Forty-fifth point. His contempt for honours and for worldly goods

Her answer on the forty-fifth point was :

It is a well-known and positive fact, that our Blessed Founder had a very great contempt for the things of this world, for its pomps, its vanities, its grandeur, and all that it esteems the most. He said once : " I always find a difficulty in composing the funeral orations of Princes and Princesses, because so much of the world, for which, thank God, I have no inclination, must enter into them."

The late King, Henry the Great (Henry IV), in the year 1602, when our Blessed Founder went to France to re-establish the Catholic re ligion in the bailiwick of Gex, entreated him earnestly on five different occasions to remain in the country, promising him a good revenue and large benefices. He, however, replied that since Divine Providence had bound him to the bishopric of Geneva, he desired to work there, and to make no change. I have been told on reliable authority, that this same King awarded him a handsome pension, having heard that his revenue only amounted to a thousand crowns, a sum which he said was too small for a Bishop. Our Blessed Founder thanked him, but refused to accept it. He used to say that it was better to want little than to have much; that he who was not satisfied with a sufficiency would be satisfied with nothing. He detested those who, having enough to support themselves according to their condition in life, yet did all they possibly could to get more. As for himself he wished, he said, to have no other to-morrow than the Providence of God.

This same King again entreated him to come back to France for the service of the Church. He wished to be told what kind of service, not considering himself capable of all sorts of em ployment, and added : " God has given me the grace to know that I am made for Him, by Him, and in Him. I shall never be the child of fortune as long as I live; that is why I will never hesitate to go wherever I may be called for the service of the Divine glory; but still I am generous enough to wish ooly to be set to such work as I am able to do properly."

I have never known a soul so disinterested and so absolutely stripped of affection for the things of earth as was our Blessed Founder. He told me that, on his last return from Piedmont, two persons of rank applied to him, with an entreaty that he would help them to obtain from his Highness the Duke of Savoy some favour, involving great pecuniary advantages, which they desired, adding that they promised him a large share in their profits. He answered gently : " You do not know me; I am a man without such interests, and never do anything for money; but rest assured that I will exert myself for you

216 Saint Sane J* tie ffifjantars Impositions in the matter with even more zeal than if it were for myself." And this he did.

His friends often wished to procure other benefices for him, even the last time he came to Paris, but he would never stir in the matter. He said : " If I leave my bishopric, it will not be in order to take on myself the burden of another, for whether Divine Providence makes me change my abode or leaves me here, is all the same to me. Would it not be better for me to have no such burden of office, so that I might breathe a little in the Cross of my Saviour and write something for His glory ? "

There lives not the creature, I believe, who ever knew him to take a step, or say a word to advance his own preferment in the riches and honours of this world. His sole ambition was, as he has often told me, to spend his life as usefully as was possible for the increase of the glory of God, and of the salvation of souls.

Some one writing to him on one occasion, wished him much prosperity and temporal ad vancement. He replied : " Ah ! what are you wishing me ? Greatness and prosperity, did you say ? Indeed I do not want any. By the grace of God I only expect and desire in this miserable world, such a measure of both as the Son of God, by His own will, possessed in the Manger at Bethlehem."

Again, he wrote to me thus : " Do not think that any Court favours can entangle me. Ah ! how much more desirable a thing it is to be poor in the house of God, than to dwell in the splendid palaces of Kings ! I am making my novitiate here (he was then in Paris with the Cardinal Prince of Savoy), but I will never be professed here, God helping me. Thanks to Him, I have learnt at the Court to be more simple and less worldly; but could we possibly love this miserable vanity of a world, after having considered the goodness and the unchangeableness of the Eternity of God ? for we must neither love nor cling to anything but the truth of our good God, to Whom be praise for ever that He has led us to a perfect contempt for all earthly things."

Our Blessed Founder certainly never handled money except to distribute it to the poor, and he so despised it that he had no wish to know any thing about its value, or the different kinds of coins circulated.

People were astonished, knowing that his revenue was only a thousand crowns, at his being able to discharge all the expenses which fell upon him, for notwithstanding his lavish almsgiving, all sorts of persons were hospitably entertained at his house.

His furniture was very simple though suitable; his dress neat and clean, but his servants have assured me that his underclothing was, generally speaking; much mended. In short, in all places and in all things he showed his supreme con tempt for this world's affairs.

One day, returning from the town to his house,

218 Saint Sane J\ tie ffiljantarg he found the door closed, nor could it be opened for some time. At this he was secretly delighted, and stood humbly waiting outside like a poor beggar.

It was an extraordinary satisfaction to him to have no house of his own, and to know that the master could turn him out whenever he pleased. " A great many people," he said, " try to persuade me to buy a house. Oh ! if they only knew the comfort it is to me not to have one, and that I never wish to have one, and that I hope to die glorying in having nothing, and that that is my one ambition. Yes, let the world clamour as it will, by the grace of God I shall never change in this." And God in a measure fulfilled the desire of His servant, for he died in the house of a poor gardener.

Some one wrote to him once saying that she was absolutely poor, God be thanked. " Oh ! " he replied, " if that were true I should say that you were then absolutely happy, thanks be to God. Our Lord said : Messed are the poor ! Human wisdom never fails to say, Blessed are the Monasteries, Chapters, and Convents which are rich/' And he added that we should cultivate poverty, and that we should be glad that it should be little esteemed.

" I search my heart closely," he said, " to dis cover whether old age is leading me into avari cious thoughts and feelings, but I find, on the contrary, that it has set me free from care, and made me reject with my whole soul all kinds of covetousness, human forethought in looking to the future, and fear of falling into poverty and want."

The third day of the month of August, at seven o'clock in the morning :

In continuation of the same subject, I may say that our Blessed Founder gave away the whole of his own patrimony, despoiling himself of it freely in favour of his brothers. He wrote to me that it was a delight to him to do so, and that he felt as if he were relieved of a great burden, now that he had no more temporal possessions.

Some of his family told him, on one occasion, that people who made no show in this world always exposed themselves to ridicule, and that it was his duty to spend part of his time in doing something for himself and his family. He after wards said to some persons who were in his confidence : " I laugh to scorn all these follies; for one of my greatest consolations is to picture myself as having nothing, and certainly when I die I shall have nothing."

From all this we see clearly that our Blessed Founder had an extraordinary love for the Evangelical Counsels, especially for holy poverty, which was most dear to him. He often wished to be deficient in something which bare necessity demands, so that he might in that at least imitate his Saviour, the King of the poor. Espe cially towards the close of his life, this love

220 Saint Sane jf. tie Cental's liepstttong increased greatly in his heart; he often spoke of it, and expressed his high esteem of it.

He had also been endowed by God with a most keen perception of the beauty and excellence of these holy Counsels, and it was for this reason he held in such supreme contempt the things of this life which are opposed to them. He used to say : " The more I see of the world, the more I dislike it, and I do not believe that I could live in it, if the service of souls and the furtherance of their salvation did not lighten the burden. The more I know of it, the more highly I esteem those who belong to Jesus Christ."

In short it would be impossible to express the contempt of our Blessed Founder for the things of this life; indeed he used to say that no one whose heart was in heaven could possibly fret about the things of earth. All this is true, &c.