PHJUP NERI AND DE BERULLE
member of the Oratoire de France, seems so well fitted to the ezisting needs of the Church in the nineteenth centuiy also, that it may well be quoted : '*To wrestle against the errors which assail faith by seizing their own weapons and tuming thèse agamst themselves; to set against a false, exclusive, selfseeking science, the most loyally true, the most libéral, the most disinterested leaming: never to allow the enemy to pitch his tents and take possession of any point of human intelligence, but apostle-like, to send forth missionaries into eveiy branch of science, shedding upon ail the light of révélation, and constraining ail to promote the advance of Chrisfs Elingdom; to accept this permanent struggle under whatever changing circumstances may arise in différent periods and différent stages of civilisation; to become ail things to ail men, in order to win every mind to the feith, every heart to the Love of Jésus Christ; and, as a necessary conséquence, to do battle one while on the platform of Holy Scripture and Biblical exegesis, another while on that of philosophy, history, or natural science ; or again, if need be, to track the winding évolutions of modem thought, refusing to allow antichristian science to conûscate the domain of social and political science, and monopolise it on behalf of reason, as revolting against faith ; and to this end, unremit-
tingly, never discouraged, never wearied, to go on blending piayer with study, sanctifying labour bjr méditation; spreading out to reach ail wants, anC redudng the discordant notes of mère hmnan leaming to the great harmony of the One glorious Gospel of Christ Such is the course which, in his far-seeing solicitude for the interests of truth, S. Philip laid down for the members of the Oratory amidst the impassioned strifes of the sixteenth century.">
It is a course which has been ôlially pursued by S. Philip's descendants, amid whom occur many names well known to science and literature, worthy of their great predecessors — such as Cardinal de Bérulle, de Condren, Eudes, Bourgoing, Senault, Gault Bishop of Marseilles, Malebranche, Thomassin, Mascaron, Massillon, Houbigant, Gratiy, Perreyve, Perraud, and others — ^not to speak of other nationalities.
S. Philip Neri repeatedly declined a Cardinales hat, and endeavoured with a persistency difficult to realize for such as ourselves, to shun eveiything approaching to honour or even any réputation for holiness or wisdom. He died May 26, 1595, at the âge of eighty, surrounded by his faithful children in the iaith. Just twenty years before, Pierre de Bâidle, destined by God to carry the work of the Oratory into France, was bom, on February 4, 1575, one year earlier than S. Vincent * L'Oratoire de France, P. Adolphe Perraud, p. 24.
s, PHIUP NERI AND DE BÊRULLE. 41
de Paul, who in his tum was to do so great a work among the Clergy of France. De Bénille had a strong vocation to the religions life, and being educated by the Jesuit Fathers—his director a Caithusian, and his dearest friand, the confidant of aU his thoughts and aspirations, a Capucin monk — ^it roight hâve seemed probable that he would hâve joined one or other of those Orders. But God had other work in store for him, and after making due proof of his vocation in each, de Bénille was counselled both by his Carthusian director and the Provincial of the Jesuits to wait and see to what destmy God was reserving him, for dearly none of thèse was his resting-place — much as he prized them ail; — ^neither thèse or any other religious Order corresponded entirely to his needs, whether of grâce or nature. Ordained in 1599, de Bénille gave himself zealously to the work immediately pressing upon him in Paris. His success among the Huguenots was great, and he made many conversions; so that Cardinal du Perron made one of his telling remarks, so often quoted, " If you want to convince a heretic, bring him to me ; if you want to convert him, take him to M. de Genève [Francis de Sales] ; but if you want both to convince and convert him at once, take him to M. de BéniUe ! "
Henri IV. conceived one of his hearty likings for the young Pries^ whose controversial talents interested
him ; and he successively pressed the Bisboprics of Laon, Nantes and Luçon, and the Archbishopric of LjTons upon him. It is always hard for great people to understand a man's indifférence to position and wealth, and Henri IV. was not a little perplexed at de Bérulle's steady refusai of ail his offers. '' You will not receive what I oflfer?" the King said petulantly one day, " then I shall get some one else to order you to do so !" meaning, of course, the Pope. "Sire," de Bérulle answered, " if your Majesty presses me thus, I shall be constrained to quit your kingdom." The King tumed to Bellegarde, saying, " I hâve done everything in my power to tempt him and hâve failed; I don't believe there is another man in the world who would resist so firmly !" * ** As to that man," he used henceforth to say, " he is a very saint, he bas never lost his baptismal innocence ! "
Long before his ordmation de Bérulle had been an intimate friend of Madame Acarie, and had known ail her wishes conceming the Carmélites, and her ardent désire to bring the reformed daughters of S. Teresa into France ; and when at last the wise and holy men with whom her counsels were shared decided that the time had come for making the attempt, it was agreed to send M. de Bérulle to Spain with the object of biinging a colony of Carmélites to Paris. It was a ' Vie S. V. de Paul, Maynaid, i. 63.
