On one occasion, when the Duke of Savoy, being pressed by many urgent
public needs, had obtained from the Pope a Brief empowering him to levy
contributions on the Church property in his dominions, Blessed Francis,
finding some slackness and unwillingness on the part of the beneficed
clergy of the diocese to yield obedience to this order, when he had called
them together to settle what was to be done, spoke with just indignation.
"What! gentlemen," he cried, "is it for us to question and reason when two
sovereigns concur in issuing the same command? Is it for us, I say, to
scrutinize their counsels, and ask, Why are you acting thus? Not only to
the decrees of sovereign courts, but even to the sentence of the most
insignificant judges appointed by God to decide differences in our affairs,
we yield deference so far as not to enquire into the motive of their
decisions. And here, where two oracles who have only to render account to
God of what orders they give, speak, we set to work to enquire into their
motives and reasons as if we were charged to investigate their conduct.
Assuredly, I will take no part in such doings. Our virtue, indeed, lags
sadly behind that of those christians--only lay people too--of whom St.
Paul said that being wise themselves they _gladly suffered bondage,
stripes, every sort of ill-usage from the foolish_,[1] and of whom, in
another place, he says that they _took with joy the being stripped of their
own goods_, knowing that they had _a better and a lasting substance_.[2]
And the Apostle, as you know, is speaking to men who had been unjustly
despoiled of their whole property by robbers and tyrants, whereas you will
not give up a small fraction of yours to assist in the public need of our
good Prince, to whose zeal we owe the re-establishment of the Catholic
religion in the three divisions of the Chablais, and whose enemies are the
adversaries of our faith! Is not our Order the first of the three estates
in a christian kingdom? Is there anything more just than to contribute of
our wealth, together with our prayers, towards the defence of our altars,
of our lives, and of our peace? The people are lavishing their substance
and the nobility their blood for the same cause. Remember the late wars,
and tremble lest your ingratitude and disobedience should plunge you again
into similar troubles."
Adding example to precept, he paid so heavy a tax upon a part of his own
revenue that none could say he did not practise what he preached, and
all those who had ventured to oppose him in the matter were not only
effectually silenced, but covered with confusion and put to a just shame.
[Footnote 1: 2 Cor. xi. 19, 20.]
[Footnote 2: Heb. x. 34.]