French?
Why French?
Simply because the character must be possessed of a certain tinge of poetic fancy, a certain elasticity of sentiment, and according to Carlino, not one Italian priest in a thousand was likely to possess these exalted attributes.

It happened one day that this priest received the confession of a man of great intellect whose faith was assailed by terrible doubts.

His confession over, the penitent went his way completely reassured, leaving the confessor shaken in his own faith.
Here would follow a long and minute analysis of the different phases through which the old man's conscience passed.

He lived in daily expectation of death with a feeling of dismay akin to that of the schoolboy who waits his turn for examination in the ante-room, conscious only of his empty head.

The priest comes to Bruges.