he proper and agreeable conventionalities of his former life. They
thought that he would add to the grace of his worldly manner the suavity
of the ecclesiastic, that he would choose a pulpit of Paris, and that,
sitting at his feet, they could enjoy the elegant phrases with which he
would embellish a refined and delicately attenuated religion. But an
aged prelate of the far South judged the new priest differently, he had
sounded the heart of the man who, at the age of thirty, had quietly
renounced a flattering, admiring world; and his dying prayer to
Richelieu was that Godeau should succeed him in the See of Vence. The
keen worldly wisdom of the Cardinal confirmed the old Bishop's more
spiritual insight, and Godeau was named Bishop of the neighbouring
Grasse.

Far away in his mountain-city of flower gardens and sweet odours, the
new Bishop wrote to his Parisian friends that, for his part, he "found
more thorns than orange-blossoms." The Calvinists, from the rock of
Antibes, openly defied him; in spite of the vehement opposition of their
Chapters and against his will, the Bishoprics of Grasse and Vence were
united, and he was made the Bishop of the two warring, discontented
Sees. He was stoned at Vence; and even his colleague in temporal power,
the Marquis of Villeneuve, showed himself as insolent as he dared. At
length the King came to his aid, and being given his choice of the Sees,
Godeau immediately left "the perfumed wench," as he called Grasse, and
chose to live and work among his one-time enemies of Vence. This gentle
and courageous prelate is typical of the long line of wise men who ruled
the Church in the tight little city of the Provencal hills. From Saint
Veran the wonder-worker, and Saint Lambert the tender nurse of lepers,
to the end, they were men noted for bravery, goodness, and learning, and
it was not till the Revolution that one was found--and fittingly the
last--who, hating the "Oath" and fearing the guillotine, fled his See.

This city of good Bishops was founded in the dim, pagan past of Gaul.
From a rocky hill-top, its inhabitants had watched the burning of their
first valley-town and they founded the second Vence on that height of
safety to which they had escaped with their lives. Here, far above the
Aurelian road, the Gallic tribes had a strong and isolated camp. Then
the prying Romans found them out, and priests of Mars and Cybele
replaced those of the cruder native gods, and they, in turn, gave w