The Bishop of Amiens, caught by his eloquence, made him prebendary of a collegiate church in that town; in connexion with which, and with the Bishop's approval, he founded a religious association of young women, called St.Mary Magdalene.

All seemed to go well for a time; but at length there was a scandal about him and a girl in Abbeville, with a burst of similar scandals about his abuse of the confessional for vicious purposes.

To avoid arrest, he absconded to Paris in August 1644, and thence to Bazas, where he lived under a feigned name.

But the Bishop of Bazas took him up; he cleared himself to the Bishop and others, and defied his calumniators.

Only for a time; for again there were scandals, and he was expelled the diocese.