The Makers of Canada: Bishop Laval | Page 6

bravery on the field of battle, and whether it were in
the retinue of Clovis, when the First Barons received the regenerating
water of baptism, or on the immortal plain of Bouvines; whether it
were by the side of Blanche of Castile, attacked by the rebellious
nobles, or in the terrible holocaust of Crécy; whether it were in the fight
of the giants at Marignan, or after Pavia during the captivity of the
_roi-gentilhomme_; everywhere where country and religion appealed to
their defenders one was sure of hearing shouted in the foremost ranks
the motto of the Montmorencys: _"Dieu ayde au premier baron
chrétien!"_
Young Laval received at the baptismal font the name of the heroic
missionary to the Indies, François-Xavier. To this saint and to the
founder of the Franciscans, François d'Assise, he devoted throughout
his life an ardent worship. Of his youth we hardly know anything
except the misfortunes which happened to his family. He was only
fourteen years old when, in 1636, he suffered the loss of his father, and
one of his near kinsmen, Henri de Montmorency, grand marshal of
France, and governor of Languedoc, beheaded by the order of
Richelieu. The bravery displayed by this valiant warrior in battle
unfortunately did not redeem the fault which he had committed in
rebelling against the established power, against his lawful master,
Louis XIII, and in neglecting thus the traditions handed down to him by

his family through more than seven centuries of glory.
Some historians reproach Richelieu with cruelty, but in that troublous
age when, hardly free from the wars of religion, men rushed carelessly
on into the rebellions of the duc d'Orléans and the duc de Soissons, into
the conspiracies of Chalais, of Cinq-Mars and de Thou, soon followed
by the war of La Fronde, it was not by an indulgence synonymous with
weakness that it was possible to strengthen the royal power. Who
knows if it was not this energy of the great cardinal which inspired the
young François, at an age when sentiment is so deeply impressed upon
the soul, with those ideas of firmness which distinguished him later on?
The future Bishop of Quebec was then a scholar in the college of La
Flèche, directed by the Jesuits, for his pious parents held nothing dearer
than the education of their children in the fear of God and love of the
good. They had had six children; the two first had perished in the
flower of their youth on fields of battle; François, who was now the
eldest, inherited the name and patrimony of Montigny, which he gave
up later on to his brother Jean-Louis, which explains why he was called
for some time Abbé de Montigny, and resumed later the generic name
of the family of Laval; the fifth son, Henri de Laval, joined the
Benedictine monks and became prior of La Croix-Saint-Leuffroy.
Finally the only sister of Mgr. Laval, Anne Charlotte, became Mother
Superior of the religious community of the Daughters of the Holy
Sacrament.
François edified the comrades of his early youth by his ardent piety,
and his tender respect for the house of God; his masters, too, clever as
they were in the art of guiding young men and of distinguishing those
who were to shine later on, were not slow in recognizing his splendid
qualities, the clear-sightedness and breadth of his intelligence, and his
wonderful memory. As a reward for his good conduct he was admitted
to the privileged ranks of those who comprised the Congregation of the
Holy Virgin. We know what good these admirable societies, founded
by the sons of Loyola, have accomplished and still accomplish daily in
Catholic schools the world over. Societies which vie with each other in
piety and encouragement of virtue, they inspire young people with the

love of prayer, the habits of regularity and of holy practices.
The congregation of the college of La Flèche had then the good fortune
of being directed by Father Bagot, one of those superior priests always
so numerous in the Company of Jesus. At one time confessor to King
Louis XIII, Father Bagot was a profound philosopher and an eminent
theologian. It was under his clever direction that the mind of François
de Laval was formed, and we shall witness later the germination of the
seed which the learned Jesuit sowed in the soul of his beloved scholar.
At this period great families devoted to God from early youth the
younger members who showed inclination for the religious life.
François was only nine years old when he received the tonsure, and
fifteen when he was appointed canon of the cathedral of Evreux.
Without the revenues which he drew from his prebend, he would not
have been able to continue his literary studies; the death of his father, in