ced to
it without hesitation its resources, its efforts and its members with
the most complete abnegation.[6] Thus when, on March 9th, 1663, the
Company of Montreal believed itself no longer capable of meeting its
obligations, and begged St. Sulpice to take them up, the seminary
subordinated all considerations of self-interest and human prudence to
this view. To this MM. de Bretonvilliers, de Queylus and du Bois devoted
their fortunes, and to this work of the conversion of the savages
priests distinguished in birth and riches gave up their whole lives and
property. M. de Belmont discharged the hundred and twenty thousand
francs of debts of the Company of Montreal, gave as much more to the
establishment of divers works, and left more than two hundred thousand
francs of his patrimony to support them after his death. How many
others did likewise! During more than fifty years Paris sent to this
mission only priests able to pay their board, that they might have the
right to share in this evangelization. This disinterestedness, unheard
of in the history of the most unselfish congregations, saved, sustained
and finally developed this settlement, to which Roman Catholics point
to-day with pride. The Seminary of Paris contributed to it a sum equal
to twice the value of the island, and during the first sixty years more
than nine hundred thousand francs, as one may see by the archives of the
Department of Marine at Paris. These sums to-day would represent a large
fortune.

Finally the prayers of Mgr. de Laval were heard; Pope Clement X signed
on October 1st, 1674, the bulls establishing the diocese of Quebec,
which was to extend over all the French possessions in North America.
The sovereign pontiff incorporated with the new bishopric for its
maintenance the abbey of Maubec, given by the King of France already in
1662, and in exchange for the renunciation by this prince of his right
of presentation to the abbey of Maubec, granted him the right of
nomination to the bishopric of Quebec. To his first gift the king had
added a second, that of the abbey of Lestrees. Situated in Normandy and
in the archdeaconry of Evreux, this abbey was one of the oldest of the
order of Citeaux.

Up to this time the venerable bishop had had many difficulties to
surmount; he was about to meet some of another sort, those of the
administration of vast properties. The abbey of Maubec, occupied by
monks of the order of St. Benedict, was situated in one of