es about necessaries.
But then he requires from each person so strict a practice of poverty,
as to allow no one the property or even the long use of any thing; and
orders them every year to change chambers, beds, crosses, beads, and
books. He will have no manner of account to be made of birth, wit, or
talents; but only of humility; {299} he obliges them only to the little
office of our Lady, which all might easily learn to understand;
meditations, spiritual reading, recollection, and retreats, abundantly
compensating the defect. All his regulations tend to instil a spirit of
piety, charity, meekness, and simplicity. He subjects his Order to the
bishop of each place, without any general. Pope Paul V. approved it, and
erected the congregation of the Visitation into a religious Order.

St. Francis, finding his health decline, and his affairs to multiply,
after having consulted cardinal Frederic Borromeo, archbishop of Milan,
chose for his coadjutor in the bishopric of Geneva, his brother John
Francis of Sales, who was consecrated bishop of Chalcedon at Turin, in
1618. But the saint still applied himself to his functions as much as
ever. He preached the Lent at Grenoble, in 1617, and again in 1618, with
his usual conquests of souls; converting many Calvinists, and among
these the duke of Lesdiguieres. In 1619, he accompanied to Paris the
cardinal of Savoy, to demand the sister of king Louis XIII., Christina
of France, in marriage for the prince of Piedmont. He preached the Lent
in St. Andre-des-Arcs, and had always such a numerous audience, that
cardinals, bishops, and princes could scarce find room. His sermons and
conferences, and still more the example of his holy life, and the
engaging sweetness of his conversation, most powerfully moved not only
the devout, but also heretics, libertines, and atheists; while his
eloquence and learning convinced their understandings. The bishop of
Bellay tells us, that he entreated the saint at Paris not to preach
twice every day, morning and evening, for the sake of his health. St.
Francis answered him with a smile: "That it cost him much less to preach
a sermon than to find an excuse for himself when invited to perform that
function." He added: "God has appointed me a pastor and a preacher: and
is not every one to follow his profession? But I am surprised that the
people in this great city flock so eagerly to my sermons: for my tongue
is slow and heavy, my conceptions low, and my discou