Bishop of Geneva (1567-1622) who is honored as a saint in the Catholic Church, remembered as one of the greatest evangelists and most powerful confessors during the Counter-Reformation. Extremely rare ANS in French, signed “Franc's ev. De Geneve,” penned at the conclusion of a manuscript appeal for tax exemption, one page both sides, 6 x 8, October 27, 1607. The appeal, sent to de Sales while serving as Bishop of Geneva, requests for an exemption from ecclesiastical taxes. Addressed from the Swiss town of Villy, near the Lake Geneva town Evian, where de Sales was reputed to have seen a vision of St. Francis of Assisi, the Bishop’s handwritten response reads: “Exacting of taxes suspended until we have had a chance to confer with Our deputies on the reasons of the petitioner.” Double-matted and framed with a portrait to an overall size of 19 x 14.75; a window to the frame backing reveals the front of the appeal. In fine condition. Since 1536, Geneva had retained taxes formerly rendered to the Catholic Church, and the practice of ecclesiastical taxation was being challenged across Europe by the end of the 16th century.
Born into a noble family in the Duchy of Savoy, de Sales was highly educated, studying theology and law. Despite his father’s strenuous and repeated insistence that he marry and pursue a political career, he joined a holy order. After the intervention of Geneva Bishop Claude de Granier, his father relented and de Sales was ordained into the priesthood in 1593 whereupon he was made provost of the cathedral chapter of Geneva, a hotbed of Calvinism. Despite resistance from Calvinist inhabitants, he evangelized while residing in a garrisoned fortress, though he narrowly escaped assassination on several occasions. In 1602, de Sales succeeded the bishop of Geneva, but due to Calvinist control of Geneva, he was forced to reside in the French alpine city of Annecy. The efficiency of his diocese as well as the evangelical zeal that permeated it was known throughout Europe as was Francis’ preaching. His popular and influential books Introduction to the Devout Life, unusual in that it was written for the laity, was published in 1607, and Treatise on the Love of God, increased the public’s regard for him. A beloved figure, de Sales was venerated after his death, and canonized by Pope Alexander VII in 1665. St. Francis is both the patron saint of the deaf and the patron saint of writers and journalists, because of the printed matter he used in his efforts to convert Calvinists.
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