was still in France when the edict of May, 1679, appeared,
decreeing on the suggestion of Frontenac, that the tithe should be paid
only to "each of the parish priests within the extent of his parish
where he is established in perpetuity in the stead of the removable
priest who previously administered it." The ideas of the Count de
Frontenac were thus victorious, and the king retracted his first
decision. He had in his original decree establishing the Seminary of
Quebec, granted the bishop and his successors "the right of recalling
and displacing the priests by them delegated to the parishes to exercise
therein parochial functions." Laval on his return to Canada conformed
without murmur to the king's decision; he worked, together with the
governor and commissioner, at drawing up the plan of the parishes to be
established, and sent his vicar-general to install the priests who were
appointed to the different livings. He desired to inspire his whole
clergy with the disinterestedness which he had always evinced, for not
only did he recommend his priests "to content themselves with the
simplest living, and with the bare necessaries of their support," but
besides, agreeing with the governor and the commissioner, he estimated
that an annual sum of five hundred livres merely, that is to say, about
three hundred dollars of our present money, was sufficient for the
lodging and maintenance of a priest. This was more than modest, and yet,
without a very considerable extension, there was no parish capable of
supplying the needs of its priest. There was indeed, it is true, an
article of the edict specifying that in case of the tithe being
insufficient, the necessary supplement should be fixed by the council
and furnished by the seigneur of the place and by the inhabitants; but
this manner of aiding the priests who were reduced to a bare competence
was not practical, as was soon evident. Another article gave the title
of patron to any seigneur who should erect a religious edifice; this
article was just as fantastic, "for," wrote Commissioner Duchesneau,
"there is no private person in this country who is in a position to
build churches of any kind."

The king, always well disposed towards the clergy of Canada, came to
their aid again in this matter. He granted them an annual income of
eight thousand francs, to be raised from his "_Western Dominions_," that
is to say, from the sum derived in Canada from the _droit du quart_ and
the farm