rous doctrines. When the Abbe de St. Cyran, the apostle of
Jansenism in France, first came to Paris, Vincent, like many other
holy men, was taken in by the apparent piety and austerity of his
life. It was only when he knew him better, and when St. Cyran had
begun to impart to him some of his ideas on grace and the authority of
the Church, that Vincent realized on what dangerous ground he was
standing.

* So called from their founder, Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of Utrecht,
who died, however, before his heresy had been condemned.

"He said to me one day," wrote the Saint long afterwards to one of his
Mission Priests, "that it was God's intention to destroy the Church as
it is now, and that all who labor to uphold it are working against His
will; and when I told him that these were the statements made by
heretics such as Calvin, he replied that Calvin had not been
altogether in the wrong, but that he had not known how to make a good
defense."

After such a statement as that there could be no longer question of
friendship between Vincent and St. Cyran, although the latter, anxious
not to break with a man who was held in such universal esteem as
Vincent de Paul, tried to persuade him that he, St. Cyran, was really
in the right, justifying himself in the elusive language which was
more characteristic of the Jansenists than the frank declaration he
had just made.

Vincent, however, was too honest and straightforward, too loyal a son
of the Church, to be deceived. Realizing fully the danger of such
opinions, he soon became one of the most vigorous opponents of the
Jansenists, who, indeed, soon had cause to look upon Vincent as one of
the most powerful of their enemies. But although he hated the heresy
with all the strength of his upright soul, Vincent's charitable heart
went out in pity to those who were infected with its taint, and it was
with compassion rather than indignation that he would speak of St.
Cyran and his adherents. Not until they had been definitely condemned
by the Church did he cease his efforts to win them from their
errors--efforts which were received, for the most part, in a spirit of
vindictive bitterness.

The teaching of the Jansenists, like that of most other heretics, had
begun by being fairly plausible. The necessity of reform among the
clergy had come home to them forcibly, as it had to Vincent himself;
the Jansenists' lives were austere and mortified. The book which
contained their heretical doc