Chapter V: The Company of Mission priests

IF M. Vincent had been forced to compare the importance and the value of those achievements which are connected with his name, it is quite certain that his view of them would not coincide with common opinion. In England the Sisters of Charity are assuredly the chief and probably the only recognized memorial of him, but while he lived it was the Company of the Mission Priests that was the foremost subject of his thoughts and prayers, and if he had desired remembrance at all, it is by their existence that he would have chosen to be commemorated. It is not in the least remarkable that they should have fallen into the back­ground. Record can be kept of lives saved by opportune distribution of food in time of famine; the reconstitution of an hospital is so impressive a benefit that it needs no record; the rescue and tending of maltreated babies appeals too deeply to sentiment as well as to charitable instincts to be forgotten. But the Mission Priests were not responsible for any of these things; they had only two recognized objects—the training and reform of the clergy, and the preaching of Missions in country districts, and there was no possibility of scheduling the results of either endeavour. If we would understand M. Vincent’s point of view towards them, we must again remind ourselves that he regarded spiritual starvation as far more terrible than lack of food or any bodily affliction, and his opinion was not shaken by the fact that the sufferers themselves did not share in it.

There is a well-known description by La Bruyère¹, which brings before us the country folk of France as they were in the days of Vincent de Paul. ” Here and there among the fields,” says the satirist, ” one may see certain wild beasts, male and female, black and parched and burnt by the sun, clinging to the ground which they poke and turn with unconquerable determination. They have the semblance of an articulate voice, and when they rise to their feet they display a human face, and they are actually human beings. At night they take refuge in hovels, where they live on black bread and water and roots; it is, indeed, thanks to them that other men are saved the toil of sowing and reaping that they may live, and there­fore it is their due that they should not lack for the bread that they have grown.” The living creatures so terribly depicted each represented to M. Vincent a soul which it was his duty to awaken. The discovery made at Mont­mirail, which resulted in his first experimental Mission, remained always vivid in his remembrance; he was haunted by the thought of the thousands who passed into eternity without opportunity of making their peace with God. To have any understanding of him it is necessary to grasp the complete simplicity of his view in matters such as these, and the extraordinary sincerity of effort that resulted. Innumerable souls in peril of being lost might be saved by his Mission Priests; their greatest danger was their ignorance of their own misery. There was no hope that they would recognize the Light until they understood they were in darkness; and the task that God required of the Sons of M. Vincent was to instil a knowledge of the need that the Church alone could satisfy.

Vincent de Paul, with his intimate knowledge of the wide realm of France and of human nature in many of its aspects, must have been fully alive to the stupendous difficulty of his enterprise. In the long years of his life at S. Lazare, when daily duties chained him to his post, his thoughts and hopes were following his emissaries as they went out on their perilous journeys to carry the message of Christ to the poor. His letters to them will show us how close and individual was his consideration of their labours; each separate centre established in a provincial town, every Mission undertaken, however insignificant, was watched and realized as if there were no rival claims on his attention. The Company of Mission Priests, as we have seen, grew from indefinite beginnings into clear formation. Their final Rule was not given them until M. Vincent’s life was near its close, and was the result of the deepest knowledge of their difficulties. In its opening we find this passage: ” The Five Virtues necessary to the Congregation are Simplicity, Humility, Gentleness, Morti­fication, and a Zeal for Souls”²; and a little later: ” The holding of Missions is our foremost and chief duty. The Congregation must never take up other good work as a pretext for evading this, no matter how useful the other may be ; but each one must give himself whole-heartedly to it whenever obedience summons him.”³

The Missions were to be preached in the villages and smaller towns; their object was not so much to encourage the religious-minded, as to pierce the indifference of those who did not appear to have any spiritual faculties at all. The peasantry were overworked and underfed, a constant struggle was demanded of them if they were to sustain their animal energies; from the cradle to the grave they fought for bare existence, and in a fight that brought them to the level of the brutes they ran the risk of losing their humanity. To the superficial observer they were little better than savages, dull of wit and gross of manner, with every characteristic, outward and inward, most calculated to repel a sensitive and high-strung tempera­ment. Yet it was primarily for them that the Mission Priests existed. Assuredly each member of the Congregation needed the five virtues enumerated in their Rule, and most of all, perhaps, a Zeal for Souls, for if this last was to survive discouragement, it would only be by the ever-present remembrance that each of the unresponsive listeners who had been herded and driven into their parish church had special value before God, and possessed potential capacity of accepting his fellowship with Christ. No miracle of grace was too great to be claimed by M. Vincent’s faith, and his confidence was imparted to his Sons.

From the very beginning, in days before the Company had recognized being, the first Missioners had realized the importance of discovering and fixing a method of preaching. The same method was always afterwards adhered to; the practice of it became a part of the Rule, and M. Vincent, in conference with his Sons the year before his death⁴, thought well to describe the circum­stances of its origin.

“We assembled,” he told them, ” at the time of the birth of the Company, Monseigneur de Boulogne, Mon­seigneur d’Alet, and M. Olier being with us. The subject given was a particular virtue or vice. We each took pen and ink, and wrote down the motive and the reason there might be for avoiding the vice and embracing the virtue. Afterwards we sought the definition of them, and the means for evading or practising them. Finally, every­thing that had been written was gathered together, and we held a discussion. None of us made use of a book, but each worked out of his own head. M. Portail, having gathered up all that was said, then and in other con­ferences held by the Company, composed an easy method whereby sermons might achieve their purpose.”

It was this method (which M. Vincent is so ready to attribute to M. Portail) which was the strength and the glory of the Company. Sermons had become an advertise­ment of the learning and wit of the preacher, and were sometimes incredibly elaborate. We have M. Vincent’s theory of preaching in his own words as he imparted it to his Sons at S. Lazare:⁵

” How do we find that the Apostles preached ? In friendly fashion, familiarly and simply. Now look at our manner of preaching: in homely language, naturally, in all simplicity. To preach as the Apostles did, Messieurs —that is to say, for any useful preaching—we must be simple and use ordinary words, so that everyone may be able to understand and profit. It was thus that the disciples and Apostles preached, it was thus also that Jesus Christ preached, and God has done great honour to this poor and paltry Company in allowing us to imitate Him in that.

” It is, then, on our little Company rather than on any other that God in His mercy has chosen to bestow His method. This method comes from God. Man can do nothing, and its results show us that it is God Who has given it to us. We must acknowledge, Messieurs, that this method is not in use elsewhere. The world’s an­tagonism has forced the greatest preachers to resort to the use of fine phraseology and to subtleties of suggestion, that what is needful may seem attractive. They will employ every trick of oratory to catch and humour a wilful world. But of what good is a display of rhetoric ? Is anyone the better for it ? It serves no purpose except self-advertisement.

” And what does all this flourish consist of ? Is some­one anxious to show his power as an orator or as a theo­logian ? If that is what he desires, he is choosing the wrong road; if he wants to win respect from the wise, and to have a reputation for eloquence, he must learn how to convince his hearers and to dissuade them from such things as they should avoid. Otherwise he is merely picking words, turning phrases, and rolling out periods in raised tones that are above everybody’s head. Do these sort of sermons attain their end ? Do they inspire devotion ? Are the people so moved by them that they are quickly drawn towards penitence ? No, indeed ! No, indeed !

” `But,’ you say, ` this method is so insignificant ! If I always preach like this what will be said of me ? What will they take me for ? In course of time everyone will despise me. I shall lose all dignity !’

” By so doing you will lose your dignity ! In preaching as Jesus Christ preached you will lose dignity ! It is to lose dignity to speak of God as the Son of God spoke of Him ! What blasphemy is this !

” God is my witness that I have three times knelt at the feet of a Priest of the Company—who was of it then, but now is not—on three days following, to implore him to preach simply, but I was never able to persuade him. He was giving the addresses before ordination, so you can see how strongly this accursed inclination had hold of him. He forfeited the blessing of God, and his addresses and sermons were without any fruit—all this great hoard of words and phrases vanished in smoke.”

M. Vincent’s vehemence in repudiating everything that was elaborate, and in insisting on the Simple Method, reveals the immense importance he attached to this par­ticular point. The original reason for the gathering of the Company had been the preaching of Missions, and the plan for the conduct of them was the result of his ex­perience; but unless the actual preaching conformed to the spirit of the Company they were foredoomed to failure.

” Although we must practise simplicity at all times and in all places,” says the Rule⁶, “we must be par­ticularly observant of it in our Missions when we carry the Word of God to the poor folk in the country. We must be simple in the manner of our preaching and catechizing, suiting it to the people, and adhering to the Simple Method which the Company has used hitherto. There must be no affectations, no silkiness of speech, no attempt must be made to take advantage of an oppor­tunity given for preaching the truth to spread fantastic ideas, elaborate theories, and useless subtleties.”

Copies of a pamphlet on the Simple Method of Preaching were distributed among the Priests of the Mission, and no true member of the Company could ever indulge himself in flights of rhetoric. The provisions of the Simple Method are in themselves elaborate, and its many warn­ings and suggestions bring before us the possible weak­nesses of the first Sons of M. Vincent⁷. Much is to be treated briefly, ” experience showing that the length of exhortations is not only useless, but even harmful, owing to the weariness it causes to the listeners.” A story may advantageously be used for illustration, but care should be taken, firstly, that it has real relation to the subject treated; secondly, that it is absolutely edifying; thirdly, that it is authentic; fourthly, that it is not too long. The text also must be short and easy to understand, and the subject of the sermon should be connected with the text, and give occasion to repeat it several times.

The ingenuousness that is so characteristic of M. Vincent animates these directions of his; he realized the material from which his Mission preachers would be formed, and that he must take nothing for granted with them. But when he deals with the conclusion he strikes a higher note. Everything that has been said is then to be gathered up, so that the listeners may be left in the spirit of devotion. And for this it should be very short, and not like a fresh sermon; it should contain only a little reasoning, and it will be found well to end by addressing Our Lord Himself, asking for His grace and His help in the attainment of those things of which one has been speaking.

The idea of a Mission is as old as Christianity, but the form given to it by M. Vincent was new, and bears the impress of his personality. Close study of his method will reveal many points susceptible to criticism; it will be found very easy to inveigh against the tendency to sensationalism, and also to show that the result was likely to be evanescent. Probably the Missioners themselves would not have resented either suggestion. Possibly, however, the more experienced among them might have pointed out that the actuality and duration of spiritual results always remain outside the range of human know­ledge, and with regard to the charge of sensationalism the best defence (if a defence be needed) lies in consideration of the type of mind to which the Missions were to make appeal. The message that was to be delivered was the most sensational that the imagination can conceive. If it was accepted, it would mean a complete reversal of habits and opinions; therefore to whisper it in a corner where there were none to listen, or to refer to it as if it was an ordinary and accepted topic, was to lose an opportunity of piercing the crust of custom that makes a peasant docile and inattentive, and with it the oppor­tunity to save a soul.

The old method sanctioned by the Church of keeping the country folk in lively remembrance of their religion had been the celebration of the Mysteries⁸. From time to time the priest announced that the Mysteries were to be given, and from the moment of the announcement until the performance they were the chief subject of discussion. That intervening space corresponded crudely to the Preparation for a Mission. The theme of the Mysteries was Biblical; they consisted of tableaux repre­senting scenes from the Garden of Eden onwards, the life of Christ and of the Blessed Virgin being treated with special care. Responsible persons went from place to place organizing the performances, but many of the inhabitants of the towns where they were held took part, and the priests were among the chief actors. They began by a procession through the streets and round the town; sightseers flocked in from all the neighbouring hamlets, and in some cases the celebration seems to have con­tinued for several weeks on end, during which period ordinary labour was suspended.

The excellent idea on which this custom originated did not protect it from abuse. The suppression of the Mysteries is said to have been due to the criticisms of the Huguenots at the end of the sixteenth century, and it is likely that there was much ground for criticism, and that a solemn pageant had degenerated into a show which was grotesque and tawdry at its best, and not infrequently was blasphemous. Pious persons could not deplore their extinction, but the place they had occupied was left vacant, and for a generation no effort of any kind was made to awaken the labouring class to understanding of the faith that nominally was theirs. The Missions were preached to the grandchildren of men and women who had dressed up in strange attire that they might im­personate Scriptural characters, and take part in the masquerades that M. le Curé sanctioned. Public opinion had not been directed to anything higher in the interval, the popular imagination had been lying fallow, and the popular mind was without education either on religious or on any other subject.

It would be impossible to understand the scheme that was so important to M. Vincent if we ignore the condition of those for whom it was conceived. He had no ambition to set a model for all Missions to all sorts of people, but it was after concentrated study of the multitude (towards whom the clever and cultivated were utterly indifferent) that he made his rules for the guidance of the Priests of the Poor. Two Missioners, or three—according to the numbers awaiting them—were chosen from the Company at S. Lazare, and required to reach the scene of their labours by the cheapest possible method. They might not accept free quarters or gifts of any kind, but they were supplied during their stay with necessary furniture and cooking utensils, and their first duty on arrival was to instal themselves so that household care might not interrupt them when they had once entered on their labours. M. Vincent required that the practical things connected with spiritual work should be carefully ordered; he was solicitous also as to the authority which had demanded the Mission, and needed the consent of the curé of the parish and the approval of the Bishop of the diocese, believing that the lawlessness and indifference that prevailed only increased the necessity of strictness on such points. But whether the summons came from curé or from Bishop, the real commission was to be regarded as from God Himself. The Missioners were to concentrate all their thoughts and prayers and aspira­tions on the people who were given into their charge. It was inevitable that they should feel anxiety as to the number of their listeners at the outset, and that anxiety in various forms should remain with them till the days of opportunity were over.

M. Vincent’s understanding of the possibilities of a Mission was unequalled. To him the call to this form of labour appeared as the highest call conceivable, and he considered that its acceptance involved a correspondence of personal sanctification. To preach a Mission was not an exercise or a part of the year’s routine; it must be the expression of a personality. In his private inter­course with them we shall find M. Vincent exhorting his Sons to be on their guard against the self-love that brings in an element of private success and failure. Doubtless he had experience of the desire for conquest and sense of personal triumph in result, which is so easily confused with the true ardour of a zeal for souls, and so was constant in his warnings against this most insidious of temptations.

In all the details of these country Missions we are in touch with Vincent de Paul himself. One of his own preliminary sermons sketches for his hearers both his object and his method. The Missioners are come, he tells them, for a short time, to preach, to catechize, to hear confessions, and to adjust quarrels. Two sermons were to be preached daily, one in the morning and one in the evening, at times suited to the convenience of the working people. The Catechism was always to be one hour after noon, and intended especially for those who had not made their first Communion. From the day of their arrival the Missioners invited confidence from any who might be at variance with each other, because no man may be at peace with God and continue to live at enmity with his neighbour.

After this most simple of warnings the Mission began; and again from a series of M. Vincent’s own sermons, we can trace its progress. After a lapse of three centuries these sermons still produce an impression of extraor­dinary sincerity and force, and it is therefore possible to conjecture their effectiveness when delivered as a message from an unknown world to the country folk who never left their village. The first was on the general need of salvation, and the course goes on under the many heads that naturally suggest themselves. There is one on penitence, and more than one on self-examination; there is one—evidently intended to mark a definite stage in the listeners—on contrition, one on confession in its ordinary form, and one on general confession. In those times a sudden and violent end was the lot of a consider­able proportion of the community, and therefore the theme of death and judgment could be given additional gravity by illustrations drawn from the recent annals of the district. It must always be remembered that the listeners were on the same intellectual level as the pre­vious generations who had gaped at the Mysteries, and in this fact lies the explanation of the lurid studies of the Death of Sinners, of the Last Judgment, and of the Physical Pain of Hell. To the Rich Man of the parable the Almighty is represented as saying: ” Remember that thou hast been a gourmand and a lover of luxuries, thou shalt therefore suffer specially by a hunger and thirst which shall cause thee to groan, to scream, and to cry in despair, and grinding of teeth, and God shall never have pity upon thee.”

The gift of imagination is latent in many uneducated persons, and it stirred in response to the description of the pains of hell. The Missioners set forth the fate of sinners as one of the great truths that composed their message with the most complete sincerity, but though it was not introduced for effect, it was extraordinarily effec­tive. If the Mission had prospered, the preacher would be addressing a crowded church when he came to those topics of reward and punishment. For suffering human nature it has always been an easier task to depict punish­ment than reward; the heaven that would hold attrac­tion for these half-awakened yokels was difficult to repre­sent, and this may partially account for the dispropor­tionate attention bestowed on hell. But the teaching, though it rings over-violently in modern ears, was both strong and simple.

” ‘ Tell us, you who are dead, where are you now ?’ we say. They answer: ‘ We are in the houses that during our life on earth we built for ourselves for all eternity.’ ”

This is the opening of a sermon on death, and it goes on with vigorous directness to point out to the living the possibility of founding their future house on present repentance. The object of the Lazarist Priest—whether accomplished by warning or persuasion—was one with that of S. John the Baptist: he came to call men to re­pentance that they might be prepared to receive their Lord. Everything else that might be accomplished by a Mission was secondary to this; a general awakening to the sense of sin was the supreme necessity if the Mission was to bear any real fruit at all. There was only a short period of time—ten or fourteen days—for the conquest of souls that appeared never to have been touched by any spiritual influence; but it must be remembered always that tradition or inheritance keeps alive in the children of the Church of Rome a certain subconscious knowledge, which may wait a lifetime for revival, but which is there waiting to be revived. ‘It is easier to re­vive than to instil. The sermons of the Missioners of S. Lazare, although intended for the most ignorant of congregations, take a great deal for granted; they are reminders of what has been known and neglected rather than explanations of what is new. Also a good deal could be done outside the four walls of the church; the Missioners made it their aim to have as much personal contact with the people as possible. One of their Rules suggests that ” one and all should desire ardently, and even, if necessary, make humble petition, to be allowed to visit the sick, as well as to endeavour to make peace wherever there have been quarrels.”⁹ M. Vincent urged upon them that all they did must be in the spirit of sympathy. ” If God has given a blessing to our Mis­sions,” he said to one of the Company, ” we must attribute it to the use of kindness and humility in dealing with all conditions of people. I implore you, Monsieur, to join me in giving thanks for this, and in asking His grace that every Missioner may always treat all with whom he comes in contact in public and in private with gentleness, humility, and charity, especially the sinners and those who show themselves hard of heart.”

When the Mission was over, when, after a final pro­cession, the last farewell, the last exhortation to perse­verance, the last kindly word of encouragement had been spoken, the Missioners would return the household effects they had borrowed, pay the modest debts they had incurred, and go upon their way; and there, as a rule, their connection with the scene of their labours ended. When the Mission itself was over there came the time of test for the Missioner. Sometimes the con­centration and excitement of the days of struggle were succeeded by deep depression, but more often it is likely the thoughts that went back over the immediate past, noting the record of eventful hours, inevitably tended to elation. It had been impossible not to desire a success. that meant the good of others, and when success had come it was impossible not to be uplifted by the thought of it; but the Father Superior had no tolerance for self-congratulation¹⁰. “This desire to be well thought of—what is it other than a desire for different treatment than was accorded to the Son of God ? It is an arrogance not to be permitted. When the Son of God was on earth what was said of Him ? How was He content to be re­garded by the people ? As a madman, a rebel, a fool, a sinner. Keep that in mind, keep it before you, you who go to Missions, and you who speak in public. Some­times, and often enough, one sees one’s listeners so moved by what one has said that they are all in tears…. And at that it is one’s instinct to be pleased, vanity shoots up and will grow strong if one does not crush these foolish satisfactions and look solely for the glory of God, for which only we must work—yes, only for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. For on any other terms you preach yourself and not Jesus Christ; and a person who preaches to be applauded and praised and flattered and talked about—what is this person doing ? This Preacher, what is he achieving ? A sacrilege and that only ! To make use of the Word of God and to speak of Divine things to win honour and reputation, I say that this is a sacrilege. O Father in Heaven, give such grace to this poor little Company that not one of its members shall fall into this misfortune ! Believe me, Messieurs, we shall never be fit to carry out the purposes of God without the most profound humility and complete dis­trust of ourselves. No, unless the Congregation of the Mission is humble and realizes that it can accomplish nothing of any value, that it is fit rather to mar than to make, it will never be of much effect; but when it has this spirit I have been describing, then, Messieurs, it will be fit for the purposes of God.”

It was not easy to be a Mission Priest, it was no lip service which M. Vincent asked of his Sons. There are natures to whom the resignation of all that is soft and pleasant is repaid in full measure by the sense of great accomplishment, by the consciousness of supreme domi­nance over the thoughts and actions of others. The leader of a Mission had immense opportunity of such dominance, and he attained to it in the fulfilment of his vocation; it was the purpose for which he had renounced the world. It is worth while to realize this and thereby to see how searching was M. Vincent’s demand. The Mission Priests renounced all choice in their career, all ordinary ambitions, every tie of blood; they were bound to a reality of poverty such as was rarely practised by professed Religious. But there remained to them one solace, one possible compensation: the joy in their own personal power for good. And this M. Vincent required that they should put away. ” Otherwise,” he said, ” God will not use us for His purposes.” It is impossible to know the depth of obedience that he won—he could not have known himself—but it seems certain that the Congregation was used for God’s purpose in those diffi­cult and troublons times, and therefore we may join M. Vincent in his simple faith, and believe that his Sons struggled for the hardest form of self-mastery, and that, in a measure at least, they did attain.

Year after year the number of the Lazarists steadily in­creased. That this should have been the case is a proof of the vigour of supernatural influence. There were far easier ways of engaging in Christ’s service than the career of a Mission Priest; there were none that involved more complete renunciation. M. Vincent himself never attempted to discount a single detail of the severity of their vocation. ” He who would live in the Company,” he wrote, after many years’ experience¹¹, ” must be pre­pared to dwell as a pilgrim upon earth, to sacrifice his reason for Christ’s sake, to change all his habits, to mor­tify every passion, to seek God only, to be subject to anyone as being himself the least of all, to realize that he has come to serve and not to govern, to suffer and to labour, and not to live in comfort and idleness. He must understand that he will be put to the proof as gold is proved in the furnace, and that he cannot hope to persevere unless he desires to humble himself before God, knowing that by so doing he will attain to true happiness in this world and to life eternal in another.” He was all tenderness and compassion toward the mass of his fellow-men, but he would tolerate no laxity in the conduct of the Company. In his eyes their call was absolutely sacred. The call to labour for others was null and void unless it was also a call to personal holiness.

” Consider the beauty of it,” he exhorted them¹², “that we should be striving first for the Reign of God for ourselves, and then that we should procure It for others. How great is the blessing on a Company which exists only that it may further the glory of God ! But if, when we undertake a journey in the world, we are careful to choose the right road, how much more careful must we be in choosing if we aspire to follow Jesus Christ. All those who accept His maxims (especially that which bids them try all things whether they be of God) should consider what they are doing, and ask them­selves: ‘ Why do you do this, or that ? Is it to please yourself ? Is it because you dislike something else ? Is it to give satisfaction to some worthless being ? Or is it rather to fulfil the Will of God and for His service ?’ What a life—what a life might be theirs ! Would it be human ? Nay, verily it would be that of the angels, for it would be all for the love of God that all things were done or left undone.”

Truly, under such testing a faithful Son of M. Vincent might hope to go far on the road to perfection; but not all had capacity for complete faithfulness. At first he accepted almost all who came to him expressing a desire to join the Company, but—as he was always ready to acknowledge in later years—he had not at the beginning formed any idea of the future that lay before them or of the need for the self-consecration of all who bore their part in it. It was, indeed, only with the deepening of his experience as a Superior that he acquired knowledge of those weaknesses that are masked by outward piety. Among his letters we may find proof of all that he had to bear from the unfaithful, and a suggestion of the pain that desertion caused him.

With that question of desertion we touch a point of special importance in the history and progress of the Company. We must remember the simple manner in which it had originated. Three or four priests, who had united to live a life of poverty and preach the Gospel to the poor, made their headquarters at a house in a small street in Paris. This house and a certain sum of money was given them by a pious lady, who greatly desired the spiritual welfare of the poor. Their main object was clearly defined, but every other detail connected with them was left absolutely indefinite. Their numbers grew; the place of their headquarters altered; as the career of their Superior developed, the scope of their labours widened; but it was all gradual, there was no special moment at which they claimed special recogni­tion. And thus it came about that to all intents and purposes they formed a powerful Community under a Superior when, in fact, they had no definite Rule and were not bound by any recognized vow. That their existence was of benefit to the nation is above doubt. The work they did for the poorest of the people had hitherto been left undone, and, armed with the experi­ence of their country Missions, they formed a sort of reserve force that could be called upon in such disasters as the civil war or the outbreaks of pestilence for special service towards the sufferers. But if they were to pre­serve their collective force as a Company, it became obvious that a vow was necessary. How otherwise was it possible for a number of persons scattered in little groups of twos and threes all over Europe to maintain a common standard of poverty and simplicity ? The more we consider the conditions of their lives the more we shall see the difficulty of faithfulness. M. Vincent’s insistence on the necessity of vows has sufficient ex­planation in mere common sense.

It was, nevertheless, extremely difficult to obtain the Papal sanction for the vow, or the formal recognition of the Company of Priests of the Mission. It was con­sidered that there were already too many religious orders in France; for the most part they were decadent and tended to lower the standards of discipline and morals—already low enough. M. Vincent was aware of this fact, and had not originally intended to require any vow from those who joined him; it was the experience of the years as they passed that convinced him of its necessity.

” Lately I have been talking to a man of great wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge,” he wrote, in 1651, to M. Almeras¹³, one of his earliest companions, who was then in charge of the Mission at Rome. ” He thinks that we require some sort of chain that unites us each to the other and collectively to God as a defence against the natural inconstancy of mankind, and to prevent the de­struction of the Company. Unless we have this many will join us merely to gain experience and to fit them­selves for public work, and will then be off; and others who were strong in purpose at the beginning will none the less give up at the first drawback or at the chance of a good opening in the world, there being nothing to hold them. We have only too much experience of such failures, and even now as I write we have one who, having been trained and schooled for thirteen or fourteen years, now asks for funds to help him to start, and only waits till he has them to leave us. What remedy is there for this evil ? How shall we avoid wasting the funds, that are given us to strive for the salvation of the poor, on people of this sort who have their own objects in view, if we have no means of holding them by some strong bond of conscience, such as a vow of persever­ance.”

It is seldom that M. Vincent permits himself to express such deep discouragement. It should be remembered that in 1651 the heroism of some of the Mission Priests on the battlefields had won honour for the Company, but that, simultaneously, the insidious poison he describes threatened to destroy their power for good. Two years later he was still petitioning for the Papal sanction. M. Berthe had replaced M. Aimeras at Rome, and the petition had become more definite, but His Holiness re­mained unmoved. Even at this distance of time M. Vin­cent’s arguments in favour of his cause carry conviction. ” There is such great variety in our undertakings, they are so trying and so prolonged, those employed in them are so rebuffed and confronted with so much opposition, that it is hard for them to be steadfast if they are not bound to the Company. And it will happen with us as it has happened with some other Congregations where individuals had no obligation to obey: the members will go as they like, and when the Superior intends to send some of them—be it far or near—for the glory of God, he finds he had no hold, having no claim on their obedience. Therefore, as the case stands now, the Missioners being free to do or to leave undone the good work offered to them, to go or to remain as they may feel inclined, and to go off altogether when the fancy takes them, it becomes impossible to maintain the work begun (much less under­take anything new), for many are so light-minded that what they choose to-day they will weary of to-morrow…. This is why we are imploring the Holy Father very humbly to make our vows impossible of dispensation save by His Holiness himself or by the Superior of the Congre­gation.”¹⁴

The picture suggested by this letter is in sharp con­trast to M. Vincent’s ideal for the Priests of the Mission. To him their vocation was so clearly a privilege that each instance of unfaithfulness caused him poignant suffering. It was in bitterness of spirit that he wrote to M. Berthe to plead for that support which the Vatican authorities were so slow in giving. Yet in his plaint he reveals unwittingly the marvel that – he himself had wrought in gathering and controlling his great Company by the sole force of his own influence. When (in 1658) his hopes were at last fulfilled, and His Holiness made the vow of the Mission Priest both obligatory and bind­ing, the Company was already strongly and firmly estab­lished, and, in spite of his moments of dejection, M. Vin­cent knew that it was so. The retrospect of the thirty-three years that preceded the formal recognition of their existence will be found in his own address to the Assembly at S. Lazare when he gave them their Rule and their Constitution :

” Our Rule,”¹⁵ he told them, ” seems at first sight to bind us only to an ordinary life, nevertheless, it contains enough to lead those who practise it to the highest per­fection…. Our Rule is almost all—as anyone can see for himself—taken from the Gospel, and its object is to make your life an imitation of that which our Lord led on earth, for it is written that our Saviour came, and was sent by His Father to preach to the poor. It is this that our little Company is endeavouring to do, and herein is great reason for humiliation and self-abasement, for, so far as I know, there is no other that has chosen for its object to take the message of the Gospel to the very poorest. This is the call to us… .

” It is full thirty-three years since God gave us our beginning, and all that time we have, by His grace, been practising the Rule which we are now going to give; indeed, there is nothing in it that is new, nothing that you have not practised for many years with great edifica­tion. If we had given this Rule at the beginning and before the Company had tested it, it might have been thought that there was something human rather than Divine about it, and that here was a plan of human origin, and not the work of Divine Providence; but, my Brothers, this Rule and everything else that is part of the Congregation has come to pass I know not how, for I have originated nothing, and it has all developed little by little in a way that one cannot explain. Now, S. Augustine says that when one cannot trace the origin of a good thing we must attribute it to God Himself. Ac­cording to that, is not God the Author of our Rule, which has come in suchwise that we cannot tell how or why ? Indeed, I can assure you, my Brothers, that the thought of this Rule, or of the Company, or even of the very name of Mission, never came to me; this is the work of God, man had no part in it. For myself, when I contemplate the means by which it has pleased God to found the Congregation in His Church, I confess that I know not where I am, and all that I see seems like a dream. Ah no ! this thing is not ours, it is not human, it is from God ! That which does not come from man’s understanding is not human. Our first Missioner had no more thought of it than I; it has grown, apart from all our plans and hopes. If you were to ask me how all the Practices of the Company were introduced, how the thought of all these exercises and undertakings came to us, I should say to you that I do not know, and that I cannot understand. Here is M. Portail, who has seen as much as I have of the beginnings of the little Company, who will tell you that nothing was farther from our thoughts than that which has come to pass. It has all happened as if of itself, little by little, one thing after another. The number of those that joined us increased, and each was striving after virtue, and as our numbers grew we learned the regulations needful for our common life and for order in our employments. These regula­tions, by the grace of God, we are still using. Oh my Brothers, I am so overwhelmed by the thought that it is I who give this Rule that I cannot imagine how it has come about that I stand where I am; it seems to me that I am once more at the very beginning, and the more I think, the farther it is all withdrawn from human origin, and the more clearly I see that it is God alone Who has given this Rule to the Compary. If it be so that I have added to it anything, I tremble lest it be that which shall hinder its perfect observance in the future.”

It was Friday evening, May 17, 1658. M. Vincent’s life was near its close, and these are the words of an old man, possessed by one thought, repeating it again and again in his homely language. ” This thing is not human, it is from God.” That is the burden of it, and that, indeed, was the thought he desired so earnestly to instil into his Sons with regard to their vocation, and all that concerned it. Their Rule seems to leave no cir­cumstance of their life untouched, and there could be no better guide to understanding of the sacrifice entailed. by their vocation. By it they were bound to accept no benefice ; they were not to write books or to seek dis­tinction in theological controversy; their preaching was to be always for the poor and the ignorant ; they were not to talk of public affairs either among themselves or with any whom they might meet ; they were to give prompt obedience in all things, not only in the letter but in the spirit, and they were to eschew all social diversions absolutely. This is the rough outline of their renuncia­tion, ” and “—so runs the Rule itself—” in the end it is needful we should realize clearly that, in the words of Jesus Christ, when we have accomplished all these things that are commanded us we are but unprofitable servants, and also that but for Him we could accomplish nothing at all.”¹⁶

It is hard to be in the world and not be of it. In those days of feverish political excitement it was not a small test of resolution to abstain from asking or repeating news of the Parlement, of the Court, and of the war; nor was it a small deprivation for a Frenchman, possessed of wit and of eloquence, to relinquish all hope of the response of the cultivated mind, and devote himself to awaking the dulled faculties of ” the poor and simple.”

Some of the Priests of the Mission were men of intellect and learning; some had social gifts, and loved intercourse with their fellows; some were of independent spirit, and found the chain of implicit obedience infinitely galling. There was great diversity among them in spiritual development as much as in brains or in rank, and if we would realize them as individuals we must turn once more to M. Vincent’s letters. We shall find these letters charged with remonstrance, with pleading, and with rebuke, but so clear in insight and true in sympathy that very often it is the personality of the recipient rather than of the writer that they unveil.

1. ” Les Caractères,” chap. x.
2. “Règles Communes de la Congregation de la Mission,” chap. 1., art. 14. Paris, 1658.
3. “Règles,” chap. xi., art. b.
4. In August, 1659.
5. August 2o, 1655.
6. ” Règles,” chap. xii., art. 5.
7. See “Sermons de S. Vincent de Paul,” edité par l’Abbé Jeanmaire.
8. See Babeau, ” La. Ville sous l’Ancien Régime.”
9. “Règles,” chap. xi., art. 8.
10. ” Conferences,” quoted by Abelli, vol. i., chap. xxi.
11. See ” Abelli,” vol. i., chap. xxxiv.
12. “Conferences,” quoted by Abelli, vol. i., chap. xix.
13. “Lettres,” vol. j., No. 182.
14. “Lettres,” vol. i., No. 245.
15. See ” Abelli,” vol. i., chap. xlvii.
16. “Règles,” chap. xii., art. 14.