BOOK II.

Madame:—­I lay it down as a maxim, that men who enter the service of the State should make it their chief study to set out in the world with some notable act which may strike the imagination of the people, and cause themselves to be discussed.  Thus I preached first upon All Saints’ Day, before an audience which could not but be numerous in a populous city, where it is a wonder to see the Archbishop in the pulpit.  I began now to think seriously upon my future conduct.  I found the archbishopric sunk both in its temporals and spirituals by the sordidness, negligence, and incapacity of my uncle.  I foresaw infinite obstacles to its reestablishment, but perceived that the greatest and most insuperable difficulty lay in myself.  I considered that the strictest morals are necessarily required in a bishop.  I felt myself the more obliged to be strictly circumspect as my uncle had been very disorderly and scandalous.  I knew likewise that my own corrupt inclinations would bear down all before them, and that all the considerations drawn from honour and conscience would prove very weak defences.  At last I came to a resolution to go on in my sins, and that designedly, which without doubt is the more sinful in the eyes of God, but with regard to the world is certainly the best policy, because he that acts thus always takes care beforehand to cover part of his failings, and thereby to avoid the jumbling together of sin and devotion, than which nothing can be more dangerous and ridiculous in a clergyman.  This was my disposition, which was not the most pious in the world nor yet the wickedest, for I was fully determined to discharge all the duties of my profession faithfully, and exert my utmost to save other souls, though I took no care of my own.

The Archbishop, who was the weakest of mortals, was, nevertheless, by a common fatality attending such men, the most vainglorious; he yielded precedence to every petty officer of the Crown, and yet in his own house would not give the right-hand to any person of quality that came to him about business.  My behaviour was the reverse of his in almost everything; I gave the right-hand to all strangers in my own house, and attended them even to their coach, for which I was commended by some for my civility and by others for my humility.  I avoided appearing in public assemblies among people of quality till I had established a reputation.  When I thought I had done so, I took the opportunity of the sealing of a marriage contract to dispute my rank with M. de Guise.  I had carefully studied the laws of my diocese and got others to do it for me, and my right was indisputable in my own province.  The precedence was adjudged in my favour by a decree of the Council, and I found, by the great number of gentlemen who then appeared for me, that to condescend to men of low degree is the surest way to equal those of the highest.