FOOTNOTES:
[1] We find, by reference to an old Life of Du Vall, published in 1670, that Domfront was a place by no means unlikely to have produced our adventurer. Indeed, it appears that common honesty was a most uncommon ingredient in the moral economy of the place, as the following curious extract from the work in question will abundantly testify:—
“In the days of Charles IX. the curate of Domfront, (for so the French name him whom we call parson, and vicar,) out of his own head began a strange innovation and oppression in that parish; that is, he absolutely denied to baptize any of their children, if they would not, at the same time, pay him his funeral fees: and what was worse, he would give them no reason for this alteration, but only promised to enter bond for himself and successors, that hereafter, all persons paying so at their christening should be buried gratis. What think ye the poor people did in this case? They did not pull his surplice over his ears, nor tear his mass-book, nor throw crickets at his head: no, they humbly desired him to alter his resolutions, and amicably reasoned with him; but he, being a capricious fellow, gave them no other answer, but ‘What I have done, I have done; take your remedy where you can find it; it is not for men of my coat to give an account of my actions to the laity;’ which was a surly and quarrelsome answer, and unbefitting a priest. Yet this did not provoke his parishioners to speak one ill word against his person or function, or to do any illegal act. They only took the regular way of complaining of him to his ordinary, the archbishop of Rouen. Upon summons, he appears: the archbishop takes him up roundly, tells him he deserves deprivation, if that can be proved which is objected against him, and asked him what he had to say for himself. After his due reverence, he answers, that he acknowledges the fact, to save the time of examining witnesses; but desires his grace to hear his reasons, and then do unto him as he shall see cause. ‘I have,’ says he, ‘been curate of this parish seven years; in that time I have, one year with another, baptized a hundred children, and buried not one. At first I rejoiced at my good fortune to be placed in so good an air; but, looking into the register-book, I found, for a hundred years back, near the same number yearly baptized, and no one above five years old buried; and which did more amaze me, I find the number of communicants to be no greater now than they were then. This seemed to me a great mystery; but, upon farther inquiry, I found out the true cause of it; for all that were born at Domfront were hanged at Rouen. I did this to keep my parishioners from hanging, encouraging them to die at home, the burial duties being already paid.’
“The archbishop demanded of the parishioners whether this was true or not. They answered, that too many of them came to that unlucky end at Rouen. ‘Well, then,’ says he, ‘I approve of what the curate has done, and will cause my secretary, in perpetuam rei memoriam, to make an act of it;’ which act the curate carried home with him, and the parish cheerfully submitted to it, and have found much good by it; for within less than twenty years, there died fifteen of natural deaths, and now there die three or four yearly.”