Pierre Coton

The king having recalled the exiled Jesuits to France, their enemies could not pardon the influence Father Coton had in bringing this about, and an attempt was made to assassinate him.

[4] Coton continued in his capacity as confessor to the new king, Louis XIII, until 1617, when he left the court at the age of fifty-four and withdrew to the novitiate at Lyon.

He then traversed the provinces of the South as a missionary, and went to Milan, Loreto, and Rome to fulfil the vows the reigning king had made to the Blessed Virgin, St. Charles, and St. Peter.

He returned to France as provincial of the Society and preached at Paris in the church of S. Gervaise; the king and the whole court flocked to hear him.

[1] At this period a book published by Santarelli, an Italian Jesuit, who attributed to the pope the power of deposing kings who were guilty of certain crimes, and under such circumstances of absolving their subjects from their allegiance, was the object of severe attacks from the many enemies of the Society of Jesus in France.

The Parliament demanded that all Jesuits residing in France should be called upon to sign a protestation disavowing all the doctrines contained in Santarelli's treatise.

On his deathbed, he was visited by an envoy of Parliament, who informed him of the condemnation pronounced against Santarelli and the severe measures that threatened his brethren.