I was so young when called to the episcopate that I lived in a state of
continual mistrust and uncertainty; doubtful about this, scrupulous about
that; ignorance being the grandmother of scruples, as servile fear is their
mother.
At the time of which I am going to speak, the residences of our Blessed
Father and myself were only eight leagues apart, and in all my perplexities
and difficulties I had recourse to his judgment and counsel. I kept a
little foot-boy in my service, almost entirely employed in running to and
fro between Belley and Annecy, carrying my letters to him and bringing
back his replies. These replies were to me absolute decrees; nay, I should
rather say oracles, so manifestly did God speak by the mouth and pen of
that holy man.
On one occasion it happened that the captains of some troops--then
stationed in garrison on the borders of Savoy and France, on account of a
misunderstanding which had arisen between the two countries--came to me
at the beginning of Lent to ask permission for their men to eat eggs and
cheese during that season. This was a permission which I had never given
except to the weak and sickly. I learned from the men themselves that they
were exceedingly robust and hearty, and only weak and reduced as regarded
their purses, their pay being so small that it barely supplied them with
food. Nevertheless, I did not consider this poor pay a sufficient reason
for granting a dispensation, especially in a district where Lent is so
strictly kept that the peasants are scandalized when told that on certain
days they may eat butter.
In my difficulty I despatched a letter at once to our Blessed Father, whose
reply was full of sweetness and kindness. He said that he honoured the
faith and piety of the good centurions, who had presented this request,
which, indeed, deserved to be granted, seeing that it edified, not the
Synagogue, but the Church. He added that I ought not only to grant it, but
to extend it, and instead of eggs, to permit them to eat oxen, and instead
of cheese, the cows of whose milk it is made.
"Truly," he went on to say, "you are a wise person to consult me as to what
soldiers shall eat in Lent, as if the laws of war and necessity did not
over-ride all others without exception! Is it not a great thing that these
good men submit themselves to the Church, and so defer to her as to ask her
permission and blessing? God grant that they may do nothing worse than eat
eggs, cheese, or beef; if they were guilty of nothing more heinous than
that, there would not be so many complaints against them."