The Makers of Canada: Bishop Laval | Page 8

also that his pupil,
before going to find a field for his apostolic zeal among the people of
Auvergne, should prepare himself by earnest meditation in retirement
at St. Lazare. "Silence and introspection seemed to St. Vincent," says
M. de Lanjuère, the author of the life of M. Olier, "the first conditions
of success, preceding any serious enterprise. He had not learned this
from Pythagoras or the Greek philosophers, who were, indeed, so
careful to prescribe for their disciples a long period of meditation
before initiation into their systems, nor even from the experience of all
superior men, who, in order to ripen a great plan or to evolve a great
thought, have always felt the need of isolation in the nobler acceptance
of the word; but he had this maxim from the very example of the
Saviour, who, before the temptation and before the transfiguration,
withdrew from the world in order to contemplate, and who prayed in
Gethsemane before His death on the cross, and who often led His
disciples into solitude to rest, and to listen to His most precious
communications."
In this little town of Caen, in a house called the Hermitage, lived Jean
de Bernières of Louvigny, together with some of his friends. They had
gathered together for the purpose of aiding each other in mutual
sanctification; they practised prayer, and lived in the exercise of the
highest piety and charity. François de Laval passed three years in this
Hermitage, and his wisdom was already so highly appreciated, that

during the period of his stay he was entrusted with two important
missions, whose successful issue attracted attention to him and led
naturally to his appointment to the bishopric of Canada.
As early as 1647 the king foresaw the coming creation of a bishopric in
New France, for he constituted the Upper Council "of the Governor of
Quebec, the Governor of Montreal and the Superior of the Jesuits, until
there should be a bishop." A few years later, in 1656, the Company of
Montreal obtained from M. Olier, the pious founder of the Seminary of
St. Sulpice, the services of four of his priests for the colony, under the
direction of one of them, M. de Queylus, Abbé de Loc-Dieu, whose
brilliant qualities, as well as the noble use which he made of his great
fortune, marked him out naturally as the probable choice of his
associates for the episcopacy. But the Jesuits, in possession of all the
missions of New France, had their word to say, especially since the
mitre had been offered by the queen regent, Anne of Austria, to one of
their number, Father Lejeune, who had not, however, been able to
accept, their rules forbidding it. They had then proposed to the court of
France and the court of Rome the name of François de Laval; but
believing that the colony was not ready for the erection of a see, they
expressed the opinion that the sending of an apostolic vicar with the
functions and powers of a bishop in partibus would suffice. Moreover,
if the person sent should not succeed, he could at any time be recalled,
which could not be done in the case of a bishop. Alexander VII had
given his consent to this new plan, and Mgr. de Laval was consecrated
by the nuncio of the Pope at Paris, on Sunday, December 8th, 1658, in
the church of St. Germain-des-Prés. After having taken, with the assent
of the sovereign pontiff, the oath of fidelity to the king, the new Bishop
of Petræa said farewell to his pious mother (who died in that same year)
and embarked at La Rochelle in the month of April, 1659. The only
property he retained was an income of a thousand francs assured to him
by the Queen-Mother; but he was setting out to conquer treasures very
different from those coveted by the Spanish adventurers who sailed to
Mexico and Peru. He arrived on June 16th at Quebec, with letters from
the king which enjoined upon all the recognition of Mgr. de Laval of
Petræa as being authorized to exercise episcopal functions in the colony
without prejudice to the rights of the Archbishop of Rouen.

Unfortunately, men's minds were not very certain then as to the title
and qualities of an apostolic vicar. They asked themselves if he were
not a simple delegate whose authority did not conflict with the
jurisdiction of the two grand vicars of the Jesuits and the Sulpicians.
The communities, at first divided on this point, submitted on the receipt
of new letters from the king, which commanded the recognition of the
sole authority of the Bishop of Petræa. The two grand vicars obeyed,
and M. de Queylus came to Quebec, where he preached the sermon on
St. Augustine's Day (August 28th),