ercise of many of the catholic rites. Fifty-
eight years afterwards the Chablais was
reconquered by Charles Fmanuel, first
Duke of Savoy; who, instead of harshly
ordering the inhabitants to face about and
change their creed, sent among them St.
Francis de Sales and the most eloquent
preachers in his dominions, by whose labours
in a few years they were nearly all
induced to embrace the catholic faith.
Those who still adhered to the protestant
religion were assembled by the Duke in the
town-hall of Thonon, when he exhorted
them to join the church of Rome, as he
did not think it safe to tolerate any o fth e
partizans of the canton of Bern in his dominions.
He allowed them six months to
consider of his proposal; after which time,
if they continued in heresy, they were to
quit Savoy.
This was one of the mildest persecutions
of which the history of those times affords
any example, and also the most politic, as
it effected its object by keeping within the
Dutchy a large portion of the respectable
inhabitants of the Chablais, who would
have fled from more severe measures.
The Savoyards are more religious than
their neighbours the French ; and if a
Catholic wished to show his religion under
its most attractive form, he should lead us
to the remote villages of Savoy. The curés,
or parish priests, have a house and garden,
and from seventy to a hundred Napoleons
per annum, which is paid by the government
out of taxes raised for the purpose,
tithes having been abolished since the
French Revolution. As the priests have
no families, this income is sufficient to provide
them with all the comforts of life.
They are seldom translated or removed from
one parish to another, and have no temptation
to be cringing to the great, and hunting
after preferment ; but being once flxed
in the cure, where they expect to spend
the remainder of their days, they generally
devote themselves to the instruction and
ediflcation of their flocks, or to visiting the
sick, and offering advice and consolation to
the afflicted. On many of their countenances,
benevolence and simplicity of character
were strongly marked ; and the
conversation I had with some of the Savoyard
curés tended to confirm the favourable
opinion I had formed of them. Their
influence and authority is, however, very