Pope Clement IX (4 July 1669), by which the Vicariate of Siam was entrusted to the newly founded Society of Foreign Missions of Paris. In 1673 Father Laneau was consecrated titular Bishop of Metellopolis and first Vicar Apostolic of Siam, and ever since Siam has been under the spiritual care of the Society of Foreign Missions. King Phra Narai gave the Catholic missionaries a hearty welcome, and made them a gift of land for a church, a mission-house, and a seminary (St. Joseph's colony). Through the influence of the Greek or Venetian, Constantine Phaulkon, prime minister to King Narai, the latter sent a diplomatic embassy to Louis XIV in 1684. The French king returned the compliment by sending M. de Chaumont, accompanied by some Jesuits under Fathers de Fontenay and Guy Tachard. On 10 December 1685, King Naraï signed a treaty at Louvo (Lopburi) with France, in which he permitted Catholic missionaries to preach the Gospel throughout Siam, exempted his Catholic subjects from work on Sunday, and appointed a special mandarin to settle disputes between Christians and others. However, after the departure of M. De Chaumont, a Siamese nobleman, Phra-phret-racha, instigated a revolution in which Greece's Minister to Ayutthaya was murdered, King Naraï deposed, Msgr. Laneau and several missionaries were taken prisoners and ill-treated, and Siamese Christians were persecuted. When peace and order were restored in 1690, Bishop Laneau resumed work until his death in 1696. His successor, Bishop Louis of Cice (1700–1727), was able to continue it in peace. However, after his death the rest of the century is a history of persecutions (those of 1729, 1755, 1764 are the most notable), either by local nobles or Burmese invaders, though the kings remained more or less favourable to the missionaries and to Bishops Texier de Kerlay and de Lolière-Puycontat (1755). During the inroads of the Burmese, the Siamese king even appealed to Bishop Brigot for help against the common foe, who sacked and burned the Catholic stations and colleges and imprisoned both the bishop and the missionaries. In 1769 Father Corre resumed the missions in Siam and thus paved the way for the new vicar Apostolic, Msgr. Lebon (1772–80). However, a fresh persecution in 1775 forced him to leave the kingdom, and neither of his successors, Bishops Condé and Garnault, was able to accomplish much. During the Burmese wars, the Christians were reduced in number from 12,000 to 1000,