When the Chablais was restored to the Duke of Savoy, Bishop de Granier,
the predecessor of our Holy Founder, eager to further the design of His
Highness to bring back into the bosom of the Roman Church the population
that had been led astray, sent to it a number of labourers to gather in
the harvest. Among these, one of the first to be chosen was our Saint,
at that time Provost of the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in Geneva, and
consequently next in dignity to the Bishop.
With him were sent some Canons, Parish Priests, and others. Several members
of various Religious Orders also presented themselves, eager to be employed
in this onerous, if honourable, mission.[1]
It would be impossible to give a just idea of the labours of these
missionaries, or of the obstacles which they encountered at the outset of
their holy enterprise. The spirit of Blessed Francis was, however, most
flexible and accommodating, and greatly tended to further the work of the
people's conversion.
He was like the manna which assimilated itself to the palate of whoever
tasted it: he made himself all things to all men that he might gain all for
Jesus Christ.
In his ordinary mode of conversation and in his dress, which was mean and
common, he produced a much less jarring effect upon the minds and eyes of
these people than did the members of Religious Orders with their various
habits and diversities.
He, as well as the secular Priests who worked under him, sometimes even
condescended so far as to wear the short cloaks and high boots usual in the
country, so as more easily to gain access to private houses, and not to
offend the eyes of the people by the sight of the cassock, which they were
unaccustomed to. To this pious stratagem the members of Religious Orders
were unwilling to have recourse, their distinctive habit being, in their
opinion, almost essential to their profession, or at least so fitting that
it might never lawfully be laid aside.
Our Blessed Father went on quite a different tack, and caught more flies
with a spoonful of the honey which he was so much in the habit of using,
than did all the others with their harsher methods.
Everything about him, whether external or internal, breathed the spirit of
conciliation; all his words, gestures, and ways were those of kindliness.
Some wished to make themselves feared; but he desired only to be loved, and
to enter men's hearts through the doorway of affection. On this account,
whether he spoke in public or in private, he was always more attentively
listened to than anyone else.
However much the Protestants might attack him and purposely provoke him,
he, on his side, ever dealt with them in a spirit absolutely free from
contention, abstaining from anything likely to give offence, having often
on his lips those beautiful words of the Apostle: _If any man seem to be
contentious, we have no such custom, nor the Church of God._[2]
To come now to the particulars which I promised you, let me tell you how
our Blessed Father, having read in St. Augustine's works and in those of
other ancient Fathers that in the early centuries Christian Priests, in
addressing heretics and schismatics, did not hesitate to call them their
brethren, inferred that he might quite lawfully follow so great an example.
By doing so he conciliated these people to such an extent that they flocked
to hear him, and were charmed with the sweetness and gentleness of his
discourses, the outcome of his overflowing kindliness of heart. This mode
of expression was, however, so offensive to preachers who were in the
habit of speaking of heretics as rebels against the light, uncircumcised
of heart, etc., that they called a meeting, in which they resolved to
remonstrate with the Provost (Blessed Francis), and to represent to
him that, though he meant well, he was in reality ruining the cause of
Catholics.
They insisted that he was flattering the pride so inherent in heresy, that
he was lulling the people to sleep in their errors by sewing pillows to
their elbows; that it was better to correct them in mercy and justice than
to pour on their heads the oil of wheedling, as they called the kindliness
of our Saint.
He received their remonstrances pleasantly, and even respectfully, without
defending himself in any way, but, on the contrary, appearing to yield
to their zeal, albeit somewhat sadly and unwillingly. Finding, however,
that he did not begin to act upon their suggestions, as they had promised
themselves he would do, some of them sent a written appeal to the Bishop,
representing to him that he would have to recall the Provost and his
companion missioners, who with their unwise and affected levity ruined in
one day more souls than they themselves could convert in a month.
They went on to compare the labour of the missioners to Penelope's web: to
say that our Saint preached more like a Huguenot pastor than a Catholic
Priest, and, in fine, that he went so far as to call the heretics his
brethren, a thing so scandalous that the Protestants had already conceived
great hope of bringing him over to their own party.
The good Bishop, however, better informed as to the real state of the case,
paid little heed to this appeal, dictated by a bitter zeal, rather than by
the true science of the Saints. He merely exhorted each one to persevere,
and to remember that every spirit should praise the Lord according to the
talents committed to it by God.
Our Blessed Father, being informed of these complaints made against him
to his Bishop, would not defend himself, but commended his cause to the
judgment of God, and, silently but hopefully, awaited the result. Nor was
his expectation disappointed, for experience soon showed that the too
ardent eagerness of these zealots was more likely to delay than to advance
the work.
To crown all this, the preachers who had objected to his method had ere
long themselves to be set aside as unfit.
On one occasion when I was talking with him and had turned the conversation
on this subject, he said to me: "These good people looked through coloured
spectacles. They saw all things of the same hue as their own glasses. My
predecessor soon found out who were the real hindrances to the conversion
of the Protestant Cantons."
On my asking him how he could in reason apply the term "brethren" to
persons who certainly are not such, since no one can have God for his
Father who has not the Catholic Church for his mother, and since,
therefore, those who are not in her bosom cannot be our brethren, he said
to me: "Ah! but I never call them brethren without adding the epithet
_erring_, a word which marks the distinction with sufficient clearness.
"Besides, they are in fact our brethren by Baptism, which they duly
administer and receive. Moreover, they are our brethren according to the
flesh, for are we not all children of Adam? Then, too, we are fellow
citizens, and subjects of the same earthly prince. Is not that enough to
constitute a kind of fraternity between us?
"Lastly, I look upon them as children of the Church, at least in
disposition, since they are willing to be instructed; and as my brethren
in hope, since they also are called to inherit eternal life. In the early
days of the Church it was customary to give the title of brethren to
catechumens, even before their baptism."
These reasons satisfied me and made me esteem highly the ingenious method
suggested to him by the Holy Spirit to render these unruly and untaught
souls docile and tractable.
[Footnote 1: M. Camus must have been misinformed. St. Francis had but few
fellow-workers in the early years of his mission in the Chablais. [Ed.]]
[Footnote 2: 1 Cor. xi. 16.]