reseruément, ayant premierem[~e]nt des Postulans & Requerans, & puis des Catechumenes, & à la parfin des Baptisés. Aussi le maistre de toute Sapience à dit tressagement: _Que la terre fructifie premierement l'herbe, puis l'espy, & en fin le plein froument en l'espy_. Ioseph Acosta a tres bien remarqué la faute, que i'ay dite cy deuant, & elle [108] n'est point excusable apres le iugem[~e]t formel & sentence de l'Eglise. Voyez le Canon, _Ante baptismum. de consec. distinct._ 4. & les suiuants. But if it is necessary throughout the world to diligently Catechize the people before [104] introducing them into the Church, and to communicate to them the Sacrament of regeneration, it is necessary above all to do it in these places; the reason being that the Canadians are a wandering people (as we have said) and pass their lives here and there without permanent settlements; therefore they cannot ordinarily attend mass nor prayers nor public services, nor hear sermons, nor receive the sacraments nor have Priests with them. How then do you think that they can maintain themselves in the faith and grace of God, if they do not receive instruction, and twice as much of it as the others? For we who are surrounded by the Religious, and are under the care of so many Pastors, and have such an abundance of good books, examples, laws and polity, can scarcely do it ourselves, who are old and, so to speak, [105] naturalized Christians; then how can they do it, all crude as they are, alone, without care, without letters, without precepts, without practice? Now to say that it is enough to beget, without thinking of how to maintain, is really saying that it is good to give life in order to take it away cruelly, which is not the act of a Father, but is worse than that of a murderer. Nevertheless this is done in the spiritual regeneration which is accomplished through Baptism. For to give it without providing for the nourishment of the regenerated, is doing what our Savior has said; driving the Devil out from a house so that when it is swept and garnished the vanquished enemy may reenter, not alone but accompanied by seven others, more wicked than himself; and thus bring it about that the unhappy regenerated is after Baptism [106] in a much more pitiable state than he was before being baptized. Furthermore, experience has already shown this need of properly catechizing before Baptizing, in a country where the people are not Savage but civilized: not wandering, but stationary; not abandoned, but under the watchful care of Pastors, namely in Peru and Mexico. For at first they baptized them very readily. What happened then? They unexpectedly found on their hands a Synagogue of Samaritans rather than a Church of the faithful. For these who were too soon Baptized willingly came to Church but it was to mutter there their