We have related the early events of the Montreal Company to secure a bishop for Canada as far back as 1645. But the contention of the Jesuits that the time was not ripe in the then unprogressive state of the colony, together with the unsettled times, with war nearly always impending, had delayed such an appointment. We have seen the agitation renewed by the Company on de Maisonneuve's late visit when their candidate was M. de Queylus; while that of the Jesuits, who were now more ready to admit the advisability of a bishop, was one of their former students at the Collège Royal of La Flèche and now a secular priest, François de Laval de Montmorency. They had not desired one of themselves to be appointed, since it was not in accordance with their constitution to seek dignities, and consequently in 1650 the names of the Canadian Jesuits, Charles Lalemant, Ragueneau and Le Jeune, submitted by the Company of the Hundred Associates, were withdrawn as candidates by Goswin Nickel, the vicar general of the order.
We have seen sufficient of the ecclesiastical troubles between Père de Quen, the ecclesiastical superior of Quebec, and M. de Queylus, that of Montreal, both "grands vicaires" of the archbishop of Rouen, to see that a bishop was necessary to restore the unity of government. The experience that the Jesuits had had of M. de Queylus made them more anxious than ever to push their candidate.
François de Laval was born on April 30, 1622, in the Château de Montigny-sur-Aure in the diocese of Chartres, of the illustrious house of Montmorency. At the age of nine years he was sent to the Royal College of La Flèche, taught by the Jesuits, to commence his literary studies. He finished his philosophy course in 1641, and during that time he had made the acquaintance of many Jesuit priests who afterwards joined the Canadian mission. The next four years he studied theology at Paris, till 1645. It was thought that he would take priest's orders, but on the death of his two brothers in 1644 and 1645 he was persuaded by his cousin, the bishop of Evreux, to renounce his canonship in the cathedral of Evreux and take his brother's place in the family in caring for his mother, Madame de Montigny. The bishop died on July 22, 1646, not before repenting of his advice to François, whom he exhorted to go back to the priesthood, and he named him archdeacon of the church of Evreux. Laval now renounced his right of primogeniture and his title to the Seigneury of Montigny in favor of his brother, Jean Louis de Laval, and taking his degree in canon law, received priesthood orders on September 22, 1647.