persuaded that great titles would
not sit well upon him, and might raise fresh obstacles to his salvation.
He was also thought of at Rome as a very fit person to be promoted to
that dignity, but was himself the only one who everywhere opposed and
crossed the design. Being desired on another occasion by the same king
to accept of a pension; the saint begged his majesty to suffer it to
remain in the hands of his comptroller till he should call for it; which
handsome refusal much astonished that great prince, who could not
forbear saying: "That the bishop of Geneva, by the happy independence in
which his virtue had placed him, was as far above him, as he by his
royal dignity was above his subjects." The saint preached the next Lent
at Chamberry, at the request of the parliament, which notwithstanding at
that very time seized his temporalities for refusing to publish a
monitory at its request; the saint alleging, that it was too trifling an
affair, and that the censures of the church were to be used more
reservedly. To the notification of the seizure he only answered
obligingly, that he thanked God for teaching him by it, that a bishop is
to be altogether spiritual. He neither desisted from preaching, nor
complained to the duke, but heaped most favors on such as most insulted
him, till the parliament, being ashamed, granted him of their own accord
a replevy. But the great prelate found more delight in preaching in
small villages than amidst such applause, though he everywhere met with
the like fruit; and he looked on the poor as the object of his
particular care. He took a poor dumb and deaf man into his family,
taught him by signs, and by them received his confession. His steward
often found it difficult to provide for his family by reason of his
great alms, and used to threaten to leave him. The saint would answer:
"You say right; I am an incorrigible creature, and what is worse, I look
as if I should long continue so." Or at other times, pointing to the
crucifix; "How can we deny any thing to a God who reduced himself to
this condition for the love of us!"

Pope Paul V. ordered our saint to be consulted about the school dispute
between the Dominicans and Jesuits on the grace of God, or de auxiliis.
His opinion appears from his book On the Love of God: but he answered
his Holiness in favor of neutrality, which he ever observed in school
opinions; complaining often in how many they occasioned the breach of
charity, and spe