Early morning. A prison in central China at Wuchang in the province of Hupeh. The guards arouse and tell the old frenchman to follow them. He asks: "Will I be coming back here?" Their hesitation tells him clearly that the decree of execution has come from Beijing. There is a moment or two when he can receive a final absolution from the Chinese priest imprisoned with him. A word to the other christians in the prison courtyard. He tells them to rejoice because he has the good fortune to die for Jesus Christ. He is led to the execution place just outside the town walls. They bind him to a stake and using a strong cord, the executioner strangles him in the manner traditional in that country. It is 18 February 1820.
2. TO RETURN TO THE BEGINNING
His family
They were quite a family, the Clets. and not the sort of people who expected to end their lives at the hands of an executioner. Fifteen of them if you count all the names in the baptismal register of the parish of Saint Louis in Grenoble. in south east France. The reality was less crowded. Half of them died in childbirth or within months . Only six survived to adulthood, their births spread over some fourteen years. Their house in the middle of the town, roomy and comfortable though it was, gave no protection against the recurrent epidemics that plagued such town dwellers.
Country cousins widened the family circle, their homes in the district of Varces generously shared. Varces, set in beautiful hilly country rising towards the Alps, made of Regis (the name Francis was shared with an older brother so the family from the start simply called him Regis) a country man like his father who had come to Grenoble as a young man to make his fortune. His thickset burly frame grew strong with mountain treks, swimming in the cold streams and lakes, and work in the fields side by side with his cousins. Friendships formed there and family ties would always be important for him.
At home his mainstay was his eldest sister Marie-Therese. Fourteen years older, and with their mother weakened and pre-occupied by her disappointing pregnancies, it was this sister who provided the direction and care that the young boy needed. She would outlive him by a matter of months, enclosing all of his years in the generosity of her life
His father, Cesaire, had married into a good cloth business. The family house and shop and warehouse filled a narrow area between two streets of Grenoble. His older brother, a canon of the collegiate church of Saint Louis in the city, had smoothed the way for him on his first arrival from the country. This uncle, already dead when Regis was born in 1748. set for all of them the standards of religious practice and social status which marked their way of life. Naturally there was high regard for the Varces family where a royal notaryship had been purchased, placing that brunch of the family on the edges of nobility. Cesaire Clet himself was a respected and successful business man. In detailed legal documents over the years he would provide for the material future of his children. Yet his faith was the overriding force in his life.
Religion was inescapable in the Clet household. The dead uncle's tomb occupied a place of note in the parish church. His mother's only sister had entered the Carmel of Grenoble and close contact was maintained between the sisters. The family was in the habit of making excursions to the great Monastery of Chartreuse, only a day's journey away. It was natural then that Regis' older brother Francis should be attracted to that order and make his profession at the Chartreuse of Valbonne in 1764.
His sister Anne in her turn joined her aunt Marie Therese in the Carmel. taking the name of Sister Constance of Saint Bruno in recognition of her brother's Chartreuse patron. His cousin Gaspard from Varces had entered the Augustinian Order. It would have been surprising if something of all this did not rub off on Regis - or. perhaps, in the questioning spirit of the time, he might well have reacted in the opposite direction.
That he did not can be put down to the education he received. He received his first lessons and his instruction in reading from his sister. Marie Therese. To the best of our knowledge he joined the other members of his family at the Jesuit College of Grenoble for his secondary studies. The formation given in that college would have built on the traditions of his own home, giving intellectual strength to its piety. There, in 1763, as a fifteen year old, he experienced the upheaval that came from the expulsion of the Jesuit Order from France. Opinions would differ, but in his family it would have been seen as a victory for evil and he must have missed the familiar teachers. To be sure the Bishop of Grenoble appointed priests to take the place of the Jesuits and, in the few years that remained of Regis' schooling, little change would have taken place in the curriculum. It would leave in his mind little love for the freethinking agnostics who had brought about the dismissal of the Jesuits."
They were quite a family, the Clets. and not the sort of people who expected to end their lives at the hands of an executioner. Fifteen of them if you count all the names in the baptismal register of the parish of Saint Louis in Grenoble. in south east France. The reality was less crowded. Half of them died in childbirth or within months . Only six survived to adulthood, their births spread over some fourteen years. Their house in the middle of the town, roomy and comfortable though it was, gave no protection against the recurrent epidemics that plagued such town dwellers.
Country cousins widened the family circle, their homes in the district of Varces generously shared. Varces, set in beautiful hilly country rising towards the Alps, made of Regis (the name Francis was shared with an older brother so the family from the start simply called him Regis) a country man like his father who had come to Grenoble as a young man to make his fortune. His thickset burly frame grew strong with mountain treks, swimming in the cold streams and lakes, and work in the fields side by side with his cousins. Friendships formed there and family ties would always be important for him.
At home his mainstay was his eldest sister Marie-Therese. Fourteen years older, and with their mother weakened and pre-occupied by her disappointing pregnancies, it was this sister who provided the direction and care that the young boy needed. She would outlive him by a matter of months, enclosing all of his years in the generosity of her life
His father, Cesaire, had married into a good cloth business. The family house and shop and warehouse filled a narrow area between two streets of Grenoble. His older brother, a canon of the collegiate church of Saint Louis in the city, had smoothed the way for him on his first arrival from the country. This uncle, already dead when Regis was born in 1748. set for all of them the standards of religious practice and social status which marked their way of life. Naturally there was high regard for the Varces family where a royal notaryship had been purchased, placing that brunch of the family on the edges of nobility. Cesaire Clet himself was a respected and successful business man. In detailed legal documents over the years he would provide for the material future of his children. Yet his faith was the overriding force in his life.
Religion was inescapable in the Clet household. The dead uncle's tomb occupied a place of note in the parish church. His mother's only sister had entered the Carmel of Grenoble and close contact was maintained between the sisters. The family was in the habit of making excursions to the great Monastery of Chartreuse, only a day's journey away. It was natural then that Regis' older brother Francis should be attracted to that order and make his profession at the Chartreuse of Valbonne in 1764.
His sister Anne in her turn joined her aunt Marie Therese in the Carmel. taking the name of Sister Constance of Saint Bruno in recognition of her brother's Chartreuse patron. His cousin Gaspard from Varces had entered the Augustinian Order. It would have been surprising if something of all this did not rub off on Regis - or. perhaps, in the questioning spirit of the time, he might well have reacted in the opposite direction.
That he did not can be put down to the education he received. He received his first lessons and his instruction in reading from his sister. Marie Therese. To the best of our knowledge he joined the other members of his family at the Jesuit College of Grenoble for his secondary studies. The formation given in that college would have built on the traditions of his own home, giving intellectual strength to its piety. There, in 1763, as a fifteen year old, he experienced the upheaval that came from the expulsion of the Jesuit Order from France. Opinions would differ, but in his family it would have been seen as a victory for evil and he must have missed the familiar teachers. To be sure the Bishop of Grenoble appointed priests to take the place of the Jesuits and, in the few years that remained of Regis' schooling, little change would have taken place in the curriculum. It would leave in his mind little love for the freethinking agnostics who had brought about the dismissal of the Jesuits."
3. A PRIEST
There is a notable gap in the records of Regis' life for three or four years after he finished his secondary schooling at the College of Grenoble. They are, however, comparatively easy to reconstruct. He was the only remaining son available to follow in his father's footsteps in the family business. Francois. the older brother . surrendered his claims on becoming a Carthusian. Cesaire was by now in his sixties and must have been anxious to share the burden of the business with a member of the family and,as a self-made man, he would have wanted to prolong his achievement into the next generation. So. for Regis. the progression from school to family business was a natural one, leaving no trace in documents, no disturbance to the rhythm of family life. In all probability Regis was already familiar with much of the business.
It was not to be so simple. Cesaire's plans came up against the values which his own and his wife's way of life had inculcated in their family. A sense of duty was there and so Regis. happily at first, joined with his father in business. In the background. however, there was the example of his Uncle Claude and with it expectations from the canons of the collegiate parish Church of Saint Louis that his good young man would follow in his uncle's footsteps. The piety of the family. with its connections in the Carthusians and Carmelites, must have been a strong call to him to consider priesthood in some form. Eventually he reached the stage where the only harrier to that ideal was his duty to his father and the calls of continuity in a family business - this last no small matter in a middle class community. We can only guess the strain and distress that all this caused to Regis and to his father. He was fortunate that Cesaire's faith enabled him to accept his son's vocation to the priesthood and the effect of that on the business he had worked so hard to develop.
A family tradition tells us that he was educated by the Oratorian Fathers. so we guess that he spent some two years at the Seminary of Grenoble in the study of theology, at that time a normal length for such studies. Then. out of the blue, as far as records and information go. he entered the noviciate of the Congregation of the Mission in Lyons in March 1769. He was twenty one years old and he would be ordained just three year. later. Why Lyons. a world away from Grenoble in those days. in another province? Why the Congregation of the Mission( also called Lazaristfrom the Saint Lazare, their central house in Paris and Vincentians in the English-speaking world)? There are no answers. Effectively his early life was cut in two sharply. one portion being in his home in Grenoble and among family at Varces, and the second when he was appointed after ordination to the priesthood to be a professor of moral theology in the Seminary.
It was not to be so simple. Cesaire's plans came up against the values which his own and his wife's way of life had inculcated in their family. A sense of duty was there and so Regis. happily at first, joined with his father in business. In the background. however, there was the example of his Uncle Claude and with it expectations from the canons of the collegiate parish Church of Saint Louis that his good young man would follow in his uncle's footsteps. The piety of the family. with its connections in the Carthusians and Carmelites, must have been a strong call to him to consider priesthood in some form. Eventually he reached the stage where the only harrier to that ideal was his duty to his father and the calls of continuity in a family business - this last no small matter in a middle class community. We can only guess the strain and distress that all this caused to Regis and to his father. He was fortunate that Cesaire's faith enabled him to accept his son's vocation to the priesthood and the effect of that on the business he had worked so hard to develop.
A family tradition tells us that he was educated by the Oratorian Fathers. so we guess that he spent some two years at the Seminary of Grenoble in the study of theology, at that time a normal length for such studies. Then. out of the blue, as far as records and information go. he entered the noviciate of the Congregation of the Mission in Lyons in March 1769. He was twenty one years old and he would be ordained just three year. later. Why Lyons. a world away from Grenoble in those days. in another province? Why the Congregation of the Mission( also called Lazaristfrom the Saint Lazare, their central house in Paris and Vincentians in the English-speaking world)? There are no answers. Effectively his early life was cut in two sharply. one portion being in his home in Grenoble and among family at Varces, and the second when he was appointed after ordination to the priesthood to be a professor of moral theology in the Seminary.
4. A SEMINARY PROFESSOR
His First Appointment
Annecy is some 100 kilometres from both Grenoble where he was born and from Lyons where he had made his vows as a Vincentian. Today it is is the department of Haut Savoy. Though French speaking. in those days it was not in France at all but in the Kingdom of Sardinia which was ruled by the family of Savoy. The seminary was a notable building in a moderate sized town, beautifully positioned on Lake Annecy. The building had been a gift from a pious duke of Savoy some fifty years before. The normal length of the course there was two years. The Vincentian community consisted of some six or seven priests and brothers. It was no accident that young Father Clet had been sent to Annecy. A year earlier the superior at Lyons had been transferred to Annecy. He had noted Clet's intelligence, his diligence at his studies, his piety and regularity of life. We can presume that he moved heaven and earth to have this appointment made.
Annecy is some 100 kilometres from both Grenoble where he was born and from Lyons where he had made his vows as a Vincentian. Today it is is the department of Haut Savoy. Though French speaking. in those days it was not in France at all but in the Kingdom of Sardinia which was ruled by the family of Savoy. The seminary was a notable building in a moderate sized town, beautifully positioned on Lake Annecy. The building had been a gift from a pious duke of Savoy some fifty years before. The normal length of the course there was two years. The Vincentian community consisted of some six or seven priests and brothers. It was no accident that young Father Clet had been sent to Annecy. A year earlier the superior at Lyons had been transferred to Annecy. He had noted Clet's intelligence, his diligence at his studies, his piety and regularity of life. We can presume that he moved heaven and earth to have this appointment made.
Life in the Seminars.
In the rather solemn world of the seminary his familiar name of "Regis" ceases to be used. Even "Francis-Regis" will be reserved for signatures. Both staff and students addressed each other formally by surname and title. Inside and outside the seminary they were dressed in their black flowing soutanes. the Vincentians being required by their rule to dress simply and cleanly without regard for fashion. Staff and students lived apart. each in their own section of the building, though the director of students shared much of the life and recreation of the students. There would be no more mountain hikes at Varces to which his rule allowed him to return only infrequently, though in the eighteenth century this rulewas interpreted benignly. The mode of living, deemed suitable for a priest of his status, would say no to helping his cousins in the fields or even to business affairs in his father's shop.
The aim of the seminary was pastoral, seeking to train priests who were pious and dutiful, who understood how to administer the sacraments and handle the general administrative affairs of a parish. These priests would need to know the moral theology that was basic to the sacrament of penance. The emphasis was not on deep learning but on the practice of the pastoral life. The role of the professor of moral theology was crucial to all this and in the fifteen years which he spent at Annecy Father Clet achieved a reputation for his encyclopedic learning, a deserved reputation even allowing for the exaggerations of the closed in seminary world. He was, as the superior who had appointed him expected, the ideal, solid, non adventurous professor, giving a fine example to his students, and always supportive of his superiors. His classical training at the Collge of Grenoble stood him in good stead. He wrote freely in Latin as well as in French. As a preacher he was respected. Eminently practical, a suitable example for his students.
Practical he was, and so, for a period at least, he was bursar to the seminary and that at a time when the seminary was being enlarged to allow for an extension of the course from two years to three. The financial aspects of this should have been no difficulty for this son of a Grenoble business man. The experience he gained in dealing with workers and craftsmen would have a value in the future which just then was not foreseen.
The aim of the seminary was pastoral, seeking to train priests who were pious and dutiful, who understood how to administer the sacraments and handle the general administrative affairs of a parish. These priests would need to know the moral theology that was basic to the sacrament of penance. The emphasis was not on deep learning but on the practice of the pastoral life. The role of the professor of moral theology was crucial to all this and in the fifteen years which he spent at Annecy Father Clet achieved a reputation for his encyclopedic learning, a deserved reputation even allowing for the exaggerations of the closed in seminary world. He was, as the superior who had appointed him expected, the ideal, solid, non adventurous professor, giving a fine example to his students, and always supportive of his superiors. His classical training at the Collge of Grenoble stood him in good stead. He wrote freely in Latin as well as in French. As a preacher he was respected. Eminently practical, a suitable example for his students.
Practical he was, and so, for a period at least, he was bursar to the seminary and that at a time when the seminary was being enlarged to allow for an extension of the course from two years to three. The financial aspects of this should have been no difficulty for this son of a Grenoble business man. The experience he gained in dealing with workers and craftsmen would have a value in the future which just then was not foreseen.
5. PARIS IN REVOLUTION
From Annecy to Paris
Probably Father Clet saw himself spending the rest of his life in the eastern part of France: a change to another seminary perhaps, or to another work of the his community, hut otherwise his life was set. He had never travelled outside his home provinces. For him Paris was a world apart In 1788. however, the superior general of the Vincentians died in Paris. A successor to St Vincent de Paul had to be elected and the machinery for doing so was implemented. Each house sent its representatives to a provincial assembly. which in turn sent its delegates to Paris. Father Clet. not surprisingly, found himself a delegate to the provincial assembly at Lyons and, rather more surprisingly, a delegate to the general assembly in Paris. He was forty years old, the youngest delegate to the assembly and notable in that he did not hold the office of superior.
The details of that assembly need not delay us. Clet, as youngest, would have acted as one of the tellers when votes were taken. His seriousness, his reputation for learning, his piety. his observance of rule, his orthodoxy of clothing. the repute he obviously had among the members of the Lyons Province. brought him to the attention of the new superior general. Father Cayla de la Garde. The director of the central seminary at the mother house of Saint Lazare had been elected to the office of assistant to the superior general. An immediate successor was called for. Who better than this man from Annecy. so obviously well qualified and whose appointment would not involve finding someone else to fill a superiorship''
The world of the seminary had been the background of Father Clefs life for the previous twenty years. Uniformity of practice had always been the aim in Vincentian seminaries so that the practices of the Lyon seminary or that of Annecy would have been no different to that of Saint Lazare, apart from the variation in scale. Saint Lazare was a large and magnificent establishment, based on a monastery acquired by Vincent de Paul in the previous century as the home of his new congregation, but considerably rebuilt and on a grand scale by his successors. Within it the seminary or noviciate functioned, theology students had their quarters. together with the superior general's administration, the infirmary for sickmembers of the community, missioners resting between missions. In an amalgamation of activities unusual today there was also a small prison. and an asylum for the mentally ill. Several hundred people in all. It was a traditional centre for clergy retreats. There was a library of which the community were rightly proud.
The Sack of Saint Lazare
What Father Clet, as he settled into his new work, did not realise was that the foundations of this grand establishment were shaky. Living within it. proud of the tradition that these buildings stood for, he was blinkered to the shift of attitude in the population outside the walls. A century before. Saint Lazare stood outside Paris. Now the population had spread and in the area outside the walls were housed large numbers of poor people badly housed, their situation contrasting with the orderly and grand life of Saint Lazare, well administered and stocked both from the home farm and from properties elsewhere. There was a financial'crisis in the country from which largely people like him were cushioned. Food was scarce and expensive. The tax gatherers had cordoned off the outskirts of Paris to protect their taxes on incoming grain. To enforce this soldiers were stationed in barracks on the properly of Saint Lazare. Such a place was seen as "Establishment" by the poor. The fact that the house provided many meals daily for the poor simply meant that there were large stocks of grain within the walls. Not for nothing were the priests referred !o as the Gentlemen of Saint Lazare.
The decision of the king. faced with national bankruptcy. to summon the Estates General of the Kingdom. the first in nearly two hundred years. had let loose a wave of complaints throughout the country. In the seminary in Annecy. which was outside France. Father Clet might not have felt the mounting excitement. Still, news of disturbances must have come to him from his home in Grenoble. His sister. Marie Therese. still lived in the family home. That summer of 1788 there had been riots in Grenoble and the government had been forced to concede new privileges to its provincial assembly. But no such awareness could have prepared Father Clet and the inhabitants of Saint Lazare for what was to happen in July 1789.
The Estates General met in Versailles on 5th May. For a year before regional meetings had gathered lists of petition and complaint, giving risethroughout the country to a range of expectations which in the ordinary course of things could not be met. Now the representatives of nobility and the clergy threw in their lot with the elected representatives of the people, the so-called Third Estate, to form a national assembly. The presence of a respected first minister in the person of Jacques Necker gave some hope that financial recovery was possible. Then the king, poorly advised, dismissed him. It was 11 Ith July. Rumour had it that the king also planned to call in the army and dismiss the Assembly. The first stage of the popular reaction was an attack on Saint Lazare, an expression of a hungry mob with a hatred for the tax walls that surrounded Paris. Perhaps there were political organisers in the background. In an orgy of destruction they ransacked the buildings. Father Clet and his students had to make their escape, losing everything.
The decision of the king. faced with national bankruptcy. to summon the Estates General of the Kingdom. the first in nearly two hundred years. had let loose a wave of complaints throughout the country. In the seminary in Annecy. which was outside France. Father Clet might not have felt the mounting excitement. Still, news of disturbances must have come to him from his home in Grenoble. His sister. Marie Therese. still lived in the family home. That summer of 1788 there had been riots in Grenoble and the government had been forced to concede new privileges to its provincial assembly. But no such awareness could have prepared Father Clet and the inhabitants of Saint Lazare for what was to happen in July 1789.
The Estates General met in Versailles on 5th May. For a year before regional meetings had gathered lists of petition and complaint, giving risethroughout the country to a range of expectations which in the ordinary course of things could not be met. Now the representatives of nobility and the clergy threw in their lot with the elected representatives of the people, the so-called Third Estate, to form a national assembly. The presence of a respected first minister in the person of Jacques Necker gave some hope that financial recovery was possible. Then the king, poorly advised, dismissed him. It was 11 Ith July. Rumour had it that the king also planned to call in the army and dismiss the Assembly. The first stage of the popular reaction was an attack on Saint Lazare, an expression of a hungry mob with a hatred for the tax walls that surrounded Paris. Perhaps there were political organisers in the background. In an orgy of destruction they ransacked the buildings. Father Clet and his students had to make their escape, losing everything.
Life under Revolution
Historians smoothly explain the sack of Saint Lazare, containing it within a pattern of events that now moved with an impetus of their own and for which we have the word 'Revolution'. For Father Clet and the community of the house it was a personal and psychological disaster for which they had no preparation. In their world this was unthinkable. The discovery that the home of'Saint Vincent de Paul was not something that was loved and revered by the poor of Paris was a shock. To realise that civic authority had taken little trouble to protect them undermined their sense of security. To see the traditional clerical order undermined in the National Assembly, as it was in subsequent months, left them gasping.
The director of the seminary and his seminarists returned to the devastated buildings to attempt to re-establish their way of life. Like it or not they wore the revolutionary cockade in their hats. The destruction and waste was enormous but the buildings were intact and life could go on. But not with the same confidence as before. Within the next few months they would see all church property in France nationalised and their continued occupancy put in jeopardy. Soon a national church would be decreed and links with the papacy destroyed. Then, early in 1791, there would be a demand of an oath to the constitution from clergy, giving approval to a state of things that Father Clet could never accept. Some of the students who had been directed by him would lodge complaints with the civil authority and discard their soutanes for the uniforms and weapons of the civil guard.
The director of the seminary and his seminarists returned to the devastated buildings to attempt to re-establish their way of life. Like it or not they wore the revolutionary cockade in their hats. The destruction and waste was enormous but the buildings were intact and life could go on. But not with the same confidence as before. Within the next few months they would see all church property in France nationalised and their continued occupancy put in jeopardy. Soon a national church would be decreed and links with the papacy destroyed. Then, early in 1791, there would be a demand of an oath to the constitution from clergy, giving approval to a state of things that Father Clet could never accept. Some of the students who had been directed by him would lodge complaints with the civil authority and discard their soutanes for the uniforms and weapons of the civil guard.
6. THE CALL OF CHINA
An Unexpected Opportunity
Somehow or other, in the midst of increasing public confusion, Father Cayle de la Garde and his assistants continued to govern the Vincentian Congregation . One of the things which occupied them was the great new adventure of the previous administration, the taking over of the missions in China of the now disbanded Jesuit order, both their role as astronomers in Beijing and their missions in various provinces of China. The mission was grossly undermanned but it does seem extraordinary that the superior general should have been attempting to supply new personnel to this mission when the very foundation of the congregation in France was being undermined. Equally surprising that Father Clet, whose life seemed to have been so settled in the seminary in Annecy, should in fact have had his mind centred on China for several years. He had not spoken to anyone, had not shared his enthusiasm. Perhaps that was not his style. Hitherto it would not have been easy to move him because his specialist seminary training was not easily replaced, even in a congregation with many seminaries in its care. But now, as the needs of the China mission emerged again in the dust of Saint Lazare, he found the door previously shut opening for him .
By 1790 the seminary was barely functioning. Earlier on the students had been sent home; only a few had returned. In the disturbed state of France it was not practical to accept students into the seminary. Father Clet was not exactly a man without a job, but certainly one with fewer demands on his services. Suddenly there was an unexpected opportunity. The team to go to China had already been picked. The time was determined by the fact that free passage on a French boat to Macao, probably the last, was being made available in March 1791. In late February it became clear that one of the priests appointed to the Chinese mission could not be freed from other responsibilities on time. Father Clet, on the spot in Saint Lazare, discovered what had occured and offered to go instead. One would not have thought that a man of forty three, whose whole life had been cast in seminary teaching and direction , was the obvious candidate for the work. But he was healthy and strong, and in the increasingly disturbed state of France, it was not easy to find anyone else. Nor were there many who could be asked at three weeks notice to leave their native
land for ever - for that was the nature of the distant Chinese mission. His offer was accepted. He would sail in early April.
Somehow or other, in the midst of increasing public confusion, Father Cayle de la Garde and his assistants continued to govern the Vincentian Congregation . One of the things which occupied them was the great new adventure of the previous administration, the taking over of the missions in China of the now disbanded Jesuit order, both their role as astronomers in Beijing and their missions in various provinces of China. The mission was grossly undermanned but it does seem extraordinary that the superior general should have been attempting to supply new personnel to this mission when the very foundation of the congregation in France was being undermined. Equally surprising that Father Clet, whose life seemed to have been so settled in the seminary in Annecy, should in fact have had his mind centred on China for several years. He had not spoken to anyone, had not shared his enthusiasm. Perhaps that was not his style. Hitherto it would not have been easy to move him because his specialist seminary training was not easily replaced, even in a congregation with many seminaries in its care. But now, as the needs of the China mission emerged again in the dust of Saint Lazare, he found the door previously shut opening for him .
By 1790 the seminary was barely functioning. Earlier on the students had been sent home; only a few had returned. In the disturbed state of France it was not practical to accept students into the seminary. Father Clet was not exactly a man without a job, but certainly one with fewer demands on his services. Suddenly there was an unexpected opportunity. The team to go to China had already been picked. The time was determined by the fact that free passage on a French boat to Macao, probably the last, was being made available in March 1791. In late February it became clear that one of the priests appointed to the Chinese mission could not be freed from other responsibilities on time. Father Clet, on the spot in Saint Lazare, discovered what had occured and offered to go instead. One would not have thought that a man of forty three, whose whole life had been cast in seminary teaching and direction , was the obvious candidate for the work. But he was healthy and strong, and in the increasingly disturbed state of France, it was not easy to find anyone else. Nor were there many who could be asked at three weeks notice to leave their native
land for ever - for that was the nature of the distant Chinese mission. His offer was accepted. He would sail in early April.
Departure for China
From then on it was all rush. Letters were written to his sister in Grenoble to settle hi, financial affairs and to raise the money he needed for his expenses.
Explanations had to be given to family and friends for this sudden change. No time to return to Grenoble, so goodbyes must go by post. Instructions must be given about correspondence arrangements. It was clear that this departure was not a temporary one. It would probably be permanent. And in it all there were hardly any of the preparations which a missionary nowadays would be expected to make: no study of language and customs - this would be done on the spot; no study of history and culture - little available; no health checks - little understanding of what would face him. And so to Lorient on the Atlantic coast with his two younger companions on the mission. His final letters sent from there on 2 April 1791. By 2 October he was in Macao, sending letters in his neat and regular handwriting to his sister in Grenoble
Preparations in Macao
Macao was both China and not China. It was a small Portuguese enclave at the mouth of the Canton River, its presence tolerated by the Chinese for the sake of trade. The Portuguese Vincentians had a seminary there. Here the three Frenchmen remained for several months as they attempted to learn the Chinese language. Father Clet was never to achieve a comfortable command of the language. This would bother him through the coming years. His companions, Lamiot and Pesne,were much younger. They were ordained to the priesthood while in Macao. All three were equipped with chinese clothes. They shaved their heads and grew pigtails. What lay ahead was illegal entry into China proper for himself and Father Pesne. Father Lamiot was to go to Peking where an official and legal appointment awaited him in the imperial service.
The position of the Catholic Church in China had been greatly affected by the official decision made early in the 18th century to regard the ancestral rites of the Chinese as unlawful and pagan. The then Emperor,
who had earlier given a fairly generous approval to the christians. now regarded them as a danger to the empire. Christianity was forbidden and European missionaries were forbidden on pain of death to enter and promote their faith in China. By a curious anomaly. christianity was permitted in specified churches in Beijing and priests, first Jesuits. later Vincentians, were appointed to posts in astronomy at the imperial court. Father Lamiot was appointed to Beijing because he had been prepared in France by the study of science to take his role in the imperial service But Clet would go the dangerous and forbidden path to the interior and would spend the remainder of his life within a limited area of central China in the provinces of Hupeh and Honan, seldom in the company of fellow Europeans. always an illegal person, tolerated simply because he kept a low profile and the mandarins were not intent on enforcing the law. He never visited Beijing. He never returned to Macao.
The position of the Catholic Church in China had been greatly affected by the official decision made early in the 18th century to regard the ancestral rites of the Chinese as unlawful and pagan. The then Emperor,
who had earlier given a fairly generous approval to the christians. now regarded them as a danger to the empire. Christianity was forbidden and European missionaries were forbidden on pain of death to enter and promote their faith in China. By a curious anomaly. christianity was permitted in specified churches in Beijing and priests, first Jesuits. later Vincentians, were appointed to posts in astronomy at the imperial court. Father Lamiot was appointed to Beijing because he had been prepared in France by the study of science to take his role in the imperial service But Clet would go the dangerous and forbidden path to the interior and would spend the remainder of his life within a limited area of central China in the provinces of Hupeh and Honan, seldom in the company of fellow Europeans. always an illegal person, tolerated simply because he kept a low profile and the mandarins were not intent on enforcing the law. He never visited Beijing. He never returned to Macao.
7. ON MISSION IN CHINA
A. Start in Kiangsi Province
It was a thirty day journey, partly by river boat, partly on foot. His christian guides did all the talking, his own silence variously explained. Always there was the danger of discovery. The risk his guides were taking was considerable. He had his first experience of Chinese rest houses, always ones where his guides were already known. Thus he came to Tcheou-Tchang-Lu-Kia, an old christian centre some hundred kilometres from the capital of the province, Nanchang. Ominously his predecessor at the mission had been an old Chinese Jesuit, Father Yang, who had been imprisoned in Beijing but released through the efforts of the Vincentian superior, Father Raux. It was an area that needed vigorous pastoral care because there had been no priest there for several years. The christians were poor, so Father Clet soon learned the ways of the poor. As a Frenchman he must have missed his wine (so expensive that it was only used for Mass), and he could not manage easily the rice which was the staple food of the region. He slept on a plank bed and became accustomed to the customary single covering. He made light in his letters of all these matters.
The Chinese language gave him enormous trouble. He recognised that he had reached the age where it really would be impossible to grasp the enormous number of characters of the written language while even in the spoken language he could only manage the simplest of instructions. Despite this handicap he journeyed to the various christian centres and baptised in one year about a hundred people who were well instructed. He could, of course, have baptised a much larger number but he had learned already that when catechumens were baptised too easily they also abandoned the church easily.
Now that he was secure in his mission base he occasionally journeyed further afield. We learn of a a journey to the capital, Nanchang, to the great porcelain centre at Kinchetchin where he bought ten bowls to send to the procurator of the Paris Foreign Mission at Macao, Father Letondal, who had been of great help to him.
But there were problems. Though the mission was in fact a small one, and no doubt chosen as suitable to a starter in the missions, his own
difficulties with the language made it hard for him to be on his own. Also the two younger Vincentian priests in the neighbouring province of Hou-Kouang needed a more mature person with them, so after a year Father Clet was asked to join them in the mission centre of Koucheng.
Forgotten in the Mission in Hou Kouang
This province would be the territory of his mission for the next twenty six years until his arrest in 1819. An enormous province, later divided into two, traversed by the Yangzi-Kiang river, it was the rich granary of China. The christians, all that were left from the great Jesuit missions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centures, were a small and isolated group in a large population. The total number of christians in the entire empire was probably about 200,000, concentrated in the provinces of the eastern coast, and centred on such places as Beijing and Shanghai. In the province of Hou-Kouang, the only real concentration of christians was in the mountainous section to the west of Lake Tong-Ting and this had been greatly depleted by the persecution of 1784. There were some two thousand christians in the immediate area of Koucheng, and in a wider range, which could be visited only from time to time, there were some ten thousand. Writing to his brother, Father Clet spoke of some centres as far away as 200 kilometres. He travelled constantly, normally on foot. The two young French priests he came to support were dead within three years.
In our age of frequent and comparatively easy travel it seems almost incredible that a European missionary should have been left in this obscure place for twenty six years. The disturbed state of affairs in Europe at this time was the cause.The death of his French colleagues increased his isolation. The Chinese priests who came to him from the new seminary in Beijing did good work, but were not his cultural equals. We possess only a small amount of his correspondence, the bulk of it written to one of these Chinese priests. These letters have survived by the accident that this man preserved them.
Father Clet was subject to the Vincentian superiors in Beijing, who lived a totally different life. He never visited them, and they never came to him. The fiction was maintained that they did not know him and had nothing to do with him and his illegal preaching. Likewise he was certainly in touch with Macao, but only though a network of couriers, themselves
often in difficulties. By means of couriers his superiors in Beijing sent him money though this was often in short supply. Presumably. though we have no evidence for this, he was kept up to date, though with a considerable time lag. on the ever changing history of France and Europe.
For all of those twenty and more years he was aware that his activities were known to the authorities. There were even some christian mandarins. So it was essential to keep a low profile. As he wrote to one of his priests, the important thing is to protect ourselves because if we are arrested or taken away. then there will he no one to look after the pastoral needs of our people.
Forgotten. too, in Europe. For the greater part of this time the wars of the French Revolution and of Napoleon raged and rumbled on, distracting Europe from overseas commitment. For most of the time the Vincentian Congregation in France was officially disbanded. Allowed a brief revival under the Napoleonic concordat it was soon disbanded again. There was no possibility of sending new men out to give support. The Portuguese in Macao were also cut off from their resouces at home. He was not completely forgotten. There exists in the archives of the Congregation of Propaganda in Rome. dated from Paris in 1805 when the pope had come to crown Napoleon as Emperor of the French. a rescript formally delegating Francis Regis Clet to exercise his mission in China. Not the most useful of documents to him at that stage, twelve years into his forgotten ministry. But someone was thinking about him, knew he existed.
B. Hazardous Existence
It was an extraordinarily isolated and abandoned existence. Letters from Europe more or less stopped. Yet there existed a thin catholic ecclesiastical organisation in China. There were officially appointed s vicars apostolic, normally bishops, responsible for large sections of the country. and subject, as was Clet, to the legal embargo of the Chinese government. When a non-bishop was appointed. Clet with his ingrained sense of hierarchy. felt that his world crumbled a little. Even though they all lived a beggared existence, he unfailingly referred to the vicar apostolic with old time French courtesy as "Monseigneur". Always there was danger. One of his Vincentian companions. Father Aubin. was summoned to the vicar apostolic with the purpose of giving him a similarrole. Unfortunately he was arrested on the journey and died in Orison. This was part of the hazard of their work. It was safer to stay quietly in the mountains among the local christian community.
The countryside was plagued by bandits or groups in revolt against the government. Such rebel groups lived off the land and were the scourge of the farming people. Father Clet was fortunate in that rebel armies never came closer than seven or eight kilometres from his village but their presence made travel more difficult and dangerous.
To a surprising extent, considering the difficulties under which they all worked, he continued to be concerned with details of church law. Even when he was in hiding and in danger of arrest at the end of his life. he sent messages by roundabout routes to the vicar apostolic of Fo-Kien concerning the renewal of his "faculties" or authority to hear confessions and to carry out other church functions. Having gone from one province to another he feared that they had lapsed. In particular he was concerned about the validity of a faculty to grant dispensation for marriage in a form more generous than the Sacred Congregation permitted. When Father Paul Song, a newly ordained Chinese priest, joined his community. Clet himself being absent on pastoral visitation. he was careful to inform him that the apostolic administrator had lately renewed his faculties. so he was now able to do the same for Father Paul. asking him to sign the requisite document, and to abide by it. He also saw to it that that Father Paul read the pastoral letter lately come from the administrator. Not for nothing had he spent the formative years of his priesthood in a seminary. training budding priests under very different circumstances. He never lost that training.
Always he was the teacher, the advisor, faithful to the requirements of canon law. It was his practice to supply his priests with answers to moral problems which arose in the course of their pastoral work. His loiters show him concerned that they know accurately the days on which the church allows a nuptial mass to be celebrated: he clarifies the length of time during which a woman who has given birth is to be dispensed from fasting and abstinence; when rosary beads are blessed, it is sufficient to bless a number together, it is not necessary to bless each Rosary separately: the validity of baptism administered to an unconscious child of ten or eleven is analysed carefully. with several situations considered.
Then there was his health. We have very reason for considering that he had a robust constitution. But a major transplantation in middle life is upsetting and we find him describing how, on his journey from Macao to the interior of China to take up his first mission, he experienced a prolonged constipation which lasted for sixteen days on one occasion and for eight on another. As early as 1798 he writes to his brother that he had twice been seriously ill. Later, in 1812. he had a severe attack of pleurisy. This left him with swellings in his legs which made walking difficult. He was by then sixty four years old and had lived a harsh life for many years. From this time he could not longer travel to the more remote christian centres and had to leave this to his assistants. His world closed in still more.
8. THE FINAL YEAR
THE FINAL YEAR
A New Persecution
By the start of the 19th century the Chinese Empire had entered into a long period of decline. The government of the Emperor Kia-King was weak and consequently anxious about any organisation such as the christian church that did not fit easily into the pattern of government. For several years under the previous emperor a revolt had stretched the imperial army to its limits. The administration feared that such a thing might recur. In 1811, the emperor had banished most of the christian priests from Beijing, though the Vincentians had been able to hold on. A silly incident sparked a new round of persecution in 1818. An unusual weather phenomenon in the area of Beijing, probably a tornedo of some sort, frightened the emperor and his court. The emperor wondered if it could possibly be a sign of the anger of the gods at some failure on his part in his acts of government. In the end the easy scapegoat was found. The divine anger had been aroused by the continued preaching of the christian missionaries. They must be stopped once and for all.
Hunted
Father Clet had been fortunate in earlier periods of persecution in that the christians were not actively pursued by the mandarins in Hou-Kouang. This time, however, the persecution rapidly made itself felt in his province and in neighbouring Szechwan. In the latter province four Chinese priests were arrested and exiled. All too quickly the senior of the Chinese Vincentians, Father Chen, was arrested near Kucheng. This happened early in 1819. In what was becoming a pattern, Father Chen was betrayed to the authorities for a considerable reward by a disgruntled christian. The priests' house, which Father Clet had rebuilt in the previous years, was demolished. This was altogether a more serious matter than earlier bad times when it had been sufficient to go under cover for a brief period.
By this time Father Clet was 71 years old. For four months, together with a younger Chinese Vincentian, Father Ho, he was on the run. It was a question of finding any shelter that was secure, even for a few days. He mentions in one letter which got through to Father Lamiot at Beijing that
By the start of the 19th century the Chinese Empire had entered into a long period of decline. The government of the Emperor Kia-King was weak and consequently anxious about any organisation such as the christian church that did not fit easily into the pattern of government. For several years under the previous emperor a revolt had stretched the imperial army to its limits. The administration feared that such a thing might recur. In 1811, the emperor had banished most of the christian priests from Beijing, though the Vincentians had been able to hold on. A silly incident sparked a new round of persecution in 1818. An unusual weather phenomenon in the area of Beijing, probably a tornedo of some sort, frightened the emperor and his court. The emperor wondered if it could possibly be a sign of the anger of the gods at some failure on his part in his acts of government. In the end the easy scapegoat was found. The divine anger had been aroused by the continued preaching of the christian missionaries. They must be stopped once and for all.
Hunted
Father Clet had been fortunate in earlier periods of persecution in that the christians were not actively pursued by the mandarins in Hou-Kouang. This time, however, the persecution rapidly made itself felt in his province and in neighbouring Szechwan. In the latter province four Chinese priests were arrested and exiled. All too quickly the senior of the Chinese Vincentians, Father Chen, was arrested near Kucheng. This happened early in 1819. In what was becoming a pattern, Father Chen was betrayed to the authorities for a considerable reward by a disgruntled christian. The priests' house, which Father Clet had rebuilt in the previous years, was demolished. This was altogether a more serious matter than earlier bad times when it had been sufficient to go under cover for a brief period.
By this time Father Clet was 71 years old. For four months, together with a younger Chinese Vincentian, Father Ho, he was on the run. It was a question of finding any shelter that was secure, even for a few days. He mentions in one letter which got through to Father Lamiot at Beijing that
Capture
It was only a matter of time before the same fate overcame him as had happened to Father Chen - betrayal for reward by a dissatisfied Christian. The mandarins were anxious to prove their zeal in the eyes of the government in Beijing. The family who had been hiding him were in trouble too. something that caused him much additional suffering. It was mid June 1819. His experience over the next months until his execution on 18 February 1820 would make of his death a genuine release.
There would be a series of painful journeys, on foot. in chains, an object of abuse as a foreigner. an-yang-fou, the local market town, was the scene of his first interrogation. Here, under an unsympathetic mandarin. he learned the pattern of the Chinese legal system, a continuous process of interrogation under pressure of beating and torture. A beating of thirty blows from a leather paddle provided him with an initiation.
More prisons. More Interrogations
After ten days he was sent in chains and on foot to the provincial capital. Kai-feng-fou. a journey of over 200 kilometres. Again interrogations. again made to kneel on metal chains for long hours at a time. Imprisonment here lasted for a month. Always at night sleep was made difficult by the wooden stock in which one leg was inserted at end of day. Comfort was impossible to achieve.
It emerged in the interrogation that his normal residence had been in Koucheng in the province of Hupeh. so he was dispatched by the Honan mandarins to the capital of that province. Wuchang-fou. It meant a 5(X)
kilometre journey and took twenty days. Chained by wrists and ankles and neck, he was moved in a wooden cage. By this time he was verminous, his beard unkempt, and dressed in blood-stained rags. Not surprisingly he was greatly weakened. His condition on arrival at Wuchang was so disreputable that the authorities in one prison refused to accept him. He was so clearly penniless that he was not worth having.
In so far as it was possible to land on one's feet in his situation, he now experienced good fortune. Refused in one prison he was dumped in another, only to find there Father Chen and ten christians with a cell to themselves. One of the Chinese priests outside the prison was able to bring communion and they could pray and administer the sacrament of penance among themselves. Gifts of food from the christians outside made life tolerable. Compared with his earlier experience. the mandarin in Wuchang treated his prisoner with consideration.
Father Lamiot is implicated
It was at this stage, at one of the interminable interrogations, letters were produced from Father Lamiot, his superior in Beijing and director of all the Vincentian missions in China. The letters had been found when his house was ransacked by the authorities. Whether from his ingrained habit of honesty, or because exhaustion made him less wary. he admitted that the letters were from Father Lamiot. Father Clet never really forgave himself for this lapse of prudence. Reference to it appears in his letters to the end, even though Lamiot made little of it. It was, none the less, a serious setback for the mission organisation.
The mandarin summoned Lamiot from Beijing, over a thousand kilometres away. It was a serious matter, for Lamiot held high mandarin rank in the capital (not as a Vincentian priest but as a member of the imperial horology and astronomy service). As became his rank he travelled with two carriages, the second for his baggage. two drivers. several horses, a military escort. In Wuchang he stayed with his servants at a hotel. But in the courtroom he knelt on the ground with Father Clet and Father Chen.
Lamiot was to say afterwards that he barely recognised Father Clet - so changed both by his recent experiences and by his whole life in China. It was almost thirty years since they came to China together. destined forvery different lives. Lamiot found Clet had lost his old courtly ways, his .kin was darkened . his appearance countrified. Isolation had left its mark on him.There was an inevitability about the outcome of the trial. Father Lamiot was exonerated but ordered to leave China and was carried in his chair to his lodging. Father Chen was to go into exile. Father Clet was declared guilty of being a christian priest and preacher promoting the faith illegally in China. The penalty was death which would require the approval of the emperor. It was now the beginning of the January 1820. It would be some six weeks before the imperial warrant would reach Wuchang.hither Oct awaits the Decree of Execution
Meanwhile life stood still for Father Clet. It was the depth of winter. But the mandarin had issued padded coats and shoes to the prisoners. Father Lamiot had the resources to provide extra comforts for them. Within the prison he was comparatively free. Good news came to him that the Congregation of the Mission had been once more legally established in France. He was able to celebrate its foundation day on the 25th of January 1820 with a peace of mind only possible for one who lives from day to day. He wrote to his friends. He received the sacraments which gave him great comfort.
In his last letter, written to Father Lamiot a day or two before his execution, he said:
"Whether well or poorly accomplished, I trust that I have fulfilled all the tasks which you have entrusted to me. All that remains for me is to prepare to die. I desire this much more than to live. I assure you that I much prefer my lot to yours. I am. I hope. close to harbour, while you are still a long way out on the ocean. But have confidence..."
The imperial warrant, endorsing the death sentence, arrived in the early morning of 18 February and was acted on immediately.
There would be a series of painful journeys, on foot. in chains, an object of abuse as a foreigner. an-yang-fou, the local market town, was the scene of his first interrogation. Here, under an unsympathetic mandarin. he learned the pattern of the Chinese legal system, a continuous process of interrogation under pressure of beating and torture. A beating of thirty blows from a leather paddle provided him with an initiation.
More prisons. More Interrogations
After ten days he was sent in chains and on foot to the provincial capital. Kai-feng-fou. a journey of over 200 kilometres. Again interrogations. again made to kneel on metal chains for long hours at a time. Imprisonment here lasted for a month. Always at night sleep was made difficult by the wooden stock in which one leg was inserted at end of day. Comfort was impossible to achieve.
It emerged in the interrogation that his normal residence had been in Koucheng in the province of Hupeh. so he was dispatched by the Honan mandarins to the capital of that province. Wuchang-fou. It meant a 5(X)
kilometre journey and took twenty days. Chained by wrists and ankles and neck, he was moved in a wooden cage. By this time he was verminous, his beard unkempt, and dressed in blood-stained rags. Not surprisingly he was greatly weakened. His condition on arrival at Wuchang was so disreputable that the authorities in one prison refused to accept him. He was so clearly penniless that he was not worth having.
In so far as it was possible to land on one's feet in his situation, he now experienced good fortune. Refused in one prison he was dumped in another, only to find there Father Chen and ten christians with a cell to themselves. One of the Chinese priests outside the prison was able to bring communion and they could pray and administer the sacrament of penance among themselves. Gifts of food from the christians outside made life tolerable. Compared with his earlier experience. the mandarin in Wuchang treated his prisoner with consideration.
Father Lamiot is implicated
It was at this stage, at one of the interminable interrogations, letters were produced from Father Lamiot, his superior in Beijing and director of all the Vincentian missions in China. The letters had been found when his house was ransacked by the authorities. Whether from his ingrained habit of honesty, or because exhaustion made him less wary. he admitted that the letters were from Father Lamiot. Father Clet never really forgave himself for this lapse of prudence. Reference to it appears in his letters to the end, even though Lamiot made little of it. It was, none the less, a serious setback for the mission organisation.
The mandarin summoned Lamiot from Beijing, over a thousand kilometres away. It was a serious matter, for Lamiot held high mandarin rank in the capital (not as a Vincentian priest but as a member of the imperial horology and astronomy service). As became his rank he travelled with two carriages, the second for his baggage. two drivers. several horses, a military escort. In Wuchang he stayed with his servants at a hotel. But in the courtroom he knelt on the ground with Father Clet and Father Chen.
Lamiot was to say afterwards that he barely recognised Father Clet - so changed both by his recent experiences and by his whole life in China. It was almost thirty years since they came to China together. destined forvery different lives. Lamiot found Clet had lost his old courtly ways, his .kin was darkened . his appearance countrified. Isolation had left its mark on him.There was an inevitability about the outcome of the trial. Father Lamiot was exonerated but ordered to leave China and was carried in his chair to his lodging. Father Chen was to go into exile. Father Clet was declared guilty of being a christian priest and preacher promoting the faith illegally in China. The penalty was death which would require the approval of the emperor. It was now the beginning of the January 1820. It would be some six weeks before the imperial warrant would reach Wuchang.hither Oct awaits the Decree of Execution
Meanwhile life stood still for Father Clet. It was the depth of winter. But the mandarin had issued padded coats and shoes to the prisoners. Father Lamiot had the resources to provide extra comforts for them. Within the prison he was comparatively free. Good news came to him that the Congregation of the Mission had been once more legally established in France. He was able to celebrate its foundation day on the 25th of January 1820 with a peace of mind only possible for one who lives from day to day. He wrote to his friends. He received the sacraments which gave him great comfort.
In his last letter, written to Father Lamiot a day or two before his execution, he said:
"Whether well or poorly accomplished, I trust that I have fulfilled all the tasks which you have entrusted to me. All that remains for me is to prepare to die. I desire this much more than to live. I assure you that I much prefer my lot to yours. I am. I hope. close to harbour, while you are still a long way out on the ocean. But have confidence..."
The imperial warrant, endorsing the death sentence, arrived in the early morning of 18 February and was acted on immediately.
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