FRANCIS, ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER.
May 18th, 1910.
SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF
JEAN PIERRE CAMUS,
BISHOP OF BELLEY.
Jean Pierre Camus came of an illustrious, and much respected family of Auxonne in Burgundy, in which province it possessed the seigneuries of Saint Bonnet and Pont-carré.
He was born in Paris, November 3rd, 1584.
His grandfather was for some years Administrator of the Finances under King Henri III. Though he had had the management of the public funds during a period when fraud and dishonesty were as easy as they were common, he retired from office without having added a single penny to his patrimony. On one occasion having received from Henri III. the gift of a sum of 50,000 crowns, which had been left by a Jew who had died intestate, and without children, this upright administrator sent for three merchants who had lost all their property in a fire, and distributed it among them.
The father of our Prelate, inheriting this integrity, left an honourable name, but few worldly goods to his children.
Faithful, and devoted to the interests of his king, Henri IV., he gave part of his fortune to the support of the good cause, the triumph of which he had the happiness of witnessing. He died in 1619.