The Sieur Mailletard was possessed of the living of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, in the diocese of Bordeaux; yet, as the Gazette observes with the dry brevity of a court clerk, he had neither the morals nor the virtues of his cloth. To entice a young woman into his parsonage under pretext of kinship, to detain her there, to seduce her, to ravish her from her husband, and to take flight in her company: such were the crimes of which the husband, one Girardeau, caused him to be accused.
The priest was seen no more. He was tried twice in contumacy, by the two jurisdictions that then divided the clergy between them. The Official of Bordeaux, judge of the Church, found him guilty of disappearance, flight, and the abduction of Dame Girardeau, as well as of the public scandal arising therefrom; he suspended him in perpetuity from his sacred functions, ordered that he be secluded for twenty years in a seminary to undergo canonical penance, and declared the cure vacant. The lieutenant criminel, the King’s magistrate, condemned him to the galleys; the Parlement affirmed the decree.
It is here that the affair turns singular, for the scandal proves to be merely a point of departure. The Archbishop of Bordeaux, apprised of the vacancy, collated to the living one Sieur Veron, who took possession thereof. But Mailletard had creditors, and these creditors had laid an attachment upon the revenues of the benefice. They maintained that the living was not vacant: a man condemned in contumacy had five years in which to appear and purge his default; until then he stood merely accused, not definitively judged; should he return, he would re-enter into possession. In the interim, the fruits of the living were rightfully theirs.
Thus did counsel plead before the Parlement of Bordeaux whether a fugitive curate, condemned to the galleys, remained sufficiently a priest to pay his debts. Advocate for the new incumbent replied that the cure had fallen vacant twice over: first by desertion and abandonment, and next by a felony that entailed forfeiture as of right.
By decree of May 1, 1777, the Parlement held that there was no abuse of power in the title conferred upon Sieur Veron, and cast the creditors in costs.
Of Dame Girardeau, the Gazette breathes not another word past its opening page. She vanishes from the suit just as she had vanished from the parish, while the jurists of Bordeaux, bent over the canonists, dispute the revenues of a living without another thought for her or for her husband.
Gazette des tribunaux, 1777, Parlement de Bordeaux, decree of May 1, 1777 (parish priest of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul).