On arriving in France, an agreement was entered into by which three or four of the Hospitalières of La Flèche should come to Montreal when all was ready. M. Olier, who had wished to finish his days in Canada, chose for Maisonneuve three of his priests, Gabriel de Queylus, whom he named superior; Gabriel Souart, Dominic Galinier, and a deacon, M. d'Allet.
In the choice of M. Gabriel de Thubières de Lévy Queylus as superior, the Associates saw their likely nominee as the bishop whom they wished to have in the see of New France. They had him in view in promoting the creation of the episcopal see before the assembly of the bishops on August 9, 1656, through the good services of Mgr. Godeau, Bishop of Vence. This was again brought up before the assembly on January 10, 1657, and Cardinal Mazarin, then present, undertook to interest the king in the formation of the episcopal see as desired. On this occasion the name of the Abbé de Queylus was mentioned to Cardinal Mazarin by the bishop of Vence as a man of approved "probity, capacity and zeal, who possesses an abbacy of considerable value. He is willing to sacrifice himself in this new episcopate, in a barbarous country, so far from all consolation; and his person is agreeable to the Jesuit fathers." (Procès Verbal of the General Assembly, January 10, 1657.)
M. de Queylus had many and great qualifications. He was a doctor of theology. His capacity and zeal had been shown as the superior of the community of the parish of St. Sulpice at Paris, when he was Olier's right hand man. He had laboured in the ecclesiastical reform of several dioceses in Languedoc and had established the diocesan Seminary of Viviers, which he sustained by his liberality. He enjoyed the abbacy of Loc Dieu. He had a private income--a valuable thing for a bishop in a poor diocese; and his choice, it was alleged, was likely to please the Jesuits.
This latter was an important argument, for this Order had been on the ground so long, that they were the most fitted to understand the needs of a missionary country, and of the natives whose languages they spoke. They were zealous, able men, who had become necessary, and their blood had been freely spent in the work of colonization and Christianity. It would have been most appropriate to have chosen a bishop from among them, except that the democratic spirit of the order is against the acceptance of dignities, unless forced upon them. Seeing this, it was etiquette and the wisdom of the Church not to impose an ecclesiastical superior above them, without consulting their wishes.