Other reasons for sorrow he did not lack, especially when Mgr. de Saint-Vallier succeeded, on his visit to the king in 1691, in obtaining a reversal of the policy marked out for the seminary by the first bishop of the colony; this establishment would be in the future only a seminary like any other, and would have no other mission than that of the training of priests. By a decree of the council of February 2nd, 1692, the number of the directors of the seminary was reduced to five, who were to concern themselves principally with the training of young men who might have a vocation for the ecclesiastical life; they might also devote themselves to missions, with the consent of the bishop. No ecclesiastic had the right of becoming an associate of the seminary without the permission of the bishop, within whose province it was to employ the former associates for the service of his diocese with the consent of the superiors. The last part of the decree provided that the four thousand francs given by the king for the diocese of Quebec should be distributed in equal portions, one for the seminary and the two others for the priests and the church buildings. As to the permanence of priests, the decree issued by the king for the whole kingdom was to be adhered to in Canada. In the course of the same year Mgr. de Saint-Vallier obtained, moreover, from the sovereign the authority to open at Quebec in Notre-Dame des Anges, the former convent of the Recollets, a general hospital for the poor, which was entrusted to the nuns of the Hotel-Dieu. The poor who might be admitted to it would be employed at work proportionate to their strength, and more particularly in the tilling of the farms belonging to the establishment. If we remember that Mgr. de Laval had consecrated twenty years of his life to giving his seminary, by a perfect union between its members and his whole clergy, a formidable power in the colony, a power which in his opinion could be used only for the good of the Church and in the public interest, and that he now saw his efforts annihilated forever, we cannot help admiring the resignation with which he managed to accept this destruction of his dearest work. And not only did he bow before the impenetrable designs of Providence, but he even used his efforts to pacify those around him whose excitable temperaments might have brought about conflicts with the authorities. The Abbe Gosselin quotes in this connection the following example: "A priest, M. de Francheville, thought he had cause for complaint at the behaviour of his bishop towards him, and wrote him a letter in no measured terms, but he had the good sense to submit it previously to Mgr. de Laval, whom he regarded as his father. The aged bishop expunged from this letter all that might wound Mgr. de Saint-Vallier, and it was sent with the corrections which he desired." The venerable prelate did not content himself with avoiding all that might cause difficulties to his successor; he gave him his