by this means
the Church may be delivered from the contempt and
desolation that has come upon her ?"*
Such utterances as these show us how deeply M. Vincent
was affected by the revelations of depravity that came
to him. He maintained always that " those who cele-
brated the Sacred Mysteries were unworthy if they fell
short of perfection, for the holy profession they had made
demanded nothing less." He could not be content with
mediocrity either in himself or in others ; he demanded
the perpetual struggle and no less perpetual failure of
those who aim at perfection, and yet everywhere he was
confronted by the spectacle of vice and hypocrisy — for
the diocese that had 7,000 priests possessed by the devils
of intemperance and immorality was not an isolated
instance.
In fact, it was M. Vincent's fate to see human nature
in its extreme of savage ugliness. Not only was he
witness of the exceptional horrors that were evolved by
the Fronde Rebellion, but many of the enterprises that
were part of his vocation brought him into touch with
the degradation of life in the byways and hidden places
of great cities, with all the infamy that infected the
convicts and galley slaves in a period of authorized
brutality. And in what he saw there was no inherent
material for hope. It must be remembered that he could
not look to a phalanx of philanthropists with possible
energy to gather up what he might leave undone. In
those early days there were no benevolent societies, there
was no organization, there were very few priests who
* Conference, May 6, 1658.
M. VINCENT AND THE PRIESTHOOD 53
recognized that they had any duty towards the poor;
yet poverty and ignorance, with all the evil that breeds
from their alliance, prevailed alike in the cities and in
the country districts, and M. Vincent heard the call to
meet the needs he saw, temporal and spiritual, and for
him that call meant leadership as well as personal labour.
The odds against success were so great that reason must
have suggested despair; but it was the hopelessness of
the case that taught M. Vincent the remedy. " For you
by yourself the task is certainly too great," he wrote to
one of his Mission Priests who was overburdened by re-
sponsibility; " but for you, with the help of God, nothing
is too difficult." That was his discovery and the source
of his continual courage.
It was with the sense that nothing was too difficult for
God to make plain that M. Vincent approached the
problem of the degraded priesthood. While he was still
at the College des Bons Enfants he had made an attempt
to re-establish the Ordination Retreats which had fallen
into disuse, and during his last year there the Arch-
bishop of Paris issued an order that every candidate for
priesthood should make a Retreat with the Company of
the Mission before his ordination; but it was only after
the removal to S. Lazare that this work could assume its
fit proportions. In days before the duties of Superior to
the Company had become absorbing, Vincent de Paul went
many times to Beauvais at the invitation of its Bishop,
Augustin Potier, a man- who regarded the misdeeds of the
ecclesiastics under his jurisdiction as bringing disgrace
upon himself. The two held long discourse over the
terrible disease that was so apparent to them both, but it
was the Bishop who suggested the remedy. It was a
suggestion that bore witness to his wisdom. In face of a
.crying evil it is a natural instinct to resort to some
jdrastic measure, and only a really wise man will direct
\his energies to prevent it in the future, instead of wasting
(them on a vain endeavour to correct in the present. In
54 VINCENT DE PAUL
those days it seems that the conversion and reform of a
depraved priest was regarded as a miracle; the contagion
of drunkenness alone had spread so widely that no one
cherished a hope of cure, and it was only from a new
generation of priests that the people would again receive
guidance and example. To secure a change in the new
generation Bishop Potier and Vincent de Paul reorganized
Ordination Retreats.
The scheme was first put in practice at Beauvais in
1628, and it was then that the Directions for Ordination
Candidates* were drawn up. These directions point to
strictness of life of the most searching kind; the young
priest who really followed them would have no possi-
bility of slipping unconsciously into laxity. The com-
plete consecration of life at ordination was to be followed
by the scrupulous ruling of every hour, and by submission
not only in outward things to the Bishop, but also to a
Director, who was to be given knowledge of every spiritual
difficulty. M. Vincent was well aware that the time of
test would always come after the vivid impression of the
Retreat was over and all excitement had subsided, and it
was his ambition to sow a seed that should be long in
springing and deeply rooted. At Beauvais, in the Rue
S. Victor, and afterwards for many years at S. Lazare,
M. Vincent conducted the Ordination Retreats himself;
he set the standard of simplicity which was to be the
characteristic of the Lazarist, and upheld the greatness
of responsibility involved by this task of theirs. Again
and again he made these Retreats the theme of his
" Conferences " with his sons, urging on them the humility
that was essential if w this paltry Company " was to be
worthy of its charge. " It is not by knowledge that you
will do good," he told them, " or by the fine things that
you can say to them ; they are more learned than we are.
Very little they can get from us would be new to them ;
they have read or heard it all before. They say them-
* See Appendix, note 2.
M. VINCENT AND THE PRIESTHOOD 55
selves that it is not in that way they are touched, but by
the strictness of life that they see in practice here."
These Ordination Retreats may well have served as a
spur to the Mission Priests themselves for the perfecting
of their individual lives, and from the first it seemed as
if the new Company had been endowed with a special
vocation for its task. It was on their quiet intercourse
with the Retreatants that their Superior depended.
" If you are filled with that which is Divine," he told
them, " and if each one of you is struggling continually
after perfection, then, though you may seem to have no
capacity for helping these gentlemen, God will be able to
use you to light them on their way."
" You must know," wrote Vincent de Paul to du
Coudray,* " that the goodness of God has bestowed a
blessing — so great as to be almost beyond belief — on our
Ordination Exercises ; so great is it that all those who have
been through them — or aimost all — are leading lives such
as a good priest should lead. There are some who are
notable either for their birth or for other qualities that
God has given them, who live as strictly by rule as we do
here, and are more spiritual than many of us — more so,
for instance, than I am myself. They have a time-table,
and are regular in mental prayer, in saying Mass, in self-
examination, even as we are. They devote themselves
to visiting hospitals and prisons, where they preach and
catechize and hear confessions; they do this also in the
colleges, and are very specially blessed in doing it."
This letter was written only a year after the Company
was established at S. Lazare, and it shows us what im-
mense encouragement Vincent de Paul received in his
early undertakings as Superior. It shows also how
closely he grasped those things which he undertook.
S. Lazare was not merely a hostel where these future
priests might gather on the eve of ordination, and go
through a certain spiritual routine; it was a centre of
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 18, July, 1633.
56 VINCENT DE PAUL
real inspiration, and to stay there meant personal touch
with M. Vincent, and the after-knowledge — for each one
who sought such a privilege — that his thoughts and
prayers would go with them in the new life, on the
threshold of which they stood. In that time of low
standards it would be hard to exaggerate the possible
effect of such an experience. M. Vincent, in spite of his
( homeliness and humility, had an ideal of priesthood that
\ was never lowered to meet the difficulties of any indi-
J vidual ; he was impossible to satisfy, but his unreasonable
\ demands stimulated instead of discouraging, and it was
I sustained intention rather than complete fulfilment that
: he expected of them.
" It is our will that in each of the four Seasons of the
Year M. Vincent de Paul and his Company (without hin-
drance to their Missions) should receive and provide for
the Candidates for Ordination in the diocese of Paris sent
by us, for a fortnight, that they may go through the
Spiritual Exercises." So runs a clause of the deed by
which the Archbishop of Paris established the Mission
Priests at S. Lazare; and large donations from other
quarters for the expense thereby involved testify to the
widespread recognition of the value of the enterprise.
And, indeed, it is not hard to understand that M. Vin-
cent's influence, brought to bear at the right moment on
characters not yet distorted by the habit of evil-doing,
might have been lifelong in its effects. The careless
youth coming for ordination indolently, the weak who
allowed himself an optimistic view of a future that would
somehow be better than the past, the calculating for
whom the priesthood opened a gateway of ambition — to
all these the voice of M. Vincent had power to sound a note
of warning.
It was always possible that those days might prove the
most important in a man's life. Many there were, no
doubt, who accepted and went through the Exercises as
through a course of lectures; who made notes of the in-
M. VINCENT AND THE PRIESTHOOD 57
struction in the earlier hours of the day that was devoted
to the outward duties of priesthood ; who asked intelligent
questions at the conferences that succeeded such instruc-
tions, and were able to employ the time for relaxation in
real repose. Such as these took away with them a
memory that might fade completely, or might in the far-
off future stir the desire for understanding of that which
had once been in their reach. The Archbishop of Paris
gave the order that all whom he ordained should go into
Retreat, but no reasonable person, lay or clerical, im-
agined that the fifteen days of retirement would transform
dross into gold by magic. They were " to conform to the
ancient practice of the Church," so ran the Archbishop's
command, and by fifteen days of study and seclusion they
fulfilled what the Church required. It was to the few and
not to the many that M. Vincent was sent. He had many
listeners to the discourses that he gave every evening of
a Retreat on the deep things of the inner life; and to one
,'here and there his words rent away the veil that hid
reality, and the meaning of their vocation stood revealed.
I It was an ordinary thing to the world that a young man
should become a priest. A great many priests were
needed, and as there were not enough candidates for
ordination among the more educated classes, a well-to-do
peasant would select the most studious of his sons (as
M. Vincent himself had been selected) that he might enter
the priesthood, get preferment for himself, and push the
interests of his family. Indolence or ambition were fre-
quent substitutes for vocation, and it was not likely that
a higher ideal could survive the pressure of accepted
custom unless support was offered to it.
When we come to consider M. Vincent in his intercourse
with individuals, as shown by his letters, we shall see the
measure of his sympathetic understanding. For his task
of direction in these Ordination Retreats, this was the
power that was most essential. His own view of the
sacerdotal vocation had no relation to prevailing opinion;
5» VINCENT DE PAUL
in his old age he declared himself to be unworthy of it :
"Si je n'etais pas pretre je ne le serais jamais." But it was
not so much his part to present impossibilities to those
whose career was already chosen and approved, as to show
them how they might meet the claim the future inevitably
would make upon them. They would need stupendous
strength and courage, and only from the Master Whom
they professed to follow could they draw it. The deepest
of the demands of their Retreat was that of honesty with
their own conscience, and it was to the few who made of
their ordination the turning-point of their lifetime that
the full meaning of such honesty revealed itself. To
these the idea of taking up their office was awe-inspiring,
and it was a natural instinct among them to turn to
M. Vincent for a continuance of help. It was to meet
this need that there was instituted Les Conferences du
Mardi* On June 25, 1633, a number of young priests
met together at S. Lazare and formed themselves into a
species of guild. They were pledged to complete detach-
ment from self-interest, to a pure and direct intention of
making the offering of self to God, and to maintain a fixed
resolve to serve Him in the person of the poor, the sick,
and the captives. There were to be weekly gatherings,
and membership was not very easy to obtain. M. Vincent
required that the individual life of each member should
be known to the officials of the " Conferences M (of whom
he was himself the chief), and that his participation
should have practical effect upon their actions. Very
soon after their first assembly he called upon some of
them by way of test to preach a Mission to the workmen
employed on some new buildings near the Porte Sainte
Antoine,f and at all times he seems to have regarded
them as an auxiliary force for Mission work. At the
weekly gatherings discussion was encouraged. The sub-
ject of debate was always announced beforehand, so that
* In 1642 the day of meeting was altered to Thursday.
t See " Vincent de Paul et le Sacerdoce," by a Mission Priest.
M. VINCENT AND THE PRIESTHOOD 59
there might be time for reflection, and the real part of the
Director was left to the end, when he summed up the
points of the previous argument, and gave a few words of
counsel.
It was this personal touch with Vincent de Paul that
gave the " Conferences " their attraction and their in-
fluence. In his lifetime 300 members were enrolled, and
among them were numbered Jean Jacques Olier, Bossuet,
and M. Tronson, each of whom became himself a centre
of inspiration. If this work were the only one accom-
plished by M. Vincent, it would establish him as the bene-
factor of his generation. The power of the priest for
good or evil was so far-reaching as to be illimitable, and it
was being used chiefly for evil. To belong to the " Con-
ferences " demanded reality in practice as well as in
profession; the conduct of the members was so scrutinized
that a defaulter would inevitably be found out ; yet their
number increased steadily. There is a tradition (the
truth of which is borne out by after-events) that Richelieu
sent for M. Vincent and asked him for a list of the members
of his " Conferences," with a mark against the names of
those whom he thought suitable for a bishopric, and that
the list was given, but only after the Cardinal had pledged
himself to secrecy, lest the taint of self-interest might ruin
a pure endeavour.
The work of S. Lazare — which at this time was almost
sensationally successful — may seem to suggest that M.
Vincent and his associates were the first to realize the
great abuse under which society was groaning. This was
by no means the case, however. Every conscientious
priest of that generation was forced to admit the degrada-
tion of his order, and various theories were promulgated
from time to time by those who sought a method of reform.
There was a certain M. Charles Godefroy, who in 1625
presented to a conference of Bishops in Paris a scheme
for facilitating the practice of Retreat among the Clergy,
for bringing them within reach of spiritual discipline, and
60 VINCENT DE PAUL
also for training aspirants for priesthood. His scheme
foreshadowed much that was afterwards accomplished
by the Company of the Mission. It was approved by the
assembly of Bishops, but the author died almost imme-
diately, and it bore no fruit.* The Ordination Retreats
and the "Conferences" admittedly did not accomplish
more than a fraction of the reform that was needed. At
their first institution both depended largely on M. Vincent,
for it is impossible to doubt that much of their success
was due to his personal magnetism; but though this
power is useful in inspiring the immediate change of con-
duct that means defeat of inclination and of custom, it
is a dangerous substitute for principle and conviction.
It was plain to any reasoning mind that a fortnight's
spiritual exercises, even under the care of Vincent de Paul,
was not sufficient preparation for the responsibility of
priesthood, and the view that a long training was desirable
was in accordance with the decree of the Council of Trent,
which had provided that every Bishop should have a
seminary for the future priests of his diocese.
There is in theory very much to commend the ancient
idea of the seminary which admitted boys from twelve
years old, and kept them apart, marked by tonsure and
cassock> as separate from their fellows; but in practice
the seminaries did not produce good priests, and the
Bishops abandoned any attempt at obedience. Francois
de Sales, who was not likely to evade a responsibility
without reason, declared that he had spent seventeen years
trying to train three good priests, and had ended by pro-
ducing only one and a half !| At Bordeaux and at Rouen,
where special efforts were made, the failures were lament-
able, the young clerks under training all returning to the
world when their education was complete, and pleading
their youth at the time of admission as excuse.
* " L'Origine des Grandes Seminaires et M. Charles Godefroi,"
par l'Abbe Adam.
f Rohrbacher, " Hist, de l'figlise Catholique," vol. xxv., p. 249.
M. VINCENT AND THE PRIESTHOOD 61
Nevertheless, the need of special training remained, and
many minds were exercised over the difficulty of providing
for it. At the accession of Louis XIII. no seminaries
were in existence in France, but de Berulle began, soon
after the foundation of the Oratory, to admit a few young
men who were already in deacon's orders, and so gave
the suggestion of a new idea. His charges for the most
part became Oratorians, however, and the real idea of the
seminary was not yet revealed. M. Vincent, moved by
the instinct of obedience to the Church that so often
prompted his actions, began, at the College des Bons
Enfants, a seminary of the type suggested by the Council
of Trent, and failed as completely as those who preceded
him in the same attempt. It was not until 1642 that he
decided to eliminate all who were not in holy orders — to
keep his seminary, in fact, for those who were already
committed and likely to prove steadfast. Through the
four stages of ordination these priests of the future were
to have every assistance from teaching, association, and
influence, and the lads whose vocation was still uncertain
were removed to another house in a suburb of Paris, that
they might not distract their elders in the solemn years
of preparation. This was the beginning of the Lazarist
seminaries, and by a simultaneous inspiration, M. Olier
began at Vaugirard the seminary that was to obtain — in
its after-establishment at S. Sulpice — such vast celebrity.
It is impossible now to estimate the importance of this
movement, the honour of which is shared betwixt
S. Lazare and S. Sulpice. The darkest hour for the
Church was over when the new seminaries were opened
and accepted, and they were the safeguard of reality in
its reform. The age of Bossuet and Bourdaloue was
coming, and priests and people were awakening. We
need only regard the later years of that century, and con-
trast the general attitude towards religion with that in
vogue when Henri IV. was King, to understand the change
that had come to pass. When Mme. de Maintenon
62 VINCENT DE PAUL
reigned at Versailles, society was not guiltless of hypo-
crisy. It was the fashion to be pious, and fashionable
piety is tawdry. But if that smoke were offensive, there
was still a fire behind it with capacity for burning clearly
— a fire kindled from ashes that barely smouldered ninety
years earlier. There had been many manifestations of that
fierce desire for goodness which flashes forth even when
mankind is at its lowest, and many influences had been
at work; but the spiritual influence of M. Vincent must be
recognized in this connection. It was, in fact, far more
important than his labour for those definite institutions
which are responsible for his fame and reputation. What
he most desired was that a new standard of living should
prevail, and the success of his sons in training others went
far to accomplish his desire. The self-repression that he
inculcated increased their power in this direction (though
this is among the hidden things that may not be weighed
or valued), for it should be remembered that they might
easily have used the new institution of the seminary for
the aggrandizement of the Company of Mission Priests,
if their Superior had not forbidden any such use being
made of it. The temptation avoided has no necessary
place in the record of a life, yet there is no higher proof of
this man's greatness than his abstention in this matter.
It was in 1642 that Cardinal Richelieu endowed the
College des Bons Enfants as a place of training for
ecclesiastics, and in the years that followed priests from
all parts of the country, and of every type, came there.
There were some who belonged to the nobility, and some
endowed with the qualities that insure power to their
possessor; there were among them a few with that
capacity for self-devotion in obedience which is the root
of strength in a Community, and they were all at a period
of transition. It was for that reason that they found
themselves at the College des Bons Enfants. They had
definite things that must be learnt, and, for some at least,
things equally definite to be unlearnt ; and around them,
M. VINCENT AND THE PRIESTHOOD 63
in touch with them at every moment, were the Priests of
the Mission, men whose experiences were of the same
order as their own, and who had found peace under a
special rule. A suggestion of a possible vocation for the
Company dropped at such a moment was likely to bear
fruit.
But Vincent's outlook was far too wide for him to
permit this simple process of benefit to his foundation.
His sense that the Company was of Divine origin did not
for a moment blind him to its position as only one among
many endeavours for the service of God and of mankind,
and its success in the eyes of the world never gave him
an exaggerated view of its importance. It had its work
to do — by Divine commission — but other work was needed
equally, and must not be encroached on in its interests.
Therefore he exhorted his children never to let a word
escape them that might attract a listener to the Com-
pany. " It is for God to give that summons. And I go
farther, even if there should be any who come to you un-
folding a desire to join us, beware lest you give them any
encouragement. Charge them to make it a subject for
communing with God, for it needs much reflection. Im-
press on them the difficulties they will have with them-
selves, and that they must be prepared for long delay if
they accept our conditions of suffering and of work for
God. Let us leave all to God; for ourselves it is only
necessary that we should have humility and patience as
we await the orderings of His providence. He has merci-
fully allowed that this should be the method of the Com-
pany thus far, and we may feel that we have only what
God has given us, and that we have sought neither men
nor goods, nor importance. In His Name let us keep to
it, and leave all to God. Let us wait for His commands,
and not try to forestall them."*
The secret of this man's effective work is in this prin-
ciple of waiting, so constantly sustained. Not only in his
* Abelli, vol. i., chap, xxxiv.
64 VINCENT DE PAUL
foundation of the Company of Mission Priests, but in the
long catalogue of his achievement, his rule remains in-
variable: " Let us leave all to God." So far did he carry
this reliance that he wrote to one of his Missioners* that
he had not dared in twenty years to pray for the growth
of the Company, because, if it was the work of God, it
must be left in His hands completely. Nevertheless, the
more adventurous spirit of a younger generation so far
affected him that he recognized their wish to pray for
more labourers as being legitimate. That naive confes-
sion, though it may not be defended in relation to the
Church's theory of prayer, is nevertheless consistent with
Vincent's point of view. Strong as was his faith, it
wavered when confronted with the success that in the
eyes of men had crowned so many of his enterprises.
The blessings showered upon him aroused in him a certain
instinct of misgiving and apprehension. We shall see his
tendency in his old age to exaggerated self-abasement.
He was acutely aware that the applause of human voices
implies separation from the Master Who was despised
and rejected of men, rather than union with Him.
" Our Lord died as He had lived: His life was hard and
painful, His death was violent and agonizing, unrelieved
by any human consolation. Many of the Saints, there-
fore, have been glad to die in loneliness and desolation,
knowing that they would have God to comfort them."
So he wrote, f with the knowledge that the world was
eager to do him honour clear in his mind. In that know-
ledge, which was never dimmed, lay his safeguard against
the snares that surrounded him. The vividness of con-
trast between his lot and that which was accepted by
Christ on earth continued always as a matter for regret
and self-reproach, so that he seems strangely to have been
disciplined by his moments of outward triumph. But,
though he could not escape notability, he was able to
* "Lettres," vol. ii., No. 306, November, 1655.
t Ibid., vol. i., No. 38, 1639.
M. VINCENT AND THE PRIESTHOOD 65
preserve an order of daily life as laborious and austere as
that of the humblest workman. Every day he rose at
four, and spent three hours in church, adhering to this
habit, although the pressure of business might tempt him
to divergence. All day long he was the prey of visitors,
who came to consult him, and to all he tried to give a
patient hearing. As the years passed, he became so
deeply connected with affairs in distant parts of France
and of other countries that his correspondence must have
been overwhelming. In Paris itself there were many
claims upon him which kept him out sometimes for many
hours. In the evening he said Office on his knees, and
without haste, and afterwards was at the disposal of any
of the Company who might desire to consult him. Often,
we are told, his business kept him up till a late hour of
the night. In that daily routine at S. Lazare, with the
pressure of overwork continually upon him, the need for
patience is particularly evident. Those who knew him
testify that he acquired such a measure of this quality as
was almost inexhaustible. In the perpetual interviews
required of him he learnt to be brief in giving counsel,
but would listen without interrupting. For one whose
time was precious, no better opening for self-conquest is
conceivable; so large was his charity, and so many the
real proofs of it preserved, that it is likely he reached the
supreme attainment of the few and suffered fools gladly.
In his correspondence there is indication that he did so
at least without complaint.
The history of his accomplished work contains develop-
ments which Vincent himself referred to as miraculous,
but, in fact, nothing more worthy of that term appears
than the detail of his own personal doings. When he
entered into possession of S. Lazare he took over the
responsibility of three or four miserable idiots who had
been entrusted to the care of M. le Bon, and made it his
practice to serve them himself, although they were dis-
tressingly afflicted, and were sometimes dangerous; and
5
66 VINCENT DE PAUL
if disease broke out under his roof, he was prompt in
personal attendance, braving infection himself before
consigning the care of the sick to others. We are told
that when he had been ten years at S. Lazare, at Christ-
mas-time, 1642, he invited two old beggars to dine with
him, and sat between them attending to their wants ; and
it was characteristic of him that, having once had an
opportunity of giving this literal interpretation to his
idea of charity, he should hasten to repeat it. Ere long
it became the custom to entertain two guests of this type
daily at S. Lazare, albeit, " infinites et quelquefois assez
dego?Adans," as a contemporary expresses it, and Vincent
frequently was seen welcoming them when they appeared,
and helping them up the steps of the refectory. Such
things as these, if practised by the Father Superior of a
monastery whose duties were limited to the control of
his Order, might command admiration; but Vincent was
not only the founder of his Company, the regulation of
which was sufficient to occupy all the energies of any man,
but he was the centre and originator of the chief charitable
enterprises of his day. He was consulted by the great
folk of the Court and by Ministers of State. He was the
confidant of innumerable private persons, and he was the
head of the new Order of Sisters of Charity which still
bears his name. In him these individual kindnesses, to
render which it was necessary to step off the beaten track
of unremitting labour, are among the miracles of the grace
of God.
CHAPTER IV
THE ORDERING OF CHARITY
We have glanced at the life within the walls of S. Lazare,
and at the spread of its influence over the hidden things
that touch the souls of men, but all the time that that
inward life was developing the great world of Paris
seethed and shouted within sight and hearing of the old
buildinp and the tragedies that spring from disease and
vice and negligence were being enacted hourly in the
crowded streets of the city where the poor congregated.
In his vocation as a priest M. Vincent held himself to be
dedicated to the service of the Church, but, to his under-
standing, the service of the Church was synonymous with
the service of the poor. " The poor our masters," was a
phrase constantly on his lips, and he regarded his prac-
tical labour for that which would now be called social
reform as not less spiritual than the endeavours that
related directly to the Church.
In his dealing with the two great Companies he founded
we shall, it is true, come closer to him in his personal
character than in any other relation ; but for proofs of his
more visible and startling effectiveness it is necessary to
turn away from the austere surroundings of his daily life,
and regard that social world of Paris and the provinces
which has so much both of likeness and of contrast to the
social world of to-day.
The year which gave him the inspiration of his country
Missions was also the year of his first great discovery in
practical philanthropy. This last was made during his
brief ministry at Chatillon, and the occasion of it reveals
67
68 VINCENT DE PAUL
the simple methods of the charitable 300 years ago, and
is therefore worthy of record. The monastic system
of giving food at stated times to all who asked for it not
only encouraged mendicity, but checked any attempt at
rational application of relief. It prevented real destitu-
tion, however, and so long as the religious Orders remained
wealthy and generous the problem of poverty was kept
in abeyance. But the civil wars of the sixteenth century
reduced all revenues, and the wide flow of charity dwindled
to a trickle that seldom reached those who most needed
it. In this notable instance at Chatillon a whole family
in a farmhouse were so laid low by illness that they
reached the border of starvation. As M. Vincent was
about to preach on a Saint's day, a description of the
miserable plight of these persons was given him, and in
the course of his sermon he made an appeal on their
behalf to his congregation. Then, after Vespers that
same evening, he set out to visit the unfortunate family
himself. The farm was about three miles distant, and at
intervals along the road he met groups of his flock at
Chatillon returning homewards, while others, overcome
by heat or fatigue, rested under trees by the wayside. It
appeared that most of those who had heard his appeal
had responded to it in the most practical manner, and
started there and then to relieve the wants of the sufferers.
No better object-lesson to expound the necessity of
organization in the giving of charity could have been
devised. The family at the farm could not consume more
than a small fraction of the food that had been lavished
upon them; the surplus was inevitably wasted, and in a
few days their want would have been as great as before
if M. Vincent had not taken their case in hand. From
this experience came his idea of the Confraternities. In
the Archives of Chatillon may be found the rules of
M. Vincent's first Confraternity of Charity. Any woman
— so long as she was a Catholic — might belong to it if
she had the consent of the male relation who claimed
THE ORDERING OF CHARITY 69
authority over her movements. Officials were to be
elected from among them, and they were all to be under
the authority of the cure. Their first duty was the care
of the sick, their second the relief of poverty. " Thel t
Servant of the Poor will do her nursing lovingly, as though
she tended her own son," so ran M. Vincent's recommen-
dation. The idea of the early Christian Community was
to be revived, so that poverty might lose all shadow of
shame, and the rich be only fortunate because of their
greater opportunity for giving.
As we have seen, M. Vincent's coming had meant a
great awakening at Chatillon. Capacities that had
seemed paralyzed were stirred, ideas undreamed of were
suggested, to many of his flock the reason of their being
seemed to have altered. It was well for them that, with
their new awakening, there opened for them a new field
of interest. Imbued with M. Vincent's idea of the claim
that life made upon a Christian, they turned with zeal to
the practical service of their neighbour ; and afterwards
the inward work of a Mission, wherever held, was never
felt to be complete if it had not resulted in the outward
activities of an established Confraternity.
But in a small country town, far from any of the
populous centres, it was not difficult for M. Vincent to
instil the practical observance of the Christian rules of
brotherhood and fellowship, and the idea of the Confra-
ternities, properly carried out, was a satisfactory solution
of the problem of almsgiving. It was in the cities that
the question assumed an entirely different aspect.
At Macon, a little later, M. Vincent beheld pauperism
in its most degraded forms. He was passing through on
his way elsewhere when his attention was arrested by the
enormous number of beggars who infested streets and
churches. They were of the most depraved and aban-
doned type, without any desire for improvement, and
his religious instinct was specially offended by their
presence in the churches, where they were heedless of all
70 VINCENT DE PAUL
reverence for holy things. There seems to have flashed
upon him, as with the force of a sudden revelation, the
sense that he could find a remedy. Instead of continuing
his journey, he asked for further hospitality from the
Fathers of the Oratory, and remained with them three
weeks. It was P£re Desmoulins, their Superior, who put
on record what was accomplished in that time.* M. Vin-
cent began by the practical measure of drawing up a
register of all indigent persons in the town. (And here it
. should be noted that the Patron Saint of Charity was
opposed to promiscuous almsgiving. He considered that
the able-bodied were in need of work as well as of food,
and created useless labour for them rather than leave
them unemployed. It is told of himf that he utilized a
tract of marshy ground near Paris that had been given to
the Company to occupy the men who begged of him in
the streets. They were set to dig a deep ditch at fifteen
sols for the day's work. In course of time the job was
completed, and the overseers came to M. Vincent for
instructions. He had never wanted the ditch, and he
still wanted to provide employment, therefore he directed
that a second ditch should be made alongside, and the
first filled up. Economically, such a system is unsound,
but M. Vincent's action proves that he did not sanction
the old monastic custom of free giving.) When he had
ascertained the numbers with which he had to deal, he
arranged that assistance should be given on fixed days to
those in need ; but if they were found begging in street or
church, they were to be punished and the alms withheld.
For those who passed through the town lodging for one
night only and two sols were to be provided. For the
aged and the sick he recommended ample and generous
provision.
Organization at Macon demanded virile qualities, and
* Abelli., vol. i., chap. xvi.
f See Revue des Deux Mondes, Mai, 1894: " L' Assistance par
le Travail," Comte d'Haussonville.
THE ORDERING OF CHARITY 71
M. Vincent founded a Confraternity of men. It was their
business to distribute relief, to watch over the shelter
given to vagrants, and to arrange that destitute children
should be taught a trade. A Confraternity of women on
the usual lines was founded also, but the duties of each
were distinct. We shall find that the associations of
men for the protection of the faith and the assistance of
the poor which were being formed in all parts of France
at this time were not the direct result of the work of
M. Vincent, but at Macon he was responsible for a com-
plete reconstitution of the social conditions of the town.
" So well did he manage both small and great," says
Pere Desmoulins, " that everyone was eager to contribute
in money or in kind, so that nearly 300 poor obtained
sufficient provision."
Ignorance as well as poverty seems to have reached an
extreme in the city of Macon. The beggars, old and young,
with whom M. Vincent held conversation had not the
most elementary knowledge of religion, but he left a
special charge that they should be taught and given an
incentive to lead a better life.
Macon itself did not have a second visit from M. Vin-
cent, but he took away from it a provision of experience
that was afterwards of infinite use to him.
There awaited him in Paris so many problems to be
solved, so many abuses to be faced and conquered, that
if in his provincial experience he could have looked for-
ward, it would seem that even his high courage must have
been daunted. But with the vast array of difficulties
there awaited him also such a measure of support as
could not be foretold. The description of his capacity
for managing others given by Pere Desmoulins shows us
the key to a part at least of his power. In response to
his touch, purses were opened and personal service
offered, not only conscientiously, but eagerly. To regard
him as the wise dispenser of charity is to catch but a
narrow glimpse of him. He was essentially the inspirer
72 VINCENT DE PAUL
of others, and none of the sick and starving people for
whom he laboured owed more to him than did the great
ladies of his day in Paris. It was his part to wake them,
as he had wakened the frivolous women of Chatillon, and
then to see that the work they undertook was really for
the service of God and of His poor. Among all the
changes and chances of those turbulent times, his task
was not a light one; but method and means grew as he
needed them, and his miraculous achievements in the
midst of war and famine were brought to pass without
evidence of sensation or excitement.
The amateur enterprise destined to have such immense
results was first set in motion by the needs of the patients
at the Hotel Dieu. The great hospital that still stands
at the very centre of ancient Paris was — as its name
denotes — a definitely religious institution. By regula-
tions that were drawn up in 1227, careful provision was
made for the lives of those who served the sick within its
walls.* These were to be limited to thirty lay brothers,
four priests, four clerks, and twenty-five sisters. They
took vows of chastity and renounced their goods, and
were under obedience to the Chapter of the Cathedral
of Notre Dame. Three centuries later the thirty lay
brothers were replaced by Religious of the Order of S.
Victor, and the Sisters seem also to have been under a
definite religious Rule. Probably the original institution
required modification to suit the times, but though the
provisions for the staff were altered, those which con-
cerned the patients remained .
Now, the pious souls who were responsible for the
original foundation of the Hotel Dieu attached more
importance to spiritual than to temporal needs, but they
approached the difficult question of combining the two
with a simplicity that may move the religious philan-
thropist of later times to envy. A sick person desiring the
tendance the Hotel Dieu offered must make confession
* Felibien, "Hist, de la Ville de Paris," liv. viii.
THE ORDERING OF CHARITY 73
and receive the Blessed Sacrament. After that, he would
be regarded as master of the house; before, he would not
be able to claim any assistance. The theory that lay
behind the rule was pure, but its purity was impossible
to preserve in practice. About 25,000 patients passed
through the great hospital in the course of a year, ad-
herence to the rule became a mere formality, and the
formality was sacrilegious. When an abuse of this kind
is of long continuance, interference demands great courage,
and the criticism of the established work of other religious
bodies was a task which M. Vincent at all times declined.
The mission to the Hotel Dieu associated with his name
was actually the work of one of those intrepid women
who become oblivious of all other considerations in a
passion of desire for one particular reform.
In 1634, Mme. Goussaulte, wife of a well-known
magistrate, discovered the light usage of the Sacraments
at the Hotel Dieu, and was appalled. She went in haste
to M. Vincent. The evils she saw were so flagrant, and,
in her estimation, productive of such poison to the souls
of all concerned, that she was assured that the Superior
of S. Lazare would intervene. But he, characteristically,
deprecated any idea of responsibility for what might occur
at the Hotel Dieu.
" I have neither position nor authority to check abuses
which may exist there as they exist everywhere else,"
is the answer attributed to him. " One must hope that
those who undertake the management of this great insti-
tution will make the alterations that are needed."
The reply had sufficient finality (coming from a priest
of M. Vincent's standing) to check even the reforming
energies of an enthusiastic woman. But Mme. Gous-
saulte's enthusiasm was very deeply rooted, and she would
not be daunted. She turned (as Mme. de Gondi had
done) from the hopeless task of persuading M. Vincent
to the comparatively easy one of cajoling his ecclesiastical
Superior. In due course the Archbishop of Paris wrote
74 VINCENT DE PAUL
to Vincent de Paul, urging that he should make an effort
to ameliorate the lot of the patients at the Hotel Dieu.
M. Vincent was as ready in obedience as he was back-
ward in interference. He set himself at once to study
the need that was to be met, and organize a scheme for
meeting it, and in this connection he made his first real
appeal for help to the great ladies of Paris. He sum-
moned them together at the house of Mme. Goussaulte
that he might tell them what he wanted. The assembly
seems to have resembled the drawing-room meeting of
the twentieth century, but it was aided by the magic of the
unusual as much as by the convincing reality of need.
Those who listened responded with a precipitation which
was not in keeping with the maxims of M. Vincent; but
though the first form of their response was afterwards
modified, there is no evidence that many of them repented
of their haste. If there were a few who enlisted under
the charm of novelty, and then fell away, their unworthi-
ness may be left in oblivion.
There was no vagueness about the purpose of these
ladies. The sufferers in the great hospital and the sick
poor in Paris were in sore need of comfort, corporal and
spiritual. For their assistance a guild was formed, and
three officers duly elected — Superior, Treasurer, and a
Keeper of the Wardrobe — who was to have charge of stores
other than money. The guild bore some resemblance to
the Confraternities that had long been in existence, but
it had essential differences in its constitution, and must
not be regarded as only an aristocratic form of the same
movement.
Vincent de Paul regarded this new development with
the deepest satisfaction. He described it in glowing terms
to M. du Coudray, his representative at Rome, and
betrayed at the same time a simplicity which suggests
that as the years passed his experience of the realities of
human nature would deepen. There were, he says,
about 120 ladies of quality in this new Association, who
THE ORDERING OF CHARITY 75
went in parties of four to cheer the sick, taking them soup
and jellies and other luxuries, in addition to their ordinary
rations. Some 800 invalids were given comfort of this
sort, and this, he adds, is done to incline them to make
a general confession of their past life, that those who are
dying may be well prepared to leave this world, and those
who recover may begin life again with good resolutions.
It is plain that the persuasive methods of these ladies
were not free from the element of bribery. We shall see
that this difficulty arose and was faced during M. Olier's
parochial labours at S. Sulpice. But at the Hotel Dieu
the original abuse had been so immense that the Ladies
of Charity, with their soup and jellies and soft words,
were a lesser evil. Their charitable purpose, moreover,
was supported by a personal sympathy that was abso-
lutely sincere, and hearts hardened by long adversity and
the injustice of the ordinary world may have been touched
into reality by contact with love of a kind never before
experienced. There were no rival possibilities of profes-
sion, moreover, no struggle between sects where those
who had most to offer might gain most adherents. The
Huguenots, if they gained admission, gained it by a fraud
that must have been very easy to discover. The patients
were Catholics, and therefore in all of them the faith
was there, dormant. The influence of good suggestion
might be transient, but that which responded to it was
a part of themselves ; they were not summoned to accept
a novelty, but were recalled to recognition of their in-
heritance.
The work of the Ladies of Charity at the Hotel Dieu
was, as a whole, a magnificent object-lesson in the possi-
bilities of real charitable effort. M. Vincent's influence
guided them clear of the pitfalls lying ready for ignorance
and excessive zeal, and smoothed the difficulties between
the newcomers, in their first glow of enthusiasm, and the
Grey Sisters who had tended the patients of the Hotel
Dieu for so many years that their work of charity had
76 VINCENT DE PAUL
become a matter of routine. But though the beginning
was admirable, the drawbacks that attend amateur
philanthropy soon became apparent, and the Members of
the Association of Ladies of Charity ceased to be regular
in the fulfilment of the duties they had undertaken. It
was natural that a great lady who had been stirred by
the new and beautiful idea of serving Christ in the persons
of His poor should discover — with the subsidence of first
fervour — that delicate fingers were less capable of service
than stronger and rougher ones, and that her novel
occupation could only be regarded as an interlude in the
employments and amusements of ordinary life. Good-
will towards the objects of their charity remained un-
altered, but reasons of health, interference of husbands,
claims of Court duties, intervened ; there were a thousand
reasons against fulfilling their tasks themselves, and
many of them turned to the obvious resource of the
wealthy and paid a substitute. It was easy to send a
servant when it was very difficult to go in person; but
that which had been a glorious work of piety to the mis-
tress was, unfortunately, only a disagreeable duty to the
maid. Very little profit accrued to anyone from visits or
from gifts, and the fire of Mme. Goussaulte's great scheme
bade fair to flicker down into dull and uninspired ashes.
It is at this point — in 1638 — that the world of Paris
had its first real knowledge of the Sisters of Charity, or
Servants of the Poor. In a quiet house in the parish of
S. Nicholas Chard onnet, Mile. Le Gras (the widow of a
Secretary of Marie de Medici) had gathered round her a
small number of young women from the country to aid
her in her own efforts for the service of the poor. She
herself had long been working under the direction of
M. Vincent, and the story of their friendship belongs to
the record of his deeper and more intimate life. The
needs of the poor around her had been her inducement to
seek helpers, and because the tasks required of them were
laborious and homely, her helpers were of the lower class ;
THE ORDERING OF CHARITY 77
but in gathering them she had no great scheme in hand,
only the fulfilment of a pressing and immediate claim.
M. Vincent, confronted by the instability of great ladies,
turned to these unpretentious Servants of the Poor, and
called on them to carry on the work their more favoured
sisters had discovered, but not sustained. Mile. Le Gras
reorganized the scheme of Mme. Goussaulte, eager in-
terest and liberal funds were forthcoming, and the Com-
pany of the Sisters of the Poor justified its existence.
It was many years before their Founder sought for
them the sanction of the Church, but their actual growth
was extraordinarily rapid. The numerous and inevitable
failures of the Confraternities and the weaknesses of the
Ladies of Charity demanded the settled force of a trained
band of workers pledged to regular service, if the fruit of
many fine and high aspirations was to benefit the people.
The experience of Mile. Le Gras had convinced her that
the work that needed doing could only be done by women
of dedicated life, that the spiritual responsibility entailed
was too heavy to be borne by persons of divided interests.
"It is of little good for us to hurry about the streets
with bowls of soup," she said, " and do such service as
regards the body, if we do not look on the Son of God as
the object of our effort. If we lose hold — ever so little —
on the idea that the poor are members of Him, inevitably
our love for them grows less."
The root of their strength and influence lay in that
suggestion. Their method of approach to the poor they
tended, whether at home or in the hospitals, was a novelty,
and they were recognized as doing good in the Name of
Christ. They were homely persons, not endowed either
with eloquence or education ; if they made converts, they
did it not by their words, but by their lives. Nor were
their first beginnings attended by any excitement or
applause. The degrees by which Mile. Le Gras formed
them into a Sisterhood are indeed hardly perceptible.
We may take the year 1629 as that of the first arrival of
78 VINCENT DE PAUL
helpers at her house, and eleven years later they were
given a peranment Rule ; but at the outset their future as
a Community was not considered, each of the little band
was to be content with a sense of individual consecration.
Before the giving of their Rule they had made their head-
quarters at La Chapelle, outside the gates of Paris, the
private house of Mile. Le Gras being too small for them,
and, while there, the Company was joined by some of
those Sisters whose devotion and endurance — proved
amid the terrors of civil war and invasion — laid the first
stones of its reputation.
The Sisters of that first generation were, almost without
exception, of the lower middle class ; among them were
peasants of special capability, but novices of noble blood
were not accepted. This rule was afterwards modified,
and the standard of service was not lowered because
there were women of high lineage among the Servants of
the Poor, but its existence at the beginning defended
the Company from the invasion of persons to whom
novelty was an attraction. Complete obedience and
unity of purpose were necessary, for in times of great
distress it was often their difficult task to organize and
administer relief, and in the seventeenth century the
problem of destitution was no less pressing than in the
twentieth, while the laws and machinery of charity had
not come into being.
The problem that made sharpest appeal to the hearts
and minds of the Ladies of Charity was that most difficult
one of the habitual vagrant. That which had been a
remediable disorder in a provincial town, such as Macon,
assumed a more sinister aspect in the capital. Any
semblance of protection for the public that had existed
during the reigns of Henri IV. and Louis XIII. was
extinguished during the War of the Fronde, and as soon
as the daylight hours were over the streets could not be
traversed by a peaceful citizen without the gravest
danger to life. The testimonies to this condition of
THE ORDERING OF CHARITY 79
things are countless. If we go no farther than the writings
of Boilea^u or Gui Patin, we may find it graphically
depicted. No doubt many of the robberies were com-
mitted by the soldiery or the lawless servants attached to
the households of the nobility, but the difficulty of dealing
with the question was greatly increased by the hosts
of homeless persons who crowded the streets, living on
alm^vhich were often extorted by force. An individual
malefactor of whatever degree was impossible to trace
amicra crowd which was a species of nursery for the
galleys, and it was generally accepted that an able-bodied
beggar only required opportunity to change from sup-
plicant to robber. The citizens were so habituated to
thek danger from these marauders that they seem to
hav^jecognized them as possessors of certain rights.*
There were places of refuge scattered about Paris where
the jEggars might congregate unmolested, and which
cam^o be forcing-houses for every species of crime.
There were companies of beggars having different head-
quarters and a species of organization to aid them in
preying on society, and the evil — a lamentable one even
on the smallest scale — grew with alarming rapidity.
When justice continually miscarried, and the general
distress was so great that honest men and their families
perished of want, the incentive to vagabondage is obvious,
and the first deliberate effort to check the spread of this
infection does not seem to have been made until in 1667
Colbert appointed Nicolas de la Reynie Lieutenant of
Police, and under his supervision the beggars' sanc-
tuaries were raided, and that simple expedient for the
safety of the public, the lighting of the streets, was in-
troduced. Summary justice by drastic means purged
the city of a disease that undermined its prosperity, and
which, being once cured, was cured for ever.
But there are symptoms of debility hardly less dangerous
that cannot be disposed of by violent remedy, and are
* SeeCaillet, " De 1' Administration en France sous Richelieu."
80 VINCENT DE PAUL
not expelled from the system by the natural process of
civilization. Laws wisely made and carefully adminis-
tered may be successful in checking crime and in dimin-
ishing the number of the criminals, but though moral
deficiency may be thus dealt with, no law has yet been
made that will lessen the number of victims to another
evil that is hardly separable. In every community there \
exists a race of persons who may be classed as Na&re's
failures. Deficient in some faculty, and yet not so en-
tirely deprived as to be the objects of charitable effort ;
seeing but dimly, hearing indistinctly, yet not blind or
deaf; limping and misshapen, with speech that is only
half articulate, yet not either a cripple or a mute — these
unlucky beings start in their race heavily handicapped,
and in most cases lose even the humble place they might
have won for lack of courage to compete against the odds.
Add to their numbers the melancholy company of those
whose mental faculties are shortened, whose will-power
is not systematically controlled by any reasoning process,
yet who are not within measurable distance of insanity —
the aggregate presents the hardest problem that can con-
front the student of social questions. Because the line
of division is so hard to draw betwixt deficiency and
indolence, and mental weakness verges so closely upon
criminal intention, therefore indulgence towards ineffi-
ciency tends to widen the ranks of wastrels, while ordinary
justice applied where the sense of responsibility is only
half defined becomes inhuman.
London in the twentieth century groans under the
ravages of the disease, and finds no remedy. Paris
nearly 300 years ago was less resigned and more
courageous. In a city whose total population was much
under 500,000 there were, in 1650,* 40,000 beggars.
The law, by making vagrancy a crime, had already done
what it could to cope with the difficulty. In January, 1545, f
* F61ibien, " Hist, de la Ville de Paris," liv. xxix.
f Ibid., liv. xx.
*
THE ORDERING OF CHARITY 81
an edict was passed forbidding anyone to beg on
penalty of a whipping, the second offence to be punished
with perpetual imprisonment; and at the time some
attempt must have been made to enforce it, as we hear
of a difficulty touching the care of children whose parents
— as second offenders — were thus summarily disposed of.
The same edict required the regular distribution of alms
to the sick poor. Both provisions became a dead letter,
the latter probably from lack of funds, the former from
the obvious impossibilities attaching to it at a time when
the prisons were constantly overcrowded, and the State
could not afford to feed those whom it debarred from
seeking for support.
The enterprises of Vincent de Paul in many directions
had prospered so amazingly that it was a natural instinct
in those whose eyes were opened to the degraded and
dangerous position of the street beggars to turn to him
for direction in their hard effort. The Ladies of Charity
seem to have attributed to him an almost miraculous
power, and had no misgivings as to success in their
stupendous task, provided they might rely upon his
guidance. M. Vincent knew more than they did, and
was more anxious that any scheme of this kind should
be allowed time to mellow than that it should receive
speedy acceptance and popular support. But the Ladies
of Charity were not under obedience, and they were full
of fervour. His efforts to control them were only par-
tially successful, and eventually M. Vincent decided to
go with the tide rather than exhaust his influence in a
futile attempt to stem it.
It is easy to imagine how the infection of pity — origin-
ally suggested, probably, by some particularly miserable
group shivering at a street corner — had spread among a
society of wealthy women who had been for years en-
couraged in the principles of charity by Vincent de Paul,
and how they formed a plan for the extermination of
cold and hunger, with very little notion of the vast
6
82 VINCENT DE PAUL
issues that were involved. But M. Vincent had the
experience thay lacked, and knew that if the plan was
to be effective it would eventually have to be carried
out on a large scale. If he was forced to go with the
current, he kept his hold upon the helm, and the result
was due to his guidance rather than to the generous haste
of the Ladies of Charity. He laid the matter before
the Queen Regent, and obtained a grant of the build-
ings and grounds known as La Salpetriere, on the banks
of the river opposite the Arsenal. At first the delight
of the Ladies was great, and they had to be restrained
from going out into the streets and driving every beggar
whom they met into the home that was henceforward to
await the homeless. M. Vincent exhorted them to
begin on a small scale, and to go forward slowly, not
only for reasons of prudence, but from the highest
motive, that it was more reverent to wait for God's
fulfilment of their desire. Probably his arguments
would have prevailed with them, as they had done
before, even if the power of the law had not intervened
and made patience a necessity. It was impossible to
begin a charity of this description without reference to
the magistrates, and to some of these the advantage of
the plan was not self-evident. Something of the kind
had been attempted under Henri IV., and had been very
unsuccessful. It was two years before their objections
were overcome, and when at length the expediency of
the new idea was generally admitted, instead of giving
permission to its originators to carry it out, the magis-
trates undertook the matter themselves. The Ladies of
Charity were loyal in support, but the actual result
must have been very different from their dream. They
had intended to be the hostesses of that wretched class
who knew none of the happiness of a kindly welcome and
gentle treatment, and the possibility that by such charity
they might increase the numbers of those whose existence
was as a wound to their soft hearts did not occur to them.
THE ORDERING OF CHARITY 83
In fact, the Salpetriere became the enforced retreat
for beggars. All who asked for alms in the streets of
Paris must go thither or leave the city; there was no
other alternative, and it is probable that those who
loved their freedom, and to whom custom had softened
the hardship of a vagrant life, were not disposed to
gratitude towards those benevolent ladies whose sugges-
tions had so effectually deprived them of their liberty.
But Paris had cause to bless M. Vincent, as Macon had
blessed him many years earlier, for the fame of the new
regulations reduced the number of homeless poor within
its walls to 5,000, and these were no longer to be found
inciting pity in the streets, but in the Hopital Generate
of La Salpetriere, provided with such work as they were
able to do. On May 7, 1657, it was given out in every
pulpit in Paris that in a week the new order would begin,
and the doors of the Salpetriere were thrown open to all
who cared to come. On the 13th, instead of the per-
suasions of the Ladies of Charity, the insistence of the
City Archers collected all who did not prefer to try their
fortune in the country. The numbers for whom it was
necessary to provide increased as time went on, and four
establishments were required. In the main building young
children, women, and 250 aged married couples (who were
each provided with a room), were housed. Bicetre was
reserved for men of all ages. At Notre Dame de la Pitie
were boys under twelve, and the establishment of
S. Marthe de Scipion was used for the offices of the com-
missariat, necessarily on a vast scale for this enormous
colony. It was provided by the regulations that the
children should be educated and taught to work, while
all able-bodied men and women should be obliged to do
their share of labour.*
The Ladies of Charity had complained at the dilatory
methods of the magistrates; they had been obliged to
exercise patience for two years, and endure the thought
* Felibien, "Hist, de la Ville de Paris," Uv. xxix.
84 VINCENT DE PAUL
that hundreds of men, women, and children were exposed
to rain, wind, or frost night after night throughout two
winters within the immediate neighbourhood of their
own well-appointed homes; they thought the delay un-
necessarily prolonged, but posterity is astonished at
the precipitation with which so immense a scheme was
launched. M. Vincent's position towards it is a curious
one. He, whose choice of action was ruled always by
the spirit of caution, was possessed of fuller knowledge
of the difficulties of this enterprise than any of the
officials of the law. Before La Salpetriere was actually
opened he wrote to a friend that " Begging is to be
abolished in Paris, and the poor all gathered together in
a place specially prepared for them, and taught and set
to work. This is a great undertaking, and very difficult,
but by the grace of God it seems to promise well, and
everyone applauds it." Yet his hopefulness was tem-
pered with misgiving. It was true that this huge affair
had sprung from the plan concerted between himself
and the Ladies of Charity, and that the poor folk were
to have special facilities for receiving instruction as well
as for useful employment. Ostensibly, the lines he had
laid down were followed, and in the letter already re-
ferred to he says that he finds himself and his Mission
Priests appointed as the spiritual guardians of the new
institution, while the Sisters of Charity were to be the
recognized servants of the poor thus congregated. Col-
bert, as representative of the King, was ready to defer to
M. Vincent, and to undertake that this work should be
done for the advancement of the kingdom of God. Such
a foundation for such a purpose would seem to be ideal,
yet he who was its originator hung back. Neither he
nor any of his Company were to be found in the vast
halls of the Hopital Generate attempting to bring those
messages of hope which they loved to carry to the most
miserable. Yet they never shrank from labour, and their
hearers would have been pre-eminently of the class which
THE ORDERING OF CHARITY 85
it was their mission to serve. The explanation may per-
haps lie in the element of compulsion, which was an
essential part of the system. For one week only had there
been a chance of accepting an offer, made in the name of
charity, by free-will ; afterwards force had stepped in.
M. Vincent was the apostle of charity. Many years of
experience had taught him an understanding of the poor
man's point of view — an equipment seldom possessed
or desired by those who have to regulate the poor man's
lot — and the indiscriminate treatment of vast numbers
is not compatible with that respect for the individual
which, according to M. Vincent's theory, is the right of
every Christian. Before many years had passed there
were instances of men guilty of the worst offences being
sent to the Hopital Generate to share the lot of those
whose only crime was poverty, and, although M. Vincent
could not foresee all this in detail, a long life had given
him the opportunity of studying the tendencies of popular
movements, and he had reason for grave misgiving.
He had already, with a sum of money given to him,
founded the hospital known as Le Norn de Jesus for forty
aged and penniless persons, and tradition says that the
benefits there bestowed nourished the souls no less than
the bodies of the inmates. So far as in this later case
his own ideas took form, they suggest that he meant to
persuade the poor and miserable to accept shelter, with
the sincere intention of working for their spiritual benefit,
and that their removal from the streets by force because
their presence was undesirable was not a measure consis-
tent with any of his theories. M. Vincent did not regard
the most hopeless wastrel as beyond reach of the grace of
God ; he believed each one might be turned into a loving
servant of the Master whom he served himself. But it
is not astonishing if his plans appeared fantastic and
impracticable. To have tested them by lending them
the support of all the law's machinery would have meant
on the part of the magistrates a faith in God's guidance
86 VINCENT DE PAUL
of affairs equal to his own — an unimaginable consumma-
tion. Yet without the law's support no adequate measures
could have been taken against this particular species of
distress. La Salpetriere was therefore, humanly speaking,
the best provision possible for a class in itself degraded and
notably dangerous to others ; and its effect was found to be
so greatly for the benefit of the State that similar institu-
tions were founded throughout the provinces. M. Vincent,
loving his country as he did, rejoiced, one may be sure,
at all the good that had been by this means allowed to
come to it, and, as was his method, could resign into the
hands of God that scheme of loving-kindness which was
not to be fulfilled.
The attention attracted by the opening of the Hopital
Generate may have gone farther than its original object,
so that a little of the melancholy knowledge with which
M. Vincent and those about him had long been familiar
became public property. To ascertain the immense
number of the homeless poor in Paris was to open the
door to speculations that went far beyond the evil indi-
cated by the fact itself. We have seen that, a century
earlier, compliance with the edict of 1545 respecting
mendicants had thrown the care of the children of im-
prisoned beggars upon the State, and it may easily be
understood that the greater the difficulty in obtaining
the means of living, the less welcome did a child become
to parents of the necessitous class. In the dark and
crowded streets there was no difficulty in depositing a
child where it was not altogether hidden and in escaping
before the desertion was observed. This practice became
so common that, in 1552,* a law was passed providing
that all infants found in the streets should be brought to
the Hospital of the Trinity and placed in the charge of
a woman especially appointed for the care of them. A
little later, further and more elaborate arrangements
were made for their benefit, and two houses in the Rue
* Felibien, " Hist, de la Ville de Paris," liv. xx.
THE ORDERING OF CHARITY 87
S. Landry* were rented for their reception. A sort of
committee was appointed, and the actual supervision
entrusted to three married women of the respectable
middle class. The treatment of the question seems to
have been well considered and humane, but, once dis-
posed of, was allowed to pass out of the range of public
interest. The number of the unfortunate babies found
in the street increased as the years passed, but the sup-
plies for their support did not increase in proportion.
In the year 1638, f the house in the Rue S. Landry was
occupied by " a certain widow," who, with two servants
under her, received and disposed of some 400 babies
annually. It appears to be generally admitted by con-
temporary chroniclers that of these the only survivors
were those who were bought and nefariously substituted
for others who had died. The rest were exterminated by
various methods, most often by administering a soothing
draught which effectually quieted their cries; but as they
were sold to any buyer for a very small sum — about a
franc — there were some whose fate was far less merciful.
The most familiar and the most picturesque presenta-
tion of Vincent de Paul commemorates his action with
regard to the deserted children of Paris. The suggestion
that he rescued individual children and carried them
through the streets to a haven of care and kindness is not
borne out by evidence; but, if inaccurate in detail, it is
founded on reality. In a very true sense he carried the
foundlings from certain death to safe protection. The
varied avocations of the Superior of S. Lazare took him
to every part of Paris, and brought him into contact with
all sorts and conditions of persons. In course of time
his attention was directed to the horrible system in use
at the Couche S. Landry. So abominable were the prac-
tices of the widow and her servants that it is hard to
understand M. Vincent's delay in dealing with her. There
* On " Tile de la Cite " near Notre Dame.
t Felibien, " Hist, de la Ville de Paris," liv. xx.
88 VINCENT DE PAUL
was no sudden raid and summary expulsion of the
offenders. M. Vincent adhered to his law of prudence,
and by degrees withdrew the unhappy infants from
hands unworthy to have care of them without any public
sensation or excitement. Eventually he abolished the
horror and organized a noble substitute, but he medi-
tated on the best method of advance, and waited for
God's guidance long after he discovered the abuse, and
when he began to act it was very slowly.
The Ladies of Charity were sentimental as well as
generous, and here sentiment had full scope. He could
rely on their support of his new enterprise. Each child
rescued from the couche in the Rue S. Landry was saved
from death, and — as they were all believed to be un-
baptized — their salvation appeared to a true daughter of
the Church to be not only for time, but also for eternity.
A house was hired and made ready outside the Porte
S. Victor, in the near neighbourhood of the College des
Bons Enfants, and as a beginning twelve babies were
established under the care of the Sisters of Charity. It
seems to have been generally understood that this
foundation was specially dear to the heart of M. Vincent.
It is told of him that he would appear among the babies
at all sorts of unexpected times, that he knew each
individually, and mourned the death of any of them with
a definite regret. That his adopted family should in-
crease and the house in the Rue S. Landry become
tenantless was his constant desire, and even the liberality
of the Ladies of Charity could not keep pace with his
enthusiasm.
If we remember that when the foundlings were under
normal conditions the mortality among them was no
longer great, and that almost every day brought a fresh
claim, it is easy to understand that the most generous
of women might draw back from so immense a burden.
But M. Vincent's persuasions at length proved irre-
sistible ; those who already gave so much taxed themselves
further, and the Ladies and the Sisters of Charity under-
THE ORDERING OF CHARITY 89
took the entire charge of the foundlings in Paris. The
Queen's interest was aroused, and a subscription came
from the royal purse. Mme. de Miramion, one of the most
notable of that large-hearted band without whose help
M. Vincent's reforms must often have been baulked, gave
lavishly, and the scheme was definitely set on foot.
For thirty years this immense burden was supported
by those who made of it a labour of love. There could be
no stronger tribute to the power that M. Vincent wielded
than the fact of their perseverance in it. To him the
life of each one of these children was precious.
There was, it must be acknowledged, a moment of
crisis when the work had lost all novelty and the hearts
of those who supported it were stirred by the miseries
of the starving people in Lorraine. Money was needed
to save those who suffered from the horrors of an invaded
territory, and money that was spent in one direction
could not be given in another. The expense of the
foundlings was steadily on the increase ; they were cost-
ing 40,000 livres, and the Ladies of Charity were looking
towards other fields.
M. Vincent summoned one of those assemblies which,
under his management, seldom failed to fulfil their
purpose. He gathered his Ladies of Charity and repre-
sented to them the necessity of a definite decision.
" You are free, ladies," he said; " but before you make
up your minds I ask you to consider what it is you have
done, and what it is you are going to do. Your loving
care has preserved the lives of a great number of children,
who, without your help, would have been lost in time,
and, it may be, also in eternity. These innocent beings
have learnt as their first lesson to know and to serve
God. Some of them are beginning to work and to be
independent of anyone's assistance. So good a beginning
surely foretells results that will be even better." But on
this occasion the Ladies of Charity were unusually hard
to convince, and M. Vincent was moved to make an appeal
which has become celebrated. " Remember, ladies," he
90 VINCENT DE PAUL
said, " that out of compassion and charity you adopted
these little ones as your children. You have been their
mothers by grace ever since their natural mothers de-
serted them. Make up your minds now if you will
desert them also. You must cease to be their mothers
and become their judges. It is for you to say whether
they are to live or die. I will ask you to give your
votes; it is time to pronounce sentence on them and to
make sure that you have no mercy to spare for them.
They live if you continue to take care of them; they
must (on the other hand) perish inevitably if you give
them up. It is impossible to deny what you know by
experience to be true."
M. Vincent won his cause; the resources of the Ladies
of Charity were taxed a little farther, and the Foundling
Hospital continued.
Not until 1670 did the State resume its responsibility.
The foundlings were provided for on the same founda-
tion as the children of the Hospital of the Trinity, and
the two establishments in the Faubourg S. Antoine and
in the vicinity of the Hotel Dieu ceased to depend on
voluntary support. The relief to the resources of the
Ladies of Charity was great, but so closely had their
charge become interwoven with their life that, when
it was withdrawn, they were resentful, and only
resumed their visits to the children after a considerable
interval. By that time M. Vincent himself had been
dead for nearly ten years, and that extraordinary fervour
of personal love and personal service which animated all
who were within the range of his influence had become
no more than a memory in the minds of a few. The
principle of charity remained and bore good fruit, but
the idea that Christ Himself was to be found in every
suffering atom of humanity was no longer a burning
truth that made all counter-argument or calculation
frivolous. And the future of the foundlings was therefore
safest with State officials who would now be impelled
to do their duty by an awakened and watchful public.
CHAPTER V
RENAUDOT, THE FRIEND OF THE POOR
Tradition has been formed by a very simple method
in relation to the philanthropy and social reiorm of the
seventeenth century. Vincent de Paul, having been once
recognized as philanthropist and social reformer, becomes
responsible for all the good works undertaken; anything
that was accomplished outside the range of his influence
has either been attributed to him or else ignored as un-
worthy of serious attention. His contemporaries were
probably quite sincere in their presentation of him, and
his achievement was so astounding as to give sufficient
excuse for ignoring the attempts of others ; nevertheless,
his life bears such close relation to his time that it can
only suffer by the suppression of fact. During the years
of his greatest activity we must recognize that the instinct
of reform in social conditions was alive even where it
received no stimulus from the Church's law of charity.
It was prompting vigorous activities in those who were
not outwardly pledged to the service of Christ, and un-
doubtedly labour in the service of others was separable
from religious practice in the days of Vincent de Paul,
even as it is to-day.
It is well, then, to find the real place held by M. Vin-
cent among the philanthropic movements of his time,
and incidentally to pay tribute to the independent effort
of a layman in the cause of far-reaching social reform.
In any picture of those days it should be impossible to
overlook the personality of Theophraste Renaudot,* that
* See Eugene Hatin, "Theophraste Renaudot. " Gaston Bon-
nefont, " Un Oublie — T. Renaudot, 15 86- 165 3." Gilles de la
Tourette, " Renaudot d'apres des Documents Inedits."
91
92 VINCENT DE PAUL
learned doctor and gentleman of Louvain whose originality
and enterprise gave birth to schemes of such practical
value that one can hardly set a limit to their develop-
ment. The sympathies of M. Vincent were drawn in just
the same direction, but he and Renaudot never seem to
have come in touch. This fact has its own significance,
for it points to the very clear division between the work
of the social reformer and that of the priest. Whatever
M. Vincent did had as its ultimate purpose the conver-
sion or confirming of souls; all his pity for the bodily
sufferings of the people was overshadowed by a supreme
desire to share with them the spiritual joy which was his
own. He could not ignore their bodily necessities, and
he was so true a servant of Christ that he suffered in the
sufferings he witnessed, and was constant in his attempts
to solve the problem of poverty which in its most ghastly
form was presented to the thinkers of the seventeenth
century. But the desire for that solution was never all-
important; always there was present with him the convic-
tion that the knowledge of Christ is a benefit far greater
than deliverance from pain or satisfaction of earthly desire.
It would be better to depose him from his place as the
leader and patron of practical philanthropists than to forget
for a moment that he was in the truest sense a mystic,
holding things unseen incomparably more precious than
any good that might be accomplished by the most devoted
of charitable workers under the most perfect of committees.
This was not the point of view of Theophraste Renau-
dot. But though it was applied to securing tangible
benefits, and those only for his fellows, the self-devotion
of the doctor was hardly less than that of the priest.
The priest, coming to Paris while Marie de Medici held
the reins of government, was appalled by the indifference
of the people to such things as concern eternity; the
doctor was seized with consternation at their ignorance
of practical matters affecting their immediate welfare.
Both held that the evils they deplored were remediable,
RENAUDOT, THE FRIEND OF THE POOR 93
and faced the vast array of difficulties bravely, the priest
relying on direction and support from God, the doctor
appealing to his generation in the name of humanity and
common sense. *Their paths, therefore, remain parallel,
till that of Renaudot was blocked, and his enemies suc-
ceeded in deposing him from the pedestal of public bene-
factor on which he had fairly earned his place. To realize
the true value of his attempt, it is necessary to picture
an industrial population without employment agencies,
without advertisements, without auction-rooms where a
private owner could dispose of his goods, and without
pawnshops. None of these things had any real existence
when Renaudot came from Lou vain to Paris. One
attempt had been made, it is true, to establish an office
where workmen from the country could hear of work,
but as those for whom it was intended did not know of
its existence, it was not of notable utility.
When the harvest was bad, or when the army had
passed by, destroying crops and commandeering cattle,
the country-folk had to face starvation or seek refuge in
the towns. In the provinces their lot was less desperate,
but Paris had no hospitality to spare for new-comers ; and
though their course of action was an inevitable effect of
public and universally recognized disasters, no effort
seems to have been made to provide for the victims or
prevent them from becoming ensnared by the gangs of
malefactors of both sexes infesting the poorer parts of the
capital. It was not the fashion to give much thought to
such people, and in those days of the first Regency there
were many absorbing topics for the thoughts of those
who held power or ever hoped to hold it. Sweeping regu-
lations to expel or shut up all thieves and wastrels might
be passed, and from time to time enforced, but, as we
have seen, there was no idea of treating a vagabond as
an individual, or of offering him the chance to win back
his place in the social order, lost very frequently by reason
of national calamities.
94 VINCENT DE PAUL
Theophraste Renaudot belonged to a profession which
did not aspire to power in the State. The nobles and the
prominent lawyers — the noblesse de la robe — might struggle
for control over the affairs of the nation, but the doctors
<: went their own way on a path that was often both lucra-
/ tive and pleasant. In Louvain and the surrounding
country Renaudot won for himself great respect and
popularity. He had a capacity for independent thought
and for encouraging others to use their brains, and his
fame became familiar to Pere Joseph, and was brought
to the notice of Richelieu. His practice had given him
knowledge of the needs of the people, and he wrote a
" Trait e des Pauvres." Richelieu's mission was first of
all to exalt and protect the throne, and afterwards to
raise the condition of life for the rank and file of the
King's subjects. He found in Renaudot a man whose
ambitions caused no misgiving, and whose station gave
him opportunities of knowledge denied to the most astute
of First Ministers. In 1625 Renaudot obeyed the sum-
mons of the Cardinal and came to Paris. He was to be
Commissaire General des Pauvres and an honorary
physician to the King. Thus he could begin his experi-
ments with the support of royal patronage. The first of
these was the establishment of the Bureau d'Adresse.
This was the practical exposition of his most vigorous
theory on the social question — namely, that it is a grievous
infringement of the rights of the individual to force him
to an employment without possibility of choice, as was
done by the regulations for the treatment of vagrants.
He chose as headquarters a house at the corner of the
Rue Calandre, which looked on the Marche Neuf. Here,
at the Sign of the Cock, in the very centre of labouring
Paris, he entered on his tremendous task.*
At the Sign of the Cock, from eight to twelve in the
morning, from two to six in the afternoon, advice was
* A statue of Renaudot commemorates the site of his house on
the He de la Cite.
RENAUDOT, THE FRIEND OF THE POOR 95
given to all who desired work . Employers were welcomed
and the details of their needs entered in a book. Masters
of workshops were invited to send notice of their vacancies ;
those who were changing their abode might register their
new addresses ; those who were desiring a tenant might
come in contact with those that sought a habitation.
Advice on every subject of practical utility might be
obtained, and infinite pains were taken to make the
advice the best available. For those who could afford
to pay, a charge of three sous was made ; but to the very
poor, for whose benefit the Bureau was originally con-
ceived, its help was given gratis. There is no room for
doubt that Renaudot was inspired throughout his career
by an earnest wish to lessen the suffering that is the fruit
of ignorance, and to encourage self-respect and self-
reliance in the class where those qualities are most un-
common. His methods show that he had grasped the
disabilities of his poorer neighbours, had weighed them,
and formed his judgment with a justice and precision
that would have qualified him to take his place as a
leader among social reformers in a later age. A glance
at the prospectus that heralded the opening of his Bureau
d'Adresse reveals his point of view:*
1. "To prevent poverty and mendicity in the future,"
he wrote, " the best precaution is the prompt supply, to
those in danger of these evils, of employment for their
industry and skill, so that none may be forced into the
miserable last resource of begging for lack of other means
to help themselves."
2. " According to S. Bernard, really good advice is the
greatest benefit we can confer on anyone. This does not
apply only to the poor, but the poor, being the most in
need, may receive most assistance from it."
3. " It is for this reason that we begin with a petition
to each and all to suggest everything for the help and
assistance of the poor that may be of service either to
* See Eugene Hatin, " Theophraste Renaudot."
96 VINCENT DE PAUL
their general condition or to particular individuals — any-
thing that may aid them to obtain shelter, food, clothing,
attendance in sickness, or the means to earn their living,
which last is the most necessary of all charities. "
With the actual dispensation of charity the Bureau
would have nothing to do, but the charitably disposed
might leave an address to be given to a necessitous person
of whatever type they chose. The kindling of the spirit
of charity and the extension of the knowledge of the poor
was, indeed, one of Renaudot's objects, but his office
towards the poor was to be kept carefully from connec-
tion with almsgiving. He meant that, in a modern
phrase, M they should be helped to help themselves."
The Bureau won immediate celebrity. It is curious to
turn from the tentative methods of Vincent de Paul, to
whom success came always as a surprise, to Renaudot,
with his flourish of trumpets, his sensational ventures, and
swift plunges into notoriety. The Bureau d'Adresse
was amply sufficient to satisfy the instinct of enterprise
even in a man of energy. Its utility grew. All new-
comers were sent, by the King's authority, to register
their names there if they were not provided with work.
The difficulty of arranging bargains when owners and
purchasers lived at a great distance from each other sug-
gested a sort of auction-room ; the desire to borrow small
sums on security of goods that might be kept in pledge
inaugurated a sort of pawnshop. These institutions were
afterwards separately adopted and perfected. Renaudot,
who had been in Italy, had seen the beginning of the
monte di ftietd there, and he applied the principle to the
needs of the people with whom he was in constant inter-
course. It was natural that the offices in the Rue
Calandre should become just such a centre of usefulness
as Renaudot had pictured, and that a stream of men of
greatly differing types and fortunes continually passed
through them. Watching them as they came and went,
talking to them as he transacted business, listening to
RENAUDOT, THE FRIEND OF THE POOR 97
snatches of their talk one with another, Renaudot became
inspired by a new idea.
At all times scandal flies as swiftly as ill news, and in
those days the knowledge of a pungent and satisfactory
scandal was assisted in its course by the circulation of
evil little leaflets known as " Nouvelles a la Main."
These, albeit their authorship was always hidden and
their contents were flagrantly libellous, were bought and
eagerly discussed, but beyond these there was no method
of purveying information that concerned the public. To
Renaudot the interests of his fellow-citizens was synony-
mous with the interests of his Bureau. He saw the need
for an accredited journal of events, and at the same time
the host of applicants at his sale-rooms suggested that a
price list of their contents would be of service to intend-
ing buyers. He had easy access to the secret counsels of
Pere Joseph and the Cardinal, and he laid his new idea
before them. Richelieu listened, comprehended, and
approved, and undertook to incline the King to do the
same. Another royal patent was issued to Theophraste
Renaudot, and on May 30, 1631, the first Gazette, con-
taining current news and a catalogue of goods for sale,
was issued from the Sign of the Cock in the Rue Calandre.
This was the birthday of journalism in France, as well as
of the system of advertisement. In England and in Italy
the need for news was at the same moment producing the
first attempts at a newspaper, but Theophraste Renaudot
was the first to combine advertisement with the supply
of news. Probably there was not one of the citizens of
Paris who could understand what an important move-
ment was being heralded from the Sign of the Cock.
Renaudot himself was as anxious about the notices
furthering bargains between his clients as about the news
that preceded them, and Richelieu, absorbed in his en-
deavour to disentangle the royal prerogative from the
criticism and contempt that had been earned for it by Marie
de' Medici, never showed a full realization of the power
7
98 VINCENT DE PAUL
of the new weapon put into his hands. Possibly the true
spirit of journalism is in its essence combative, and can-
not develop without opposition. Renaudot had been
granted a monopoly. No news was to be circulated in
printed form except by the Gazette, and the news in the
Gazette came fresh from the Louvre and the Palais Car-
dinal. Loyal subjects thus had the privilege of buying
for the modest sum of one sou the literary efforts not only
of the First Minister, but of the King himself, and might
rest assured that all the information imparted to them
was made public with the full approval of their rulers.
So long as the Gazette had no rival, it answered its purpose
of pleasing the people and strengthening the influence of
Richelieu, but to maintain the monopoly of so brilliant
an enterprise required the support of the law. Other
news sheets were issued and found a ready market, and
Renaudot could not hope for justice in the courts, because,
as the partisan of the Cardinal, he was the enemy of the
noblesse de la robe.
The whole position is difficult to realize after a lapse of
nearly three centuries. The flagrant corruptness of the
magistrates is hardly less astonishing than the short-
sightedness of the autocrat who thought that all editor-
ship could be vested in one individual. Renaudot him-
self seems to have had some gifts as a leader-writer, but
when keen wits were pitted against him, and the tremen-
dous claim of his other avocations made it hard to com-
pete in a war of words, he did not attempt to employ
mercenaries for his defence. Not until his sons reigned
in his stead did journalism become a bread-winning trade
for starving genius, and by that time the city had settled
down to the calmer times of the Great Monarch's maturity.
Renaudot's fortunes were bound up with the Gazette.
He retained it when he lost all else, and so far as he is
remembered at all, it is in connection with it that his
memory survives. But though it was effective in lessen-
ing the gulf between differing classes by increasing the
RENAUDOT, THE FRIEND OF THE POOR 99
interests that could be held in common, it had not that
direct bearing on the daily life of the poor which charac-
terized every other enterprise of his. Of his real achieve-
ments the last, still to come, was at once the most useful
to the poor he loved and the most fatal to himself.
As agent, as man of business, and as journalist, Renau-
dot acquitted himself well, but he never ceased to be a
doctor or to regard the sufferings of humanity from the
point of view of one who seeks to cure. He was not a
religious man, and close scrutiny into the detail of his
life reveals that some crusades against abuses undertaken
on the purest motives were maintained in the spirit of
fiercest rivalry and partisanship. He was born and bred
a Huguenot, and the fact that State patronage was neces-
sary to carry out his projects is likely to have accelerated
his conversion to Catholic belief. Nevertheless, when
confronted with distress that had no necessary connection
with his own interests, and no natural claim upon his
sympathy, he was moved to efforts for its relief so strenu-
ous and so self-denying that no follower of Vincent de
Paul could have outdone him. With his ardour, too,
went practical knowledge such as was rarely possessed
by the religious enthusiast. If a Catholic Confraternity
could have so enlarged its limits as to benefit by his ex-
perience and power of initiative, the rugged outline that
is left to us of Renaudot the Combatant might have been
softened by the gentler traditions of fellow-workers, while
his work itself, supported by the tremendous influence of
the Church, might have weathered the fiercest violence of
opposition.
For his last undertaking, far more than for his Bureau
and Pawnshop, or even his Gazette, survival under the
best auspices was desirable. To Renaudot the doctor,
the needless suffering caused by neglected illness made a
special appeal. But in his day the Hotel Dieu was so
overcrowded that patients admitted were not likely to
profit by their sojourn there, and numbers were turned
ioo VINCENT DE PAUL
away for lack of space. The medical profession occupied
itself with those who could offer a fee rather than with
the rejected applicants at the hospital, and there was
actually no means by which a poor man could obtain
medical assistance. The parish doctor, the dispensary,
and the hospital out-patients' department, were unknown,
and the amateur suggestions of the herbalist of a religious
house was the only resource for those who could not afford
a doctor's fee.
Renaudot required another of those royal patents which
it was so easy for him to obtain; he required also the
practical support of learned doctors who sympathized
with his experiment. It was a result of his work during
the foregoing years that he could command all he needed,
and in 1640 there was opened the first " Consultation
Charitable " in the largest room of his premises at the
Sign of the Cock. Here every Tuesday morning (at a
later time it was every day) certain doctors assembled,
sometimes to the number of fifteen, and the afflicted
persons desiring to consult them were admitted. If the
case were serious, the doctor to whom the patient had
applied could claim to consult with others, but the pro-
ceedings were very carefully ordered. Every applicant
had a numbered ticket given to him, and by that number
was summoned to take his turn, and medicines were sup-
plied from a dispensary in the house. In due course
arrangements were made for seeking out the sick in their
own homes, but this was chiefly out of regard for the needs
of the women (no women were admitted to the consulting-
room at the Sign of the Cock), and the real utility of the
" Consultation Charitable " was as an established centre
of medical advice. When we consider prevailing condi-
tions, it is not without reason that we term it the crown-
ing achievement of Renaudot' s career. It was also an
instrument of his downfall. Already his success in other
directions had won him a host of enemies, and this tre-
mendous innovation on the practices of the medical pro-
y
RENAUDOT, THE FRIEND OF THE POOR 101
fession left him open to the attack of a powerful clique.
While the " Consultation Charitable " was still a novelty,
Cardinal Richelieu died, and Renaudot found himself
without protection. The Cardinal contrived to maintain
a hold on the small affairs that concerned the citizens of
Paris, while he directed the destinies of nations, and it
was in the petty interests and intrigues of professional
men and scribblers that the removal of his iron hand was
felt the soonest. All those who had resented the ascen-
dancy of Renaudot found themselves free to turn on him,
and those of his own profession were eager in their on-
slaught. He was overwhelmed in a storm of opposition,
and the great work for the lightening of the poor man's
burden, which he had carried on at the Sign of the Cock,
came to an end.
Public opinion would not permit the suppression of the
Gazette, but only this was left to him. The " Consulta-
tion Charitable " took form under another name and in
other hands, and some of his best endeavours seemed to
be lost in utter failure. Yet there can be no doubt that
Paris was the better for the years he spent in the Rue
Calandre, and the clamour that raged round Renaudot
and his inventions may have carried to some deaf ears a
new suggestion of the duty a man owes to his neighbour.
Perhaps, also, when his enemies trumpeted round the
city the news that he was dead, and that he — the cele-
brated favourite of the Cardinal — had died " gueux comme
un peintre," the scornful phrase may have borne with it
the thought that this was the most honourable ending to
the life of the poor man's friend. Thus, neglected and
almost beggared, robbed of all credit from work that was
destined to benefit ceaselessly those whose need was
greatest, Theophraste Renaudot came to the end of his
task. He is worthy of remembrance, not only for the
new ideas which by his courage and cleverness were made
into pivots of national life, but because he himself was
the originator of a new type. He stands in complete
102 VINCENT DE PAUL
independence of all established works of charity. Indis-
criminate almsgiving, which was always the practice of
religious houses, had no place in his schemes to help the
poor. He desired that the rich should learn respect for
the individual, and that the poor, carefully guided to the
means of self-support, should merit such respect. The
monks distributing food and money broadcast at their
convent gates, or the pious ladies forcing all and sundry
to accept their largesse in just the form they chose for
its bestowal, had not as yet the faintest inkling of the
high ideal of social amity towards which Renaudot was
striving. But in those days an innovator could not hope
to stand by his own strength. The waves of party feeling
ebbed and flowed too strongly for a solitary figure to keep
foothold. The benefactors of the poor were introduced to
the people by the Church, and Renaudot, though he was
protected by Richelieu, deferred to him as First Minister
rather than as Cardinal. His philanthropy, we must
repeat, was not connected with religion.
The full force of that fact is obscured by the vast
numbers of his prototypes in the more recent centuries,
but it had tremendous significance at the time. Prac-
tical piety was the fashion, even in high places, and the
" Consultation Charitable," as well as other efforts dear
to their founder's heart, might have had support strong
enough to baffle all attack from jealous doctors or petti-
fogging lawyers. But Renaudot would not be pious. It
is probable that his close knowledge of the poor revealed
to him the prevalence of hypocrisy where charities were
administered in the customary way, and he kept sternly
aloof from the Church or the Church's methods. Later
generations have discovered that the religious and the
utilitarian spirit are not necessarily inimical, but it is
idle to speculate on the possible result of combination
between Renaudot and M. Vincent. Without eclat or
eventual profit to himself, the layman struggled through
his task, and because of the limitations that he set for
RENAUDOT, THE FRIEND OF THE POOR 103
himself, was freed from many complications. The priest,
aiming higher, was oftener deceived, and had, perhaps,
more reason for deep discouragement; yet, allowing for
the power he derived from the Church, and the special
patronage lavished on him because he was a priest, it
must still be admitted that the sum of his accomplishment
was infinitely the greater of the two.
CHAPTER VI
M. VINCENT'S FELLOW-LABOURERS
There is certainly no opportunity for confusion of result
between Vincent de Paul and Theophraste Renaudot;
their ambition and their field of labour are so distinct
that the biographers of each make no allusion to the
other. But this is not the case with all the contemporaries
of M. Vincent; there were some who worked on the same
lines as hS did, and yet worked independently, and there
is every reason to believe that of the reforms attributed
to him a certain number were brought about by other
agencies.
The difficulty of determining on the borderland be-
tween his achievements and those of others is due to the
fact that there existed, at the time of his greatest activity
in Paris, a body of persons, like-minded with himself in
general aim, who had agreed to envelop all they were
doing for the welfare of their neighbour in the pro-
foundest mystery. While they worked secretly, Vincent
de Paul was striving for the same objects under the eye
of the public, and it was inevitable that he should obtain
credit for success which was really theirs. It would be
an impossible task to select from the list of his philan-
thropic triumphs those which from the first depended
wholly on himself ; but no faithful chronicle of him should
ignore the great society of fellow-labourers bound to him
by common sympathies, yet separated from him and
from S. Lazare by many essential differences of opinion
and intention.
It was in March, 1630, that four friends arranged
104
<y (L/u^r.
Kwsr&^Jumfa&?)
M. VINCENT'S FELLOW-LABOURERS 105
together to meet weekly at the Capuchin Convent in the
Faubourg S. Honore. One of them, Philippe d'Angoumois,
was himself a Capuchin; another was a priest (destined
in the future to be a Bishop) ; the other two were laymen,
Henri de Pichery, gentleman of the King's household, and
M. de Ventadour, who was celebrated for his austere
piety. Their intention was to found a Society of priests
and laymen pledged to protect the faith and labour for
the poor. They invited others to join them, and a year
after their first meeting a name was decided upon : they
were to be the Compagnie du Tres Saint Sacrement de
VAutel, which title took a shorter form as the Compagnie
du Saint-Sacrement* At the same time they fixed their
Constitution. Every three months a Superior, a Director,
a Secretary, and six Councillors were to be elected from
among their number. The Director was a priest, but the
Superior was generally a layman; he acted as chairman
of their weekly meetings, and was responsible for carrying
out the resolutions arrived at. The meetings opened and
closed with prayer; the business was laid before the
assembly by the Secretary and discussed; in cases where
relief was needed the amount to be given was put to the
vote. The practical was followed by the spiritual ; when
the end of the agenda was reached, a passage, previously
decided on, from the Bible or the " Imitation of Christ "
was read, and two of the associates gave their reflections
upon it. It will be seen that these meetings bore very
close resemblance to the " Conferences " at S. Lazare,
the chief external difference being the exclusion of lay-
men from the latter ; and it appears curious that the scheme
that centred at S . Lazare should have had such extraordinary
influence when we reflect that it came into being after the
Company of the Holy Sacrament was firmly established.
* The full history of this institution will be found in a volume
edited by R. P. Beauchet Filleau, " Annales de la Compagnie
de Saint Sacrement par le Cte. Rene de Voyer d'Argenson," and
in " La Cabale des Devots " (Raoul Allier).
106 VINCENT DE PAUL
The object of the Company is set forth in an official
circular as follows :
" To undertake the promotion of all that is good, and
the suppression of evil in every way possible, at all times,
in all places, and in relation to every sort of person.
The Company has no limits or restrictions save those of
ordinary prudence and caution. Its work is not only
the relief of the needy, the sick, the prisoner, and the un-
happy, it is concerned with assisting missions and semin-
aries, with the conversion of heretics, and the propagation
of the faith all over the world; it must also endeavour to
abolish every sort of abuse, impiety, and blasphemy; it
must, in short, aim at preventing or remedying every
evil; at furthering all that is for the good of the public
or of individuals; at charging itself with all good work
that is difficult and has been neglected or given up."
There was sufficient " abuse, impiety, and blasphemy "
practised to give ample scope for the energies of the
Company; there were, besides, conditions of misery to
which there is no real parallel in modern times — cruelty
and injustice in the prisons, horrors of neglect in the
hospitals, a huge submerged class for whom there was no
chance of self-support or self-respect, and therewith an
ignorance of all useful knowledge, both temporal and
spiritual, which left a human being on a level with a
beast. It is plain that the fortunate class was awakening
to a sense of its responsibilities, and that it had strong
men as leaders ; yet where so many influences were tending
in the right direction, it is impossible to determine on the
particular inspiration of any individual movement. But
all reforms contain an element of offence, and the true
conservative will never have difficulty in finding flaws in
an untried and novel system. The Company of the
Blessed Sacrament existed to defend the weak, but it
was also part of its programme to attack the strong, and
there is no period of social history wherein the strong
have shown themselves resigned to concerted and serious
M. VINCENT'S FELLOW-LABOURERS 107
attack. Under Richelieu, and during the Regency that
followed, passions were stirred easily, and were apt to
find violent expression; beneath the surface of elaborate
manners were the instincts that brought about the orgies
of the Fronde. It is easy to see, then, that an open
crusade against the extortion of landowners and the op-
pressive judgments of the magistrates would have re-
sulted in such warfare between parties of differing opinion
as must infallibly have counteracted any benefit that the
aggressors were seeking. It was, however, the distinction
of the Company of the Blessed Sacrament that it did not
engage in open warfare or make appeal to public opinion :
it was to labour secretly, and each one of its members
pledged himself to conceal the fact of its existence. Out-
side its limits no one knew who its members were, and
when a blow was struck in a good cause, or some flagrant
injustice exposed and counteracted, no one could say for
certain whether a member of the secret society was
responsible or not. This rigorous and almost miraculous
preservation of secrecy explains the silence of all memoir
writers concerning it, and the lack of any reference from
M. Vincent. It is supposed that he was himself a member
of the Company, but when we remember his own weekly
" Conferences " at S. Lazare, and regard also the vast
responsibility that rested on him as the head of two
growing Communities, we can only consider his member-
ship as nominal and honorary. Among the active com-
panions, however, may be numbered two of the intimate
friends of M. Vincent — de Condren, Superior-General of
the Oratory, and Jean Jacques Olier, afterwards the
celebrated Cure of S. Sulpice — and the fact of their mem-
bership is sufficient of itself to prove that the aims and
practices of the Company, at least in its early years, were
above reproach.
As its name implies, the Company was more spiritual
in its rule and object than a Confraternity of Charity; it
was its essential charge " to promote the adoration — at
io8 VINCENT DE PAUL
all times and in all places — of Christ present in the
Blessed Sacrament," and it was part of the spirit instilled
into its members that even as the Presence of Christ was
hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, so was His Presence
with them to be hidden by their semblance of ordinary
life, and yet to go out as a conquering force against the
sins and miseries of the world.
It is not very easy — in a more prosaic period — to
picture the situation ; most probably every pious layman
in society was a member of the Company when it was at
its highest level. There was an infection of piety in the
air ; the austere adherents of Port Royal, as well as the
devout parishioners of S. Sulpice, belonged to a race
that could not have maintained existence in the Court of
Henri IV., but was able to breathe freely in the atmosphere
of mingled licence and devotion that surrounded Anne
of Austria. And the man who, by original instinct or
violent conversion, was devout, obtained through the
Company a new zest for life. Instead of facing a long
future that was, by a process of self-repression, to be
made barren of excitement, he found himself armed with
a constant incentive both to watchfulness and activity.
The lively imagination of a cultivated Frenchman was
touched by the mystery of the pledge he had taken, and
his powers of observation were sharpened by the thought
that any moment and any incident of his ordinary avoca-
tions might reveal a claim by which to prove his mettle
and show himself worthy of his membership. When
M. Vincent's schemes depended on the influence of the
magistrates and the tolerance of the nobles, it is very
likely that he owed to the Company the astonishing com-
pliance and support that he met with; the Ladies of
Charity could hardly have persisted in their novel and
unconventional pursuits if the Company had not pre-
pared the way by accepting for themselves a law of
personal service; and many a great enterprise, in the
provinces as well as in the capital, must have been stifled
M. VINCENT'S FELLOW-LABOURERS 109
at birth for lack of funds if there had not been a spring
of generosity, out of the sight of the public eye, that
supplied each need as it arose. Some circumstances in
the career of M. Vincent, that strain credulity if regarded
by themselves, are explained by the existence of the
Company of the Blessed Sacrament. Reformers and
philanthropists in every other generation are met with
such baffling forms of opposition that the constant sup-
port accorded to Vincent de Paul may seem to throw a
shade of unreality over the chronicle of his labours. But,
in fact, in outside achievement he must often only have
gathered what others had sown. If there were need, we
might find here another reason for insisting on the
superiority of his hidden and spiritual service over that
which had earned him his renown ; for, great as he was in
originating and organizing, there are years when it is
impossible to decide how much of the success of his
philanthropy was due to himself and how much to his
mysterious assistants.
The Company of the Blessed Sacrament was not
destined for long life. It was the expression of thoughts
latent in many minds that might without it have borne
no fruit, but it was the movement of a generation, and
when the best years of its founders were passed, it had not,
as an organism, the strength to control the ill-directed
zeal of some of its members. The spirit of the Samaritan
was exchanged for that of the inquisitor, and the energies
of the Companions were directed to the pursuit and
conviction of the heretic rather than to the relief and
consolation of the oppressed. It was Cardinal Mazarin
who suppressed the Company on the plea that secret
associations were illegal, but when he did so the moment
was already reached when Society could no longer
tolerate the Companions and their methods. The sup-
pression of evil was as much a part of their original pro-
gramme as the promotion of good ; but the man who will
denounce an associate, as soon as their intimacy gives
no VINCENT DE PAUL
him sufficient evidence to do so, is apt to be regarded as
a spy, and the excellence of his motive will not protect
him from subsequent unpopularity.
The real glory of the Company had departed long
before its actual end, and it was commonly referred to
as La Cabale des Devots, which scornful nickname is
adopted by the most recent of its historians. Death or
disagreement had removed from its roll of membership
the strong men who could have preserved its original
purity, and the fine enthusiasm which it had fostered for
a while vitalized other fields of labour in which it had no
part; this, rather than the despotic interference of
Mazarin, must be regarded as the reason of its downfall.
The degree to which the Company affected the age
must always remain a matter of conjecture; probably it
was very important, and the lay element in its member-
ship lent it a strength that could not have been attained
through a movement that was solely ecclesiastical. It
stood for the recognition of Christian obligation, and so
long as such recognition was confined to the clergy, there
was small hope of social progress. Vincent de Paul —
except during his brief experience at Chatillon — avoided
what is known as Society, his touch with the leisured
class depended on their initiative; the natural course of
his life never brought him into contact with the heedless
majority. It is therefore plain that there was immense
scope for labour altogether outside his domain, while at
the same time his enterprises were so far-reaching that
any movement that made for righteousness could not fail
sooner or later to affect and further his purposes. This,
vague though it be, seems the only satisfactory summing-
up of his relations with the Company of the Blessed
Sacrament. That during his lifetime there was no
rivalry or suggestion of rivalry is absolutely clear. Again
and again we find the Companions — lay or clerical —
working in intimate union with the Mission Priests, and
the Convict Hospital at Marseilles, which was founded
M. VINCENT'S FELLOW-LABOURERS in
by the Company of the Blessed Sacrament, was placed
from the first under the direction of the Lazarists.
There would appear to be something inherent in
historical research that fosters a spirit of controversy,
but Vincent de Paul is an ill-chosen object for attack, and
the learned writers who in recent times have set them-
selves to prove that he was not responsible for the charit-
able movement of his age, or for the attempt to educate
the priesthood, forget that he would himself have depre-
cated any credit that might accrue to him from the
success of any enterprise. To defend his reputation, it is
sufficient to let the well-established facts connected with
him speak for themselves, even if in considering them,
it is well to remind ourselves that his efforts were not
isolated, and that the prominence that has been given to
him by popular sentiment as well as formal sanctification
is somewhat deceptive. We admit freely that among his
contemporaries there were men who would have stirred
their fellows to an effort for reform — social and spiritual —
if he had never escaped from slavery. Of the laymen
enough has been said already, but there remains a priest
whose mark on life in Paris has never been obliterated;
he was the friend of Vincent de Paul, the partner in some
of his strongest desires, yet a labourer in a somewhat
different field — Jean Jacques Olier, the Founder of the
Seminary of S. Sulpice.*
South of the river there lay a populous and much-
frequented quarter comprised in the ancient parish of
S. Sulpice. Here stood the Hotel de Conde, and the
Palace of the Luxembourg, owned by Gaston d'Orleans,
the King's uncle; here also dwelt M. de Liancourt, the
celebrated adherent of Port Royal, and Mme. d'Aiguillon,
to whose generosity M. Vincent's charities owed so much,
besides many other magnificent personages. But it was
also the home of a very different race of beings — the
worst houses that Paris contained in a period of extreme
* See " Vie de Jean Jacques Olier " (l'Abb6 Faillon). 2 vols.
H2 VINCENT DE PAUL
depravity were to be found there, and year after year,
when the Fair of S. Germain was held so near the church
that the din could be heard within its walls, a fresh
stream of evil poured in for the poisoning of the people.
Inside the church, moreover, there were abuses that were
not less deplorable because they had grown customary.
Timorous ladies who desired the minimum of risk in their
pursuit of adventure used it for assignations ; the clatter
of tongues never ceased during the celebration of Mass,
and the congregation emerging from the sacred building
was greeted in the porches by vendors of disreputable
books and pictures, and by the touts of drinking booths
and gambling hells. Paris was full of evil, but the parish
of S. Sulpice was notorious as the centre of corruption.
According to public opinion then prevalent, the cure
of a parish had no real responsibility for its condition;
the Cure of S. Sulpice for many years was M. de Fiesque,
a gentleman who made no pretence of residence, but
spent the considerable emoluments of his office in other
parts of the city. He may have had some misgivings
as to the habits of his flock, however, for in 1639 we nn(*
that the priests of S. Lazare were persuaded to make an
exception to the Rule that confined their work to the
country and to preach a Mission there. The fullest
knowledge of the iniquities prevailing in the quarter
would by this means have reached M. Vincent, but we
do not know what part he played in subsequent events.
M. Olier had at one period been under his direction, and
withdrew from it because M. Vincent urged him insistently
to accept a bishopric which was offered him. His own
instincts were so strongly against obedience in this
matter that their relations could not continue on the
same footing, but their friendship never wavered, and
their divergence of opinion indicates that M. Vincent
would have chosen him for a post of difficulty. By some
means M. de Fiesque was induced to surrender his office
to M. Olier, the Seminary which already he had opened
M. VINCENT'S FELLOW-LABOURERS 113
at Vaugirard was removed to the neighbourhood of S.
Sulpice, and in 1642 M. Olier, with his two faithful friends,
du Ferrier and de Bassancourt, took up his residence as
cure.
The substitution of an energetic priest for one of in-
dolent and luxurious habits in a populous parish is not
ostensibly a sensational event. But in this instance
there were elements that made it of immense importance.
In the first place, the idea of a rich benefice like that of
S. Sulpice being held by one who intended himself to
do the work attached to it was something of a novelty.
At S. Nicholas du Chardonnet M. Bourdoise, the intimate
friend of Vincent de Paul, had set an example, but the
church itself and the possibilities of its work were of far
smaller extent than in the case of S. Sulpice. And even
more astonishing than the initial fact of a cure in
residence was the personality of the cure himself.
Jean Jacques Olier was the son of Olier de Verneuil,
who held some Court appointment under Henri IV. He
was thirty-four when he entered on his labours at S. Sul-
pice— an age when instincts of ambition are apt to be in
the ascendant. He was brilliantly gifted, and had been
very popular in society ; his relations were clamorous
in remonstrance at the step he was taking, and he must
have been aware that it was an anxious experiment. He
had had some success with mission work in the provinces,
and the need at S. Sulpice was for a perpetual Mission;
but in the interests of his own career it would obviously
have been wiser not to step off the beaten track. It was
regarded by general consent as degrading to a gentleman
to hold the position he accepted, and for a man of his
talents there was no difficulty in obtaining whatever pre-
ferment he might chocse. As we know, however, he had
refused a bishopric, and when he embarked on his enter-
prise at S. Sulpice he must have done so with some
understanding of the immense difficulties that lay ahead.
Perhaps that curious question of the social position of
8
H4 VINCENT DE PAUL
the cure was the first obstacle to be overcome; the great
folk — and there were very many of these at S. Sulpice —
were accustomed to look on the officiating priest as a de-
pendent, and resented any suggestion of authority in
virtue of his office. In 1643 a letter was written to
Vincent de Paul petitioning him to draw the attention
of the Queen to the outrageous conduct of a certain
Seigneur de Berzian, who had knocked down a priest
on the threshold of his church, and kicked and beaten
him, and in the journal of a devout woman of this same
period we find the following entry :
" It would appear that to the great personages in a
parish the cure is merely as one of their lackeys. In
truth, a good cure in his inward humility will consider
himself as the lackey of Jesus Christ, but in relation to
men he is their pastor, and, as such, honour and respect
are due to him."*
It was necessary for M. Olier to assert himself against
this position of the lackey before he could begin his
work on either class, for without the respect and support
of the rich the task of civilizing and purifying the neigh-
bourhood was an impossible one. It is to the credit of
his noble parishioners that they recognized his worth
and forgave his lack of obsequiousness. The change
wrought in a few years by M. Olier at S. Sulpice was very
remarkable. It proves that men grow sick of licence, and
turn with desire to reform. In many directions M. Vin-
cent and the Mission Priests had the same experience, but
it was not their part to reap the full harvest of their
labours ; their vocation was for movement, and they had
no opportunity of developing a theory and watching the
effects. The fame of M. Olier is chiefly due to his foun-
dation of the Seminary of S. Sulpice. He has had so
many imitators in his parochial experiment that he re-
ceives less than his share of honour on that account. But,
in fact, it was his part to prove the possibility of a con-
* " Journal of Marie Rousseau," December 4, 1643.
M. VINCENT'S FELLOW-LABOURERS 115
dition that had never been recognized, or had fallen
into disuse, and his work was carried on by others after
his death, and strengthened by many successors who were
worthy to maintain it. The influence of S. Sulpice has been
felt through many generations; it is still aflame. He
cherished an ideal — very difficult to apply under the
conditions that he found — of teaching the miserable
beings whom he drew into the great Church of S. Sulpice
to regard themselves as a family of which he was, in a
sense, the head ; and he was able to show the possi-
bilities of the relationship between a pastor and his
people in an age when any pure ideal was strange, and
to do it in such wise that it was understood as being a
closer imitation of the method of Christ than the practice
of the Religious. He lived in days when piety was con-
stantly travestied, and excitement and exaggeration
were often the main features of conversion, and he had
always to keep such dangers in view. Most of his flock,
moreover, were in the most abject ignorance, and in so
far as the Church attracted them the attraction was due
to the brilliancy of its ceremonies. The task of infusing
the idea of discipline was one of superhuman difficulty;
nevertheless, he regarded discipline as the indispensable
foundation of any real success. Neither the Church nor
the precincts of S. Sulpice were to be used for assignations,
and the ladies who came to worship were not to come in
the fashion of the day that exposed neck and shoulders
to the gaze of their neighbours. The church was the
sanctuary of the Blessed Sacrament; the first lesson for
those who came there was that they came into the royal
presence chamber — an idea that had vivid force even in
the childhood of Louis XIV. But the image of respect
for the Majesty of the King could not be carried out in
detail. At one point it broke down. In this more
sacred Presence there were no inequalities of rank; the
claim of the humblest workman was as good as that of
the owner of a palace. A commonplace such as this, how-
n6 VINCENT DE PAUL
ever, was not accepted readily. The rich man stalked
and the poor man cringed, and the fact that they were
within the walls of a church made no difference in their
mutual relations; even to suggest the possibility of
equality was an offence to the ruling class. One measure
that he adopted made him unpopular with the poor.
The Sacrament of Penance had, until then, had direct
connection with the giving of alms, but he ordered every
priest who heard confessions at S. Sulpice to warn the
needy that no money would be given to them. On the
other hand, he checked the unlawful extortion of fees
which had become customary, and so applied his disci-
pline to himself and his colleagues as searchingly as to
the laity. The fact that he roused indignant opposition
does not prove that he was unduly violent in his methods,
for the condition that he found required drastic treat-
ment. He attacked the gambling hells and houses ol
ill-fame in the immediate neighbourhood with unflinching
perseverance, and was openly desirous that the Fair of
S. Germain should be suppressed by royal command,
though it was an old-established institution, and had been
patronized by princes and nobles, as well as by their
pages and footmen, for generations.
Even so brief a summary as this will show that M. Olier's
reign at S. Sulpice was not a peaceful one. There were
constant intrigues against him and one violent outbreak,
but his personal courage was self-evident. It was ad-
mitted that he stood for righteousness against those who
upheld vice, and he earned the respect of rich and poor
by the industry with which he regulated charity and all
relief of suffering. He might make inconvenient demand
for reality in others, but it was recognized that he applied
the sharpest tests to himself, and at moments when his
authority hung in the balance the testimony of his per-
sonal life turned the scale in his favour. No doubt the
fact that he did not come of the same class as the parish
priests to whom they were accustomed helped him with
M. VINCENT'S FELLOW-LABOURERS 117
the people. He was a scholar and a gentleman. His
contemporaries record that he was extraordinarily
eloquent, and he had the gift of intuition, which taught
him how to appeal to the many widely separated grades
of humanity that came under his care.
Here, perhaps, it is worth noting a special point of
distinction between Jean Jacques Olier and Vincent de
Paul. The Cure of S. Sulpice, though he had been des-
tined from childhood for the priesthood, and had been
recognized by Francois de Sales as possessing special
vocation for it, had not always held aloof from the life
of the world. In common with many another young
abbe of aristocratic lineage, he had not regarded his
eloquence in the pulpit as a bar to the full enjoyment of
the amusements that could be obtained by the laity.
There is a legend that his conversion was partly the result
of the exclamation of Marie Rousseau — a strange and
devout prophetess of the bourgeoisie — who saw him
standing at the door of a wine-shop when the Fair of
S. Germain was in full swing, with three or four other
young abbes in mauve satin doublets, all alike forgetful
of the claim of their vocation. We do not know what
impression was made on his companions, but the brief
"Ah, messieurs, que vous me donnez de peine!" of the
old devote had extraordinary effect upon Olier. In the
sequel he was ordained priest, and passed into the hands
of M. Vincent. But he had knowledge of the renuncia-
tion that he claimed of others — a knowledge which
M. Vincent could not possess in the same way. And as
life went on and the mystic in him developed, the past
that nothing can obliterate taught him a depth of peni-
tence which, to those who knew him intimately, was a
cause of wonder. It is likely that on those who had no
intimate knowledge of him it had an effect so strong as
to silence any need of explanation.
M. Olier remained ten years at S. Sulpice. He estab-
lished there something which has survived, and he
n8 VINCENT DE PAUL
trained a successor who could uphold the standard he had
set up. It is difficult now to realize that his severance
from S. Sulpice meant downfall and disgrace, but this
was actually his fate, and so heavy was the blow that he
did not long survive it. The nominal reason was due to
his own imprudence and ill-fortune. For years society
was divided by the Jansenist question, and religious
controversy was the theme for drawing-room chatter.
It was the Jansenist party — inextricably confused with
the adherents of Port Royal — who suffered ultimately,
and whose cause was the weakest. There was, however,
a brief period when they were in the ascendant. The
most popular preachers were the Jansenists preachers.
The Congregation of the Oratory — then very powerful —
supported them, and the whole de Gondi influence,
paramount in ecclesiastical affairs, was on their side.
This was the moment chosen by M. Olier to launch from
the pulpit of S. Sulpice a violent diatribe against the
teaching and the practice of the Jansenists. It was the
last sermon that he was permitted to preach there. The
Oratorians were already roused against him because,
believing that they favoured heresy, he had refused
them permission to establish a branch house within the
limits of his parish, and it required very little pressure
to induce the Archbishop of Paris to exercise his authority
over the offender. There was, moreover, a secret reason
— more potent than any that were declared — f or the with-
holding of protection from the Court. The tumult of
the Fronde was hardly over, and while it was in pro-
gress M. Olier, moved to desperation by the miseries of
the people, had written to the Queen urging her — sternly
rather than persuasively — to part from Mazarin, and put
the welfare of the nation before personal taste. We shall
see that Vincent de Paul was made to suffer for a similar
venture, but the Superior of S. Lazare was too firmly
established to be displaced even by the machinations of
Cardinal Mazarin; the Cur e" of S. Sulpice was an easier
M. VINCENT'S FELLOW-LABOURERS 119
victim. Opposing parties combined that they might
strike at him, and he fell.
Perhaps the astounding record of that ten years could
not have been sustained for a longer period, and the
interference of party strife in an enterprise so essentially
spiritual is a sign of the times. The political conflagra-
tions of the Regency were of such a nature that no French
subject, however peaceful in intention, could be secure
of keeping outside their limit.
CHAPTER VII
THE QUEEN REGENT AND THE COUNCIL OF
CONSCIENCE
There is a very strong element of the unexpected in
the life of Vincent de Paul. Events have none of the
coherence which may be observed in the career of one
who sets an aim before him and uses men and circum-
stances to serve it, and those occurrences which affected
him most deeply and were the most sensational burst
upon him without warning, and never seem to have been
in accord with his personal desires. In so far as he
formed any intention with regard to politics it was one
of entire abstinence. A part of the Rule of the Mission
Priests forbade discussion of public affairs, and their
Superior, apart from any other motive, had quite
enough to do in connection with his own undertakings
without embarking on dangerous waters where his
vocation did not call him. But M. Olier was probably
in agreement with M. Vincent on this point when he went
to S. Sulpice, and in his case circumstances proved
stronger than his resolution, and in consequence S. Sul-
pice lost its cure. M. Vincent at one point was moved
to an act that resembled that of M. Olier, and before and
after that special crisis — during a period that lasted
fifteen years — was deeply involved in public affairs.
The claim came upon him very suddenly. Until he
had passed middle age he had succeeded in holding aloof.
He must have been in Paris at the date of the murder of
Henri IV., and in the years that followed, when the
Regency of Marie de Medici was furnishing perpetual
120
THE QUEEN REGENT 121
scandal and excitement, it was impossible even for a
humble priest to be completely ignorant of the affairs
of the Court. M. Vincent left the capital only to find
a place in one of those great houses where every national
event must have been a subject of interested discussion.
In those days the favourites of the Queen-mother and
of the young King, Louis XIII. , succeeded each other on
a pinnacle of giddy eminence, and one after another lost
balance and fell headlong, and royal personages struggled
perpetually among themselves, distracting trade and
agriculture by petty civil warfare. It was, indeed, a
period when human nature, as seen in the great ones
of the earth, was brought on the stage under the pitiless
glare of the footlights, and humble persons might stare
and wonder. M. Vincent's detachment can hardly
have gone the length of ignoring the extraordinary
drama that was being played by the hereditary rulers
of his country, but he never refers, even distantly, to-
the history of that time. When he was established in
Paris as Superior of the Mission Priests an age of com-
parative quiet was beginning. It was in 1624 that
Richelieu became chief of the King's Council. To every
citizen of Paris — whether he realized it or not — that
event had immense significance, and to one who, like
Vincent de Paul, threw himself whole-heartedly into the
life of the people, the dawn of Richelieu's despotism
could not have been indifferent. But we have not from
his own lips or his own pen any testimony that he was
oppressed by that overshadowing presence, or that, on
the other hand, he was grateful for the rule and order
that resulted from its dominance. The influence of
Richelieu was the most important external factor in the
career of Renaudot, but, though it touched him faintly
at certain points, it affected M. Vincent very little.
All through the years of the great Cardinal's administra-
tion Vincent de Paul contrived to carry on work that was
so far-reaching in its scope that the limits of the kingdom
122 VINCENT DE PAUL
did not limit it, and yet to avoid all visible connection
with the Courts either of King or Minister. Probably
he anticipated that he would always be granted the skill
and the good fortune to remain hidden, and it was chance
rather than the deliberate intention of any individual
that drew him into the sort of publicity he shunned.
Cardinal Richelieu died in the autumn of 1642. In the
following April the news that the King also was very
near his end began to spread through Paris. The account
of his last days has been written by Saint- Simon, who
seems to have had an honest admiration for him; but
there seems no reason to believe that his subjects generally
felt any violent grief at the prospect of his death, nor
that he had given them reason to do so. He was not
noble either in his private life or in his rulership, but
beneath his weakness and his folly, and in spite of the
cruelty of which he had from time to time been guilty,
he had a deep understanding of religion. It was this
quality in him which links his name to that of Vincent
de Paul. The Mission Priests had been in existence for
eighteen years, and had never been chosen for special
royal favours, and their Superior had not any of the
methods or the manners of a courtier; nevertheless,
when the King lay dying, it was to S. Lazare that he sent
for help. The clouds were gathering before his eyes,
and a great desire seized him to have M. Vincent at his
side to give him courage.
The Court was at S. Germain, and it was necessary
for M. Vincent to leave behind him all familiar sur-
roundings, and to plunge into a world that was com-
pletely uncongenial. Probably there was no moment
in his life when he so greatly needed to concentrate his
mind on the high essentials of his religion. The idea of
Royalty in those days, to loyal subjects, was connected
with exaggerated reverence, and Vincent the peasant
would regard the surroundings of a King with bated
breath. But Vincent the priest was able to forget his
THE QUEEN REGENT 123
awestruck regard for kingship in his sympathy for the
human being who, remembering the past, was afraid to
face the future.
Their intercourse was not limited to one visit. M. Vin-
cent remained more than a week at S. Germain, and then,
because the patient seemed to be recovering, returned
to Paris. The improvement was very brief. Once more
the King saw death approaching, and another messenger
was sent to S. Lazare. During his last three days he
kept M. Vincent near him, and tradition says that he
died in his arms. It is, of course, impossible to have
any authentic knowledge of what passed between them,
yet the fact of that brief intimacy shows us Louis XIII.
in a new aspect. We forget the vindictive son and hus-
band, we cease to condemn the weak ruler who could
yield up all authority to other hands; we see only the
King accepting his share of the suffering of humanity,
yet crying out for help in his desolation. It is proof
that there was in him a quality of which history can tell
us nothing that he sent for M. Vincent. He had courtier
priests at hand, devout and learned men, who were
ready to give him spiritual consolation. When he sent
his messenger to S. Lazare he was breaking through con- (
vention and grasping at reality.
" I have never seen in anyone who had reached this
condition greater reliance upon God, greater resignation,
or more evident distress over the smallest actions that
might be sins,"* wrote M. Vincent to a Mission Priest
when the King was dead, and from him we hear no more
of that strange episode.
If he could have followed his own wishes, he would
have left the Court for ever when the service that had
called him thither was complete ; but, though Anne of
Austria, as Queen Consort, had never disturbed him in
his labours, and only displayed interest in them at rare
intervals, as Queen Regent she claimed a large share of
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 72.
124 VINCENT DE PAUL
his time and powers. When she entered upon her
Regency, Vincent de Paul was actually in the Palace,
therefore, when her heart was stirred by the great change
that had come into her life, the thought of him was fresh
in her mind, and it was natural that she should turn to
him to help her to carry out the good intentions which
for a time possessed her.
In Saint-Simon's account of the last days of Louis XIII.
the dying King is reported to have said to M. Vincent
that he would wish for the future to have no Bishops
appointed in France who had not spent three years at
S. Lazare. There is an echo of this wish in the Queen's
endeavour to appoint a M Council of Conscience " to
regulate the disposition of all ecclesiastical preferment.
In France this rested almost completely with the Crown,
and even with the support of a high tradition the re-
sponsibility would have been a very grave one. Enough
has been said already to show that the tradition had
become deplorably degraded. The provision of the
Council of Trent, that the holder of any benefice should
be a man of sufficient learning and assured virtue, re-
ceived no attention, and the spiritual degradation of the
land was the result. The Council of Conscience was to
consist of five persons, on whose advice the Queen in-
tended to act, and as one of the five she chose Vincent
de Paul. His experience and his character made him
admirably suited to this office, and infinite good might
have resulted but for the fact that Cardinal Mazarin
was associated with him in the Council, and that the
aims of these two were impossible to reconcile. The
Italian diplomatist was as intent on his chosen life-work
as was the Mission Priest, but its accomplishment re-
quired the encouragement of the conditions and the
standards which M. Vincent constantly endeavoured to
break down. It was by understanding and utilizing
the vices of humanity — the cupidity, the passion, the
meanest order of ambition — that Mazarin built up his
THE QUEEN REGENT 125
fortunes. Observation must have given M. Vincent a
measure of understanding of these vices, but its only
use to him was as an incentive for himself and others
to renewed struggle against the forces that made for
evil. And of human forces in those dark times the
strongest and most fruitful was Mazarin himself. M. Vin-
cent was no match for him. Even after three centuries
the fact that their names were ever coupled is matter for
regret. The unambitious peasant, versed in the methods
of dealing with God's poor, apt in guidance of the rich
and gifted who desired to qualify as Christians, had no
understanding of real statecraft ; and when at a moment
of crisis conscience bade him testify, at all costs, against
the selfishness that was ruining his country, he only
forfeited the confidence of the poor he loved without
altering by a hair's breadth the action of those great ones
whom he sought to influence.
But that climax was not reached until he had endured
other, and perhaps severer, tests of his singleness of pur-
pose. It is likely that Anne of Austria was partly actu-
ated in her selection of M. Vincent for her Council of
Conscience by a desire to reward a priest who worked
so hard in the service of others. She was a good-natured
woman. " La reine est si bonne " was the phrase on the
lips of many in the weeks that succeeded the death of
Louis XIII. She gave freely (sometimes with so little
understanding of the value of her gift that it was neces-
sary afterwards to take it back), and M. Vincent, who
had comforted the last hours of the dying King, received
a post that most men would have coveted. It meant
the command of patronage and, in consequence, of almost
illimitable power. The man who had a hand in bestowing
preferment would be courted everywhere; if he was
clever, he could make his own terms with his suitors. It
was only a question of bargaining, and it was an accepted
custom. M. Vincent, as he was so devoted to the poor,
would no doubt use his power to obtain benefits for
126 VINCENT DE PAUL
them, and all good people would be pleased. This,
according to the standards of the day, was the natural
point of view of the Queen Regent, and she was not
prepared for the refusal of her councillor either to use
or recognize the power with which she had endowed him.
Once persuaded that it was his duty to accept re-
sponsibility, Vincent de Paul was unflinching in up-
holding his principles with reference to the Church.
But it was one thing to deplore upon his knees before
the altar at S. Lazare the abuses from which she suffered,
and quite another to withstand their continuance against
the wishes of the Queen Regent and her first Minister.
His first plea for reform appears culpably moderate, but
its moderation indicates the point of corruption that had
been reached.
He stipulated that in future children should not be
Bishops, and that a bishopric should be given to persons
who had been priests for at least a year; that the rich
endowment of an abbey should not be conferred on a
person who had not reached the age of eighteen ; that a
cathedral Canon must be sixteen years old, a Canon in
a college fourteen ; that it should be impossible to divert
the revenues of a bishopric to a seigneur ; and that the
system of granting un devolu, whereby a priest was
guaranteed the reversion of a benefit, should be abolished,
because it was found to cause the aspirant constantly to
watch for an opportunity of denouncing the man in
possession, to the damage of Christian amity.
These demands do not appeal to the modern mind as
being specially heroic, It is obvious that they leave
abundant scope for irregularity ; but before we condemn
M. Vincent as pusillanimous, it is well to remember that
Mazarin, before whom they were made, was not a priest,
nor even a deacon, but that he was Bishop of Metz and
the holder of thirty abbeys.* The Church of France could
not be reformed in a moment by a solitary champion, but
* "Coups d'Etat des Cardinaux," A. Richard.
THE QUEEN REGENT 127
it was no small thing that the Superior of the Priests of the
Poor had courage to throw down his gauntlet in full view
of the first Minister of the Crown. It is hard to say how
much he actually accomplished; it is possible that
Mazarin purposely increased the difficulties of his posi-
tion, and it is most unlikely that the Cardinal was ever
prevented from carrying out any serious intention by
the interference of the priest. But the interference had
its value; the gossip of the Court spread the tidings of
M. Vincent's protests, and men began to ponder on the
reasons for them and to understand the rottenness of
the existing system.
M. Vincent himself was called to new understanding of
the devious developments of human nature. Probably
at the time of his first visit to the Court he was ignorant
of many events in the lives of the royal personages whom
he saw there, which were matter of common knowledge.
The mind of Vincent de Paul was too much occupied
to give space to gossip, and he had no premonition that
the character of Anne of Austria would ever be of signal
importance to himself. He owed to it, however, some
of the bitterest of his personal experiences as well as the
vicarious suffering due to the distress of others. It was
the character of the Queen Regent which was mainly
responsible for the disasters of the Regency ; but before
judging the Queen Regent, it is fitting that we should
glance at the Queen Consort.
Anne of Austria, as the wife of Louis XIII., had a just
claim to pity. She had come as a young girl to a strange
Court, and instead of being guarded and cared for by
the King, she was persistently neglected. Her ill-
fortune gave her as companion the wife of the Constable
de Luynes, and she could hardly have encountered a
more pernicious influence. As Mme. de Chevreuse,
Mme. de Luynes, in a later reign, won celebrity as a
leader of revolt; but in the earlier stages of her career
her rebellion was against the laws of morality and
128 VINCENT DE PAUL
seemliness rather than against those of the State. She
looked on life as on a great feast spread out before her,
and would recognize no hindrance to helping herself
from any dish that caught her fancy. The young Queen
was thrown into intimacy with this woman at the most
impressionable stage of her development, when the
novelty of her surroundings and her own isolation gave
her a special craving for sympathy, and their subsequent
separation did not undo its effects. Dumas has per-
petuated the romance of the Queen Consort and thrown
a certain halo over her relations with George Villiers,
Duke of Buckingham. Probably a trap was laid for
her ; possibly her own conduct was innocent throughout ;
but with such a confidante as Mme. de Luynes she was
not likely to be conspicuous for prudence. Whatever
truth there may have been in the original scandal, it
is certain that the Queen suffered very severely for her
part in it. It placed a weapon in the hands of Richelieu,
who was always her enemy, and he used it against her
mercilessly. As the years passed, her position grew
more and more miserable. There came a time, indeed,
when, by the King's orders, no man might be admitted
to her apartments save in his presence. When she
became the mother of the Dauphin the worst indignities
to which she had been subjected were removed; but
while Richelieu was dominant it was hopeless for her to
assert any of her rights as Queen. Then, within six
months, death removed the Cardinal and the King; her
son was a child of four, and she, as Regent, was supreme.
There is no room for wonder that her years of Regency
were not well used, and that she fell a prey to the most
brilliant adventurer in history, Jules Mazarin, the Italian
pupil of Cardinal Richelieu.
It was not his skill in diplomacy, nor the courage and
finesse with which he could play a desperate game, that
won for Mazarin his supreme dominion over France; it
was his understanding of a woman's character, his capacity
THE QUEEN REGENT 129
for holding the balance steadily, and knowing when to
flatter and when to rule, when to be the counsellor and
when the lover. The long years, barren of all delight,
on which the pleasure-loving Queen looked back had been
the most perfect preparation for the success of Mazarin's
schemes. He began by encouraging her in her amuse-
ments, and from time to time gave her an entertainment,
as a wise tutor will give a child a treat. It was his
object to divert her more and more from thinking of
affairs, and to teach her to think of him as inseparable
from all those things that gave her happiness. He had
both the patience and the pertinacity that his task
needed, and he succeeded in it. The time came at length
when he was indispensable, and the Queen Regent would
have forfeited the kingdom rather than consent to a per-
manent separation from him. The actual terms of their
alliance remain a mystery, but at its best it was de-
grading to the Queen and a demoralizing spectacle for
her subjects. It was a strange freak of destiny that
brought Vincent de Paul into touch with this sinister
romance, and one which he had every reason to regret.
Yet he had no free will in the matter. The Council of
Conscience was the direct result of the Regent's good
intentions, and when he accepted his place on it Cardinal
Mazarin had not attained to his supremacy.
In eighteen years of rule over others as Superior of
the Mission priests the character of M. Vincent had had
opportunity to develop, but those whom he had ruled —
though we shall find how widely they differed in individu-
ality— all came under his authority because they desired
to serve God and their neighbour in a special way. The
duty which the Queen laid upon him put him in quite
a different position from any which he had ever occupied,
and he had to win fresh knowledge of human frailty.
In the Council Chamber at the Louvre the burden of
his new appointment was a very heavy one. He had to
withstand Mazarin, and, as time passed, this endeavour
9
130 VINCENT DE PAUL
became more and more hopeless ; he had to avoid associa-
tion with the great folk who tried to natter him, and
even his shabby cassock was no protection from their
importunities. But he knew when these hours of diffi-
culty would come, and could arm himself against them;
he had to face the sharpest test to nerve and brain when
he was outside the limits of the Court, and the detail of
some of these has its own curious interest.
By the original constitution of the Council of Con-
science nominations for ecclesiastical preferment were
to be submitted to M. Vincent, that he might report on
the qualifications of the nominee. His knowledge of
the individual lives of the younger generation of priests
was enormous, and for the fulfilment of the true purpose
of the Council no plan could have been more perfect.
Mazarin disapproved of this purpose because he required
bishoprics and abbeys as bribes to wavering adherents,
therefore the Council eventually was a failure; but in
its first years the real responsibility of selection rested
upon M. Vincent. It is a theme for wonder that the
Superior of S. Lazare was able to carry out this task
with the thoroughness and devotion which is ascribed
to his performance of it. His place as the centre and
director of immense organizations, to each of which he
gave the most minute attention, seemed to preclude
the possibility of bearing this additional burden without
a stumble. Yet he did so. His unusual capacity for
detachment, and that mental self -con quest of his, the
most precious of attainments, explain in some measure
his comprehensive power. He could banish completely
the harassing questions that made judgment of the for-
tunes and characters of other men so difficult, and turn
to a letter of encouragement to a Sister of Charity in a
far-away provincial town or to the selection of preachers
for a country Mission, or to the consideration of the latest
scheme of some impulsively disposed Confraternity; and
because he had this capacity it was possible for him at
THE QUEEN REGENT 131
the same time to continue his own enormous labours
and direct the patronage of the Crown. His success
does not indicate immense intellectual vigour so much
as the real power that results from consistent submission
to the will of God. M. Vincent, confronted with the
persons and circumstances most calculated to oppose
his purpose, wasted no time or energy in quarrelling with
them, but merely sought for greater confidence that
his purpose was the right one, and so went on, indifferent
to the likelihood of recognized success. For him per-
sonally, indeed, success and failure seem to have had no
existence. The thing that God could use might flourish
by the will of God, and he, to whom it had been given
to sow the seed, looked on and humbly offered up his
thanks for what he saw. In learning to withdraw him-
self, he learnt how to establish and confirm the work he
had been inspired to begin, and it was this same capacity
for withdrawal of personal interest that made him able
to sustain without disturbance the attacks of the envious
when they were directed towards him.
It was, according to the custom of those times, natural
to regard the possession of interest as a source of wealth.
M. Vincent's position on the Council of Conscience had
great pecuniary value, and by its judicious exercise he
might have gathered large sums for the use of the Com-
pany and the benefit of the poor. He might have done
this without countenancing any appointment of which
he disapproved, because the most worthy of candidates
for preferment might give a bribe, under some other
name, without infringing any law of conscience. But
M. Vincent's idea of morality was not in unison with
that of his generation. The financial resources of
S. Lazare suffered by his singularity, and he was the less
popular. He missed also many an opportunity by which
he might have strengthened the position of the Company
in Paris and the provinces by conciliatory methods to-
wards those in power that would not have outraged any
132 VINCENT DE PAUL
principle. But he would not. He was for the whole
of his ten years of office uncompromising in repudiating
the smallest claim on personal interest. M The Company
will not perish by reason of its poverty," said he; "it
is far more from lack of poverty that one fears its down-
fall."
When preferment was wrongly given by the will of
the Queen (or, rather, by the will of Cardinal Mazarin),
Vincent bowed to the inevitable, but if any loophole was
left by which the abuse might be prevented, he did not
hesitate to take it. Thus, on one occasion, Mazarin
having written to him from S. Germain that it was the
Queen's pleasure to present a certain most important
bishopric to a young priest whose father merited special
reward and distinction, M. Vincent, knowing the matter
had gone too far to be stopped by authority, resorted to
persuasion, and went himself to the father, representing
the unfitness of the son for this sacred responsibility. It
is certainly to the honour of the gentleman in question
that the Mission Priest was well received, and his inter-
ference carefully considered. It is not to be wondered
at that his plea was unsuccessful, but it was not roughly
pushed aside, and perhaps the new Bishop might have
been roused by remembrance of it to justify its refusal
by his zeal and energy. He died within a few weeks of
his consecration, however, and those who agreed with
M. Vincent regarded his death as a judgment on himself
and on his father.
The difficulty of vigorous intervention was enormous;
the Church was regarded as the natural haven of the
impoverished or inefficient noble. Claimants of all
conditions, armed with a recommendation from the Queen
or on their own initiative, constantly attacked him. The
first were, of course, the most difficult to deal with, but
it is not hard to picture the uneasiness of the peasant
priest, conscious, as he always was, of his own humble
origin, when he found the great ladies of the Court
THE QUEEN REGENT 133
currying favour with him, and had not skill to check
them before they had laid themselves open to dis-
comfiture. In fact, the prospects of their sons and
nephews were only injured by their attempt to make
interest in this quarter, but such attempts were so far
the rule that a rebuff — especially from an obscure person
in a very shabby cassock — was altogether intolerable.
In connection with the Bishopric of Poitiers, M. Vincent
had an opportunity of learning the entire indifference to
the claims of justice and of righteousness that dis-
tinguished the leaders of the great world. A well-known
Duchess, dame du palais to the Queen, desired it for her
son, and, as a clever woman who had had ample oppor-
tunity of watching how affairs of this kind came to suc-
cess or failure, she approached the matter very carefully.
She went first to the Queen, representing that the See was
of very little value, but that the family estates in Poitou
made it desirable that they should hold the bishopric.
The Queen, whose conscientious scruples on questions
of this kind were intermittent, professed herself quite
ready to sign the appointment if M. Vincent would bring
it to her in fitting form at Court the following day.
The Duchess repaired to S. Laziare, and, declaring that
she was very much pressed for time, gave the Superior
the Queen's order that the nomination paper should be
made out in her son's favour. M. Vincent, aghast at
the bare suggestion, implored her to stay and talk it
over with him; but she declared that there was nothing
to be added to the fact of the Queen's command, and
hurried away. The simplicity of the arrangement made
the position of M. Vincent extremely difficult. To him
personally there would come no discredit because an
unworthy Bishop held the See of Poitiers; he was not
in the least degree responsible for the choice, and if he
opposed it he was braving the sort of enmity that was
most dangerous and most far-reaching. It was a situation
calculated to tax the resolution of a saint; to an average
134 VINCENT DE PAUL
person the simple path of submission was the obvious
one.
M. Vincent duly appeared with his roll of paper at the
Court, in obedience to the royal command ; but when the
Queen took it for signature she found that it was blank,
and her councillor was obliged to explain that he felt it
impossible to take any part in such a transaction. It
appears that Anne of Austria was never roused to anger
by M. Vincent, and in this case she was distressed.
She believed herself bound by her word, and yet was
uneasy as to the possible consequences of her impulsive
promise. M. Vincent did not hesitate to overcome her
scruples by assuring her that the fulfilment of such a
promise was nothing short of a crime. The young abbe
who aspired to episcopal dignity was an habitue of the
lowest haunts of the city, and so confirmed a drunkard
that he was constantly picked up unconscious in the
streets. His family, justly ashamed of him, desired an
excuse for getting him out of the capital, but their method
of so doing was not one in which a lover of the Church
could give assistance.
The Queen was convinced, but her courage was not
equal to the task of explaining matters to her lady-in-
waiting. M. Vincent might appoint whom he would to
Poitiers, but it must be his part to interview Mme. la
Duchesse. If we would realize what such a commission
entailed, we must consider the respect with which the
lower orders were trained to treat the nobility. In an
unassuming nature that tradition would be impossible
to eradicate, and M. Vincent needed all the strength of
his great conviction to support him. He spoke plainly t
and did not leave Mme. la Duchesse, who had met
him with a welcome, long in doubt as to the nature of
his errand. It appears that she forgot her dignity in
her anger, and ended a torrent of abuse by throwing a
footstool at his head. He left her house with the blood
streaming from his face, and had much difficulty in
THE QUEEN REGENT 135
calming the Brother who had accompanied him by ex-
plaining that this ungovernable rage was part of a mother's
affection for her son. How far, indeed, it proceeded from
that sentiment, and how far from the fury of the aris-
tocrat whose path is obstructed by the plebeian it is im-
possible to say, but certainly reverence for the dignity
of the Church or the sanctity of religion had no place
therein, and those who had no such reverence to give,
were not likely to look with favour on M. Vincent. For
them the fact of his position, and even of his existence,
as a matter for notice was offensive and unintelligible.
To catalogue the struggles of this kind which he
carried through, more or less successfully, would be an
interminable task. Besides the appointments of the
clergy there were the Religious to be considered. There
had grown up a sort of heredity in the command of some
of the monasteries. Daughters of the same house held
them in succession, and sometimes each succeeding
abbess insured the use of the monastic building and
pleasure gardens to her relations when they needed
recreation and change. These abuses were far-reaching,
and had brought the religious life into dishonour; it
was extremely difficult to reform them. The work of
the Abbess Angelique of Port Royal had set an example,
and M. Vincent was anxious to find and to obtain the
appointment for such women as would have strength
and courage for the task, rather than for one whose father
could claim for her the dignity and comfort of provision
by the Church revenues. He guarded himself always
from any close connection with religious houses. It was
only at the express desire of Francois de Sales that he
undertook the direction of the mother-house of the
Order of the Visitation, and he was never the referee — as
de Berulle had been — for the Religious or the Superior
whose spiritual distresses were baffling the convent con-
fessor. Therefore it was easy for Churchmen to urge
against him that his experience of the religious life was
136 VINCENT DE PAUL
not sufficient to justify the vigorous line he took towards
the system of preferment in it. He maintained (and his
judgment agrees with that of the lay mind) that the true
spirit of such a life was so delicate that it must not be
exposed to the risk of injury from contact with a worldly
motive, and that authority over souls could not rightly
be a privilege of certain families, but must be vested in
persons who had proved themselves worthy to wield it.
The plea of his opponents was that the fact of the ap-
pointment of a certain person to a position of responsi-
bility proved that an overruling Providence had intended
her for her post, that family interest would not have been
bestowed upon her without reason, and that to question
the system which custom had established was to question
Divine wisdom.
Aristocratic privilege, especially on such lines as these,
had many powerful supporters; nevertheless, while
M. Vincent held his place in the Queen's Council, it was
impossible to obtain the royal consent to the appointment
of girl abbesses or of those whose pursuit of pleasure had
demonstrated their ignorance of the only possible motive
for their profession.
No great knowledge of human nature is required to
estimate the danger braved by M. Vincent in thus out-
raging the susceptibilities of the ruling class. They
claimed the right to establish the daughters whom they
could not afford to marry in the command of religious
houses. M. Vincent not only criticized their motive in
exercising their right, but actually deprived them of
the right itself. Even he, however, could not defy tra-
dition with impunity. His reputation was too firmly
established, it is true, for open assault, but the stab in
the dark may always be delivered, and false charges of
a kind incidental to his office were urged against him.
It was said that the Superior of S. Lazare, though he
inveighed so fiercely against simony, had, in fact, been
known to accept a percentage of revenue and a gift of
THE QUEEN REGENT 137
books from one who desired, and had received, a benefice
from the Crown. The story, with full detail, was whis-
pered about Paris until it came to the ears of M. Vincent.
His first instinct was to challenge his accuser and to
make open declaration of his innocence. But a strife
of tongues or of pamphlets was not to be reconciled with
his chosen standpoint towards life. We are told that
he flung down his pen in bitter self-abasement, and
would make no effort for his own defence.
In fact, he had lived his years of service to such good
purpose that those who knew him were moved only to
anger by the whispers of calumny, and the number of
his friends was great enough to silence his enemies.
Through that trial — a dangerous one for a man who had
any joints in his armour — he passed scathless, but the
malice that prompted such an attack remained un-
appeased, and the time was coming when, by his own
imprudence, M. Vincent gave his foes their desired
opportunity.
CHAPTER VIII
THE FRONDE REBELLION
It is difficult to connect the Court of Anne of Austria
with the real spirit of Vincent de Paul, and there is equal
difficulty in realising that the devout persons who carried
out the social reforms suggested at S. Lazare, or were
members of the secret company of the Blessed Sacra-
ment, were of the same rank and race as those on whose
shoulders rests the guilt of the Fronde Rebellion. Many
of the heroes and the heroines of those wild years sought
refuge at Port Royal, and they found fit environment
among the hermits and nuns, for the violence of Port
Royal in its self-abnegation and its penitence is clearly
the right antidote to the unbridled licence of the
Frondists.
But M. Vincent's teaching was very different from
that of S. Cyran and Mere Angelique. Natures nourished
for a lifetime on excitement could find nothing to satisfy
them at S. Lazare, for it was by a rule of charity that the
Lazarists were guided, and the necessary preparation
for that rule is the gradual development of years of
Christian living. On the first awakening of penitence it
may not be understood. The practical service of others
in matters temporal as well as spiritual was the object
of M. Vincent and his followers, and, of a truth, nothing
could be more opposed to the aims of those who ruled
in Paris during the Regency. In periods of civil warfare,
however false in origin, the spirit of heroism and of sacri-
fice is seldom lacking; but in those miserable years of
strife it is hard to find a suggestion of devotion or of
138
THE FRONDE REBELLION 139
loyalty among the combatants. The picture is among
the strangest that history presents. All who might
claim to high estate and to the power that went with
it — from the Queen downwards — had been schooled and
disciplined by Richelieu into an impotence so universal
as to be unrealized. The death of the autocrat had no
immediate effect ; his methods had been too well adjusted ;
the machinery could continue for a while without him.
It is possible, indeed, that Louis XIII. might have had
skill to keep this machinery in working order — he had
been the nearest witness of its construction — and with
skilful treatment the habit of submission inculcated by
the great Cardinal might have endured for a generation.
But death made the skilled hands impotent, and Anne of
Austria was like the boy owner of a great estate who
finds himself released from the tutelage of guardians.
The King's death signalized the end of her minority, but
to have prolonged it another twenty years would not
have made her more fit for independence, and the severity
of her past experiences gave greater impetus to the
swing of the pendulum.
If, at the time of the King's death, there were onlookers
who gave any thought to the future, it must have been
clear to them that the Government of France would not
long be directed by the Queen; but for a time it was not
possible to be certain whose hands would hold the reins.
Perhaps that period of uncertainty was partly responsible
for the tempest that made this Regency so memorable.
Unreasonable as well as natural ambition was stirred by
a sense of possibility. The influence of Richelieu so far
survived that the Queen was afraid to adopt an obvious
course, and give her confidence to Conde, who was by far
the strongest and most capable of her subjects. Accord-
ing to Richelieu's doctrine, he was too near the throne
and too much admired by the people for any extra eleva-
tion; but the fact that he possessed the qualifications for
the place of Queen's Councillor when the place was vacant ,
140 VINCENT DE PAUL
and that he did not attain to it, poisoned his nature, and
helped to make a traitor of him. In sharp contrast to
the great General stands de Beaufort, one of those left-
handed kinsmen of the King who complicated Court
society in bygone times. At the beginning of the Regency
he made use of his personal attractions to win the Queen's
favour, and dreamed of power. He was, however, singu-
larly incompetent as a statesman, and was hardly less
indolent than the Queen herself. Gaston d'Orleans, the
young King's uncle, was also precluded by feebleness both
of will and intellect from ruling; and de Gondi, the only
one of the contemporaries of Mazarin who might aspire
to rival him, was not, at the death of Louis XIII., in a
position that gave him the opportunity of competing on
equal terms with the Italian Cardinal.
It is characteristic of Mazarin and of Anne of Austria
that for many months their consultations were held every
evening in her private oratory, and that in consequence
his rise was imperceptible. By the time the general public
had discovered whose will was expressed by the Queen's
actions, and disapproval of the foreign interloper had
grown into definite form, his authority over the Queen
was established on a basis even stronger than her wish to
be relieved of trouble, and all the power of France, though
there were moments when it seemed concentrated against
him, proved insufficient to oust him from his place. The
revolt which darkened the youth of Louis XIV. was
primarily an expression of indignation against the do-
minion of the royal favourite. There was much more
involved. There were many leaders and many causes;
there were the plots brewed in whispers round the couches
of intriguing women, of which jealousy or pure love of
excitement were the inspiration; there were those set on
foot by the few who had some definite personal ambition
in view — by Conde, by Jean Francois de Gondi, or by de
Beaufort; and there was the continual counter-plotting,
the ingenious weaving of complicated webs to entrap his
THE FRONDE REBELLION 141
enemies, by Mazarin himself. But at the root of every-
thing lay fury with the Queen for imposing the Italian
on her subjects, and therewith lay the dangers that are
latent in the challenge of authority ; for in the middle of
the seventeenth century, as at the end of the eighteenth,
the people of France were an oppressed and suffering
people. And then, just as a hundred and fifty years
later, they were strong enough to overwhelm their op-
pressors had they had a leader able to reveal and to
direct their strength.
The attempts of the few, such as M. Vincent and Theo-
phraste Renaudot, to remedy the ills beneath which the
poor were groaning, did probably direct the thoughts of
those who had energy left to think to the injustice of
prevailing conditions. Such suggestions were an ominous
preparation for the Regency. Richelieu spent the public
money freely, and was callous to the distress of the
French people so long as France herself reaped glory-
Anne of Austria also spent the public money freely, and
was heedless of the sufferings of the people, but no mag-
nificent motive excuses her. She was frankly eager to
enjoy herself, and to indulge her favourite in the very
expensive species of display which he affected. The wars
on the frontier went on giving occupation to dangerous
persons, but they also drained the State coffers, and left
many a humble household bereft of the breadwinner.
The peasantry, starved out of their natural homes,
tramped to the towns, and met starvation in the streets
or a miserable death in the prisons. Actual famine
devastated many parts of the provinces, but the refugees
who managed to escape and to find their way to Paris
had the privilege at their journey's end of beholding a
display of magnificence which should have indicated
wealth and prosperity.
Mme. de Motteville, the most naively honest of memoir-
writers that ever wielded pen, pictures for us the life of
the Palais Royal in these early years of the Regency.
142 VINCENT DE PAUL
It appears to have been characterized by an astonishing
levity rather than by actual vice. The austerity of
Louis XIII. had been due partly to his feeble health,
and partly to his natural disposition, but it had resulted
in the suspension of Court society, and the younger
generation had never learnt to connect amusement with
the royal presence. The Court of the Regent might,
perhaps, have been livelier if she had possessed more
energy ; but while it was a novelty, it satisfied the pleasure-
seekers. Anne of Austria was not imbued with the rest-
less spirit of the age. She liked a great deal of repose,
and made it a habit to sleep till ten or eleven in the
morning. A certain amount of business was transacted
before she got up, and courtiers of both sexes paid her
their respects. As a rule, she spent twelve hours in the
twenty-four in bed, and it was her practice to remain
there for a day or two at a time if any special pressure of
business had been forced upon her. It is likely that she
began her reign with good resolutions — her Council of
Conscience is, indeed, a proof of this — for she had always
a certain desire to do her duty, and was sincerely attached
to her children; but, as Mme. de Motteville expresses it,
" her resolutions were undermined by her desire for ease
and her aversion to the multiplicity of business affairs,
which cannot be separated from the Government of a
great kingdom." As time went on, she grew more indo-
lent. She desired always that the royal will should be
supreme, but would not realize that even royalty requires
a measure of knowledge for the direction of its will. It
is possible that, though he could hardly have secured the
same stability of rule merely by his skill as a politician,
Mazarin might have enslaved the Queen without the
power of sex; for a master of statecraft such as he was
able to save her from the constant friction of small
anxieties, which she abhorred, and in great things to
leave her with the impression that her decisions were all-
important.
THE FRONDE REBELLION 143
Yet Mazarin, despite his cleverness, was not in touch
with the French people. He was quite incapable of
gauging the force of public opinion, and was, in fact, the
worst of advisers for the Queen Regent. In 1647, on the
eve of the outbreak of revolt, Mme. de Motteville tells us
that " the most considerable affair at Court and the things
which were chiefly thought about were diversion and
pleasure." The Queen's enjoyment of comedy was so
great that in the early days of her mourning she sought
a place at each performance where her ladies could shield
her from observation, while she herself could see the
stage. Being free at last of such conventional hindrance,
she indulged her taste to the full, and every alternate day
there was a performance either in French or Italian.
The cost to her of these performances was very great,
for they were held at the Palais Royal, and she enter-
tained the Court. They were an offence also to many
serious persons. A priest, whose name we do not know,
remonstrated most earnestly with her on this subject,
and did not desist even in the face of her displeasure.
There was a difference of opinion with regard to it among
the Doctors of the Sorbonne, to whom the matter was
referred, and the Queen chose very wisely to place her
confidence in the judgment of such Bishops and theo-
logians as were able to sanction the indulgence of her
tastes. The Court blamed Vincent de Paul, who cer-
tainly had not interfered personally, but may safely be
assumed to have shared the opinion of the nameless priest,
and the comedy continued.
The Saturday before Lent in that same year Cardinal
Mazarin began a series of entertainments. He had
brought singers from Rome and experts in machinery
from all parts. His Comedy was so elaborate that the
Court could talk of nothing else, and it was essentially
Italian. It was in honour of the King and Queen, and
designed to meet the taste of the latter; but it was of a
character to outrage the section of the divots, and these,
144 VINCENT DE PAUL
even at that period, were not altogether negligible. It
was well known that visits to the Carmelite Convent at
Val de Grace were part of the regular routine of the
Queen's life. Before the great festivals she would retire
thither for a species of Retreat; at all times she was
scrupulous in keeping the fasts prescribed by the Church
(although she was frankly fond of good living) ; and refer-
ences to her prayers are frequent in the reminiscences of
her intimates. Her attitude on this point was, therefore,
an anomaly, but so, indeed, was her whole position
towards Cardinal Mazarin, and it is possible that to his
tortuous Italian mind this method of setting public
opinion at defiance made special appeal. Even as early
as 1647, when the full peril of his position had not yet
declared itself, he had realized that there was danger for
him in the Queen's pious proclivities,* and that it was
well to assure himself that in a moment of crisis he could
rule her conscience as well as her heart and her intellect.
Therefore, he applied his test, and afterwards had no
further misgivings on that score. If, however, the recep-
tion of this celebrated Comedy was intended to prove to
him the unassailable nature of his supremacy over the
French people, as well as over the Regent, it was less
satisfactory. It was a dangerous experiment. The
country was desperately impoverished, and, as he was
known to have come to France as an adventurer, all the
money that he spent so lavishly was drawn from a
starving people, and only if they looked on without mur-
muring could he in future have confidence that he stood
above criticism. Such confidence, if he ever cherished it,
was short-lived. Serious people were moved to indigna-
tion by a display of wealth at such a moment, and even
the pleasure-lovers at Court were on the verge of revolt
at the self-assertion of the Queen's Councillor. All
favours were at his disposal, and Mme. de Motteville
* See his entry "Carnet," No. iii. : " Tous ces pretendus ser-
viteurs de Dieu sont en realite des Ennemis de TEtat."
THE FRONDE REBELLION 145
describes how the great nobles were forced to stand in
his antechamber if they desired an audience of him, how
they murmured at the arrogance that kept them waiting,
and then, like grumbling servants, became mute and
obsequious when he passed among them to his carriage
and drove away.
Such conditions were too unnatural for long continu-
ance, but the result was as distorted and unhealthy as
its cause. In her years of light-hearted indulgence Anne
of Austria prepared a time of misery not only for herself,
but for her subjects, the effect of which was wholly evil
for the kingdom. In the struggle which taught her son
to be a despot, the opening stages were far the most
dangerous to her prerogative. The Parlement and the
Crown disagreed first on a question of taxes, then on one
of privilege. The disagreement revealed behind the
Parlement a possibility of force, behind the Crown a sug-
gestion of weakness. The Parlement and the people it
represented were not alone in possession of grievances;
scarcely a noble about the Court but had a grudge against
the Queen or the Queen's favourite. The routine of the
Palais Royal had grown monotonous. The Regent grew
more and more indolent, the Cardinal more and more
autocratic, and imaginations that had long languished
for excitement were fired with the bold idea of taking the
side of the people in a struggle against the Crown.
It is unlikely that among the great crowd of noble per-
sonages who in 1649 joined forces with the Parlement
there was one who had deliberately considered what
effect their action might have upon their country's his-
tory. They saw only the glorious novelty of the im-
mediate present, and the future did not concern them.
And so, amid much patriotic sentimentalism, the Due de
Longueville confided his wife and children to the keeping
of the people of Paris, and Anne Genevieve de Bourbon,
sister of Conde, Princess of the blood royal, bore him a
son in the Hotel de Ville itself. By such means the real
146 VINCENT DE PAUL
struggle, which might have served a great purpose had
it been waged on its true issue, was turned into a travesty.
Great lords and ladies practised knight-errantry, turning
from melodrama to farce and back again until they were
weary of sensation, and the people paid in blood and
tears.
That establishment of an aristocratic nursery within
earshot of the deliberations of the judges was a type of
the fantastic nonsense that was fashionable. The ex-
citement of a game of hazard bore no comparison with
that thrill of the blood which is stirred by the acclama-
tions of a mob. High-born women, who, until then,
would hardly have admitted the bond of a common
humanity betwixt themselves and the toiling multitude,
ogled the astonished citizens and posed to the crowd,
making their bid for a popularity which they might
barter for some other privilege. This most amazing
form of sport would be merely a subject of pleasant
study for the historian, but for the dread facts that lay
behind. If the Fronde had been a tournament of rival
lords and Princes, in which the King himself was forced
to imperil his dignity, and that only, it would claim no
more than passing notice, and it is under this guise that
it is very often represented. But it had a different aspect
for those who care to look behind the tinsel of noble name,
and the glitter of amorous adventure to the sombre lives
of the common people. The conditions of these lives are
worthy of consideration. It was recognized that the
passing of an army (which always depended for its sus-
tenance on the supplies levied from the inhabitants of the
district through which it passed) impoverished the country
almost to the point of famine, and in twenty years many
armies, hostile and friendly, had marched through France
and left their tragic traces. Nevertheless, the taxes never
lessened. In 1647 (tne Year °* tne Cardinal's celebrated
Comedy), when, in addition to the expenses of the war,
the Queen wanted money for herself and her First Minister,
THE FRONDE REBELLION 147
she demanded that they should be increased. The previ-
ous year the prisons of France contained 23,000 inmates,
whose crime was failure to pay their taxes. In the
country districts the people existed as those do who have
no hope, and they had almost passed beyond the capacity
for dread. No threats and no persecution could wring
from them money which they did not possess.
Omer Talon and Mathieu Mole, men learned in the law,
the latter holding the office of Premier President in
the Parlement, presented their humble remonstrance to
the Queen in these terms :
" Madame, give a thought to the distress that prevails
everywhere. To-night, in the solitude of your oratory,
consider the misfortune that has overtaken the country
districts. It will be revealed to you there that neither
the glory of our victories and of our newly-conquered
territory nor the hope of future peace is sufficient sus-
tenance for those who have no bread/'
" The working men will soon be obliged to give up
their work, to leave their families and their homes, to
beg their bread from door to door. Every sort of violence
is resorted to to extort payment of the taxes. If some
remedy be not found speedily, the country will soon be
a desert."*
It was thus that these two — as near to the type of the
City Fathers as France could produce — wrote to the
Regent. But she had sunk too deep in the habit of sloth
to be stirred. She left such affairs to Mazarin, and
Mazarin was not likely seriously to disturb himself for
the sufferings of a French peasant or the remonstrance
of Parisian magistrates. The Fronde Rebellion, there-
fore, sprang from the indolence of the Queen and the
recklessness of the Cardinal. It was, despite its name,
in its true origin an expression of the despair of the
* See Omer Talon, "Memoires," Petitot Coll., vol. lx. (January
15, 1648) ; and de Barante, " Le Parlement et la Fronde " ("Vie
deM. Mole").
148 VINCENT DE PAUL
people, not of the rivalry of the nobles. In addition, it
is a tragedy not only by reason of the appalling suffering
of which it was the cause, but because its true import
has been shrouded by the vain futilities of irresponsible
persons. Because there was not a man in France who
could join to the capacity for leadership the clear brain
and the true heart, without which a popular hero is
merely a danger to the State, a great opportunity was
missed, and misery and injustice continued to hold their
sway until, in 1789, the day of retribution dawned.
If the Parlement could have stood firm — if, following
the lead of Mathieu Mole, they had as a body represented
the people and striven to guide the Queen to justice and
moderation — the Regency would have stood for ever as
a golden epoch in the social history of France; but they
had not the required strength either as individuals or as a
body. Misled by traditional respect for the ruling class,
they welcomed the intervention of the nobles, only to
find that the cause for which they were prepared to
sacrifice fortune and life was of no account in the minds
of the leaders they had chosen. The people had yet to
learn their need of representation; there were no labour
leaders even in embryo. Theophraste Renaudot, who,
of his contemporaries, had been most fitted for that posi-
tion, had had so many enemies among the bourgeoisie
that his only possibility of existence depended on the
protection of the Court. De Gondi, though he had the
genius of the democrat, had none of the self-devotion
which would have been necessary in a real champion of
the people's rights ; and the others who, at differing epochs,
played for and caught the fancy of the populace, desired
it and used it solely to serve some evanescent, personal
ambition. The strongest cause was that of the Parle-
ment against the Crown — this was indeed the cause of a
suffering people — but the self-interest of individuals
destroyed any hope of a contest on a straight issue, and
it would have been difficult for an honest man to choose
THE FRONDE REBELLION 149
a party and be loyal to it, for the objects of each of the
many parties that opposed the Queen seem to have been
interchangeable.
Enough has been said already to show that M. Vin-
cent's sympathies were bound up with the interests of
the people. His touch with the Court left him with the
same opinions as he had always maintained — that is to
say, with an abhorrence of luxury and self-indulgence,
and a deep respect for rank. When the Fronde began,
he was unavoidably on the side of the people; it was,
indeed, impossible for a priest who lived among them as he
did to hold aloof from their concerns. M. Olier, during
his ministry at S. Sulpice, became a keen politician, and —
until the agitation of rebellion had reached fever pitch —
he had considerable influence with his aristocratic neigh-
bours in the region of the Luxembourg. But M. Vincent
was in a more difficult position. He had made it one
of his rules of life that he and his company should have
nothing to do with politics, and in the light of the opposing
point of view of the Frondists it is well to recall his
maxims, as he had written them a few years earlier to
Le Breton, Superior of the Mission at Rome :
" 1. It is not fitting for poor priests like us to interfere,
except in the things that concern our vocation.
"2. The business affairs of Princes are mysteries which
we should respect and not spy upon.
"3. Most people offend God by sitting in judgment on
the affairs of others.
"4. All choice of action is questionable unless it be
such as Holy Writ decides; outside that, no opinion is
infallible.
"5. The Son of God preserved silence on questions of
politics."
But we must remember that he was living in Paris,
and Paris was in an uproar.* In the autumn of 1648 the
* For description see Mme. de Motteville. "Memo ires pour
servir a l'histoire d'Anne d'Autriche," vol. ii.
150 VINCENT DE PAUL
Queen had been rash enough to imprison Broussel, a
magistrate who was a favourite with the people, because
he opposed the royal will, and she was afterwards — by
the threats of the infuriated mob — forced to release him.
The Palais Royal offered no security for the Royal Family ;
a courtier recognized in the streets was in peril of his life,
and the air rang with scurrilous ballads against the
Queen and the Cardinal. For the moment authority had
lost all meaning, and the right was undoubtedly on the
side of disorder. So great, indeed, did the danger of a
revolution appear that the Parlement might have ex-
torted any terms so long as they held the person of the
King in their power. They failed to maintain their
advantage, however. The Queen was clever enough to
escape by night to S. Germain, taking her son with her,
and once they were both outside the gates of the rebellious
city the aspect of affairs was completely altered.
Perhaps the news of what was happening in England
was useful to the Regent. Conde hated Mazarin, and
it is conceivable that he might have held aloof from a
dispute that centred upon the general abhorrence of the
Italian; but the people had more provocation in France
than in England, and if they had found a leader they
might have been equally successful. And Conde would
not at that time have thought his hatred of Mazarin
was sufficient justification for leaving the monarchy in
jeopardy, and he had not the slightest feeling for the
people. He joined forces with the Regent and the
Cardinal, therefore, and on January 6, 1649, laid siege
to Paris, that the audacious Parlement might be terrorized
into complete submission.
It was at this point that the reality of M. Vincent's
self-abnegation was put to the test. He had always
been clear that a hidden and retired life was essential
to the spirit of the Mission Priests. The Company had
been tested once already. In August, 1636, when the
Spaniards entered Picardy and were within ten leagues of
THE FRONDE REBELLION 151
the capital, M. Vincent wrote to M. Portail with undis-
turbed composure: " There is a rush of the countryfolk
inside the walls, while the terrified citizens fly from the
city. Our army is far away, and everyone is volunteering.
The drums begin beating at 7 a.m. The Company has
gone into Retreat, that each one may be prepared to go
wherever he is sent."*
That last sentence summarizes the fitting attitude of
the Company. To remain untouched by public excite-
ment, but to be prepared to respond to any call, was the
ideal held up before every Mission Priest, and it was as
clear to them in 1649 as ft was thirteen years earlier.
But for their Superior the difficulty was to determine
whether the call to action was a certain one. It seemed
that the moment had come when piety was no longer
separable from politics, but in the interests of S. Lazare
the wisest course was to abide by those maxims of his,
and to allow " the business affairs of Princes " to remain
mysterious. If he maintained a neutral attitude, he
could depend on the protection of the Queen, if the
Court party triumphed; and his services to the people
were so well known that the wildest mob would restrain
itself before his gates. He was essentially a man of peace,
and he had seen enough of the Court to know the compli-
cation of motive that lay behind the movements of the
royal will, and the impossibility of inducing the Queen
to form and follow an unbiassed judgment.
It is well to review the evident objections to the course
chosen by M. Vincent at this juncture, for it is certain
that he must have realized them himself. It is clear that
if safety was possible to anyone in France, it was assured
to him and to his companions at S. Lazare; and that he
was under no obvious obligation to depart from his
ordinary routine — by adhering to it he could have
brought much assistance within reach of the distressed
people inside the city walls, and retained the favour of
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 27.
152 VINCENT DE PAUL
the Queen at the same time. But a vision of the horrors
of civil warfare banished every other consideration.
His knowledge of his fellow-countrymen told him that
it was imminent, and he — not being touched himself by
the fever of revolt — could measure the ghastly conse-
quences once it should be declared. At that stage the
struggle was not complicated by the innumerable cross-
currents of ambitions and opinions that afterwards were
interwoven with it; to M. Vincent it appeared that the
only insuperable obstacle to peace was the presence of
Cardinal Mazarin, and that no reasonable person — if the
position were clearly represented to them — could fail to
see the necessity of Cardinal Mazarin 's withdrawal.
But from the fact that the Queen was at S. Germain
surrounded by courtiers and prejudiced advisers, he
deduced that the position was not likely to be clearly
represented, and that the supreme disaster he was dread-
ing might come to pass merely by reason of her ignorance.
We have had opportunity of noticing his slowness of
decision and habitual prudence, but here was a crisis
when, if he was to act at all, he must act quickly; while
the fear of implicating others in dangerous responsibility
withheld him from taking counsel. On his knees in the
church of S. Lazare he could seek guidance, and there he
came to the decision that meant complete self-sacrifice.
The bitter cold had added to the miseries of the famished
people, and his love of them had suggested his great
venture. In the night of January 12, 1649, he mounted
his horse in the courtyard of S. Lazare and rode forth to
seek the Queen at S. Germain, and lay before her the
true dangers of the situation and the extent of her
responsibility towards her people. There is a child-like
simplicity in his conception of this enterprise. It was
a marvel that he ever reached his destination. His only
companion was his secretary, and the prevalent disorder
was so great that travellers by night were regarded as
suspicious persons, and were liable to arrest by any of
THE FRONDE REBELLION 153
the self-constituted guardians of the peace who might be
about. As he rode into Clichy before dawn he was way-
laid by some of the townspeople, and only their discovery
of his identity saved him from rough usage. At Neuilly
the Seine had risen so that it covered the bridge, and it
was necessary to ride through the water (a feat which
caused Ducourneau, the secretary, by his own confession,
" to shake with terror "), and they were soaked to the
skin when they gained the farther bank. S. Germain
was reached without further mishap, and we are told
that the Queen, imagining that M. Vincent had come as
an emissary from the rebels to make terms with her,
gave him an immediate audience.
That dangerous night ride does not appear the best
preparation for an interview which was intended to have
infinite importance, but one may be sure that Vincent de
Paul was praying for guidance throughout the weary
journey, and came into the Queen's presence as com-
posedly as if he had had many quiet hours for reflection.
In fact, he regarded his case as a very clear one. To
him the claim of the people was immeasurably stronger
than that of any individual, and the indignation of the
Queen towards her subjects seemed a small thing com-
pared to their calamities. He explained himself with that
simplicity of speech which he could always command,
and — as it appears — without full understanding of the
odds against him. He had ridden from Paris to S. Ger-
main to ask Anne of Austria to deprive herself of the
company of Cardinal Mazarin for the sake of the people
who had defied and insulted her, and he cherished high
hopes of success. Probably the result of his mission
modified his regard for his royal mistress, and gave him
knowledge of a type of human nature — that of the
spurious devote — with which he had had no previous
dealing.
The Queen listened while he made his plea, and she did
not then — or at any other time — show the least resent-
154 VINCENT DE PAUL
ment at his plain expression of opinion; but though her
manner was gracious, the point of view which he strove
to represent to her did not move her in the slightest.
She heard him to the end, and then referred him to the
Cardinal, and at that even the sanguine spirit of M. Vin-
cent must have acknowledged defeat. The Cardinal
was suave and smiling, and, though it is said that he
never forgave M. Vincent, he was in no real danger from
so honest a foe, and could well afford to be generous.
The real demand of the Mission Priest was that the Regent
and her First Minister should, at a moment of crisis in
political affairs, set an example of self-sacrifice and
humility; that, in plain words, the maxims of Christ
should be applied to their methods of government.
Such an idea cannot have failed to move the Cardinal to
covert mirth, however great his indignation at the out-
spoken suggestion that he should withdraw from France ;
but in fact, in propounding it, M. Vincent was only follow-
ing that principle of faith in the character of his fellow-
men which guided him to success in so many difficult
enterprises. In this instance, however, the sole result
was damage to himself; and of this the first token came
from those on whose account he had risked his personal
peace and well-being.
When he left Paris he despatched a letter to Mathieu
Mole, explaining his design and his reasons for keeping
it a secret, and the news soon leaked out that M. Vincent
had joined the Queen at S. Germain. At that crisis of
tense excitement the bare fact was enough. The record
of all his years of service to them was insufficient to hold
for him the confidence of the people with whose true
interests he was identified more closely then than at any
other moment. Because he had gone to S. Germain
they believed that he had betrayed them, and S. Lazare
— hitherto exempt from all depredations — was pillaged
by the mob. Twenty-four hours seemed to have de-
stroyed the fabric of reputation which it had taken
THE FRONDE REBELLION 155
thirty years to build, and to have altered the position
held by M. Vincent entirely. He had brought his mis-
fortunes upon himself; by his own deliberate act he had
forfeited his favour at Court and flung away his popu-
larity in the city, and he gained nothing either for him-
self or for anybody else. Nevertheless, as he left S. Ger-
main he told Ducourneau that he had said to the Queen
and her Minister " that which, if I was at my hour of
death, I should have wished to have said to them."
It is impossible to doubt that he felt himself impelled
to his hopeless venture by a force stronger than human
judgment, and that he would have known no peace if
he had preserved his security and left the Queen to pursue
her way without remonstrance. Long afterwards, when
he looked back, he wrote: " I meant to serve God in
going to S. Germain, but I was not worthy " ; and if that
was a reminiscence of his mood at the moment, he must
have added personal discouragement to the sense of
outward failure. It is, indeed, the temptation of the
devout man to believe that if his cause is good, the fer-
vour of his prayer must bring its accomplishment. And
therefore failure means more than the disappointment of
a hope; it may involve the pressure of self-questioning
and the despairing avowal of unworthiness, or it may
mean the far more intimate and poignant misery of
doubt as to the foundation of his faith. It is hardly
possible that M. Vincent's courage could have borne
him through his tasks if any cloud of uncertainty had
ever descended on him; their difficulty and multiplicity
needed the support of an absolutely simple faith; but
when he was pressed by failure, he attributed it to the
corrupt condition of his own mind, and strove to maintain
a closer watch upon himself than hitherto.
No episode in his life gives us a more impressive in-
stance of his command over himself than this. He had
reached his seventy-third year, and his only personal
desire was for seclusion and repose. He had made a
156 VINCENT DE PAUL
great and valiant attempt to further the welfare of others,
and in return had been met with contumely on all sides.
Almost inevitably he must have felt the temptation to lay
down his arms and cease to serve, because his service had
been flouted and he himself was infinitely weary. In-
stead, he made the moment an opportunity. Throughout
every enterprise he had imputed all success to God Him-
self; now, under this semblance of disgrace, he showed,
as he had never shown before, the degree to which he
was the servant of God, and not of man, and that
human disapproval had no power to daunt him.
Ousted from Paris, he turned unhesitatingly to labour
in the provinces.
It was no light matter in those days for a young and
active man to ride from end to end of France with one
attendant; in one who had fulfilled his threescore years
and ten it meant fortitude and determination of the
highest order. Vincent de Paul was provided with a
passport which the young King himself had signed, but
even such authentic royal sanction was not security, and
his real protection came from his courage and his poverty .
It was his object to utilize his hour of misfortune by
visiting some of the many branches of the two Com-
panies, and seeing for himself what a Mission Priest or
a Sister of Charity could accomplish when in exile from
the mother-house.
From S. Germain he went to Villepreux; from thence
to Valpuiseaux, in the neighbourhood of Etampes. Here,
early in his pilgrimage, came great encouragement. The
country was already feeling the grip of famine, and the
Sisters had responded to the call to suffering, and were
denying themselves to the point which nears starvation
that they might have the more to give away. " They
are more and more united," wrote M. Vincent, " loving
their vocation and fulfilling it."
He had time to judge. It was early in February and
bitterly cold, and his journey was delayed. He utilized
THE FRONDE REBELLION 157
the time to preach a Mission in the village — " by way of
preparation," as he explained, " to help these good
people to give themselves to God during the miseries that
lie before them."
This, being written to Mile. Le Gras, was certainly an
expression of his real feeling, and it is significant. We
may have reason to wonder how a man of his vivid
capacity for sympathy could survive the horrors which
he was obliged to witness in the years that followed,
but his idea of a preparation for that which he foresaw
furnishes us with a clue. They " must be helped to
give themselves to God." If he could accomplish this
for them — if he could make them see, as he himself saw,
beyond the terror and the ghastliness of life, the Will of
God as an absolutely perfect explanation — then he could
leave them to their earthly fate without misgiving.
For the consistent believer in Divine guidance this is,
of course, the only logical position; but absolutely con-
sistent belief is probably a rarity, and in face of the worst
forms of suffering faith in the perfection of a Divine
ordinance is difficult to maintain. In fact, the experi-
ence through which the French people were passing made
brutes rather than saints. Here was no simple issue —
no obvious motive of attack and defence by which the
spirit of patriotism and of endurance might be aroused;
probably those who suffered most had least opportunity
of understanding the burning questions that brought
their suffering upon them, and were given no chance to
choose a side or to remain neutral. The poor were merely
the prey of both opposing forces. At the approach of the
soldiery every farm and cottage was deserted. The
people took refuge in the woods, and were fortunate if
they were able to remain hidden, and to escape death or
mutilation. All that they possessed was stolen or
destroyed, and when the storm had swept by and they
crept back to the ruins of their home, it was to face the
terrors of famine. Accounts of this sort are common
158 VINCENT DE PAUL
to every history of civil war or of invasion — so common
that they convey little to the imagination. Present-day
problems of overcrowding and of unemployment are apt
to present themselves to the philanthropist as of greater
difficulty than any question that disturbed former genera-
tions. But in the middle of the seventeenth century,
when there was not in France anything representing a
Poor Law, when the financial resources of the country
depended chiefly on the contributions of the working
class, and when for immense districts there was no
possibility of deriving benefit from the farms because of
the completeness of the devastation, it must be allowed
that a position of difficulty was reached to which the
twentieth century affords no parallel.
M. Vincent was the better able to meet it when the
time came because he could speak with the authority of
his experience of these country places. We find him
at Marseilles, at Nantes, at Angers, at S. Meens, at
Richelieu. Never was travelling more difficult. He was
old and broken in health, and it is not surprising that at
S. Meens and at Richelieu he was delayed by definite
illness. In the autumn he returned to Paris, because the
Queen desired his presence there. Mme. d'Aiguillon sent
a carriage and pair to fetch him from Richelieu, and so
feeble was he that his usual resistance to such luxuries
was overcome.
During his exile the people had had time to discover
what he meant to them. The siege of Paris had lasted
till March, and then the starving citizens made terms.
In the August following the young King, with Mazarin
on one hand and Conde on the other, rode into his capital
as a conqueror The whole sequence of events had been
a contradiction of M. Vincent's ideal of the relations of
governors and governed, and even from a distance he
had been an agonized spectator of the ruthless cruelties
of Conde and the indifference of the Regent While the
siege lasted he had written to implore the Queen to send
THE FRONDE REBELLION 159
supplies of grain to the starving poor within the walls;
but though in good-humoured compliance she gave an
order, her energy was not sufficient to see that it was
carried out, and M. Vincent was too far off for effective
insistence.
Doubtless he returned to S. Lazare with relief. When
the people were suffering they needed him, and he was
not deceived by the nominal peace. It was not difficult
to read the signs of the times, or to foresee that the future
held promise of disasters as great as any that had yet
been experienced. The fitting place for Vincent de Paul
at such a moment was Paris.
CHAPTER IX
M. VINCENT AND THE PEOPLE
The subjugation of the rebellious citizens of Paris in 1649
was due to Conde, and the Queen soon awoke to the fact
that her state and dignity was likely to suffer more from
the arrogance of her kinsman than from the insolence of
the magistrates. The prestige of his military genius was
dangerous in a prince of the blood-royal ; by a reminder
of it Conde always had the power to stir the common
people to enthusiasm, and they realized that the protec-
tion given to Mazarin was only temporary, and that their
conqueror shared their detestation of the Italian Cardinal.
Possibly the fact that he had been too strong for them
and had had power to bring the King back to Paris in
triumph, added to his impressiveness, and for a year the
outward manifestations of his power increased steadily.
During that year Anne of Austria was forced to look on
while he and his family indulged in pomp and circum-
stance that dimmed her own, and the Palais Royal was
deserted that the courtiers might throng the galleries of
the Hotel de Conde. But at length the moment came
when her own pride and the Cardinal's forebodings
prompted decisive action. An order was given for the
arrest of Conde, and with his brother de Conti and the
Due de Longueville he was imprisoned at Vincennes.
The tradition of imprisonment as a remedy for those
who were offensive to the Crown had been well sustained
in France since medieval times, yet no force of tradition
could make it anything but a dangerous remedy. The
patients were apt to develop an after-disease of a more
160
M. VINCENT AND THE PEOPLE 161
serious nature. " I went into my prison innocent, I came
out of it guilty," is the traditional saying of Conde him-
self. For all his arrogance he had been a patriot, and he
was the most skilled commander of his time. His
country owed him a debt of gratitude, and with the recol-
lection of that debt vivid in his mind, the humiliation of
imprisonment made a traitor of him.
After his arrest there was no escape from civil war.
Turenne led the Spaniards into France, and the friends of
the imprisoned Princes joined forces with them. Mazarin
and the Queen were dexterous in choosing those who had
power with the people as their supporters, but they broke
faith repeatedly, and so alienated the allies who had been
admitted to their councils. The thirteen months of
Conde's imprisonment were full of danger for all parties
and all interests; the scale wavered perpetually. When
his release was determined, Mazarin himself fled.
It made but little real difference to the people which
party was in the ascendant ; there was, it is true, a deep-
seated and general desire to expel Mazarin from France,
and between January, 1651, and the following December,
this purpose was achieved; but Conde proved himself as
inhuman as a leader as he had been as a foe, and they
never suffered more than when he held Paris against the
King. The horrors of anarchy turned the city into a
hell, and a longing for peace became universal. The
citizens at length, in the autumn of 1652, invited their
King to come back to them, and though they would give
no invitation to the Cardinal, the cry of " point de
Mazarin " grew fainter. Nothing that could be inflicted
on them by an Italian favourite could be worse than the
treatment they received from their own Princes. So
they decided, and in February, 1653, Mazarin was tri-
umphantly reinstated in the capital, and a great banquet
at the Hotel de Ville itself celebrated the victory of
autocracy and the final humiliation of the people.
From beginning to end of the five years of misery Vin-
11
162 VINCENT DE PAUL
cent de Paul had desired peace ; probably it would be true
to say that he desired it at any price. No man in France
understood the people as he did, no one had so true an
estimate of their grievances ; but without an honest leader
they had no hope of winning fair terms by honourable
means, and he foresaw their ultimate discomfiture if the
Queen was bent on enforcing her will and keeping Mazarin
with her in face of all opposition. It is said that he tried
to exert personal influence with the young King and to
intervene among the aristocratic leaders of the mob ; but
his message was always, in one form or another, a call to
sacrifice, and the ears of the Frondists were not open to
it. When in August, 1652, the misery of the people, both
in Paris and in the country, had reached its climax, he
turned — like the good and simple-minded churchman that
he was — to the Holy Father for assistance, and the follow-
ing letter was despatched to Rome.*
" Most Holy Father,|—
" Kneeling humbly at the feet of Your Holiness,
I — the most wretched of all men — once more offer, devote,
and consecrate to your service, myself and the little Con-
gregation of Priests of the Mission, of which I have been
made the Superior-General by the Holy See, although I
am most unworthy. Further, I am venturing — confiding
in the fatherly goodness with which you receive and listen
to even the least of your sons — to lay before you the
miserable and pitiful state of France.
" The Royal Family is torn by dissension, the people
are divided in rival factions, the towns and the provinces
alike are made miserable by civil war; villages and cities
are devastated, ruined, burnt; the labourers do not reap
what they have sown, and no longer sow for future years ;
everything is at the mercy of the soldiers; from them
the people have to fear not robbery only, but actual
murder and every sort of torture; most of those who
* "Lettres," vol. i., No. 235. f Innocent X.
M. VINCENT AND THE PEOPLE 163
dwell in the country perish of hunger if they escape the
sword. Even the priests are not spared, but are cruelly
treated, tortured, and put to death. Every maiden is
dishonoured, and the nuns themselves are exposed to
the wild excesses of the soldiers; churches are profaned
and robbed and ruined, and almost all those which are
still standing are deserted by their pastors, so that the
people are left destitute either of Masses, or of the Sacra-
ments, or of any spiritual consolation. Also that hap-
pens of which it is horrible to think and even more to
speak, the most Blessed Sacrament of the Body of Our
Lord is treated with utter contempt even by Catholics,
for they throw the Holy Eucharist to the ground and
trample It underfoot that they may steal the sacred
vessels that contain It. And how far do the heretics go
who have no sense of this Mystery ? I dare not and will
not enter on description. Yet it is not much to hear of
these things or to read of them, it is necessary to be an
eye-witness. I know that Your Holiness has good reason
to charge me with audacity. I am a mere nameless
individual, and I am daring to set forth these things to
the Father and Chief of all Christians, with all his wide
knowledge of the doings of every nation — especially the
Christian nations. In fact, most Holy Father, there is
no remedy for our misfortunes unless it may come from
the affection, the fatherly kindness, and the authority
which Your Holiness possesses. I am aware that you
have been greatly troubled by our sufferings, and that
very often you have endeavoured to check civil wars at
their very birth, that Pontifical Letters have been issued
for this purpose, that the most reverend Nuncio has been
bidden to interfere in your name, and that he has laboured
abundantly so far as lay in his power for the service of
God and of Your Holiness, although hitherto without
result. But, Most Holy Father, there are twelve hours
in a day, and that which has failed once may succeed
on a second effort. Moreover, the arm of the Lord is
164 VINCENT DE PAUL
not shortened, and I have a firm belief that God may
have reserved to crown the labour of the Pastor of His
Church the glory of winning rest for us after all our toil,
blessing after so many miseries, and peace after strife;
of reuniting the Royal Family, of comforting the people
who are crushed by the long war, of giving subsistence
to the poor who are nearly dead of hunger, of coming
to the help of the devastated country, of rebuilding the
ruined churches, and of bringing back to them the priests
and the shepherds of souls; finally, of giving life once
more to us all. Will Your Holiness condescend to do this ?"
The mixture of courage and simplicity is characteristic
of Vincent de Paul. He is ready to incur blame for
audacity towards the Pope for the sake of the suffering
people, and his faith that the Holy Father had power to
still the strife and to save France is perfectly sincere.
But if Rome had any power either with Queen or Cardinal,
it was not exercised, the slow course of affairs dragged
on, security and peace depended on the return of the
young King to his capital, but the presence of Mazarin
continued — as has been said already — to be the obstacle.
During his years of danger the Cardinal (freed by
circumstances from the drag that had been imposed
upon him by the assemblies of the Council of Conscience)
distributed ecclesiastical preferment freely, paying for
the support of powerful families by bestowing an abbey
or a bishopric where it was asked. M. Vincent's hopes
for the future of the Church in France were thereby
ruined, and it was for him the bitterest form of failure.
The fact that Mazarin had been completely triumphant
in this matter proved how complete his ascendancy over
the Queen had become, and the consequent peril of in-
curring his dislike. But Vincent de Paul — having
written to the Pope in vain — refused in this matter to
accept failure; he mustered his courage, and wrote the
following letter to the Cardinal :
M. VINCENT AND THE PEOPLE 165
* September 11, 1652.
" MONSEIGNEUR, —
" I take the liberty of writing to Your Eminence.
I beseech you to permit the liberty, and to allow me to
inform you that the city of Paris is returning to its
natural state, and is crying out for the King and Queen.
Wherever I go I find no one who is not of this mind.
The Ladies of Charity, who are of the highest in the
kingdom, tell me that a veritable regiment of ladies
would go out to receive their Majesties in triumph.
" This being so, Monseigneur, I suggest that it would
be worthy of Your Eminence to advise the King and
Queen to return and take possession of their city of Paris
and of all the hearts awaiting them within it. But
because there are many drawbacks to this course, I set
down those that appear to me the chief and the arguments
that balance them, for which I humbly ask the considera-
tion of Your Eminence.
The first is that, though there are many good folk in
Paris whose inclinations are such as I have described, it
is said that there are also many of the opposite opinion
and some who are undecided. To which, Monseigneur,
I answer that I think there are only a very few that are
ill-disposed, for within my knowledge there is not even
one, and the indifferent — if such there be — would be
infected by the enthusiasm of a crowd representing the
greater part of Paris.
" Then there are some who will possibly assure Your
Eminence that Paris needs punishment, to the end she
may learn wisdom; but to my thinking it were well for
Your Eminence to look back on the methods of those
Kings against whom Paris has revolted in former times.
You will find they have been gentle and tolerant. Only
Charles VI., by the punishment of many rebels and the
confiscation of the chains that can be stretched across
the streets, poured oil on the flames, and so increased
* "Lettres," vol. i., No. 239.
166 VINCENT DE PAUL
them that they continued for sixteen years, and the
enemies of the State won many allies.
" And there are some who will urge upon Your Emin-
ence that for the sake of your individual interest the
King should not enter Paris, or allow his people to have
access to his presence, unless Your Eminence can be
beside him. They will say this to prove that it is not the
intervention of Your Eminence that is the cause of strife,
but the malignity of rebellious persons, and that, in fact,
it is worth while for you to entangle affairs yet further
and to encourage warfare. To which I answer that once
the King is himself established in Paris, he will be able
to tecall Your Eminence whenever it pleases him, and of
this I am absolutely convinced. Moreover, if it should
be known that Your Eminence — whose chief concern is
the good of the King and Queen, and of the State —
helped to reunite the Royal Family and to bring Paris
back to its allegiance to the King, you, Monseigneur, will
win all hearts and will speedily be recalled.
" It is this, Monseigneur, that I am bold enough to lay
before you in the assurance that you will take it in good
part. I have told no one what I am writing to you, but
I live and die in the obedience I owe Your Eminence, and
I remain always, Monseigneur,
" Your very humble, very faithful,
and very obedient servant,
" Vincent de Paul."
It was an injudicious letter. Vincent de Paul would
not have been true to himself if he had not made these
desperate ventures, but their sole effect was to prove the
incapacity of an honest man to influence affairs. When
he went to S. Germain he weakened his hold on the
Queen, when he wrote to the Pope he must have dis-
heartened himself, and when he wrote to Mazarin his
unvarnished statement of unpalatable truth was cal-
culated to weight the balance against his wishes. The
M. VINCENT AND THE PEOPLE 167
King did enter Paris without the Cardinal, it is true, but
it was nearly six weeks after M. Vincent's petition had been
delivered at Compiegne, and during those weeks the
suffering of the poor — who were the prey of the lawless
ruffians that Conde had brought into the city — increased
in horror daily. The rashness of M. Vincent is not a
matter of regret. It is in such crises of baffling contra-
diction and bewilderment that the real mettle of a man
is proved, and there was then so much opportunity for
time-serving and shuffling that it was very easy for a
priest to adduce sufficient laudable motives for moving
with the times. But, as we know, it was not only the
Congregation of the Mission that showed itself to be
intrepid in the face of danger; across the river in his
Clergy-house of S. Sulpice, M. Olier suffered with his
suffering people, and lived in hourly peril in this the worst
quarter of the city. And he also, moved to extreme
measures by the agonies he was witnessing, despatched
a letter to Compiegne. He showed even greater boldness
than M. Vincent, and wrote in plain terms to the Queen
herself. The conclusion of the letter indicates the purport
of the whole :
" Madame, you could settle every difficulty and turn
this far-reaching insurrection into peace by dismissing
the object of your people's resentment. By sacrificing
to God the service you accept from this person you would
pay Him the homage that He prizes, and would win for
yourself the love and respect of your subjects, which you
ought to desire more than anything else."*
It was no wonder that M. Olier was ejected from
S. Sulpice at the first opportunity, and that M. Vincent
was no more consulted in the distribution of ecclesiastical
appointments; the frankness of these comments and
suggestions of theirs were not likely to find favour. Anne
of Austria had lost her desire for the love and respect of
her subjects, and M. Olier's idea of her obligation in that
* l'Abbe Faillon, "Vie de M. Olier," part ii., liv. 8.
168 VINCENT DE PAUL
direction did not restore it to her; her feeling towards
them was one of animosity. She feared the mob, and
was ready to show clemency towards all past offences
because she feared it; but she judged truly enough that
at the extremity to which she had arrived, the only
person deserving of confidence was he whose fortune
depended entirely upon herself.
And finally, as we already know, events unfolded
themselves much as M. Vincent had foretold. The King
and Queen were welcomed by their people, and within a
few weeks the Cardinal himself returned amid the plaudits
of the populace. Of all the great personages concerned
in those five years of uproar, Mazarin, and Mazarin only,
emerged at the end in a somewhat stronger position than
he had held at the beginning. When we remember that
among many grievances, the grievance against him was
admittedly the chief, that the sole point of unity amid
contesting factions was hatred and distrust of him, that
for this reason fertile provinces had been laid waste and
thousands of lives sacrificed, the record of his return and
of the subsequent Feast of Welcome in the Hotel de Ville
takes rank among those flashes of irony with which
history sometimes provides us.
Vincent de Paul has left no statement of his own
opinion either of the political or moral aspect of the
Fronde in its progress or in its conclusion ; he has only set
down the horror of its effects as he witnessed them, and
even out of those effects he made an opportunity. In
his instituting of his Confraternities we see the intention
of bringing the true condition of the poor to the notice
of the rich ; the sensational sufferings of vast numbers of
the French people in the years between 1647 and 1653
brought the attainment of his object nearer, for it served
to level differences of rank and to convince the aristocrat
that the peasant was of the same human nature as him-
self. Although this new impression was not received
universally, there is evidence that it was widespread, and
M. VINCENT AND THE PEOPLE 169
after the Fronde M. Vincent was able to reckon on the
capacity for generosity in the rich with greater certainty
than before it. The amount of relief given in the years
of the nation's most poignant distress was stupendous,
but no claim can be made that it was all collected and
administered from S. Lazare. The Company of the Blessed
Sacrament laboured diligently and gave freely, the nuns
and hermits of Port Royal sheltered refugees and dis-
tributed food and clothing, there was also in all proba-
bility a great deal of private benevolence in the pro-
vincial towns; but the onus of organization on a large
scale fell on M. Vincent, for it was he who had applied his
mind to problems of poverty long before the nation was
overwhelmed by the special disasters of the civil war.
It seems, indeed, that he became imbued — after years of
association with the poor of Paris and study of their
conditions — with social theories that were far in advance
of the opinion of his times. He applied them unob-
trusively but very vigorously, and to this day the traces
of his industry and of his discoveries remain. But while
he dealt to good purpose with the city, the condition of
the country-people was not greatly altered. It had become
the custom to regard the succour of the peasant as
the monopoly of pious persons. The pious gave relief,
and added an exhortation to accept distress as a visitation
from the Almighty — the fitting chastisement for sin —
but there were probably many occasions when neither
relief nor exhortation supplied the real needs of the
recipient — bodily or spiritual — there were probably many
needs also which were never supplied at all. Almsgiving
generally took place at convent doors, and those who
desired it learnt to loiter through hours of waiting in the
certainty of eventual reward. No more fatal lesson can
be taught, and it is one which pious persons after the
lapse of centuries are still teaching. Thus, on the one
hand, the race of beggars was nurtured and encouraged,
while, on the other, the system of taxation destroyed the
170 VINCENT DE PAUL
spirit of enterprise. When the civil war came upon them,
the people were unfit both morally and physically to act
for themselves. There may have been moments when it
was possible to combine for their own protection, or at
least to find some hopeful method of escape ; but in every
account they appear to have shown no more initiative
than would be expected from flocks of sheep.
Circumstances rather than natural incapacity were
responsible for their degradation. They had never been
trained to think for themselves. It is significant that
agricultural interests were not represented either in Paris
or in the provincial parlements. The lawmaker was in-
variably a citizen, and all his energies were concentrated
on the protection of commerce from the aggression of
the aristocracy. The noble lords of those days were
landowners on the most enormous scale, but very rarely
did one of them find time to give a moment's considera-
tion to the conditions of life on his estates. The wars
were constant, and it was the duty of a gentleman to fight.
Year after year, with the coming of summer, all those
whose time was at their own disposal turned their backs
on the frivolities of ladies' society and rode off to the
frontier. They were thus preserved from effeminacy and
from interfering unduly in home politics. But war-
fare as it was then practised did not nurture the milk
of human kindness; they might acquire endurance and
resourcefulness, but they became so inured to the
spectacle of suffering that it ceased entirely to move them.
And in those days there were no connecting links between
the differing classes. There were the aristocracy, the
bourgeois, and the poor. There was also — and in the
seventeenth century this was becoming a very important
development — the noblesse de la robe, the product of
many generations of cultivated intellects and of moderate
wealth. Life demanded of them that they should strive
to retain and augment inherited benefits, and this tradi-
tion of striving resulted in a keenness of wit and vigour
M. VINCENT AND THE PEOPLE 171
of character not to be acquired by a race whose part
was merely graceful acceptance. Of the noblesse de la
robe came the Arnaulds, the Pascals, Descartes, Corneille,
Racine, Boileau, and Colbert himself — to name only a few
of the many who were the true strength of the nation in
that period. Superficially, we find a correspondence to
the English upper middle class of the twentieth century ;
but in fact there is an essential divergence, and in that
divergence is the spirit that made for so much misery in
the France of long ago. For this class, which possessed
the largest share of wisdom and wit and intuition, was a
citizen class; the movements to which it led were in the
interests of the cities. The home-keeping country squire
and his family, whose interference in the affairs of their
neighbours and enthusiasm for county business may be
so unfailing a source whether of irritation or improve-
ment, had no existence. In his place there was the
great seigneur, spending his time between Court and
camp ; and in a specially favoured district might be found
his pious lady, who would stay some months at the
ancestral chateau and dole out charity, sometimes with
a generous hand, but who would never dream of helping
those toiling, hopeless wretches to rise above the squalor
and the drudgery to which they had been born. The
idea of encouraging self-respect was against the spirit of
the times, it held a suggestion of heresy. The divine
right which gave a noble his possessions fixed the di-
mensions of the gulf between him and the canaille, and
any attempt to lessen it was tampering with the decree
of Providence. That was the sort of doctrine with which
far-seeing ecclesiastics checked any tendency to dangerous
innovation, and so it came to pass that the peasant, half-
starved in body and wholly starved in mind, continued
for many generations to accept in silence the fate allotted
to him.
But to M. Vincent, though he was obedient to the
Church and loyal to the Throne, and paid all the respect
172 VINCENT DE PAUL
that was due to rank, every man, whether serf or seigneur,
was equally an individual, equally the possessor of a soul.
And therefore the conditions that he found in the country
even before the days of the Company and his own ex-
perience as a wandering preacher, were very disquieting.
The miseries of the people in Lorraine in the earlier years
of the Regency stirred his compassion, and taught him
to rouse the sympathies of others, and when similar or
even worse horrors were inflicted on French subjects in
all parts of the kingdom by foreign mercenaries, he lost
no time in applying the same organization by which
Lorraine had long been benefited.
There are detailed records of the tortures in which the
Fronde involved the poor, but they are so ghastly as to
be unfit for reading. Yet the facts must have been widely
known at the time, and neither the Queen on the one
hand, nor the rebellious noblesse on the other, were moved
thereby to relent and modify the course of action they
intended, to check the sufferings for which they were
responsible. It was well for M. Vincent in those days
that he had acquired a philosophy of life that enabled
him to act, to love, and to pity with all his generous
heart, to maintain the attitude of the Christian towards
his fellows, and not to criticize the attitude of others.
Had he allowed himself to reflect upon the cruelty and
indifference of those who dwelt in high places at the time
when he was most closely in contact with human agony,
his courage must surely have failed him; but, instead, he
set himself to discover his own office in the general con-
fusion, and to concentrate every power he possessed
upon it. His months of enforced exile from Paris at
the very beginning of the Fronde established his position
as the friend and helper of the poor. Wherever he
went in his travels he left the kind of memory which starts
into vividness in the moment of distress. When every
hope was failing, when the population of each little
country town and its surrounding district were perishing
M. VINCENT AND THE PEOPLE 173
of want, the wise heads of the community came to the
one conclusion that was fruitful, and sent tidings of
their plight to M. Vincent.* The Priests of the Mission
and the Sisters of Charity became the heralds of re-
turning life. It is literally true that thousands of lives
were saved by their ministrations, and although the
general misery baffles the imagination, that which was
accomplished was miraculous. From S. Quentin in
Picardy — to take one instance only — there came a letter
describing how the food distributed by the Mission kept
more than 1,000 persons from starvation. " The want
is so great that in the villages no one has even any straw
left to lie on. There are some who used to be possessed
of 200,000 crowns who are now without bread, and have
starved for the last two days."t
Ruin so complete only overtook the wealthy in the
districts devastated by the soldiery, but every class
suffered in those dark years, and if the Ladies of Charity
had elected to tighten their purse-strings, the plea of
" bad times " would have had obvious justification. It
was very difficult to fulfil their obligations in Paris; the
support of the foundlings and the many claims of their
immediate neighbours in that period of famine imposed
a very severe strain on their resources. But Vincent was
ruthless in his demands — his was the spirit of the early
Christian who must perforce share all that he has if his
neighbour be in need. It is a spirit difficult to impart,
especially to those who have family claims continually
present, and M. Vincent failed to impart it in its entirety,
but he was able to achieve what to others seemed im-
possible. He summoned his Ladies of Charity together
and read to them the appeals he had received, and in
making record of their response he acknowledges all that
it meant. " The difficulty these ladies have in sustain-
* For official recognition of his position, see Appendix, Note IIL
f From M. de La Fons. See Feillet, " La Misere au Temps de
la Fronde," chap. x.
174 VINCENT DE PAUL
ing the weight of their immense expenditure is hardly
to be believed."
We hear of jewels and precious personal possessions
sacrificed. It is easy, when much already has been given,
to resent a further claim, and to find a conscientious
scruple to support refusal. It is hard, too, for a woman,
even though she be devout and ready to renounce all
vanities, to part with her diamonds, and it is in contem-
plating such results that the effect of M. Vincent's per-
sonality becomes apparent. The small establishment of
Mission Priests and Sisters of Charity planted here and
there about the kingdom stood forth as the most im-
portant of philanthropic agencies, and the influence
over a certain section of the wealthy class which M. Vin-
cent had gradually acquired became suddenly the chief
hope of vast multitudes of starving refugees.
And to these great ladies the invitation to charity was
(we must reiterate) given without any of the inducements
that are generally appended. The rivalry, the self-
aggrandizement, the innumerable cross-issues that con-
fuse every philanthropic effort of modern times, were
swept away, but with them went every misgiving lest
the gift might be misdirected and do harm to its re-
cipient. Once again came the question of the beloved
disciple, " Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth
his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of
compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God
in him ?" It came with absolute and direct simplicity;
there was no evading it, and the sincerity of the devote
was never put to sharper test. But M. Vincent was in
personal touch with those in whose hearts he had stirred
the embers of charity years before — his demand on them
had been continuous — and any who were not able to
bear it had long since drifted away. In this supreme
moment his confidence in his followers was that of the
General who can lead to victory against overwhelming
odds.
M. VINCENT AND THE PEOPLE 175
The hard fact of actual statistics is necessary to under-
stand the full effectiveness of these efforts.
From 1635 onwards depopulation had been going on
steadily in the country districts. Those who held real
authority acted for the moment only, and the ultimate
effect of a system of government which ignored industrial
questions and concerned itself only with the bribing or
the bridling of the nobles was never made a topic for
serious consideration. The cloth manufactories at Lille
and Elbeuf were the first to close; the glass-makers in
Burgundy and in Lorraine, and the woollen industry in
Picardy followed. In Champagne and Burgundy the
wine trade was at a standstill. The taxes were so enor-
mous that it was hard to pay wages, and the wage-earners
could only continue to keep the barest subsistence for
themselves by concealing the amount they were re-
ceiving. If common sense was the property of any French
subject, it was not utilized in the processes of government.
The elementary wisdom which teaches us not to slay the
goose who lays the golden eggs was completely ignored.
An immediate desire for goose outweighed the future
need for her product. Political exigencies required the
continuance of warfare and the maintenance of an
army, and the troops were quartered on the people.
The indulgence of expensive tastes had emptied the royal
coffers, and the people were required to replenish them.
In those days the rich had no financial resources outside
the kingdom, except as the result of military exploits,
and therefore depopulation and ruin of trade must even-
tually be felt by the great landowner, however persistent
he might be in his indifference to responsibility. In
some quarters a tenth of the small towns and villages that
had been centres of industry disappeared entirely. This was
the case in Burgundy and in Lorraine, ordinarily prosperous
and populous districts, and often one farm, or a mill where
two or three miserable refugees had found shelter, was
all that remained of the homes of a hundred households.
176 VINCENT DE PAUL
The description of these deserted places is less poignant
in horror than the facts concerning those where the
people congregated. The pressure of actual hunger was
of long standing. In 1633 the Ladies of Charity had
begun to send relief from Paris to distant places. In
nine years Frere Matthieu Renard, of the Congregation
of S. Lazare, journeyed fifty times from Paris to Lorraine,
driving his donkey before him, and passing on many occa-
sions through the ranks of the soldiery. There was
careful organization of the relief, and the emissaries of
M. Vincent were spared pillage, even in those lawless
times. In 1639 the general need became greater, and
some difficulty was experienced in meeting it. This, it
should be remembered, was eight years before the
Fronde. To such places as Nancy, Verdun, Metz, Toul,
Bar-le-Duc, an allowance of 500 livres a month for food
was made; at S. Miluel, at one period, 1,100 hungry per-
sons were fed daily; at S. Quentin there were 1,500 sick
requiring support. With the civil wars of the Fronde
complete destitution took possession of these country
districts, but the Ladies of Charity had for years been
supporting many thousand souls whom they never saw,
and who had no nearer claim than that of a common
nationality. To increase a demand that was already
so exorbitant might have abashed a less humble man than
M. Vincent, and he had to go beyond the circle of his
Ladies of Charity in his exploitation.
It was computed at the end of the war that he had
distributed 12,000,000 livres. He made application to
the Queen herself, although her sympathies at that period
were not at the disposal of her people, and obtained from
her on two several occasions jewels amounting in value
to 25,000 livres (these gifts, if we regard them as a salve
to qualms of conscience, are characteristic of her). So
miraculous was the response that even this most notable
of beggars was astounded. In Paris the shopmen brought
goods to the door of S. Lazare. Not only did the great
M. VINCENT AND THE PEOPLE 177
ladies, who were themselves feeling the pinch of poverty,
bring jewels and plate, but their humbler neighbours
offered clothing they could ill afford to spare. The
infection of generosity spread from one to another, de-
stroying the acquisitiveness natural to human nature — an
infection hardly less irresistible than that which had de-
stroyed all scruple and all self-control among the women
of the Fronde, and, if the truth be told, hardly less sen-
sational in its effects. Even at the Court the Maids of
Honour had a confraternity for the assistance of the
people who rebelled against their mistress. Wisdom and
folly were intermingled, but the chaos of the times pre-
vented orderly procedure. At the quay by the Hotel-
Dieu, barges arrived continually laden with the sick and
wounded from provincial districts where the soldiery had
worked havoc. The Hotel-Dieu was so overcrowded
that the lives of its inmates were endangered, and the
homeless sufferers were landed, only to be left on straw
by the river's brink. To them came the Ladies of
Charity, causing them to be carried to their own homes,
and there tending them as best they could, in literal
obedience to Gospel maxims — a proceeding attended by
many risks, social and sanitary — and Mme. de Bretonvilliers
gave up her house on the He Notre Dame for the storage
and distribution of the goods intended for the refugees.
It is not difficult to picture the glow of enthusiasm with
which these devout ladies (who were so near akin to the
women of the Fronde) threw aside established custom and
all the tradition and etiquette of well-appointed lives, and
sacrificed rest and food, as well as luxury, that they might
succour the brother who had need. The divine spark
of charity animated them, and there was also in them,
as in their lawless sisters, that tendency to weariness,
to the condition which later generations have termed
u boredom/' which was their inheritance from a genera-
tion nourished on excitement. The quiet progress of
the pious from the cradle to the grave could not satisfy
12
178 VINCENT DE PAUL
the great lady whose grandmother had been of the
Flying Squadron, whose father had fought and feasted
with Henri IV. Latent in them all was the thirst for
excitement, but in the colleagues of Mme. de Chevreuse
it was slaked by excess of self-gratification, in the
adherents of M. Vincent by an exaggeration of self-
suppression. In both camps reigned the imperative
need of the abnormal, no less in the assumption of
responsibilities than in the frenzied negation of
them.
Therefore, while we pay full tribute to the magnificent
generosities and the real self-devotion of the Ladies of
Charity, we must accept that it was not permitted to
them to touch the highest level. They gave personal
service as well as largesse, but it was reserved for the
more immediate companions of M. Vincent to show
what glory of self-devotion can be inspired by extremity
of suffering. It was not enough that food and funds
should be provided; in those troublous times there was
great difficulty in their distribution. The little settle-
ments of Sisters of Charity were utilized in this arduous
task. They prepared the soup that kept so many thou-
sand starving folk alive (one of M. Vincent's letters gives
the receipt, with bread, dried peas, lentils, herbs, salt,
and butter for ingredients) ; but, in addition to this new
duty, the demand on them in their ordinary vocation as
parish nurses became overwhelming. Wherever there
was a town the survivors of rapine sought refuge there,
and, as violence and hunger had done deadly work upon
them, they all needed tending. The Sisters were unre-
mitting in their toil, and some died at their posts. In
its detail the toil itself was probably abhorrent, for all
that was most loathsome in disease was bred by the pre-
vailing wretchedness of the people, and the impossibility
of fulfilling everything that was needed of them added
the element of despair to the weight of labour. Great
as was their heroism, however, it is the Mission Priests
M. VINCENT AND THE PEOPLE 179
who bear off the palm of victory in that amazing compe-
tition of self-sacrifice.
They were the envoys of the Good Samaritans of Paris,
and ran the risk attendant on bearing money and valu-
able commodities across a country infested by lawless
soldiery. But in this they only fulfilled a duty demanding
natural courage; their service to their country in its
darkest moment was one needing qualities of a higher
order. The barbarities of the troops upon the country-
folk had left ghastly traces in the human remains lying
by the wayside as a prey to wolves or vultures, or across
the threshold of deserted homesteads. They meant a
chance of pollution for the living as well as the desecra-
tion of the dead, and such things cried for a remedy;
but the case was worse when civil warfare became wide-
spread, and the bodies of men and horses rotted by
hundreds where they had fallen.*
In the prevalent disorder no public effort was made to
meet this horror. It was left for M. Vincent to devise a
means, and but for the spirit that animated the Company,
even he might have been baffled. The task was hideous,
and one after another those who volunteered for it for-
feited their lives. It was, indeed, a service that would
have rejoiced the heart of Francis of Assisi. The acme of
sensual mortification, and each one of the Company who
devoted himself to it, paid a glorious tribute to the
Superior to whom he owed his inspiration. " These are
most truly martyrs !" cried M. Vincent proudly.
Throughout all those dark years, wherever the horror
was greatest, wherever human cruelty and human suffer-
ing had been brought to their farthest point, there would
be found the sons of M. Vincent labouring steadfastly
to comfort and to remedy. And in Paris itself the work
of S. Lazare went on unceasingly. The national mis-
fortunes broke routine, but gave new opportunity.
* It is recorded that near Rethel 2,000 corpses lay for two
months unburied.
i8o VINCENT DE PAUL
The palish priests from all quarters of France, flying for
safety to Paris, appealed to M. Vincent. Many of them
were of that lax type whose reformation was among the
objects of the Company. " We give them subsistence,"
wrote the Superior,* " together with training in those
things that they should both know and practise." The
mass of refugees also were just those persons to whom
the Company ministered habitually, and at the moment
when it became impossible to reach them in the country
they were brought into contact with their appointed
helpers in the city. " Not being able to hold missions
in the provinces, we are resolved to hold them for those
who have taken refuge in Paris," says M. Vincent,
" and we have begun to-day in our own church with
800 poor folk lodging in this neighbourhood. Later we
shall go elsewhere. Some of us also are beginning at
S. Nicholas du Chardonnet."
The practical side of M. Vincent's action during the
Fronde is so prominent that it is well once more to be
reminded that these spiritual opportunities were those
which he prized and valued; for these he sought even
when the burden of organization was weighing most
heavily upon him, and through them he derived the only
comfort that was attainable. For, in truth, all the
knowledge accumulated in his long life, all the courage
won in the thousands of hours spent in prayer, were
needed to help him to fulfil what this stage of his journey
demanded of him.
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 226.
vmaw
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CHAPTER X
CARDINAL DE RETZ
With M. Olier and his Congregation of S. Sulpice labour-
ing early and late for the starving citizens of Paris, and
Vincent de Paul organizing relief throughout the whole
of France, it would seem that the Church won honour
from the sensational disasters of the Fronde. And,
without question, the personality of M. Vincent assumed
by reason of it a dominance over the minds and hearts
of the people that might not have been his without it,
and the spiritual power of the Lazarists was thereby
strengthened. But the Fronde was the most selfish, as
well as the most confused, of revolutions; it was pro-
longed and sustained by vain desires rather than by any
principle of revolt against abuse, and the two figures
ranged against each other as leaders on either hand are
Cardinal Mazarin and Jean Francois de Gondi, Cardinal
de Retz.* The Church, therefore, does not reap glory
from that complicated episode.
The cause of those who were leagued against Mazarin
was so strong, and their desire for his expulsion from the
kingdom so unanimous, that their ultimate discomfiture
is not easily accounted for. It may be that de Retz
was more responsible for the failure of the Fronde than
for its origin (in spite of the testimony of some of his
contemporaries), and is therefore an historical personage
of the first importance; but it is not primarily on this
account that he claims notice here. One of the objects
* See "Memoires du Cardinal de Retz contenant ce qui s'est
passe de remarquable en France pendant les premieres annees du
regne de Louis XIV."
181
182 VINCENT DE PAUL
of M. Vincent's life-work, and one that was very near
his heart, was to set up a standard for the priesthood,
and to awake the understanding of the priests themselves
to the infamy of their loose lives in contrast to their
strict and pure profession. A vigorous crusade against
an abuse has little meaning without knowledge of the
abuse itself. The maxims and practice of the Lazarists,
the unremitting efforts of M. Vincent to impress the
necessity of spiritual life upon the priesthood, and the
sanctity of the priest's vocation on every man and woman
in France, can have no better explanation than the
career of the Cardinal de Retz.
Probably Jean Francois de Gondi was not in intention
an enemy of the State, but his intentions were indefinite,
and he was, in fact, the possessor of the most dangerous
of all powers — the oratory that can excite, but cannot
control, a mob. As we know, there was reason enough
for discontent, and, had there been unity among the
discontented, there would have been little hope of triumph
for the boy King. But there were as many parties as
there were notabilities. The Due d' Orleans, first of
them all in rank and last in ability, struggled through
years of anxiety, and landed himself in disgrace and
banishment, without ever having adopted a definite
cause or policy. Conde, soldier and man of honour, of
whom de Retz himself bore witness that he had " Vdme
du monde la moins niechante," played with treason, first
in the assertion of overweening vanity, and afterwards
in revenge for insult and imprisonment. There was
de Beaufort also, a reckless fellow, who loved notoriety,
and had inherited a capacity for winning hearts. He
led revolt because Mazarin engrossed the favours of the
Queen, and life at Court was not fruitful of excitement.
And the women passed from one to the other, goading,
inciting, entangling — Mme. de Longueville, Mme. de
Chevreuse, Mme. de Montbazon, Mme. de Guemenee,
the Princess Palatine, and many more — a long list of
them. They had played at poetry and the fine arts at
CARDINAL DE RETZ 183
the Hotel Rambouillet, and yawned behind their fans;
they had endured as best they might the incredible
boredom of the Court of Louis XIII. , with his neglected
Queen guarded and discredited. And then the glorious
moment came when every bond might be snapped and
no law of society or of the realm need be recognized.
It was a period when woman's influence was extra-
ordinarily powerful. The idea of it had been artificially
nurtured by Mme. de Rambouillet. She had intended
to foster the purest instincts of human nature, to revive
the spirit of chivahy, to inaugurate an age when strong
men, led by high-souled women, should strive for noble
ends, heedless of personal interest. She was a visionary
and a sentimentalist. But being also a woman of peculiar
power, she was no less effective because her effectiveness
fell so wide of its intended mark. The women of the
Fronde owed much to the tuition of Mme. de Ram-
bouillet, but their way of life was entirely at variance with
her intentions. In fact, she had formed her theory and
acted on it without allowing for the element of the un-
known, inevitable where new suggestion touches human
character. Flames arose where she had not suspected
anything inflammable, and the flickering light revealed
new qualities in natures she had thought familiar, and
speedily the fire spread till, to her dazzled eyes, the calm
shining of her social theory and her reign of art and
literary excellence ceased to be visible.
The Hotel Rambouillet, taken by itself, can claim only
a subordinate place in the history of any development,
social or intellectual; but the Fronde is impossible to
overlook in the barest outline of the history of France,
and the Fronde owed its duration and its bitterness to
the women who took part in it. Conde was at times
the central figure, it is true, and Conde was less the tool
of women than most of his contemporaries; but its
leader and instigator just at those points where the
peace-loving hoped that strife might cease was de Retz,
first Coadjutor, and afterwards Cardinal Archbishop, the
184 VINCENT DE PAUL
man who of all others of that day was most involved in
the intricacies of feminine intrigues.
It would be absurd, therefore, to describe Vincent de
Paul and his long struggle to uphold the sanctity of the
priest's vocation and to ignore the great example of the
evil against which he fought given by Cardinal de Retz.
To understand the strength of the Congregation of
S. Lazare, we must realize Cardinal Mazarin and his
secretaries, Cardinal de Retz and his envoys to the Papal
Court — priests all of them, except Mazarin himself.
There were years when de Retz was better known and
better loved in Paris than Vincent de Paul himself.
And those who loved him best were not to be found
among the courtiers or in the light-hearted throng who
were his equals in age and rank, but among those who
lived in the mean streets or crowded thoroughfares. It
was the people, for whose welfare Vincent de Paul
struggled and thought and prayed continually, who
offered their allegiance to de Retz, and so made him for
a time the most formidable of all p&ssible enemies to
the Crown.
The coupling of these names is not suggested merely
by their contrast. Vincent de Paul began his experience
of this world's pomps and vanities just at the time when
Jean Francois de Gondi was born. In his subsequent
intimacy with the whole family he must have shared in
the notice and interest excited by the brilliant talents
of this youngest hope of a great house. The future
Cardinal was not the pupil of M. Vincent for very long,
but memories must, nevertheless, have been connected
with his brother's tutor, and the death of Pierre de
Gondi (the first and chief disaster of his own life) affected
M. Vincent closely.
Jean Francois de Gondi might have shone as a soldier.
He was a fine type of a class not uncommon in his day —
one of those intrepid cavaliers who revelled in display,
in excitement, and in love-making of a flamboyant sort ;
CARDINAL DE RETZ 185
who treated the world as a stage, and rarely forgot that
they were playing to an audience. Intellectually, he
was superior to the clattering troop who were swept
hither and thither in the various developments of the
Fronde, and, had Fortune allowed him to be one of them,
it would assuredly have been as a leader, and not in the
rank and file. He was possessed of the literary faculty
which is of service in any condition, and also of that
more dangerous endowment, the instinct for the pictur-
esque. As an independent gentleman, with his hand on
his sword-hilt and a reputation for daring to keep him
safe from insult, Jean Francois de Gondi would have
found a satisfying range of experience within his reach.
It is not difficult to imagine the man he might have been
had he been given a helmet in place of a biretta. But
Pierre, his elder brother, originally destined to succeed
his uncle in the ecclesiastical dignities claimed by the
family, died suddenly and tragically ; and, in consequence,
it fell to the lot of Jean Francois, soldier and gallant to
his finger-tips, to become the most flagrant example of
the evil that was poisoning the Church.
During the five years that the French monarchy
tottered on the brink of ruin, the thread that is easiest
to follow in the difficult and entangled history of events
is that of the struggle between de Retz and Mazarin for
supreme rulership of the State. Both were Italian by
descent. The de Gondi were of the Florentine nobility,
and established their fortune in France under Catherine
de Medici. Mazarin was a new-comer, and belonged to
the lower orders, but both were endowed with that
capacity for cunning which Machiavelli sought to nurture
and instruct, and both had the skill to use the elementary
passions and desires of their neighbours for their own
objects.
Their battle, when it was over and de Retz vanquished,
was chronicled by him with matchless cynicism, and his
vanity did not prevent him from setting down the most
186 VINCENT DE PAUL
damning evidence against himself. His admissions on
the one side gave a stamp of veracity to his accusations
on the other, and the brilliant whole destroyed any
shreds of reputation that remained to Cardinal Mazarin,
while de Retz. himself emerges as a clearly outlined
figure, with all his folly, all his trickery, all his puerile
complacency. He had no standard of morality or truth ;
he accepted the most solemn spiritual offices purely for
self-aggrandizement; he was devoid of any sense of
responsibility, and stands self-revealed as unworthy of
the trust of others. Yet it is well to remember that
Vincent de Paul was a spectator of most of his career,
with every opportunity of real knowledge of events.
M. Vincent was a lover of honesty, and the glamour of
notoriety did not dazzle him. Still, to the end of his
days, he was faithful in allegiance to de Retz. On a
lower level there were many of the Cardinal's followers,
not otherwise virtuous, who remained unshaken in their
devotion, in complete disregard of their own interests.
It would seem, therefore, that he was possessed of some
unusual capacity to charm which destroyed the balance
of judgment in those who came under his spell. Faintly
the pages of his memoirs convey the impression which
facts support. Here is one who, by his own confession,
has defied the laws of God and man, who has tricked, and
schemed, and lied, and sacrificed the lives and fortunes
of innumerable innocent persons to the chance of satis-
fying his ambition ; yet when his memoirs end we are
fascinated rather than repelled, and we may believe that
this same power secured for him allegiance and support
when defeat and confiscation might have brought him
to ruin.
His youth was spent in schemes to escape from the
chain of the profession that was being forced upon him.
When he discovered that open opposition was useless,
he resorted to elaborate devices. He hoped to be so
distinguished for his martial ardour that the absurdity
CARDINAL DE RETZ 187
of condemning him to a cassock would be self-evident,
and he lost no opportunity of picking a private quarrel
or of brawling publicly. He arranged a runaway match
which, had it come to pass, must of course have been
decisive, in some measure, of his future; but this failed,
as did all deliberate attempts to convince his parents of
his unfitness for the priesthood; and in due course he,
self-confessed as "Vame la moins ecclesiastique qui fiit
dans I'univers," became Coadjutor to his uncle, the second
Archbishop of Paris.
Richelieu had marked him while he was only a lad,
had taken him into some sort of favour, and then with-
drew his patronage, and would not advance him. Jean
Francois himself believed that Richelieu's suspicions of
him were aroused by reading a wonderfully able pamphlet
which he wrote when only seventeen on the Conspiracy
of Gian Luigi Fiesco. Herein one may observe a hint
of the vanity of the young author, for it is far more likely
that the keen-sighted Cardinal descried in de Retz him-
self the qualities which he considered to be dangerous,
than that their existence was traced through the medium
of his writing. Very strong support would have been
needed to secure his nomination as Coadjutor if Richelieu
had survived, and there was much cause for the citizens
of Paris to deplore an appointment that proved as
impolitic as it was scandalous.
But if there were any who knew Jean Francois de
Gondi as he really was, they made no outcry at his
appointment to high ecclesiastical office, and the majority
were very ready to welcome him, for he had had periods
when he thought well to play the priest, and he was as
skilful in this part as in any of the others which he chose
to adopt.
Among those whose eyes were blinded must be num-
bered Vincent de Paul. His discrimination of character
had been proved again and again, but here the memory
of much kindness to himself, all the force of old loyalty,
188 VINCENT DE PAUL
all the gratitude for the first beginnings of his Congre-
gation, was ranged on the side of generous tolerance.
He did not regret that Jean Francois de Gondi was to
receive the highest preferment that at the time was
possible, and therefore we assume that Jean Francois
had aped the appearance and practices of piety to some
purpose. Before the Archbishop's nephew was quite
secure of his appointment, he tells us that he cultivated
the society of the most reputable ecclesiastics who fre-
quented the archiepiscopal palace. " I did not pretend
to great devotion myself," he says, " because I knew I
should not be able to keep it up, but I showed great
esteem for the pious, and this in their eyes is one of the
greatest points of piety."
Court favour and ecclesiastical support united at the
right moment, the Queen smiled on him, and, at thirty,
Jean Francois was Coadjutor to the Archbishop, with
the certainty of the succession. It was necessary, then,
that he should be a priest, and Vincent de Paul had intro-
duced the custom of Ordination Retreats. Perhaps it
was not unnatural that de Gondi, who based his fortune
on public opinion, should be guided by it at this crisis.
Nevertheless, his admission at S. Lazare for the prescribed
days of devotional retirement is an anomaly so great as
to cast a stigma on M. Vincent himself; his own account
of it is sufficiently suggestive.
" As I was forced to take orders," he says, " I went
into retreat at S. Lazare, where I conformed outwardly
in all things. Inwardly I was absorbed by the most
profound reflection as to the best course to pursue. It
was a very difficult question. I found the Archbishopric
of Paris degraded in the eyes of the world by my uncle's
meanness, and distorted in its position towards God by
his negligence and incapacity. I foresaw innumerable
obstacles in the way of its restoration, and I was not so
blind as to overlook that the greatest and the most in-
surmountable lay in myself. I was not ignorant of the
CARDINAL DE RETZ 189
importance of moral conduct in a Bishop; I knew that
the scandalous licence my uncle had permitted himself
made the claim on me even more narrow and more
insistent than on others; and I knew at the same time
that I was not able to sustain it, and that no barrier set
up at the bidding either of conscience or ambition would
be much check to the attack of temptation. After six
days of reflection, I chose to do wrong deliberately, which
is incomparably most sinful in the sight of God, but also,
without doubt, is wisest from a worldly point of view,
because one may take precautions to cover it in part,
and so avoid the unseasonable mingling of evil doing
with pious practice which in our profession is such a
dangerous absurdity."
Never has there been cynicism more complete. In
the quiet chapel at S. Lazare, which for so many was
full of hallowed memories, Jean Francois de Gondi
reviewed the possibilities of evil and of good, and " chose
to do wrong deliberately." He went out from his
Retreat to the new life and the new honours that awaited
him, and preached a series of Advent sermons in the
Cathedral of Notre Dame to crowded congregations.
It was the beginning of as curious a drama of human
nature as history presents. The Archbishop was going
into the country for a time, and full authority was in
the hands of the Coadjutor. Fresh from his intercourse
with M. Vincent, he set on foot a scheme for the purifica-
tion of the diocese. The clergy were, by careful in-
vestigation and inquiry, divided into three classes — the
virtuous, those whose practices were questionable but
who might be reformed, and those whose depravity had
become confirmed. The last were to hold no office, and
the more hopeful were to be suspended until they showed
plain intention of living more worthily. Such a project
must have rejoiced the heart of Vincent de Paul, and
de Gondi's powers as an administrator were sufficient
to carry it through and to effect immense improvement
190 VINCENT DE PAUL
in the deplorable conditions that prevailed. Unfortu-
nately, however, his authority was not supreme, and
the Archbishop on his return cancelled every regulation
made by the Coadjutor. It was said that he did so
with the approval of Mazarin, who seems to have been
unswervingly consistent in opposition to all attacks on
the libertinage of the priests, and de Gondi, who meant
his reforming ardour to serve as one of the steps by which
he climbed high in public opinion, began his collection
of grievances against the Cardinal.
In spite of the failure in practical result, de Gondi 's
reforming enterprise scored heavily in his favour, for
he had managed to impress the Queen. She required
that he should conduct a six weeks' Retreat in a convent,
and he acquitted himself admirably. In those early
days he was not only celebrated as a preacher, but it is
plain he took a pride in his preaching. One of his
sermons on S. Carlo Borromeo was famous. Doubtless
there were many who believed they derived spiritual
benefit from his exhortations. He sets down the record
of his doings in fulfilment of his exalted office with a
measure of pride in his success. And all the time that
other life, which was to be hidden for fear of " dangerous
absurdity," was going on, and the record of this also he
set down.
His forefathers had been the comrades and confidants
of the Valois and Medici; the chain that was meant to
bind him had not been of his choosing; Southern blood
ran in his veins — these are the excuses for him as an
individual. Around him lay a wealth of temptation.
It was a moment of reaction. The Queen set a dubious
example. No member of the Royal Family could have
presented a clean record, and in every mind there lurked
the recollection of life at Court under Louis XIII., of
his high standard of morality — and its exceeding dulness.
Virtue itself was not more lacking than the desire for
virtue, and it is unlikely that a man of thirty could have
CARDINAL DE RETZ 191
maintained familiar intercourse with the notable per-
sonages of the day unless he shared their vices. If his
contemporaries do not malign him, Jean Francois de
Gondi was without external attraction. He was under-
sized and ugly, and though he loved to make nocturnal
expeditions in all a courtier's finery, with satin cloak,
plumed hat, and jewelled sword, he was undoubtedly
a priest, and condemned in daylight hours to be dis-
figured by cassock and biretta. Nevertheless, it is plain
that he was a dangerous rival in love and friendship.
Mme. de Longueville herself is numbered among his
conquests, and there was a moment when he dreamed
of ousting Mazarin from dominion over the Queen.
There was something about him that won affection, and,
where women were concerned, it is likely that the anomaly
of his position, his youth, his episcopal dignity, and his
phenomenal daring, were effective. It was an age that
loved novelties, and the stranger they were the more
welcome.
Thus, in that city of contrasts, of vast palaces guarded
by their gardens and their quiet courtyards from streets
whose misery and offence baffle description, Jean Francois
de Gondi, the pupil of M. Vincent, employed himself
openly in an endeavour to reform the clergy, exhorted his
flock from the pulpit of Notre Dame to tread the narrow
path of saintly life; and all the time was gathering
together every shred of knowledge that would serve him,
listening eagerly for scraps of information which might
fall from the lips of the great ladies whom he courted,
noting the jealousies that threatened to sever ties of
blood or friendship, and marking the growth of ambitions
or caprices that might be woven into a pattern of his
own design. The levity, the sensationalism, the licence
of the time, were at one with his natural temperament.
A midnight stance of conspirators at the bedside of a
Court beauty suited his fancy; and plots, begun in
mockery, ended, under his guidance, in deadly earnest.
192 VINCENT DE PAUL
Even in England, in the Victorian Age, he would have
created opportunities to dissemble and intrigue, because
to him the zest of life lay in mystery', and no contrivance
was too elaborate by which he could create a false im-
pression. To make one individual regard another —
who was, in fact, his close adherent — as his bitterest
enemy was an artistic triumph; and so far did the
Coadjutor carry his enterprises that his memoirs leave
the reader in grave doubt as to the real intentions of
any one of the many extraordinary personages who were
the leaders of the Fronde.
But though the love of excitement and of intrigue was
innate in him, and was fostered by the opportunities of
his position, a very definite purpose lay behind his melo-
dramatic practices. The power of the Crown was a real
thing in France, despite the murmurs of the people and
the protests of the princes, and, as has been shown
already, it was wielded by Mazarin, not because — like
Richelieu — he was supremely fit to govern, but because
he was master of the craft that can win and hold a woman's
favour. In that direction de Gondi knew himself to be
highly gifted; he also held an office in the Church which
would, nominally, protect the Queen from scandal, and
he could use a disguise and the backstairs as deftly as
could the Cardinal. He had, also, far clearer compre-
hension of the humours and jealousies that spell danger
in a Court, because he could associate on equal terms with
the noblesse, while Mazarin, the low-born Florentine,
could only guess his way among them. In short, the
Coadjutor felt himself eminently suited to the post of
guide, philosopher, and friend to the Queen Regent, and
was persuaded that France would not attain to real
prosperity until the Queen embraced the same opinion.
The obstacle was a simple one. The place he coveted
could not be shared, and it was already occupied.
Cardinal Mazarin stood where Jean Francois de Gondi
wished to stand. Cardinal Mazarin stood beside the
CARDINAL DE RETZ 193
Queen, and against the Queen were ranged many con-
flicting elements of danger. The exact nature of these
elements was known to none better than to de Gondi.
He might have preferred to strike at Mazarin alone; but
if Mazarin sheltered behind the Queen, then, rather than
leave him unmolested, he must aim at the Throne itself.
It was easy to foresee that there would be stages of
astonishment, of consternation, in the end, probably
of panic. Mazarin was to be routed, and then, in the
guise of paladin and deliverer, de Gondi would re-
store peace, would uphold the monarchy and guide the
trembling hands that held the reins of government.
Such a part appealed not only to his immense ambition,
but also to his histrionic sense. If there be behind the
Fronde a scheme that can be given definite form, it is
here, and in such a scheme there lay great possibilities
of triumph. Direct and unswerving adherence to so
plain an issue would, in fact, have gone far to command
success. But de Gondi was not able to give direct and
unswerving adherence anywhere. He desired to be
stage manager of the remarkable drama that was being
played out, but also he desired to try many different
parts, and the curtain went down on the last act before
he had decided which role best became him. He was
diverted partly by a cross-current of ambition. He
desired to be First Minister and to oust Mazarin, but he
desired also to be a Cardinal ; and the two desires, though
there was nothing contradictory about them, required
a different order of manoeuvring. To be a Cardinal he
must obtain a nomination from the Queen, a most
notable proof of favour, not to be obtained by one who
waged open war against Mazarin. Thus the Coadjutor
found himself on the horns of a dilemma. His claim
to consideration was his hold upon the people, he played
for popularity and played successfully; but that which
bound them to him alienated the Queen, and to keep
both was necessary to his ambition. Yet where many
13
194 VINCENT DE PAUL
men might reasonably have found defeat, de Gondi
discovered opportunity. He obtained a private inter-
view with the Queen, and by a show of openness and
candour seems to have won from her a measure of con-
fidence which certainly he did not deserve. With the
half-truths which are the strongest weapons of an accom-
plished liar, he represented himself as the unrecognized
champion of the royal prerogative, who posed as dema-
gogue, so that he might safeguard the Regent and the
King from the unreasoning anger of the mob. It was
a clever stratagem, ably carried out. Mazarin still had
complete mastery over the Queen, but de Gondi had
extraordinary influence when he came into personal
contact with her. He could be assured of producing
an impression, and for his purpose it was as useful to
impress as to convince her. She knew that the air was
full of the murmur of treasonable plots, and his frank
avowal of his own connection with them and of their
danger revealed him as a possessor of the power in which
she was most lacking. He understood the people and
their motives, to her they remained always a mystery.
Therefore he stood out prominent as an individual among
the many — most of whom she had cause to fear — and
at length his nomination was forwarded to Rome.
In this, then, he was successful, but success at this
point and at a later stage proved a curse rather than a
blessing, because of its effect upon his character. He
had been so adroit in his manoeuvres, that thenceforward
he put no check upon them, and over-reached himself.
The Queen must be reassured as to his intentions, must
be constantly renewed in her belief that the Coadjutor
was a loyal gentleman greatly calumniated, and there-
fore he became more guarded in his intercourse with the
men of his party, and more deeply involved with regard
to women. Had his *»way over them been merely intel-
lectual, his course would have been wisely chosen. A
clever priest, standing apart from the ordinary inter-
CARDINAL DE RETZ 195
course of noble lords and ladies, might acquire knowledge
and wield an influence immeasurably superior in those
unsettled times to that of the man of the sword. But
we do not grasp de Gondi, or the class he represents, if we
picture him as only using weapons of argument and wit.
During the Regency morality sank gradually to a level
almost as low as in the days of the Valois Kings; there
was a clique of women notable, most of them, for high
lineage, conspicuous talents, and good looks, who were
completely and avowedly lawless. The Coadjutor set
himself to win the hearts of those whose valuable support
he needed.
His memoirs indicate the methods that he followed
and the risks he took. If they are to be trusted, we may
picture him with plumed hat, and the voluminous cloak
of the period muffling his face, clanking down the dim
streets till, near to the hidden door he wished to enter,
his step grew stealthy, and by a mysterious signal he
gained entrance to the dwelling of some mistress of
intrigue. He was a curious offspring of the times. In
the daylight hours when he was greeted as a dignitary of
the Church, and would raise his hands to bless kneeling
and expectant crowds, he was not backward in asserting
the high dignity of his office; and lurking in his mind
there was a clear conception, which now and again he
has betrayed, of the type of man the holder of that office
ought to be. It is this comprehension of his true obliga-
tions which makes de Retz unlike the ordinary charlatan,
but he takes a certain delight in recording his own
hypocrisy.
94 On Christmas Day," he writes, " I preached at
S. Germain l'Auxerrois. I discoursed of Christian charity
without the most distant reference to the affairs of the
moment. The women wept over the injustice of per-
secuting an Archbishop who had only tenderness for his
enemies, and when I left the pulpit I knew, from the
blessings showered upon me, that I was not mistaken
196 VINCENT DE PAUL
in my idea that this sermon would serve a very good
purpose. In fact, it was incredibly effective, and sur-
passed my most sanguine hopes."
Again, on Maundy Thursday he tells us how he pro-
longed the ceremony of blessing the sacred oils at the
altar in the Cathedral, because he knew there was a
tumult pending, and he wished to be in the centre of the
business. When he left the altar he hastened to the
Palais de Justice, that he might pacify the representa-
tives of the people, and display his power as a leader.
Always behind his confession of ambitions there lurks
a sense of special glory in his command over the people.
" What is a virtue in the chief of a faction is a vice in an
Archbishop," he declares. It is as chief of a faction that
he acts. It was that he might maintain himself as chief
that he studied the interests of the masses aiid learnt
to catch their fickle favour. For this, perhaps, it was
that he simulated devotion, and for this certainly he
sought to become known as the most generous of alms-
givers. The mob accepted him as they saw him, and
for a time they adored him. His equals were more en-
lightened; the sword which he felt it necessary to hide
beneath his cassock was called le breviaire de M. le
Coadjuteur. On that celebrated Holy Thursday he was
told that the sacred oils blessed by him would be mingled
with saltpetre. The society of the day knew all about
him. Nevertheless, he influenced it. He was known to
be a villain, but among his intimates he had a fascinating
way of confessing to villainy.
From the standpoint of the twentieth century it may
appear incredible that the nomination of Jean Francois
de Gondi as a French Cardinal should have gone to Rome
unchallenged. Yet if the Coadjutor had had the vision
and, as its consequence, the command over himself which
would have withheld him from his perilous attempt to
lead the mob, he might, as Archbishop of Paris and as
Cardinal, have reformed the priesthood by precepts
CARDINAL DE RETZ 197
which he did not practise. From such conduct he would
have gained at Court and in the city a power of immeasur-
able strength. The position might have been clearly
denned. Mazarin was the declared enemy of reform in
the bestowing of preferment. The Cardinal- Archbishop,
struggling against the Italian favourite for the purity
of the national Church, would have won the support of
the vast majority of Frenchmen, and, having won it,
might have used it against the same antagonist in other
conflicts. But if he saw the opportunity, its promise
was less alluring than the exciting possibilities that lay
nearer to his grasp. It was in the rush and fever of
events that he desired to lead, not among the slow
developments of well-considered schemes. Therefore,
hampered rather than helped by his ecclesiastical digni-
ties, and missing, by reason of infirmity of purpose, the
dominion which he might have claimed over the wills
of others, Jean Francois de Gondi, Coadjutor, Cardinal,
and ultimately Archbishop, was ineffective save as a
disturber, and owes his great importance in the history
of the time only to his responsibility for its miseries.
But if we would judge him fairly, we must remember
that it was customary to employ tortuous methods in
obtaining a Cardinal's hat. Even when he had obtained
his nomination from the Queen, he dared not fight straight
lest she should withdraw it; while she, although most
reluctant to let him obtain a dignity that would place
him on an equality with Mazarin, feared his power with
the people so profoundly that she dared not force him
into declared antagonism.
Innocent X. held Mazarin in abhorrence, and from this
fact the Coadjutor derived his strongest hope of success.
Eventually there is little doubt that it was to this that he
owed his coveted dignity. While the intrigues of Rome
were in progress, Mazarin was in exile, and was repre-
senting in letters to de Gondi that his chief desire for his
own satisfaction and for the good of the State was to see
ig8 VINCENT DE PAUL
him a Cardinal. De Gondi, in response, expressed his
earnest wish that Mazarin should soon return to France.
Meanwhile, there were envoys sent by Mazarin to Rome,
whose sole mission was to undermine the interests of the
Coadjutor; and the Coadjutor refused to leave Paris, even
temporarily, lest in his absence the ferment of the mob
against the Cardinal might lessen.
The long contest ended with a curious suddenness.
The principals in it were no less surprised than the rest
of the world when, in the spring of 1652, Jean Francois de
Gondi was made a Cardinal by Innocent X., to be known
to the world thenceforward as the Cardinal de Retz. It
was a signal triumph. Mazarin was in exile, but he still
ruled the Queen, and was believed to hold many secret
strings that guided the progress of events. Victory could
hardly have been expected even by the victor, and it
seemed to throw open the way to the fulfilment of immense
ambitions.
In his youth we have seen that the Abbe de Gondi had
made special study of Fiesco, a character whose name
has very little place in history. When Andrea Doria
had acquired despotic rule in Genoa, he had beside him
a nephew and favourite who interfered greatly in the
government of the city; and pursued any who sought to
rival him with deadly malice. One of the ancient nobility
of Genoa, Gian Luigi Fiesco, determined to overthrow
the favourite. He won the hearts of the populace, and
impressed himself as a leading personality among his
compeers, preserving meanwhile, until his plans were
ripe, the appearance of friendly relations with the Doria.
Not till he was certain of his following did he strike, and
never did a conspiracy come to more complete fruition.
It was at the moment of success that a plank on which
he set his foot gave way, and he was plunged into the
waters of the harbour. For this reason only, if it is
possible to form a true judgment of the complicated
surroundings of that dramatic moment, his scheme
CARDINAL DE RETZ 199
broke down, and Andrea Doria continued to dictate to
Genoa.
The story of this forgotten incident was told by de
Gondi with extraordinary power. His imagination
grasped the figure of Count Fiesco, and that which was
so vivid to himself he made vivid for others. He realized
that the leader of this rebellion was conquered by the
hand of Death striking mysteriously and suddenly, not
by any human intervention, and it cannot be doubted
that the career of Cardinal de Retz was notably affected
by the concentration of the young Jean Francois de
Gondi on this dramatic episode. His position in Paris
and his point of view towards the Queen and Mazarin,
reflected in some degree that of Fiesco with regard to
the Doria kinsmen in Genoa. He depicted Fiesco as a
patriot, and he had moments when he endeavoured to
feel that he himself was striving for the good of the
people. He aspired to win Paris, and to rule it by a
personal hold upon his fellows, as Fiesco might have won
Genoa. The idea was not entirely fantastic; and with
the fever of such aspiration in his blood, there was small
hope that prudence would be allowed to join forces with
ambition, and make of him the stately, all-powerful
ecclesiastic who would prove the most dangerous rival
to Mazarin.
No doubt the delight of his success unbalanced him at,
the outset, and as he no longer feared the Queen, it pleased
him to keep her under menace of the evils that he might
direct against her in Paris if he chose. Afterwards, when
he wrote the story of his life, he made naive acknow-
ledgment of his own folly. As Coadjutor he had con-
sidered self-assertion and display as a necessity, because
the dignity of the See had been so lowered by his uncle
the Archbishop; but as Cardinal he was free from any
vicarious obligation. Yet he seems to have pretended
to a pomp and magnificence in excess of that maintained
by Princes of the blood royal. On one expedition to visit
200 VINCENT DE PAUL
the Queen at Compiegne he had a train of 200 gentlemen,
and spent 800 crowns daily, an immense sum in the
coinage of those days. He desired to impress the world
with an idea (which he held himself in all sincerity) that
his position was now impregnable. In point of fact, he
had never been more defenceless than in this hour of his
triumph. He considered himself to be above the neces-
sity of any precaution because he was Cardinal de Retz
and had wrested his honours from a supreme power in
the teeth of Mazarin's opposition.
In April, 1652, de Retz became a Cardinal ; in October
of that year the King re-entered Paris, and Mazarin
retired to the frontier. The fact of this withdrawal may
have been deceptive, the completeness with which the
royal prerogative retained its power was probably not
so clear to the onlooker as it seems in retrospect. The
magic of royalty has never been so entirely destroyed as
in the France of 1790, but it was never more strangely
exemplified than in the France of 1652. Neither defeat
nor disgrace nor the lack of the external trappings that
give the Crown its mystery and grandeur disturbed its
potency. In proof thereof we find as the monument of
the Fronde — instead of the record of safeguards and
benefits for an overburdened people — the great palace at
Versailles, erected that the Great Monarch, in his superb
magnificence, might dwell aloof, out of sight and hearing
of the canaille whose murmurs had disturbed his boyhood.
His return to Paris at the invitation of his baffled subjects
was the prologue to an age of despotism, but it required
far-seeing wisdom to foretell that henceforward the royal
will would prevail in all things. And de Retz was not
numbered among the wise. He would have acknow-
ledged readily that it was the royal will that Mazarin
should return, but he was convinced that that return
was impossible while he himself remained in Paris. From
that conviction, in itself true and well-founded, he de-
duced that the game was in his hands. So he toyed with
CARDINAL DE RETZ 201
his enormous influence over Monsieur the King's uncle,
he encouraged suggestions that he might join hands with
Conde — the consummation that was most dreaded by
the Queen — and Paris rang with stories of his haughtiness
and self-assertion.
Meanwhile Mazarin, waiting on the frontier with
couriers passing constantly to and from the capital,
watched the progress of events and cultivated the patience
of the diplomat. To him there must have been an
element of uncertainty in the position. He knew the
Queen to be weak of purpose, and, as he was debarred
from witnessing the foolhardiness with which his enemy
courted disaster; his role for the moment was unenviable.
A few days before Christmas Cardinal de Retz, having
presented himself at the Louvre to pay his respects to
the King and Queen, was arrested as he left their presence.
He made no resistance, for, in spite of the reiterated
warnings he had received, he was quite unprepared. He
was driven through the streets of Paris to his prison in
the fortress of Vincennes, and he who had once been the
idol of the people was allowed to pass without a voice
raised or a blow struck in his defence.
The imprisonment of personages whose conduct
threatened to be dangerous proved itself once more to
be an expedient prolific of inconvenience. In the case
of Cardinal de Retz, as in that of Conde, there was no
pretence at a trial; le roi le veut was the sole warrant.
And with de Retz, as formerly with Conde, the sense of
injustice added immensely to the suffering inflicted. In
both it produced not only bitter resentment, but a dis-
trust as to the setting of any limit to the measures taken
by his antagonists. After nearly two years of misery and
humiliation, de Retz escaped, and, in defiance of in-
numerable perils, conveyed himself to Rome. He did
not meet with the support he had expected; he was
crippled both in health and fortune, and ostensibly he
was not a dangerous enemy. In his case it would seem
202 VINCENT DE PAUL
that the policy of despotism had succeeded. His enemies
were able to triumph over him, and Mazarin, once more
the reigning power at the Louvre, might meditate in leisure
moments on the complete discomfiture and degradation
of his rival. Despite his own misfortunes, however,
Cardinal de Retz retained his capacity to torment Cardinal
Mazarin. It is possible that the victor, having suffered
so much, yielded to an exaggerated dread of the van-
quished, but there was a more practical reason for
Mazarin's disturbance. While de Retz was imprisoned,
his uncle, the Archbishop, died, and he, as Coadjutor,
succeeded. A formal resignation was extorted from
him, which, on the plea that he had not been a free agent,
was annulled after his escape. The King had no power
to depose him, and the Pope would not. He was an exile,
his property was confiscated ; if he returned to his native
land his liberty, and probably his life, were forfeit ;
nevertheless he was, and he remained, Archbishop of
Paris.
As such he was welcomed at the house of the Lazarists
in Rome, and for this crime M. Vincent was compelled
by Mazarin to recall his sons and check the work of the
Company in the Eternal City.* But if it was a crime to
recognize him, it was not safe to deal vigorously with
those who did so, for in the eyes of loyal churchmen the
Archbishop's case was a very strong one. The obvious
course was to make terms and to barter for this prize —
indisputably his — with advantages that would be endur-
ing. And it is here that we find the effect first of his
long experience of chicanery, and then of his abrupt
arrest.
'• Le fond de la probite n'y est pas," wrote Mazarin of
de Retz in the autumn of 1652. The same phrase applied
conversely explains the refusal of the Archbishop to deal
with the King's First Minister. For many years they
had tricked and deceived each other, until any desire
* "Lettres," vol. ii., No. 283.
CARDINAL DE RETZ 203
that either might have to enter on negotiations was
frustrated by mutual distrust. Mazarin might pledge
himself to an amnesty, might assure de Retz that his
return to Paris and the restoration of his goods was secure
if he would vacate his See; but under despotic govern-
ment de Retz had no belief that the pledge had any
meaning, while he knew that his part of the bargain — his
resignation — once given, could never be withdrawn.
Therefore the pricking of the ecclesiastical difficulty
never ceased during Mazarin's lifetime, and only when
Louis XIV. was really monarch did Cardinal de Retz
submit to the sovereign pleasure. He then returned to
Paris, and lived his last years in the society for which
he was always suited. He was meant to be a soldier and
a wit, he might have made a statesman and a courtier,
but as a priest he was the product of the worst evil of his
times, and it is as a priest that posterity perforce must
judge him. In the end, says tradition, he took life
seriously, and gave himself up to devotion. All that is
certain is that he lived in seclusion, although the world
of the Court was once more open to him, and although he
still possessed the capacity for apt and skilful speech
which had been his before his time of misfortune.
" Your hair is grey, M. le Cardinal," was the young
King's greeting to him when he returned from his years
of exile.
" Those who are out of favour with your Majesty grow
grey speedily,' ' was his reply.*
* See Leonee Curnier, "Le Cardinal de Retz et son Temps,"
vol. ii., part iii.
PART II
THE COMPANIONS OF VINCENT DE PAUL
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CHAPTER I
MLLE. LE GRAS
The violent outward events that make up the history of
his time affected M. Vincent; his life, as a whole, cannot be
understood without consideration of them ; but its deepest
realities were independent of recorded events, and if we
desire to see him amidst them, we must leave the society
of the Court, and cease to make any reference to Cardinals.
To know M. Vincent we must attempt to watch him in
the spiritual relationship that forced revelation, and to
mark the effect of personal failure and of bereavement
upon his character. We must join ourselves to the
Sisters of the Poor as they drew from his fund of common
sense and from his more inspiring knowledge; we must
share with the Ladies of Charity as he checked their
waywardness and stimulated them to new feats of
generosity; and, finally, among his Mission Priests we
shall find him bearing the burdens that he imposed on
others, setting a standard that did not stop short of
perfection, but setting it as his Master had done in
Galilee, with clear understanding of all the human weak-
ness that made for failure. It is, then, in his life at
S. Lazare, in the daily monotonous routine which is the
test of faith, that we must seek him, if his message to
the world has any meaning for us.
He had to bear — -increasingly after he settled at S.
Lazare — the strain of the dependence of other souls upon
himself. So close and constant did this claim become,
that his capacity for response must have rested in the
unsullied purity of his own character. It was the in-
207
208 VINCENT DE PAUL
fluence of his personality rather than individual direction
in separate cases that worked such wonders, and any
deviation from his practice of rigorous self -discipline
must have been reflected in those whose advance seemed
to depend upon his guidance. During the last twenty
years of his life there was a very numerous company of
men and women scattered at immense distances from
each other who all equally gave obedience to M. Vincent,
and would have regarded his decision in any matter as
final. They had all made the choice which M. Vincent
required of his children — they had all renounced the
satisfactions that the world might offer them for a life
of toil and discomfort. He set the example, and they
followed. There is a curious simplicity in the picture.
Neither to the Mission Priests nor to the Sisters of the Poor
did he offer anything that would appeal to emotional
instincts. The essence of their sacrifice was that it must
be hidden; they were to have nothing that could excite
envy or stir enthusiasm. And most of them lived through
long years of quiet labour, and died in harness, content
with the knowledge that they had been faithful servants.
These were the real representatives of M. Vincent's
spirit, and it is because in the Sisters of the Poor we find
this spirit in its simplest form that they are specially
his representatives before the world.
The Rule he gave them seems to summarize his theory
of life, and the gradual development of their Company
coincided with the development in himself of the power
to mingle practical and spiritual capacity. For this
reason its foundation has immense importance, and in
connection with it we come upon an episode in the life
of M. Vincent that is important to comprehension of him
— the one instance of his friendship with a woman.
We have already referred to Mile. Le Gras and the
gathering of the first unrecognized Sisters of Charity
beneath her roof. She was the ideal Superior for a
Company that was not only new, but was an innovation
MLLE. LE GRAS 209
on all established ideas for Communities of women.
M. Vincent was nearly fifty years old when he and she
first came in contact, and he possessed deep experience of
that form of service which she desired to make the object
of her life. For a long period they had no relation to
each other except as priest and penitent; but in fact the
work of each would have been incomplete without the
other, and both seem to have been guided into that sane
uniting of their forces which established the Sisters of
Charity for the service of the poor.
Louise de Marillac, known to her contemporaries as
Mile. Le Gras, was a woman of deeply religious mind.
In her youth she desired to enter the cloister, but she
had not the contemplative vocation, and so many of
the established orders had grown lax in discipline, that
her guardians were energetic in dissuading her from this
form of self -surrender. When she was twenty-two she
accepted the alternative they desired, and married M. Le
Gras, a man considerably older than herself, who was
Secretary to Marie de Medici. There was no place for
her in the society of the day. Eighty years later she
might have been one of the intimate circle round Mme.
de Maintenon, but a sincere devote was at variance with
the spirit of the Court where Concini held first place, and
if Louise Le Gras had desired to shine in the eyes of
others, it would have been necessary for her to alter her
whole system of life. The possibility of such a choice
does not seem to have occurred to her. As a married
woman she held herself as still dedicated to the service
of God, and her husband did not oppose her devotion to
works of charity. Possibly, at a time when Court life
was complicated by perpetual intrigues, his mind was so
fully occupied with his official duties that he had no
knowledge of the spiritual experiences which were so
engrossing to her ; but he was indulgent to her proclivities
for visiting the homes of the poor as he might have
been to a craze for any special form of amusement.
14
210 VINCENT DE PAUL
Outwardly, therefore, her years of married life was peace-
ful. A son was born to her, and she fulfilled her duty
towards him and towards her household assiduously ; there
was no indication in the well-ordered routine of her daily
life of the inward storms through which she passed.
For Louise Le Gras, reality, the possibilities of joy, of
suffering and of defeat, lay outside her experiences as
wife and mother and mistress of a household. She
neglected none of her responsibilities, but her being
centred on a secret combat in which she was assailed by
the insidious temptations to exaggeration, to scruples,
to spiritual insincerity, that can work such havoc among
aspirants towards the life of prayer.
" Do not be so disturbed over things that do not
matter/' says a letter from her director, which has its
own significance. " Withdraw your eyes a little from
yourself, and fix them upon Jesus Christ."*
The writer was Le Camus, Bishop of Bellay, a man
whose wisdom and tolerance fitted him for the difficult
charge that had fallen into his hands. Circumstances
arose, however, which prevented his return to Paris.
He was aware of the dangers to which the fervour of his
penitent exposed her, and he appealed to Vincent de Paul
to undertake the office he was relinquishing. M. Vin-
cent's consent was not given readily. He was then at that
difficult transition period of his own life when he was still
bound to the household of the de Gondi, and was also
responsible for the first foundation of the Congregation
of Mission Priests ; and it is clear that he acceded to the
desire of Le Camus with the utmost reluctance. He did
not regard a task of individual direction as part of the
service to which God summoned him, it presented itself
as a hindrance to the great labours developing before him,
and he had no prescience of the importance of this un-
welcome charge to the very work it seemed to interrupt.
* Gobillon, " Vie de Mile. Le Gras," edition 1676, containing Cor-
respondence with M. Vincent and " Les Pensees de Mademoiselle."
MLLE. LE GRAS 211
To Louise Le Gras, also, the time of her first link with
M. Vincent was a time of crisis. Her husband lingered
through years of painful illness, during which his claim
on her taxed her fortitude and bodily health, and then
died. During her married life her mind had been full
of aspirations after more complete self-dedication than
was then possible. At his death she reached one of
those difficult moments when vague aspirations must be
moulded into definite intentions, or be recognized as
dreams. She was overstrained, and had a tendency to
religious exaltation. It would have been easy for her
to lose balance and imperil her spiritual and mental
powers in those exaggerated outward practices of piety
of which (in that period of extremes) there are many
instances. But M. Vincent was a good guide for one
who might be tempted to overstep the boundaries of
common sense. He noted the design of the new life that
was to be consecrated to the service of the poor, and
required that the spiritual preparation for it should be
of the simplest.
" Don't overdo yourself with rules and practices," he
wrote to her, " but rather be very sure that those you
have already are well observed, that the actions and
duties of every day are well done. And beware of those
eccentricities of thought that have tormented you before;
they are the trick of the Evil One to set you off on a
false line." She agreed with herself to make in the day
thirty-three acts of adoration in honour of the thirty-
three years of Our Lord's life, but M. Vincent could not
take this sort of pledge very seriously. "As to these
thirty- three acts and other things of the same kind,
don't be distressed when you have missed them. God
is Love, and desires that we should go to Him in love.
Do not feel yourself bound by any of these good inten-
tions." Excessive fasting he forbade also. The form of
self-immolation which he required was more searching
than any self-inflicted bodily suffering; and he began his
212 VINCENT DE PAUL
test of her as soon as she was established in the home she
had chosen in the midst of the dwellings of the poor.
Mile. Le Gras desired to give her labour to aid the Priests
of the Mission; this was her ideal of service. Every
attempt to organize the Confraternities emphasized the
need of women's work, and she offered hers in the spirit
of sacrifice, without taint of excitement or emulation.
Nevertheless, M. Vincent was not prompt in acceptance.
The work these two were to do together was of Divine
appointment, and it was required that it should be
solemnly approached. This, probably, is the true ex-
planation of the long delay between her secret self-
dedication and her actual employment in the work of the
Missions. Before Louise Le Gras, in the first years of
her widowhood, there lay a great vocation, unrevealed
as yet, but there was never to be for her a moment of
decisive and sensational choice. She yielded gradually
and consistently to each demand that God might make;
she learnt to wait and to bear suspense, as well as to
spend herself in the service of others; and so, by steps
that were hardly noted as she took them, she mounted
to the place that God intended for her.
Perhaps the hardest test was the period of waiting.
M. Le Gras died in 1626, and she removed to the small
house in the Rue S. Victor, which was to be the birthplace
of the Sisters of Charity. For three years she lived alone,
and did humble service to the poor in the miserable
houses of that quarter. The objects of the Mission Priests
possessed her imagination; she desired to be employed
in their interests, and the need for work such as she could
give was self-evident; but M. Vincent withheld the boon
he might have given. There were not in those days any
great organizations to which she could unite herself; she
was obliged to work alone, and to bear the innumerable
discouragements that are the lot of the solitary worker.
And as she had not the protection of high rank or wealth,
malignant gossip busied itself with her. In spite of her
MLLE. LE GRAS 213
seclusion, it was rumoured that she had accepted an
offer of marriage. To her sense of secret dedication this
was an outrage, and her resentment was boundless.
M. Vincent's expression of sympathy is worth recording :
" How deeply am I grieved at your distress ! But in
fact what does it all amount to ? Here is a man who
says you have promised to marry him, and it is false,
and people are making untrue reflections on you, and
you fear you are continually talked about ! That may
be; but understand that on this earth you could not have
a better means of being united to the Son of God, that by
this you may touch self-conquest such as you have never
before imagined. What a blow it will strike at self-
complacency ! What opportunity for self-abasement it
offers ! Be assured that it is altogether for your good —
in this world and the next. Let that assurance be your
weapon against your natural impulses, and the day will
come when you will thank Our Lord for testing you just
in this way."
The immediate result of this trial was increased eager-
ness to be recognized as set apart for the service of God.
Delay and discouragement only intensified the sense of
vocation in Mile. Le Gras; and if M. Vincent had not been
within reach, she must certainly have taken the obvious
step for one in her spiritual condition and entered one
of the religious orders already in existence. But he
waited for Divine guidance concerning her, and she
trusted him completely. The simplicity of their attitude
towards life and towards each other is very remarkable.
M. Vincent would not permit any indulgence of the
imagination, any of that secret bargaining that claims
the joy of self -contentment in exchange for self-oblation.
We shall find him exacting the most rigid spiritual aus-
terity from the Sisters of the Poor, but assuredly the
discipline imposed on them was never more severe than
that endured by their leader and first Superior.
For three years Mile. Le Gras divided her days between
214 VINCENT DE PAUL
self-imposed labours for the benefit of the poor and her
hours of prayer and worship, and then, in 1629, sne
received her first commission, and went to visit Mont-
mirail, in the diocese of Soissons, to investigate the pro-
gress of the Confraternity established there by the Priests
of the Mission. The Company of Sisters of the Poor
was the high development of the schemes of the Con-
fraternities. The idea of social service, inseparable from
the teaching of the Mission Priests, was ineffective with-
out sustained and careful organization, and the idea
was so new that to maintain an immense number of
isolated organizations on a good footing was a task
beyond human capacity. M. Vincent was making this
discovery when he sent Mile. Le Gras to report on the
state of things at Montmirail, and he knew that she would
require tact and prudence. He gave her careful direc-
tions in writing that she might have the full benefit of
his experience for her actual conduct, and, in addition, he
sent her the following brief suggestion on the eve of her
departure:
"Go, Mademoiselle, go in the name of Our Lord.
Beseech Him that His blessing may go with you, that
it may be your comfort on your way, your strength in your
labour, and finally may bring you back in good health.
You will make your Communion the day you start to do
honour to the Charity of Our Lord, in memory of the
journeys He took for the sake of charity, and the suffering,
the rebuffs, the weariness, and the labours, which He
endured; with the intention that He may give you this
same spirit and help you to bear your suffering in the
same manner as He bore His own."
This was the perfect encouragement of her great venture.
The dangers might be great, and were certainly unknown,
and this first embassy was the preliminary of others more
difficult. To look upwards with complete simplicity was
the one safeguard against the tremors and misgivings
that might assail her.
MLLE. LE GRAS 215
No detailed record was kept of her sojourn at Mont-
mirail, but its success is attested by her employment in
a succession of similar visits of inspection. Travelling at
its best involved hardship, and Mile. Le Gras permitted
herself no unnecessary luxury. She used any vehicle
that could survive the jolting of the roads, and accepted
the roughest entertainment on the way. She took with
her one or two companions, who were ready to share
her discomforts and help her in her labours, and she bore
the heavy expense of the journey herself. When she
reached her destination, it was her custom to summon
together all those who had enrolled themselves in the
Confraternity of Charity, and rouse them to a sense of
the obligations they had taken upon themselves. Pos-
sibly a public display of eloquence from a woman was
in those days so unusual that it failed to rouse admira-
tion, but it is clear that the extraordinary effectiveness
of her visits to the scenes of former Missions was due in
large measure to her power of speaking; and M. Vincent,
writing to her when she was at the height of her energies,
expresses a hope that she will not strain her lungs. She
was not content with exhortation, however. One of her
first cares was to fulfil those labours which were the charge
of members of the Confraternity, and visit and tend the
sick in their own homes. By this practice she not only
set an example, but — which was equally important — she
was able to discover the degree of previous neglect, and
the extent of the distress in each individual case. It is
easy to imagine the opportunities for discord which such
an enterprise afforded; but if Mile. Le Gras had in her
progress left a trail of grievances and indignation, M.
Vincent would not have continued his commission to her.
It seems certain that she had the secret of that correc-
tion which is without offence, and was made welcome by
the very persons whom she came to condemn by precept
and example.
It should be remembered that the Missions and their
216 VINCENT DE PAUL
after-fruit had no official support from Church or State.
Vincent de Paul was recognized as a power for good,
but his earlier efforts were not backed by any of the im-
pressive paraphernalia of established authority. There-
fore Mile. Le Gras depended on good- will for her reception
and for her opportunity of usefulness, and therefore there
was added to her labours — in themselves sufficiently
arduous — the strain of cultivating the good opinion of
those who were to aid her in her efforts. The tasks en-
trusted to her, which she seems to have grasped in all
their many aspects, absorbed all her energies, and she
overworked until her health broke down. She had
undermined her strength when she was young, and had
no reserve to meet an excessive claim. M. Vincent
awoke to the risk that her zeal might defeat its object,
and wrote her a charge that has in it a touch of the tender
wisdom of Francois de Sales. It occurs in a letter of
congratulation on her safe return from a visit of super-
vision to Beauvais in the depths of winter.
" Thanks be to God that you have arrived in good
health," he says. " Now, for the love of God and of His
poor, do your best to take care of it. The Devil has a
trick of urging good servants to do more than they can
that they may be unfitted to do anything. The Spirit of
God leads us to do as much as we can do reasonably,
that we may continue and persevere in it. When this is
your method of working, mademoiselle, you will be work-
ing according to the Spirit of God."
Immense interests seem at that moment to have de-
pended on her health. Her efforts to reanimate the
spirit of charity that had been inspired by the Mission
Priests serve to reveal the failure of the Confraternities
as they originally stood. The bond of mutual service —
the brotherhood recognized by the first Christians, which
taught them to hold all things in common — was to have
been their abiding inspiration. The idea of them was
received with enthusiasm at the moment of a Mission,
MLLE. LE GRAS 217
but, as a rule, before many months had passed, all tasks
of neighbourly service slipped into the hands of the very
few whose fervour survived the test of monotonous
demand. Of these few each one was, in fact, a free-
lance. The elected officers found it hard to enforce
authority over voluntary workers when the faithlessness
of the majority gave exaggerated value to any service.
The chaotic result discovered in many districts may
easily be imagined, and the reports brought to him must
sometimes have taxed even the strong hopefulness of
M. Vincent.
Mile. Le Gras is responsible for the first practical sug-
gestion of a remedy. In the Missions which M. Vincent's
Company were preaching constantly it was not an un-
usual thing for a woman, who had been till then content
to take life as it came and do her duty, to wake up to
higher aspirations that were hard to translate into prac-
tice. The Missions were not intended for the rich, and
this sort of response came from women who had been
brought up to work for their living. Their response was
not to a call to the religious life in the common acceptance
of the term, but the Mission Priests recognized the call
as that of a special vocation. And women such as these
were welcomed by Mile. Le Gras at her house in Paris,
and employed among the poor whose daily needs had
engrossed her own energies until M. Vincent summoned
her elsewhere. It is not possible to discover at what
point her mind began to foreshadow the future impor-
tance of that curious household she had gathered round
her. Some of those who came were sent for their own
sakes rather than for hers. Dawning capacities in them
might depend on the encouragement and guidance they
received at the outset, and to the true Mission Priest the
development of the rough-mannered peasant-maid had
the same importance as that of the keen-witted demoiselle
of the Marais. At first the rule of daily life was that of a
well-ordered and pious household, and those who came
218 VINCENT DE PAUL
to Mile. Le Gras came without any vast resolve of self-
abnegation. It was a simple matter — the gathering of a
few young women from different parts of the country
who had in common that awakening to possibilities of
service which the Mission Priests had inspired. Belonging
to the working class, a life of labour came to them by
nature; it was the special dedication of the labour that
was to be the work of grace.
Some of the Confraternities had been in existence for
a long time when Mile. Le Gras first opened her doors to
the future Servants of the Poor, and their organization
and discipline in ideal was known. The employment of
these humble colleagues of hers was therefore a matter
of simple transition from an undefined position to a
recognized one. The urgent need of the Hotel-Dieu and
the partial failure of the Ladies of Charity made just
the claim on them for which they were prepared.
Their aim was identical with that which had drawn the
Ladies of Charity to their first endeavour; theirs was
not the grudging service that is done for payment, but
they were better equipped for attendance on the sick
than their magnificent predecessors. Thus the Company
of Servants of the Poor found their place as the natural
agents of the Ladies of Charity in accordance with M.
Vincent's theory that their existence and development
was wrought directly by the Hand of God. In their joy
at the greatness of their task, it was natural that the
Sisters should aspire to an outward token of their voca-
tion. They wished — and Mile. Le Gras led them in the
expression of the wish — to have the bond of a common
vow, to be recognized as dedicated to God's service.
Such a step as this was not to be taken hurriedly under
M. Vincent's guidance. Never has there been a more
consistent advocate of delay than he, and the foundation
of the new Order was a fixed object of desire to Mile.
Le Gras before he would admit that it was a reasonable
possibility. Her plan was to bind herself to the service
MLLE. LE GRAS 219
of the Sisters, and then to let some time elapse before
any of them were permitted to enter on any engagement
of the nature of a vow. She was to be the pioneer and
to bear the brunt of failure, should failure be ordained.
She had a real wish to pledge herself, believing, one may
conjecture, that a venture of faith was needed to give
vitality to her scheme. The Servants of the Poor were
already depending on her capacity to train and to direct
them, and she believed that that capacity would be
deepened if she herself was dedicated irrevocably to this
form of service. M. Vincent, however, was not clear
that her idea was of Divine prompting, and was unmoved
by her insistence.
" As to this undertaking," he wrote to her, " once and
for all I bid you not to think of it until Our Lord has
made it very clear that He wishes it ; for the present my
leading is all against it. One may desire many things,
good in themselves, they may seem desires that are accord-
ing to the Will of God; nevertheless, they are not so
always. God permits that this should be, that our
spirit may be trained to accord with His desire. Saul
sought a she-ass, he found a kingdom; S. Louis sought
to conquer the Holy Land, he found how to conquer
himself and to win the Crown of Heaven. You wish to
be the servant of these poor maidens, and God would
have you be His servant, and the servant, perhaps, of
many more persons than you could be in this particular
way. And when you are His only, is it not enough that
your heart should be conformed to the peace of Our
Saviour's Heart and wait in readiness to serve Him ?
The Kingdom of God is the peace of the Holy Spirit; it
will abide in you if your heart is at peace."
We shall find that Mile. Le Gras had been inspired by
M. Vincent to the mystic's aspiration after the constant
sense of the Presence of God. But once more he put
her to a severe test when he checked her wishes in this
matter. She believed that her zeal was of God's prompt-
220 VINCENT DE PAUL
ing, that He showed her what He required of her; it
must have been extremely difficult to let the precious
months go by while she awaited a summons more definite
than that which she felt she had already. It was the
second time that she had been required to submit to the
extremities of M. Vincent's prudence. Possibly, by
the discipline involved, she was fitted to be herself the
director of others, and her scheme was ripened by just
those denials that seemed to hinder it. His dealings
with her are a striking instance of M. Vincent's detach-
ment in direction. He had great respect for her judgment
and reverence for her character. Eventually he came
to agreement with her original opinion, yet he had no
misgivings in ignoring it until he was convinced of God's
guidance of himself. The demand he made on others
was at all times and quite clearly made as God's agent.
No personal knowledge of those with whom he was in
contact made any difference to his message, and the
confidence with which he delivered it was therefore not
self-confidence. It is noticeable that he never expresses
any regret for delaying the undertakings which eventually
he approved. In 1634, on Lady Day, Mile. Le Gras
was permitted to take a vow, and was thenceforward
dedicated to the Company of the Servants of the Poor;
but the individual members were not allowed the same-
privilege till eight years later, and then it was extended
only to a few. The contrast to the precipitate spirit
of modern times is very remarkable.' In the twentieth
century many leagues and societies for differing forms
of service come into being, shoot into celebrity, and are
completely forgotten in the period required by M. Vincent
to assure himself that a new idea was approved by God.
The solid foundation of the Company owes as much,
however, to the faith and determination of Mile. Le
Gras as to the prudence of M. Vincent. She realized the
need for the Sisters, and she would not be discouraged
in her scheme. They were very rough, some of them
MLLE. LE GRAS 221
of the most rugged peasant type. In early days one had
to be sent away for beating another, and almost all of them
required rigorous training in self-control; but difficulty
spurred the zeal of their Superior, and if she could not
get all that she desired of encouragement regarding the
future from M. Vincent, she was secure of his practical
help in the present. The first of the Servants of the Poor
were very ignorant, and if they were to use their oppor-
tunities for instilling spiritual knowledge, it was neces-
sary that they should possess the faith in so pure and
simple a form that they could find words for it. His
training of them took the form of " Conferences." He
questioned them to begin with, and afterwards addressed
them. This system begun in early times, was continued
during their experimental establishment at La Chapelle,
and became a great feature of the life at the mother-
house when the new Company fixed itself in the Faubourg
S. Lazare.* In the records of these " Conferences " we
get some of the most intimate details of the relations of
M. Vincent with the Sisters, and of his point of view
towards many a difficult question of the spiritual life.
It will be easily understood that the Sisters needed all
the help that could be given them. Their very existence
was an innovation of a startling kind. To their genera-
tion devotion to God's service implied retirement behind
high walls, and the attempt to give it a more practical
form laid them open to misinterpretation. At the
beginning Mile. Le Gras records that they could not
appear in the streets without risk of insult, and the tone
of society generally gave support to those who held that
women should be shielded from contact with life as it
was.
For the Servants of the Poor there was no shelter
from the contagion of sin save that which they erected
and maintained for themselves. They were — according to
* In 1 641. The mother-house was swept away in 1793. The
Boulevard Magenta covers its site.
222 VINCENT DE PAUL
M. Vincent's well-known definition — " a Community who
have no monastery but the houses of the sick, who have
for cells only a lodging or the poorest room, whose chapel
is the Parish Church, who have the streets for cloisters.
They are enclosed only by obedience, they make the fear
of God their grille, and they have no veil but their own
modesty." He had very clear and practical knowledge
of life in those streets which were to be their cloister,
and experience in the guidance of others helped him to
form a true conception of the difficulties a Sister of
Charity would find in her vocation. From the earliest
days of the Company, the life its members adopted was
a very hard one. A Sister must rise at four in summer
and winter alike, she must eat only sparingly, and of the
plainest food, and was to drink no wine. Her duties
as a sick nurse were of the most arduous and trying
description. At a period when medical science had not
yet adopted the methods of alleviating pain that are
now ordinary, she was forced to witness every horror of
suffering. Moreover, she breathed an infected atmosphere
continually, and was exposed to constant danger of
contagion. And as time went on the demands for the
service of the Sisters became more and more insistent,
and they seem constantly to have been overworked. In
that last detail lies a part of their claim to be regarded
as pilgrims on the Way of the Cross, and the physical
weariness induced by long hours of labour dimmed to
themselves the delight of their vocation. The Religious
who mortified herself in the still seclusion of a cloister
had her reward in a certain spiritual joy, but the Sister
of Charity who combated the griefs of the outside world
risked the dread experience of spiritual inertia, and
therewith that reaction from self-suppression to intense
desire which may make contact with the world so
perilous.
" There is this difference between the Sister of Charity
and a Religious," wrote M. Vincent after thirty years'
MLLE. LE GRAS 223
knowledge of them, " that while for the Religious the
one aim is the attainment of perfection for herself, the
object of the Sister of Charity is the comfort and salva-
tion of her neighbour."*
It is generally accepted that the life of the cloister
has its own dangers known only to those who have
adopted it. Not less is this the case with the woman
dedicated to a life of service. The Rule as it was finally
given to the Sisters of Charity demanded all the more —
as M. Vincent himself attested — because it seemed to
demand so little. It leaves no scope for any of the self-
indulgences of piety, it requires that the little duties
of a servant should be fulfilled day by day, and those
obedient to it must recognize that they are set apart for
rebuff rather than applause. The true Servant of the
Poor must fix her gaze on a Light very far off; the joys
of those to whom the contemplative vocation is accorded
are not for her — indeed, her strenuous days need the
inspiration of a faith too deeply rooted to be starved for
lack of spiritual encouragement. Even the distinction
of the dedicated life is not accorded to her. Her vow
must be renewed every year ; she may not rest in it with
the security of consecration permitted to every Religious.
Nothing, in fact, is left her for the fostering of self-
esteem, and without real humility it is not possible that
she should persevere.
The individual members of that first group had no
high ideals for the future. They were simple people
ready to do menial and arduous work without payment.
Probably there were many in the earlier days who came
and went away again, finding the test too hard. It was
in July, 1634, that M. Vincent accorded to them the
definite recognition of their life as a Community by
recommending a preliminary Rule. Its chief provision
is for the discipline of obedience. Wherever they worked
in common, one must have authority, but the office of
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 550.
224 VINCENT DE PAUL
Superior was to be held by each in turn. In the early-
days the severity of the Rule depended on the amount
of work to be accomplished ; their work for others was
the object of their lives, and hours of prayer and study
were appointed with relation to its demands. At the
beginning the figure of Marguerite Naseau stands out
among these companions in labour as possessing in its
purest form the spirit of devotion. In her girlhood she
was seized with a desire to read herself and to instruct
others. She seems to have taught herself by a method
of patient questioning of all with whom she came in
contact, and then to have journeyed from village to
village trying to stir others to a desire for learning.
She was heedless of physical hardship, and lived in
constant fidelity to the service of her neighbour.
M. Vincent found in her a finished model of the future
Servants of the Poor, and she became — for the short time
that her life lasted — the mainstay of her companions in
service. She died, however, of the plague, caught from
a patient she was nursing, before the new Community
was recognized as having being.
But Marguerite Naseau was not a type. The task of
Louise Le Gras would have presented little difficulty
had there been many like her. The other recruits needed
patient and continuous drilling, and their leader realized
that all her hopes depended upon their response to
training. M. Vincent realized it also. In his first
" Conference "* he told them that they were bound,
because they were the first chosen members of their
Company, "to be irreproachable in conduct, and so
set the example to all who might come after. When
Solomon built the Temple of the Lord, did he not put
precious stones into the foundation ? Sanctify your-
selves, my daughters, that through you God may bless
these beginnings/ '
The high ideal he set before them was inspiring, and
* July 31, 1634.
MLLE. LE GRAS 225
while they listened to him their spirits soared in sympathy
with his ; but in the wear and tear of daily life they sank
to earth again, and Mile. Le Gras was never free from
the pressure of anxiety after she had once accepted the
role of guide and teacher. The deep humility which
was essential to the true Servant of the Poor has made
the person of Louise Le Gras somewhat mysterious.
As the Confraternities and her work in connection with
them became more important, her advice was sought for
so eagerly by those whose social position called them to
hold authority, that it became necessary that she should
hold in Paris meetings of ladies to whom she could give
instruction, spiritual and practical. Her supervision in
the provinces had, as we have noticed, tested and practised
her in public speaking ; but the woman-speaker — in days
when her gift was not recognized as the common posses-
sion of both sexes — risked the development of a self-
sufficiency inimical to the mental attitude required of
a Sister of Vincent de Paul. Louise Le Gras could hold
the minds of her listeners, and she must have reached a
high spiritual level before she made her first essay in
oratory if she escaped excitement as her power declared
itself. There is no record of misgiving on her part, or
caution on that of M. Vincent, and her immunity in this
is doubtless due to the qualities that made her the ideal
Superior for the Working Sisters. She had a capacity
for prayer that brought her to the borderland of the true
mysticism, and her passionate love of Christ made her
snatch every moment that could be spared from duty,
that in contemplation she might grow to nearer knowledge
of Him. By her own experience she learnt that more was
needed than the fervour of philanthropy to give the Sisters
courage for their tasks.
In certain reflections that she wrote for them she
may seem merely to be expressing the aphorisms of the
devout life in simple language, yet to have read and
accepted all that her words imply would equip the most
15
226 VINCENT DE PAUL
faltering against the buffets of their difficult experience.
" If you aspire to perfection, you must learn to die to
self. Those words, my Sisters, contain tremendous
meaning. Why may I not write them with my blood,
or leave them to you in letters of gold ? You must die
to self, which means that you must destroy those im-
pulses that come from your own capacities of soul or
body, for they may conflict with the design of the Holy
Spirit upon you.
" Try to preserve a quiet mind and a heart at peace
amid all the painful chances that may occur. Make it
your custom to accept all your little discomforts as from
the Hand of God. He is your Father, and knows so well
what is best for you. Sometimes you feel His Touch —
to check or punish you ; and sometimes to show you His
great love by permitting your sufferings to give you a
share in the merit of His Son.
" The lack of outward human help will serve to bring
you nearer to the perfection of Divine Love, and will gain
for you the special guidance of God. Do you know
what He does to a soul that is deprived of all human
comfort and support, if she has courage to profit by it ?
It is His pleasure to lead such a soul, and, though she
may not be conscious of it, she may none the less be
sure that, if she clings to Him with entire confidence,
He will support her with His own Hand, and will never
let her sink beneath the burden of her misery."*
These are not vague spiritual rhapsodies, they are
definite instructions believed by their writer to be neces-
sary for the training of the Sisters. There was to be
no reserve. M. Vincent in one of his earlier " Confer-
ences " asked them if they were ready "to go wherever
obedience required them to go, without regard to their
country or their friends, or to any thought of distance, "f
* " Pensees," chap, vi., liv. v. See Gobillon, " Vie de Mile.
Le Gras."
t "Conferences," No. 10, January, 1643.
MLLE. LE GRAS 227
and they had replied with one accord that they were
ready for any order whatever it might be. Indifference
as to the scene of their labour was symbolic of the deeper
indifference Louise Le Gras required of herself and them.
The immolation of self was to be real ; the Sister of Charity
might find herself in spiritual as well as actual loneliness,
and she must not repine because she seemed to be exiled
from all that fed or encouraged the growth of her inward
life. When we reflect that the original inspiration of
her self-sacrifice came from devotion to the Church, and
that her perseverance was ordinarily due to suggestion
and example, we can measure the severity of the dis-
cipline that left her in an unknown country town with
perhaps one uncongenial companion, and no adequate
spiritual guidance within reach. But a trial of this sort
(part of the ordinary lot of a Sister of Charity) must be
accepted as bestowed by the Hand of God. " He is
your Father, and knows so well what is best for you,"
and she who has died to self must be able to resign herself
completely to His Will.
The demands made on the Sisters by their Superior
and by M. Vincent are always logical ; but, if they seem
sometimes a little inhuman, it is well to remember the
knowledge and the tolerance that lay behind these
counsels of perfection. The Sister of Charity might
be denied all fulfilment of desire, but she was first trained
to accept denial ; and however great the space of time
and distance that divided her from the Mother-House
she knew that, so long as she remained faithful, she had
the prayers and the silent sympathy of her Sisters there,
and was doing her part in the service they had all
accepted. It was this sense of corporate life that was
the great support of the isolated unit, and, as the Com-
pany increased, their need of a bond stronger than that
of a common aspiration became apparent. Louise Le
Gras was pledged by a solemn vow to dedicate herself
to the Company (every month she set apart a time of
228 VINCENT DE PAUL
thanksgiving to God for this special privilege), and it
was inevitable that the Sisters who aspired to a reflection
of her spirit should be insistent in their demand to share
it with her. The time came at length when M. Vincent
encouraged a chosen few to give this outward proof of
self-surrender. He was apprehensive of an attempt to
make the Company into a new Religious Order, and never
wearied of reminding them that they were not Religious ;
nevertheless, their need for the support of the threefold
vow could not be denied, and on March 25, 1642, they
were allowed to take it, on the understanding that they
were bound by it for one year only.
"T, the undersigned, in the Presence of God, renew
the promises of my baptism, and make the vow of poverty,
of chastity, and of obedience to the Venerable Superior-
General of the Priests of the Mission in the Company of
the Sisters of Charity, that I may bind myself all this
year to the service, bodily and spiritual, of the poor and
sick — our masters. And this by the aid of God, which
I ask through His Son Jesus Crucified, and through the
prayers of the Holy Virgin/'
Such was the purport of the bond accepted by the
first four members of the Company, and before many
years had passed it was the rule that every Daughter of
M. Vincent must subscribe to it, for equality was as the>
alphabet of their education. Their real establishment
dates, therefore, from Lady Day, 1642 ; their progress after-
wards was the natural growth and development of the
root that had been planted, and M. Vincent no longer
felt himself bound to check it, for he saw that the need
for them and their capacity to fulfil the need had been
proved beyond dispute. In 1645, at the earnest wish of
Mile. Le Gras, he drew up a letter to the Archbishop of
Paris asking that the Company might be formally recog-
nized as an Order, " because labour in God's service ends
with those who give it, unless there is some spiritual bond
between all those who are thus engaged." And with
MLLE. LE GRAS 229
their recognition he asked for sanction of the Rule that
they were keeping and of their annual vow.
There was no opposition to the establishment of the
Company with the full Archiepiscopal approval ; they had
no rivals and no enemies. Nevertheless, affairs moved
slowly, and ten years passed before the Royal Letters
Patent was accorded. During that ten years M. Vincent
altered his mind regarding a very important point on
which he and Mile. Le Gras were not agreed. He had asked
that the Sisters should be under episcopal authority; to
her view their hope of stability depended on their direction
by the Mission Priests. M. Vincent's humility was in all
likelihood responsible for his original decision, but the
fear that it would take effect was a continual tax on the
faith of Mile. Le Gras. In the ten years of suspense she
did all that lay in her power to show the unity that
existed between the two Companies, and the loss to the
Sisters if they were formally divided. The wars of the
Fronde raged over their heads, the Church in Paris was
distracted by the disputes over the episcopal authority,
Princes and Princesses were driven into exile, and the
Italian Cardinal lost and resumed his dominion over
France; but the Sisters worked on steadily, and their
Superior, though she was torn with misgivings and anxieties
as to her own fitness for her task, never slackened her
prayers that the disaster with which their Founder seemed
to threaten the Company — a disaster more terrible to her
than any national calamity — might be averted.
At the eleventh hour M. Vincent yielded. Jean
Francois de Gondi was in exile at Rome, but he was Arch-
bishop of Paris, and he was ready to accord any boon to
Vincent de Paul. In 1654 a new application was made,
and in January, 1655, Letters Patent were issued to the
Sisters of the Poor, sanctioned by Church and Crown,
and placing them in perpetuity under the authority of
the Mission Priests. The petitions of Mile. Le Gras were
changed into thanksgivings.
CHAPTER II
THE RULE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY
We have seen the gradual degrees by which the Company
of Sisters of Charity advanced to their position as a great
institution. Collectively and individually they were to
live in the spirit of humility and of obedience. M. Vincent
himself is the best exponent of such a vocation; he knew
its privilege and its difficulty, and when — in simple
language — he summed it up for the benefit of one novice
whose heart was failing her, he was expressing the lesson
needed by all alike.
" I beseech you, Mademoiselle/' he wrote, u reflect for
a little on the Son of God, Who came down to earth not
only to save us by His death, but that He might submit
Himself to the Will of His Father, and draw us to Him
by His example. If you will consider Our Blessed
Saviour, Mademoiselle* you will see how ceaselessly He
suffered, how He prayed, how He laboured, and how He
obeyed. If you live after the flesh — S. Paul tells us —
you die; and if you would live after the Spirit that gives
life, you must live as Our Lord lived, and that is to say,
deny yourself, do the will of another rather than your
own, make good use of every difficulty* and prefer suffer-
ing to satisfaction. ' Is it not needful that the Christ
should suffer these things V He said to His disciples when
they spoke of His Passion, and by that He shows us that
as He came to His glory only by the way of affliction we
may not hope to ascend without suffering."*
To pray, to labour, and to obey, was the whole duty of
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 431, June, 1658.
230
THE RULE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 231
a Sister of Charity ; and M. Vincent, while exhorting them
never to aspire to equality with a Religious, reminded
them constantly that their life was the closest imitation
to that of Christ which was possible to a woman, for it
was spent in travelling from place to place that they
might heal the sick and comfort the despairing. Mile.
Le Gras, from her standpoint of close personal associa-
tion, urged on them chiefly the necessity of charity among
themselves. " You must love each other," she told them,
" as Sisters whom Jesus Christ has united by His love,
and you should try to understand that because God has
chosen you and placed you together to do Him one
special service, you must be as one body governed by a
single will, and must regard each other only as different
members of the same body."
The impression of the Company of Sisters of Charity
left on us after study of the " Conferences " of the
Founders is an inspiring one; we seem to be in sight of
the fulfilment of a magnificent hope, but the reality was
not as fine as the ideal. Great courage, sustained self-
denial, pure and unquestioning faith — these qualities
were to be found among the first Sisters of Charity, and
not a few laid down their lives in the service of others.
It would be easy, without departing from the truth, to
draw a picture of them that would glitter with the glory
of good works, and be free from any blots or shadows;
but it would not be possible to see them in relation to
M. Vincent and Louise Le Gras, and omit the deformities
of their common life. For, indeed, M. Vincent never
gives deeper proof of his knowledge of human nature
than in his dealings with the Sisters of Charity. He
might exhort them to the highest flights of aspiration,
but he did not expect them to be perfect, and he was less
disappointed than was Mile. Le Gras when they gave
proof of the weakness of human nature. There were so
many possibilities of failure inseparable from their con-
dition in that period of experiment. Organization and
232 VINCENT DE PAUL
Rule were not adjusted, and causes of disagreement might
very easily arise; two or three women, drawn from
different provinces and often from differing grades of
society* and placed in close association in a country town
to which all were strangers, were not likely to uphold the
principle of brotherly love without a struggle. It is clear
that frequently there were lamentable outbreaks of ill-
temper; we find the proofs of it among M. Vincent's
letters, for when a crisis was approaching appeal was
always made to him. No instance of his intervention is
more characteristic than a letter addressed to the Sisters
at Nantes, a settlement where difficulties of many kinds
were always present. Rumour, or perhaps clear testi-
mony, seems to have accused the Sisters of conduct
notably unworthy of their vocation, but the Superior-
General does not approach them with any violence of
reprimand.
" Continue to grow nearer to perfection, my dear
Sisters," it is thus that he addresses them. u Consider
the sanctity of your condition as truly the Daughters of
God. It is so wonderful that human understanding
can conceive nothing greater for a poor earthly
creature.
" It seems to me, my dear Sisters, that here you reply
that this is what you desire to do, but that you are
disturbed by an infinity of temptations which overwhelm
you. To which I answer that all these temptations are
sent to you, or are permitted for you by God, for the
same reason that they were sent or permitted to His Son
— that He might have opportunity to give proof of His
infinite love of His Father.
" ' Yes/ you say, ' but it does not seem to me that all
the other righteous souls in the world or in religion have
the inward suffering that I have." Thereon I answer
that there are no souls on earth who profess to have given
themselves to God and to His creatures who do not bear
trials outward and inward equal to yours, for it is God's
THE RULE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 233
Will — not against, but in favour of righteous souls — that
all whoever they be shall suffer temptations.
" And you answer, my dear Sisters : ! Bah ! they may be
tempted sometimes, but to be tempted always and every-
where, and by everyone with whom I am forced to live,
this it is which is unbearable !' It is the good pleasure of
God that the chosen souls who are so dear to Him should
be tempted and afflicted daily. This is what He shows
us when He says in the Gospel that those who would come
after Him must deny themselves, and take up their cross
— that is to say, must suffer — daily. Weigh that word
daily, my dear Sisters.
" ' I will bear anything from outside persons willingly,
Monsieur,' you say, ' but that it should be from my own
Sisters, from those who should help me, but who are
nothing but a care and a cross and a distress in all they
do, and all they leave undone.' Alas ! from whom should
we suffer if not from those amongst whom we live ?
Did not Our Lord suffer from His Apostles, His disciples,
and the people among whom He lived who were God's
people ?
" ' As to that,' you answer, ' I am better able to put up
with the distress that is due to my Sisters than when it
comes from the Sister in Charge. Her coldness, her harsh-
ness, her silence, the fact that she never says a gentle word
to me, and if she does say anything it is only something
severe or irritating — it is this which I find I cannot bear,
and which drives me to seek consolation from those of my
Sisters who suffer the same distress ; it is this which causes
me to talk as much as I can to my Confessor, and to tell
my troubles to people outside.' To which I can only
say, my dear Sisters, that we are poor weaklings if we
must needs be flattered by our Superiors in all they
say or order, and that instead of a Daughter of Charity
seeking softness, she should feel that if the Sister in Charge
humours her she is being treated as a child or an invalid.
Our Lord led His own with severity, and sometimes even
234 VINCENT DE PAUL
with hard words . . . and He foretold for them nothing
but the evils and trials that were to come. And yet —
though that was so — we desire to be flattered by our
Superiors, and we withdraw from them (as did the wretch
who betrayed Our Lord) to make a party with other
malcontents and with our Confessors ! Oh, my very
dear Sisters, may God preserve us from this !
" If you have not fallen into this miserable condition,
I give thanks to God ; but if you have so fallen, here are
the means to rise out of it by the help of God :
" i. To devote your prayer three or four times to what
I have said.
"2. Each of you shall confess to M. N. every fault in
this connection of which you have been guilty, not only
since your last confession, but also since your coming
to Nantes, and shall resolve to accept the counsel he
gives you and to follow it.
"3. After the Holy Communion you shall all kiss and
ask pardon of each other.
"4. For a year your prayer shall once a month be
devoted to this subject.
"5. You shall not follow inclination in choosing the
Sisters with whom to hold intercourse, but those who
attract you shall be avoided in favour of others.
" 6. You shall not speak to your Confessor outside the
Confessional unless it be one or two words for absolute
necessity, following in this the rule of the other Sisters of
our house in Paris with their Confessors at S. Lazare.
" 7. You shall — each separately — write to me the
thoughts Our Lord has given you.
"8. The Superior shall write to Mile. Le Gras every
month touching the progress of her family.
" Here, my dear Sisters, are my poor thoughts on your
reason for praising God for your vocation, for persevering
in it and perfecting it, and also a summary of those faults
into which a Daughter of Charity might fall in a new
settlement and the method for remedy.
THE RULE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 235
" I ask you in all humility to accept what I have said to
you for the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ."*
The Sisters at Nantes, however great the degree of
their misdoing, were privileged; they were given direct
touch with the mind of their Founder, and it becomes —
by reason of his dealing with them — more possible to
understand how he maintained the original spirit in his
two great Companies in spite of their rapid growth.
Probably there had been serious failure, and chattering
tongues were busy with the proceedings of this new-
fangled Order. There was opportunity for righteous
wrath, for sharp severity. But instead there comes this
letter from M. Vincent, with its suggestion of the true
ideal, its graphic outline of the evil of short-coming, its
homely recommendation for reform. It is a summary of
his policy and of his spirit ; sympathetic understanding
and the most practical common sense are here, and
withal that thirst for the imitation of Christ which was
the secret of his energy of service.
Spiritually and practically it was a necessity that the
charity of the Sisters should be an interior virtue; it was
not sufficient that they should tend the sick and feed the
hungry. It was magnificent that so many of them found
the courage to brave peril and face death without flinching,
but it was necessary that they all should also possess
endurance of the weaknesses of others. Only a few were
martyrs to their vocation, but all who accepted it were
Sisters of Charity. One of the Articles of their Rule in
its final form reminds them of the title (more familiar to
their generation than to ours) of Daughters of Charity, and
exhorts them to think often of it, and to be worthy of it.
In one of his "Conferences"! on the Rule M. Vincent
dwells especially on this with full comprehension of all
that was involved :
" Is there, indeed, a title more honourable than that
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 109, April, 1647.
f No. 86, March, 1658.
236 VINCENT DE PAUL
of a Daughter of Charity ?" he asks. " Could any name
be found approaching it in honour ? No, my Daughters,
and you never will hear of one more glorious. For, in
fact, what do we mean by a Daughter of Charity ?
Nothing else than a Daughter of God. Oh, my Sisters,
what a reason to yield yourself entirely to God, that you
may be worthy of so noble a name !
" I do not know if you have ever fully considered the
three things which are implied in this Rule. The first is
love of God above all else, to be His altogether, to love
nothing except Him, and if one does love anything else
that it should be out of love of Him. If you love God
thus it is the first mark of a true Daughter of Charity who
really loves her Father. The second is love of our neigh-
bours, to give real service to the poor ; and when there is
difficulty in so doing to force oneself to give it, that being
the purpose for which one has given oneself to God. The
poor must be regarded as lords and masters, and spoken
of with deep respect; therein lies the second mark of a
true Daughter of Charity. The third point is that you
should never be at variance among yourselves to the
degree of never allowing a single spiteful thought to rise
up between you. Directly such thoughts rise up they
must be stifled, my Daughters, and if, nevertheless, they
still come back, you must be particular in disowning and
rejecting them until such time as God shall give you
grace to escape from your evil inclination. Be careful,
also, to say nothing that can anger your Sister, nor hurt
her, unless you do so officially, for officials not only may,
but must, rebuke, even when they see they will rouse
resentment. It would be a strange thing to see a surgeon
not daring to use his lancet because a patient disliked
the operation ! And not less so if a Superior or an
official dared not speak for fe'ar a Sister should not take
it in good part.
w And beware, my Daughters, for it will not do to listen
to this which I am saying with indifference; it is a thing
THE RULE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 237
in which you have a special charge from God, and which
you must force yourselves to practise. Otherwise, you will
not be true Daughters of Charity ; you will only be so in
name and in dress. And as the saying goes, ' The cowl
does not make the monk.' "
The lesson was extremely difficult to learn, and M.
Vincent was obliged to elaborate and to insist, for he held
that it was absolutely necessary for them to learn it.
In another M Conference "* two months later he comes
back to the same subject even more forcibly: " The very
moment that you feel a little sense of antagonism, or that
you see that one of your Sisters is slipping out of the
friendliness that should prevail among you, let her know
at once that it is so, and say to her with all the warmth
that is in you: ' My Sister, if you only knew how I love
you, and how greatly I desire to be friends with you !
Oh, believe that it is with all my heart, and as God has
required of me; love me as I love you, I beseech you/
If the Sister does not accept what you say the first time,
tell her that you love her again, and God may grant that
she will change. 'Ah, but, Monsieur,' say you, ' I do not
feel like that in my heart, and it would be hard to tell her
so/ Never mind, say it just the same, for it is the evil
in your nature that makes it hard, and the Devil uses
this evil to prevent you from loving each other.
" Be careful to be worthy of the name you bear, so
that it shall not be said of you as to the man of the
Apocalypse : ' Thou hast the name of living, and art
dead.' You are Daughters of Charity; you bear this
glorious name, and there is hate amongst you ! You are
false to it, then, for charity and hate cannot go together !
Oh, my Daughters, offer yourself to God, that you may be
made worthy of this name you bear. Say to yourself:
' It is true that my Sister annoys me, but I must put up
with her because it is God Who bids me do so.' Say to
yourself also: ' It is possible that I annoy her equally,
* No. 87, May 30, 1658.
238 VINCENT DE PAUL
and that it is more difficult for her to bear with me than
for me to bear with her/ "
Let us picture the Sisters gathered together on a Sunday
afternoon for the weekly u Conference," sitting with down-
cast eyes while M. Vincent, in this homely way of his,
puts into words the half-formed remonstrance in their
minds, or depicted in plain language the unacknowledged
facts of their daily life. There was no escaping him; he
assuredly was not of the race of surgeons who dare not
use the lancet because the patient dreads the operation.
Yet they could not have loved him more had he been less
severe, and now and again, as he enlarged upon their
Rule and illustrated special ways in which the breaking
of it was to be apprehended, one of his hearers would
humbly make acknowledgment that in just this way she
had offended. In this there was an entire absence of
sensationalism. Self-accusation of this kind was accepted
calmly by M. Vincent, and by some mysterious method
the fault immediately became his own. No details of the
lives of these Daughters of his was too small to claim his
attention. No one understood the difficulties so well as
he did, nor the danger of that dread monotony which
undermines and slays the enthusiasm of an impulsive
nature; but we get glimpses of the individuality of his
correspondents from his letters to them, and sometimes
it is plain that they were very difficult people to deal with.
" You say that you have shed many tears, and made
prayers, and kept novenas," he wrote to one of them;
" all that is to the good. Our Lord said that the blessed
are those who weep, and that those who ask receive.
He did not say, however, that our prayers will be granted
immediately, because He desires that we should go on
praying. Therefore, my Sister, you must not allow
yourself to say that the more you pray the less you get,
for it betrays that you are not yet resigned to the Will of
God, and do not confide yourself sufficiently to His
promises. Often He is more gracious to us in His refusal
THE RULE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 239
of what we ask of Him than He would be in the granting
of it, and we must be certain that what He sends us is
the best, because He knows better than we do what is
good for us, even though we dislike it, and all our hopes
are disappointed.
" Ah, my Sister, how deeply I sympathize with you in
your troubles, and how I pity our poor Sister Anne
weighed down by discontent ! But, surely, it is a trial
which, as you say, God allows to test you ! Accept it,
therefore, as from the hand of your Father, and try to
make good use of it. Help your Sister to carry her
cross, as yours is a little lighter, reminding her that she
is a Daughter of Charity, and that she should be ready
to be crucified with Our Lord, and to submit to His
pleasure, if she is not going to be utterly unworthy of
Our Father.
" She should not — neither should you — be so much
put about because the hospital is not well organized nor
sufficiently provided for. You must do your best your-
selves in the service of the poor, and leave the rest to the
goodness of God.
" You are wrong in blaming Mademoiselle (Le Gras)
for your troubles, and in resolving not to write to her
again because you are not pleased with her letters, also
in holding her responsible for the selection of you two
instead of others, for it is solely due to the Providence of
God that you are placed where you are. This you will
realize when, for the love of God, you are obedient to
your Superiors, and learn to think only of Him when you
are given orders."*
As the sentences unfold themselves, the outlines of the
mutinous Sister of Charity grows clearer — hating her
work and the place where she is sent to do it, distrustful
of her prayers because they bring no satisfaction to her
rebellious wishes, bitterly angry with the Superior who
had assigned her post to her. If the spirit of the Religious
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 441, August, 1658.
240 VINCENT DE PAUL
was in any way inculcated among the Sisters of Charity —
and assuredly it was so — here was a case for uncom-
promising severity. Yet M. Vincent, though his gentle-
ness hides here and there a little irony, could hardly be
more gentle. No one, in truth, in all his immense and
scattered family needs his compassion more than does
this very discontented Sister — for had she not lost the
joy of serving, which was the sole but satisfying treasure
of all the Company of Mission Priests and all the Daughters
of Charity ? — and if by sympathy he might restore it to
her it was not in him to withhold his sympathy, however
serious her offence.
In circumstances such as these his tolerance and charity
may have reconciled many a fretful soul to the lot that
demanded sacrifice ; but though in one direction he gives
proof of his exceeding gentleness, in another we find him
absolutely rigid in decision. It must always be remem-
bered that the vow of the Sisters of Charity was taken
annually, and did not involve the life-long dedication of
the Religious. Each year on Lady Day they were
renewed, and every Sister who renewed her vow did so
by permission of the Superior. This regulation necessarily
placed a Sister on an altogether different footing from
that of a nun, but it is obvious that the Sisterhood must
have declined rapidly if those that entered it had not
regarded their renunciation of the world as being perma-
nent. For five years they were tested before being recog-
nized as fully trained and responsible Sisters; after that
time their service was regarded as part of the established
strength of the community. But it happened that some,
even after long testing and association, did take advantage
of the open door and return to the world. Mile. Le Gras
never got over the intense distress which these defections
caused her. Sometimes there was an epidemic of deser-
tion, and to her it may have seemed that if such a spirit
could find acceptance by a few, there was no reason to
hope for any limit on the spreading of it. But M. Vincent
THE RULE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 241
did not share her apprehension. In his opinion all this
wonderful growth of self-devotion which went on around
him proceeded from the direct influence of Christ Himself
on human souls, and any check therein was the concern
of the invisible Head, and need not dismay his adjutants.
" You take the departure of your Daughters rather too
much to heart," he wrote to her. " In the Name of God,
Mademoiselle, try to acquire grace to accept these occur-
rences. Our Lord shows His mercy to the Company in
purging it after this manner, and this will be one of the
first things that He will reveal to you in Heaven. You
must be quite certain that none of those whom Our Lord
has really summoned into the Company will fail in her
vocation. Why should you trouble about the others ?
Let them go; we shall not lack for Daughters."*
He was not, it must be owned, as tolerant of desertion
among his Mission Priests, for the difference between the
broken vow of the one class of defaulter and the broken
purpose of the other seemed to him very material. And
he had one rule to which he adhered unfalteringly.
Neither Lazarist nor Sister of Charity who had once
denied their vocation should ever be received again.
He commiserated the despair which sometimes over-
whelmed them when they discovered what they had done,
but their repudiation once made was made for ever.
There were many who, as he once told his listeners at
a " Conference," f " were incessant in their petitions
through M. So-and-So and Mme. So-and-So to be received
again." But in this matter he was relentless; the door
that they closed behind them when they went forth could
never again be opened.
It was necessary that the cloister, " built not of stone
but of free will," should be thus defended; the escaped
nun had no hope of support or protection from any but
heretics, but no outward stigma rested on the renegade
Sister of Charity: her penalty was the perpetuation of
* February, 1653. t No. 42, July, 1652.
16
242 VINCENT DE PAUL
her self -chosen freedom. The only safeguard with which
M. Vincent could provide the faithful Sisters was a
reminder of their high vocation. " My Daughters, to my
thinking you need greater perfection than a Religious,"
he said to them. " ' Eh, how can this be V you ask.
' How is it possible for us to need greater perfection than
a Religious?' For this reason: The aspirations of each
one of us must be in proportion to the grace received
from God. Now has any Religious ever received from
God favours that equalled yours ? No ; no one has been
called to anything so great, and by such means as you
have been called, and therefore God requires higher per-
fection from you than He does from them. You, my
Sisters, serve those who are brought to you, and those
whom you must seek. It can truly be said of you, as of
the Apostles, that you go from one place to another, and
that just as they were sent by Our Lord, so are you also
in His Name by order of your Superiors, to the end that
you should do what Our Lord Himself did upon earth.
0 my Daughters, if this is the call to you, realize how
greatly you need to seek perfection."*
In the boldness of that recommendation we have a
glimpse of the strength of M. Vincent. In those days the
working nun was unheard of : " Qui dit religieuse dit un
cloitre." It was tacitly admitted that the inhabitants of
the innumerable monasteries were not so concentrated
upon spiritual things as their profession and their garb
implied, and the many splendid efforts at reform had
been the means of directing public attention to the
abuses that made such efforts necessary. Nevertheless
the pious still cherished their ideal of the consecrated
life, separated from contact with the world and devoted
to prayer, and therefore M. Vincent's assertion that the
Daughters of Charity were more highly favoured than
the orthodox Religious was in defiance of public opinion ;
and many of them, in the performance of their daily
* "Conferences,'' No. 63, November, 1655.
THE RULE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 243
duties, were by their own admission the prey of continual
temptation. Their humble origin made the life of the
streets attractive. Those who came from the country
required superhuman self-control not to look about them
as they hurried to and fro on their errands of mercy, but
they were required to keep their eyes downcast, and to
notice nothing. Vincent came to their * Conference "
one day smiling and exultant. A gentleman had just left
him, he told them, who had said : " Monsieur, I have seen
two of your Daughters to-day; one of them carried a
basket, and the other a bowl of soup for the sick. So
great was the modesty of one of them that she never so
much as lifted her eyes."
It would be very easy to prove the absurdity of such
an exaggeration of self -repression, but undoubtedly for
the accomplishment of M. Vincent's purpose it was the
only way. Once permit the least distraction, and this
dangerous experiment of his must have ended in utter
failure, and the Sisters themselves were the first to admit
that it was so. One of them, Sister Marguerite Laurence,
acknowledged at one of their " Conferences "* that when
she passed a troupe of mountebanks or a peep-show in
the street, the desire to go and look was so strong that
she had to press her crucifix against her heart, and repeat
over and over again: " O Jesus, Thou art worth it all."
It was on the rock of simplicity such as this that the
Company was founded, but even that virtue has its
attendant failing, and it is easy to understand that the
actions of Sister Marguerite Laurence and her compeers
sometimes betokened undeveloped judgment. When the
many demands for service necessitated that the Sisters
should be scattered by twos and threes at great distances
from each other, the task of directing them became a
very anxious one. There is ample testimony to this fact
in the letters of Mile, le Gras and of M. Vincent. Small
schemes were embarked upon without authority ; accounts
* No. 5, August, 1640.
244 VINCENT DE PAUL
were confused because there was no method of keeping
them; one Sister made an excursion to Orleans from
Angers without leave; another journeyed to a place where
a pious gentleman was dying, because she thought he
might be induced to make a legacy to the poor. " The
intention may have been praiseworthy/' commented M.
Vincent, " but the act was not permissible in one who
has consecrated herself to God under a rule of obedience/'
Another Sistei constantly makes little visits and little
pilgrimages, and will not ask permission of her Superior.
It was infinitely difficult to deal with such infractions of
the Rule when distances were great, and means of com-
munication very uncertain. The irregularity that the
labours of the Sisters often necessitated increased the
obstacles to direction, and Mile. Le Gras was tortured by
her misgivings as to the future conduct of her flock.
It was fortunate for her that M. Vincent shared her
burden, and reassured her by his cheerful acceptance of
it. He did not lower his standard because his Daughters
fell so far short of it : his " Conferences " at the Mother-
House maintained their exalted level, but he knew the
material out of which the Sisters of the Poor were being
formed, and that the weaknesses inherent in their class
did not vanish at the magic touch of their vocation.
Moreover, though his faith in the Divine guidance of the
new Company was absolute, he would have regarded its
downfall as the Will of God no less than its success, and
was convinced that human wisdom and experience could
do very little to avert catastrophe.
The idea of separating the Sisters from the Mission
Priests, and placing them under episcopal authority, was
the outcome of M. Vincent's certainty that the Company
was independent of his control ; it was a species of inde-
pendence to which he wished them to aspire both as
individuals and as a Company; the human element which
he thought had too great a place in their desire to be
directed by the Lazarists was to be eliminated ; they were
THE RULE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 245
not to rely upon any particular Society, but completely
upon God.
We have seen that the prayers and desires of Mile. Le
Gras overruled his intentions in this matter, but he never
varied in requiring of the Sisters a conscious realization
that the guidance of their lives must be Divine.
" Spiritual direction is of extreme value, it is true, my
Sister," he wrote to one of them to whom it was denied;
"it is an opportunity of receiving counsel in difficulty,
and comfort when we are discouraged ; it is a refuge from
temptation, a support against despair — when the director
is prudent and experienced it is, indeed, an infinite source
of help and consolation. But do you realize that it is
just where the help of man fails us that the help of God
begins ? It is He Who teaches us, Who strengthens us,
Who is everything to us, and Who draws us to Himself.
If He does not give you a spiritual father to whom you
can turn in every difficulty, do you suppose He intends
to deprive you of the benefit of such direction ? By no
means ; it is Our Lord Himself who fills the vacant place,
and of His infinite goodness directs you Himself/'*
It was not easy for an isolated Sister of Charity at a
difficult post to regard her deprivation as a benefit, but
for all his gentleness M. Vincent had no wish to make
life easy. Not only was he severe in his requirements,
but his severity was of the most searching kind ; he knew
the intimate dangers of the life of piety, and had grasped
some of the contradictions of a woman's character, there-
fore he intended to keep his Daughters out of reach of the
snares that would surely be prepared for them.
" The Daughters of Charity must go wherever they are
needed," he said in one of the " Conferences"! on their
Rule, " but this obligation exposes them to many tempta-
tions, and therefore they have special need of strictness."
It was inevitable that they should be separated for long
periods from the Mother-House, and they were scattered
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 150. t No. 75, October, 1659.
246 VINCENT DE PAUL
in such small detachments that it was hard to maintain
the sense of Community life. Their possibility of loneli-
ness had its own dangers, and with untiring insistence
M. Vincent reiterates his warnings to them on the danger
of any misuse of confession. The moment they found
themselves seeking for sympathy, or tempted to pour out
the distresses of their daily life, they must watch them-
selves carefully. Confession was a statement of sin, not
of grievances. They went to the confessor appointed to
them under obedience, and his individuality ought to be
a matter of indifference.
" ■ But/ says someone, ' he is the kind of person who
repels me V But has his method done you harm, and
has he not power to absolve you of your sins when you
confess to him ? What more do you want ? Have you
anything to do with him besides telling him your sins ?
Do you expect him to relieve you of all your troubles ?
Ah, my Sisters, you have no business to tell him about
them; it is enough to confess your sins."*
If we go carefully through the series of " Conferences,"
the evidence of M. Vincent's astonishing knowledge
accumulates. In these dialogues, which were often a
part of his discourse, there is nothing mechanical; the
phrase has the ring of individuality as if he had gleaned
it from the lips of one or another of the Sisters. If any
of them were ever tempted to resentment at his severity,
they could not say that he was hard on them because
he did not understand their difficulties; there can have
been little in their lives that he did not understand, but
he meant their sacrifice to have complete reality. Among
their Rules was one that suggested they should deny
themselves any satisfaction in the memory of enjoyment
that had been theirs before they renounced the world,
the pleasures of youth, the suggestions of marriage.
Another required them to silence any expressions of
gratitude from the sick whom they were tending, remem-
* "Conferences," No. 89, June, 1648.
THE RULE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 247
bering that they were in very truth servants of the poor.
(Mile. Le Gras related with delight that one of the Sisters
had been severely beaten by a patient, and had accepted
this treatment uncomplainingly.) When they were ill
themselves they were not to accept any luxuries that were
not bestowed upon the poor even to gratify benevolent
persons. They were never to receive reward for any-
thing. They were never to pay a visit that was not part
of their duty to the poor. They were never to receive a
visit under any circumstances. Except under pressure
of special necessity they were never to stand talking in
the street, nor at the door of their own dwelling, nor in
the houses of the poor, except in fulfilment of their duty.
They must never go out without leave, and must report
themselves to their Superior immediately on their return.
They must not send or receive letters under seal except
to their Superiors. And they must not ask to be per-
mitted special indulgences of piety, to be admitted to
Communion more frequently than others, to practise
abstinence or some form of mortification that set them
apart from their Sisters.
Surely there was clear evidence of that which is not
human in the lives of these women. M. Vincent con-
stantly averred it was so, but M. Vincent, with all his
knowledge, was himself so far riveted on thoughts of
Heaven, that he could not grasp the full difficulty of
renouncing earth. The ladies of the Court tore them-
selves from folly and excitement, and gave themselves
to God at Val de Grace or at Port Royal. Before them
was the prospect of a life of devotion, sombre and austere
enough, but surrounded with the dignity of great tradi-
tion, and inspired by the majestic ceremonial of the
Church ; and behind them was the torture and fever and
passion of the years that had brought them to seek
safety in the cloister. Their experience is indeed almost
as old as Christianity itself. But the Daughters of the
Poor came from a humble existence of ordinary labour
248 VINCENT DE PAUL
and small, unexalted amusements to a service of un-
broken hardship, and to them there was not permitted
any form of sensuous gratification whatever, no senti-
mental rapture, no delight of the imagination.
"'What, Monsieur?' cries someone — 'what is this
you tell me ? Do you ask me to be my own enemy, to
be for ever denying myself, to do everything I have no
wish to do, to destroy self altogether ?' Yes, my Sister,
and unless you do so, you will be slipping back in the
way of righteousness. ■ Ah, but, Monsieur, it is so difficult
to be always denying oneself/ Ah, yes, my Sister, but
there is no avoiding it, for you must know that you have
to make the choice either to live like an animal or to
live like a reasoning being. To live like an animal you
need only follow where passion and inclination lead, but
if you are to live as a Christian, you must labour per-
petually to deny yourself."*
So M. Vincent — simplest yet most austere of teachers
— set forth the choice that must be made by all alike;
and those who shrank before it might not aspire to be
numbered among his children.
* "Conferences," vol. ii., No. 71, 1657.
CHAPTER III
M. VINCENT AND HIS DAUGHTERS
It is only by following M. Vincent in his guidance of the
Sisters of Charity that we can understand how they gained
their position in France and in other countries with such
rapidity. We are not regarding the development of a
fine organization to meet an obvious need. The finest
organization could not have found means to provide for
some of the claims that were met by the Sisters. Danger-
ous and often revolting work was to be done, and, if the
worker accomplished it without forfeit of life or health,
there was no reward save that of appointment to some
other task ; even the barren satisfaction of personal credit
was not to be allowed her.
" Observe, my Daughters," said M. Vincent, M that
perfection does not depend on the multiplicity of one's
work, but in doing it in the spirit that Our Lord did
His. That is the root of true saintliness. Do every-
thing you do well and in accordance with your vocation.
The saintliness of a Daughter of Charity rests on faithful
adherence to the Rule — I say faithful adherence — on
faithful service to the nameless poor, in love and charity
and pity, on faithful obedience to the doctor's orders;
and on fulfilling all practices, both outward and spiritual,
with the intention of acquiring those virtues which God
has shown to be the spirit of the Company. It keeps
us humble to be quite ordinary. It is right to desire
to be better and more virtuous than anyone else, but
to desire to appear so is vanity. Therefore I beseech you
to be regular in virtue, but all the time regard yourself
249
250 VINCENT DE PAUL
as worse than any of the others, believing that you do
nothing of the slightest value."
The stirring of human pity, however sincere, the sense
of duty, however deep, would not have been motives
strong enough to keep a Sister of Chanty at her task.
Something that was not human was required, and it was
the spark of the supernatural quiescent in these peasant
women which M. Vincent was permitted to quicken and
to sustain. It is awe-inspiring to consider how many
heroic lives were spent — under that rigid Rule of his —
in the daily drudgery of parish nursing, and in the struggle
to maintain order in provincial hospitals. Such lives
won little approbation, and seldom escaped criticism,
and when their span was reached, they passed away
unnoticed. The fact of them is among the strongest
testimonies to the supernatural. " For the greater
honour of Our Lord, their Master and Patron, the Sisters
of Charity shall have in everything they do a definite
intention to please Him, and shall try to conform their
life to His, especially in His poverty, His humility, His
gentleness, His simplicity and austerity." So runs a
part of their Rule, and it suggests the key to the power
that was in them, for if the Sister of Charity was seeking
only the service of her neighbour, her resolution snapped
beneath the strain; it was needful to hold before her that
other deeply mysterious motive, " the honour of Our
Lord, her Master and Patron."
In those early days of the Company, there were some
special instances of devotion that stand out. For
instance, after the siege of Arras in 1656, the inhabitants
were left in so miserable a condition that some benevolent
person implored Mile. Le Gras to send help. Two only
of the Sisters could be spared, and for them there was
the utmost difficulty in obtaining shelter or daily bread.
Disease and famine had done deadly work among the
poorer folk, dirt and neglect of the most revolting kind
prevailed. The work of eight parishes was on their
M. VINCENT AND HIS DAUGHTERS 251
hands, and at first they had to struggle with the over-
whelming demands for their services without any assist-
ance from the town authorities. Yet one of the two,
having reported in a letter to Mile. Le Gras how the
other was sometimes obliged to cease working by reason
of complete exhaustion, added: " I have never through-
out heard a word of complaint fall from her lips or
seen her face betray anything but the most serene
content."
A little later, in 1658, after the French forces had
encountered those of Spain in the battle des Dunes, there
were 600 French soldiers, sick and wounded in the hospitals
at Calais. Anne of Austria had accompanied the young
King to the seat of war, and was so moved by the horrors
of their condition that she sent to demand six of the
Sisters from M. Vincent. Even to the Queen it was not
possible to supply more than four, and considering the
character and reputation of the soldiery in those days,
there was opportunity for grave objection to sending any.
But the faith of M. Vincent soared above misgivings.
" My Sisters, you are invited a hundred leagues away in
one direction, forty leagues in another, sixty in another,"
he reminded them, ' and now the Queen has asked that
you shall go to Calais to tend the wounded. How
greatly is God blessing us ! Men take each other's lives
and destroy each other's souls, and you are called to go
and restore both. ... I know that, by the grace of God,
there are many among you who ask only to be told where
they shall go. My dear Daughters, be sure that wherever
you go God will take care of you. Even when you are
in the midst of the army, have no fear that any harm
will come to you."*
The Sisters obeyed the call readily, but the horrors
that awaited them were indescribable, and — as was so
constantly the case — their numbers were quite inade-
quate to the need. The conditions of the hospital at
* "Conferences," No. 49, June, 1658.
252 VINCENT DE PAUL
Calais had resulted in the outbreak of * an infectious
malady, of which the soldiers were dying by scores.
Two of the Sisters caught it and died, and it was plain
that no one could breathe the atmosphere of the wards
without danger to life. M. Vincent read a report of the
state of affairs to an assembly at the Mother-House.
The result was a rush of volunteers. The worst horrors
of an Army hospital awaited them, and they as nurses
knew what such horrors were: there was the certainty
of overwork and hardship, and the probability of death
or of that permanent injury to health that makes life a
burden; yet four more were sent, and all were eager to
go. Sixteen years had passed since the first Sisters of
Charity took their vows. The increase of their numbers
had been very rapid, but the deepening of reality in
them was even more remarkable. Not one of these
volunteers would have been allowed to enjoy any token
of admiration that might be offered to her if she survived
her service to the soldiers. All that awaited her was
return to the Mother-House, and reabsorption in the
ranks of her fellow-workers . What she did she did without
reward and without credit, " for the greater honour of
Our Lord, her Master and Patron."
It is hard at the present day to understand all that
was needed of them. It would not now be possible for
suffering to continue unalleviated if money and good-
will for its relief were forthcoming. But before the work
of Mile. Le Gras and of the Confraternities it was difficult
for a rich lady — however benevolent — to make adequate
provision for the sick on her estates. The small hospitals,
that at an earlier period had been founded by pious
persons in many of the smaller towns, had become useless
from lack of supervision; in the homes of the people but
little attention was paid to cleanliness ; the most ordinary
remedies were difficult to obtain, and there was small
chance of recovery from serious illness. For maternity
cases, it is true, a married woman was appointed for
M. VINCENT AND HIS DAUGHTERS 253
every parish; but the vacancy was made known from
the pulpit, and the applicants were interviewed and the
appointment made by the cure\ The explanation of
this system tells its own tale: so large a proportion of
infants died a few hours after birth, that a chief qualifica-
tion for a parish nurse was soundness in the faith, that
their baptism might never be omitted.
It is easy to see that the great ladies of the period did
well to remain in Paris or to be oblivious of their neigh-
bours when they were in the country, unless they were
proof against distress at the sufferings of others, for
neglect and ignorance had gone too far to be combated
in the intervals of a life of pleasure. The infection of
benevolence spread rapidly, however, when the means of
exerting it were discovered, and Mile. Le Gras was
overwhelmed by applications from the owners of great
estates for Nursing Sisters to attend upon the poor.
Only a proportion of such requests could be complied
with, and many a small settlement begun in those early
years of the Company, was sustained for a short time
only; some because there was urgent need of Sisters at
some other centre, and many more because the lady
patronesses wearied of a novelty that was a drain upon
their purses, and withdrew the modest sum required for
maintenance. Here and there such work as this was of
lasting benefit, but the great mission of the Sisters in the
provinces was the reform of the hospitals. The work
of the Confraternities was always closely connected with
the hospitals ; the tending of the sick in their own homes
presented insurmountable difficulties when the very
necessitous and degraded class was touched; but the
hospitals in many places were so disorganized as to be
useless, and had reached a stage when no amateur efforts
could restore them to their original purpose. The remedy
was an application to Mile. Le Gras. Until her strength
failed she went herself to readjust the methods that had
prevailed and had been found wanting, and, when it
254 VINCENT DE PAUL
was needed, to conciliate the authorities. She and her
Sisters carried with them, in addition to their rules for
the restoration of health, a new standard of personal life
and of relation with the poor. The towns where need
of hospital reform was recognized profited by their
presence beyond the precincts of the hospital, and un-
doubtedly the Nursing Sisters did much to spread the
spirit of M. Vincent's teaching in parts of the country
where he was himself a stranger. The method pursued
at Angers, the first of the hospitals placed in their charge,
was typical of their work elsewhere, and though the form
of abuse they discovered differed in different places, a
fundamental readjustment was always a necessity. At
Angers (a foundation due to the penitence of Henry II.
at the murder of Thomas a Becket) the administration
of the Augustinian monks had brought charity and
religion into equal disrepute. At all periods pious
Founders have recognized that sickness of body leads
to a desire for spiritual health, and the priest was as
closely connected with a hospital as the doctor. The
August inians at Angers were, however, so unfit for their
offlce, that the townspeople united in a petition, addressed
to the King in Council, that they should be removed from
it and replaced by secular priests to be chosen by the
Bishop. Among those who were intimate with the
affairs of the diocese were some who had made a Retreat
at S. Lazare, who knew M. Vincent, and had heard of
Mile. Le Gras. The possibility of carrying out the
practical and the spiritual reformation of the hospital
simultaneously was suggested by remembrance of the
new Company and its objects, and a petition for help
was despatched to M. Vincent. This was in 1639, before
any of the Sisters had taken vows, and the responsibility
of a commission at such a distance was felt to be very
great. Mile. Le Gras left Paris with an advance-guard
of two Sisters in November. The journey occupied
fourteen days, and for some time after her arrival she
M. VINCENT AND HIS DAUGHTERS 255
was ill from fatigue. It was not until February that
the reorganization was complete and the Sisters formally
instated. Their Rule* (which is still in existence as
drawn up by Mile. Le Gras) declares " that they come
to Angers for the honour of Our Lord, Father of the poor,
and of His Holy Mother, and for the service, bodily and
spiritual, of the sick at the Hotel-Dieu." It requires
that they shall live with the pure intention of pleasing
God in all things, in absolute poverty, and in the most
careful management of all that is provided for the poor
as being the property of God ; that they shall make their
Communion each Sunday and hear Mass daily, reserve
one half-hour for prayer in the morning and another in
the evening. They were to rise at four every morning,
be constant in care of their patients throughout the
day, attempting whenever possible to teach them
spiritually, as well as to tend them bodily. Those on
night duty were to make their watching a time of prayer,
but to remember that their duty to the sick came before
anything else, and might be regarded as a part of their
prayer.
This Rule was read every Friday, and it will be seen
that adherence to it meant a claim on every hour of life.
In framing it Mile. Le Gras must have considered what
complete renunciation it involved, and no doubt intended
that the Sisters should understand from the beginning
what lay before them. Nevertheless, when the time
came for her return to Paris, she cannot have left them
without misgiving as to their steadfastness. Much
depended — at Angers and in all the other little colonies
which year by year sprang up — on the capacity of the
Superior. Mile. Le Gras had a lively sense of the responsi-
bility of those to whom authority was given. She bade
them remember that the virtue of humility — so necessary
to them all — must specially be studied by a Superior.
She was to be known as the Serving Sister, and because
* "Lettres," vol. i., No. 42.
256 VINCENT DE PAUL
Providence had confided to her the guidance of others,
she must show herself first in charity and always ready
in their service. She should show herself gentle in
intercourse with them, remembering that their delight
in thinking of themselves as Servants of the Poor did not
make it easy for them to take orders that were given
sharply or unkindly. It should be the custom of the
Serving Sister to ask rather than to command, to lead by
example, to be ready with help and advice in small diffi-
culties. Authority should be used in the spirit of charity,
not in that of despotism. " And if we call ourselves Serving
Sisters," she said, " it should mean that we bear the
heaviest burdens in soul and body, and are to relieve our
Sisters in any way we can, for they will always have a
great deal to bear from us, whether by reason of our bad
temper, or owing to a dislike of us with which Satan
may tempt them. And if there be something that should
need rebuke, we must give it in the spirit of charity at
a convenient time, and not with any haste or possibility
of prejudice."*
This was wise teaching, and the prosperity of the small
companies of Sisters on their outpost duty depended on
adherence to it. It was necessary that the Rule of
obedience should be absolute, but the plight of a Sister
of Charity serving at a long distance from the Mother-
House under a Superior who was also an autocrat would
have been most miserable. They were not women of
refinement or with any tradition of good manners, the
beauty of their lives, their gentleness to one another, was
the gift of grace, and if the spirit of their vocation was
lost or even overshadowed, they had no safeguards from
misrule and mutiny. The amount of work that they
accomplished — though their record is magnificent — is
not so great a marvel as the fact of their continued
growth, when all common likelihood suggests necessity
of failure. In Paris every new scheme for the assistance
* See Gobillon, " Vie de Mile. Le Gras."
M. VINCENT AND HIS DAUGHTERS 257
of the poor made a demand upon the Company — either
for service or supervision. The Charity of the Hotel-
Dieu and of the Foundlings was entrusted to them.
They were called upon to tend the miserable convicts
waiting for deportation to Marseilles. When the In-
stitution for the Aged (known as Le Norn de Jesus) came
into being, they were responsible for maintaining its high
standard of order and good government. But though
these tasks were serious and responsible, they could all
be performed by persons in close touch with the Mother-
House and with S. Lazare. It was the work at a distance
that laid on the Superior so heavy a burden of anxiety.
Louise Le Gras was at all times afflicted by dark fore-
bodings. M. Vincent's letters to her are full of suggestions
of encouragement with regard to her personal affairs
and the welfare of her son, as well as with reference to
the Company; and without his support she could not
have continued in her arduous office, for, to a woman of
her temperament, the suffering involved by the continual
sense of the possibilities of disaster was very severe.
It was she who had the fullest knowledge of the material
with which she had to deal, and of the circumstances
involving danger, and it required lively faith to keep her
mind at peace.
She is a pathetic figure despite — or perhaps because of
— her great achievements, and in the later period of her
life she is overshadowed, not only by M. Vincent, but
by the array of Working Sisters, with their record of tasks
fulfilled and dangers braved. Ill-health made life a
burden, and the sense of demands that were quite beyond
possibility of fulfilment robbed her of any satisfaction
in her enterprise. There were no consciously fortunate
years in her career. As a girl her great desire for the
religious life had been thwarted; as a wife she was torn
betwixt the sense of duty and regret for the conditions
she had missed ; and when at length God made His Will
plain to her, obedience taxed her powers to their farthest
17
258 VINCENT DE PAUL
limit. There does not seem to have been for her a
moment when recognition from others or personal
realization of success suggested self-importance. She
was, indeed, less prominent after she had proved her
powers than before. Perhaps the truest knowledge we
can attain of the personality that was as the mainspring
of that growing Company comes from the little collection
of her Meditations in which she has set down her standard
of conduct for herself, and for those who might truly be
reckoned as her Sisters.
It is likely that after Mile. Le Gras found herself the
Superior of the Servants of the Poor, the point of view
from which she had regarded life gradually altered. From
the letters of her directors at an earlier period we grasp
her as scrupulous and over-anxious, concentrated on the
progress of her own soul and ingenious in self -torment.
But she was brought into contact with the great world
of human beings ; she was forced to be a witness of their
suffering and to have knowledge of their sin; she had
constant intercourse with the rich as well as with the
destitute, and became familiar with the differing tempta-
tions assailing each, and as a consequence her anxiety
about herself fell into abeyance. The Servants of the
Poor as they gathered round her became, indeed, her
Daughters; she trembled for them in danger, suffered
with them in hardship, and mourned — more deeply than
they were able to mourn for themselves — over their failures
and their sins. And thus she became — to a degree at
least — merged in the being of the Company, and saturated
with the spirit of humility which was its strength. The
great desire and distress that, as we have seen, possessed
her thoughts for years, concerned the Company, and when
her prayers were answered, and she had secured for it
the guidance she felt to be essential to its future welfare,
she had no anxiety as to the methods of her own sue-
cessor. At any moment she was ready to lay down
authority, and there is no reason to doubt her sincerity
M. VINCENT AND HIS DAUGHTERS 259
when, time after time, she lays the blame of failure or
desertion on her own maladministration. If we follow
the record of the Company during her lifetime with any
care, we must acknowledge not only that she used her
power wisely, but that an immense amount of power lay
in her hands and increased as the years passed. Among
women-leaders in philanthropy there is not one to whom
the world owes so much, but, because she was more than
a philanthropist, she assumed less and less of personal
prominence as her actual power grew. The real life of
the Servant of the Poor must be a hidden one, she must
have no self-assertion, above all she must never be self-
confident. In the last passage of the Meditations, already
referred to, we find her summing-up of the lesson of
life:
" We have no knowledge of our way except we follow
Jesus, always working and always suffering. And, again,
He could never have led us unless His own resolve had
taken Him as far as death on the Cross. Consider, then,
whether we do well to spare ourselves, lest we lose what-
ever we have gained hitherto. When we have laboured
forty-nine years, if we have relaxed in the fiftieth, and
it is then that God calls us, the whole of life will have
availed nothing."* ■
We meet here a sternness of regard that is suggestive
of Port Royal rather than of that law of love which we
connect with M. Vincent. But M. Vincent's softness
was never towards himself, and Louise Le Gras owed her
training to him; to some degree he had shared the fruit
of his own experience with her. It is only those who
have followed far along that difficult path where Christ
is guide who reach the point where any relaxation of
resolve implies denial of their Leader.
Mile. Le Gras died in 1660, six months before M. Vin-
cent, and therefore had the comfort of knowing that the
affairs of the Company would be well ordered when her
* " Pensees," liv. v., chap. viii.
260 VINCENT DE PAUL
own guidance was removed; but the consolation of his
presence as the last hour drew near was not allowed her.
She endured a lingering illness without once seeing him,
and it is said that the written word of encouragement
which she implored that he should send her was denied.
Towards weaklings he was all tenderness, but he knew
that she was strong, and so left her in the Hands of the
Master to Whose service she had given herself.
CHAPTER IV
THE LADIES OF CHARITY
There are many indications that — for actual work —
whether as Nursing Sisters or as Mission Priests in country
districts, M. Vincent considered the lower and middle
class as the most useful. The Sister of Charity would be
better able to whisper a word of advice or exhortation
to those whom she attended if, by experience, she under-
stood their point of view. The Mission Priest could stir
the hearts of his hearers to more real purpose if he had
actual knowledge of their trend of thought. M The best
are those who really have the same nature as the
villagers," said the Superior-General; "there are none
more full of faith or who turn more readily to God in
their time of need or hour of gratitude/'
The Servants and Priests of the Poor were, therefore,
according to the original desire of M. Vincent, to be, for
the most part, humble persons not very widely separated
by condition from those they served, but his intention of
thus limiting them does not imply that he ignored the
immense force that lay outside such limits; had he done
so, his work would have been disastrously hampered.
The period was one in which exaggerations of excitement
and self-indulgence led directly to the extreme of reaction
in practices of piety. The history of Port Royal furnishes
many notable examples. The unflinching sincerity of the
Port Royalists caught the imagination of an age when
that virtue had fallen into disuse, and it was the reality
of its asceticism that made its suspected doctrines so
dangerous to orthodoxy. M. Vincent was vigorous in
261
262 VINCENT DE PAUL
his condemnation of Port Royal, but he would not have
denied that there was some element purer than mere
excitement in the penitence of the heroines of the Fronde
or in the renunciation of the lawyers and scholars who
became the Hermits of Port Royal. In fact, the infec-
tion of spiritual aspiration that was responsible for the
Cdbale des Devots was betraying its presence by many
differing methods, and without its influence M. Vincent
could not have maintained much of the work that was
dearest to his heart. Money was an absolute necessity
to him, and money cannot be obtained unless the springs
of self-sacrifice are touched; but gifts of money are at
best only the most elementary expression of spiritual
awakening, and if M. Vincent's power with his high-
placed contemporaries had been confined to the unloosing
of their purse-strings, his connection with them would
hardly merit record. In fact, the external generosity
which he had the gift of inspiring was only a very small
part of his effectiveness, although the traces of his dealings
with individuals are not easy to disentangle.
Class distinctions at that time were very decided, and
certain confusions did not lessen the division. The
daughters of Colbert, in the later years of Louis XIV.,
married into the proudest houses in the realm; so — far
less worthily — did the nephew and nieces of Cardinal
Mazarin. At the Hotel Rambouillet Princes and Dukes
consorted with scribblers of humble origin, and considered
that they were levelling society ; but, in fact, the conde-
scension which began in the Society of the Precieuses and
continued amid the explosions of the Fronde had not the
least effect in lessening the gulfs of division. The noble
was only the more conscious of his nobility because he
was magnanimous enough to recognize the existence of
persons whom he had formerly ignored. The established
customs of the time were all in favour of maintaining
him on an exalted level. On his own estate he would
have squires and pages, gentlemen-at-arms, a company
THE LADIES OF CHARITY 263
of guards, an endless retinue of servants. Among all
these persons he was supreme, as the King was supreme
in his Court. At table he and his lady would occupy
armchairs, while his guests and relations sat on stools.
If he went out, a bell was rung, and his suite lined the
hall when he passed through, and followed at a respectful
distance when he took exercise. As may be imagined,
the whole welfare of the neighbourhood fluctuated with
his coming and going. If he was cruel and a despot, his
tenants trembled until the delights of the capital or the
excitement of a war once more claimed him; if he was
generous, they profited by his presence. The whole
tendency was to teach him to look on himself as of
different texture to ordinary human nature. Even in
church he was privileged, for he took precedence in a
religious procession, and could claim the first presentation
of incense or of holy water.*
M. Vincent accepted the world as he found it. He
had been a dependent in a great man's house, and was
not less vigorous in his practice of the teaching of Christ
because he breathed an atmosphere so antagonistic to
its observance. And while he did homage, as was de-
manded of him, to the outward adornments of nobility,
one may conjecture that he was all the time seeking for
the real being behind the artificial trappings. It is
significant that M. de Gondi — a representative type of
the most superb of the courtiers of that day — spent his
last years in complete retirement as an Oratorian. There
are other instances of the same species of revulsion
which may be linked with the personality of M. Vincent.
As Mere Angelique, in her stern self-renunciation, seemed,
from the shadowy cloisters of Port Royal, to arraign her
contemporaries, so did M. Vincent, in his attempt to
live the Christian life with direct simplicity, disturb the
satisfied assurance of those with whom he came in con-
* Babeau, " Le Village sous l'Ancien Regime," and "Supple-
ment aux Memoires de Maximilien de Bethune, Due de Sully."
264 VINCENT DE PAUL
tact. If, as a parish priest of humble origin, he had
become engaged in large schemes of philanthropy, he
would have been hampered by his ignorance of the real
characteristics of the great folk with whom common
interests brought him into contact; but his ten years
with the de Gondi provided him with just that necessary
external knowledge without which interior insight would
have been impossible. A score of years lived within half
a mile of the Luxembourg or the Marais Quarters might
not have revealed even a faint reflection of what life
meant to the high-born inhabitants of the great hotels;
they were of another race and of another world, and the
Founder of the Company of Mission Priests and of the
Sisters of the Poor had work enough to do for his genera-
tion without heeding them. But the mission of Vin-
cent de Paul was not only to the poor; his own choice
would have set that limit upon it, but he was not guided
by his own choice. It is quite impossible to gauge the
extent of his influence, but it is clear that for the thirty-
five years during which he was a well-known figure in
Paris he represented — all the more vigorously because
there was about him no element of the picturesque — the
power of religion on a human life. The demonstration
that, simply and unconsciously, he was giving day by day
drew men to him, not only the humble, but those whose
traditions were completely different from his own, and
the response of understanding was constantly required
of him ; and it was in the time of training, against which
he had rebelled, that he had been taught to understand.
He could be almost as severe with the wealthy women,
whose work for others he had inspired, as with the Sisters
of Charity, but it was his knowledge of their temptations
and their inherent feebleness that made his severity so
effective.
He did not mingle with the circle gathered round
Mme. de Rambouillet, nor with the crowd that centred
a little later on the rising sun of Royalty; but though his
THE LADIES OF CHARITY 265
actual presence might be wanting, there was no condition
of life and no grade of society at that time in Paris that
was altogether untouched by the fact of his existence.
One incident, lying entirely outside the orderly develop-
ment of project and fulfilment, brings him into connection
with the romance of those glowing days, and suggests
how great a part he may have played in unrecorded
drama. There was plenty of evidence to the strength
of human passions ; they swayed the fortunes of the State,
and of necessity disturbed the peace of the most tranquil
salon, but testimony to an opposing power was not so
common. Vincent de Paul was a silent witness, but in
the midst of clamour such silence appeals to the imagina-
tion more than eloquence. One instance of the power
put into his hands must be recorded.
Among the brilliant group, of which Mme. de Longue-
ville was the leader, there were numbered two sisters,
daughters of M. de Vigean. The younger, Anne, contrived
eventually to become Duchesse de Richelieu, and de-
veloped into an extremely clever woman of the world ;
but Marthe, her elder, eclipsed her in those early days,
and was the most admired of all their circle. The young
lady of quality at that period was trained for the winning
of matrimonial prizes, and the esteem of her contem-
poraries depended on her success. Marthe de Vigean
was pre-eminently fitted for a triumph of this kind, and
her favours were the more coveted because she was known
to have inspired Conde, the hero of the nation, with the
great passion of his life. He was married, and she was
both virtuous and prudent, therefore their connection
cast a halo of romance about her career without disturb-
ing it.* She was an acknowledged beauty, and it could
* Cf. lines by Voiture on Marthe de Vigean :
" Sans savoir ce que c'est qu'amour
Ses beaux yeux le mettent au jour
Et partout elle le fait nattre
Sans le connaitre."
266 VINCENT DE PAUL
truly be said of her that she had the world at her feet,
and needed only to choose the form of glory that would
please her most.
It chanced, however, that her mother, Mme. la Mar-
quise, fell ill, and that M. Vincent came to visit her. At
the end of his visit the eldest daughter of the house
accompanied him to the door. It is not difficult to picture
them descending the great staircase side by side, the
girl radiant with youth and beauty, the natural possessor
of the best of this world's gifts, and the priest in his
shabby cassock, ugly and ungainly in his appearance,
and with none of those graces of speech and manner that
won popularity for the ecclesiastics of the salons. Prob-
ably there was no attempt at conversation between them ;
but before they parted M. Vincent had a message to
deliver :
" Mademoiselle," he said, " you were not intended for
the world."
Marthe de Vigean understood his meaning with a gasp
of apprehension. She protested eagerly that she had not
the faintest inclination for the religious life, and besought
him not to pray that she should discover a vocation ;
but M. Vincent would give her no assurance, he went
away in silence. For a time she continued to be a
favourite in a society that had for her no taint of dulness.
One very desirable marriage was suggested to her —
other offers were certain. Two years passed before she
gave her family any warning of what was in her mind,
but before the end of the third year from M. Vincent's
visit the doors of the Carmelite Convent in the Rue S.
Jacques had closed upon her.*
M. Vincent's connection with her destiny can only
have been known from the lips of Mile, de Vigean herself,
and we cannot trace the process by which that sudden
warning of his ultimately bore fruit. It was not his
* For full details of this incident, see Victor Cousin's " Madame
de Longueville," vol. i., note to chap. ii.
THE LADIES OF CHARITY 267
mission to go about the world gathering recruits for
religious houses, and the detail of Mile, de Vigean's
experience was probably isolated; but, though it may
have been to her only that he presented the supreme
decision between the cloister and the world, the sight of
him must have suggested to many a thoughtless pleasure-
lover that a choice betwixt two masters must some day
be made, and consideration of it might claim reflection.
The fate of Marthe de Vigean may inspire many minds
with repugnance. That a young and charming woman
should stamp out every natural desire and check the de-
velopment of all the talents with which God endowed
her may be regarded as a matter for infinite regret and
a course which reason could not justify. There are in-
numerable arguments against such a choice as hers, there
is only one in its favour; but M. Vincent, as he found his
way back through the squalid streets that separate the
Louvre from S. Lazare, would not have recognized that
the fair young girl he had just left had any true possi-
bility of choice as to the future. We must remember
how closely and continuously he touched the problem of
the world's miseries and inequalities, and that that
problem cannot be met by those who adhere to accepted
standards. A complete subversion of established ideas
is necessary to the merciful man who sees life as it really
is. M. Vincent believed that the one hope for the world
was the realization of the Presence of Christ; his efforts
for the temporal welfare of his fellows were all subordinate
to his desire to give them understanding of the gift that
only awaited their acceptance. It is easy to see, there-
fore, that the glittering prospects of a Court beauty
would have no weight in the balance against the possi-
bility that God was calling her to a life of painful fellow-
ship with Him. In such a connection the language of
mysticism was for M. Vincent the language of the plainest
common sense; it was clear to him that he who would
save his life must lose it, and therefore that the only
268 VINCENT DE PAUL
prayer possible on behalf of Marthe de Vigean was that
she might turn from the riches and pleasures of the world
and obey God's summons without flinching.
The necessity of obedience to the claim for sacrifice
has its most dramatic example in her story, but as a
principle it rules all M. Vincent's dealing with himself
and others. He was relentless in his searching demands
on the members of the two Companies, believing that their
only hope of peace lay in complete surrender, and we
find that with such of the Ladies of Charity as showed
themselves worthy of the name they had assumed he
was hardly less insistent. It was not a small matter to
be one of M. Vincent's Ladies of Charity. In early days
it is likely that neither he nor they realized what an im-
portant step was taken by those who enlisted in that band.
The field of philanthropy was unexplored, and the needs
in all directions were so stupendous that the only course
for a really prudent person was to ignore the thought of
them entirely. But these Ladies were in their way as
remarkable as the Servants of the Poor, and one great
factor in their development was the enormous difficulty
with which they had to contend. They had no tradition
to help them, nor could they avail themselves of the ex-
perience of others, yet all the characteristics of the un-
deserving were present among many of those they desired
to aid.
There had been a persistent endeavour on the part of
State authority to cope with the evil of drunkenness.
" What the men earn in the week they spend on Sundays
in the tavern, while their wives and children are left to
starve," so runs a village record in 1576;* and forty years
before that date Francois I. issued an edict which con-
demned any man proved to be intoxicated to punish-
ment of increasing severity until at the fourth offence he
was deprived of his ears and banished. The measures
prescribed were sufficiently drastic, but, as an old writer
* Quoted by Babeau, " Le Village sous l'Ancien Regime."
THE LADIES OF CHARITY 269
sapiently observes, " when a Sovereign makes a law of
any kind it would be well that he should discover before-
hand whether he has any chance of enforcing it," and the
futility of the decree in question is proved by the preva-
lence a century later of the vice it strove to check. A
very familiar difficulty was therefore presented con-
stantly to the Ladies of Charity by the encouragement
given to the drunkard by the assistance of the drunkard's
family. The indiscriminate method by which former
generations had administered charity had, moreover,
encouraged the habit of idleness. The distribution of
food from convent steps or at a rich man's gateway was
the simple and obvious form of obedience to the teaching
of the Gospels, and the founding and support of hospitals
supplemented the provision for the active poor by afford-
ing to them a refuge in time of sickness. In theory the
position was unassailable; but, as we have seen, the mal-
administration of the hospitals rendered them practically
useless, and the daily doles of food supported sturdy
beggars, who should have laboured for their bread, and
did not reach the starving.
During the forty years which M. Vincent devoted to
labour for the poor there were periods of abnormal dis-
tress which would have taxed the ingenuity of the most
experienced of philanthropic leaders, but apart from
these the difficulties that had to be met were very serious.
The poor were there — in constant need of bodily and
spiritual assistance — and all the old plans of providing
for them seemed to have collapsed. The Ladies whom
he had stirred to sympathy must have looked back with
regret to days when it was possible to entrust alms-giving
to the parish priest, knowing him to be the friend and
leader of his flock. It will be seen that it was not only
in spiritual matters that the degradation of the clergy
affected the people. The astonishing system of bestowing
the emoluments of a cure on a person who did not accept
its responsibilities had destroyed the old relations of
270 VINCENT DE PAUL
the cure and his flock. The ill-paid deputy, who owed
his post to a condition of disorder, became himself dis-
orderly. He was continually at strife on his own behalf,
and was therefore no longer able to be arbitrator in the
differences of others ; he was often the slave of those sins
against which it was his duty to warn his people, and
was as eager a gambler as any of the tavern ne'er-do-wells.
It was not to such as he that the bounty of the rich could
be entrusted, if it was ever to be of service to the poor.
The Confraternities in the country and the Ladies of
Charity in Paris had to create a system, and to work it
out themselves ; they had to face the fact that they were
likely to make very serious mistakes, and that the on-
lookers who thought their attempts absurd would jeer
at all their blunders, small and great. It was., moreover,
extremely difficult for them to decide on a reasonable
limit to their labours or to their gifts; more service and
more money were needed than it was possible to give.
With M. Vincent as their leader the drawing towards
sacrifice might be gradual, but it was persistent. When
once light had penetrated to a soul, he considered that
response to it must never stop, and the obvious difficulties
that hamper the advance of the wealthy were not, in
his eyes, worthy of consideration.
" Nothing so alienates us from the Spirit of God as to
live the life of the world," he said, in addressing an
assembly at the house of Mme. d'Aiguillon. M The more
one has of luxury, the less one is worthy of the indwelling
of Christ. The Ladies of Charity must shun the atmo-
sphere of the world as they would shun air that is tainted.
They must show that they have chosen the side of God and
of Charity ; they must show definitely that they have done
so, for those who are willing to remain ever so little on the
other side are able to destroy everything. God will not ac-
cept a divided heart ; He requires all — yes, He requires all."
We have seen that no allowance was made for the weak-
nesses of the devote, and M. Vincent had as little tolerance
THE LADIES OF CHARITY 271
for the harmless follies of the leisured class. A lady in
whose company he chanced to find himself for a period of
ten days showed so many symptoms of extreme melan-
choly that he was moved to ask her the reason of her
grief. He found that it proceeded from the death of her
dog, and in relating the experience* he inveighs against
the vacancy of mind that could make such sorrow possible.
It is quite plain that those who submitted to him at all
were not allowed to reserve for themselves any sheltered
territory of indulgence, that he was jealous of the com-
pleteness of an offering made to God ; but the real dedica-
tion of a life lived in the world is so rare that the identity
of some of those who achieved it is worth discovering.
The Ladies of Charity were for the most part of the class
that can command the indulgence of every whim; they
lived in an age when women were attaining prominence
in all directions, and excitement and variety were never
lacking. Chief among them was Mme. la Duchesse
d'Aiguillon, the niece of Richelieu. f After two years o±
wedded life she was widowed at eighteen. It was open
to her to make a second marriage on a magnificent scale.
She had great natural charm, great wealth, and, as the
favourite of her uncle, was a desirable bride for an
ambitious man; but she decided to remain single, and
was immovable in her resolution. It is impossible to
estimate the extent of the debt owed to her by the
charitable organizations that were springing up in all
directions. Not only did she display the greatest sagacity
in the ordering of schemes of relief, but the magnificence
of her generosity made it possible to put theories into
practice. Her own personality, as well as the reflection
of her uncle's glory, had made her a celebrated figure, and
it is possible that at the outset the prestige of her presence
among them won many recruits for the Ladies of Charity.
* Conferences," No. 64, June, 1656.
f She married Antoine de Combalet in 1622, and received her
duchy in 1638.
272 VINCENT DE PAUL
Hardly less notable was Mme. de Miramion. The story
of her abduction by Bussy de Rabutin, Grand Prior of
France, had furnished most satisfying food for the chat-
terers, and that incident had a certain bearing on the
work of M. Vincent. She also was a young widow, and
she was strong enough to withstand and to defeat Bussy ;
but any charm the world had retained for her was dis-
pelled by her violent contact with the manners of the
period, and, like Louise Le Gras (to whose influence much
of her development was due), she gave herself to a life
of devotion and of good works. She was not as wealthy
as Mme. d'Aiguillon, but she was not less generous, and
she did not recognize the outward claims upon her time
which the niece of Cardinal Richelieu could not escape.
She might have proved the ideal of a Lady of Charity, and
set a standard by which newcomers might form them-
selves. She missed this consummation, however, and
the reason of her falling short is worthy of remark. It
should always be remembered that those who were
imbued with M. Vincent's spirit gave their service to the
poor because they recognized a law of love, and were able
to find Christ Himself in the degraded outcast whom they
strove to succour; it was not in any way a means to an
end. But Mme. de Miramion was a visionary, and at
all times her own spiritual condition was a matter of
more urgent anxiety to her than the amelioration of the
miseries of the poor. She accomplished a vast amount
of charitable work in the course of her long life, but its
accomplishment was not the faithful fulfilment of tasks
entrusted to her by the Council of Ladies. She was the
inspired Foundress rather than the loyal follower; she
left her mark on her generation, but she is an isolated
being struggling after personal perfection rather than
one of a company battling for others. The difference
is of the same nature as that which divides the con-
templative from the Sister of Charity, and the Church
admittedly has need of each.
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THE LADIES OF CHARITY 273
The strongest collective aid received by M. Vincent
came from the legal and parliamentary class. The first
President of the Ladies of Charity (and the foundress of
those assemblies of deliberation which probably were the
first ladies' committees that ever existed), was Mme.
Goussaulte. Her husband had borne the office of Presi-
dent in the Parlement, and she and her most intimate
colleague, Mme. de Herse, were associated with the busy
practical side of city life. It was she who had compelled
M. Vincent's interference in the affairs of the Hotel-Dieu,
and she was the confidential supporter of Mile. Le Gras,
who could turn to her and her circle of intimate friends
in matters that were not sufficiently weighty to demand
the attention of a great lady of the Court. It is unneces-
sary to attempt to apportion credit betwixt the nobility
and the members of that great middle class whose force
was then beginning to assert itself; the movement had
need of both, but the Magistrates' Ladies were at least
as ardent in their service as Mme. de Conde or Mme. de
Liancourt. Undoubtedly they all looked to M. Vincent
for their inspiration, but there was nothing enervating in
his method of dealing with them. He desired their help
and valued it, but he had no arts by which to draw them
into the practice of self-sacrifice. It was his own uncom-
promising reality that stirred them, the honesty of purpose
that takes for granted a corresponding honesty in others.
At first their Assemblies were held at S. Lazare, but it is
likely that the crowd of waiting carriages and lackeys
were an inconvenience at the headquarters of the Mission
Priests, and the plan of meeting at the house of one or
another of the group was adopted. One may imagine
that the Citizen Ladies were touched to an excitement that
was quite independent of their good work when they were
summoned by Mme. d'Aiguillon to the Luxembourg
Quarter and felt around them the aroma of the Court.
In the Rue des Bernardins, where Mme. de Miramion
-was hostess, they would touch a note of exalted piety that
18
274 VINCENT DE PAUL
echoed through the most practical detail of their under-
takings ; but possibly for real business they preferred the
more familiar surroundings of the Rue Pavee, under the
roof of Mme. la Presidente de Herse. M. Vincent was
generally present at their conferences, but it was not his
custom to pay any visits to individuals ; he made this a
rule, and only infringed it on some very urgent demand
of illness. His strictness in such matters was exaggerated,
and he never relaxed it even for Mile. Le Gras, but the
strength of his position towards his Ladies of Charity was
undoubtedly increased by the fact of it. He regarded
them as united for the service of God, and he guided them
in their labours collectively. We have seen that they
needed at times both restraint and exhortation. A new
enterprise will sometimes appeal to the imagination when
zeal for an old one is flagging, and these ladies were
pioneers, and had not discovered their limitations. It
was not easy to understand that every piece of successful
work was a claim on their resources in the future, and an
addition to their burden of responsibility; that, in fact,
no one of their undertakings was possible to complete,
but that each had a tendency to increase in its demand.
Probably no other generation could provide an instance
of sustained and united benevolence that could be com-
pared to that of the Ladies of Charity; nevertheless, they
could not completely be relied upon. It had needed a
vigorous remonstrance from M. Vincent to prevent the
abandonment of the Foundlings, and there were hours of
stress when Louise Le Gras was in despair for lack of the
funds which the Ladies had promised, but did not supply.
There were periods when an infection of heedlessness
spread among them. The Sisters of Charity had no alter-
native to the doing of duty. If they shirked it, they had no
facilities for amusing themselves; but the Ladies were in
reach of all the excitements of life, and occasionally there
were signs of reaction which threatened to compromise
all the labour of the dedicated workers. There were also
THE LADIES OF CHARITY 275
the times of national distress when money was very hard
to find, and the majority had no thoughts to spare from
personal anxieties. These were the crises when M.
Vincent showed his real power. In 1649, when circum-
stances had combined to exile him from Paris, there
seemed good reason to believe that all the organizations
he had founded — for the love of God and in the service
of the poor — would be abandoned. The pinch of poverty
was touching the wealthy class, and the destitution
among the ordinarily poor was appalling. The usual
expedient of assembling all the Ladies could not be
resorted to for fear that despair should spread among their
ranks, and the situation teemed with difficulties. Under
this pressure of anxiety M. Vincent wrote the following
letter to a meeting that seems to have been a sub-
committee of working members :
" Ladies,
" Being by God's good pleasure separated from
you, I commend you and those dear to you to Our Lord
at the altar, being assured that you of your charity pray
for God's mercy upon me. Indeed, I ask you very
humbly, Ladies, to do this for me, and I assure you that
if it please God to hear my prayers for you, you will be
specially protected in those afflictions with which He
now visits us.
" You will have heard, Ladies, how God gave me oppor-
tunity to visit the houses of our little Company, and how
I set forth with the intention of returning when the con-
dition of affairs made it possible for me to do so. The
question now arises: What are we to do with the work
that God has put into your hands, especially the work of
relief of the Hotel-Dieu and of the poor Foundlings ?
Assuredly it looks as if individual distress dispensed you
from any further care for that of others, and that we have
a good excuse before the eyes of men for laying down this
responsibility. But, Ladies, I do not know how the
276 VINCENT DE PAUL
question will look before God, Who may surely ask of us,
' Have you yet resisted unto the shedding of blood V or
as S. Paul asked of the Corinthians who found themselves
in a similar difficulty, have you at least sold a portion
of such treasures as you possess ? What am I saying to
you ? I know well that there are some among you (and
I can believe it of everyone) who have made offerings
which would be considered immense, not only from
persons of your own rank, but even from Queens ; the very
stones would proclaim it if I was silent, and it is by reason
of the infinite charity that fills your hearts that I am able
to speak to you like this. I should be very careful not
to do so to persons who were less full of the Spirit of God.
" What, then, are we to do ? It seems as if it would be
well to raise the question, Ladies, whether it is desirable
that you should hold the great assembly that has been
suggested ? Also when, and where, and how ? There
are reasons for and against. It seems natural that it
should be held, because it is our custom to have one about
this time, and also because the need is abnormal we need
some abnormal effort, like that of a General Meeting.
On the other hand, this does not seem a good moment,
because of the distress which is touching everybody,
filling their minds with anxiety, and chilling their hearts.
Possibly many Ladies would be afraid to come, and those
who did so, unless they were filled with extraordinary
charity, would only make each other more cautious.
Moreover, Mme. la Princesse (de Conde) and Mesdames
d'Aiguillon and de Brienne being absent is a serious draw-
back, especially if there is an idea of making any funda-
mental changes in your work. This, then, Ladies, is the
for and against, as I see it. You will consider and decide
it by vote."*
Contemporaries of M. Vincent claimed for him that he
possessed an immense faculty of concentration; this letter
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 135.
THE LADIES OF CHARITY 277
might be produced in support of such a contention. At
the moment when it was written his own personal credit
was threatened; he had defied Mazarin, and thereby
forfeited the favour and protection of the Queen, and his
rash attempt at arbitration had aroused the suspicions
of the people, and destroyed the affection and confidence
won by long years of labour. As a consequence S.
Lazare had been pillaged, and the whole of his scattered
Community ran risk of actual famine. In Paris and in
every part of France the maintenance of order in the
streets had become almost impossible, and the Sisters
of Charity lived in constant peril. Responsibility for
every disaster that might occur rested on the shoulders
of the Superior and Founder of the two Companies, and
at the same time his heart was wrung by the suffering
that political troubles imposed upon the poor. If he had
issued brief directions to the Ladies, or even been forgetful
of the detail of their distresses, there was sufficient
excuse. But it is plain that when he thought about them
they were as vivid in his mind as if their concerns were
the only care he had. He does not overstrain his right
of interference or attempt definite prohibitions, though
he foresaw that the terror of the times was likely so to
affect the majority that, if they met together, the sparks
of enthusiasm in a valiant few ran risk of being extin-
guished. He knew the need was desperate, and unless the
Ladies made a superhuman effort all their past work would
be rendered ineffective, and their failure would aim a blow
at charitable enterprise which might check its develop-
ment for generations; but there is no fretfulness in his
petition, he dwells on what they have done in the past
rather than on the overpowering demand of the present.
And history testifies to his success. These Ladies per-
formed prodigies of self-sacrifice, and thousands of persons
would have died of starvation but for their assistance.
We are less concerned with the statistics of result than
with the springs of generosity to which the results bore
278 VINCENT DE PAUL
witness. The fact that they had hesitated, and had had
a moment of feeling that the demand made upon them as
individuals was beyond reason, only deepens the reality
of their offering. It is a well-known fact that a sudden
awakening to the spiritual life, or the stabs of sincere
repentance, have often induced an indifference to worldly
possessions, which expresses itself in gifts to the Church ;
but the Ladies of Charity were not moved by such
influences as these. There was nothing to disturb the
tenor of their inner life; there was every inducement to
more than ordinary prudence in outward affairs. Yet
the cause of the starving poor prevailed, and the reserving
of funds for the possible exigencies of an unsettled future
was held to be unworthy caution.
It may be permitted to us to regard their action as
directly due to M. Vincent. By her own choice each one
had joined that courageous League of which he was the
Leader, and already must have stood some testing by his
uncompromising standards. Presumably, the faithfulness
of each was due to her certainty that M. Vincent's life
was animated by the Spirit of Christ to a degree unique
in her experience. She saw in him the meaning of self-
sacrifice, consistent and sustained, in human life, and
when the hour of crisis came the thought of him broke
down the barriers of calculation, and she also was pos-
sessed by the folly of the Cross.
There is far less material from which to gather know-
ledge of the Ladies of Charity than of the Servants of the
Poor. Some of the former may have been under M.
Vincent's spiritual direction, but he did not expend much
time in writing letters to them, and therefore there is
little record of any individual touch. The best idea of
the conditions under which he required them to live may
be gathered from his addresses to them. Almsgiving and
good works by no means satisfied him. " Your first
duty/' he told them at the beginning, " is to labour for
your own spiritual advance, to be always aiming at per-
THE LADIES OF CHARITY 279
fection, always to have the lamp kindled within you."
He rejected those who cared greatly for frivolous amuse-
ments or were fond of gambling, and desired that each
one should from time to time go into Retreat. In letters
to Mile. Le Gras one or another is commended to her by
name, that they may be given the hospitality of the
Mother-House, and assisted to escape from the clamour
of the world; but there is no word that gives a glimpse
of a personality. A few are historic figures. Mme. de
Conde, mother of the great Conde and of Mme. de
Longueville, was an active and loyal member of the
Company, so was Mme. de Schomberg, wife of the
Marshal. Mme. d'Aiguillon never slackened in her sup-
port. Mme. de Maignelay and Mme. de Miramion have
both been the subject of separate biographies,* but these
contain little reference to their connection with M.
Vincent. Mme. Goussaulte and Mme. de Herse achieve a
certain prominence in the record of work accomplished,
but it is completely in relation to business. No one of
them as an individual is shown in personal relation with
M. Vincent. To a Sister of Charity he was a Father,
grasping their troubles and temptations, and attempting
to put himself in their place that he might help them;
to the Ladies he is a Leader, and he claims allegiance
from all equally.
The strength of the position he assumed towards them
adds greatly to the dignity of their achievement. In
their giving there was to be no commercial side; they had
no reward of small adulation, nor were they allowed to
use their outward liberality as a salve to their consciences
— indeed, their personal life had to be purer because they
aspired to make an offering of their possessions in the
service of their neighbour. Previous generations provide
examples of charity on the magnificent scale, and the
* " Vie de Charlotte Marguerite de Gondi, Marquise de Maig-
nelais," by le Pere "p.m.c." Paris, 1666. "Vie de Madame
de Miramion," by Francois T. de Choisy. Paris, 1685.
280 VINCENT DE PAUL
devotion of self without any reservation, but the efforts
of this Company of Ladies were on lines that were alto-
gether new. They were hampered by the drawbacks of
novelty, they were often fussy and imprudent, secure in
their own opinion and restive under control; there were
times when they must have tried M. Vincent's patience,
and they added appreciably to the burden of his anxieties.
But there is never an indication of contention or rivalry
among themselves for authority or credit ; the spirit that
prevailed among them was strong enough to be their
protection from the special temptations of the phil-
anthropist.
It was a great need that summoned M. Vincent's Ladies
of Charity, and not a desire in themselves that sought
expression in outward service, and for this reason they
cannot be regarded as the prototype of those who in later
generations have laboured bravely and successfully in
the same fields. The poor cried to them from the crowded
wards of the Hotel-Dieu, from the cribs of the Couche S.
Landry, from the infected tenements in the byways of
the city, and M. Vincent taught them that it was the
voice of Christ Himself, and as Christians they must listen
and respond, or be convicted of the most terrible of
inconsistencies. Because their ears had been opened to
this cry, he showed them that they might not share any
longer in the indifference that was not a crime in others.
That plea of his was extraordinarily potent. To those
before whom he made it he was able to communicate his
own complete sincerity. And as a result the charity that
is pure from taint of self-consideration came into being.
CHAPTER V
THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS
If M. Vincent had been forced to compare the importance
and the value of those achievements which are connected
with his name, it is quite certain that his view of them
would not coincide with common opinion. In England
the Sisters of Charity are assuredly the chief and probably
the only recognized memorial of him, but while he lived
it was the Company of the Mission Priests that was the
foremost subject of his thoughts and prayers, and if he had
desired remembrance at all, it is by their existence that he
would have chosen to be commemorated. It is not in the
least remarkable that they should have fallen into the back-
ground. Record can be kept of lives saved by opportune
distribution of food in time of famine; the reconstitution
of an hospital is so impressive a benefit that it needs no
record; the rescue and tending of maltreated babies
appeals too deeply to sentiment as well as to charitable
instincts to be forgotten. But the Mission Priests were not
responsible for any of these things; they had only two
recognized objects — the training and reform of the clergy,
and the preaching of Missions in country districts, and
there was no possibility of scheduling the results of either
endeavour. If we would understand M. Vincent's point
of view towards them, we must again remind ourselves
that he regarded spiritual starvation as far more terrible
than lack of food or any bodily affliction, and his opinion
was not shaken by the fact that the sufferers themselves
did not share in it.
There is a well-known description by La Bruyere,* which
* " Les Caracteres," chap. x.
281
282 VINCENT DE PAUL
brings before us the country folk of France as they were
in the days of Vincent de Paul. " Here and there among
the fields," says the satirist, M one may see certain wild
beasts, male and female, black and parched and burnt
by the sun, clinging to the ground which they poke and
turn with unconquerable determination. They have the
semblance of an articulate voice, and when they rise to
their feet they display a human face, and they are actually
human beings. At night they take refuge in hovels,
where they live on black bread and water and roots; it
is, indeed, thanks to them that other men are saved the
toil of sowing and reaping that they may live, and there-
fore it is their due that they should not lack for the bread
that they have grown." The living creatures so terribly
depicted each represented to M. Vincent a soul which it
was his duty to awaken. The discovery made at Mont-
mirail, which resulted in his first experimental Mission,
remained always vivid in his remembrance; he was
haunted by the thought of the thousands who passed into
eternity without opportunity of making their peace with
God. To have any understanding of him it is necessary
to grasp the complete simplicity of his view in matters
such as these, and the extraordinary sincerity of effort
that resulted. Innumerable souls in peril of being lost
might be saved by his Mission Priests; their greatest
danger was their ignorance of their own misery. There
was no hope that they would recognize the Light until
they understood they were in darkness ; and the task that
God required of the Sons of M. Vincent was to instil a
knowledge of the need that the Church alone could
satisfy.
Vincent de Paul, with his intimate knowledge of the
wide realm of France and of human nature in many of its
aspects, must have been fully alive to the stupendous
difficulty of his enterprise. In the long years of his life at
S. Lazare, when daily duties chained him to his post, his
thoughts and hopes were following his emissaries as they
THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS 283
went out on their perilous journeys to carry the message
of Christ to the poor. His letters to them will show us
how close and individual was his consideration of their
labours; each separate centre established in a provincial
town, every Mission undertaken, however insignificant,
was watched and realized as if there were no rival claims
on his attention. The Company of Mission Priests, as
we have seen, grew from indefinite beginnings into clear
formation. Their final Rule was not given them until
M. Vincent's life was near its close, and was the result of
the deepest knowledge of their difficulties. In its opening
we find this passage: " The Five Virtues necessary to the
Congregation are Simplicity, Humility, Gentleness, Morti-
fication, and a Zeal for Souls ";* and a little later: " The
holding of Missions is our foremost and chief duty. The
Congregation must never take up other good work as a
pretext for evading this, no matter how useful the other
may be ; but each one must give himself whole-heartedly
to it whenever obedience summons him."f
The Missions were to be preached in the villages and
smaller towns; their object was not so much to encourage
the religious-minded, as to pierce the indifference of those
who did not appear to have any spiritual faculties at all.
The peasantry were overworked and underfed, a constant
struggle was demanded of them if they were to sustain
their animal energies; from the cradle to the grave they
fought for bare existence, and in a fight that brought them
to the level of the brutes they ran the risk of losing their
humanity. To the superficial observer they were little
better than savages, dull of wit and gross of manner,
with every characteristic, outward and inward, most
calculated to repel a sensitive and high-strung tempera-
ment. Yet it was primarily for them that the Mission
Priests existed. Assuredly each member of the Congre-
* " Regies Communes de la Congregation de la Mission,"
chap, i., art. 14. Paris, 1658.
t "Regies," chap, xi., art. 10.
284 VINCENT DE PAUL
gation needed the five virtues enumerated in their Rule,
and most of all, perhaps, a Zeal for Souls, for if this last
was to survive discouragement, it would only be by the
ever-present remembrance that each of the unresponsive
listeners who had been herded and driven into their
parish church had special value before God, and possessed
potential capacity of accepting his fellowship with Christ.
No miracle of grace was too great to be claimed by M.
Vincent's faith, and his confidence was imparted to his Sons.
From the very beginning, in days before the Company
had recognized being, the first Missioners had realized
the importance of discovering and fixing a method of
preaching. The same method was always afterwards
adhered to; the practice of it became a part of the Rule,
and M. Vincent, in conference with his Sons the year
before his death,* thought well to describe the circum-
stances of its origin.
" We assembled," he told them, " at the time of the
birth of the Company, Monseigneur de Boulogne, Mon-
seigneur d'Alet, and M. Olier being with us. The subject
given was a particular virtue or vice. We each took pen
and ink, and wrote down the motive and the reason there
might be for avoiding the vice and embracing the virtue.
Afterwards we sought the definition of them, and the
means for evading or practising them. Finally, every-
thing that had been written was gathered together, and
we held a discussion. None of us made use of a book,
but each worked out of his own head. M. Port ail, having
gathered up all that was said, then and in other con-
ferences held by the Company, composed an easy method
whereby sermons might achieve their purpose.' *
It was this method (which M. Vincent is so ready to
attribute to M. Port ail) which was the strength and the
glory of the Company. Sermons had become an advertise-
ment of the learning and wit of the preacher, and were
sometimes incredibly elaborate. We have M. Vincent's
* In August, 1659.
THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS 285
theory of preaching in his own words as he imparted it to
his Sons at S. Lazare :*
H How do we find that the Apostles preached ? In
friendly fashion, familiarly and simply. Now look at
our manner of preaching: in homely language, naturally,
in all simplicity. To preach as the Apostles did, Messieurs
— that is to say, for any useful preaching — we must be
simple and use ordinary words, so that everyone may be
able to understand and profit. It was thus that the
disciples and Apostles preached, it was thus also that
Jesus Christ preached, and God has done great honour
to this poor and paltry Company in allowing us to imitate
Him in that.
" It is, then, on our little Company rather than on any
other that God in His mercy has chosen to bestow His
method. This method comes from God. Man can do
nothing, and its results show us that it is God Who has
given it to us. We must acknowledge, Messieurs, that
this method is not in use elsewhere. The world's an-
tagonism has forced the greatest preachers to resort to
the use of fine phraseology and to subtleties of suggestion,
that what is needful may seem attractive. They will
employ every trick of oratory to catch and humour a
wilful world. But of what good is a display of rhetoric ?
Is anyone the better for it ? It serves no purpose except
self-advertisement.
" And what does all this flourish consist of ? Is some-
one anxious to show his power as an orator or as a theo-
logian ? If that is what he desires, he is choosing the
wrong road; if he wants to win respect from the wise,
and to have a reputation for eloquence, he must learn
how to convince his hearers and to dissuade them from
such things as they should avoid. Otherwise he is merely
picking words, turning phrases, and rolling out periods
in raised tones that are above everybody's head. Do
these sort of sermons attain their end ? Do they inspire
* August 20, 1655.
286 VINCENT DE PAUL
devotion ? Are the people so moved by them that they
are quickly drawn towards penitence ? No, indeed ! No,
indeed !
" ' But/ you say, ' this method is so insignificant ! If I
always preach like this what will be said of me ? What
will they take me for ? In course of time everyone will
despise me. I shall lose all dignity !'
" By so doing you will lose your dignity ! In preaching
as Jesus Christ preached you will lose dignity ! It is to
lose dignity to speak of God as the Son of God spoke of
Him ! What blasphemy is this !
" God is my witness that I have three times knelt at
the feet of a Priest of the Company — who was of it then,
but now is not — on three days following, to implore him
to preach simply, but I was never able to persuade him.
He was giving the addresses before ordination, so you
can see how strongly this accursed inclination had hold
of him. He forfeited the blessing of God, and his
addresses and sermons were without any fruit — all this
great hoard of words and phrases vanished in smoke."
M. Vincent's vehemence in repudiating everything
that was elaborate, and in insisting on the Simple Method,
reveals the immense importance he attached to this par-
ticular point. The original reason for the gathering of the
Company had been the preaching of Missions, and the
plan for the conduct of them was the result of his ex-
perience; but unless the actual preaching conformed to the
spirit of the Company they were foredoomed to failure.
" Although we must practise simplicity at all times
and in all places," says the Rule,* " we must be par-
ticularly observant of it in our Missions when we carry
the Word of God to the poor folk in the country. We
must be simple in the manner of our preaching and
catechizing, suiting it to the people, and adhering to the
Simple Method which the Company has used hitherto.
There must be no affectations, no silkiness of speech, no
* " Regies," chap, xii., art. 5.
THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS 287
attempt must be made to take advantage of an oppor-
tunity given for preaching the truth to spread fantastic
ideas, elaborate theories, and useless subtleties. "
Copies of a pamphlet on the Simple Method of Preaching
were distributed among the Priests of the Mission, and no
true member of the Company could ever indulge himself
in flights of rhetoric. The provisions of the Simple
Method are in themselves elaborate, and its many warn-
ings and suggestions bring before us the possible weak-
nesses of the first Sons of M. Vincent.* Much is to be
treated briefly, " experience showing that the length of
exhortations is not only useless, but even harmful, owing
to the weariness it causes to the listeners." A story may
advantageously be used for illustration, but care should
be taken, firstly, that it has real relation to the subject
treated; secondly, that it is absolutely edifying; thirdly,
that it is authentic; fourthly, that it is not too long. The
text also must be short and easy to understand, and the
subject of the sermon should be connected with the text,
and give occasion to repeat it several times.
The ingenuousness that is so characteristic of M. Vincent
animates these directions of his ; he realized the material
from which his Mission preachers would be formed, and
that he must take nothing for granted with them. !But
when he deals with the conclusion he strikes a higher note.
Everything that has been said is then to be gathered up,
so that the listeners may be left in the spirit of devotion.
And for this it should be very short, and not like a fresh
sermon; it should contain only a little reasoning, and it
will be found well to end by addressing Our Lord Himself,
asking for His grace and His help in the attainment of
those things of which one has been speaking.
The idea of a Mission is as old as Christianity, but the
form given to it by M. Vincent was new, and bears the
impress of his personality. Close study of his method
* See "Sermons de S. Vincent de Paul," edite par l'Abbe
Jeanmaire.
288 VINCENT DE PAUL
will reveal many points susceptible to criticism; it will
be found very easy to inveigh against the tendency to
sensationalism, and also to show that the result was likely
to be evanescent. Probably the Missioners themselves
would not have resented either suggestion. Possibly,
however, the more experienced among them might have
pointed out that the actuality and duration of spiritual
results always remain outside the range of human know-
ledge, and with regard to the charge of sensationalism the
best defence (if a defence be needed) lies in consideration
of the type of mind to which the Missions were to make
appeal. The message that was to be delivered was the
most sensational that the imagination can conceive. If
it was accepted, it would mean a complete reversal of
habits and opinions; therefore to whisper it in a corner
where there were none to listen, or to refer to it as if it
was an ordinary and accepted topic, was to lose an
opportunity of piercing the crust of custom that makes a
peasant docile and inattentive, and with it the oppor-
tunity to save a soul.
The old method sanctioned by the Church of keeping
the country folk in lively remembrance of their religion
had been the celebration of the Mysteries.* From time
to time the priest announced that the Mysteries were to
be given, and from the moment of the announcement
until the performance they were the chief subject of
discussion. That intervening space corresponded crudely
to the Preparation for a Mission. The theme of the
Mysteries was Biblical; they consisted of tableaux repre-
senting scenes from the Garden of Eden onwards, the life
of Christ and of the Blessed Virgin being treated with
special care. Responsible persons went from place to
place organizing the performances, but many of the
inhabitants of the towns where they were held took part,
and the priests were among the chief actors. They began
by a procession through the streets and round the town ;
* See Babeau, " La Ville sous l'Ancien Regime."
THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS 289
sightseers flocked in from all the neighbouring hamlets,
and in some cases the celebration seems to have con-
tinued for several weeks on end, during which period
ordinary labour was suspended.
The excellent idea on which this custom originated did
not protect it from abuse. The suppression of the
Mysteries is said to have been due to the criticisms of the
Huguenots at the end of the sixteenth century, and it is
likely that there was much ground for criticism, and that
a solemn pageant had degenerated into a show which was
grotesque and tawdry at its best, and not infrequently
was blasphemous. Pious persons could not deplore their
extinction, but the place they had occupied was left
vacant, and for a generation no effort of any kind was
made to awaken the labouring class to understanding of
the faith that nominally was theirs. The Missions were
preached to the grandchildren of men and women who
had dressed up in strange attire that they might im-
personate Scriptural characters, and take part in the
masquerades that M. le Cure sanctioned. Public opinion
had not been directed to anything higher in the interval,
the popular imagination had been lying fallow, and the
popular mind was without education either on religious
or on any other subject.
It would be impossible to understand the scheme that
was so important to M. Vincent if we ignore the condition
of those for whom it was conceived. He had no ambition
to set a model for all Missions to all sorts of people, but it
was after concentrated study of the multitude (towards
whom the clever and cultivated were utterly indifferent)
that he made his rules for the guidance of the Priests of
the Poor. Two Missioners, or three — according to the
numbers awaiting them — were chosen from the Company
at S. Lazare, and required to reach the scene of their
labours by the cheapest possible method. They might
not accept free quarters or gifts of any kind, but they
were supplied during their stay with necessary furniture
19
2Q0 VINCENT DE PAUL
and cooking utensils, and their first duty on arrival was
to instal themselves so that household care might not
interrupt them when they had once entered on then-
labours. M. Vincent required that the practical things
connected with spiritual work should be carefully ordered ;
he was solicitous also as to the authority which had
demanded the Mission, and needed the consent of the
cure of the parish and the approval of the Bishop of the
diocese, believing that the lawlessness and indifference
that prevailed only increased the necessity of strictness
on such points. But whether the summons came from
cure or from Bishop, the real commission was to be
regarded as from God Himself. The Missioners were to
concentrate all their thoughts and prayers and aspira-
tions on the people who were given into their charge. It
was inevitable that they should feel anxiety as to the
number of their listeners at the outset, and that anxiety
in various forms should remain with them till the days
of opportunity were over.
M. Vincent's understanding of the possibilities of a
Mission was unequalled. To him the call to this form of
labour appeared as the highest call conceivable, and he
considered that its acceptance involved a correspondence
of personal sanctification. To preach a Mission was not
an exercise or a part of the year's routine; it must be
the expression of a personality. In his private inter-
course with them we shall find M. Vincent exhorting his
Sons to be on their guard against the self-love that brings
in an element of private success and failure. Doubtless he
had experience of the desire for conquest and sense of
personal triumph in result, which is so easily confused
with the true ardour of a zeal for souls, and so was constant
in his warnings against this most insidious of temptations.
In all the details of these country Missions we are in
touch with Vincent de Paul himself. One of his own
preliminary sermons sketches for his hearers both his
object and his method. The Missioners are come, he
THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS 291
tells them, for a short time, to preach, to catechize, to
hear confessions, and to adjust quarrels. Two sermons
were to be preached daily, one in the morning and one
in the evening, at times suited to the convenience of
the working people. The Catechism was always to be
one hour after noon, and intended especially for those
who had not made their first Communion. From the
day of their arrival the Missioners invited confidence from
any who might be at variance with each other, because
no man may be at peace with God and continue to live
at enmity with his neighbour.
After this most simple of warnings the Mission began;
and again from a series of M. Vincent's own sermons,
we can trace its progress. After a lapse of three centuries
these sermons still produce an impression of extraor-
dinary sincerity and force, and it is therefore possible to
conjecture their effectiveness when delivered as a message
from an unknown world to the country folk who never
left their village. The first was on the general need of
salvation, and the course goes on under the many heads
that naturally suggest themselves. There is one on
penitence, and more than one on self-examination; there
is one — evidently intended to mark a definite stage in
the listeners — on contrition, one on confession in its
ordinary form, and one on general confession. In those
times a sudden and violent end was the lot of a consider-
able proportion of the community, and therefore the
theme of death and judgment could be given additional
gravity by illustrations drawn from the recent annals
of the district. It must always be remembered that the
listeners were on the same intellectual level as the pre-
vious generations who had gaped at the Mysteries, and
in this fact lies the explanation of the lurid studies of
the Death of Sinners, of the Last Judgment, and of the
Physical Pain of Hell. To the Rich Man of the parable
the Almighty is represented as saying: M Remember that
thou hast been a gourmand and a lover of luxuries, thou
2Q2 VINCENT DE PAUL
shalt therefore suffer specially by a hunger and thirst
which shall cause thee to groan, to scream, and to cry
in despair, and grinding of teeth, and God shall never
have pity upon thee."
The gift of imagination is latent in many uneducated
persons, and it stirred in response to the description of
the pains of hell. The Missioners set forth the fate of
sinners as one of the great truths that composed their
message with the most complete sincerity, but though it
was not introduced for effect, it was extraordinarily effec-
tive. If the Mission had prospered, the preacher would
be addressing a crowded church when he came to those
topics of reward and punishment. For suffering human
nature it has always been an easier task to depict punish-
ment than reward; the heaven that would hold attrac-
tion for these half-awakened yokels was difficult to repre-
sent, and this may partially account for the dispropor-
tionate attention bestowed on hell. But the teaching,
though it rings over-violently in modern ears, was both
strong and simple.
" * Tell us, you who are dead, where are you now Y
we say. They answer : ' We are in the houses that during
our life on earth we built for ourselves for all eternity.' "
This is the opening of a sermon on death, and it goes
on with vigorous directness to point out to the living
the possibility of founding their future house on present
repentance. The object of the Lazarist Priest — -whether
accomplished by warning or persuasion — was one with
that of S. John the Baptist: he came to call men to re-
pentance that they might be prepared to receive their
Lord. Everything else that might be accomplished by
a Mission was secondary to this; a general awakening to
the sense of sin was the supreme necessity if the Mission
was to bear any real fruit at all. There was only a short
period of time — ten or fourteen days — for the conquest
of souls that appeared never to have been touched by
any spiritual influence; but it must be remembered
THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS 293
always that tradition or inheritance keeps alive in the
children of the Church of Rome a certain subconscious
knowledge, which may wait a lifetime for revival, but
which is there waiting to be revived. It is easier to re-
vive than to instil. The sermons of the Missioners of
S. Lazare, although intended for the most ignorant of
congregations, take a great deal for granted; they are
reminders of what has been known and neglected rather
than explanations of what is new. Also a good deal
could be done outside the four walls of the church; the
Missioners made it their aim to have as much personal
contact with the people as possible. One of their Rules
suggests that " one and all should desire ardently, and
even, if necessary, make humble petition, to be allowed
to visit the sick, as well as to endeavour to make peace
wherever there have been quarrels."* M. Vincent urged
upon them that all they did must be in the spirit of
sympathy. " If God has given a blessing to our Mis-
sions," he said to one of the Company, " we must
attribute it to the use of kindness and humility in dealing
with all conditions of people. I implore you, Monsieur,
to join me in giving thanks for this, and in asking His
grace that every Missioner may always treat all with
whom he comes in contact in public and in private with
gentleness, humility, and charity, especially the sinners
and those who show themselves hard of heart."
When the Mission was over, when, after a final pro-
cession, the last farewell, the last exhortation to perse-
verance, the last kindly word of encouragement had
been spoken, the Missioners would return the household
effects they had borrowed, pay the modest debts they
had incurred, and go upon their way; and there, as a
rule, their connection with the scene of their labours
ended. When the Mission itself was over there came
the time of test for the Missioner. Sometimes the con-
centration and excitement of the days of struggle were
* "Regies," chap, xi., art. 8.
294 VINCENT DE PAUL
succeeded by deep depression, but more often it is likely
the thoughts that went back over the immediate past,
noting the record of eventful hours, inevitably tended to
elation. It had been impossible not to desire a success
that meant the good of others, and when success had
come it was impossible not to be uplifted by the thought
of it; but the Father Superior had no tolerance for self-
congratulation.* " This desire to be well thought of —
what is it other than a desire for different treatment than
was accorded to the Son of God ? It is an arrogance
not to be permitted. When the Son of God was on earth
what was said of Him ? How was He content to be re-
garded by the people ? As a madman, a rebel, a fool,
a sinner. Keep that in mind, keep it before you, you
who go to Missions, and you who speak in public. Some-
times, and often enough, one sees one's listeners so moved
by what one has said that they are all in tears. . . . And
at that it is one's instinct to be pleased, vanity shoots
up and will grow strong if one does not crush these
foolish satisfactions and look solely for the glory of God, for
which only we must work — yes, only for the glory of God
and the salvation of souls. For on any other terms you
preach yourself and not Jesus Christ; and a person who
preaches to be applauded and praised and flattered and
talked about — what is this person doing ? This Preacher,
what is he achieving ? A sacrilege and that only ! To
make use of the Word of God and to speak of Divine
things to win honour and reputation, I say that this is
a sacrilege. O Father in Heaven, give such grace to
this poor little Company that not one of its members
shall fall into this misfortune ! Believe me, Messieurs,
we shall never be fit to carry out the purposes of God
without the most profound humility and complete dis-
trust of ourselves. No, unless the Congregation of the
Mission is humble and realizes that it can accomplish
nothing of any value, that it is fit rather to mar than
* "Conferences," quoted by Abelli, vol, i., chap. xxi.
THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS 295
to make, it will never be of much effect ; but when it has
this spirit I have been describing, then, Messieurs, it will
be fit for the purposes of God."
It was not easy to be a Mission Priest, it was no lip
service which M. Vincent asked of his Sons. There are
natures to whom the resignation of all that is soft and
pleasant is repaid in full measure by the sense of great
accomplishment, by the consciousness of supreme domi-
nance over the thoughts and actions of others. The
leader of a Mission had immense opportunity of such
dominance, and he attained to it in the fulfilment of his
vocation ; it was the purpose for which he had renounced
the world. It is worth while to realize this and thereby
to see how searching was M. Vincent's demand. The
Mission Priests renounced all choice in their career, all
ordinary ambitions, every tie of blood ; they were bound
to a reality of poverty such as was rarely practised by
professed Religious. But there remained to them one
solace, one possible compensation: the joy in their own
personal power for good. And this M. Vincent required
that they should put away. " Otherwise," he said,
" God will not use us for His purposes." It is impossible
to know the depth of obedience that he won — he could
not have known himself — but it seems certain that the
Congregation was used for God's purpose in those diffi-
cult and troublous times, and therefore we may join
M. Vincent in his simple faith, and believe that his Sons
struggled for the hardest form of self-mastery, and that,
in a measure at least, they did attain.
Year after year the number of the Lazarists steadily in-
creased. That this should have been the case is a proof
of the vigour of supernatural influence. There were far
easier ways of engaging in Christ's service than the career
of a Mission Priest; there were none that involved more
complete renunciation. M. Vincent himself never at-
tempted to discount a single detail of the severity of
their vocation. " He who would live in the Company,"
296 VINCENT DE PAUL
he wrote, after many years' experience,* " must be pre-
pared to dwell as a pilgrim upon earth, to sacrifice his
reason for Christ's sake, to change all his habits, to mor-
tify every passion, to seek God only, to be subject to
anyone as being himself the least of all, to realize that
he has come to serve and not to govern, to suffer and to
labour, and not to live in comfort and idleness. He must
understand that he will be put to the proof as gold is proved
in the furnace, and that he cannot hope to persevere
unless he desires to humble himself before God, knowing
that by so doing he will attain to true happiness in this
world and to life eternal in another." He was all
tenderness and compassion toward the mass of his
fellow-men, but he would tolerate no laxity in the
conduct of the Company. In his eyes their call
was absolutely sacred. The call to labour for others
was null and void unless it was also a call to personal
holiness.
" Consider the beauty of it," he exhorted them,f
" that we should be striving first for the Reign of God
for ourselves, and then that we should procure It for
others. How great is the blessing on a Company which
exists only that it may further the glory of God ! But
if, when we undertake a journey in the world, we are
careful to choose the right road, how much more careful
must we be in choosing if we aspire to follow Jesus
Christ. All those who accept His maxims (especially
that which bids them try all things whether they be of
God) should consider what they are doing, and ask them-
selves: ■ Why do you do this, or that ? Is it to please
yourself ? Is it because you dislike something else ? Is
it to give satisfaction to some worthless being ? Or is
it rather to fulfil the Will of God and for His service ?'
What a life — what a life might be theirs ! Would it be
human ? Nay, verily it would be that of the angels, for
* See " Abelli," vol. i., chap, xxxiv.
f "Conferences," quoted by Abelli, vol. i., chap. xix.
THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS 297
it would be all for the love of God that all things were
ddne or left undone."
Truly, under such testing a faithful Son of M. Vincent
might hope to go far on the road to perfection; but not
all had capacity for complete faithfulness. At first he
accepted almost all who came to him expressing a desire
to join the Company, but — as he was always ready to
acknowledge in later years — he had not at the beginning
formed any idea of the future that lay before them or
of the need for the self-consecration of all who bore their
part in it. It was, indeed, only with the deepening of
his experience as a Superior that he acquired knowledge
of those weaknesses that are masked by outward piety.
Among his letters we may find proof of all that he had
to bear from the unfaithful, and a suggestion of the pain
that desertion caused him.
With that question of desertion we touch a point of
special importance in the history and progress of the
Company. We must remember the simple manner in
which it had originated. Three or four priests, who had
united to live a life of poverty and preach the Gospel to
the poor, made their headquarters at a house in a small
street in Paris. This house and a certain sum of money
was given them by a pious lady, who greatly desired the
spiritual welfare of the poor. Their main object was
clearly denned, but every other detail connected with
them was left absolutely indefinite. Their numbers
grew; the place of their headquarters altered; as the
career of their Superior developed, the scope of their
labours widened; but it was all gradual, there was no
special moment at which they claimed special recogni-
tion. And thus it came about that to all intents and
purposes they formed a powerful Community under a
Superior when, in fact, they had no definite Rule and
were not bound by any recognized vow. That their
existence was of benefit to the nation is above doubt.
The work they did for the poorest of the people had
298 VINCENT DE PAUL
hitherto been left undone, and, armed with the experi-
ence of their country Missions, they formed a sort of
reserve force that could be called upon in such disasters
as the civil war or the outbreaks of pestilence for special
service towards the sufferers. But if they were to pre-
serve their collective force as a Company, it became
obvious that a vow was necessary. How otherwise was
it possible for a number of persons scattered in little
groups of twos and threes all over Europe to maintain
a common standard of poverty and simplicity ? The
more we consider the conditions of their lives the more
we shall see the difficulty of faithfulness. M. Vincent's
insistence on the necessity of vows has sufficient ex-
planation in mere common sense.
It was, nevertheless, extremely difficult to obtain the
Papal sanction for the vow, or the formal recognition of
the Company of Priests of the Mission. It was con-
sidered that there were already too many religious orders
in France; for the most part they were decadent and
tended to lower the standards of discipline and morals —
already low enough. M. Vincent was aware of this fact,
and had not originally intended to require any vow from
those who joined him; it was the experience of the years
as they passed that convinced him of its necessity.
" Lately I have been talking to a man of great wisdom,
intelligence, and knowledge," he wrote, in 1651, to M.
Almeras,* one of his earliest companions, who was then
in charge of the Mission at Rome. " He thinks that we
require some sort of chain that unites us each to the
other and collectively to God as a defence against the
natural inconstancy of mankind, and to prevent the de-
struction of the Company. Unless we have this many
will join us merely to gain experience and to fit them-
selves for public work, and will then be off; and others
who were strong in purpose at the beginning will none
the less give up at the first drawback or at the chance
* " Lettres" vol. i., No. 182.
THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS 299
of a good opening in the world, there being nothing to
hold them. We have only too much experience of such
failures, and even now as I write we have one who,
having been trained and schooled for thirteen or fourteen
years, now asks for funds to help him to start, and only
waits till he has them to leave us. What remedy is
there for this evil ? How shall we avoid wasting the
funds, that are given us to strive for the salvation of the
poor, on people of this sort who have their own objects
in view, if we have no means of holding them by some
strong bond of conscience, such as a vow of persever-
ance.' '
It is seldom that M. Vincent permits himself to express
such deep discouragement. It should be remembered
that in 1651 the heroism of some of the Mission Priests
on the battlefields had won honour for the Company,
but that, simultaneously, the insidious poison he describes
threatened to destroy their power for good. Two years
later he was still petitioning for the Papal sanction.
M. Berthe had replaced M. Almeras at Rome, and the
petition had become more definite, but His Holiness re-
mained unmoved. Even at this distance of time M. Vin-
cent's arguments in favour of his cause carry conviction.
" There is such great variety in our undertakings, they
are so trying and so prolonged, those employed in them
are so rebuffed and confronted with so much opposition,
that it is hard for them to be steadfast if they are not
bound to the Company. And it will happen with us as
it has happened with some other Congregations where
individuals had no obligation to obey: the members will
go as they like, and when the Superior intends to send
some of them — be it far or near — for the glory of God, he
finds he had no hold, having no claim on their obedience.
Therefore, as the case stands now, the Missioners being
free to do or to leave undone the good work offered to
them, to go or to remain as they may feel inclined, and
to go off altogether when the fancy takes them, it becomes
300 VINCENT DE PAUL
impossible to maintain the work begun (much less under-
take anything new), for many are so light-minded that
what they choose to-day they will weary of to-morrow
This is why we are imploring the Holy Father very humbly
to make our vows impossible of dispensation save by
His Holiness himself or by the Superior of the Congre-
gation."*
The picture suggested by this letter is in sharp con-
trast to M. Vincent's ideal for the Priests of the Mission.
To him their vocation was so clearly a privilege that
each instance of unfaithfulness caused him poignant
suffering. It was in bitterness of spirit that he wrote
to M. Berthe to plead for that support which the Vatican
authorities were so slow in giving. Yet in his plaint he
reveals unwittingly the marvel that he himself had
wrought in gathering and controlling his great Company
by the sole force of his own influence. When (in 1658)
his hopes were at last fulfilled, and His Holiness made
the vow of the Mission Priest both obligatory and bind-
ing, the Company was already strongly and firmly estab-
lished, and, in spite of his moments of dejection, M. Vin-
cent knew that it was so. The retrospect of the thirty-
three years that preceded the formal recognition of their
existence will be found in his own address to the Assembly
at S. Lazare when he gave them their Rule and their
Constitution :
■■' Our Rule,"f he told them, "seems at first sight to
bind us only to an ordinary life, nevertheless, it contains
enough to lead those who practise it to the highest per-
fection. . . . Our Rule is almost all — as anyone can see
for himself — taken from the Gospel, and its object is to
make your life an imitation of that which our Lord led
on earth, for it is written that our Saviour came, and
was sent by His Father to preach to the poor. It is this
that our little Company is endeavouring to do, and herein
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 245.
f See " Abelli," vol. i., chap, xlvii.
THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS 301
is great reason for humiliation and self-abasement, for,
so far as I know, there is no other that has chosen for
its object to take the message of the Gospel to the very
poorest. This is the call to us. . . .
"It is full thirty-three years since God gave us our
beginning, and all that time we have, by His grace, been
practising the Rule which we are now going to give;
indeed, there is nothing in it that is new, nothing that
you have not practised for many years with great edifica-
tion. If we had given this Rule at the beginning and
before the Company had tested it, it might have been
thought that there was something human rather than
Divine about it, and that here was a plan of human
origin, and not the work of Divine Providence; but, my
Brothers, this Rule and everything else that is part of
the Congregation has come to pass I know not how, for
I have originated nothing, and it has all developed little
by little in a way that one cannot explain. Now, S.
Augustine says that when one cannot trace the origin of
a good thing we must attribute it to God Himself. Ac-
cording to that, is not God the Author of our Rule,
which has come in suchwise that we cannot tell how or
why ? Indeed, I can assure you, my Brothers, that the
thought of this Rule, or of the Company, or even of the
very name of Mission, never came to me ; this is the work
of God, man had no part in it. For myself, when I
contemplate the means by which it has pleased God to
found the Congregation in His Church, I confess that I
know not where I am, and all that I see seems like a
dream. Ah no ! this thing is not ours, it is not human,
it is from God ! That which does not come from man's
understanding is not human. Our first Missioner had
no more thought of it than I; it has grown, apart from
all our plans and hopes. If you were to ask me how all
the Practices of the Company were introduced, how the
thought of all these exercises and undertakings came to
us, I should say to you that I do not know, and that I
302 VINCENT DE PAUL
cannot understand. Here is M. Portail, who has seen
as much as I have of the beginnings of the little Company,
who will tell you that nothing was farther from our
thoughts than that which has come to pass. It has all
happened as if of itself, little by little, one thing after
another. The number of those that joined us increased,
and each was striving after virtue, and as our numbers
grew we learned the regulations needful for our common
life and for order in our employments. These regula-
tions, by the grace of God, we are still using. Oh my
Brothers, I am so overwhelmed by the thought that it is
I who give this Rule that I cannot imagine how it has
come about that I stand where I am ; it seems to me that
I am once more at the very beginning, and the more I
think, the farther it is all withdrawn from human origin,
and the more clearly I see that it is God alone Who has
given this Rule to the Compary. If it be so that I have
added to it anything, I tremble lest it be that which shall
hinder its perfect observance in the future."
It was Friday evening, May 17, 1658. M. Vincent's
life was near its close, and these are the words of an old
man, possessed by one thought, repeating it again and
again in his homely language. " This thing is not
human, it is from God/' That is the burden of it, and
that, indeed, was the thought he desired so earnestly to
instil into his Sons with regard to their vocation, and all
that concerned it. Their Rule seems to leave no cir-
cumstance of their life untouched, and there could be
no better guide to understanding of the sacrifice entailed
by their vocation. By it they were bound to accept no
benefice ; they were not to write books or to seek dis-
tinction in theological controversy; their preaching was
to be always for the poor and the ignorant ; they were
not to talk of public affairs either among themselves or
with any whom they might meet ; they were to give
prompt obedience in all things, not only in the letter but
in the spirit, and they were to eschew all social diversions
THE COMPANY OF MISSION PRIESTS 303
absolutely. This is the rough outline of their renuncia-
tion, M and " — so runs the Rule itself — " in the end it
is needful we should realize clearly that, in the words of
Jesus Christ, when we have accomplished all these things
that are commanded us we are but unprofitable servants,
and also that but for Him we could accomplish nothing
at all."*
It is hard to be in the world and not be of it. In those
days of feverish political excitement it was not a small
test of resolution to abstain from asking or repeating
news of the Parlement, of the Court, and of the war; nor
was it a small deprivation for a Frenchman, possessed of
wit and of eloquence, to relinquish all hope of the response
of the cultivated mind, and devote himself to awaking
the dulled faculties of " the poor and simple."
Some of the Priests of the Mission were men of intellect
and learning; some had social gifts, and loved intercourse
with their fellows; some were of independent spirit, and
found the chain of implicit obedience infinitely galling.
There was great diversity among them in spiritual
development as much as in brains or in rank, and if we
would realize them as individuals we must turn once
more to M. Vincent's letters. We shall find these letters
charged with remonstrance, with pleading, and with
rebuke, but so clear in insight and true in sympathy that
very often it is the personality of the recipient rather
than of the writer that they unveil.
* "Rdgles," chap, xii., art. 14.
CHAPTER VI
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS
" There are certain souls which are most difficult to guide,
and there are natures of different types which tend to
things that are unusual and often undesirable. You
must bear with these, and endeavour by gentleness and
patience and skill to teach them love of the Rule and of
obedience. And in doing so humble yourself before God,
recognizing that you are nothing save a useless tool who
may spoil everything. But such as you are, yield your-
self to His Divine guidance, being confident that it will
be your guide in guiding others, your strength both of
soul and body, and the spirit of all your Company."*
Such was M. Vincent's teaching to the Superior of the
Mission Priests at Genoa, a year before his death, and the
letter reads like a summary of his own position towards
the task of ruling. We must remember that very many
of those he ruled had in their turn to rule others. As soon
as the real usefulness of a Mission had declared itself, and
also the capacity of the Mission Priests in the control of
Seminaries, demands for help came to S. Lazare from
every part of France, and also from Italy, from Poland,
and from the British Isles. The difficulty of travelling
was great, and it was not possible to send to and fro from
the headquarters in Paris ;f Branch-Houses were of neces-
sity established, both within the kingdom and outside
it, and for each a Superior was necessary. The Rule
required implicit obedience to the Superior, but the
Branch-Houses became so numerous that not infrequently
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 477. f See Appendix, note iv.
304
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS 305
authority was wielded by those who were not fit for their
responsibility. M. Vincent was aware of the difficulty.
We find him writing, in 1647, to one of the senior members
of the Company a sort of defence of the state of things
that prevailed. " I acknowledge," he says,* " that the
offices of Superior in our houses are not well filled, but
remember that in newborn Communities this always
happens. Grace follows Nature in many things, and
much that Nature allows to be rough and unpleasant at
birth is perfected by time." *
In fact, very many of his letters are full of remonstrance
or advice to these Superiors, and, possibly because the
more mature needed less guidance, and therefore were
favoured with fewer letters, the impression produced is
that the recipients were unduly young for their position,
their age (quoted in footnotes to the volumes of corre-
spondence) being usually under twenty-eight. After 1640
M. Vincent very rarely left S. Lazare — though he had
originally intended to conduct much of the Mission work
himself — and the threads of all the multifarious labours
he had inaugurated were held by him. It is obvious how
much must have depended on the wisdom and tact of his
representatives, and it becomes evident as we read the
Letters how constantly wisdom and tact were lacking.
It was a rule of the Company that letters might always
be sent by any individual in a Branch-House to the
Superior-General in Paris without inspection before then-
despatch. M. Vincent was specially insistent on this
point, and his own comments on it show its importance;
but it is easy to understand that the Superiors did not
share his eagerness for its observance. To one of them
who may perhaps have interposed some obstacle he
wrote :f "Au nom de Dieu, do not check the most complete
freedom in writing to the Superior-General ; it is a custom
for which there are very good reasons, and entire liberty
in this respect is one of the chief consolations of those
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. in. f Ibid., vol. i., No. 70.
20
306 VINCENT DE PAUL
under authority, and one to which they have undoubted
right. Do not imagine, Monsieur, that anything is be-
lieved against a Superior without giving him a hearing,
or that any action is taken on guess-work. No, by no
means ! I can assure you that I give no rebuke save on
the testimony of the individual Superior himself. It is
greatly to be desired, Monsieur, that all Superiors in the
Company should copy the practice of one among you,
who from time to time desires those under him to inform
the General of whatsoever displeases them in his private
conduct or method of governing, that with the help of
God he may correct it."
M. Vincent had been through many years of the dis-
cipline of life before he attempted to rule others, and it
seems certain that he did not covet authority. His
ambition was to inspire and control rather than to com-
mand, but it was very difficult to instil the same spirit
into his representatives.
" Be on such simple and cordial terms with the others,"
he wrote to M. Durand,* " that when you are all together
it would be impossible to say which is the Superior. Do
not decide business of any importance without asking
their advice, and particularly that of your Assistant. For
my own part I always summon my colleagues when there
is any difficulty to be decided, whether it be in spiritual
and ecclesiastical matters, or in things temporal. When
these last are concerned I take counsel with those who
have them in charge. I take the advice of the lay-
brothers on the housekeeping because of their experience
in it. Thus the decisions, which are reached by mutual
agreement, receive God's blessing." f
And, again, to the Superior at Sedan: " Those who are
at the head of the Houses of the Company should not look
at the others as below themselves, but on each as a
brother. Our Lord said to His disciples : ' I call you no
longer servants, but I have called you friends/ Your
* Superior at Agde. f " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 419.
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS 307
conduct towards them should always be humble, gentle,
and kindly. I do not mean to say, Monsieur, that I
always keep to this rule, but when I break it I know that
I am failing."*
It is evident that the Priests of the Mission (like the
Sisters of the Poor) found the preservation of mutual
charity extremely difficult. If they allowed themselves
to descend from the supernatural level, the monotonous
routine of some of the Branch-Houses, the hard fare and
lack of bodily ease that prevailed in all, induced an
irritability which was destructive to social peace. M.
Vincent knew the danger, but he knew also that the
most incompatible temperaments can maintain good
terms if self-love is not allowed to triumph, and therefore
he has no sympathy for those who cannot be friendly.
As he wrote on one occasion: " It is well to take as an
unassailable maxim that our difficulties with our neighbour
arise rather from our own ill-controlled tempers than
from anything else."t
In fact, the Mission Priests who squabbled among
themselves were falling short of their vocation, and no
possible excuse would justify them in the eyes of M.
Vincent.
But the difficulties arising between Superior and subject
could not be disposed of by the application of any maxim.
Sometimes there were real grievances, sometimes the
complainant was moved by discontent, and the Superior
was the injured party. But while M. Vincent ruled at
S. Lazare there was no real fear of injustice if a question
was brought to his notice. Every one of the scattered
groups of his children was clear in his mind, and, though
he acknowledged the incompetency of many of his repre-
sentatives, it is evident that he had tested the character
of each before giving him office, and could judge what
likelihood there might be of accusations against him being
just. In all cases his advice to a Superior is to take a
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 164. f Ibid., vol. i., No. 40.
308 VINCENT DE PAUL
humble attitude, to ask malcontents to warn him of his
failures, " not only as a Superior, but also as a Mission
Priest and as a Christian," and he does this, not from the
elevation won by his own long experience and tried
capacity, but as being the equal of those who make the
worst mistakes. " Ah, Monsieur, how deep is human
weakness, and what patience is needed by a Superior !" so
ends a letter to one of them. " I conclude by asking for
your prayers that God may forgive the innumerable faults
that I myself commit in that office every day."*
Among the many figures gradually revealed by M.
Vincent's correspondence there is not one more interesting
than M. Codoing, who was chosen at a very early period
to hold responsibility, but who seems at all times to
deserve a place in the category of " souls which are most
difficult to guide." He was born at Agen in 1610 of the
bourgeois class, and joined the Congregation when he
was twenty-five. His deep attachment to his own family
is one strongly human point about him, and this M.
Vincent attacked at the very beginning of their con-
nection, for he would not permit family affection to
dominate the heart of the true Mission Priest. In 1639
we find M. Codoing in charge of a new centre of the
Company at Annecy, and by the letters directed thither
we are initiated into one of those curious little dramas of
development of which M. Vincent must have had such
constant experience. M. Codoing had only been four
years in the Company in 1639, and can have held no other
post as Superior before going to Annecy. His after-
career makes it plain that he was hot-headed and impul-
sive, devoted to the Company, but more faithful to the
spirit than to the letter of its Rule, and disposed to make
his own interpretations of its spirit.
There was sent to him at Annecy a certain M. Escart,
a little younger than himself, but with equal experience
of the Company. Before M. Escart had been in residence
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 461.
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS 309
very long he seems to have become possessed with the
idea that it was his mission to oppose and counteract the
misdoings of M. Codoing. He approached the task with
enthusiasm. He wrote to the Superior-General that all
the minor rules were being broken, that laziness and
sensuality prevailed, that two of the Company had been
given permission to make a journey when such permission
ought to have been denied. It is likely that M. Vincent —
having studied the character of M. Codoing — had doubts
as to his fitness for authority, but at Annecy he had special
advantages for obtaining real knowledge of the position
of affairs, because Mme. de Chantal, then very near the
end of her life, was living there, and was in close touch
with the Priests of the Mission. The responses to M.
Escart's first letter of accusation temporizes, because
M. Vincent was applying to Mme. de Chantal for advice.
In due course he received from her the fullest reassurance
as to the wisdom of his choice of M. Codoing; but mean-
while the self-appointed reformer had discharged another
catalogue of charges against his Superior, and in reply
to this M. Vincent expresses himself with invigorating
clearness: "I give thanks to God, Monsieur, for your
eagerness in the observance of the little rules, and your
zeal for the advance in virtue of him of whom you write.
But because zeal, like some other virtues, becomes a vice
when carried to excess, it is well to be on one's guard
against that possibility, and the zeal that passes the
bounds set by the claim of charity to our neighbour is no
longer zeal, but rather a fervour of dislike. I will allow
that it may have been zeal to begin with, but its exaggera-
tion has degraded it into this."*
The Mission Priests were bidden, in their relations
with each other, to consider those of Christ and His
disciples, and M. Vincent draws attention to the later
development that began with constant criticism of Our
Lord's teaching. u Why was it," he asks, " that those
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 44.
3 to VINCENT DE PAUL
who should have followed Christ persistently misunder-
stood Him ? Was it not that they would not try to
grasp the spirit in which He worked ? Because they had
allowed themselves to be out of sympathy with Him, they
allowed criticism to go unchecked, until their minds were
so filled with it that they could no longer distinguish
between false and true. Whatever was in agreement
with their twisted judgment they accepted gladly, and so
there gathered the suspicion and hatred which had such
terrible results/'
M. Vincent must have been very clear in his conviction
that M. Escart had taken up a thoroughly false position,
or he would not resort to such severity of condemnation.
To one who had constituted himself the defender of
Christian conduct, the form of this rebuke must have been
difficult to swallow, and it speaks well for the character
of M. Escart that the Superior-General congratulates
him — in a letter dated a few weeks later — on his complete
submission and conquest of himself. It is, of course, quite
impossible to form any judgment as to the justification
for the charge that the minor rules were neglected and
there was too much laxity; from further knowledge of M.
Codoing we may conjecture that there were irregularities
wherever he held authority, but a humorous light falls
on the incident with another appearance of M. Escart
among M. Vincent's correspondents.
One of the primary points of the Rule was the complete
withdrawal of members of the Company from family life;
they were never to visit their homes by their own desire.
Yet M. Escart, that champion of strict conformity,
becomes insistent that he should return to his native
place. He was informed that one of his sisters was
threatened with loss of faith, and it became imperative
that he should reason with her. As a type M. Escart is
wonderfully consistent. His self-assurance had induced
him to make a formal complaint against his companions
for deviation from the Rule; the same quality gives him
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS 311
so high an estimate of his own powers of persuasion that
the Rule itself must not be allowed to check their exer-
cise. He was so decided in his intention of defiance
that the Superior-General was forced to intervene. A
firm reminder that members of the Company must adhere
to its Rule would probably have been effectual, but M.
Vincent preferred that his Sons should understand as
well as obey. " Mme. de Chantal tells me you have
heard of the apostasy of one of your sisters," he writes.*
" I have been very much distressed, but — though I know
not why it is — I find it rather hard to believe that this
is the case. I fear the Enemy has suggested this means
of attracting you home to those who would like to have
you there." And thereupon the Superior proceeds to
make it plain that M. Escart, who professes to renounce
all things for his vocation, must remain quietly at
Annecy. " You say," he adds, " that ' perhaps you may
be able to draw this dear sister of yours back within the
pale of the Church/ Indeed, you do well to say ' per-
haps/ for you have reason to be very doubtful of it, and
if you imagine you can of yourself do her any good, the
only result will be your own injury. You may do this,
however : it would be an excellent thing that you should
write and ask the Capuchin Fathers at Lyons to see your
sister and your relations and to do their best to win your
sister back."
We can see, without aid of deep knowledge or experi-
ence, that the schooling of a Mission Priest was — to
M. Escart and to natures such as his — the greatest oppor-
tunity conceivable. If within them there was enough
true metal to stand the test, they might emerge from the
fire of discipline with a real knowledge of themselves
and with a grasp of the meaning of renunciation; and
the debt that some of its members owed to the Company
was greater than any advantage they could bring to it.
The obvious and rather ludicrous faults of the less promis-
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 46.
312 VINCENT DE PAUL
ing recruits were not, however, nearly so difficult to deal
with as the brilliant qualities of the few who, like M.
Codoing, had capacity for ruling. M. Escart might be
malicious, pompous, inordinately vain, but his self-
righteousness melts beneath a touch from M. Vincent;
and, where he was concerned, there were no uncertain
issues and very little reason for anxiety.
M. Codoing was a valuable acquisition to the Company,
but there were times when he seems to have strained the
powers of guidance, and even the patience of the Superior-
General. The greatest cause of danger with M. Codoing
was his high estimate of his own business capacity; this
would appear to be the most innocent form of vanity,
but in the life of a Mission Priest there was no room for
vanity of any kind. As M. Vincent's representative and
in control of a Branch- House, considerable powers were
in his hands, but such powers were meant to be used
after consultation; M. Codoing used them on his own
initiative. It is very likely that his deep veneration for
the Superior-General as a spiritual leader betrayed him
into an under-estimate of the practical value of advice
from headquarters. When he was rebuked for his in-
dependence, he replied that an answer which might have
reached him in a month had not arrived after six months'
delay, and that valuable opportunities had been missed
in consequence. He may have gone from S. Lazare to
take up his first charge at Annecy full of confidence that
his abilities would secure temporal advantage for the
Company, and the indifference with which his sugges-
tions were received became intolerable. As the Superior-
General was so slow in giving support to the interests of
the Company, M. Codoing decided that it was his part
to supply the deficiency, and he embarked on a promising
financial scheme, unauthorized save by his own judg-
ment.
M. Vincent was taken by surprise — he never expresses
any confidence in M. Codoing's wisdom — and he regarded
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS 313
the undertaking in question (it was concerned with a
species of mortgage in the town of Annecy) as altogether
outside the province of a Mission Priest. " It may be
true," he wrote,* " that I am too long in answering and
over other matters, but even so I have never yet seen
any undertaking damaged by my delay ; I see rather that
everything gets done in its own time and with the care
it needs. I mean, however, in future to send an answer
as soon as may be after I have received your letters, and
have considered what they contain in the Presence of
God. It is due to Him that we should take time to
weigh those things that concern His service — that is
to say, everything with which we have to do. You will
therefore, if you please, correct your impatience in de-
cision and action, and I will try to reform my slackness.
And, above all, I implore you, in the Name of God, to
give me news of all that happens, with the for and against
of anything that is matter for question. Be very careful
not to add to or take away from or in any way to change
the system of our common life without having written
to me and received my answer."
M. Vincent's knowledge of M. Codoing may have led
him to direct greater severity towards him than towards
others; yet, though the letters to him are concerned
chiefly with rebuke, he is still selected for difficult posts.
There was business at Rome, and he was sent thither in
haste (though he seems in this instance to have desired
delay). f On his journey we find he contravened his
orders and borrowed money at Lyons, J and when he
reached his destination it is quite evident that the
Superior-General was extremely uneasy as to the result.
There was good cause for uneasiness. M. Codoing may
have made real surrender of personal ambition, but his
enthusiasm for the Company betrayed him into a desire
for its success; and even while he had every intention of
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 57. t Ibid., vol. i., No. 59.
t Ibid., vol. i., No. 62.
314 VINCENT DE PAUL
being loyal to its Founder, he failed to identify himself
with the spirit that was its real foundation. In Rome
especially there were many opportunities for dangerous
errors, even in a humble Mission Priest not closely con-
nected with the hot-bed of intrigue. The House of the
Company there was an experiment. Missions had been
held in Italy, and a centre for the Missioners was needed ;
but M. Vincent shrank from extending the scope of their
labours or allowing them any prominence. M. Codoing,
on the other hand, desires that they should claim im-
portance, and have Seminaries that would compete with
the Jesuits. He had the fullest belief that the methods
of the Company were the best methods possible, and drew
from this the conclusion that the more they could under-
take the better. It must be acknowledged that M. Vin-
cent needed all his faith in the Divine ordering of the
affairs of the Company to keep his mind at peace while
M. Codoing represented him at Rome.
" I beseech you to submit to the decisions we arrive
at here," he wrote.* " I do not mean with regard to one
special point, but in everything ; and not to do anything
of importance without writing to me and until you have
received my answer."
It was a difficult command indeed for young impatience.
So many opportunities had time to slip while the question
went from Rome and the answer came back from Paris,
and it seemed so unlikely that the decisions reached in
Paris, with only partial knowledge of the circumstances,
could be so good as those arrived at on the spot. M.
Codoing was severely tested, and a firm belief in his real
sincerity of purpose is the only explanation of his selec-
tion for his great responsibility.
" We let ourselves be too much carried away by our
opinions, you and I," wrote M. Vincent, somewhat
mendaciously; but it was his custom to associate himself
with the misdeeds of those whom he reproved. " You
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 63.
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS 315
are, however, at a post where you need immense reserve
and circumspection. I have always heard it said that
the Italians are the most cautious people in the world,
and the most distrustful of the hasty. Reserve, patience,
and gentleness win in the end with them, and because
they know that we French folk are too hasty they stand
aside a long time before they will deal with us. In the
Name of God, Monsieur, take heed of this, and also of
the orders that we send you."
It seems that money had been sent for a certain
M. Thevenin, also a member of the Company, and M.
Codoing, deciding that a purpose for which he required it
was more important, had appropriated it. M. Vincent
indicated, with some vehemence, that this form of in-
subordination could not be permitted. " A thousand
inconveniences and disorders must result when the will
of the Superior is not obeyed," is the conclusion of his
reprimand, and then, with one of the sudden outbursts
that we may believe to have strengthened his hold im-
measurably over his wayward Sons, he adds: " I seem to
have said a great deal, Monsieur, but to whom could I
speak simply and with complete openness if not to another
self who is dearer to me than myself; indeed, I shall
always show you my heart and keep nothing back,
because I know the depths of yours and the charity
towards me that Our Lord has given you."
Again and again M. Codoing makes complete sur-
render, and letters of warm gratitude and approval are
despatched from Paris to Rome; but his desire for the
recognized success of the Company is not easy to uproot,
and again and again he unfolds fresh projects that pre-
sent themselves to his imagination. He plans a Semin-
ary, a House of Retreat like the one in Paris, a different
method in the holding of Missions; finally, that the
Mother - House should be transferred to Rome ! The
motive for some of his suggestions is avowedly the ac-
quisition of favour among powerful people who may be
316 VINCENT DE PAUL
useful ; for some it is the most transient expediency ; and
no principle of the Company, however fundamental, is
safe from his enthusiasm for novelty. We have no re-
corded instance of the Superior-General giving considera-
tion to any one of his ideas, but he gives reasons for
refusal, and these contain the fruit of deep experience of
life. One private letter of rebuke has special significance.
M. Codoing had gone out of his way to obtain the
notice of Cardinal Lanti, and to this end had disobeyed
instructions. M. Vincent disapproved. " It seems to
me," he says,* "to be a contradiction of Christian sim-
plicity. I have always avoided works of piety in one
direction that are to win credit in another, except in one
instance, when we held a Mission in a particular place
to gain the interest of the late M. le President de Paris,
which we believed ourselves to need. It was the Will of
God that the effect should be contrary, for some of the
Company gave such proof of our weakness that it was
necessary for me to go to the place after the Mission,
and, on my knees, ask pardon of a priest for an affront
he had received from one of the Company. Thus did
Our Lord show me by experience that which I had
realized in theory, that we must look straight ahead
without calculations in what we do and let His Hand
guide us. . . ." The young Superior at Rome, reading
those words amid so many very different influences, had
opportunity to learn the real secret of the writer's power ;
but his fund of original ideas was so inexhaustible that
no rebuff and no reasoning could convince him that they
were wasted; the failure of one only seems to have en-
couraged him to produce another. M. Vincent was
always ready for him, however:
M You may have plenty of arguments to bring against
me," he told him; "but, believe me, Monsieur, I can
supply an answer to every one, and therewith the experi-
ence which my sixty-six years and my own sins have
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 67.
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS 317
brought me, which may not be without its uses for
you."
We may be sure that among the fruits of M. Vincent's
experience was his understanding of an ardent nature
and the difficulty with which it learns reliance on the
Will of God. He had, indeed, much clearer knowledge
of the full meaning of such reliance than have most
human beings, and, because he had gone so far towards
its attainment, he knew it to be unattainable in its
completeness; but he insisted on it as the goal of aspira-
tion, and he believed that for the hot impulsiveness of
M. Godoing the constant remembrance of such a goal was
specially necessary. For a Mission Priest to have his head
full of schemes and to occupy his time in bringing them
to a successful issue meant the destruction of the spirit
of the Company. In a letter of remonstrance to M.
Codoing we find one of his rare lapses into self -revelation
and reminiscence. He goes back to the period after his
return from Chatillon, when the plan for the first estab-
lishment at the College des Bons Enfants was under
discussion, and, all his suggestions for a first Superior
having been rejected, it had become clear that he himself
was to be the Founder.
" The idea of the Mission was so perpetually in my
mind," he says,* " that I began to fear it was proceeding
from self-will, or even from the Devil. Full of this ap-
prehension, I went into Retreat at Soissons, desiring that
it might please God to take away the excitement and
delight the enterprise was giving me. It did please God
to grant my prayer, and by His Mercy my feelings were
altered entirely; and if God gives any blessing to the
Mission and I am no injury to it, I believe this to be the
reason, and desire to make it my practice to undertake
nothing and to decide nothing while I am full of en-
thusiasm and hopes about it Our Lord casts down
to raise up, and gives every kind of suffering to purify
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 64.
318 VINCENT DE PAUL
us. He may often desire an object more than we do,
but we must win grace to accomplish it by the practice
of virtue and by many prayers. Will you let me say to
you, Monsieur, that I have often detected the same fault
in us both — that of following a new idea too easily and
clinging to it too ardently. It is this which has caused
me to pledge myself to do nothing of any importance
without taking counsel, and God shows me every day the
necessity of so doing, and deepens my resolve to adhere
to it."
That Retreat at Soissons had taken place twenty years
earlier — in 1622, when M. Vincent was forty-six; his
reference to it gives us a glimpse of the interior contest
which the restraint and discipline of his daily life hid so
efficiently. He also, it would seem, knew what it was
to be eager, to desire immediate action, to picture a
completed building of his own devising before the founda-
tion stone was laid; and on his knees he had implored
for strength — not to attain, but to yield; to give up the
plan with all the golden opportunities for good it was to
offer; to stamp out the glory of the projected service; to
desire nothing but that which the voice of God from day
to day should claim of him. Looking back over that
intervening score of years he may have seen the perils of
shipwreck from which his prayer had saved him, and
therefore have desired to detect in others and to repress
with unflagging energy the instincts he knew so well by
personal experience.
It would appear that M. Codoing was too strongly
imbued with a real love of his vocation to fall intentionally
into the sin of disobedience, and it was deliberate de-
fiance of authority for which M. Vincent has no mercy.
Some of the instances of this offence in the early years
of the Company were certainly peculiarly flagrant. The
vagueness of their vows, the novelty of their vocation,
and the fact that their Rule had no tradition of observ-
ance to strengthen it, combined to provide Superiors
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS 319
with a certain number of open questions, and to give
them some excuse for misapprehension as to the degree
of their authority. Nothing could justify the licence
that was taken, however. At Sedan, for instance, where
the townsfolk were hospitable and the routine of the
Mission-House became monotonous, the Superior moved
a Resolution that invitations to dinner should in future be
accepted, and put it to the vote among his brethren,
despite the categorical provision of the Rule in this
matter. The little detachment of the Company at Sedan
being sociably disposed, the Resolution was carried, but
one of the minority lost no time in reporting to head-
quarters.
It was at moments when his trust was betrayed to
such a degree as this that the difficulty of M. Vincent's
position must have seemed overwhelming. His letter
to the Superior at Sedan is full of indignation: " I have
been exceedingly astonished, and distressed beyond power
of expression. You must allow me to tell you, Monsieur,
that you have done wrong."* Adequate words to
condemn wrong-doing of this type were indeed hard
to find, for its results might well have dishonoured the
whole Company; but it served to deepen M. Vincent's
sense of the absolute necessity of obedience.
It must not be imagined that it was personal obedience
to himself on which he was insistent; it is a remarkable
characteristic of his method that his own judgment is
only prominent when there is a question of advocating
delay. Although he was the Founder and inspirer of
such vast undertakings, and his reputation was so firmly
established that his decisions would never have been
questioned, it is evident that he was honest in consulting
others and deferred to the opinion of his appointed ad-
visers. Once a decision was reached, however, he ex-
acted obedience to it from all the Company, and his
gentleness, of which we have so many proofs, assumes
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 330.
320 VINCENT DE PAUL
a different aspect when we understand the capacity for
resistance that went with it.
With reference to the position of the Superior-General
he expressed himself once very clearly in a private letter*
as follows: " There is this difference between the opinion
of an individual and that of the General, that the first
only sees and feels the things entrusted to him and is
given grace only for that, while the goodness of God
must give grace to the General for the whole of the
Company. The individual may see all that the General
sees — it is possible he may see more — but humility should
make him distrustful of himself; while the General must
have confidence that, as God proportions grace according
to vocation, he will be given sufficient to choose what is
best for the Company, especially in matters of great
consequence to which he has devoted long reflection and
much prayer."
It was by virtue of his office that M. Vincent asserted
authority, and the submission that he required was to be
made before God; it was not the yielding of one human
will to another. With M. d'Horgny (who succeeded
M. Codoing at Rome, and proved even more difficult to
manage) it was necessary to be explicit on this subject.
He had been guilty of setting aside instructions sent to
him from headquarters, and M. Vincent explains the
gravity of the offence :f " May I venture to say to you,
Monsieur, that it is more important than I can describe
that you should offer yourself to God to be made exact
in following all the orders of the General, whatever they
are, however much they go against your judgment, and
whatever excellent reasons you may have for differing,
or whatever may be the consequences ; for no consequences
can be so serious as is disobedience itself. The other day
a Captain told me that if he saw that his General was
giving mistaken commands, and knew that obedience to
them would be likely to cost him his life, he would not say
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 73. f Ibid., vol. L, No. 86.
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS 321
a word, even if speech would alter his General's decision,
because he would say it only at the price of his honour,
and so ought rather to die than speak. You will realize,
Monsieur, what a disgrace it will be to us in Heaven
that military obedience should be so perfect and ours
such a failure. I assure you that if two or three Superiors
acted as you have done, it would be enough to wreck
the Company altogether."
Rebukes of this nature are not given twice. M. d'Horgny
had his choice between complete submission and the
repudiation of his vows, and he was evidently strong
enough to bear severity, for in later years there are many
confidential letters to him from the Superior-General,
and he continued to hold positions of trust. It was de-
fiance such as his, however, that showed the necessity
of a sanctioned Rule, and a vow that was absolutely
binding.
It should be remembered that when the first Mission
Priests gathered at the College des Bons Enfants they
were animated by the deepest spirit of self-dedication,
no other reason could have brought them there, and each
one remained steadfast ; then, when the numbers increased
and the Company had become well known, the idea of
it made appeal to the imagination, and there were some
who obtained admission without having counted the
cost. Months of monotony and uncongenial labour con-
vinced them that they had made a mistake, and they
applied to the Superior for release. M. Vincent was un-
moved by any loss that the Company might sustain by
such disaffection; it was the loss to the individuals of
which he took a serious view. Discontent rather than
open rebellion was the common prelude to desertion,
for the culprit was always able to offer full justification
for his own action. One phase of this temptation was
the idea that the capacities which God had given were
being wasted, and that retirement into another condition
of life was a command of conscience. There was a certain
21
322 VINCENT DE PAUL ,
priest, who must be referred to as M. X., who complained
to the Superior-General that he had not sufficient oppor-
tunity for study. M. Vincent never desired to develop
a love of learning among his Sons, and in this case he
replied that the call to their vocation was an infinitely
higher one than that of the student. * If you make pro-
gress in the school of our Lord, He will give you higher
knowledge than you can get from books."* A year
later, however (in 1652), the Bishop of Treguier was
anxious to institute a Seminary in his diocese, and M. X.
was selected as an assistant. We have no knowledge of
his previous history, or under what circumstances the
call to join the Priests of the Mission had come to him.
He may have been carried away by one of those waves
of aspiration that will disturb the balance of the sanest
mind, and because his regard for his vocation was mental,
and based on a reasoned conclusion that he was choosing
the best manner to use his gifts for the service of God,
it failed to give him the courage and endurance that were
needed in the passing of the years. Interest and variety
were essential to him, and probably he insisted to himself
that his powers would be crippled by deprivation. On
his appointment to the new Seminary, M. Vincent found
it necessary to write plainly to him : f
" I beseech you, Monsieur, to make surrender of your-
self to Our Lord in good earnest, that you may bear some
fruit that is worthy of your vocation. Is it worth while for
the vain satisfaction of coming and going, of paying and
receiving visits, to fail in your duty towards God ? Is it
worth while, for the sake of your body (to which, perhaps,
you give in too much) that your soul should cease to
strive for the salvation of an infinity of others ? If I
had ever seen anyone the better for continuing in self-
indulgence I would say to you : ' Do the same, by all
means/ But, on the contrary, everyone is ruined who
chooses that path; it is a wide one, and often leads to
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 180. f Ibid., vol. i., No. 214.
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS 323
perdition. The time has come, Monsieur, for you to
follow Our Lord in the narrow path of a life that corre-
sponds to your profession. It is nine months now since
you began to show signs of slackness, in spite of the fact
that you are under special obligation to make an effort
after perfection. Firstly, because God calls you ; secondly,
because He has given you a very good disposition ; thirdly,
He has bestowed on you special inward grace and outward
gifts ; fourthly, there has been particular blessing on your
past undertakings, and so great was His goodness towards
you that He gave you strength to consecrate yourself
to His service and that of His Church in a special
manner.
" Remember, if you please;, that you began well, and
went on even better; and that, to let self get the upper
hand now, would be lack of loyalty to God. It would
be abuse of His grace, and would be at the risk of His
indignation; and you would repent of it while your life
lasts and afterwards. I imagine, Monsieur, that you will
be greatly disturbed by what I say to you, and that the
Evil One will do his best to break your courage and to
overthrow you ; but I hope that you will resolve at once
to respond to God's purpose for you, and to bring it to
effect everywhere and always. If you do this, Monsieur,
be certain that He will give you grace beyond your need.
I make this appeal in the name of His love for you, of the
rewards He promises you, of the grace He has already
given you, of the good work you have already done among
priests and ordinary people. You delay too much; lost
time never returns. Death comes; the harvest is plen-
teous, the labourers are few, and Our Lord depends on
you. Remember, also, that Our Blessed Saviour said that
He sanctified Himself that His own might also be sanc-
tified. From this we learn that to work fruitfully for
others we must needs practise good living ourselves.
You have the chance of doing this without any hindrance.
If you will let me suggest it, you should begin by making
324 VINCENT DE PAUL
a good Retreat, and continue in serious endeavour to
reawaken your own zeal and fervour."
The Mission Priest whose zeal and fervour could not be
reawakened was worthy of all pity. To M. Vincent it
may have seemed that he grew lax by his own consent,
and was making choice between the two masters deliber-
ately and fatally. But M. Vincent's vocation to the
service of God and of his kind was so strong that the
sense of reaction never affected him. The only remedy
he could suggest for restlessness was immediate repent-
ance and renewed self-dedication. There are further
letters to this unsatisfactory Son of his, and about two
years later there is one* that is partly congratulation on
a resolve to remain loyal, and partly warning against an
opposite choice :
"I give thanks to God for the grace He has bestowed
on you, and to you for resisting the temptation that
threatened to drag you from your vocation, and cast you
back in the world ; and I pray that you will be ever more
and more confirmed in your promise to Our Lord to live
and die in your vocation. One may not play at making
promises to God, and then break one's word; and there-
fore I beseech you, Monsieur, to be steadfast in the voca-
tion to which you are called. Remember all the high
desires Our Lord has given you. Life is not long, the
end comes quickly, and the judgment of God is heavy on
those whose life here is over, and of whom He says:
' They have not fulfilled My commands.' "
The note of uncertainty is plain. This was not a faith-
ful member of the beloved Company. He had been
weighing and considering too long, and to hesitate at all
in such a choice was fatal. That letter, with its covert
warning, failed in its mission or came too late. Its
recipient broke his vows. Probably he was allowed to
go in silence, and justified his conduct to himself as he
went. But M. Vincent could not condone this offence.
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 281.
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS 325
The renegade Mission Priest remained a priest, and the
capacity that had made him useful in the Company
would, humanly, continue to be his when he had re-
nounced a vow which at that period was only voluntary.
His real fruitfulness for good was, nevertheless, destroyed
by his refusal to bear the burden of self-sacrifice which he
accepted with his vocation. Vincent de Paul shared with
the Port Royalists the belief that suffering was an honour,
the special mark of the design of God upon the individual.
This doctrine, admirable as the theme of a religious ex-
hortation, presents difficulties in application to daily
experience. A man of sensitive nature, who also pos-
sessed high intellectual ability, may have found the Rule
of the Mission Priest intolerable the moment that the
glamour of the consciousness of sacrifice had faded. It
was a Rule designed expressly to stamp out every ten-
dency towards self-love and make half-measures impos-
sible, but it would press far more heavily on a high-strung
temperament than on the phlegmatic. According to
M. Vincent, the finer nature had the more reason to
glory in his vocation; but, as we have noticed already,
M. Vincent's capacity for sympathetic comprehension of
others failed him when the temptation to seek escape
from the Company was in question. If they yielded,
they had deserted from the service of Our Lord. In the
case which we are regarding the culprit seems, after his
desertion, to have applied to M. Vincent for help to get
a particular cure. Possibly he found that, without
M. Vincent's interest, he was debarred from any pre-
ferment, and if that were the case, his condition was
melancholy. The following is the reply to his appli-
cation:*
" I have given the cure for which you ask to a good
priest, who is determined to live there and to do well.
I should have been very glad to serve you, after having
seen you offer yourself and your possessions to God for
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 294.
326 VINCENT DE PAUL
the salvation of the poor, if you had not, by withdrawing
your offering, given me reason to fear that you were not
more likely to be faithful in a new pledge to God than
you were in the old. When you say that you left us
with the desire of doing greater service to souls, who do
you think will believe you, seeing that you could find in
the Company opportunity to help both in the training of
priests and in the work of the Missions that benefit the
poor folk in the country ?"
The verdict may seem pitiless, but the issues involved
were too serious for leniency. The value of the Com-
pany lay not only in work accomplished, but in its
meaning for its members. Experience had taught
the Founder the degree to which their Rule was a
protection from temptation, and if he appeared
merciless to a deserter, he was so that he might deter
others from choosing destruction under the guise of
liberty.
M The priests who live in the world," he said,* M love
their ease too much. They shirk work, and are always
trying to collect benefices, their chief object being the
satisfactions of this present life." It was a somewhat
sweeping indictment, and not intended, probably, for
literal acceptance, but it was founded on very intimate
knowledge, and sufficiently explains his severity with
those who had chosen a higher way and then rejected it.
And underlying all M. Vincent's judgments in these
matters is the sense of vocation, which in a nature such
as his is an incalculable force. It was his sense of the
priests' vocation which inspired him in his leading of the
Ordination Retreats at S. Lazare, and in his control of
the celebrated Tuesday Conferences. It was his sense
of his own individual vocation that supported him
through the intricacies and disappointments of his deal-
ings with the Queen and Mazarin. Above all, it was
his intimate and overwhelming realization of the true
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 268.
M. VINCENT AND HIS SONS 327
vocation of a Priest of the Mission that taught him
(unhindered by the number of its fools and waverers)
to guide the Company towards fulfilment of its great
purpose of saving souls, but which would not let him
seek excuse for the weaklings who found the path too
steep and had turned back.
CHAPTER VII
THE VOCATION OF A MISSION PRIEST
The letters of M. Vincent to the Priests of the Mission
declare to us his mind on the subject of vocation. One
meaning of vocation to him was a love of Christ so burn-
ing that it consumed all desire other than His Will.
Close examination of his recorded words suggests that
in his view there were no degrees of vocation, because
nothing could be more perfect than the perfect following
of the Will of Christ. His desire not to exalt the Com-
panies of which he was the human Founder led him into
the use of expressions indicating the superiority of other
Orders, but in fact no classification was consistent with
his actual point of view. It is worth while to follow
him into the detail of his direction of his Mission Priests
that we may understand how searching and intimate
was his representation of this claim of Christ upon them.
If they neglected details, it was a sign that their vocation
was not being faithfully followed. Unless the fire of the
love of Christ was near extinction, there could be no
desire to snatch the sweetness of small indulgences ; and
by the lowering of purpose in one member the whole
Company suffered, for they were knit together by the
acknowledgment of a claim that touched them all equally.
As the first fervour that delights in exaggerated self-
immolation died away, there appeared in many of these
souls a tendency to rely on their vocation in its spiritual
aspect, and neglect its external demands. In 1650 there
is a letter from M. Vincent* (it is addressed to the Superior
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 145.
328
THE VOCATION OF A MISSION PRIEST 329
at Richelieu, but it was sent to all the Branch-Houses of
the Company) on the question of the rigorous observance
of the Rule and the reason for such observance. This
letter touches a principle which was a matter of difficulty
to many, and though much of it is concerned with the
minutiae of the semi-monastic life of a Mission Priest, it
would lose weight if given merely in extract.
M Monsieur,
" You know that everything is constantly under-
going change, that even men are never in exactly the
same state, and that God often allows the most sanctified
of societies to suffer loss. There have been examples of
this in some of our houses, and it has come to our know-
ledge from visits made to them, although at first we did
not discover the reason of it. It has taken some study
and attention to find it out, but at last God has made it
clear that a bad result has proceeded from the freedom
with which some of you have indulged in more rest than
the Rule allows. All the more because, in consequence
of not joining the others in prayer, they forfeit the ad-
vantage of prayer in common, and very often pray very
little or not at all by themselves. It follows that, as
these persons are less watchful of themselves, they grow
slack in conduct, and the Community no longer holds its
life in common. To check such disorder, the root must
be removed, and to that end you must require punc-
tuality in rising, and insist on its observance, so that,
little by little, each house will change its character,
growing more attached to the Rule, and every individual
will learn to prize his own spiritual privilege.
" All this caused us to make this opening act of the
day the subject of our first ' Conference ' in this new year,
that we might become more resolute in all making four
o'clock the invariable hour of rising, and so attain the
sooner to the good effects of such faithfulness. This
having been the subject of our discussion, I thought it
330 VINCENT DE PAUL
well, Monsieur, to inform you of it, and to take counsel
with you on the possibilities of objections to it, and the
best means of impressing it on your family, so that they
may maintain the same practice (or adopt it, if they are
not doing so at present), and have their share in the
blessing on it.
" The first advantage in rising at the moment of call
is that it is fulfilment of the Rule, and consequently of
the Will of God.
" The second, that the more prompt the obedience at
that hour, the more acceptable is it to God, and it will
bring a blessing on all the other doings of the day, as we
see in the promptitude of Samuel, who, having risen
three times in one night, won the praise of Heaven and
earth, and special favour from God.
" The third, that one gives first place to that which is
most worthy of honour, and as all honour belongs to God,
we should give to Him this first act of the day, otherwise
we shall be handing it to the Devil, allowing him to come
before God. This is why he prowls around our bed when
the day begins, that even if he have no more of us later,
he may be assured of our first act.
" The fourth advantage is that, once one is accustomed
to a time, there is no difficulty in waking or in getting
up, habit taking the place of a clock, if none is to be had.
While, on the other hand, Nature presumes on all we
yield to her. If we rest one day, the next she will ask
for the same indulgence, and continue the demand so
long as we give her opportunity.
" The fifth is that mind and body are the better for the
regulating of sleep. Those who allow themselves much
become effeminate, and open the door to temptation.
u If the life of man is too short to serve God worthily
and to atone for the waste of the night, it is melancholy
that we should desire to curtail even such time as we
have. A merchant will get up early to attain to riches;
every moment is precious to him. A robber will do the
THE VOCATION OF A MISSION PRIEST 331
same, and will be up all night that he may waylay
travellers. Is it well that we should have less industry
for good than they for evil ? In the world there is much
eagerness to be up to attend a great man's levee. Mon
Dieu ! how can we face the shame of losing the appointed
hour for intercourse with the Lord of Lords, our patron
and our all, because of our laziness ?
" When we take part in prayer and orhce we share in
Our Saviour's blessing, Who gives Himself freely, being
present, as He Himself has said, among those who
assemble in His Name. The morning is the fittest time
for this employment, as being the quietest in the day.
The hermits of old and the Saints, following in the steps
of David, used it for prayer and meditation. The
Israelites had to rise early to gather manna, and we,
being without grace or virtue, why should we not do the
same to attain to these things ? God does not bestow
His favours equally at all times.
" It is unquestionable that since He has given us grace
to rise all at the same moment, we are all more punctual,
more recollected, more humble, and in this there is reason
to hope that so long as we are agreed on this matter there
will be continuous growth in grace, and each one of us
will find his vocation deepening. There are several who
have left because, as they could not get enough ease,
they could not content themselves with their condition.
How can there be any eagerness for prayer in those who
are only half-awake, and only get up under protest ? On
the other hand, those who rise promptly are those generally
who persevere, who never grow slack, and make good
progress. The reality of vocation depends on prayer,
and the reality of prayer depends on getting up. If we
are faithful in this first act, if we come before Him all
together as the first Christians did, He will give Himself
to us, He will give us of His light, and will Himself bring
to pass in us and by us the good which we are bound to
do in His Church. And He will give us grace to attain
332 VINCENT DE PAUL
that degree of perfection which He requires of us, that
we may be one with Him in eternity.
" You will see, Monsieur, how important it is that all
the Company should rise at four exactly, because the
worth of our prayer depends upon this opening action,
and the worth of everything else we do rests on what
our prayer has made it. He who said that he could tell
what all his day would be from the prayer that began it,
spoke with knowledge.
" In some, however, the love of soft living will not
surrender without remonstrance, and because there is
some excuse for saying that the rule of rising should not
be equally binding on strong and weak, I foresee that it
will be urged that the weak need longer rest than others.
To that the best answer is the opinion of doctors, who
all agree that seven hours' sleep is enough for all sorts of
people, and also the example of all religious Orders, who
limit sleep to seven hours. There are none who take more,
there are some who do not have so much, and with most
it is interrupted, as they rise two or three times in the
night to go to chapel. That which most of all reflects
upon our weakness is that nuns do not have any more
indulgence, although they have less strength and have
been brought up more luxuriously.
" ! But, surely, they sometimes take an extra allowance
of sleep V No, I have never heard that they do so, and
I can assert that the nuns of S. Mary do not, except in
the case of those who are ill and in the infirmary. * What,
Monsieur !' cries someone else, ' must one get up when
one is ill ? I have a terrible headache, a toothache, an
attack of fever that has kept me awake all night f Yes,
my brother, my friend, you must get up if you are not
in hospital, or have not received a special order to remain
in bed; for if you have got no relief from seven hours'
sleep, one or two hours more prescribed by yourself will
not cure you. But if, in fact, you do require relief, it is
needful that you should praise God with the others in
THE VOCATION OF A MISSION PRIEST 333
the appointed place of prayer, and that you there make
your need known to the Superior. Unless this is the
rule, we shall be perpetually forced to begin all over again,
because so many will very often feel some illness, and
others will pretend that they do, that they may pamper
themselves, and so there will be endless opportunities
for irregularity. And if one does not sleep soundly one
night, Nature is very well able to make up for it the next.
" ■ Do you mean also, Monsieur/ 1 hear someone
asking, ' to forbid any extra rest to those who have come
off a journey or have just completed some arduous task ¥
I answer, Yes, where the early morning is in question;
but when the Superior thinks there is weariness that
demands more than seven hours' rest, he can give leave
to retire earlier than the others. ' But when they come in
very late and very tired ?' In that case there would be
no harm in allowing longer rest in the morning, because
necessity is its own rule. ' What ! must we always get
up at four o'clock, in spite of the custom of resting till
six once a week, or at least once a fortnight, to get a little
refreshed ? This is not only very annoying, but it is enough
to make us all ill !' There sounds the tongue of self-
love, and here is the answer : Our Rule and custom re-
quires that we all have the same hour of rising. If there
has been any laxity, it has only been so of late, and only
in some houses, by the fault of individuals and the indul-
gence of Superiors, for in others the rule for rising has
always been adhered to faithfully, and these are the
prosperous ones. To think that illness will result from
there being no intermission in observance is merely a
fancy; experience has proved the contrary. Since the
Rule was enforced there has been no illness here or else-
where that there was not before, and, moreover, we know,
and the doctors repeat, that oversleep is bad both for
the dull and the high strung. Finally, if it be urged
against me that there may be some reason which prevents
someone from going to rest at nine or ten o'clock, I
334 VINCENT DE PAUL
answer that such reasons must, if possible, be avoided;
and if there be impossibility, it will be so rare that the
loss of an hour or two of sleep is insignificant compared
to the harm done by one remaining in bed while the others
are praying.
" Have I not made a great mistake, Monsieur, to have
expressed myself at such length with regard to the im-
portance and usefulness of early rising, when your family
is perhaps the most regular and the most fervent in all
the Company ? If that be so, I have no other object
than to urge on them a humble thankfulness towards
God for the faithfulness that He has given them; but if
they have fallen into the fault against which we are
fighting, I have good reason, I think, to require them to
raise themselves from it and to ask you, as I am doing,
to uphold them.
" May it please God, Monsieur, to pardon our past
failures, and to give us grace to amend, that we may be
like those fortunate servants whom the Master shall find
watching when He comet h.
" Here, indeed, is sufficient for one letter ; I ask the
prayers of you and of your little Company."
Two points are here made clear to us : First, that the
Mission Priests — though many of them were marvels of
courage and self-devotion — were, in ordinary life, very
human in inclination and in weakness. In consequence
of this we see in truer proportions the miracle of guidance
performed by M. Vincent. We may be tempted to think
of him as controlling a huge machine which, from distant
and scattered quarters, was connected with S. Lazare.
Instead, we must recognize that his control was over a
company of human beings, each with a very definite in-
dividuality, and each with his special struggle to maintain
against familiar and ordinary temptation.
And then, by his insistence on a detail, we see how
M. Vincent required the testimony of vocation to shine
THE VOCATION OF A MISSION PRIEST 335
in every thread of the fabric of a life. The truly dedi-
cated life, under whatever conditions, is offered whole.
There can be no treasured indulgence, however small,
kept in reserve ; even the wish to save out of the sacrifice
is enough to spoil its value. A lengthy dissertation on
the advantages of early rising is not, perhaps, a valuable
contribution to spiritual literature, yet M. Vincent's ex-
hortation to his Sons on the necessity of exact obedience
to the Rule that a Mission Priest got up at four is one
of the most characteristic expressions of himself that has
been preserved to us. It is an exhortation to obedience,
but it is much more than that. In the headquarters at
S. Lazare the Superior-General, in spite of the innumerable
claims upon his time, was living a life of prayer. In
so far as the strength of the Company emanated from
him, it was not on his experience and administrative
capacity that it depended, but on his faithfulness in
prayer. The evidence of his letters, as well as the witness
of those who knew him, leaves no uncertainty on this
point. Every distress and every difficulty was with the
most complete simplicity laid before God, and he had
discovered that there was no other method of guarding
a vocation from the perils of distraction, of ennui, and
of self-indulgence; his sense of peril was his motive for
summoning his Sons to prayer. At the same moment
every one of that great troop of combatants must be
united (despite all division of distance) in asking for the
aid they would all need before the day ended ; if indiffer-
ence crept in here the Company was doomed. It was,
therefore, not only the enforcing of an order, but the
comprehension of its spirit and the real desire to fulfil
it which M. Vincent considered necessary, and this was
by no means a small demand.
That obedience as obedience was required of a Mission
Priest no less than of a Religious has been demonstrated
in many of the letters already quoted. In its aspect as
an exercise in humility it was specially cherished by
336 VINCENT DE PAUL
M. Vincent ; he himself relates* that one of the seminary
students was so full of zeal for his own spiritual advance
that he desired to attend the lectures to ordination candi-
dates. He asked leave to do so from the Director, but
it was not immediately accorded to him, and he ventured
to gratify his desire without leave. He was at the end
of his last year, but for this misdemeanour he was re-
quired to remain an additional six months, " not having
had strength to subdue himself in this matter."
The unnamed culprit seems to have been an ardent
youth athirst to realize the spirit of the vocation which
he hoped might be his own, snatching at every chance
of external assistance and eager in every devotional
exercise. Probably he would have been foremost in up-
holding M. Vincent's theory that the Mission Priest must
be a man of prayer, and would have given intellectual
assent to the assurance that humility is the necessary
concomitant of the true spirit of prayer; but, when it
was a question of deferring to the judgment of another
where his own spiritual needs were concerned, his in-
tellectual apprehension proved insufficient, and his pro-
fessions of humility showed themselves to be unreal.
By this one instance, insignificant enough in itself, we
can judge of the innumerable questions that must have
come before M. Vincent, in which his decision had life-
long effect on the spiritual life of those concerned; and
of the impossibility of bearing such a burden solely by the
aid of reason and experience. Rebuke was so very often
necessary, and among the many responsibilities of
authority there is none in which the grace of God is more
essential than in the giving of rebuke. The vagaries of
error were endless. Besides the heresy, the disloyalty,
the disobedience, which were self-evident temptations to
those who made profession of self -surrender, there were
unexpected outbreaks originating in failings that were
inconsistent with the most elementary understanding of
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 347.
THE VOCATION OF A MISSION PRIEST 337
the vocation of a Mission Priest. It was hard always
for M. Vincent to believe that a real understanding,
however faint, of what it meant to be a Mission Priest,
could ever be clouded by any other consideration. As
he expressed it to one of them who was tempted by the
ambition of a scholar :*
" You must make yourself realize that there are
thousands of souls who are stretching out their hands to
you, who are saying, ' Alas, Monsieur ! God has chosen
you to help to save us ; have pity on us and give us your
hand to draw us out of our present misery. We are left
to rot in ignorance of our chance of salvation, and in
sins which we have been ashamed to confess. If we lack
your help we are in peril of damnation !' "
This is a very simple presentment of the position as
M. Vincent understood it. The horrors of ignorance and
vice were very vivid in his own mind, and it was the part
of the priest to remedy them. It was the duty of his Com-
pany not only to be physicians themselves, but to train
others to the same office, and both labours were equally
important. We have an instance of the varied difficulties
of the Superior-General in connection with this work of
training. One of his priests employed therein was domi-
nated by a violent temper, which expressed itself in
abusive language and in blows. The need of plain rebuke
was clear, the whole Company was likely to suffer by the
scandal; but the sinner was the more difficult to deal
with because he was not convinced that he was wrong,
and M. Vincent became more forcible than was his habit
in consequence :f
" If you say that you have not observed these faults in
yourself, Monsieur, that is only a sign that you have very
little humility; if you had as much as our Lord requires
of a Priest of the Mission you would regard yourself as
the faultiest of all, you would know yourself capable of
these things, and would assume that the reason you do
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 21 (1634). f Ibid., vol. ii., No. 393.
22
333 VINCENT DE PAUL
not see what is seen by others, especially since you have
been criticized, is some secret blindness in yourself. And
with regard to criticism : I am informed also that you
will not tolerate any from your Superior and still less
from others. If this be so, Monsieur, your condition is
indeed serious, and very far removed from that of the
Saints who humbled themselves before the world and were
glad to be shown any defects."
In truth, the condition of very many of them was very
far removed from that of the Saints, and yet the Call of
God upon them was one that demanded saintliness. The
work of village Missions alone required a specially con-
secrated body ; and this need of sanctification becomes, if
possible, even more evident if we turn to that other
missionary enterprise that had its centre at Marseilles.
With the possible exception of the Foundling Hospital
in Paris, the most celebrated labour undertaken by
M. Vincent was that connected with the convicts at
Marseilles. It is in a measure detached from the accepted
tasks of the Company, but by its difficulty, and by the
conquest of inclination that it demanded, employment in
it was the most real test of spirituality. The idea that
M. Vincent's sympathy was first drawn towards the
captives in the Hulks by the recollection of his own years
of slavery is not a straining of probability; there is a
story that his pity once moved him to change places
with one of these wretched beings. We do not have it
on his own authority, and the question of belief in it
may be left to the discretion of the individual; his real
claim on the gratitude of the convicts had a far deeper
basis than a passing act of quixotism.
That which is humanly described as chance gave Vin-
cent de Paul his original link to the Hulks at Marseilles.
M. de Gondi was General of the Galleys, and as a member
of his household, access to them, which otherwise might
have been denied, was accorded to him. Whether his
first visit was by the desire of M. de Gondi or at his own
THE VOCATION OF A MISSION PRIEST 339
request we have no means of knowing, nor does it signify;
the work was waiting for him, and somehow he was
brought to it. It would be an offence to transcribe the
record of conditions prevailing in those days at Marseilles
and at Toulon. The King's ships were rowed by male-
factors; it was necessary that they should be rowed, and
volunteers for the office were not forthcoming, therefore
the stock of malefactors could never be permitted to run
low, and the list of crimes which were visited by con-
demnation to the galleys became a formidable one.*
When the term of the sentence was reached, there was
no guarantee of release for those whose services were still
required. An edict of Louis XIII. t ordains that the
first two years of a convict's labour should not count as
part of his sentence, because it took that period to train
him as a seasoned and accomplished oarsman, and there
seems to have been no protest against this singular in-
version of the principle of punishment. When we add
that the training, and the subsequent labour of those
who were trained, was under the lash, that the rowers
were chained to their oars, and that no change of climate
altered in the slightest the conditions imposed upon them,
we can form some idea of the despair which descended
on the prisoner who heard this doom pronounced upon
him.
As far as the process of the law was concerned, Vincent
de Paul did not effect any improvement in the position
of a convict. It is well to admit this fact at the outset;
but it is difficult to decide whether any interference was
within his power. We know that at the very beginning
of his intercourse with themf he received a special ap-
* For example : An innkeeper lodging a stranger for more than
one night without informing authorities; an able-bodied beggar
giving a false name or simulating disease; anyone who could be
proved to have caused a woodland fire, even accidentally (Simard,
"Vincent de Paul a Marseilles").
f Clement, " La Police sous Louis XIII., Les Galeres."
t 1619-
340 VINCENT DE PAUL
pointment from Louis XIII. as Royal Almoner to the
Galleys, and also that M. de Gondi was extremely in-
fluential, and he stood high in favour with M. de Gondi.
Even in those days, moreover, it was possible to appeal
to popular sentiment to check a monstrous abuse, and a
priest with the reputation that M. Vincent already pos-
sessed had the best opportunity for circulating such an
appeal; his observations would be listened to and re-
peated until his cause became a public one. On the
other hand, he was a member of the household of M. de
Gondi, and an outcry raised against the conditions of
the convicts was of necessity an attack on the General
of the Galleys. At the time of his first connection with
them he had made his attempt to retire into obscurity,
and had just accepted the decision that the place he held
was assigned to him by God. Moreover, at all times he
was influenced by the instinct of deference from the
peasant to the noble, and he would not have assumed
the position of mentor towards M. de Gondi without the
actual compulsion of his conscience. It is clear that he
felt no such compulsion, nor, when M. de Gondi himself
was no longer concerned, did M. Vincent attempt to move
the authorities ; and thirteen years after his death we
find a Bishop of Marseilles presenting a humble petition
in favour of certain prisoners whose term of servitude had
expired ten years earlier, but who were still chained to
their oars, which suggests that the barbarities practised
in 1622 had not lessened half a century later.
The explanation of M. Vincent's quiescence is not to
be found in a failure of compassion. He realized what
sentence meant to the future galley slave, he knew that
many died by their own hand rather than face the
penalty, and that the lives of many more were wasted
from lack of the bare necessities of existence, while all
were brutalized by the cruelties to which they were sub-
jected. He suffered in the thought of their sufferings,
but there seems to have been in him a touch of something
THE VOCATION OF A MISSION PRIEST 341
akin to fatalism; we find evidence of it in his unwilling-
ness to interfere with the administration of the Hotel-
Dieu at the call of Mme. Goussaulte, and again in his
abstinence from protest when Jean Francois de Gondi
became a candidate for priesthood. To the onlooker in
these very differing cases his duty appears obvious, but
in the first he only took action under obedience, and in
the second he never attempted any action at all. In
fact, we must believe that he waited always for the call
of God, and that complete reliance (which we have seen
sustaining him under responsibilities that were too great
for human strength) withheld him from interference in
disorder, unless he was assured that interference was
required of him by God. This position of absolute qui-
escence is, of course, difficult to reconcile with the theory
of the pure philanthropist; it is not one that can be
adopted lightly, for it assumes the long and diligent
practice of prayer which safeguards the soul from self-
deception. If M. Vincent's life was in any degree con-
sistent, we must recognize that that which he left undone
was so left as the result of prayer.
The fact being admitted, then, that the cruelty meted
to the convicts was not lessened by M. Vincent, it is de-
sirable to ascertain the actual value of his sympathetic
intentions towards them. It was the custom to assemble
the prisoners destined for the Hulks in Paris until there
were a sufficient number to be worth escorting southward ;
then la chaine started on its miserable pilgrimage. But
great as were the horrors of the road, they were not
greater than those which were endured in the time of
waiting in the dungeons of the capital ; and here M. Vin-
cent was able to interfere to some purpose. For the good
of the State it was desirable to preserve these future
oarsmen from disease, and the conditions to which they
were abandoned made disease inevitable. Contemporary
writers revel in revolting details, but it is sufficient to note
that in this intermediate stage between condemnation
342 VINCENT DE PAUL
and the fulfilment of their sentence, the culprits were kept
chained to a wall in prisons that in some cases were
underground. M. Vincent collected money, and a build-
ing in the Rue S. Hon ore, near the church of S. Roch,
was dedicated to the purpose he desired. Thenceforward
a galley-slave obtained his first knowledge of the charity
of the Mission Priests before he reached Marseilles ; more-
over, when the Confraternities had developed, benevo-
lence to the convict was one of the duties of a Lady of
Charity ; and if they fell ill while still in Paris, they were
tended by Sisters of the Poor. By this means the way
was opened for nearer approach when they were estab-
lished at Marseilles.
The earliest scenes in the history of the Mission to the
Convicts are personal to M. Vincent. He could use the
memory of his own imprisonment to give him a footing
of equality, and even at that period he had so far attained
humility that the most resentful of tempers could not
detect in him any tokens of condescension. He desired
to approach them as comrades who had fallen on evil
days, and by that method opened a door to their hearts
that might have appeared to be hermetically sealed. It
is impossible to imagine a less promising scene for spiritual
awakening than the Hulks at Marseilles and Toulon, but
the surprise that proceeds from violence of contrast has
a peculiar power. Men who were habitually treated as
brutes were astonished at the approach of a stranger —
even though he was only a priest in a shabby cassock —
who spoke to them as if there was some favour they
might confer upon him, and appeared oblivious of the
horrors that made them loathsome to themselves and
to each other. In Paris one of them threw a dish at one
of the Sisters of Charity, and in return she besought the
guards not to punish him.* This was the method which
M. Vincent desired in dealing with them. He knew that
even the most righteous severity would be misplaced.
* "Conferences," No. 102.
THE VOCATION OF A MISSION PRIEST 343
"It is when I have kissed their chains, sympathized in
their sufferings, and showed them my sorrow for their
misfortunes, it is then that they have listened to me,
that they have given glory to God, that they have
sought salvation." So he wrote in after-years to the
priest* who was carrying on his labours at Marseilles,
and the description probably is almost literal. He was
doing that which was folly in the eyes of the world, and
he could only do it by such an effort of the spirit as
should show him Christ in the most miserable and the
most guilty of the unfortunates to whom he ministered.
His scheme for the holding of Missions was new in his
mind at the time of his first knowledge of the convicts,
and in 1622 he applied it for their benefit. He had the
fullest support from de Gondi, and from Cardinal de
Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux. He was allowed to
choose twenty Religious to help him, and had free en-
trance to the galleys for himself and them. He ap-
pointed two to each vessel, and himself passed from one
to another, working continually. His Mission lasted a
month, and whatever may have been its permanent effect
on the prisoners themselves, the effect upon M. Vincent
was to imbue him with a strong desire to resume the
attempt that he had made, and to provide some per-
manent aid and means of consolation for these the most
wretched of his fellow-countrymen. No claim, in fact,
could make sharper appeal to the instinct of pity, but
M. Vincent did not rule the order of his undertakings by
any obvious human instinct. It may be that the work
at Marseilles was crowded out by the rapid march of
events, and by his own separation from the General of
the Galleys, but it is quite equally likely that, having
brought his own great inclination for this enterprise
before God, he was not convinced that he was called to
embark on it ; and, in fact, it was left in abeyance for ten
years. The position of M. Vincent between 1620 and
* M. du Coudray.
344 VINCENT DE PAUL
1630 was a strange one. He was awaking, first, to a
sense of the miseries, physical and spiritual, endured by
the majority of his fellow-countrymen; and, second, to
the comprehension of his own mission as God's agent for
their assistance. The effect of the double revelation upon
him resembles the consternation expressed by Isaiah,
rather than the ardour of the successful leader of reform.
He was always afraid to assume that, because he saw
the existence of an evil, it was necessarily his part to
interfere with it. Later on, when he held in his hands
the threads that could guide great forces of benevolence,
the response to cries for help was accorded with less
misgiving; but in that earlier time he was, in his own
phrase, " afraid to encroach upon the purposes of God."
His vocation was only gradually accepted. It came to
him with an understanding of its difficulty that was as a
fire for the burning of his self-esteem. In the time of
transition, although there were many possibilities of ser-
vice within his reach and within his capacity, he chose
to set them aside deliberately.
When he resumed his work for the convicts, there is
evidence that M. Vincent was no longer single-handed.
As far as it is possible to disentangle the confusion of
record, it would appear that the Cabale des Devots had
been in advance of him in practical effort for lessening
the horrors of the galleys, and that it was chiefly their
efforts which achieved the building of a hospital for the
tending of the convicts in sickness . As Abelli never makes
any reference to that strange secret society, and he is
responsible for the contemporary record of M. Vincent,
it is quite possible that credit has been unfairly appor-
tioned in this as in other matters ; but there is no doubt
that, when public attention had once been directed to
this particular abuse, all responsibility for spiritual
ministration to the prisoners was assigned as a matter
of course to the Priests of the Mission. It was in 1643
that the hospital was actually opened, and at the same
OF THE
UNlVERs/Ty
OF
' ^Ul/ FORNIX
THE VOCATION OF A MISSION PRIEST 345
time, by the generosity of Mme. d'Aiguillon, a permanent
house in connection with it was established for the use
of the Lazarists, four of whom were to be always in resi-
dence. Then at length M. Vincent was able to send
labourers to the field on which he himself had entered
twenty years earlier with such energy and enthusiasm.
By general consent it was decided that the new con-
ditions should be inaugurated by the holding of a Mission.
One of the Oratorians — Jean Baptiste Gault — had
recently been made Bishop of Marseilles, and his extreme
enthusiasm for the work resulted in his death from ex-
haustion and overstrain.
The Mission lasted twenty days, the first eight being
given to instructing the prisoners collectively ; afterwards
opportunity of individual intercourse was allowed by the
authorities. Even with every facility for investigation a
spiritual balance-sheet is of questionable value, and it is
not at this distance of time possible to form any estimate
of the result. The Director was M. du Coudray, one of
the first companions of M. Vincent, and pre-eminently
fitted for his task, and we are told that scarcely a soul
upon the Hulks remained unaffected. It is evident that
a wave of emotionalism passed over them, and there are
picturesque accounts of the prayer meetings held among
themselves by the convicts, and the intervals of leisure
devoted to the singing of hymns and to spiritual reading.
Only a little knowledge of the criminal class is sufficient,
however, to discount a reckoning of wholesale conver-
sion.
All that we can know is that the twenty days' Mission
made a great impression, and that the work that fol-
lowed it was worthy of the highest tradition of the Mission
Priests. The fact that the hospital was under their
supervision was an immense assistance to them. The
galley-slave who escaped thither from the horror of
illness on the Hulks found himself under merciful condi-
tions of which he had had no experience. It was the
346 VINCENT DE PAUL
most opportune moment conceivable for delivering to
him that message of interior peace with which the Lazarist
was commissioned. But the deceptive faculty draws its
most luxuriant growth from the soil that nourishes the
criminal instincts, and spurious penitence no doubt was
common in the convict hospital, and disappointment
the most ordinary experience of the Mission Priest. It
was, indeed, admitted that the most arduous post for a
member of the Company was that of Superior to the
Mission at Marseilles, and that the labour that set the
severest tax on spiritual vitality concerned the prisoners
in the galleys. But it might be admitted with equal
justice that there was none more suited to a true Son of
M. Vincent, for it forced him into a supreme reality of
aspiration. Constant failure might be relied upon to
weaken his self-love, and the ugliness of the life he was
forced to look at schooled him in detachment. So
trained, he had the fullest opportunity of living up to
his vocation.
There were difficulties besides the difficulty of their
spiritual labour. Certain townsfolk of Marseilles were
associated with them in the government of the hospital,
and local jealousies and disagreements disturbed its
peaceful ordering. Graver questions were involved by
their connection with the Hulks. Here the appointment
of the Almoner (necessarily a priest) was in their hands,
but the Captain of a galley was supreme with a kind of
supremacy that has no parallel in civilian life ; and the
office of Almoner, though it had long had nominal exist-
ence on every galley, was not recognized with any respect.
The Almoner had a place at the Captain's table, and,
despite his priesthood, was under the Captain's orders.
He was sometimes required to take his turn of watch,
and it was extremely hard for him to assert the real
immunity from any service of the ship which was his
right. It was, in fact, such an anomalous position that
vacancies, when they occurred, were very difficult to fill,
THE VOCATION OF A MISSION PRIEST 347
and the candidates were not of a type that could be
imbued with the missionary spirit. Yet, when the galleys
put out from port, the rowers had no spiritual assistance
except from the Almoner, and the whole object of the
Mission Priests on shore was so to stir them from their
apathy that they would need spiritual assistance. When
Colbert was Chief Minister there were forty galleys in the
harbour, and more than 8,000 prisoners manning them.
The responsibility resting on the little Company of
Lazarists established at Marseilles was, therefore, very
heavy, and it is evident that the naval authorities re-
sented any interference from them, and interposed every
hindrance to the fulfilment of their charge.
There was another consideration for those posted at
Marseilles besides the constant test of tolerance and
temper. The danger to health was abnormal. Bishop
Gault may have fallen a victim to overwork, but many
of the deaths there were clearly due to infection. One
of the Company — M. Robiche — a man of thirty-five, and
in vigorous health when he arrived, forfeited his life after
a few months of service. He was noted for his devotion
to the prisoners in the hospital, and from them he caught
what is termed a " purple fever," and died of it. Of
necessity his companions and his successor must have
realized that his fate was always hovering very near
themselves. Marseilles was, indeed, no place for waverers,
and even the most faithful may have flinched sometimes
at the sharpness of the demand life made on them.
In 1649 there was so terrible an outbreak of the plague
as to cause a sort of stampede among the inhabitants.
The condition of the Hulks reached a point of horror from
which the imagination recoils. There was no one to per-
form the most ordinary offices for the dying or the dead,
but the prisoners remained prisoners still without oppor-
tunity to snatch a chance of life. A few words record the
fact that the Sons of M. Vincent stuck to their post, but
it is a fact that implies much. In those days terror
348 VINCENT DE PAUL
of the plague amounted to a passion, and their numbers
— there were but four of them — were utterly inadequate.
If they had retired on the plea that the situation was
beyond their power to remedy, the excuse could hardly
have been challenged ; instead, they did their part to
establish the standard of the Company. Aided by Simiane
de la Coste, a Provencal gentleman who was a prominent
member of the Cabale des Devots, they laboured inces-
santly, endeavouring specially to preserve the living by
burying the dead. It is remarkable that only two —
M. de la Coste and one of the Lazarists — died, for the
mortality was abnormal, and the peculiar horrors of this
particular outbreak of the pestilence is still one of the
traditions of Marseilles.
M. Vincent loved his Sons individually, and waited day
by day in eager expectation of news from the South ; but
he was at peace concerning them, whether he ever saw
them in the flesh again or not, for they were showing
that spirit of entire self-offering which should be inherent
in the priest, and justifying for all time the vocation of
his " paltry Company."
CHAPTER VIII
THE FOREIGN MISSIONS
A certain infection lies in the display of courage. The
Lazarists at Marseilles, who held their lives so lightly, were
partly responsible for the fine indifference to danger which
came to be recognized as characteristic of the Company.
It is probable that M. Vincent was affected by this
development among his Sons, and that their readiness to
sacrifice themselves suggested those perilous enterprises
on which he embarked in the last fifteen years of his life.
It was also a natural sequence of idea which drew him
from the criminal captives on the galleys to their innocent
companions in adversity, the Christian slaves in Tunis
and Algiers. In those days the Mediterranean was in-
fested by Turkish pirates, who made as much profit out
of the crew and passengers on board their prizes as out
of the merchandise. Their prisoners were sold in the
market at Algiers as cattle are sold, and were treated
afterwards as having less value than cattle. No differ-
ence of degree was recognized between the gently born
and the roughest seaman, and no pity was shown to
women. Only the width of the Mediterranean separated
French subjects from their native land, but no effort was
made to deliver them from a bondage that was daily
torture. At Algiers there are said to have been about
20,000 slaves, and the majority of them were French; yet
France was nominally on peaceful terms with the Sultan,
and had her Consuls to represent her in his dominions.
The position was singular, and it would require intimate
knowledge of the practices of diplomacy at that period
to understand it.
349
350 VINCENT DE PAUL
M. Vincent cannot have had much experience of the
administration of foreign affairs, but his connection with
Marseilles brought the plight of the Christian slaves in
Africa before his attention, and the memory of his own
youth sharpened his perception of this horror. It was
not only compassion for their pain that moved him. He
thought of them as Catholics in the hands of infidels, and
he determined to put within their reach the only consola-
tion that could be of real value in the midst of such suf-
fering as theirs. This enterprise was the most risky of
all that he undertook. The actual loss of life involved
was less than in the missionary expedition to Madagascar,
but in it he touched issues which were outside the office
of a priest, and the Company at times ran serious risk of
discredit. It is easy to understand the motive of his
action — he was venturing where others dared not ven-
ture, because unhappy souls pleaded to him for succour —
but it was utterly at variance with his habitual prudence.
His first measure was not so reckless as that which fol-
lowed. It was by the terms of a treaty with the Sultan
that France was represented by Consuls both at Algiers
and Tunis, and the Consul had permission to bring with
him a priest of his own faith. The Consuls had shown no
eagerness to avail themselves of this privilege, but it gave
opportunity to M. Vincent, who obtained the appoint-
ments for Priests of the Mission. No plan could have
been more wise and reasonable. A Mission Priest sent
by the French Government, and officially attached to the
French Consul, should have had every opportunity of
ministering to French subjects unmolested. But, although
something was achieved, the obstacles thrown in the way
of the Lazarists almost nullified their efforts, and M. Vin-
cent, in far-away Paris, came to the conclusion that it
was mainly due to the Consuls that no progress was being
made. It is possible that this decision was a just one.
The position of a Consul was exceedingly precarious.
Either Sultan or Dey would break faith if the inducement
THE FOREIGN MISSIONS 351
were sufficient, and any infringement of the treaty with
France would inevitably mean death to the French Consul.
The successive holders of the office were mainly occupied
in endeavours to escape from it without damage to their
future career, and incidentally they were sometimes able
to acquire fortune by a trading venture. It was not to be
expected that they would welcome the advent of the
priests from France, nor that they would do anything to
facilitate any plans that concerned the spiritual consola-
tion of the Christian slave. The Queen Regent might be
reputed to have pious proclivities, but it was a far cry
from Algiers to the Palais Royal. The reward accruing
to those who aided the Lazarists was problematical, while
the risk of so doing was obvious and immediate. As a
result, the reports of the Lazarists, while they deepened
M. Vincent's conviction of the need of missionary labour
in Algiers, did not satisfy him that their actual presence
there was being of much benefit to the Christian cap-
tives.
It would appear that the Turks were anxious to win
converts for Mohammedanism, and that the plight of the
slaves was aggravated by intermittent religious persecu-
tion. We find M. Vincent embarking on action which
appears ill-judged and hasty, and it is interesting to see
that he did not do so to prevent bodily suffering. It is
plain that he was haunted by the thought of the constant
danger of apostasy that shadowed these unhappy cap-
tives. He knew the isolation and the hopelessness of
their lot, and could realize that the great amelioration
that would reward them for denial of their religion was a
temptation not easily withstood. He was not able to
deliver them from their distress, but he believed himself
to be under a sacred obligation to provide them with the
consolations of their faith. Without the Sacraments it
was hard for them to continue steadfast, yet, if they
yielded to their tempters, they condemned themselves
to punishment for all eternity. His point towards their
352 VINCENT DE PAUL
dilemma was absolutely consistent with the principles
by which his life was ruled, and it was the zeal of
a faithful priest that prompted him to his great ad-
venture; nevertheless, it is with something of a shock
that we find him buying, on behalf of the Congrega-
tion of the Mission, the office of Consul at Tunis and
at Algiers, and appointing to each a member of the
Company that was pledged to hold aloof from politics.
M It was a mistake of his piety to imagine that the quali-
ties essential to a Consul could co-exist with those essen-
tial to his monks," says M. Eugene Plant ol in his chronicle
of the relations between Algiers and France.* " Christian
humility and the thirst for martyrdom are not the best
qualifications for a Consul," is the suggestive phrase of
another of his critics.f Possibly the mistake is explained
by the difference between M. Vincent's estimate of '* the
qualities essential to a Consul," and that of the normal
observer, and no word of his ever suggests that he re-
garded his experiment as a failure.
" If it is worth risking a life for the salvation of one
soul," he wrote,J after nine years' experience of the diffi-
culty of the enterprise, " how can we give up so vast a
number because we count the cost ? And even if the
only result of our attempt was to show the glory of our
faith to that accursed land by the testimony of men who
cross the sea and leave their home and brave a thousand
dangers to comfort their unhappy brethren — even so I
should hold the money and the men were well employed."
From the outset he needed all his courage. There were
remonstrances from Propaganda at Rome on the plea
that the Church forbade a priest to hold secular office in
a heathen country. The fact that the Mission Priests
* " Correspondance des Deys d' Alger avec la Cour de France,
1 5 79- 1 833," Introduction.
fH.de Grammont, " Relations entre la France et la Regence
d* Alger au ijme Siecle," part iv.
% " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 423.
THE FOREIGN MISSIONS 353
were Consuls proves that their Superior was able to over-
come these objections, but one may imagine that he did
so by the weight of his character rather than his argu-
ments, for reason was against him, and the Lazarist
Consuls were not successful as officials.
The history of this Mission, as it was under M. Vincent's
control, is a very curious one. His successor realized
that there were business faculties required, even from the
point of view of the captives, which members of the Com-
pany did not possess, and the right of appointment was
sold to Colbert in 1669; therefore the real experience of
the experiment was gained in M. Vincent's lifetime. The
clearest example of its drawbacks may be found in the
history of M. Barreau, who was appointed to Algiers in
1651, and appeared to be a promising pioneer for the new
scheme. M. Barreau was a native of Paris, belonging to
a family of wealth and established respectability ; he had
no vocation for the priesthood, but a strong instinct of
self-sacrifice urged him into becoming a Brother at
S. Lazare. He seemed to have every qualification that
M. Vincent most desired for the post. He was sure to give
loyal support to the priests of the Company, and to be
zealous in softening the lot of the Christian slaves in any
way that might be possible. But, unfortunately for
Frere Barreau, it was part of his duty to buy the release
of those captives for whom money could be collected.
Mme. d'Aiguillon (to whose generosity the purchase of
the Consular appointments was due) was specially ardent
in this matter, and vast sums were given, in the name of
religion and of charity, to save the Christian captives from
the risk of martyrdom or of apostasy. S. Lazare became
a sort of agency for the transport of ransoms, and in many
cases the relatives of a slave contributed all the money
they could raise to secure his liberation. It will be seen
that the business side of M. Barreau's commission re-
quired very careful handling ; but his personal touch with
individuals moved him to the most astonishing negligence
23
354 VINCENT DE PAUL
of the ordinary principles of justice. He deduced, from
the fact that all men are equal in the sight of God, the
theory that all had equal rights, and that therefore he
might apply for the liberation of one slave (whose plight
was specially dangerous or deplorable) the money that had
been contributed for the benefit of another.
The distance from S. Lazare to Algiers, and the length
of time required for communication, increased the diffi-
culty in which M. Barreau involved his Superior. In vain
M. Vincent reminded him that a year had elapsed since
the sums necessary for the release of such and such persons
had been acknowledged, and still nothing was heard of
their return, and " their relatives, who are justified in
requiring news of them, are giving trouble, and we know
not what to say."*
M. Barreau may not have intended to appropriate what
did not belong to him, but in actual fact he did make use
of the ransom intended for one unfortunate that he might
have the happiness of delivering another, and the explana-
tion that he regarded his action as consonant with the
strictest principles of Christian charity did not pacify the
father who had sold his goods for his son's release, or the
wife whose support depended on the speedy deliverance
of her husband. Living as he did in daily association
with the prisoners in Algiers, M. Barreau might congratu-
late himself that the money entrusted to him was applied
to the most urgent and deserving cases; but M. Vincent,
in Paris, had to deal with the disappointed kinsfolk of
those whose captivity had not aroused M. Barreau's pity,
and a note of indignation is apparent in the letters de-
spatched from headquarters. The Lazarists were unfor-
tunate in their choice of a representative; the reaction
from constant obedience seems to have combined with
inherent unworldliness to destroy any common sense that
he may ever have possessed. Not only did his compassion
move him to borrow largely to liberate the slaves, but he
* " Lettres," vol. i„ No. 243.
THE FOREIGN MISSIONS 355
was weak enough to go surety for a merchant from Mar-
seilles. The merchant went bankrupt and prudently
decamped, leaving liabilities to the extent of 12,000
crowns, for which the Consul was imprisoned by the
Turks.*
" Never before," wrote M. Vincent to the Superior at
Marseilles, f " have I had so fine a lesson in the evils of
disobedience as has been given me in these matters.
They have involved and discredited the Company to a
degree beyond possibility of telling."
The Company was not really implicated in the matter
of the Marseilles merchant, but the arrested debtor was
their representative, and it was impossible to leave him
to bear the penalty of his own folly. Money, that was so
sorely needed in other directions, had to be collected to
set M. Barreau free, and, when his release had been
effected, he received a vigorous letter of advice from his
Superior. " I give thanks to Divine goodness," wrote
M. Vincent, J " that you have preserved your reputation
and can still protect the slaves for whom you have so
much feeling. You must be very careful not to divert
sums of money to other purposes than those for which
they are sent to you (for instance, not to take from one to
give to another), but you must keep for each that which
belongs to him, and be ready to give it up when he claims
it. And with regard to what you say of slaves released
by the merchants to whom you cannot refuse the thirty
piastres they need for their return, I must tell you that
you can only advance it if you have the money of your
own ; you may neither borrow it nor take it from what is
intended for others, nor must you go surety for others.
If you do so, we shall be just where we were before, with
the drawback that it would not be possible for us to deliver
you again. There must never be another suggestion of
raising money in Paris on your behalf. Whether you
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 384. f Ibid., vol. ii., No. 420.
% Ibid., vol. ii., No. 488.
356 VINCENT DE PAUL
can continue or whether you should give up depends
upon yourself. It will be easy for you to continue if you
will listen to what is said to you. Have no dealings that
are outside your office; do no business, nor make any
arrangements with people in the world, except when your
office requires it of you ; and do not involve yourself in
what is beyond your powers. It is with good reason that
I give you this special charge not to go outside your
Consular business, for, besides the trade for diamonds and
other things that you entered upon, I find that you have
quite recently written to your brother about undertaking
to send pearls to France. This, my dear brother, is out of
place, and against the Will of God. He called you to
fulfil your duties — not for bargaining."
This letter, gentle though it is, shows us to what ex-
treme of folly M. Barreau had been tempted. Money
meant liberty to the captives, and the harassing thought
of their captivity destroyed in him all scruple as to the
means of obtaining money. It was a malignant fate that
caused the credit of S. Lazare to fall into the hands of one
in whom the honest spirit of devotion could be so dis-
torted; yet M. Barreau's errors were not the only ones
that checked the success of M. Vincent's enterprise. The
impression produced by a first association with the Chris-
tian slaves in Africa was overwhelming, but its effects on
different temperaments were curiously varied. While
M. Barreau was moved to compassion of the most un-
balanced kind for their sufferings, a fellow-labourer,
Philippe Le Vacher, Priest of the Mission, was so appalled
by their depravity that pity seems to have sunk into
abeyance. Pain may have power to bring men down to
the level of the brutes, and some of these slaves had sunk to
the same condition of despair as the convicts at Marseilles.
Among them were priests and Religious who failed entirely
to profit by the opportunity afforded them of sanctifying
suffering. Le Vacher was young, and his training had
imbued him with a vigorous view of the obligation of a
THE FOREIGN MISSIONS 357
priest ; much that he saw roused him to righteous indigna-
tion, and he seems to have gone among the broken wretches
he was intended to encourage, with the flail of ecclesi-
astical discipline.
Again it was necessary for M. Vincent to despatch a
letter of remonstrance. " Draw what good you can from
priests and Religious by gentle means/' he wrote.* " Use
no severity except in extreme cases, lest the discipline
which your position gives you the power to exercise, joined
to the misery of bondage which they have to endure
already, drives them to despair. You are not responsible
for their salvation, as you seem to think ; you have been
sent to Algiers to comfort unhappy souls, to help them in
their suffering, and to give them courage to be steadfast
in our holy religion. ... It is impossible to enforce rule
without adding to the wretchedness of these poor fellows ;
it would hardly be possible to do it without putting them
out of patience with you altogether. Above all, you must
not be in such a hurry to interfere with their habits, even
though their habits may be bad. Someone repeated to
me the other day a passage of S. Augustine, which says
one should be very careful not to begin by an attack on the
vice that is prevalent in a place, because one will not only
achieve nothing, but will repel all those to whom vice is
habitual, and thereby become incapable of effecting any
good at all. Whereas, by a different method of approach,
much might have been accomplished. I implore you,
then, to be as considerate as you can to human weakness.
You will be far more likely to win these captive priests by
showing compassion than by reproach and rebuke. It is
not understanding that they lack, it is strength ; and that
is best conveyed to them by good example and friendly
intercourse. I do not say that you should sanction what
is evil, but I say that the cure should be a gentle and a
kindly one because of their circumstances, and should be
applied with infinite precaution. . . . Good work is so
* " Lettres," vol. i.. No. 179.
358 VINCENT DE PAUL
often spoilt by too much haste; impulse runs away with
wisdom and makes us think that because a good thing
needs doing, it is therefore practicable immediately. It
is not so, and one finds it out by the failure of result. . . .
Ah, Monsieur, how deeply I desire that you should restrain
your eagerness and weigh each enterprise carefully in the
scales of the sanctuary before you begin it. Be patient
rather than ardent ; thus will God achieve by you alone that
which all mankind could not accomplish without Him."
It is when M. Vincent is required to demonstrate the
obvious that we see the sort of material from which those
workers of his were moulded. We find that one can break
faith and disobey in affairs of infinite importance, while
another can associate with men who live in torture of
mind and body and desire to sit in judgment on their
moral failure rather than console them in their miseries.
Probably M. Vincent had more sympathy with Jean
Barreau in his recklessness than with Philippe Le Vacher
in his self -righteousness, but to feel that the work, for which
— beyond all the rest — his own heart yearned, lay in such
hands as these must have made his burden of anxiety
almost too great for bearing.
Fortunately, there is another side to the picture. The
Company of the Mission, whether at home or abroad,
might furnish abundant evidence of the weakness of
human nature, but it could also show the heights of
achievement to which the Christian soul can rise, and in
the African Mission the quality of the workers was drawn
out to a peculiar degree. Philippe Le Vacher himself learnt
charity from his Superior, and became valuable; but in
his brother Jean Le Vacher we find the purest strain of the
missionary spirit. Of him it is related that when, in deep
despondency over a broken love affair, he went to
S. Lasare to ask counsel, he was pressed by M. Vincent to
enter the Company — the only instance of such an occur-
rence that was known. He was only twenty-eight when
he was sent to Tunis. He held the office of Consul from
THE FOREIGN MISSIONS 359
time to time, but his spiritual capacity was too great for
purely secular labour to be his vocation. He may be
said to have given his life to the slaves. Thirty-seven
years of it were passed among them, and he finally suffered
martyrdom by being blown from the cannon's mouth at
Algiers in 1683. The danger of martyrdom was close at
hand for every Mission Priest in Africa, for all the force
was held by the Turks ; and if a wave of fanaticism swept
over them — as happened periodically—the Christians
were completely at their mercy. " They can harm you,"
M. Vincent wrote to one of them,* " but I beseech you to
have no fear. For they will do you no harm save that
which Our Lord wills that you should suffer, and that
which comes to you from Him is only to prepare you for
some special favour which He designs to bestow upon you.
It is rare for anything good to be accomplished without
loss; the Devil is too clever and the World too corrupt
not to be determined to smother such good work as this in
its cradle. But take courage, Monsieur, it is God Himself
who has set you where you are ; if your purpose is for His
glory, what have you to fear ? Still more, what may you
not hope for ?"
This is, in truth, the simplest of messages, and as old as
Christianity itself. Yet one may picture with what new
force it came from M. Vincent to those Sons of his in their
perilous exile. They knew his heart was with them, and
that he would willingly have made their lot his own. In
his extreme old age his sense of the sufferings of the Chris-
tians in Africa was so acute thai: he attempted to start
an expedition against the Turks, and had obtained some
sort of promise of support from the King and Mazarin,
but he died without having transmitted his own fervour
of courage to any individual among his survivors, and the
expedition never took place, f
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 278.
j* For full detail of this abortive scheme, see Bougaud, " Vie
de S. Vincent de Paul," vol. ii., liv. 5, chap. i.
360 VINCENT DE PAUL
There is much that is astonishing in the long career
of Vincent de Paul, but the vigour and enterprise of his
last years is perhaps the greatest of these marvels. The
shadow of failure was over him, but it cannot be attributed
to the dwindling of his powers, but rather to the supreme
development of his conception of the duty of a priest.
The vast sums of money spent in the African Mission,
and the corresponding sacrifice of life, had for their object
the saving of souls in imminent danger ; the idea of bodily
relief was altogether subservient. In the Mission to
Madagascar there was no philanthropy at all, it was the
most desperate of ventures; and yet M. Vincent dedicated
to it the picked men of his Company, and judged that he
was according to them a special honour.
The reality of missionary ardour is, like the religious
vocation, beyond the understanding of those to whom
it has never been a matter of experience, but in his later
years M. Vincent was possessed by it. It was, indeed,
the natural growth from the deep love of souls at home
of which his life-work was the evidence. He had minis-
tered to the most crying needs of those who were at hand.
It had always been his principle so to adjust the machinery
of every new foundation that it depended on the joint
efforts of persons he had chosen; and as it was his firm
belief that each one was directed by the Hand of God,
he could feel that its success no longer rested on the
guidance of its nominal Founder. He was, therefore, not
moved by any idea that the claim of a distant country
was inferior to that of his native land. The fulfilment
of the one obligation only made the other more evident.
The claim on the Lazarists to go as Missionaries to
Madagascar came in this manner. The Eastern Trading
Company obtained the concession of the island, with
exclusive commercial rights, shortly before the death of
Richelieu. There had been no settled rule over the natives
since its discovery two centuries earlier by the Portuguese,
but in 1646 Comte de Flacourt was appointed as Governor,
THE FOREIGN MISSIONS 361
and at his suggestion Cardinal Bagin, the Papal Nuncio,
invited M. Vincent to attempt to carry the Christian
faith to the inhabitants. The failure of former attempts
at government was due primarily to the climate, which
proved fatal to the majority of Europeans, but the deter-
mined hostility of the natives was partly responsible.
The population numbered about 400,000 — Kaffir, negro,
and Arab. They were idolaters, and in the extreme of
moral degradation. A hundred priests would have
seemed insufficient for such a work, yet only two were
sent to open it.
From that inadequate beginning there was no inter-
mission in the misfortunes of the Madagascar Mission.
It cost the Company twenty-seven valuable lives, and
the continual deaths by disease or violence left the people
for long intervals without a priest, so that any founda-
tions of conversion laid by one had ceased to be dis-
tinguishable before the arrival of another. The records
are so confused that it is impossible to explain the apparent
folly of sending men in pairs. It may have been that no
facilities were given for transporting larger numbers, and
M. Vincent, even when he realized the forlornness of the
hope, would still, for this purpose, have sent his Sons
across the seas to certain death. The first to be chosen
for Madagascar was M. Nacquart, and in the letter he
received announcing his appointment we are allowed a
share of M. Vincent's thoughts on this particular subject.
M. Nacquart was thirty-one, and had been eight years in
the Company. M. Vincent was then seventy-two. He
writes from Paris on March 22, 1648: *
" Monsieur,
" Long ago Our Lord put into your heart the
desire to serve Him in some special way. And when the
suggestion was made at Richelieu of opening Missions
among the Jews and idolaters, it seemed to me that you
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 121.
362 VINCENT DE PAUL
felt you had a call. The time has come for the sowing
of this heavenly vocation to bear fruit. Monseigneur the
Nuncio has, with the authority of the Congregation for
the Propagation of the Faith, of which His Holiness the
Pope is chief, chosen the Company to go and serve God
in the Isle of St. Lawrence, otherwise called Madagascar,
and the Company has regarded you, and another priest
as your companion, as the best sacrifice it can make for
the glory of the Creator and for His service. Ah ! my
very dear sir, what does your heart say to this news !
Is it fitly overwhelmed and humbled by so great a favour
from Heaven ? This is a vocation as high and as great
as that of the chief Apostles and Saints of the Church of
God — a design from eternity fixing itself in time on you.
Such a favour can be met only by humility and the com-
plete abandonment of all that you are or may be in
absolute confidence in our Creator.
" You will need the strongest courage; you will need
faith as great as that of Abraham. The charity of S. Paul
will be necessary. Zeal, patience, diffidence, compassion,
austerity, discretion, moral discipline, and an immense
desire to be completely sacrificed to God — these are as
essential to you as to S. Francois Xavier.
" This island is nearly 400 leagues long and 160 wide.
The people have not heard of God, but they are intelligent
and open-minded. To get there you must cross the
Equator. Authority over the island is in the hands of
Parisian merchants, who are like kings there.
" The first point for your attention is to mould your-
self by the journey of that great Saint, Francois Xavier;
to help and to serve those who are on board with you;
to establish public prayer, if it be possible ; to pay great
attention to the distresses of others, and always sacrifice
your own comfort to theirs; to bring as great a blessing
on the voyage (which lasts four or five months) by your
prayers as do the sailors by their labour. As regards the
Directors, always pay them the greatest respect. Be
THE FOREIGN MISSIONS 363
faithful to God> and never go against your conscience for
any consideration; but take special care not to injure
your work for God by being too impulsive in it. Take
plenty of time and learn to wait.
" When you have lived and worked with those around
you, so as to set a good example, your great aim must
be to teach these poor people, who are born in all the
gloom of ignorance, the truths of the Faith, not by the
subtleties of theology, but by reasoning drawn from
nature; for one must begin there, trying to make them
understand that you seek only to develop the traces of
God in them which have become hidden by long yielding
to the corruption of nature. And to do this, Monsieur,
you will need to turn continually to the Father of Light,
and say to Him that which you say to Him daily — Da
mihi intellectum ut sciam testimonia tua. By meditation
you will be able to arrange the light revealed to you,
that you may be able to declare the truth of the Supreme
Being. . . .
V And with this I give myself to you, if not to follow
you in the flesh, of which I am unworthy, at least to
pray God daily that He will leave me on earth to aid
you, and (if it please Him to have mercy on me) that I
may meet you in Heaven and do you honour, as one
whose high vocation has raised him to the level of the
Apostles. There is nothing on earth that I desire so
much as to go as your companion in the place of M.
Gondree."
The enthusiasm and the soaring hopes of the writer
are evident in every sentence. It is not for the honour
of the Company, but for the glory of God, that he sends
his much-cherished Son to the other end of the world;
but it is clear that he sends him with exuberant confi-
dence in the result. The natives — intelligent and open-
minded — will assuredly flock to hear the message that
brings light to their darkness.
364 VINCENT DE PAUL
It is evident also that M. Vincent did not at that time
realize the mortal danger that lay before the Missionaries.
He plans the report that they shall send, and the news
from home they shall receive annually; but M. Gondree
died in a year, and M. Nacquart did not survive him very
long. It is impossible altogether to explain the divergence
between the hopes aroused by the prospect of this Mission
and the actual conditions under which it was carried out.
There must have been some intermediary, whose identity
is now impossible to trace, who was too sanguine; for
the actual authorities in the island (at whose supposed
invitation the Missionaries went out) made no preparation
for their arrival, and gave them very little support.
Moreover, small rivalries between the Eastern Company
and the Marshal de la Meilleraye, who had interest in the
island, led to threats of rejecting the Mission Priests, in
spite of the sacrifices they had already made, and sending
members of a religious Order.
M. Vincent, having spurred his Sons towards this
supreme offering of themselves, saw it undervalued and
rejected. It would be hard to imagine a sharper form
of humiliation, and it came to him when he had already
been through eight years of disappointment. " I do not
know what God will make of our Madagascar Mission,"
he wrote in 1657 *° M. Jolly at Rome.* " I have been
told that M. de la Meilleraye has asked for twelve of the
Capuchin Fathers, and they have been promised him.
There may be some truth in this, because I have ventured
to write to remind him that our Missionaries were holding
themselves in readiness, awaiting his summons to pro-
ceed to Nantes, and he has not made any reply. What-
ever comes to pass will be according to the Will of God."
All that had come to pass was heartrending. The
letters from the Missionaries to their Superior are extra-
ordinarily graphic. Each one is hopeful. The people
seem to have been sufficiently responsive, and they were
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 413.
THE FOREIGN MISSIONS 365
in such an extreme of ignorance that the opportunity
given him had its own delight for the writer. But the
courage of these champions, fighting, as some of them
did, single-handed against overwhelming odds, only adds
to the tragedy of their inevitable failure. The fate of
those who, like M. Nacquart and M. Bourdaise, were able
for a time to sustain life in that poisonous climate, was
the hardest, for they saw their companions perish, and
were left to the desolate realization of a task too great
for a hundred men, and dependent upon one.
" Oh my dear Father," wrote M. Bourdaise, " how often
I long that all the able priests who remain in idleness in
France, and who know of this great need for labourers,
would realize that Our Lord Himself has this reproach
for each of them : ' Oh priest, if you had been in this island,
many of my brothers bought by My Blood would have
been saved from everlasting death.' No doubt the
thought of it would rouse their pity, and perhaps their
fear."
Such appeals as these fell on deaf ears. M. Bourdaise,
in his desperate fight against idolatry, pictured the
Guardian Angels of the natives who died unbaptized
reproaching him for negligence; but on the other side
of the world the responsibility did not bear the same
aspect, and year by year he waited for aid that did not
come, and at last, when relief was on its way, he also
died.
M. Vincent had not been heedless, but a force stronger
than any human agency was against him. One after
another the chosen companions who started for Mada-
gascar were driven back, shipwreck or capture having
deprived them of their means of transport. At best the
journey occupied six months, and involved enormous
peril. But again and again a fresh party volunteered,
for the missionary spirit had seized upon the Company,
and their Superior would not hear of discouragement.
"It is a strange sort of army that turns back," he
366 VINCENT DE PAUL
told them, " because it has lost two, three, or four
thousand men. Such an army would be a pretty sight —
a gathering of cowards and runaways ! And so also with
the Mission — it would be a pretty sort of Company that
gave up the work of God for five or six deaths ! A
worthless Company, heeding nothing but the things of
flesh and blood I"
There are times, nevertheless, when even a gallant
army must turn back, and, despite his resolute words,
it is likely that M. Vincent realized before his death
what must be the end of the Madagascar Mission. In
fact, the conditions became worse as the years passed.
The feeling of the natives towards the French colony lost
its friendliness, and the Mission Priests, though they had
no part in the causes of the change, were included in its
effects. Constant danger of murder was added to the
other perils to existence, and their converts returned to
the practice of idolatry. There was one moment when,
as we are told by a contemporary chronicler,* of all the
hundreds of natives baptized into the Church there
remained only three who were not renegade. The French
occupation of Madagascar had proved a failure, and the
colony was preparing to withdraw. It became necessary
for the Missionaries to abandon their position, and in
1676 the remnant of them reached France — there were
two only out of the twenty-nine who had in twenty-five
years offered themselves for the service of the heathen; for
the others their offering had been a literal offering of life.
The story of that last enterprise of M. Vincent's is not
a subject for easy criticism. It is well to set it down —
and indeed, the record of his life is incomplete without
it — but not to apply the ordinary tests of expenditure
and profit. It was the greatest venture of faith he ever
made, and its outward failure should not be confused
with the idea of loss either to him or to the Company.
* J. Grandet. See " Les Saints Pretres Francais du i7me.
Siecle."
CHAPTER IX
S. LAZARE AND PORT ROYAL
The history of the foreign Missions undertaken and
directed by M. Vincent brings home to us with new
vividness the extraordinary quality of his capacity for
detachment. His manner of dealing with each separate
enterprise suggests that he was concentrating interest on
it. His letters in many instances betray the unmistak-
able ardour of the enthusiast; his whole heart is intent
on a ten days' Mission on the Hulks at Marseilles, on a
project for softening the lot of the captives at Algiers,
or on choosing from among the numbers of the Lazarists
the priest most fitted for service in Madagascar. And
then there were Branch-Houses established in Poland,
and there were expeditions, even more definitely mis-
sionary, sent to Ireland, to the Hebrides, and to Scotland.
M. Vincent followed each with close attention. The
account of labour and hardship in the Hebrides is written
by M. Duguin, Priest of the Mission, to his Superior at
S. Lazare, with just the same confident claim on sympathy
and comprehension as if he were writing of familiar
things from Agen, from Annecy, or from Rome. M. Le
Blanc, the Missionary to the Highlands, nearly lost his
life at the hands of the Puritans in Scotland; and M.
Vincent is torn with grief and anxiety even while he
glories in the possibility of martyrdom. Events that
moved him deeply in differing ways happened simul-
taneously. The year when the Mission to Madagascar
was taking form was the year of the beginning of the
Fronde; and afterwards, while he was struggling with
3^7
368 VINCENT DE PAUL
his immense organizations for relief in Paris and the
provinces, and making his valiant efforts to obtain peace
for the suffering people, he was also forced to keep watch
over his representatives in Tunis and Algiers, and was
striving to readjust the maladministration of Consular
affairs. It is as if we were dealing with separate and
differing lives — and all the time it may be true to say
that the real life of M. Vincent continues unrecorded.
It is not a new discovery that that which is deepest
in the life of man is likely to remain hidden — spiritual
revolution may take place within him, and those of his
own household will not know it — but it is not this ad-
mitted duality, mysterious as it is, which is evident in the
case of M. Vincent. He was, openly and under every
condition, the Servant of God. He did not, as so many
sincere Christians are forced to do, spend a large pro-
portion of his time among persons to whom the spiritual
life is as a closed book. All his employments and all his
intercourse with others were linked with his religion; it
was not necessary for him to pretend to a respect for
material things which he did not feel. But in spite of
this declared and recognized position, it remains true
that his ministry, as we find it recorded by his own
letters and by the testimony of his contemporaries, does
not represent him. True, he was wise and sympathetic
as a Superior; he had genius for organization; he could
arouse and sustain the dormant spirit of charity in others —
in short, he did not fail in showing the sincerity of his faith
by the outward testimony of good works. Yet, when all
that is admitted, he might remain only a fine example
of a type familiar in every generation, and his exceptional
celebrity might be explained by the unusual oppor-
tunities which came within his reach.
It is not easy to summarize the points of difference
between Vincent de Paul and the rest of the great army
of those who spend themselves in the service of their
neighbour, but the fact that he always regarded such
S. LAZARE AND PORT ROYAL 369
service as subordinate to a higher claim removes him
from the rank and file. He proved sufficiently that he
desired to labour for the well-being of others, but he
only desired their well-being if he was convinced it was
the Will of God; therefore the practical point of view
seemed to him to consist in the attainment of knowledge
of the Will of God — the formation of a plan of action was
a secondary consideration. He could not have lived
through his many years of wide experience without
formulating some social theory, and dreaming of a future
when the injustice and inequalities that were hourly
before his eyes should be done away. But his theory was
a very simple one; he dreamed of a time when all men
should be seeking to understand and to fulfil the Will of
God. By such means the great revolution that he desired
would take place without the strife that he abhorred;
and in the darker period where his own lot had fallen
he did what he could to prepare for the halcyon age he
pictured. In fact, he did that which no other man living
could have done, and he was able to do it because he
demanded of himself far more than he did of others.
We shall see him in his closing years refusing to accept
the legitimate satisfaction that, humanly, his well-spent
life had earned for him, increasing rather in the deep
sense of his own unworthiness — " Si je n'etais pas pretre
je ne le serais jamais." That point of view in one pos-
sessing so clear a record could proceed only from the
constant contemplation of the Ideal of Christian life.
Here, then, is the clue to the mystery of his strength.
The man who can with real desire centre his thoughts
on Christ will of necessity forget himself, and so he will
De spared the wear and tear of personal considerations
and fears as to success or failure ; for if he is assured that
he is working as His Master wills, he cannot consistently
be anxious as to results. In practice it is hard to achieve
to this position, although the verbal statement is ex-
tremely simple, and M. Vincent did not maintain his
24
370 VINCENT DE PAUL
foothold unfalteringly. There were times when he was
troubled, when his heart failed him, and his burden
seemed too heavy to be borne. If it had been otherwise,
perhaps he would not have understood the struggles and
downfalls of his followers so well; but a favourite and
oft-repeated phrase of his suggests his remedy for faint-
heartedness, as well as many other ills: " My Son, weigh
it in the Scales of the Sanctuary." Before the Altar the
vexed question was to be reconsidered, the overwhelming
task offered up and then quietly resumed. For every
Catholic, whether priest or layman, there was this un-
failing source of consolation, and the sorrow or the
difficulty which could not thus be brought before his
Lord ought not to continue to disturb his life. The Scales
of the Sanctuary was the surest of all tests.
If we turn from the thought of M. Vincent in the church
of Laz;are, claiming the Divine support his life-work
needed, to those who dwelt outside among the excite-
ments and temptations of the city, the difficulty of apply-
ing his remedy to their ills becomes apparent. They
might plead with reason that both constitution and disease
were different, and must demand a different cure. But
M. Vincent was able to look beyond his own experience,
and he thought otherwise. In his simple view the only
real disease was sin, and for that there was only one
Physician. If the sufferer came with an honest desire to
be healed, he might be confident of cure, whatever the
stage of the disease that he had reached. It was not his
custom to place himself on a different plane from those
with whom he came in contact, and therefore it was his
method to apply the principle of that which was of assist-
ance to himself as a means of assisting others. In the
early days of his tutorship he had made silence and retire-
ment his safeguard against the distractions of the world
that then came so near to him ; when he was offered the
buildings of S. Lazare he was ready to renounce them
rather than allow his Mission Priests to relinquish their
S. LAZARE AND PORT ROYAL 371
habit of silence. His great remedy for the laxity of the
secular priests was, as we know, the provision of an annual
time of silence in which they might consider their voca-
tion and their own failures in its fulfilment; and as his
two great Companies grew under his direction, he never
wavered in his insistence that they needed periods of
silence to recruit their spiritual forces. " Oh my Daughters,
there is no practice to be compared to that of silence," he
said to the Sisters of Charity; " it is through it that you
may hear God speaking in your hearts." He had much
opportunity of discovering the degree to which the ears
of men were deafened to the Voice of God by the clamour
of their fellows, and his letters give many instances of the
effect on himself and on others of days of silence spent in
an endeavour to learn the Will of God. It is evident that
he regarded a Retreat as a great opportunity of advance,
and therefore, when his mind was occupied with the ques-
tion of awakening the sleeping souls of average mankind,
it was natural that the idea should occur to him of offer-
ing to them the privilege hitherto reserved for priests and
Religious.
Let us consider the aspect in which the hurrying life of
the Paris streets presented itself to Vincent de Paul. In
every face he read the tragedy — realised or unrealised —
of the vagrant soul; to him the objects that filled men's
hearts and minds were void, and the disorder of which
all, in differing degrees, were conscious proceeded from
their indifference to the object designed for them by God.
And this was not merely a theory for sermons and medita-
tions, it was the basis of active enterprise. He believed
that his own deep content had come to him as the fruit
of his opportunities, and that opportunity was all that
others would need to attain to their share in it. Being
imbued with this belief, he would not have been true to
his deepest instinct of charity if he had failed to make
provision for a great spiritual need. Thus it came about
that Retreats for laymen were instituted at S. Lazare,
372 VINCENT DE PAUL
and, between 1635 and the date of M. Vincent's death, it
was computed that 20,000 retreatants had been received.
It may be imagined that this was a labour very dear to
M. Vincent's heart, for in this he believed he touched the
form of service to his neighbour which had reality of
value. The definition of the meaning of Retreat, which
he left in writing for the enlightenment of the Company,
explains his sense of its importance :
" This term Retreat, or Spiritual Exercise, should
imply entire detachment from all worldly matters and
occupations. The object is that a man may gain real
knowledge of his inward state, and be able to examine his
conscience, to pray and to meditate, and so to prepare his
soul for purification from all sin and from all evil desires
and habits, that it maybe filled with a longing for goodness.
Then he may seek to know the Will of God, and when he
knows it he will submit and unite himself to it, and so will
advance and eventually attain to the State of Perfection."*
Here M. Vincent gave words to the picture that was
cherished in his own mind. If they would resign them-
selves to outward silence, the souls of men would hear the
Voice of God ; and if that grace was once accorded to them,
the old life of sin must of necessity be left behind. It was
to be his privilege to make a period of outward silence
possible to all who might desire it, and to set the visible
gates of S. Lazare as widely open to all comers as was the
entrance to his own heart. This particular expression
of his charity produced a curious position. He would
have no payment asked for the cost of maintenance during
a Retreat, for he held that the question of expense might
turn the scale in the case of a waverer, and a soul might
thus be lost. But the great establishment at S. Lazare
was often in sore straits from lack of funds, and the more
practical among the Company resented the additional
burden, and sometimes remonstrated with their Superior.
If they urged that at such a rate of expenditure there was
* Abelli, part ii., chap. iv.
S. LAZARE AND PORT ROYAL 373
no escape from actual ruin, M. Vincent replied that, if it
was necessary, they must all depart, " and put the key
under the door." If they represented that many of
those who came on the plea of spiritual need were merely
seeking board and lodging, M. Vincent answered that, if
only a few of those who came were faithful, the enter-
prise was worth all it could cost. Probably it was more
difficult to form an estimate of the real result in this
work than it was even in that of the Missions ; but each
individual in the constant stream of men of all conditions
which passed through S. Lazare must have received some
impression from the atmosphere of pure religion that
prevailed in the home of Vincent de Paul; and — though
even his unfailing panegyrist Abelli considers M. Vin-
cent's hospitality to have been " somewhat excessive " —
the real generosity of the welcome to all comers was prob-
ably not without its usefulness even to those who were
least worthy of the trust their host reposed in them.
Not only did M. Vincent maintain his enthusiasm for
his undertaking until his death, but also he exhorted his
Sons not to let it fail when he was gone, but to regard
this opportunity of winning souls as one of the greatest
favours that God had bestowed upon the Company.
Probably he knew that the office of directing others in the
most important hours of their life could not fail to have
its effect upon the directors ; a high standard was a neces-
sity for each one on whom that responsibility was laid.
He would need to learn — as the Superior pointed out —
complete distrust of his own personal capacity, and there-
fore the Company would gain in proportion as it gave.
Collective Retreats that corresponded to those given to
Ordination Candidates were arranged for laymen, but it
seems as if the more ordinary method was to give each
retreatant into the hands of a Mission Priest, who was to be
at once his director and his servant during his stay. In
no case was future direction to be promised, nor was any
guest to be invited to return. At S. Lazare each one had
374 VINCENT DE PAUL
had his opportunity of reviewing the past and learning
all that the future, by the Grace of God, contained for
him ; it rested with himself to make those days of strange
experience the starting-point of a life completely different
from all that had gone before. A few, no doubt, went
away with dispositions that differed very little from those
with which they came; a few fulfilled M. Vincent's high
conception of the possibility of a Retreat, and, passing
through the stages of self-knowledge and purification
that he indicated, set forth on the steep path that leads
towards perfection; but the greater number gained the
knowledge of what might be within their reach, and real
reformation remained in abeyance. It depended on indi-
vidual character whether it was achieved eventually;
for S. Lazare was no place of miracles, and M. Vincent
was prepared to have his message to his fellow-wayfarers
rejected. It was only here and there that Christ had found
the listeners who would respond to Him, and the Mission
Priests did not aspire to be greater than their Master.
But the place of S. Lazare, as a centre of spiritual life for
all who sought it, was assured by the system of Retreats.
There were many havens for the priest or the Religious
overtaken by spiritual storm, but for one of the people,
without respect of condition or profession, if the Call of
God had come to him, and he desired to pause and
consider what It meant — there was no refuge except
S. Lazare, no other certain friend but its Superior.
It is, perhaps, this close and peculiar touch which
M. Vincent gained with the laity as well as the clergy, by
means of his Retreats, which explains the violence of his
action in a question of very deep importance and of in-
finite difficulty. The Jansenist controversy had a promi-
nent place as a subject for thought during the last thirty
years of his life, and the cause of the Jansenist made
appeal to the same minds as were stirred by his message ;
it was therefore impossible that he should ignore it.
The facts of this celebrated dispute have now become
S. LAZARE AND PORT ROYAL 375
extremely difficult to disentangle. To the contemporaries
of S. Cyran* there were clear issues involved, and those
who sided with him were sufficiently convinced of the
goodness of their cause to suffer persecution for it; but
their violence and that of their opponents has obscured
the evidence for both sides, and there is a tendency at the
present day to attribute to '* the poison of Jansenism "
many heretical opinions that would have found no favour
with the original Port Royalists.
It should always be remembered that the Convent of
Port Royal had won celebrity before it had any connec-
tion with Jansenius.f Angelique Arnauld transformed
the Benedictine Community assembled there from laxity
to the extreme of adherence to the Rule. The austerity
of Port Royal stirred the imagination of innumerable
persons who had no desire to share in it, and created a
unique position for Mere Angelique and the Sisters; and
when it became known that the Perpetual Adoration of
the Blessed Sacrament was maintained in one of the
Houses of the Community, the respect which these
mysterious nuns excited was mingled with awe. In 1636
S. Cyran became Director to the Community. He had
been the friend and companion of Jansenius at the College
of Louvain, and afterwards in Paris, and was the exponent
of his book on S. Augustine. His whole mind centred on
his realisation of the dishonour brought upon the Church
by the unworthiness of the priests and the false administra-
tion of the Sacraments, and his knowledge of the first
centuries of Christianity intensified his horror of the con-
ditions that he saw around him. So violent was he in
denunciation that it was easy to represent him as making
an attack upon the Church. Port Royal had attracted a
great concourse of well-known persons, some of them the
highest intellects and the finest characters that society
could produce, and through these his theories spread with
* Duvergier de Hauranne, Abbe de S. Cyran.
t Jansenius was Bishop of Ypres, and died in 1638.
376 VINCENT DE PAUL
dangerous rapidity. Richelieu was intolerant of those
who aspired to any kind of leadership, and some of the
accusations against S. Cyran were well founded; therefore
he gave an order for his arrest and imprisonment at
Vincennes.* Probably his action was a wise one, but he
failed to weaken the influence of the offending priest; it
was the essence of the spirit of Port Royal " to covet
suffering," and S. Cyran was regarded as a martyr in the
cause of truth. His imprisonment lasted five years, f and
he died almost immediately after his release.
Even at this early stage of the Jansenist difficulty
Vincent de Paul was implicated. He was on terms of
friendship with S. Cyran, they were natives of the same
province, and they were both moved by the same desire
for the purifying of the Church. The enemies of Jansen-
ism suggest that S. Cyran had a definite intention of using
the Mission Priests to spread his theories, and there is
some evidence that he did make an attempt to alter
M. Vincent's aim for the Company. But, in fact, the
two natures were unsympathetic, and the regrets and
desires that they held in common acted upon them in
wholly different ways. S. Cyran was strangely ignorant
of the character of Vincent de Paul if he imagined that
his fidelity to the Church was easily shaken ; their friend-
ship was, in fact, destroyed by certain reckless words of
his, recorded years after in a letter from the Superior of
S. Lazare to a Mission Priest in Rome :J " He said to me
one day that it was God's intention to destroy the Church
as it is now, and that all those who labour to uphold it are
working against His intention ; and when I told him that
these were the statements made by heretics such as Calvin,
he replied that Calvin had not been altogether in error,
but that he had not known how to make a good defence."
It is quite plain that after a lapse of twelve years
M. Vincent's horror was still burning, for no member of the
* May, 1638. f Till February, 1643.
J " Lettres," vol. i., No. 124.
S. LAZARE AND PORT ROYAL 377
Society of Jesus upheld the authority of the Church in
its entirety more vigorously than he did. But even this
attitude towards S. Cyran has been made a matter of
animated controversy, and probably the exact truth of
their relations has never been stated. It seems certain
that when the animosity of Richelieu was beginning to
declare itself, M. Vincent visited S. Cyran and attempted
to reason with him on his opinions; possibly a generous
intention betrayed him into excessive zeal, for a subse-
quent letter shows that the object of his solicitude had not
received his visit in good part.
" The one thing that impressed me," wrote S. Cyran
afterwards,* " was the fact that you, who profess to be
so gentle and considerate to all, that you should have
seized the moment when the storm has burst over me to
join yourself to my assailants, and should even exceed
them in their outrages by intruding upon me under my
own roof, which no one else has dared to do."
Later, there is a question whether Vincent de Paul was
a witness at the trial of S. Cyran, and the testimonies on
this point are contradictory ; it is clear, however, that
after the prisoner was released, M. Vincent hastened to
visit him, and remained on friendly terms with him until
his death. Even when the facts are authentic, it is diffi-
cult to form from them any clear idea of M. Vincent's
position at that period, and this may be accounted for by
our knowledge of his character. He did not foresee the
troubles that were coming; he believed his old friend
to be in error ; but he had suffered disgrace and captivity,
and it was a natural instinct to give him every possible
proof of affection. Moreover, S. Cyran had been the
friend of Francois de Sales, of de Berulle, and of Mme. de
Chantal, and his strict and regulated life accorded well
with the Lazarist standard for the priesthood ; therefore it
is likely that if, after his death, there had been no fruits
of his influence, the existence of real friendship between
* Quoted by Abelli, vol. ii., chap, ii., sect. 12.
378 VINCENT DE PAUL
himself and M. Vincent would never have been contested.
The fact that that most ardent of Port Royalists, Claude
Lancelot, was at pains to prove the reality of the alliance
between his Leader and the Superior of S. Lazare is a
tribute to the reputation of the latter;* but the opponents
of Jansenism, among whom may be numbered all the bio-
graphers of Vincent de Paul, are not inclined to give pro-
minence to the evidence of his tenderness towards S. Cyran.
The real truth seems to be that M. Vincent did not
declare himself in the matter till it had reached a later
stage, and his reasons for doing so are in close connection
with the whole intention of his life. The history of
events may be given briefly. Shortly after the death of
S. Cyran, Antoine Arnauld, the youngest of that cele-
brated family, himself a priest and Doctor of the Sor-
bonne, wrote his M Livre de la Frequente Communion."
The Jansenist controversy, which had not attained to its
full celebrity, centred until then on the " Augustinus" of
Jansenius, which was read only by a few scholars; but
when Arnauld's book appeared, it was received with
enthusiasm and devoured eagerly. It was against this
book that M. Vincent directed his attack, and it is note-
worthy that Pascal — to whose genius the real importance
of the Jansenist struggle is due — has claimed no notice at
all from one who is described as " the most dangerous
enemy of the disciples of S. Augustine."t
His opinion on the subject of the book by Antoine
Arnauld can be given in his own words, for it chanced
that a valued member of the Company, M. d'Horgny,
of the Mission at Rome, was infected by the new heresy,
and his Superior wrote to him on the subject at length
and with great distinctness : J
N Your last letter says we have done wrong to go against
general opinion. You say that this concerns the book ' De
* " Memoires," par M. Lancelot, part iii., chapters xxxiii., xxxiv.
t Gerberon, " Hist, de Jansenisme," vol. i., p. 422.
X " Lettres," vol. i., No. 124. June, 1648.
S. LAZARE AND PORT ROYAL 379
la Frequente Communion ' and Jansenius; that as regards
the first you have read it twice, and that the common
abuse of this Most Holy Sacrament has given occasion
for it.
" It is true, Monsieur, that there are only too many
who misuse this Divine Sacrament. I am myself guilty
beyond any man alive, and I beseech you to join in my
prayers for God's pardon. But the reading of this book,
instead of drawing men towards frequent Communion, is
calculated to alienate them. People do not frequent
the Sacraments as they used to do — not only at Easter,
but at other seasons. Many cures in Paris are saying
that they have many fewer communicants than in former
years. There are 3,000 less at S. Sulpice. M. le Cure
of S. Nicolas du Chardonnet has told me recently that,
when visits were paid after Easter in his parish by him-
self and others, he found 1,500 of his parishioners had
not made their Communion; and it is the same elsewhere.
Also, there are none now who approach the first Sunday
of the month or on festivals, or very few, even at the
religious houses, except a few with the Jesuits. This is
what the late M. de S. Cyran was aiming at to bring the
Jesuits into discredit. The other day M. de Chavigny
said to an intimate friend that this gentleman had told
him there was an agreement between himself and Jan-
senius to discredit the Order on all points concerning
the administration of the Sacraments. I have myself
heard him say things to this effect constantly. . . •
" You say also that, as Jansenius read all the works
of S. Augustine ten times, and his treatises concerning
Grace thirty times, the Mission Priests are not fit to ques-
tion his opinions.
" To which I reply, Monsieur, that those who desire
to establish new doctrines always are learned, and give
deep study to the authors of whom they are making use ;
that this Bishop should be acknowledged to be very
learned, and that he may have read S. Augustine as
380 VINCENT DE PAUL
many times as you say, with the intention of discrediting
the Jesuits. But that does not prevent him from having
fallen into error, and we shall have no excuse for sharing
in his opinions in defiance of the censure of his doctrine.
All priests are bound to repudiate and contradict the
doctrine of Calvin and other heretics, although they have
never read either their books or the authors from which
their doctrines are drawn.
" And when you say, Monsieur, that we do not need
to know whether there be Grace Sufficient, I beg leave to
answer that it seems to me of great importance that all
Christians should know and believe that God is so good,
that by the Grace of Jesus Christ all may obtain salvation;
that by Jesus Christ He has given them the means, and
that this is a great manifestation of the goodness of God."
Arnauld's book had power to grip the minds of its
readers, however, and M. d'Horgny ventured to write
another letter to S. Lazare in its defence. The second
reply was as vigorous as the first:*
" It may be (as you say) that certain persons in France
and Italy have drawn benefit from this book; but for a
hundred in Paris to whom it has been useful in teaching
more reverence in approaching the Sacrament, there
have been ten thousand, at the least, whom it has injured
by driving them away. ... It is absolutely certain
that if anyone holds his maxims to be true, he must of
necessity be hindered in frequenting the Sacraments.
For my own part, I tell you frankly that, if I paid the same
respect to M. Arnauld's book that you do, I should give
up both Mass and Communion from a sense of humility,
and I should also be in terror of the Sacrament, regarding
It, according to the book, as a snare of Satan, and as poison
to the souls of those who receive It under the usual con-
ditions that the Church approves. And if we discard all
other considerations and confine ourselves solely to what
he says of the perfect disposition, without which one
* M Lettres," vol. i., No. 128. September, 1648.
S. LAZARE AND PORT ROYAL 381
should not make Communion, is there anyone on earth
with such a high opinion of his own virtue that he would
think himself worthy ? Such a position is held by
M. Arnauld alone, who, having made the necessary con-
ditions so difficult that S. Paul might have feared to
approach, does not hesitate to tell us repeatedly that he
says Mass daily. In this his humility is only equalled
by the charity that he displays towards so many wise
directors, secular as well as religious, and towards their
penitents."
It is very rarely that we discover M. Vincent moved
to real indignation, but we shall see that the attack of
the Jansenists threatened the deepest injury to the work
of the Mission Priests, and he could see in it nothing but
evil. It was a great source of danger that the Jansenist
assault was levelled at abuses recognized by the Lazarists,
which it was part of their mission to correct. M. Vin-
cent's distress at the light-mindedness of many of those
who administered and of those who received the Sacra-
ments was as deep as that of S. Cyran or of Antoine
Arnauld; but he believed that spiritual advance and
ultimate salvation depended on the grace imparted in
the Sacrament of the Altar, and, further, that that
Sacred Mystery was to be approached only by those who,
having in penitence confessed their sins, had been cleansed
by Absolution. His touch with the dying sinner at
Folleville had been a turning-point in his own life, and
it was inevitable that questions concerning the use and
abuse of the confessional should have occupied him con-
tinually. His charges to the Mission Priests, and his
warnings to the Sisters of Charity, show us how fully he
saw the power for evil which lay in the hands of an un-
worthy priest; but the chief aim of the Lazarist was,
nevertheless, to direct the people towards the sacramental
life. A Retreat was, as we have seen, primarily a summons
to repentance ; and a series of Mission sermons, however
much instruction they had conveyed to the ignorant, had
382 VINCENT DE PAUL
failed of their purpose if they did not awake the slumbering
consciences of the listeners. It is experience such as had
fallen to the lot of M. Vincent that teaches the value of
the Sacrament of Penance. Sorrow for sin is possible to
all men, but only the Catholic is taught to bring his
burden, at whatever cost of shame, to the feet of the
Saviour Who has bought redemption for him. The sinner
had no assurance of forgiveness until he had bent his
will to the avowal of guilt, and again and again M. Vin-
cent had seen the alteration of a life as the result of a
reconciliation won at the cost of long and bitter struggle.
To him it seemed that the Jansenists, in the ferocity of
their attack, were destroying the treasures of the Church,
and that none of the evils that cried for remedy were to
be compared for danger to the means employed to extir-
pate them. It should be remembered that modern
opinions regarding the standards and teaching of the
Jesuits of that period have frequently been based on
Pascal's " Provincial Letters"; but every student of de-
votional life will acknowledge that the Jesuit of that
inimitable work is an extreme type, and may not be
regarded as representative. The secret power of the
Society of Jesus was being used to silence the Jansenist
writers, and Pascal, spurred by a sense of justice as well
as by an intense conviction of the righteousness of his
cause, used his weapon of ridicule relentlessly, and in-
volved the innocent in the ignominy he desired to heap
upon the guilty. Probably the particular forms of
abuse against which the attacks both of Arnauld and
Pascal were levelled did not come under M. Vincent's
notice. His dealings were with the ignorant, with the
devote, or with the sinner at the crisis of conversion; the
subtleties of casuistry did not concern him deeply. What
did concern him was the spread of any opinion which
could alienate the souls of men from the means of grace,
and he believed there was proof that the advance of
spiritual life was being arrested by the doctrines pro-
S. LAZARE AND PORT ROYAL 383
mulgated from Port Royal. He had seen with delight
his ideal of the vocation of the parish priest fulfilled by
M. Olier at S. Sulpice, and the religious revival that had
resulted; and there was no denying that S. Sulpice
suffered by the spread of the new opinions. It might be
true that the free dispensation of the Sacraments in
that period of scandalous living had given fair excuse for
protest, and that even the most devoted priests were too
anxious for numerical result; but M. Vincent preferred
that the way should continue to be made too easy, if the
alternative was that closed door of the Jansenist penitence
through which a sinner might hardly gain entrance.
" For three months I have made the doctrine of Grace
the subject of my prayer," he told his Company at one
of their Conferences, " and each day God has strength-
ened me in my faith that Our Lord died for us all, and
that He desires to save the whole world."*
And yet it should be remembered that the Mission
Priests did not depict the way of salvation as an easy
path. If we follow the process they adopted in their
Missions we find that if they are less sensational than
the Port Royalists, they are hardly less forcible. They
did not begin with description of the pains of hell, and
denunciation of the sinners for whom these were reserved ;
but the course of the Mission was not complete if such
description and such denunciation were omitted. Sin in
its various forms was their most frequent theme, and when
they dwelt on sin and its terrors, it was to lead their
hearers to the reality of penitence, which was the way
of escape. Those to whom M. Vincent entrusted the
conduct of a Mission were experienced in the guidance of
human souls; the deepest part of their personal work
was done in the confessional, and the virtues of patience
and of charity were essential to its accomplishment.
But they were not taught to be tolerant of sin. They
reiterate the necessity of the offering of shame and
* See " Process of Canonization," evidence of Antoine Durand.
384 VINCENT DE PAUL
sacrifice; they were not satisfied with a mere outward
semblance of contrition, with a superficial survey of past
errors and their causes. " Everywhere nowadays Chris-
tians throw the burden of their faults on each other.
The husband on the wife's fancies and caprices; while
to hear the wife you would believe her to be a saint, if
the ill-temper and irregularity of her husband had not
spoilt her temper. The father throws blame on his chil-
dren, and they on him and on their mother. Those who
live in continual enmity allege the incompatibility of
their neighbours. One excuse for oaths is the stupidity
of servants, the other the violence of masters. Force
of habit, youth, bad companionship, poverty — all serve
as excuses. There are some who lay the blame on their
destiny and the course of the stars, others who will confess
the sins of others to shield their own. Such as these
come as counsel for the defence, not as a prisoner pleading
guilty, and they are reversing the order of penitence
ordained by God Himself." So runs one of the Mission
sermons of M. Vincent's earlier time,* and it holds more
than a suggestion that the way would not be made too
easy. In fact, the Lazarists themselves and the new
order of parish priests whom they had trained were
severe in their dealing with their penitents; but the
excesses of some of the prominent Jansenists produced a
panic, and brought those who practised the most ordinary
strictness under suspicion of belonging to the new sect.
It may be seen, then, that from M. Vincent's point of
view the doctrine of Port Royal did and could do
nothing but harm, and was directly subversive of all his
hopes for the future. In the Rule of his Company we
findf that u one of the principal points of our Missions
is to inspire others to receive the Sacraments of Penance
and of the Eucharist frequently and worthily. It is
fitting, therefore, that we go beyond others and give the
* "Sermons de S. Vincent de Paul," No. 10.
t "Regies," chap, x., art. 6.
S LAZARE AND PORT ROYAL 385
example in this matter. We will endeavour to attain to
greater perfection in each; and that order may be main-
tained in all things, every priest shall confess twice (or
once at the very least) every week, and shall celebrate
Holy Mass every day." But avowedly one of the princi-
pal points of Jansenist teaching was to inspire such awe
of the Sacraments that they could only be approached
very rarely by the pastor as well as by his flock. In
short, the religion of Port Royal — full as it was of pure
aspiration — was the religion only of the few, and it was
calculated to alienate those for whom it was not suited
from the practice of any religion. It was not the erudite
few, but the great mass of the people, for whom M. Vincent
spent himself; it was their immense need for which he
prayed continually; and it was against them that he
believed the Port Royalists were closing the door of
salvation.
If it were possible for us to realize this fully, we should
cease to wonder that this apostle of charity took the
side of persecution. No other threat of danger ever
moved him as did this one. The horrors of civil strife,
the cruelty of unjust laws, aroused his pity and some-
times his indignation; but through every bodily suffering
he could see the possibility that God might work upon a
human soul. It was the thought that the means of
grace would be made more difficult of access that kindled
his wrath into active violence. The Jansenists recog-
nized him as their most dangerous opponent, and in this
they are the more likely to have been accurate because
he was not a controversialist, but entered the lists at the
prompting of intense conviction. It is a manifest
absurdity to suggest that he chose his part on a motive
of worldly wisdom, that he might stand well with the
Jesuits at a moment when their fortunes were on the
ascendant. M. Vincent at all times was a faulty diplo-
matist, and we cannot find one instance when he con-
ciliated the possessors of power to serve the interests of
25
386 VINCENT DE PAUL
the Company. His faithful support of Cardinal de Retz
and its penalty is sufficient proof to the contrary. It is
not necessary to follow his course of action in detail;
from the day when he first grasped the meaning of the
doctrine of Jansenius until his death he was unchanging
in his opposition.* It was said by a French Bishop
that, " just as S. Ignatius and his Society were raised
up by God to combat Luther and Calvin, so were Vincent
de Paul and his Company for the battle against Jan-
senism."!
His position on the Council of Conscience gave him
peculiar power. When the Sorbonne had condemned
the Five Propositions drawn from the " Augustinus," a
petition signed by eighty-five French Bishops was for-
warded to Rome. It was to ask for the Papal confirma-
tion of the sentence on the Jansenists, and if the plea was
granted (as eventually it was), it meant the ruin of Port
Royal. This petition was the work of M. Vincent, and
was forwarded by him for signature. The labour and
correspondence in which it involved him must have been
immense, but his zeal and determination were unflag-
ging. At all costs, also, he purified his Company from the
insidious poison of the new opinions. Lancelot, the
disciple and biographer of S. Cyran, had been trained by
M. Bourdoise in his Seminary at S. Nicolas du Char-
donnet; M. Bourdoise himself — impressed by the austere
practices of the Jansenist priests — had wavered in his
disapproval of their doctrines; the Oratorians were so
deeply infected as to be past hope of recovery; while
Antoine Singlin passed from intimate relations with
Vincent de Paul himself to be Confessor and Director at
Port Royal. There were gaps in the ranks of the Ladies
* "Quine se jettera sur ce petit monstre qui commence a ravager
l'^glise et qui enfin la desolera, si on ne l'etouffe a sa naissance ?"
A l'Eveque de Lucon: "Lettres," vol. i., No. 193.
t See " Process of Canonization,' ' quoted by Maynard. "Vie
de S. Vincent de Paul," vol. ii., liv. v.
S. LAZARE AND PORT ROYAL 387
of Charity also, and laymen who were regarded as staunch
supporters of the Church were discovered to be eager
partisans of the rebels. The danger was too great for
temporizing, and M. Vincent gave no quarter where he
held authority.
" As to your idea that each one of the Company should
be left free to form his own conclusions on this subject,' '
he wrote to M. d'Horgny,* " I reply, Monsieur, that it
is not submission to your Superior that is required of
you, but to God, to the Pope, and to the Saints; and if
there be any who refuse to yield, it will be well for him
to withdraw from the Company, or else for the Company
to require him to do so."
In fact, a Lazarist must oppose Port Royal, or he
must cease to be a Lazarist. M. d'Horgny capitulated,
but the Company became the poorer by fourteen of its
members who were not equally submissive.
The triumph of the Jesuits is a matter of history. All
the force of Papal condemnation was levelled against
Jansenism, and Port Royal was ruined. This is not the
place to enlarge on the struggle and suffering by which
the nuns and hermits of Port Royal bought their influence
upon their age. Whether the opinion of the individual
upholds or condemns them, it is impossible to study
their lives and to deny that they were seekers after truth
in belief, and holiness in practice, for themselves and others ;
and it is no small addition to the irony and the tragedy
of their fate that Vincent de Paul should have been
numbered among the most implacable of their enemies.
Perhaps in this he failed in insight, or blinded himself on
print "pie. To him faith came simply, and obedience
was inevitable. If he had had to contend with doubts
and questions in himself, he could not have served others
in the manner that God required of him. He saw the
few bringing injury to the many, the gifted minority
threatening the ignorant masses; and because he was the
* " Lettres," vol. i., No. 124.
388 VINCENT DE PAUL
friend and defender of the ignorant, it was not his part
to dwell on the motives of those who harmed them. He
had accepted it as his vocation to help the poor to save
their souls, and therefore against any who might hinder
them in such endeavour he was pitiless.
CHAPTER X
THE LAST DAYS
We have seen that the closing years did not bring outward
peace into M. Vincent's life; the tragedy of the Madagascar
Mission overshadowed him, and he was never free from
anxiety regarding the Jansenist peril. But in many
directions the seeds that he had sown sprung up, and there
were signs of steady growth. In their differing tasks and
widely separated dwelling-places the Mission Priests and
the Sisters of Charity were testifying that it was by God's
prompting that their Founder had drawn them from the
ways of ordinary life into the path of consecrated service.
In Paris many dreams for the linking of rich and poor had
been fulfilled, and S. Lazare itself had become a centre
for work of a kind not attempted anywhere else. It is
hard to summarize all the varied endeavour that the
mere name of S. Lazare suggests. M. Vincent, referring
to the gathering of retreatants, observed that the house
resembled Noah's Ark, because it sheltered specimens of
every kind ; yet it was not among the retreatants that its
strangest inmates were to be found, nor was their claim
the most searching that their hosts were required to meet.
M. Le Bon had accepted the care of a few insane persons
who were lodged within the precincts of S. Lazare, and it
was part of his contract with Vincent de Paul that this
responsibility should be continued. It had, in fact, a
special attraction for the new Superior. As he told the
Company, the service of the insane had this peculiar merit :
that, besides being repugnant to natural inclination, it
excited no admiration from onlookers nor gratitude from
389
390 VINCENT DE PAUL
its recipients, and that therefore it was specially accept-
able to God. At a moment when their right to the great
Augustinian Monastery was contested by another Order,
he had tried to discover in the recesses of his own mind
the chief reason for regret if their adversaries were success-
ful, and he had found that there was nothing of all that
they would lose so precious to them as this task of caring
for those whom no one else would care for.* In addition,
by the choice of the Superior the Company undertook
the charge of those whose moral capacity was lacking.
Although it might be less hopeless, this was a more difficult
enterprise than the tending of the insane. The black
sheep of a respected family is not a welcome guest either
in a private house or a public institution, and may be an
endless source of misery so long as he is left at large.
The idea of assuming a responsibility that was repudiated
by everyone else appealed to M. Vincent. Mental defi-
ciency was not more pitiable in his eyes than its moral
counterpart, and he was indifferent to the damage that
might result to S. Lazare if it was regarded as a place of
detention for bad characters.
We have no statistics relating to this experiment of
M. Vincent's, and a good deal of mystery necessarily
attached to it. Young men were confided to his care by
their relations on an order from a magistrate, and he
was authorized to detain them so long as he thought well.
They were not sent to him unless they were thoroughly
depraved, and it was his intention not to let them return
to the world until they were really reformed. In the
interval there was time for the patience of the Mission
Priests to be tested on lines that differed from their
ordinary experience. But there seems to be evidence
that the culprits did really profit by the influence of
S. Lazare, and though this imprisonment there lasted
for long periods, they looked back on the scene of it with
affection, and not with resentment. This labour ap-
* AbelJi, vol. ii., chap. vi.
THE LAST DAYS 391
peared to the contemporaries of Vincent de Paul as
another work of charity undertaken to relieve despairing
parents of a difficulty with which they could not cope;
but this was not the only aspect in which he himself
regarded it. He desired that the Home of the Mission
Priests should be a House of Prayer, that prayer as much
as any of their special activities should be characteristic
of them, and he argued that, if this desire was realized,
the atmosphere of S. Lazare must have power to cure
moral disease and restore the sufferer to his normal place
among his fellows. In this, as in his generous welcome
to retreatants, he did not always secure the agreement
of the Company. Sometimes it was represented to him
that one of these inmates was a hopeless case, and that
it was both dangerous and a waste of labour to allow
him to remain; and sometimes there would be remon-
strance against the arduous burden as a whole, on the plea
that there was nothing in the Rule that claimed the
charge of lunatics and malefactors. On the one point
M. Vincent replied that the culprit would be the cause of
greater danger and distress outside S. Lazare than he
was within, and that the difficulty of control proved how
essential it was that he should be retained in safe keeping.
The other point touched a principle, and for it he had a
deeper answer.
" As to our Rule," he said, " in regard to this our rule
is Our Lord Himself. He chose to be surrounded by mad-
men and idiots, by the tempted, and by the possessed.
They were brought to Him from all parts that they might
be healed, and in His loving-kindness He healed them alL
How is it that we are criticized and blamed for trying to
imitate Him in a thing that was His chosen work ? If
He received the lunatic and the possessed, shall we not
receive them also ? We do not go out to look for them,
they are brought to us ; and how can we be sure that God,
Who has so ordered it, does not intend to use us for the
healing of these poor souls for whom Our Saviour had
392 VINCENT DE PAUL
such great compassion that He seems to have desired
to have part with them ? Ah I my Saviour and my God,
grant us grace that we may see in these things even as
Thou Thyself didst see !"*
There is an indication here of the strength that lay
beneath all M. Vincent's gentleness — the strength that
made him able to rule others even when he was most
distrustful of himself. A little world of differing char-
acters and interests was contained within the walls of
S. Lazare, and M. Vincent, who had been the visible agent
for its formation, presided over it, and guarded it from
evil up to the hour of his death. He had tried once to
lay down his charge, f and at an Assembly of the Company
had resigned his office of Superior; but by a unanimous
vote he was re-elected, and it was plain that any further
effort at retirement would have been meaningless. There-
fore he ruled, and while he held the responsibility he
required compliance with his directions from the Com-
pany. We have seen that he could be severe when the
occasion demanded severity, and that he was able to
disregard the opinion of others. He had shown this in
his dealings with the Court and with the people, and had
in the process of time earned the highest possible tribute
of respect from every class. In long-ago days he had
been independent of the opinion of M. de Gondi; he had
dared to interfere with the prejudices of class on the
question of duelling; he had ignored the possibility of
his patron's wrath when a spiritual prompting called him
to Chatillon. There is little doubt that it was because
he had touched the real strength of Vincent de Paul that
M. de Gondi himself in due course renounced his rank
and riches, and accepted a life of hardship and humility.
The same capacity that gave M. Vincent power in the
world served for the moulding of the Company ; it was his
aim to offer himself hourly to God, and to spread out
every action and every decision when he knelt in those
* Abelli, vol. ii., chap. vi. f In 1642.
THE LAST DAYS 393
long hours of prayer that began the day, and afterwards
to act on that which he had learnt with courage. This
system involves the danger that ensnared the followers
of Mme. Guyon, but M. Vincent guarded himself against it.
" Among the crowd of thoughts and ideas that come,"
he said, " some appear to be good which in fact do not
come from God and are not according to His Will. By
what means can these be recognized ? Our only chance
is to reflect very carefully, to refer everything to God in
prayer, asking Him to give us light, and then to consider
the motive, the end, and the means of that which we
intend to do, to see if it is in conformity with His good
pleasure. We should also ask advice of those who are
wise and possess the knowledge of God. If we do this,
we may be sure we are following His Will."* " If you
ever want to know why you have failed in any under-
taking, you will find it is because you relied upon your-
self. If a preacher or a Superior or a confessor trusts
to his own wisdom and learning and capacity, you will
see how God deals with him. He will leave him to himself,
and, however much he works, there will be no real result
until he sees his own uselessness and understands that all
his experience and all his cleverness are nothing unless
God is working with him."t
It was this particular species of humility which made
M. Vincent confident in enforcing the decisions that
nominally were his. In his old age he attained to a
position of self-distrust that seems to have required
neither consideration nor effort, and he insists on the im-
molation of conceit in his Sons as the essential prepara-
tion for faithful living. " I give thanks to God," he
wrote to one of them, J " because He has shown you how
to tear yourself to pieces — that is to say, the means of
becoming really humble by realizing and acknowledging
your faults. You are right to regard yourself as you do,
* Abelli, vol. iii., chap. v. f Ibid., chap. iii.
% " Lettres," vol. i., No. 272.
394 VINCENT DE PAUL
and to consider yourself quite unfit for any sort of office.
That is the foundation on which Jesus Christ can build
up His purpose for you. At the same time, while you
consider your own inward state, you should lift up your
soul towards realization of His supreme goodness. There
is great reason that you should distrust yourself, but
there is much greater reason that you should have entire
trust in Him. It is well that you should devote more
thought to His love than to your own unworthiness, to
His strength than to your weakness."
As a basis of prayer the direction had its value, and,
indeed, M. Vincent would have desired all his spiritual
direction to his Sons to rank merely as suggestion for their
prayer. As we have seen in his exhortation on the
subject of early rising, he regarded this as the chief duty
of their day. He knew very well, however, that time
nominally given to prayer may be time wasted, and that
the fact of routine and obligation would tend to check
the possibilities of fervour in some natures. For this
reason, and also because he desired to increase his own
intimacy with the members of the Company, he instituted
certain meetings — two in every week — where the subjects
and the fruits of prayer might be discussed ; and it was his
custom to question three or four of those present on their
own recent experiences during their time of meditation.
In hands less dexterous than his these meetings might
have been productive of harm — the devout would have
been tempted to pose and the wilful to invent; but M.
Vincent had deep knowledge of human frailty, and
he watched over the conference with the utmost
care.
In any detailed biography of a pious individual of that
period (and of these many have been written) there will
be found some reference to a nun or a recluse with the
reputation of being specially illuminated in the ways of
prayer. These were the product of an epoch of extremes,
and were probably genuine in their profession of sanctity.
THE LAST DAYS 395
But M. Vincent did not encourage a tendency to eccen-
tricity in this direction; he acknowledged that special
gifts were bestowed upon a few, but he thought that they
were claimed by many who had not received them. It
was better, he once observed,* to be incapable of any-
thing but the simplest form of prayer and to be diligent
in the correction of one's faults, than to go into spiritual
ecstasies and to speak evil of one's neighbour. His
system of discussion, while it served to awake the stagnant
soul to effort, was also a defence against spiritual vagaries.
Simplicity was as needful in prayer as it was in action, and
on this subject he opened his mind to his Sons of S. Lazare
when the period of his visible presence with them was
drawing near its end.
" If you are seeking fine ideas in your prayer," he said,
" and amusing yourself with complicated thoughts —
particularly when you do this with the intention of ad-
vertising yourself when you are giving an account of your
prayer — you are guilty of a sort of blasphemy. In fact,
you are making an idol of yourself, for in your intercourse
with God your object is to foster self-complacency; you
are using time that should be sacred for your own satis-
faction. In flattering yourself that you have beautiful
sentiments you are offering a sacrifice to the idol of your
own vanity.
" Ah ! my Brothers, let us be clear of such follies as
these. Let us realize that we are full of all that is evil,
and let us seek only that which may teach us to be more
humble, and to do the thing that is right. In prayer let
self become nothing, and when we speak of our prayer let
us relate our thoughts humbly ; and if there are any that
seem to us to be fine, let us be distrustful of them and
afraid, lest they were suggested by vainglory or by the
Devil himself. And because there is always this possibility,
directly we think we have a fine inspiration, we must
humble ourselves utterly, whether it comes to us in
* Abelli, vol. iii., chap. iii.
396 VINCENT DE PAUL
prayer, or when we are preaching, or when we are talking
to others.
" And then, when our prayer has brought us to the
making of resolutions, we must implore the Grace of God,
and be free of the least suggestion of trust in ourselves.
And when in spite of this we fail, not once or twice only,
but repeatedly during long spaces of time, and even when
we have never brought one to any real fulfilment, we must
none the less renew them, and throw ourselves on God's
mercy, that we may have His Grace to help us. It is
well that past sins should humble us, but they must not
rob us of our courage; and however deep the sin into
which we fall, it is not a reason for abating the confidence
that God requires we should place in Him. We must
always resolve afresh, and trust to His Grace to save us
irom another fall. We do not find that doctors cease to
treat the ills of the body because at first their remedies
appear to do no good ; and if they persevere with physical
maladies, although there are no signs of improvement,
how much more must be we patient with our spiritual
diseases, for which the Grace of God can work wonders
of healing ?"*
There was, indeed, only one remedy, only one source of
strength and of wisdom. The Superior of S. Lazare had
undertaken far too much for human capacity — a brief
review of all that was in his hands will prove that it was
so — but it was not on human capacity that he depended.
The direction of a single soul would have seemed too high
a task for his unaided powers, and he feared always lest
the success of a system should tempt his Sons to forget
that they needed constant renewal of inspiration. If the
spirit of dependence became clouded, the service of the
Mission Priests to God or to their fellows would have no
further value.
" How may we hope to do our work ?" he said. " How
can we lead souls to God ? How can we stem the tide of
* Abelli, vol. iii., chap. vii.
THE LAST DAYS 397
wickedness among the people ? How can we instil the
idea of virtue and discipline in those who are entrusted
to our care ? Let us realize that this is not man's work
at all — it is the work of God. It is the same work as
Christ came to do, and human energy will only hinder it
unless God directs.
" The most important point of all is that we should
have real touch with Our Lord in prayer. When we are
in any doubt turn instantly to God and say : ' Lord, Who
art the Source of knowledge, teach me what I ought to
do in this matter.' And this not only in moments of
difficulty, but also that we may know directly from God
what we ought to teach. And, further, we must turn to
God in prayer to preserve in our own souls the love and
the fear of Him, for, alas ! it is necessary that we should
know that many who intend to bring others to salvation
come to destruction themselves. To avoid this we must
be so closely united to Our Lord that we cannot lose Him,
lifting up heart and soul towards Him constantly, and
saying : ' Lord, do not suffer that I myself should fall in
trying to save others. Lead me Thyself, and do not with-
hold from me the grace that by means of me Thou hast
given to others.' We must resort to prayer also that we
may place the needs of those whom we direct before Our
Lord. It is quite clear that we shall gain more result
by this means than by any other. Jesus Christ — Who
should be our guide in all things — did not think it suffi-
cient to preach, to labour, to fast, and to die for us, He
prayed also. For Himself He did not need it; it was for
us that He prayed so continually, and to teach us to do
the same on our own behalf, and also for those whom He
is helping us to save."*
This is simple teaching ; but M. Vincent's life, in so far
as it has been possible to gather knowledge of it, appears
to have been formed on the lines that are here laid down.
He never suggests that he had spiritual experiences that
* Abelli, vol. iii., chap. xxiv.
398 VINCENT DE PAUL
were denied to others ; his teaching on prayer is insistent,
but it is given in terms of his own knowledge, and his
hearers may always infer that his knowledge is easily
within their reach if only they will seek for it. Yet
perhaps there were some who, if they tried to follow in his
footsteps, discovered that the way on which he led them
was not an easy one. " To be so closely united with Our
Lord that we cannot lose Him, lifting up heart and soul
to Him continually/' is a condition that demands more
capacity for detachment than the majority of mankind
possess. M. Vincent was never sensational in his method
of instilling the principles of the spiritual life. His listeners
were not always aware of the full import of his maxims,
but when he was dealing with those who aspired to the
vocation of the Mission Priest his intention was to draw
them onwards to the heights of real self -surrender.
" Indifference/' he said, "is a state wherein we are
almost free of desire for one thing rather than another.
As a virtue, it is not only very valuable, but also of infinite
assistance for advance in' the spiritual life. It may be
said, indeed, that for those who would give perfect service
to God it is indispensable, for how may we seek the
Kingdom of God and devote ourselves to converting
sinners if we ourselves are clinging to the comforts of
this present life ? How shall we accomplish the Will of
God so long as we cling to our own ? How can we deny
ourselves as Our Lord has bidden us if we are always
looking about for praise and recognition."*
We have seen that the sacrifice of life itself was re-
quired not infrequently of a Mission Priest, and such
sacrifice was to be made as part of the vocation he had
accepted. " If there be one of us," cried the Superior,
" who fears to lose his comforts, who is so dainty that he
grumbles at anything that may be lacking, and desires to
change his post because the air is unhealthy or the food
is bad, or because he is not sufficiently free to come and
* Abelli, vol. iii., chap, v., sect. 2.
THE LAST DAYS 399
go — if, in short, there is anyone who is still the slave of
his own desires, let him realize that he is unfit to hold
the office to which God called him. We see others risking
their lives for the service of God, and we remain as
fluttered and as timid as so many damp hens."*
This was the vigorous spirit of renunciation which sup-
ported M. Vincent's prayer, and if we are able to form an
idea of its reality, we shall understand the motives that
prompted Francois de Sales to choose the peasant priest
before all the learned ecclesiastics then in Paris as Director
of his Order of the Visitation. It was a deep testimony
to his position as a man of prayer and of that wisdom
which real prayer engenders. The honour was one which
M. Vincent would gladly have escaped, and it was only
his reverence and affection for the Founder and for Mme.
de Chantal, the first Superior, that induced him to accept
and to retain the charge, for he looked on the guidance of
Religious as an office outside the sphere of the Mission
Priests, and the members of the Company were forbidden
to undertake it.
The nuns of the Visitation had dedicated their lives to
prayer, and therefore their conditions differed entirely
from those of the Sisters of Charity; also, their Community
was intended for women of gentle birth, and this intensified
the contrast to the homely order of Servants of the Poor.
It is plain that it was not among these well-born ladies
within their convent walls that M. Vincent felt himself at
home. In their reminiscences of him,f which cover a
period of thirty-eight years, we hear much of his wisdom,
his intuition, his careful maintenance of discipline; but
the record might apply as well to M. Olier or M. Bourdoise,
or even to Francois de Sales himself. There is no touch of
description distinctive of that singular personality, so
uncouth of aspect, yet possessed of such infinite attraction,
which was known to the world of Paris as Vincent de Paul.
With his Sisters of Charity M. Vincent spoke what was in
* Abelli, vol. ii., chap. i. f Ibid., vol. ii., chap. vii.
400 VINCENT DE PAUL
his mind without reserve, and it is to them — though they
were devoid of culture or literary attainment — that we
owe the most living portrayal of him. He has no place
among the writers of Spiritual Letters, and among his
contemporaries he was never known as a confessor and
director of the devout. Many of the avenues to intimate
knowledge which are open in the case of Francois de Sales,
of Bossuet, of Fenelon, or of many other saintly natures,
are closed when we consider Vincent de Paul. The
brilliant women of the world whose difficulties and honest
aspirations called forth words of wisdom from those whom
they consulted were not part of the charge of the Superior
of S. Lazare. His letters to the great ladies of the period
are letters of business. As a rule he did not undertake the
spiritual direction of private individuals, and all his inter-
course with women was limited with extraordinary strict-
ness. Nevertheless, there was in his own nature both
the tenderness and the intuition that are characteristic of
the woman rather than the man. Throughout his life as
a priest — from the moment that he said his first Mass in
the lonely chapel of Our Lady at Buzet — he had had a
special devotion to the Mother of Our Lord; and there
was reason that in his active life he should place deep
confidence in the courage and self-devotion of women.
No one, perhaps, has ever had more real understanding of
a woman's character.
The absolute command which M. Vincent exercised
over the wayward and undisciplined natures that were
to be found among the Sisters of Charity was not due to
his eloquence or to his reputation so much as to his habit
of taking them into his confidence and of making them
feel that they really had part with him in the N Con-
ferences M where he met them face to face. With his
Mission Priests he sets a standard, but with his Sisters of
Charity he seems to unveil himself with the desire to make
the way easier for them by the knowledge of his diffi-
culties. It is no wonder that his confidence in them pro-
THE LAST DAYS 401
voked response, and that the sealed and hidden chambers
of their hearts were thrown open at his summons. A
veteran Sister at the close of one of their assemblies knelt
down before him and confessed, so that all might hear,
that in long past times she had taken a book from one of
her companions, and then denied possession of it, because
she desired to keep it. The original owner being dead,
she there and then restored it publicly to M. Vincent.*
This avowal entailed a complete sacrifice of reputation,
and Is hard for us to estimate the cost. It would have
been very easy for the offender to acknowledge her fault
in secret on the plea that a younger generation might be
harmed, but she had touched reality as she sat listening
to M. Vincent, and she could not rest till she had made
the fullest reparation that was possible. It was not his
method to calculate the possible ill-effects of honesty. " It
is well to have the habit of stating things as they actually
took place," he said. " For my own part God has given me
so strong a conviction of this that I call it my Gospel,
and I am specially helped in telling the exact truth be-
cause to do so is in conformity with the Spirit of God." f
Accordingly he does not hesitate to tell his hearers of his
repeated loss of temper with the Brothers or Priests of
S. Lazare, of his sense that he must try the patience of
many of his Company, of the forgetfulness that has brought
him unprepared to a" Conference," or the mismanage-
ment of time that has caused him to neglect them for so
long 4 The note of unworthiness is present as much in
rebuke as in exhortation ; his own weakness is a hindrance
to them and to his own Company: " Tout le mal qui se
fait d la Mission, dites que c 'est Vincent qui lefait."§
It is the consequence of his own strong sense of sin that
he is so infinitely compassionate towards sinners. In
many varying directions all through his ministry we have
proof of it; it was a foundation of his power with the
* "Conferences," vol. i., 45. February 24, 1653. f Ibid., vol. ii., 53.
t Ibid., vol. i., 26, 41, 86, 87. § Ibid., vol. i., 72. May, 1657.
26
402 VINCENT DE PAUL
ignorant. He might preach the fear of God and uphold
the necessity of penitence, but it was by love and patience,
not by the threat of penalty, that he drew offenders to
him; and it is by the understanding of their weaknesses
that he made the Sisters of Charity so inseparably his
own. We have a special instance at the time when some
of them had failed notably in the house at Nantes ; the
violence of their quarrels had become a scandal in the
town, and warnings and reprimands from headquarters
produced no effect. It became necessary to send a
chosen few from Paris to reform the existing condition
and bring the rebels to a better mind; but in doing so
M. Vincent's sympathies went out to those under rebuke ;
he was fearful that the representatives of order might
fail in tact, and his charge to them as they set forth is
characteristic of his tender heart :
" Because you are Sisters of Charity you are bound to
aim at perfection," he told them;* " that is expected of
you. And, because you are so, you have been chosen to
go to the help of the wounded. You know that in war
we take up arms, we fight; and some are killed, some
wounded; some conquer, and others are conquered. In
this way our Sisters have been wounded in the battle,
our Enemy has declared against them. They are not
to be despised for that, they are still worthy of admira-
tion; but the demon of contention made a cruel attack
upon them."
It is a heavy blow for those who hold office to be super-
seded because of failure, but under M. Vincent's authority
the penalty lost some of its harshness, and the law of love
had opportunity to gather force. We have, of course,
only a little knowledge of his dealing with his children
during the last seven years of his life, but it is enough
to show us that his hold upon their hearts must have
grown closer with every month that passed. In those
* ''Conferences," vol. i., 49. November, 1653.
THE LAST DAYS 403
years he was no longer distracted by claims to attend
the Queen's Council ; Mazarin had triumphed, and Vincent
de Paul had lost the influence at Court that he had once
possessed. Moreover, the Regency had ended, and with
it the time of transition wherein enthusiasts had hoped
to lay the foundation of a glorious future. The enthu-
siasm of Vincent de Paul never waned ; his faith in the
power of righteousness could not be disturbed by any
passing events; but he had to learn that the new order
of which he dreamed was not to come while his earthly
eyes might look on it, nor was he to have any part in
bringing it about. After the Fronde was ended he with-
drew more and more into seclusion at S. Lazare. He had
never been courted for his brilliant parts, he was not
eloquent nor very learned, and death had thinned the
ranks of those who were ready to support a scheme of his
at any sacrifice. It was inevitable that in his extreme
old age his hold on the great world should loosen, and he
was the more ready to accept retirement because of the
ecclesiastical dislocation which had set the authority of
the Church and the Crown at variance. Vincent de Paul
had preached loyalty unswervingly all his life, but Mazarin
and de Retz had brought about a situation which forced
him to keep silence; and if he, who had been labouring
for reform for thirty years, must hold his peace in sight
of terrible abuses, it was better that he should also hide
his eyes.
A cloud of sadness and of disappointment hangs over
him in his relations with the world in those final years,
though there is no failure of hope. " The spirit of charity
is lessening in Paris," he wrote in 1657, " and where we
used to gather 16,000 livres we now get no more than
1,000."* Possibly the shrinking of generosity was due
chiefly to his absence from the assemblies where charitable
undertakings were discussed, and such absence was in-
evitable, for in 1657 ne was eighty-one and in a state of
* " Lettres," vol. ii., No. 409.
404 VINCENT DE PAUL
extreme bodily infirmity. But if his outward work had
not fulfilled its promise, the close of his life was cheered by
the final touches to the foundation of his Company. It
was in September, 1655, that the Pope sanctioned the
Constitution of the Mission Priests, and in May, 1658,
M. Vincent gave the Rule to his sons. It was the last
great event of his career. In the year that followed he
lost M. Portail, his closest friend and companion, and
in the spring of 1660 Mile. Le Gras, and he knew the hour
of his own departure must be near. His position forced
a certain loneliness upon him. He was Founder and
Superior, and it was for him to give encouragement and
inspiration; there was no one from whom he might receive
it. But his faculties were not enfeebled to the very last.
Two months before his death he held a " Conference "*
for the Sisters of Charity, in which his capacity for eliciting
their real opinions is still apparent, and in the spring of
that year he had guided them through the time of un-
certainty and consternation consequent on the loss of
Mile. Le Gras. He had thought to spare, also, for the
distresses of private individuals. There are letters of his
at this period that go into the detail of difficult family
affairs as if these were his sole concern. His bodily con-
dition does not occupy his thoughts any more than it
had done in the prime of life. His only complaint is at
the luxuries that are forced upon him. Of his own free
will he would never have relaxed the extreme austerity of
his habitual practice, but superior authority compelled
him, when he had reached the age of eighty-two, to accept
a fire in his room and a coverlet in the cold weather.
He had been afflicted for years with a malady of the
feet and legs which made walking a matter of infinite
difficulty, and he never recovered from the hardships of his
perilous wanderings in 1649 (he is said to have increased
them voluntarily that he might make an offering of his
bodily suffering in the hour of national disaster). In his
* " Conferences," vol. ii., 108. July, 1660.
THE LAST DAYS 405
last weeks many ills took possession of him, and he spent
long periods in torture. He was of very strong con-
stitution, and lingered on for days after those about
him had believed that death was imminent. On Monday,
September 27, 1660, he died.
The manner of his end was in keeping with his life.
There was nothing that was dramatic or could appeal to
the imagination. He took his share in the dire experience
of suffering which comes sooner or later to the ordinary
human being; he had to bear the long strain on faith
and fortitude, the humiliation of protracted helplessness ;
and he was patient under it. It is worthy of remembrance
that his followers were so imbued with his spirit that
they give us the simple history of an old man's last days
without elaborate eulogy of the courage and self-restraint
that was a part of his being.
When his body lay in state in the church of S. Lazare,
rich and poor flocked thither in such numbers to look for
the last time on the familiar face, that the six Mission
Priests who watched over him had hard work to defend
the coffin from the pressure of the crowd; and not only
the poor whom he had loved, but Princes of the blood
and civic dignitaries, were at his funeral. All Paris
mourned for him.
But though the manifestation of national regret was
due to him, he had never cared for public honours. The
tributes of sorrow he would have valued were paid, one
may believe, when the news spread to distant country
places; when Mission Priests, stirred to new effort by
their sense of loss, faced once again the searching claim
of their vocation; and Sisters of Charity, those homely,
nameless Servants of the Poor, knelt down, at the firsti
impulse of their love and grief, to pray for the departed
soul of him who had taught them to renounce the pleasant
things of life and choose the way of unremitting labour —
for the soul of their friend and leader, Vincent de Paul.
y
APPENDICES
NOTES— LIST OF AUTHORITIES-
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE— INDEX
NOTES
NOTE I. TO PART I., CHAPTER III., P. 46
Acte d' Association passe entre S. Vincent de Paul
et ses Trois Premiers Compagnons
Nous Vincent de Paul p'bre et principal du College des Bons
Enfans fonde a Paris, joignant la Porte St. Victor, faisons foy a
tous qu'il appartiendra : que selon la fondation faicte par Mgr.
Philippe-Emmanuel de Gondy, Conte de Toigny, General des
Galeres de France, et de feue Dame Francoise - Marguerite de
Silly, Baronne de Montmirail et d'autres lieux, son espouse ; pour
l'entretien de quelques ecclesiastiques quy se tient et unissent
ensembles pour s' employer en maniere de mission, a catechiser,
prescher, et faire faire confession generate au pauvre peuple des
champs, selon qu'il est porte par le contract de fondation, passe
pardevant Jean du Puis et Nicolas le Boucher, notaires et garde-
nottes du Roi au Chastelet de Paris le dixseptiesme avril mil
six (cent) vingt cincq. La dicte fondation approuvee et autorisee
par Mgr. l'illustrissime et reverendissime Jean Francis de Gondy,
Archevesque de Paris, du vingt quatriesme du dit mois mil six
cent vingt six ; par lequel contract il nous est donne pouvoir de faire
choix de tels ecclesiastiques que nous trouverrons propres a
I'employ de ce bon ceuvre. Nous, en vertu de ce que dessus apres
avoir fait preuve, un temps assez notable, de la vertu et sumsance
de Francois du Coudray, p'bre du diocese d'Amyens, de M.
Antoine Portail, prestre du diocese d'Arles, et de M. Jean de la
Salle, aussy p'bre dudit diocese d'Amyens; avons iceux choisy,
eleu, aggrege et associe, choisissons, elisons, aggregeons et asso-
cions a nous et au dit ceuvre, pour ensemblement vivre en manidre
de congregation, compagnie ou confrairie; et nous employer au
salut du dit pauvre peuple des champs, conformement a ladite
fondation, le tout selon la priere que les dits du Coudray, Portail
et la Salle nous en ont faict, avec promesse d'observer la dite
fondation et le rdglement particulier quy selon iceluy sera dresse ;
et d'obeir taut a nous qu'a nos successeurs Superieurs comme
estant sous nostre direction, conduite et jurisdiction. Ce que
nous susnommez, du Coudray, Portail, et de la Salle aggreons,
409
410 VINCENT DE PAUL
promettons et nous soumettons garder inviolablement. En foy
de quoy nous avons reciproquement signe la presente de nostre
propre main ; et faict mettre le certificat des notaires.
Faict a Paris, au College des Bons Enfans ce quatriesme jour
de septembre mil six cent vingt six.
Signe. Vincent de Paul, Du Coudray, Portail, de la Salle.
(The original document is preserved in the Archives of the
Mission, Rue du Seine.)
NOTE II. TO PART L, CHAPTER III., P. 54
Avis pour les Ordinand — 1628.
/. Avant les Orders.
1. Reconnaitre si Ton a vocation ft Tetat ecclesiastique.
2. Prier Dieu et le faire prier pour connoitre cette vocation.
3. Consulter son confesseur ou quelque notable personnage
pour cela.
4. La vocation reconnue, l'embrasser avec purete d'intention
de la gloire de Dieu et de son salut.
5. Avoir un titre qui ne soit ri feint ni faux.
6. Faire publier les bans un mois avant l'ordination, porter le
certificat de la publication, et de ses vie et mceurs.
7. Se presenter a l'examen, avec l'esprit d'indifference soit a
Tadmission ou a l'exclusion.
8. Approchant le temps des exercises, produire quantites
d'actes de renoncement au monde et de desir de se donner a Dieu.
II. Durant les Exercices.
1. Entrer aux exercices avec grand desir d'apprendre les
fonctions et les vertus propres de chaque Ordre, et celles qui sont
convenables et communes a tout l'etat ecclesiastique.
2. Les Ordinands prieront Dieu chaque jour qu'il leur donne un
cceur docile pour bien apprendre ce qui sera enseigne.
3. Feront chaque jour des notes de ce qu'ils auront appris de
plus remarquable.
4. Emploieront fidelement tout le temps pour faire tous les
exercices.
5. Demanderont quelque temps opportun a celui qui dirige les
exercices pour penser et ecrire leur confession generate.
6. Demanderont au m£me permission de faire quelques humilia-
tions, comme de servir a table ou balayer.
7. Pendant qu'ils recevront les Saints Ordres, ils s'offrirent et
consacreront a Dieu, sans reserve ni exception aucune en la
maniere qui leur sera enseignee.
APPENDICES 411
III. Apris le Exercices.
1. Rendre actions de graces de l'Ordre qu'ils ont recu et des
instructions qu'ils ont eues pour cela, a l'exclusion d'un millier
d'eccl6siastiques qui ont recus les Ordres en divers quartiers du
monde sans cette preparation.
2. Se proposer de bien pratiquer les dites instructions qu'ils
ont recues.
3. De dire ou d'ouir tous les jours la sainte messe.
4. Se confesser deux fois tous les huit jours a un meme con-
fesseur.
5. Avoir un emploi de la journee et l'observer.
6. Etudier de sorte qu'on puisse faire tous les dimanches une
predication ou un catechisme.
7. Avoir un directeur auquel Ton communique les dimcultes de
son interieur.
8. Accepter les charges et conditions auxquelles le prelat
emploiera, et y demeurer en attendant un autre emploi, tel que
le prelat le voudra donner.
9. Faire son possible pour entrer dans les Conferences qui se
feront, pour conserver la devotion qu'on a recue de Dieu pendant
les exercices.
NOTE III. TO PART I., CHAPTER IX., P. 173
Ordonnance du Roi (fait a Paris, 14 Fevrier, 165 1).
De par le roi :
Sa Majest6 etant bien informee que les habitants de la plu-
part des villages de ses frontiers de Picardie et de Champagne
sont reduits a la mendicite et a une entiere misere, pour avoirete
exposes aux pillages et hostilites des ennemis et aux passages et
logements de toutes les armees ; que plusieurs eglises ont ete pillees
et depouillees de leurs ornements, et que pour sustenter et nourrir
les pauvres et reparer les eglises, plusieurs personnes de sa bonne
ville de Paris font de grandes et abondantes aumones qui sont
fort utilement employees par les pretres de la Mission de M. Vin-
cent et autres personnes charitables envoyees sur les lieux ou il
y a eu le plus de ruines et le plus de mal, en sorte qu'un grand
nombre de ces pauvres gens a ete soulage dans la necessite et
maladie. Mais qu'en ce faisant, les gens de guerre passant ou
sejournant dans les lieux ou lesolits missionnaires se sont trouv6s,
ont pris et detrousse les ornements d'eglise et les provisions de
vivres, d'habits et d'autres choses qui etaient destines pour les
pauvres, en sorte que s'ils n'ont surete de la part de Sa Majeste,
il leur serait impossible de continuer une ceuvre si charitable et si
412
VINCENT DE PAUL
importante a la gloire de Dieu et au soulagement des sujets de
Sa Majeste. Desirant y contribuer de tout ce qui peut etre en son
pouvoir, Sa Majeste de l'avis de la reine regente, defend tres-
expressement aux gouverneurs et ses lieutenants-generaux en
ses provinces et armees, marechaux et maitres de camp, colonels,
capitaines et autres chefs et officiers commandant ses troupes,
tant de cheval que de pied, Francais, et etrangers, de quelque
nation qu'elles soient, de loger ni souffrir qu'il soit loge aucuns
gens de guerre dans les villages desdites frontieres de Picardie et
de Champagne, pour lesquels lesdits pretres de la Mission leur
demanderont sauvegarde pour assister les pauvres et les malades,
et y faire la distribution des provisions qu'ils y porteront, en
sorte qu'ils soient en pleine et entidre libert6 d'y exercer leur
charit6 en la maniere et a ceux que bon leur semblera. Defend
en outre Sa Majeste a tous gens de guerre de prendre aucune
chose aux prGtres de la Mission et aux personnes employees avec
eux ou par eux, a peine de la vie, les prenant en sa protection et
sauvegarde speciale, en enjoignant trds expressement a tous les
baillifs, sene chaux, juges, prevots des marechaux et autres offi-
ciers qu'il appartiendra, de tenir la main a l'execution et publica-
tion de la presente, et de poursuivre les contrevenants, en sorte
que la punition en serve d'exemple. Veux Sa Majeste qu'aux
copies de la presente duement collationnees foi soit ajoutee comme
a l'original.
(" Recueil cange, Ordonnances Militaires," vol. xxviii.)
NOTE IV. TO PART II., CHAPTER VI., P. 304
Establishments of the Company of Mission Priests during
the Life of Vincent de Paul
1625. Paris : College des Bons
1644.
Saintes.
Enfants.
rLe Mans.
1632. Paris: S. Lazare.
Saint Meen.
1635. Toul.
1637. Notre Dame de la Rose.
1645.-
Paris : S. Charles
Genoa.
fRichelieu.
Algiers.
i638.-(Lucon.
/Tunis.
[Troyes.
1648. Treguier.
1639. Annecy.
1649. Madagascar.
1 64 1. Crecy.
1650. Agen.
1642. Rome : Monte Citorio.
165 1. Warsaw.
(Marseilles.
,. fMontauban.
1 Cahors.
I6«-| Sedan.
(.Montmirail.
CHIEF AUTHORITIES FOR LIFE OF
VINCENT DE PAUL
ORIGINAL SOURCES
Vie du Venerable Serviteur de Dieu, Vincent de Paul, par Abelli,
£v6que de RodSs. Paris, 1664.*
Vie de Saint Vincent de Paul, par Collet, Prdtre de la Mission.
Nancy, 1748.
Conferences de Saint Vincent de Paul. Paris, 1882.
Les Lettres de Saint Vincent de Paul. Paris, 1882.
Regies Communes de la Congregation de la Mission. Paris, 1658.
La Vie de Mademoiselle Le Gras, par M. Gobillon, Cure de Saint-
Laurent suivie des Pensees de Mademoiselle. Paris, 1676.
S. Vincent de Paul : Sermons.
La Vie de Madame de Miramion, par Francois T. de Choisy.
Memoire touchant la Vie de M. de S. Cyran. Claude Lancelot.
1788.
Memoires de la Regence. Gui Joly. Amsterdam, 171 8.
Memoires de Madame de Motteville.
Memoires de Jean Francois de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz.
RECENT AUTHORITIES
Saint Vincent de Paul : sa Vie, son Temps, ses (Euvres, son In-
fluence. L'Abbe Maynard.
Histoire de Saint Vincent de Paul. Mgr. Bougard, £v§que de Laval.
Saint Vincent de Paul et sa Mission Sociale. Arthur Loth.
Saint Vincent de Paul et ses (Euvres a Marseille. H. Simard.
Saint Vincent de Paul. Emmanuel de Broglie.
Saint Vincent de Paul et le Sacerdoce (un Pr§tre de la Mission).
Saint Vincent de Paul et les Gondi. R .de Chantelauze.
La Venerable Louise de Marillac, Mademoiselle Le Gras. Mgr.
Baunard.
La SceHir de Charite. A. de Pistoye.
Le Cardinal de Retz et son Temps. Leonce Curnier.
* The basis of the present volume.
413
414 VINCENT DE PAUL
Histoire Genealogique de la Maison de Gondi. J. de Corbinelli.
Theophraste Renaudot. Eugene Hatin.
T. Renaudot d'Apres des Documents Inedits. Gilles de la
Tourette.
Un Oublie : T. Renaudot. Gaston Bonnefont.
Jean Jacques Olier. G. M. de Fruges.
Vie de M. Olier. Faillon.
M. Olier de la Congregation de S. Sulpice.
La Cabale des Devots. Raoul Allier.
La Misere au Temps de la Fronde. Alphonse Feillet.
Histoire de la Fronde. L. C. de Beaupoilde Saint- Aulaire.
L'Esprit de la Fronde. J. B. Mailly.
Histoire de la Ville de Paris, vols. i. and ii. Michel Felibien.
Histoire des Antiquites de la Ville de Paris, vol. ii. Henri Sauval.
La Police sous Louis XIV. Pierre Clement.
Correspon dance Administrative Louis XIV., vol. iii. G. B.
Depping.
Histoire de la Vie Privee des Francois. Le Grand d'Aussy.
Le Village sous l'Ancien Regime. Albert Babeau.
La Ville sous l'Ancien Regime. Albert Babeau.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
Personal Life.
1576. Birth of Vincent de Paul.
1588. Begins Education at Dax.
1596. Receives the Tonsure.
1600. Ordained Priest.
1605. Captured by Turkish
Pirates.
1607. Liberated, and goes to
Rome.
1609. Returns to France.
1 610. Appointed Almoner to
Marguerite de Valois.
1 61 2. Cure of Clichy.
1613. Tutor to Sons of M. de
Gondi.
161 7. First Mission Sermon.
Becomes Cure at Cha-
tillon les Dombes.
Returns to M. de Gondi.
1625. Foundation of Congre-
gation of Mission
Priests.
Death of Mme. de Gondi.
1632. Mission Priests estab-
lished at S. Lazare.
1640. Foundlings adopted by
Ladies of Charity.
1642. First Vows of the Sisters
of Charity.
1643. M. Vincent appointed to
Council of Conscience.
1649. First Mission to Mada-
gascar.
1660. Death of Mile. Le Gras.
Death of M. Vincent.
Contemporary Events.
1574. Accession of Henri III.
1589. Death of Henri III.
Death of Catherine de
Medicis.
1590. Battle of Ivry.
1593. Henri IV. abjures Pro-
testantism.
1600. Marriage of Henri IV.
and Marie de Medicis.
1610. Assassination of Henri
IV.
161 1. De Berulle founds Con-
gregation of the Ora-
tory in Paris.
1622. Death of S. Francois de
Sales.
1624. Richelieu becomes First
Minister.
1638. Birth of Louis XIV.
1639. Death of Marie de Me-
dicis.
1 64 1. Death of Sainte Chantal.
1642. Death of Richelieu.
1643. Death of Louis XIII.
Publication of Arnauld's
" Frequent Commu-
nion."
1648. Beginning of Fronde Re-
bellion.
1653. Imprisonment of De Re tz.
Mazarin returns to Paris.
1656. Publication of Provincial
Letters.
1 66 1. Death of Mazarin.
415
INDEX
Abelli, Louis, first biographer of
Vincent de Paul, 22, 29, 32,
344, 373
Aiguillon, Marie de Vigneron,
Duchesse d\ niece of Cardinal
Richelieu, in, 158, 270, 273,
276, 279, 345, 353
Albret, Jeanne d', Queen of
Navarre, mother of Henri IV.,
13
Almeras, Rene, Mission Priest,
298, 299
Angoumois, Philippe d', 105
Anne of Austria, Consort of Louis
XIII. and Queen Regent, 14, 18,
82, 108, 114, 118, 120-134, 138-
155, 158, 160-162, 164-168, 176,
183, 188, 197-201, 251, 277, 326,
35i
Arnauld, Angelique, Abbess of
Port Royal, 135, 138, 263, 375
Arnauld, Antoine, Doctor of the
Sorbonne, 378, 380-382
Arnaulds, the, 171
Augustine, St., 30, 375, 379
Augustinian Monks, the, 47-49,
390
Bagin, Cardinal, 361
Barreau, Jean, 353-358
Bassancourt, M. de, 113
Beaufort, Due de, 140, 182
Berthe, Thomas, Mission Priest,
299, 300
Berulle, Cardinal de, 18, 20, 22,
27. 28, 33, 35. 38-40, 47. 135.
377
Berzian, Seigneur de, 114
Beyrier, M., 36
Boileau-Despreaux, Nicolas, 79,
171
Bon, M. le, Superior of Augus-
tinian Monks, 47-49, 65, 389
Bossuet, Jacques Benigne, Bishop
of Meaux, 28, 59, 61, 400
Bourbon, Henri de, 50
Bourdaise, Toussaint, Mission
Priest, 365
Bourdaloue, Pdre, 61
Bourdeille, Francois de, Bishop of
Perigueux, 5
Bourdoise, M., Cure of S. Nicolas
Chardonnet, 113, 386, 399
Bourgoing, Pere, '18
Breton, M. le, Mission Priest, 149
Bretonvilliers, Mme. de, 177
Brienne, Mme. de, 276
Broussel, M., Magistrate, 149, 150
Buckingham, George Villiers,
Duke of, 128
Bussy de Rabutin, 272
Calvin, $76, 380
Capuchins, the, 105, 364
Carmelites, the, 44, 144, 247, 266
Chantal, S. Jeanne de, 309, 311,
377, 399
Charlet, Pdre, 42
Chevreuse.Mme.de, 127, 128, 178,
182
Codoing, Bernard, Mission Priest,
308-310, 312-318, 320
Colbert, Jean-Baptiste, Minister
to Louis XIV., 79, 171, 262,
347, 353
Commet, M. de, 46
Company of the Blessed Sacra-
ment, the, 104-111, 138, 169,
262, 344, 348
Concini, favourite of Marie de
Medici, 209
Conde, La Princesse de, 273, 276,
279
Conde, Prince de, 139, 140, 145,
150, 158, 160, 161, 182, 183,
201, 265, 279
Condren, Pere de, Superior of the
Oratorians, 107
Conti, Armand de Bourbon, Prince
de, 160
Corneille, Pierre, 171
Coste, Simiane de la, 348
417
27
418
VINCENT DE PAUL
Coudray, Francis du, Mission
Priest, 46, 53» 74, 343. 345
Descartes, 171
Desmoulins, Pere, 70, 71
Dominicans, the, 12
Ducourneau, Frere Bertrand, Sec-
retary to M. Vincent, 152, 153,
155
Duguin, M., Mission Priest, 367
Dumas, Alexandre, 128
Durand, M., Mission Priest, 306
Epernon, Due d\ 6
Escart, Pierre, Mission Priest,
308-311
Fenelon, Francois de, 28, 400
Ferrier, M. du, 113
Fiesco, Gian Luigi, 187, 198, 199
Fiesque, M. de, Cure of S. Sulpice,
112
Flacourt, Comte de, 360
Francis of Assisi, S., 179
Franciscans, the, 4
Francois de Sales, SM 22, 60, 117,
135, 216, 377, 399.400
Francois Xavier, S., 362
Fresne, M. de, 40
Gaston d' Orleans, brother to
Louis XIII., known as " Mon-
sieur," in, 182, 201
Gault, Jean Baptiste, Bishop of
Marseilles, 345
Godefroy, M. Charles, 59, 60
Gondi, Jean Francois de, Arch-
bishop of Paris, 42, 43, 56, 7 s,
187-190, 202, 228
Gondi, Jean Francois Paul de.
See Retz, Cardinal de
Gondi, Mme. de, 27, 28, 30-35,
38-44, 5i, 73
Gondi, Philippe de, General of
the Galleys, 20, 22, 27, 29, 32-
35, 39-44, 263, 338, 340, 343,
392
Gondi, Pierre de, 185
Gondree, Nicolas, Mission Priest,
363, 364
Goussaulte, Mme., 73, 74, 76, 77,
273, 279, 34i
Guemenee, Mme. de, 182
Guyon, Mme., 393
Henri IV., 11, 13, 15, 25, 61, 78,
82, 108, 113, 120, 178
Herse, Mme. de, 273, 274, 279
Horgny, Jean d', Mission Priest,
321, 378-380, 387
Hospital of Charity, 12, 15, 16
Hospital, Convict, 1 10, 344-347
Hospital " du Nom de J6sus," 85,
257
Hospital, Foundling, 89, 90, 257,
274, 275, 288
Hospital of " La Salpetriere," 82-86
Hospital of the Trinity, 86, 90
Hotel Dieu, 72-75, 99, 218, 257,
273, 275- 280
Ignatius Loyola, S., 386
Innocent X., Pope, 162-164, 166,
197, 198, 202
Jansenius, Cornelius, Bishop of
Ypres, 375, 378, 379, 386
Jesuits, the, 42, 314, 377, 379,
382, 385-387
Jolly, Edme, Mission Priest, 364
Joseph, Pere, Counsellor of Car-
dinal Richelieu, 94, 97
La Bruyere, 281
Lancelot, Claude, 378, 386
Lanti, Cardinal, 316
Laurence, Marguerite, Sister of
Charity, 243
Le Blanc, M., Mission Priest, 367
Le Camus, Bishop of Bellay, 210
Le Gras, Antoine, secretary to
Marie de Medici, 209, 212
Le Gras, Mile., 76-78, 157, 207-
229, 231, 239-241, 243-245, 247,
250-260, 272-274, 404
Lestocq, M. de, 48
Le Vacher, Jean, Mission Priest,
358, 359
Le Vacher, Philippe, Mission
Priest, 356-358
Liancourt, Due de, 1 1 1
Liancourt, Duchesse de, 273
Longueville, Anne Genevidve de
Bourbon, Duchesse de, 145, 182,
191, 279
Longueville, Due de, 145, 160
Louis XIII., 61, 78, 94, 96-98, 121-
123, 125, 127, 128, 139-141, 183,
339, 340
Louis XIV., 115, 128, 140, 150,
156, 162, 164-168, 182, 200, 201,
203, 251, 262, 359
Luther, Martin, 386
Luynes, Constable de, 127
Luynes, Mme. de. See Chevreuse,
Mme. de
INDEX
419
Maintenon, Mme. de, 28, 61, 209
Marillac, Louise de. See Le Gras,
Mile.
Mazarin, Cardinal, 109, no, 118,
124-130, 132, 140-155, 158, 160-
162, 164-168, 181, 182, 184-186,
190-194, 197-203, 229, 262, 277,
326, 359, 402
Medici, Catherine de, Queen of
France, 13, 185
Medici, Marie de, Queen of France,
28, 76, 92, 97, 120, 121, 209
Meilleraye, M. de la, 364
Meilleraye, Mme. de la, 23, 279
Miramion, Mme. de, 89, 272, 273,
279
Mole, Mathieu, Magistrate, 147,
148, 154
Montbazon, Mme. de, 182
Montorio, Pierre, Papal Legate,
9, 11, 22
Moras, Bertrande de, mother of
Vincent de Paul, 3, 16
Motteville, Mme. de, 141 -144
Nacquart, Charles, Mission Priest,
361-365
Naseau, Marguerite, Sister of
Charity, 224
Olier de Verneuil, 113
Olier, Jean Jacques, Cure of S.
Sulpice, 36, 59, 61, 75, 107, in-
120, 149, 167, 181, 284, 383. 399
Oratory, Congregation of the, 1 8,
40, 42, 44, 70, 71, 118, 263,
345. 386
Palatine, Anne de Gonzague,
Princess, 182
Pascal, Blaise, 171, 382
Patin, Gui, 25, 79
Paul IV., Pope, 11, 18
Paul, Jean de, father of Vincent
de Paul, 3, 5
Pichery, Henri de, 105
Plantol, M. Eugene, 352
Portail, Antoine, Mission Priest,
45, 150, 284, 4°4
Port Royal, 28, 35, 37. 108, 118,
138, 169, 247, 259, 261-263, 325,
375-387
Potier, Augustin, Bishop of Beau-
vais, 53, 54
Racine, Jean, 171
Rambouillet, Hotel, 182, 183, 262
Rambouillet, Mme. de, 183, 264
Renard, Frdre Mathieu, 176
Renaudot, Theophraste, 91-103,
121, 141, 148
Retz, Jean Francois de Gondi,
Cardinal de, 24, 27, 140, 148,
181-203, 229, 386, 403
Reynie, Nicolas de la, 79
Richelieu, Armand Jean du Pies-
sis, Cardinal, 29, 59, 62, 94, 97,
98, 101, 102, 107, 121, 122, 128,
139, 141, 271, 272, 341, 360,
376, 377
Robiche, Louis, Mission Priest,
347
Rougemont, Comte de, 36-38
Rousseau, Marie, 114, 117
St. Cyran, Jean Duvergier de
Hauranne, Abbe de, 138, 375-
379. 386
Saint -Martin, M. de, 6, 16
Saint-Simon, Due de, 122, 124
Salle, M. de la, Mission Priest,
46
Schomberg, Mme. de, 279
Singlin, Antoine, Director of Port
Royal, 386
Sourdis, Cardinal de, 343
Talon, Omer, Magistrate, 147 .
Tallemant des Reaux, 25
Thevenin, M., Mission Priest, 315
Tronson, M., 59
Urban VIII., Pope, 46
Val, M. Andre du, 48, 49
Valois Kings, the, 13, 28, 195
Valois, Marguerite de, first wife of
Henri IV., 12-15, 20-22
Ventadour, M. de, 105
Vigean, Anne de, 265
Vigean, Mme. la Marquise de, 266
Vigean, Marthe de, 265-268
Visitation, the Order of the, 135,
332, 399
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