ST. FRANCIS DE SALES AND THE CONVERSION OF THE CHABLAIS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Siu,—Permit me to protest against the attack made on the saintly Bishop of Geneva in the Spectator of 12th August, 1899, p. 229, when your reviewer repeats without question the assertions of the Rev. Wolsey Bacon. This author pretends that the Chablais was converted by a process of cruel persecution. A refutation of this thesis appeared some years ago as the first of " Four Essays on St. Francis de Sales," a pamphlet published by Burns and Oates, London. This study was brought under the notice of Mr. Bacon, who refused to pay attention to it. Others showed more liberality. The Christian World, which had at first accepted the attack as well-founded, published in full the defence, admitting its solidity. Mr. Baring-Gould reproduced the substance of it in a long correction appended to the first volume of the second edition of his "Lives of the Saints." Mr. Bacon's errors repose on the testimony of a certain M. Gaberel, now dead, Protestant pastor at Geneva, an author of no weight, as can easily be ascertained by enquiries in that city. Feeling assured that you will courteously insert my protest in favour of a cause sacred to many of your readers.—I am
Annecy, Savoy, August Uth, 1899.
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