On arriving in France, an agreement was entered into by which three or
four of the Hospitalières of La Flèche should come to Montreal when all
was ready. M. Olier, who had wished to finish his days in Canada, chose
for Maisonneuve three of his priests, Gabriel de Queylus, whom he named
superior; Gabriel Souart, Dominic Galinier, and a deacon, M. d'Allet.
In the choice of M. Gabriel de Thubières de Lévy Queylus as superior,
the Associates saw their likely nominee as the bishop whom they wished
to have in the see of New France. They had him in view in promoting
the creation of the episcopal see before the assembly of the bishops
on August 9, 1656, through the good services of Mgr. Godeau, Bishop
of Vence. This was again brought up before the assembly on January
10, 1657, and Cardinal Mazarin, then present, undertook to interest
the king in the formation of the episcopal see as desired. On this
occasion the name of the Abbé de Queylus was mentioned to Cardinal
Mazarin by the bishop of Vence as a man of approved "probity, capacity
and zeal, who possesses an abbacy of considerable value. He is willing
to sacrifice himself in this new episcopate, in a barbarous country,
so far from all consolation; and his person is agreeable to the Jesuit
fathers." (Procès Verbal of the General Assembly, January 10, 1657.)
M. de Queylus had many and great qualifications. He was a doctor of
theology. His capacity and zeal had been shown as the superior of the
community of the parish of St. Sulpice at Paris, when he was Olier's
right hand man. He had laboured in the ecclesiastical reform of several
dioceses in Languedoc and had established the diocesan Seminary of
Viviers, which he sustained by his liberality. He enjoyed the abbacy of
Loc Dieu. He had a private income--a valuable thing for a bishop in a
poor diocese; and his choice, it was alleged, was likely to please the
Jesuits.
This latter was an important argument, for this Order had been on the
ground so long, that they were the most fitted to understand the needs
of a missionary country, and of the natives whose languages they spoke.
They were zealous, able men, who had become necessary, and their blood
had been freely spent in the work of colonization and Christianity. It
would have been most appropriate to have chosen a bishop from among
them, except that the democratic spirit of the order is against the
acceptance of dignities, unless forced upon them. Seeing this, it was
etiquette and the wisdom of the Church not to impose an ecclesiastical
superior above them, without consulting their wishes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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