Introduction | Early Life | Bolbec | Montauban | The Faculty | The Society | Abolitionism | Later Life

In nearby Toulouse, de Félice came to know three brothers, Frank, Louis and Armande Courtois, who ran a respectable family bank, which exists to this day, as well as a prolific Protestant printing press, the “Société des livres religieux à Toulouse”. In effect a Tract Society, their aim was to spread the word of reformed Christianity as far as they could – printing over 100,000 texts a year, as well as maintaining a “Paris Depot” which they claimed had printed over 2,300,000 volumes since its creation in 1820. They had also provided the funding for the orphanage at Saverdun.

They had held a competition in 1845, in which £50 (£4000) was offered for the best composition in the subject “The duty of reading the Bible”. Seven manuscripts were sent in, “among that of M. G. de Felice [sic], the able and pious professor of the Protestant College at Montauban was successful”.

Entitled “La voix du Colporteur Biblique” [The voice of the Bible hawker], it was a success, being republished into three more editions, the third of which was translated into English by another of his admirers, the Rev. Charles William Bingham.