Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/gallicanchurchhi02jerv BENIGN E BOSSUET, . Bisbop of TvIeauK. Frontispiece, Vol. II The Gallican Church. CHURCH OF FRANCE, FROM THE CONCORDAT OF BOLOGNA, A.I). 1516, TO THE REVOLUTION. WITH AN INTRODUCTION. By REV. W. HENLEY JERVIS, M.A., PREItENDARY OF HEYTESBURY ; AUTHOR OF 'THE STUDENT'S HISTORY OF FRANCE.' '• Fluctuat, nee mergitur." IN TWO VOLUMES— Vol. II. WITH PORTRAITS LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1872. The right of Travtlation it rsMrvcd. I/WON: PRINTED EV WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAIfTORD STBFFT, AND CIIAKIKG CROSS. CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. CHAPTER I. PAGE Extension of system of Seminaries 1 Vincent de Paul on ecclesiastical Seminaries 2 College des Rons Enfans .. 3 Congregation of St. Snlpice 4 Seminary of St. Nicolas du Chardonnel 5 Congregation of Eudistes G, 7 Closing labours of Vincent de Paul 8 Foundation of Hospital of Sainte Peine 9, 10 Death of Vincent de Paul 11 Rise of Rossuet. His early studies and preferments 112, 14 The ' Perpetuite de la Foi ' 15 Other works of Arnauld and Nicole against Calvinism Hi Renewal of controversy. Bishop Arnauld of Angers 17,18 ' Nouveau Testament de Mons ' 19 Complaints against Antoine Arnauld. He retires to Brussels .. 20, 21 Renewed persecution of Port Royal 22 CHAPTER II. The " Droit de Regale " 23 Feudal view of episcopal sees 24 Extension of the Regale by Louis XIV 25 The exempt Cathedrals. Bishops Pavilion and De Caulet .. .. 2G They resist the Regalistcs 27 Briefs of Innocent XI. to Louis XIV 2.8 Death of the Bishops of Alct and Pamiers 29 Innocent XI. excommunicates the Regalistes 30 Breach between Louis and Innocent 31 Extraordinary meeting of French bishops 32 Report of Committee on the Regale 33 Policy of the Jesuits 34 The Advocate-General, Talon, on the Regale 35 Bossuct on the approaching Assembly of the Clergy 3G, 37 Bossuet's Sermon on the Unity of the Church 38-42 Letter of the Assembly to Pope Innocent 44 a 2 iv CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. PAOS The Pope's reply 45 Origin of the Four Gallican Articles 4*5 Bishops Bossuet and De Choiseul 47 Their dispute on the Infallibility of the Pope 48 The " Declaration of the Clergy of France " 49-51 Resentment of the Pope 52 Antoine Arnauld on the Four Articles 53 Innocent refuses institution to hishops-designate 54 Ultramontane strictures on the Declaration 55 Bossuet's " Defensio Declarationis " 56-59 CHAPTER III. The " Avertisscment Pastoral" to the Protestants 60 Efforts of the clergy towards their conversion Gl, 62 The " Caisse des Conversions." Pelisson-Fontanier 63 The King urged to measures of coercion 64 Further restrictions imposed on Huguenots 65 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 06, 67 Antoine Arnauld approves it 68 General assent of the nation 69 Organized Missions to the Protestants 70 Fenelon preaches in Poitou and Saintonge 71 Measures of concession adopted, hut too late 72 The Protestant emigration 72, 73 Affair of the Franchises. Louis appeals to a General Council .. .. 74-76 Negotiations. Reconciliation with Innocent XII 77, 78 Malehranche on Moral Causation 79 Malebranche on Grace and Mediation 80 His errors exposed by Bossuet 81, 82 Arnauld and Fenelon write against Malehranche 83, 84 Arnauld on " Peche philosophique" 85 The " Fourherie de Douai " 86 Death of Antoine Arnauld 87 Panegyrics pronounced upon him 88 Archbishop De Harlai succeeded by De Noailles, Bishop of Chalons 89 Pastoral Instruction of Archbishop De Noailles 90 Father Quesnel of the Oratory. The 1 Reflexions Morales ' .. .. 91 The ' Probleme ecclesiastique ' 92,93 Bossuet persuaded to refute it. His ' Avertissement ' 94 De Noailles becomes identified with the Jansenist party 95 CHAPTER IV. The Controversy on Quietism 96 Rise of Mysticism 97 The Hesychasts of Mount Athos 98 CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. V PAGR Western Mystics. The School of St. Victor 99 Quietism of Michel Molinos 100 Madame de la Mothe Guyon 102 First imprisonment of Madame Guyon 103 Madame Guyon patronized by Madame de Maintenon 104 Quietism at Saint Cyr 105 Fenelon and Madame Guyon 106-108 Quietism attacked by the Bishop of Chartres 109 Madame Guyon dismissed from Saint Cyr 110 Madame Guyon's writings examined by Bossuet Ill Misgivings of Fenelon 112 The Conferences of Issy 113 Fenelon's protests of submission 114 Fenelon appointed Archbishop of Cambrai 115 The Articles of Issy 116 Submission of Madame Guyon 117 Consecration of Fdnelon 118 Bossuet's ' Instruction sur les dtats d'oraison ' 119-121 Fenelon declines to approve it. His reasons 122-121 Second imprisonment of Madame Guyon 125 Fenelon's ' Explication des Maximes des Saints ' 1_G, 127 Resentment of Bossuet 128 Unfavourable reception of the ' Explication' 129 Displeasure of Louis XIV 130 Breach between Bossuet and Fenelon 132 Fenelon appeals to the Pope 134 His letter explaining his opinions 135, 130 His book inconsistent with the Articles of Issy 137 Fe'uelon banished from Court 138 Good faith of Fenelon and Bossuet 133 Counter-appeal to Borne against Fe'uelon 14 1 Supporters of Fenelon at Rome 142 Publications on both sides of the controversy 143 Fenelon's friends displaced 144 Renewed persecution of Madame Guyon 145 Calumnious insinuations against Fenelon 140 Vindication of Fe'nelon 147 Louis XIV. remonstrates with Innocent XII 148 Condemnation of Fenelon's ' Explication ' 149 Reception of the Pope's Brief at Paris 150 Edifying submission or" Fenelon 151,152 Provincial Councils for reception of the Brief 153-155 D'Aguesseau's ' lie'quisitoire ' 150 Cessation of the Controversy 158 Results on the Gallicau cause 159 vi CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. CHAPTER V. The Gallican Church at the opening of the eighteenth century .. 1 00 Intellectual activity. Resuscitation of Jansenism 161 Assembly of the Clergy in the year 1700 1G2 Doctrine of Probabilism. Its condemnation 164,165 Question of the " Chinese ceremonies" 106-108 The " Cas de Conscience " 169 Secretly approved by Cardinal de Noailles 170 Condemned by Bossuet 171 The Doctors retract their approval ih. Condemned by Clement XI. Ordonnance of Cardinal de Noailles .. 172 Question of Church authority on " doctrinal facts " 173 Letter of the Bishop of Saint Pons 174 Death of Bossuet 175 Incompetence of Cardinal de Noailles 170 The bull " Vineam Domini " 177 Reception of the bull by Assembly of Clergy 178,171) Different interpretations put upon it 180 Negotiations between De Polignac and Cardinal Fabroni 182 Hostility of Fabroni to Cardinal de Noailles 183 Difficult position of Cardinal de Noailles 184 Suppression of Tort Royal des Champs 185 The Nuns refuse to accept the " Vineam Domini " 188 They are finally expelled from the Convent 190 Demolition of Port Royal. Violation of the cemetery 191 Remorse of Cardinal de Noailles .. 193 State of parties. Michel Le Tellier. Godet-Desmai ais 191,195 The Due de Saint Simon. Le Tellier intrigues against De Noailks 397 " Declaration " to satisfy the Pope 198 Ascendency of Lc Tellier and Ultramontanes 199 CHAPTER VI. Efforts to condemn Quesnel's ■ Reflexions ' 200 Pastoral Instruction of the Bishops of La Rochelle and Lucon .. .. 201 Imprudent conduct of Cardinal de Noailles 202 He incurs the King's displeasure 203 Discovery of Le Tellier's intrigue against the Cardinal 205 De Noailles inhibits the Jesuits 207 Quesnel's ' Reflexions ' suppressed by Council of State 208 Louis XIV. demands a bull against Quesncl 20!) Letter of De Noailles to the Bishop of Agcn 210 The Constitution " Unigenitus" 212-215 Measures for its acceptance in France ., 210 Report of the Committee of bishops 217 CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. vii l'AClK Agitation excited l>y the bull 218 Protest of the nine prelates 219 The bull registered in Parliament 220 And by the Sorbonnc after considerable opposition 221 Overtures of accommodation to De Noailles 222 Demands for explanation. Negotiations with the Pope 223, 224 Mission of Amelot to Rome 225 Singular confession of Clement XI 226 Project of a National Council. Last illness of Louis XIV 227 Death of Louis XIV 228 Death of Fenelou 229 Change of policy under the Regent Orleans 230 Cardinal de Noailles in power 231 Mortification of the Ultramontanes. Le Tellier exiled 232 Reaction against the " Unigenitus" 233 Appeal of the four Bishops to a General Council 234 Supported by the Theological Faculty of Paris 235 The Regent beset by the Ultramontanes 236 General agitation. Acceptants and Appellants 237 Pope Clement's letter to Cardinal de Noailles 238 Refusal of bulls to bishops. The appeals condemned at Rome .. 239 Cardinal de Noailles publishes his appeal 240 The Court changes sides, and supports the " Unigenitus " .. .. 241 Intervention of Dubois. His character 242 Ordination and Consecration of Dubois 243,244 The " Accommodemeut" of 1720 245 Dubois created Cardinal. Triumph of Ultramontanes 246 CHAPTER VII. New Conscil de Conscience. Rise of Fleury 247 Letter of the seven bishops to Innocent XIII 248, 249 Persecution of " Anti-Constitutionnaires " 250 De Noailles and F. de Linieres 251 Death of Dubois. Death of the Regent Orleans 252 Fleury in power 253 Negotiation between Benedict XIII. and De Noailles 254, 255 De Noailles draws up Explanatory Articles 250,257 The negotiation fails. Council of St. John Lateran 258,259 Fleury made Cardinal and Prime Minister 260 Soancn, Bishop of Sencz 261 Archbishop Dc Tencin. The Council of Embrun 262-264 Bishop Soancn condemned and exiled 265 Remonstrance of the appellant prelates 266 Consultation of the Paris Advocates 267 Failing health of Cardinal dc Noailles. He accepts the " Unigenitus" 2(18 His death 269 viii CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. PAGE Recantation of eight bishops and of the Sorbonno 270 De Vintimille, Archbishop of Paris, lie enforces the " Unigenitus " 271 The " Lit de justice " to enforce submission 272 Resistance of the Parliament to the Crown .. ..- 273 The Advocates support the appellant clergy 274 They close their chambers. Ten of them exiled 275 The clergy condemn the " Legend" of St. Hildebrand 276 Remonstrances of Bishops Colhert and Caylus 277 Jansenism identified with Gallicanism 278 CHAPTER VIII. Deterioration of the Gallican Clergy 280 Jansenist fanaticism. Miraculous pretensions 281 The deacon Francois de Paris 282 The Miracles at the cemetery of St. Medard 283, 284 The Convulsionnaires 285 Division of opinion among the Appellants 287 The "Nouvelles Ecclesiastiques" 288 Parliament summoned to Com piegne. Pucelle and others exiled .. 290 The controversy assumes a political shape 291 Refusal of the Sacraments to Appellants 292, 293 Parliament suppresses bull for canonization of Vincent de Paul .. 294 Bossuet, Bishop of Troyes, and Archbishop Languet 295 Death of Bishops Colbert and Soanen 296, 297 Cardinal de Tenein. " Les Questions de l'e'cho" 298 Death of Cardinal Fleury 299 Boyer, Bishop of Mirepoix 300 Death of Massillon .. ' 301 FPz-James, Bishop of Soissons 302, 303 Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris 304 His difficulties on coming to the See 306 CHAPTER IX. Attack on the revenues and immunities of the clergy 307 The " Vingtieme" 308 Satirical publications. " Ne repugnate vestro bono " 309 The " Billets de confession" 3L0 Bouettin, Cure' of St. Etienne du Mont 311 Affair of the Hopital-Gdne'ral at Paris 313 Further strife on the " Billets de confession " 314-316 Parliament suspends business. Violence of the Court 317 Reconciliation on the birth of the Due de Berri 318 Archbishop De Beaumont exiled, with other prelates 319 Remonstrances of clergy on secular encroachments 320 CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. ix PAGE Appeal to Benedict XIV. Archbishop De Beaumont's Mandement 321 The encyclical " Ex omnibus " 322 Resignation of magistrates 323 The assassin Damiens. Negotiations for peace 324 Memorial of the Assembly on rise of Scepticism 325 Origin of the " new philosophy " 327 Protestantism weakened the dogmatic principle 328 Effect of Protestant dissensions. Bayle 320 Voltaire and his school 330 Various views of the philosophers 331 Jean Jacques Rousseau 332 The Abbe" de Prades 333 The 'Encyclopedic' 334-33G Rousseau's ' Emile' 337 Apologists for Christianity. Antoine Guenee 338,339 Decay of ancient institutions. Prediction of Button 340 Forecastings of revolution 341 CHAPTER X. Fall of the Jesuits. Its significance 342 Their expulsion from Portugal 343 Causes of animosity against them in France 344, 345 Affair of Father Lavalette 34G, 347 The Jesuits appeal to Parliament of Paris 348 Sentence against them 349 Jesuit publications condemned by Parliament 350 The Crown interferes in vain 351 Appeal to the bishops on the conduct of the Jesuits 352 They report in favour of the Society 353 A compromise proposed, but rejected by the Jesuits ib. Jesuits expelled from their Colleges 354 The final sentence against them 355 Remonstrances of Clement XIII. and of Archbishop De Beaumont .. 350 Jesuits expelled from France 357 Abolition of the Order demanded from Clement XIII 358 Clement excommunicates the Duke of Parma. His death .. .. 359 Intrigues in the Conclave. Election of Clement XIV 360, 361 Suppression of the Jesuits by Pope Clement XIV 363 Death of Clement ib- Conflicting opinions as to its cause 3G4 Archbishop De Beaumont's letter to Clement XIV 365 Struggle between the Crown and the Parliaments 366-368 Latter days of Louis XV. Sermon of Abbe de Beauvais 369 Death of Louis XV. First measures of Louis XVI 370 Warnings of Assembly of Clergy against unbelief 371 Memorials drawn up by Dulau, Archbishop of Aries 372 x CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. PAGE Attempt to suppress the works of Voltaire 375 Death of Voltaire , 37(> Death of Archbishop De Beaumont 377 Cardinal de Kohau. Affair of the " collier " 377-379 Last General Assembly of the Clergy of France 380 Calonne and the Notables 381 Archbishop Lomdnic de Briennc 382 Edicts rejected. Parliament exiled 383 Edict in favour of the Protestants 384 The Clergy demand the States-General 385 Resignation of Archbishop De Briennc 380 CHAPTER XL Neckar. The " double representation" of the Tiers-tftat 387 Meeting of the States-General 388 Disputes on the verification of powers 389 Henri GnSgoire. The Abbe" Sieyes 390 The clergy join the Tiers-e'tat 391 The Constituent Assembly and the Church 392 Abandonment of Feudal rights 393 Abolition of tithes. Speech of Archbishop Do Juigne 394, 39f> Madame de Stael on the tenure of Church property 39G Speech of Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun . . . . 397 His scheme for alienating Church property 398 Adopted by the National Assembly 399 The " Constitution Civile du Clerge" " 100, 401 Protest of the bishops against the new constitution 402 Schism among the clergy. Jurors and Nonjurors 404 Oath to the Constitution Civile 405 Consecration of Constitutional bishops 40G The Constitution denounced by the Pope 407 Strife between conforming and nonconforming Clergy 408 Decree of tho Assembly against nonjuring Clergy 409 Law of " ddportatiou " 410 Later efforts of the Constitutional Clergy 411 Ineffectual attempt to heal the schism 412 Napoleon Bonaparte. The second Concordat 413 Resignation of the episcopate demanded by the Pope 414 The bull " Qui Christi Domini." The "Articles Organiques " .. 415 The new episcopate. Restored National Establishment 416 Reaction towards Ultramontanism 417 The Church enslaved under the first Napoleon 418 Recapitulation. Church Government in ancient and feudal times .. 419 The Concordat, hostile to Gallicanism 420 Its injurious effects upon the Church 421 Institution of bishops by the Pope, a modern innovation .. .. 423 CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. xi PAGE Refusal of bulls of institution. Confusion resulting from it .. .. 424 Letter of Louis XIV. to Tope Clement XI 425 Tendency of Concordat towards Ultramontanism 42G Anomalous character of the " Constitution civile" 427 General result on Church feeling iu France 428 Conclusion 429,430 List of the archiepiscopal and episcopal sees before the Revolution of 1789 431-434 Note to Chap. VI., Vol. II. 1. — Correspondence between Arch- bishop Wake and Louis-Ellies Dupin 435-441 ERRATA. Page 236, for "Dorsanne, Journal, torn, ii.," read "Dorsanne, Journal, torn. i. p. 324." Page 240, line 23, add note at the word "course," — Lafiteau, 'Hist, de la Constit. Unigen.,' torn. ii. p. 41. THE GALLICAN CHURCH. CHAPTER I. In the midst of the " harsh din " of controversial strife, the Church of France exhibited, at this period, no declension from the practical zeal and fruitfulness in pious undertakings which distinguished the earlier years of the century. The results of the impulse given by the example and labours of Vincent de Paul became increasingly manifest. During the thirty-five years which had passed since he commenced his work, a new race of clergy had overspread the land, who in all the most important qualifications for their office contrasted favourably with their predecessors. This change was effected principally through the multiplication of ecclesiastical Seminaries under the direction of the Priests of the Mission, and the general adoption of this system of clerical training by the bishops throughout France. Experience had taught Vincent to regard the formation and management of Seminaries as the most indispensable of the duties to which he was called for the edification of the Church. Addressing his Congregation at one of their conferences, in the year 1641, he expressed himself thus: — "At first our little company did not contemplate being serviceable to ecclesiastics ; we thought only of our own spiritual advancement, and of evangelizing the poor. It pleased God that no more than this should appear at the outset ; but in the fulness of time He called us to contribute to the training of good priests, to furnish parishes with efficient pastors, and to point out to them what they ought to know, and what to practise. How lofty and sublime is this employment ! Who among us ever thought about the exercises of candidates for Ordination, or about VOL. II. B THE GAL LIC AN CHURCH. Chap. I. Seminaries ? We never imagined any such undertaking until God signified His will thus to make use of us; He has guided the Society to this field of exertion, w ithout any choice on our part. Hence He demands of us a serious, humble, devout, and constant application to the task, corresponding to the excellence of its object. It is a great thing, doubtless, to minister to the poor, but it is far more important to instruct ecclesiastics; since if they are ignorant, the flock whom they direct must of necessity be ignorant also. The question might have been asked of the Son of God, Wherefore art Thou come ? Is it not to ' preach the Gospel to the poor,' according to the command of the eternal Father? Why then dost Thou appoint priests ? Why dost Thou take such pains to instruct and discipline them ? Why confer on them the power to consecrate, to bind and loose, &c. ? To which the Saviour might have replied, that He was come not only to teach the truths which are essential to salvation, but also to provide for His Church good priests, superior to those of the ancient Law. God, having rejected the polluted priests of the old Covenant, promised to raise up others, who from east to west and from north to south should fill the earth with their voices and their Message. And by whom did He fulfil that promise? By His Son our Lord, who ordained priests, and through them gave power to His Church to ordain others, saying, " Sicut misit me Pater, et Ego mitto vos." Thus He designed to perpetuate throughout all ages that which He himself had done at the close of His earthly life. There is nothing greater than a good priest ; ponder as we will, we shall never discover any nobler work in which to engage than that of forming a good priest ; one to whom our Lord grants such power over His body natural and mystical, the power to con- secrate and to absolve from sin. 0 my Saviour, how ought poor missionaries to devote themselves to Thee for the training up of good ecclesiastics, since it is of all works the most arduous, the most exalted, the most weighty for the salvation of souls and for the advance of Christianity ! " * Such were the sentiments with which Vincent and his priests of the Mission entered on this momentous branch of their operations. It was attempted in the first instance to model the * Collet, Vie de S. V. de Faul, torn. ii. p. 77. a.d. 1642. ECCLESIASTIC A L S EM I NAE I ES. 3 Seminaries in France according to the plan prescribed by the Council of Trent;* namely by admitting as pupils boys from twelve to fourteen years of age, who, it was hoped, by means of a long systematic course of training, would retain through life the habits of discipline, self-restraint, and devotion acquired in early youth. But this scheme, after a fair trial, proved unsuc- cessful. Vincent opened an institution of this kind in 1G35, at the College des Bons Enfans, and maintained it in that form for several years, but without encouraging results. The expense thrown upon parents was in most cases beyond their means ; the benefit to the Church was remote and uncertain, whereas the demand for an efficient priesthood was immediate and pressing ; and, unhappily, very many of the young students, on reaching the age of deliberate personal choice, renounced their eccle- siastical prospects, and fell back into a worldly life. Similar disappointments occurred in the provinces. The Seminaries of Bordeaux, Agen, and Limoges, after some years of struggling existence, were left destitute of scholars ; and the Archbishop of Rouen was forced to confess that in the course of twenty years he had not been able to secure the services of more than six approved priests out of all the young men upon whom he had expended so much care and labour. The rest had returned to the world, under the plea that they had taken the ecclesiastical habit at an age when they were incapable of intelligent reflec- tion.f In 1642 Vincent modified the plan of his Seminary by receiving as pupils young men of the age of eighteen and upwards, who had already finished their elementary studies. These became inmates of the College des Bons Enfans, to which Cardinal Richelieu made a donation of a thousand crowns on the occasion ; while at the same time, out of respect for the recommendations and authority of the Council of Trent, the younger class of pupils were transferred to another residence in the precincts of St. Lazare, which the founder named the Seminary of St. Charles. From this time the system of " Grands Seminaires," as they were called, began to prevail throughout the country. One of the first to follow the example was Alain de Solminiac, Bishop of Cahors, who instituted a * Cone. Trident., Soss. xxiii. cap. 18. t Collet, Vie de 8. V. de Paul, Liv. iv. p. J> 2 4 THE GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. I. Seminary on this type for his diocese, and confided it to the management of the Priests of the Mission, making it obligatory on candidates for the snbdiaconate to reside for one year at least within its walls, while a further term of one year or more was required before their promotion to the priesthood. This excellent prelate, who was one of the ecclesiastical celebrities of his time, wrote to St. Vincent a few years before his death, to the following effect : " You would be delighted to see my clergy, and you would bless God a thousand times if you knew all the good that your Missionaries have done in my Seminary — good which has been diffused throughout the province." It must not be forgotten, however, that in the great work of theological Seminaries the Gallican Church was indebted to other societies besides that of the " Priests of the Mission." The Congregation of St. Sulpice possessed a Seminary on a vast scale, adjoining the church of that name at Paris, erected at his own cost by M. Le Ragois de Bretonvilliers, who was one of the most zealous fellow-labourers of the Abbe Olier, and succeeded him both as Cure of St. Sulpice and Superior of the Seminary. The members of this community soon extended their operations, at the invitation of the bishops, into the pro- vincial dioceses. At Bordeaux, at Villefranche in the diocese of Rodez, at Limoges, at Bourg St. Andeol in the Vivarais, at Nantes in Brittany, at Clermont in Auvergne, and at Aix in Provence, they established colleges which were eminently suc- cessful in training candidates for the priesthood, and increasing the efficiency of those who had already taken Holy Orders. After the death of Olier in 1657, the Seminary of St. Sulpice was governed for nearly twenty years by the Abbe de Breton- villiers, who, being possessed of an ample fortune, liberally fostered all the works of charity with which it was connected, and at his death bequeathed to it considerable property. He wus succeeded by Louis Tronson, a man of the highest attain- ments both intellectual and spiritual, under whose wise rule the Society acquired additional lustre, and rendered invaluable services to the Church. It was to the care of Tronson that the Marquis de Fenelon entrusted his nephew, the future Arch- bishop of Cambrai, who acquired his clerical education at St. Sulpice. The respect of Fenelon for Tronson was unbounded. "I congratulate myself," he wrote on one occasion to Pope a.d. 1644. S. SULPICE-S. NICOLAS DU CHARDONNET. 5 Clement XL, " on having had M. Tronson for my instructor in the Word of life, and having been formed under his personal care for the ecclesiastical career. Never was any man, unless I am mistaken, superior to him for love of discipline, for skill, prudence, piety, and sagacity in the discernment of character." * On an appointed day in each year the Seminarists of St. Sul- pice assembled at the house in Paris, and attended mass in the chapel, which was usually celebrated by the Archbishop or some distinguished prelate. After service each priest approached the altar in turn, and kneeling before the Bishop, renewed the promise of self-dedication to God and separation from the world, which he had made on his admission into the community. This was expressed in a sentence from the 16th Psalm — "Dorninus pars hajreditatis nieae et calicis mei; Tu es qui restitues hseredi- tatem meam mihi." t The Seminary of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet was formally recognised in 1614 by the Archbishop of Paris as his Diocesan Seminary, and confirmed as such by royal letters-patent the same year. Its founder, as recorded in a former chapter, was Adrian Bourdoise ; to whom indeed is frequently assigned the honour of having been the first to take successful steps towards establishing Seminaries in France. St. Nicolas du Chardonnet acquired a very high reputation as a nursery for the ministry, and its internal organization served as a model for mauy similar foundations in different parts of the country. In order to supply the necessary funds, Bourdoise formed an association which he styled " La Bourse clericale," consisting of persons willing to contribute, or to collect contributions, for the support both of students at the college and of ecclesiastics after entering on their profession. In this way considerable sums were realised ; the Assembly of the Clergy voted a grant to the Seminary in 1600; and the collegiate buildings were secured to the society by the liberality of the Prince de Conti, who pur- chased them for 36,000 livres. During the troubles of the Fronde, when hostile armies occupied the neighbourhood of Paris, the Seminarists of St.-Nicolas distinguished themselves by their devoted ministrations among the sick and wounded. * Correspcmdance . 112. a.d. 167G. OPPOSITION TO THE REGALISTES. 27 national irritation which had all the appearance of incipient schism, may be traced in great measure to the intrigues of a Society whose raison d'etre, so to speak, consists in devotion to the person, interests, and absolute authority of the Pope. In 1676 the king, finding that the two bishops, after repeated admonitions, still neglected to register their oath of homage, proceeded to make nominations in virtue of the regale in their dioceses, as if the sees had been vacant. The Bishop of Alet pronounced a decree of suspension on the " Kegalistes," and on all who might take part in their installation. His mandements were suppressed by the Council of State ; his acts of suspension were annulled by the metropolitan, the Archbishop of Nar- bonne ; upon which Pavilion, after remonstrating by letter both with the king and the archbishop, appealed to the judg- ment of the Sovereign Pontiff. The Bishop of Pamiers followed in the track of his colleague. The king appointed an eccle- siastic named Poncet to a canonry and archdeaconry in that Cathedral. Caulet, taking his stand upon the often-quoted canon of the Council of Lyons, forbade the chapter, under pain of suspension, to receive the royal nominee, and the latter to attempt taking possession, under pain of excommunication. Poncet sought redress from the Archbishop of Toulouse. The archbishop supported him, and cancelled the ordonnance of his suffragan ; and the bishop then executed a formal appeal to the Holy See. Innocent XI., who at this time occupied the Papal chair, possessed many admirable qualities. His intellectual gifts were small ; but he was virtuous, upright, scrupulous in points of conscience, single-minded, devout, self-denying. His fail- ings were those of a mind so penetrated with the supreme importance of certain master-principles, that in defence of them it allows zeal to outstrip discretion, and confounds firm- ness with obstinacy. He was keenly sensitive to those usur- pations of modern royalty, which had so seriously impaired the authority and abridged the liberties of the Church ; and was prepared to resent such enterprises with all the uncompromising energy of his predecessors in the middle ages. Added to this the Pope had imbibed a strong prejudice, amounting to personal dislike, against Louis XIV. ; while, on tbo other hand, he """• m 'v esteemed the Jansenists, whose severe morals and 28 THE GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. II. strictness of life were congenial to his own character. M. de Pontchateau, one of the Port Poyalist recluses, proceeded to Home in the quality of their confidential agent, and was treated with the utmost consideration by Cardinal Cibo, minister of state, and by Favoriti, the Pope's secretary. Innocent espoused with vigour the cause of the two appellant bishops. His first brief to Louis on the subject of the regale is dated March 12th, 1678. He points out that the recent attempt to extend his prerogative is an invasion of the most sacred rights of the Church ; he attributes it to the sinister counsels of men who thought only of paying court to his Majesty for the sake of their own private ends ; and who, while seeking at all hazards to augment his earthly power, cared little for the misery which he might have to endure hereafter from remorse of conscience, in the prospect of appearing before the tribunal of God. Those who advised him in this matter were men who, however they might pretend to be absolutely devoted to him, were, in fact, the bitterest enemies of his greatness and glory. The Pope's conduct in this affair was dictated, beyond a doubt, by high principle and deep conviction ; at the same time it must be confessed that the whole dispute was somewhat out of date. When we recollect that by the Concordat of 1516 the Curia had deliberately surrendered to the Crown the right of nomination to all the bishoprics in France, it was too late in the day to demur to the assertion of a privilege which was at once far more ancient and far less important. Such an ana- chronism was self-condemned to failure. The good Bishop of Alet departed this life in December, 1677 ; and the whole weight of the contest with the Crown thus devolved upon the Bishop of Pamiers. He sustained it with unflinching resolution. At length he was threatened with the seizure of his temporalities unless he took the oath of allegiance within two months, and received the clergy who had been intruded into his diocese by royal patronage. He replied that he was ready to submit to the spoiling of his personal goods for the truth's sake, but entreated the king to spare his two diocesan seminaries, his cathedral (which he was rebuilding), and the various charities which he had instituted for the poor. Orders were given to proceed to the last extremity, and the biohup's property was accordingly confiscated. He suffered a.d. 1G78. INNOCENT XL RESISTS THE REGALE. 29 little, however, in a temporal sense from this act of cruelty, for his losses were more than covered by the eager liberality of private friends ; his clergy taxed themselves to provide him with a regular income ; and he was heard to complain that he had not been counted worthy to endure poverty for the love of Jesus Christ. A second, and again a third, brief from Innocent to Louis, couched in the same tone of urgent and solemn remonstrance, warned the monarch to desist from a course which could not but issue in disastrous consequences. Ou the latter occasion (December 27, 1679) the Pope announced that lie should not employ any further entreaties by letter, but pro- ceed to apply the remedies placed in his hands by his spiritual authority — remedies which he could no longer neglect without being unfaithful to his apostolical commission. " No perils, no commotions, no privations, can shake our resolution ; we know that we are called to suffer such privations ; and we do not esteem life itself more dear than your salvation and our own." * Innocent wrote at the same time to the Bishop of Pamiers, warmly commending his patience under persecution, and ex- horting him to constancy and perseverance. But the bishop's trials and confessorship approached their close. His death occurred in August, 1680. This event was followed by strange scenes of agitation and confusion. The chapter of Pamiers elected grand-vicars to administer the diocese sede vacante, without admitting the intrusive " Regalistes " to vote on the occasion. This was resisted on the part of the Government ; the Kegalistes forced their way into the cathedral, and attempted to annul the election ; whereupon they were violently denounced from the pulpit by one of their opponents, and threatened with excom- munication. Such was the tumult, that it was necessary to send an armed force from Toulouse to restore order. The Archbishop of Toulouse now interfered, displaced Aubarede, one of the nominees of the chapter, and installed another eccle- siastic in his place. The chapter, on their part, instantly appointed F. Cerle, an intimate friend of the late bishop. Cerle was unable to act publicly, as the adverse party reigned at Pamiers, with the support of the civil authority ; but from * Histoire dc Bossuet, torn. ii. p. 115. 30 THE GALLIUAN CHLKUII. CnAP. II. his hiding-place he poured forth pastoral letters, ordonnances, appeals to the Pope, and anathemas against his adversaries, with a rapidity and virulence which provoked angry reprisals. The parliament of Toulouse caused him to be prosecuted for sedition and treason ; and, as he refused to appear, he was condemned to death for contumacy, and executed in effigy both at Toulouse and Pamiers. Innocent XL, transported beyond all bounds of moderation, exhaled his wrath in a brief declaring the appointment of vicars-general by the metropolitan null and void, cancelling their proceedings as devoid of jurisdiction, and excommunicating ipso facto all who might encourage them in disobeying his commands, not excepting the metropolitan himself. He also proclaimed that confessions made to priests under the sanction of this pretended authority were of no effect, that marriages celebrated by them were invalid, and that per- sons so married would live in concubinage, their offspring being illegitimate.* Other incidents added to the exasperation on both sides. A Carmelite friar at Paris had maintained, in a public thesis, not only that the claims of the Crown in the matter of the regale were well founded, but a variety of other sentiments derogatory to the authority of the Pope, which in the ordinary course of things would probably have been passed over without notice. At this moment of excitement, however, Innocent inflicted an inter- dict on the offender, deprived him of the privileges granted to regulars by the Holy See, and threatened the superiors of the Order with excommunication and deposition if they should oppose this decree. The monks showed a disposition to obey the mandate ; whereupon the Parliament interfered, cited the prior and two of his brethren to its bar, and admonished them to forbear all further proceedings in the case, under pain of exemplary punishment.t Another grievance to the Pope arose out of the conduct of Louis in the affair of the Augustinian sisterhood of Charonne. That Society had been in the habit of electing its own Superior at intervals of three years. Upon the death of the abbess in 1679 the king took upon himself to nominate a successor ; and Marie Angelique De Grandchamp * See the Brief in the Collection des Prods -verbaux, &c., torn. v. " Pieces justifleatives." No. 4. t D'Avrigny, Mem. Chronol., torn. iii. p. 201. a.d. 1079. BREACH BETWEEN LOUIS AND INNOCENT. was accordingly installed in the office, by virtue of a com- mission from the Archbishop of Paris. Some of the nims pro- tested against this as a violation of their privileges ; upon which the Archbishop removed them summarily from the con- vent. They now complained to the Pope. Innocent, in reply, commanded them to elect a superior in conformity with their statutes, and they complied immediately. The law officers of the Crown appealed against this measure, comme d'abus to the Parliament ; and the CoUrt ordered that the government of the convent should be maintained in the hands of the king's nominee. Fresh briefs on one side and arrets on the other embittered the dispute. A Papal bull condemned the decrees of the Parliament to be burnt ; and this document was at once suppressed by the magistrates at Paris.* The state of affairs had now become such that Louis and his advisers judged it necessary to take steps of a decisive nature for securing the independence of the royal authority, which they considered to be no less seriously endangered in the pre- sent case than it had been by the Papal enterprises of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Pope, on his part, viewed the question in an equally important light ; for in his judgment it involved the principle of ecclesiastical liberty, — a principle for which he was bound, by the most sacred obliga- tions of his office, to contend, if necessary, even to the shedding of his blood. In particular, he considered himself to be defend- ing the legislative jurisdiction of the Church ; for it was to the decree of the Ecumenical Council of Lyons that he unceas- ingly appealed, as expressing the verdict of antiquity upon the point in dispute. There can be no doubt that the Gallican episcopate at this time was pervaded by a spirit of profound subserviency to the will and pleasure of the sovereign. Louis XIV. had reached the culminating point of his prosperity ; he was feared and courted abroad, extolled to the skies at home; the arbiter, in fact, of the destinies of Europe. The bishops, although many of them were men of high character and attainments, were not exempt from the weaknesses of humanity ; and it is by no means surprising, under the circumstances, that they were * D'Avrigny, Mem. Chronol., torn. iii. p. 182. 32 THE GALLICAN CHUItCU. Chap. IT. found ready to swell the general chorus of courtly adulation. De Harlai, Archbishop of Paris, Le Tellier of Reims (son of the minister of that name), Montpezat of Sens, De Bonzi of Narbonne, with others of less note, were prelates whose views of ecclesiastical duty never failed to lie in the same direction with the genial sunshine of royal favour. If it had rested with them to guide the public action of the Gallican clergy at this crisis, the result might have been deplorable ; but, happily for the Church, there were some among their brethren who pos- sessed more elevated aims, deeper knowledge, and sounder judgment; and their counsels ultimately prevailed. On the application of the Agens-Generaux, the king per- mitted the bishops to hold an extraordinary meeting in March, 1681, to discuss the measures necessary to be taken with refer- ence to the obnoxious briefs of the Pope, especially the last of the three, which was pronounced to be wholly irreconcilable with the maxims and liberties of the Church of France. Forty- one prelates assembled accordingly, under the presidency of the Archbishop of Paris ; and a committee was appointed (the Archbishops of Reims, Embrun, and Alby, the Bishops of La Rochelle, Autun, and Troyes) to draw up a general report upon the matters in hand. The following were the chief points submitted to them : — Whether the universality of the " droit rle Regale " was clearly and absolutely determined by the second Council of Lyons ? Whether, considering the different sentiments held by theo- logians, the Church ought not to declare positively what is the true meaning of that Council ? Supposing the Pope to be correct in his interpretation of the Council, to whom does it belong to judge concerning the Regale ? Who have taken cognizance of it from the time of Innocent III. to the present day ? Supposing the Pope to be the proper judge, ought he to adjudicate in person at Rome, or by commissioners acting on the spot ? Whether, inasmuch as the case is doubtful — the King assert- ing that the jurisdiction belongs to himself or to his Parlia- ment, while the Pope maintains that he is the sole judge of a question which turns upon the interpretation and execution of a General Council — the prelates ought not to interfere for the A.D. 1G81. THE BISHOPS ON THE RESALE. 33 purpose of checking further proceedings on the part of the Pope, especially if they should feel that such pretensions are more likely to engender scandals than to put an end to the dispute ? The report of the Committee, presented on the 1st of May, is a lengthy and plausibly-argued document, virtually answer- ing all the above-mentioned inquiries in favour of the Crown. It begins by endeavouring to prove from historical records that the droit de regale was authorised by the Church herself ; for instance, that it was sanctioned by Popes Alexander III., Innocent III., Clement IV., Gregory X., Gregory XL, and by the Gallican Council of Bourges. The right of collation to benefices is one that can only be conferred by the act of the Church, or with her express consent. Upon this principle, those churches which were subject to the regale in 1274 (the date of the Council of Lyons) had no reason to complain ; while, again, those which up to that time had preserved their canonical liberty were clearly right in defending it until the appearance of the royal declaration in 1073. But no sooner does the report proceed to treat of the regale as a branch of the royal prerogative, than the force of these considerations is altogether ignored. " Ever since the time of Philip the Fair this has been accounted a jus regium — so inalienably and imprescriptibly annexed to the crown, that in that respect the king is not subject to the laws and discipline of the Church. Since there is no human power to control him, the extension of the prerogative to churches where it had not hitherto been exercised is a matter which lies exclusively in his own hands. Moreover, it appears that the canon of the Council of Lyons, upon which so much reliance is placed, was never executed ; that it was caused by complaints made against the royal officers, who were accustomed to plunder and destroy the property of the Church — an abuse which no longer exists, since the present practice is to preserve the entire revenue for the benefit of the newly-appointed bishop. Nor is it by any means certain that the canon in question has any reference whatever to the modern institution known by the name of the regale." Upon the whole, the Committee were of opinion that, for the sake of peace, and in order to avoid greater evils which there was much reason to apprehend, the Church would do well to t olerate the application VOL. II. D 34 THE GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. II. of the regale according to the terms of the royal Declarations of 1673 and 1675; and that this conclusion, together with the grounds on which it had been arrived at, should be respectfully notified to the Pope. The report animadverted with severity upon the Pope's briefs to the Chapter of Pamiers. Their tendency, it states, was to sow discord between the secular and ecclesiastical powers, to nullify the Canons received in France, and to destroy the Concor lat ; for they assumed that the Pope could adjudicate although no appeal had been made to him, " omisso medio;" that he could confirm, "ex motu prop rio," illegal uncanonical elections ; that he could deprive bishops of their authority, and reverse the established order of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. As to the clause declaring sacraments administered by the nominees of the Archbishop of Toulouse to be invalid and sacrilegious, its effect was to set up altar against altar in the same diocese, and to foment the spirit of schism. The report was unanimously adopted ; and in conformity with its advice, the prelates signed a petition to his Majesty, requesting him to convoke a National Council, according to various ancient precedents, or at least a General Assembly of the clergy of France ; in order that the final decisions in a matter of such moment might be taken with all the imposing solemnity, and all the air of collective authority, which the occasion required ; — a course which could hardly fail to secure for the Gallican Church a fair consideration of its claims at the hands of the Sovereign Pontiff. The Jesuits, as has been already observed, Avere on this occasion in a false position, inconsistent with their past history and with the fundamental rules of their Order. On the appear- ance of the Pope's outrageous briefs in the affair of Pamiers, they were sorely embarrassed ; for on the one hand they could not openly oppose the mandates of the Holy See, while on the other they dared not offend the king, particularly as they themselves had instigated his proceedings in the extended application of the droit de regale. In this dilemma they affected to disbelieve the authenticity of the briefs, and ignored them on that pretext. But Innocent, hearing of this manceuvre, ordered their general at Rome to communicate those documents officially to the Provincials at Paris and Toulouse, with an a.d. 1081. THE JESUITS SUPPORT THE PEGALE. 35 express injunction to all members of the Society to make them public throughout France, and to attest their genuineness. They now, with characteristic dexterity, informed the legal authorities of the orders forwarded from Eome; and in con- sequence, the Superiors residing at Paris were summoned by the Parliament to undergo an examination on the affair. They obeyed, and, on attending the court on the 20th of June, 1681, were complimented by the President Novion on the prudence and fidelity with which they had acted under such difficult circumstances. It was fortuuate, he remarked, that the despatch from Rome had fallen into the hands of persons so well known for their incorruptible probity and honour. Father Verthamont, Rector of the " maison professe," then briefly stated the facts of the case ; after which the Advocate-General, Talon, made an elaborate harangue upon the whole question at issue. He said that this mode of attempting to publish, and in some degree to execute, Papal briefs in France was new, contrary to law, and of dangerous consequence. If connived at, the Pope might in time to come introduce, by means of the religious Orders, documents seriously detrimental to the laws and welfare of the realm ; it was necessary, therefore, to check such innovations, though at the same time the utmost endeavours should be used to preserve a good understanding between the king and the Pope, between the Apostolic See and the Gallican Church. " Whatever may happen, we will never on our part cause a breach in the sacred union between the Priesthood and the Crown, so essential to the glory of both, and to the preservation of religion. On the other hand, we will not tolerate a yoke unknown to our forefathers, nor the abolition of liberties of which they were so justly jealous. As we desire to observe the Concordat, so we expect the Pope to fulfil it also in things favourable to France, which we do not regard as privileges granted by the See of Rome, but as points of common law, and the groundwork of our immunities. Those persons who are the authors of the brief of the 1st January, and of many others similar, are misleading the Pope into conflicts far more likely to curtail his authority than to augment it. The regale being one of the most important rights of the Crown, how can it be imagined that the king will tolerate during his reign any diminution or suspension of that prerogative? His Majesty D 2 36 THE GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. II. can no more renounce it than he can annul the Salic law, or ahandon any of the provinces which compose the realm of France. It is useless to threaten him with spiritual censures ; the execution of such menaces can never be permitted in this kingdom. We have a sovereign remedy at hand under such circumstances, namely, the ' appel comme d'abus.' This is an infallible expedient for repelling the usurpations of the Court of Rome, for maintaining the liberties of the Church, and for securing the subject against ecclesiastical denunciations which our ancestors invariably disregarded whenever there was no legal ground for them." The court, upon the requisition of the Advocate-General, issued a prohibition to the superiors of the Jesuits to publish the said briefs, or to further their execution directly or in- directly, upon any pretence whatever, under pain of for- feiting all the privileges enjoyed by the Society in France. Verthamont and his colleagues were then dismissed with an intimation that the Parliament was satisfied with their obedience.* The incident is eminently grotesque. The fathers of the Order of Jesus, it is well known, take a special vow of implicit obedience to the Sovereign Pontiff; yet here we find them ranged in direct opposition to him ; invoking the interference of the civil authority — of an imperious temporal potentate — to protect them against the mandates of the Holy See, which by their constitution they are bound to receive as laws of paramount obligation. Nor is it less comic to hear them eulogized by the Parliament for their inviolable loyalty to the king and the State, while it is but too clear that the real motive of their conduct was enmity against a rival theological party, which for forty years past they had been moving heaven and earth to destroy. The General Assembly of the clergy, which was convoked for the 1st of October, 1681, was looked forward to with con- siderable anxiety by those who were best able to judge of the real complexion of affairs at this crisis. This is especially apparent in the correspondence of Bossuet. He had recently bean appointed Bishop of Meaux, and elected to the Assembly * Proch-verbaux des Assembl. G?n., torn. v. " Pieces justif.," No. 9. a.d. 1681. BOSSUET ON THE ASSEMBLY OF CLEEGY. 37 as one of the representatives of the province of Paris. In September, 1681, we find him writing thus to his friend De Ranee, Abbot of La Trappe : "I fear I shall be deprived for this year of the consolation which I hoped for, (that of visiting him at La Trappe). The Assembly of the clergy is about to be held ; and it is desired, not only that I should be a member of it, but that I should preach the opening sermon. I may perhaps be able to steal ten days or a fortnight, if this sermon should be deferred, as is rumoured, till the month of November. Be this as it may, if I cannot go to pray with you, pray at all events for me ; the affair is one of importance, and well worthy to engage your thoughts. You know what the Assemblies of the clergy are, and the sort of temper which usually prevails in them. I perceive certain dispositions which lead me to augur well of the present one ; but I dare not trust these hopes, and, to say the truth, they are mingled with much apprehension."* He expresses the same feelings in writing to M. Neercassel, Bishop of Castoria, Vicar Apostolic in Holland, and to Dirois, theologian to Cardinal D'Estrees, the Freuch minister at Rome.f The danger which he foreboded was this; that the bishops of the Court party on the one hand, out of complaisance to the sovereign and his ministers, and prelates of extreme Gallican views on the other, in their eagerness to reprobate the late uncanonical proceedings of the Pope, might be misled into a line of action tending to a positive breach of union with the Holy See. Colbert, the leading statesman of the time, was quite capable of encouraging, if not of suggesting, a movement in that direction ; and Bossuet well knew that in French clerical assemblies there was no lack of men too ready to follow blindly a sudden impulse from high quarters, without perceiving or pausing to examine how far it was likely to cany them. The special favour which he enjoyed with the king, and the general confidence and esteem in which he was held by the clergy of all ranks and parties, enabled him to interfere with success at this moment as an advocate of moderation and discretion. He was too devoted a Catholic to listen to any * Corrcspondance de Bossuet, " Lettres Diverges," No. lxxxv. t Lettres Diverses, Ixxxii., lxxxiv. To the former he writes: — " Delia noa pacem sootari donet, atquo Eeelesi;e minora curare, non multiplicare. Id futurum apero ; nee sine timore apes." 38 THE GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. II. proposals of which the drift was to place the National Church in open antagonism to the Cathedra Petri, the centre of unity. He was too profound a theologian, too familiarly acquainted with the whole stream of ecclesiastical tradition from its original sources, to abandon any of those principles which are essential to the liberty of the Church, according to its just and genuine interpretation. The Assembly met at Paris on the 9th of November, 1681, under the presidency of Archbishop de Harlai ; on which occasion Bossuet delivered, in the church of the Grands-Au- gustins, his magnificent sermon on the " Unity of the Church." This has always been considered one of the most masterly efforts of his genius. Taking his text from the prophetic " parable " of Balaam, " How goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob, and thy tabernacles, 0 Israel,"* the preacher enlarges, first, on the beauty and glory of the Church Catholic, as exhibited in its inviolable union with its head, the successor of St. Peter. This union is founded on the promises of Christ to that great apostle, whose prerogatives were not to cease with his life, but to survive in his successors to the end of time, so that the primacy of the Universal Church was to reside for ever in the apostolic See of Konie, and the chair of St. Peter was to be inde- fectible in maintaining the true faith. "Everything concurs to establish the primacy of Peter ; everything, even his faults, which admonish his successors to exercise this vast authority with humility and condescension. They should learn from the example of Peter to listen to the voice of their subordinates, when, though far inferior to St. Paul both in position and in wisdom, they address them with the same object, namely, that of restoring peace to the Church. Humility is the most indispensable ornament of exalted rank; there is something more worthy of respect in modesty than in all other gifts ; the world is better disposed to submit when he who demands submission is the first to yield to sound reason ; and Peter, in amending his error, is greater, if that be possible, than Paul, who reprehends it." Bossuet proceeds to point out that the pastoral authority first conferred on St. Peter was afterwards extended to the college * Numbers, xxiv. 5. a.d. 1681. BOSSUET'S SERMON ON CHURCH UNITY. 39 of the Apostles, and therefore to the collective episcopate in all ages. " It was manifestly the design of Jesus Christ to place primarily in a single individual what was subsequently to be placed in many. All receive the same power, and all from the same source ; but not all in the same degree, or to the same extent; for Christ communicates Himself in what measure He pleases, and always in that mode which most conduces to the preservation of the unity of His Church. He begins witli the first, and in the first He forms the whole. By virtue of this constitution the Church is strong throughout ; because every part is divine, and all the parts are united in the whole. Hence our predecessors, who declared so often in their Councils that they acted in their churches as Vicars of Christ and successors of the Apostles who were sent immediately by Him, have said also in other Councils that they acted as " Vicars of Peter," " by the authority given to all bishops in the person of St. Peter." Because everything was vested first of all in St. Peter ; and such is the correspondence which reigns through the whole body of the Church, that whatever is done by each single bishop, according to the rule and spirit of Catholic unity, is done together with him by the whole Church, by the whole episco- pate, and by the head of the episcopate." From this fact he takes occasion to exhort his brethren to cast aside per- sonal feelings and private ends, and to act in the spirit of cordial harmony and sympathy with the Church universal. " Let no one of us do, or say, or think anything which the Church universal would hesitate to acknowledge. May our resolutions be such as are worthy of our fathers, and worthy to be adopted by our descendants ; worthy to be numbered among the authentic acts of the Church, and to be registered with honour in that celestial chancery, which contains decrees relating not to this present life only, but also to that which is future and everlasting." Bossuet discusses, in the second place, the most difficult part of his subject, namely the distinctive position of the Gallican Church, and the true nature of its so-called "liberties." The turn which late events had taken made it unavoidably neces- sary that he should touch upon this tender point ; and the con- siderations which governed him in doing so are set forth in an interesting letter which he addressed to Cardinal D'Estrees 40 THE GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. II. soon after the sermon was preached.* His leading principle, he says, was to uphold the ancient Gallican tradition without de- rogating in any way from the true greatness and just authority of the See of Rome ; and in order to this, he took care to expound the " liberties " " in the sense put upon them by the bishops, and not as they are understood by the magistrates of the courts of Parliament." " There are three particulars in which I have specially sought to avoid wounding the sensitive ears of the .Romans ; — the temporal independence of kings, the jurisdiction of the episcopate as derived immediately from Jesus Christ, and the authority of Councils. These are matters upon which your Eminence knows that we do not equivocate in France ; and I have studied to speak of them in such a way as to keep clear of any offence to the majesty of Rome, without sacrificing the real doctrine of the Gallican Church. More than this cannot be expected of a French bishop, who is compelled by circumstances to handle these topics. In one word, I have spoken plainly, for we are bound to do so at all times, and especially in the pulpit ; but I have spoken with due respect, and God is my witness that I have acted with the best inten- tions." After tracing, from the time of St. Irenaeus downward, the intimate union which had always subsisted between the Gallican Church and the See of Eome, and showing that French monarchs have ever been the foremost defenders of the dignity and authority of the Sovereign Pontiff, he refers to the legis- lation of St. Louis in the Pragmatic Sanction which bears his name, and cites that edict as containing the pith and marrow of the Gallican liberties. The decdared object of St. Louis was to maintain in his dominions " the common law and the canonical jurisdiction of ordinaries, according to the decrees of oecume- nical Councils, and the institutions of the holy Fathers." "Behold," exclaims Bossuet, "the liberties of the Gallican Church ! they are all comprised in these precious words of the ordonnance of St. Louis ; we know, and desire to know, no other liberties but these. We place our liberty in being subject to the canons ; and would to God that this principle were equally effective in practice as it is comprehensive in theory ! " To the neglect of it he attributes the existing abuses of the * Lcttres Divcrses, No. xci. a.d. 1681. BOSSUET ON THE GALLTCAN LIBERTIES. 41 Church ; lamenting a state of things " in which privileges over- whelm the law ; in which exemptions (graces) are so multiplied that they almost take the place of the common law ; in which the ancient regulations seem only to exist in the formalities which are required to obtain a dispensation from them." " How necessary, then, to preserve at least that portion of the pri- mitive discipline which still remains to us! If the bishops solicit from the Pope the inviolable observance of the canons, and of the power of ecclesiastical ordinaries in all its grades, let it be remembered that they are but following the footsteps of St. Louis and of Charlemagne, and imitating the saints whose sees they occupy. This is not to disjoin ourselves from the Holy See, God forbid ; on the contrary, it is to sustain, down to its minutest ligaments, the organic coherence between the head and the members. This is not to lessen the plenitude of the Pontjfical authority ; the ocean itself has its appointed bounds ; and were it to break through those limits, its plenitude would become a cataclysm which would engulf the universe." Bossuet next reminds his hearers of that memorable appli- cation of the Gallican maxims to the pressing exigencies of the Church, which was so signally successful in the time of the great Schism. France pointed out the way to cure that monster evil ; and was followed, in the Councils of Pisa and Constance, by the whole Church. " The same maxims will be held in deposit for ever by the Church Catholic. Factious spirits may seek to make them the means to breed disturbance ; but the true children of the Church will employ them according to rule, and for the sake of substantial advantages. It were easy to specify the cases in which that course should be adopted ; but we prefer to hope that the deplorable necessity of dealing with such cases will never occur, and that we shall not be so unhappy in our days as to be forced to resort to such remedies." An allusion follows to the Councils of Basle and Bourges, and the second Pragmatic Sanction ; and the policy of France under the perplexing circumstances of those times is extolled as a model of wisdom and moderation. None knew better than the preacher that he was here treading on extremely delicate ground, and that the Roman Curia, together with the entire school of Ultramontane divines, must needs view this part of his argument with unqualilied dissent. Indeed it admits of a 42 THE GAL LIC AN CHURCH. Chap. II. question whether he was justified, strictly speaking, in appeal- ing to the enactments of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges ; inasmuch as it had been annulled by the Concordat of 1517, which formed part of the statute law of the land, and was recognized as obligatory by the Gallican canonists. On the subject of the relations between the ecclesiastical and the temporal power, Bossuet expresses himself with admirable judgment. " Woe to the Church when the two jurisdictions began to regard each other with jealous eyes! Why should division spring up between the ministers of the Church and the ministers of Sovereigns, when both are alike ministers of the King of Kings, though constituted in a different manner ? How can they foiget that their functions are in fact identical ; that to serve God is to serve the State, and that to serve the State is to serve God ? But authority is blind ; authority is ever seeking self-aggrandizement ; authority thinks itself degraded when any attempt is made to fix its limits." He then appeals to the legislation of past times, especially that of Charlemagne, in proof of the care which was then taken to avoid encroachment by one power into the province of the other. At this point he introduces a glowing eloge of the reli- gious zeal of Louis XIV. ; of his efforts to suppress the Calvinist heresy, and of the great advantages enjoyed by the Church under his auspices. " Why should a Pope of such known saintliness delay to unite himself to the most religious of monarchs ? Such a Pontificate, so holy, so disinterested, ought to be memorable above all things for peace, and for the fruits of peace ; and these, I venture to predict, will be the humi- liation of unbelievers, the conversion of heretics, and the re- establishment of discipline. Such are the objects of our desires; and if it were even necessary to make some sacrifice in order to realise such blessings, ought we to be afraid of being blamed for submitting to it ? " The prelate concludes his discourse by insisting on the vital importance, in all circumstances of difficulty between Church and State, of assembling the Episcopate in Council ; citing various historical examples of the success of that expedient. Nothing can be more apposite than a quotation which he makes from an epistle of St. Bernard to Louis VII., exhorting that prince to convene a meeting of bishops on the occasion of a.d. 1681. COMPROMISE ON THE DROIT DE REGALE. 43 some difference which had arisen with the Pope of the day. " If Eome," he says, " in its Apostolic authority, has acted with any excess of rigour, so as to give your Majesty just cause of offence, your faithful subjects will use their best efforts to obtain a revocation, or at least a modification, of what has been done, to that extent which is necessary to maintain your honour." * This noble sermon undoubtedly gave the tone to the deli- berations of the Assembly. The bishop had submitted it beforehand to the Archbishops of Paris and Beims and the Bishop of Tournay, and also to the king, who expressed his entire approval of it. The Assembly received it with dis- tinguished favour, and ordered it to be printed — an unpre- cedented honour. The first business submitted to the Assembly was the affair of the regale. The committee on this question, of which Bossuet was the most influential member, had made proposals with a view to its settlement by way of compromise. JSego- ciations were accordingly opened with the court ; and it was at length arranged that the clergy should recognize the general extension of the regale as declared by the royal edict of 1675, while the king, on his part, consented to make an important concession to the spiritual jurisdiction, by enacting that, in all cases of benefices having cure of souls, his nominees should apply to the bishop of the diocese or his representatives for canonical institution, before taking possession. This removed, in point of fact, the most objectionable of the pretensions of the Crown ; it guaranteed the principle of Church authority, and the substance of Church discipline; and, under all the circumstances, it was perhaps the wisest and most politic method of putting an end to the dispute. The Assembly felt, of course, that they were making a sacrifice thereby for the sake of peace; but it was the sacrifice of a right which they did not regard as essential or indispensable, and which, moreover, was already lost beyond all chance of recovery ; while, on the * " Si quid ex Apostolica? auctori- tet ad honorem vestrum, fidelos vestri tatis ri^ore processit, unde se merito qui adorant tntis viribus enitentur." esse turbatain Celsitudinis vostne sere- — St. Born., Epist.,255 (Migne, Patrol., nitas arbitretur, qualiter hoc ipsum torn. 182). revocetur aut fcemperetur, prout opor- 44 THE GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. II. other hand, the terms of the new settlement were such as to give the Church a great and manifest advantage. The royal edict regulating the future exercise of the regale appeared in January, 1682, and an act of the Assembly in accordance with it was signed immediately afterwards.* It had been expected that the Pope would signify his acquiescence without difficulty.-f- The Assembly addressed a letter to his Holiness, setting forth the reasons which had governed them, and entreating him to take a favourable view of their pro- ceedings. They reminded him that there had been occasions in history when the bishops, not apprehending any danger to the essence of faith or morals, had thought proper to yield to circumstances of pressing necessity — necessity of such a kind as might even justify an alteration of the law itself ; and they quoted, with considerable force, the words of Ivo of Chartres, — "even if the canons, taken in their strict application, were opposed to the concession which we have made, we should not have hesitated to make it, because the repose of the Church imperatively required it ; for, inasmuch as charity is the fulfil- ment of the law, it is clear that we obey the law when we do what charity demands.":}: They were persuaded, they said, that the present was a case for the employment of a wise con- descension ; and therefore they had cheerfully resigned a right which might be held justly to belong to them, in favour of a sovereign from whom they were constantly receiving so many benefits.§ Innocent did not answer this letter till more than two months afterwards, April 11th, 1682. In his brief of that date he severely rebukes the Assembly for their pusillanimity iu * See the act of the clergy in Isam- que ce seroit etre trop ennemi de la bert, Anc. Lois Fraucaises, torn. xix. j pais, que de le regarder tellement p. 374. eomme incontestable, qu'on ne veuille t Bossuet writes to M. Dirois, Feb. 6, j pas incme entrer dans de justes tempe'- 1G82 : — " Pour ce qui est de la Ile'gale, : laments, surtout dans eeux oil l'Eglise il n'est plus question d'en discourir. 1 a \m si visible avantage. Nous serious Vous verrez, par la lettre que nous ici bien surpris qu'ayant trouve' dans ecrivons au Tape, que la matiere a ete | le roi taut de facilite' a les obtenir, la bien examinee, et si je ne me trompe, 1 difficulte' nous vint du cote' de Home, bien entendue. Nous n'avons pas cru | d'oii nous devons attendre toutcs sortes pouvoir aller jusqu'a, trouver bon le de soutiens." — Lettres Diverses, No. droit du roi, surtout comme on l'ex- I xciv. plique k present; il nous suffit que lc % Ivo Carnot. Epist., 100. notre, quelque clair que nous le eroy- § Collect, des Proees-verbaux, torn. v. ions, est eontcste et perdu ; ct ainsi p. 227. a.d. 1G82. INNOCENT XI. TO THE GALLICAN CLERGY. 45 surrendering to the temporal power a point which he deemed of vital and paramount importance to the interests of the Church. " The bishops and clergy of France, once the joy and crown of the Apostolic See, are now conducting themselves in a way which makes us sorrowfully repeat the complaint of the Prophet, " The sons of my mother have fought against me ; " though it is rather against yourselves that you are fighting, since the cause in hand involves nothing less than the safety and the liberty of the Gallican Church. Your letter appears to be dictated by fear; a motive which never yet prompted bishops to be magnanimous in defence of religion and eccle- siastical discipline, courageous in attack, and constant in endurance. You have yielded to fear where you ought to have felt no fear. You ought only to have feared incurring the just reproofs of God and man for having betrayed your honour and your duty. You ought to have called to mind the ancient Fathers, and those great bishops in all ages who have left you examples of episcopal bolduess and heroism. It was for you to combine your efforts with the authority of the Apostolic See, and to plead the cause of your churches before the king with true pastoral energy and humility, even at the risk of exciting his irritation against you ; that so you might be entitled to address God in the words of David, " I have spoken of Thy testimonies even before kings, and have not been ashamed." Forgetting your responsibility, you seem tp have kept silence in a matter of such moment. We do not see what right you have to say that you have been vanquished in discussion — that you have lost your cause. How can he have fallen who never stood upright? How can he have been defeated who never took the field ? Which of you has vindicated in the king's presence a cause so weighty, so just, so sacred ? Who has emulated the ancient freedom of speech in defence of the house of Israel ? According to your account the king's ministers clamoured in behalf of their master, and that in a bad cause ; but you, whose cause is unexceptionable, you have never opened your lips to contend for the honour of Christ." The Pope goes on to say that he had read with dismay their statement that they had abandoned their rights and transferred them to the king; "as if they were the masters, instead of the guardians, of the churches committed to their custody ; as if spiritual 40 THE GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. II. franchises could be given away to the secular power by bishops, who ought to submit to bonds and imprisonment themselves rathei than permit the Church to be enslaved." Urged by such considerations, Innocent concludes by annul liug all that had been done by the Assembly in the matter of the regale, as well as everything that had been done in consequence of their resolution, and whatever might be attempted to the same effect for the time to come. This vigorous, but ill-judged and intemperate effusion was of course utterly impotent to arrest the march of events in France. The consent of the Pope to the Concordat arrived at between the Sovereign and the National Church had been asked as a matter of respect ; but it was one of those cases in which his refusal was of no practical consequence, except so far as it might add to the bitterness of the existing discord. There is reason to believe, however, that the tone of Inno- cent's letter to the bishops on the affair of the regale was considerably affected by another, and a far more serious, pro- ceeding on the part of the Assembly of 1682; — a proceeding which was all the more mortifying, inasmuch as it was scarcely possible for him to take notice of it in the way of direct reprimand or condemnation. During the long interval which elapsed between the letter of the bishops and the arrival of the reply from Home, the Assembly adopted the four celebrated "Articles " on the independence of the temporal power and the constitutional limits of the authority of the Pope, which have been quoted from that day to the present as forming the authorised resume of the Gallican tradition on those subjects. This step was resolved upon in opposition to the wishes and advice of Bossuet. That prelate was satisfied with what had been already done to check the exaggerated pretensions of the Papacy in the matter of the regale, and was averse to any further measures which might tend only to aggravate and prolong the quarrel. The minister Colbert was the real instigator of the four Gallican articles. He represented to the king that the existing dispute with Koine was precisely the opportunity for reviving the ancient national doctrine as to the power of the Popes in relation both to the State and to the Church ; since, in times of peace and concord, the desire to preserve a good understanding, and reluctance to be the first a.d. 1682. THE ASSEMBLY ON GALLIC AN TRADITION. 47 to stir up strife, would naturally tell against any such move- ment.* To these views he won over his colleague Le Tellier, the Archbishop of Reims, and finally the king himself ; and the cringing parasite De Harlai submissively followed in their wake. In vain Bossuet pointed out that to proclaim solemnly, and, as it were, synodically, propositions notoriously odious to the Holy See would be the way to drive the Pontiff to extre- mities, and to render reconciliation impossible. "The Pope has provoked us," exclaimed De Harlai ; " he shall repent of it ! "t It was intimated to the Assembly, by the king's orders, that they were expected to put forth a formal statement of the doctrine of the Church of France as to the relations between the spiritual and the temporal authorities ; and a committee was named in consequence, of which Gilbert de Choiseul, Bishop of Tournay, j was chairman. In due course that prelate presented to the house an admirable report upon the subject, tracing the tradition of the Church as to the independence of the civil power from the earliest age to that of Gregory VII., who was the first to assert for the Apostolic See an absolute supremacy over temporal sovereigns. Then follows a masterly sketch of the Ultramontane doctrine from that date, both as to this first question and as to the assumed autocracy of the Pope in the government of the Church. The whole document is a model of learned and conclusive argument, and was received with unanimous approbation by the Assembly.§ The duty of drawing up the official Declaration which was to be founded upon it, and which was to embody the doctrinal articles expressing the sentiments of the Gallican Church, was entrusted to the Bishops of Tournay and Meaux ; and there ensued between these two theologians, who were close personal friends, a remarkable dispute upon the vexed question of infallibility ; where it resides, and what are its true conditions * Bausset, Hist, de Bossuet, torn. ii. 1 J Formerly Bishop of Commingcs ; p. 161. We learn this fact from the the same who was so active in pro- Journal of the Abbe' Ledieu, Bo-suet's i moting the negociations between the confidential secretary, who became ac- Jesuit Ferrier and the leaders of quainted with the circumstances in a the Janscnists in 1603. He was trans- conversation with the bishop in Janu- lated to the See of Tournay in 1670, ary, 1700. See Me'mnires et Journal de and died in 1689. VAbhe' Ledieu, edited by Dr. Guettc'e, I § It is given at length in the Collec- tom. ii. p. 8. ' tion des I'rocis-verbaux, torn. v. p. 489 t Nouveaux Opuscules de I'Abbe" et se(/q. Fleury, par l'Abbe Emery. 48 I'HB GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. II. and extent. Of this we have an interesting account from the pen of Fenelon, in his treatise irituels,' which at this time existed only in manuscript, she laid bare the most esoteric depths of the system. But the prejudice against her seems to have arisen in the * Lacombe was transferred from one prison to another; at length, his mind having given way, it was found necessary to place him iu the lunatic asylum at L'harcutou, where he died insane. 104 THE GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. IV. first instance not so much from any critical examination of her writings as from a general imputation of religious extravagance, including some suspicion as to incorrectness of morals. Madame Guyon's first imprisonment lasted eight months. She regained her freedom through the influence of Madame do Maintenon, who had conceived an interest in her from the accounts given by the inmates of the convent of her edifying conduct and many engaging qualities. A reaction now ensued in her favour. Recommended by the patronage of one who, in all but the name, was Queen of France, she found herself admitted on a footing of confidential friendship into some of the highest circles of the capital. She became a frequent guest at the hotel of the Duke de Beauvilliers, governor of the Duke of Burgundy, a councillor of state, and one of the most distinguished ornaments of the Court. Here she speedily made herself the centre of attraction, and captivated all around her. The three sister Duchesses of Beauvilliers, Chevreuse, and Mortemart, (daughters of the minister Colbert), yielded to her ascen- dency, hung upon her words, and almost worshipped her as a messenger direct from heaven. Even the sober-minded Madame de Maintenon, who was in habits of constant intercourse with this great family, was smitten with the prevailing fascination. Here, too, Madame Guyon enjoyed the society of one who was to be the most illustrious of her adherents, the Abbe de Fenelon, at that time recently appointed preceptor to the " children of France." Such was the impression made by Madame Guyon upon the mind of Madame de Maintenon, that after a time the latter introduced her to the " dames de St. Louis," who presided over a semi-conventual establishment which she had founded at St. Cyr, near Versailles. These ladies received her with the utmost distinction, listened in breathless excitement to her " confer- ences," and encouraged her to take a leading part in the religious instruction of the place. This injudicious proceeding led to complications which must for ever be regretted. It so hap- pened that a cousin of Madame Guyon's, Madame de la Maison- fort, was at the head of the educational staff at St. Cyr, and a special favourite with Madame de Maintenon. She embraced the views of her kinswoman with enthusiasm, and propagated them both among teachers and pupils. Ere long the whole house was permeated by the atmosphere of Quietism. The books a.d. 1G89. QUIETISM AT SAINT CYR. 105 and manuscripts of Madame Guyon were passed eagerly from hand to hand. The language of the Mystics became vernacular among the nuns ; they were perpetually discussing the state of contemplation, passive prayer, holy indifference, self-annihilation, the trials of the saints, and disinterested love. The contagion spread to the soeurs converses, who neglected their household work in their anxiety to scan these mysteries, which were all the more attractive in proportion as they were abstruse and unintelligible.* At St. Cyr Madame Guyon frequently met with Fenelon, who was confessor to Madame de la Maisonfort, and was in fact, though not ostensibly, the ecclesiastical director of the institution. That two spirits of such an order should have been instinctively drawn towards each other is surely nothing marvellous. To some writers it seems unaccountable that one in the position and with the intellectual superiority of Fenelon should have been accessible to the spells of a woman who, however talented and accomplished, had shown herself strangely deficient in judgment, and was looked upon in many quarters as a deluded visionary. They have remarked, with a view to explain it, that Fenelon, with all his erudition, all his eloquence, all his refinement, all his spirituality, was not thoroughly trained in theological science ; that he lacked precision of thought; that he was rather an orator than a philosopher ; rather an idealist than a logician ; rather persuasive than profound.! Without denying that there is justice in this criticism, it is important that we should * De Noailles, Histoire de Madame de Maintennn, torn. iii. p. 236 ; Me'moires de Saint Cyr, chap. xxix. ; St. Simon, Me'moires, torn. i. chap, xviii. t "Un naturcl si heureux fut per- verti, comme celui du premier homme, par la voix cl'une femme, et ses talens, sa fortune, sa reputation meme, fureut sacrifie's, non a l'illusion ties seus, mais a celle de l'esprit. On vit ce genie si sublime so homer a devenir le pro- phcto des Mystiques et l'oracle du Quie'tisme ; eldoui le premier par l'e'clat de ses lumicres, et e : hlouissant ensuite les autres ; suppleant au dc'faut de science par la bcautc de son esprit, fertile en images speeicuses et se'dui- santes plutot qu'en idu'es claires et pre- cises; voulant toujours paroitre pbilo- sophe ou the'ologien, et n'e'tant jamais qu'orateur ; caractere qu'il a conserve dans tous les ouvrages qui sont sortis de sa plume jusqu'a la fin de sa vie." — D'Aguesseau, "Me'moires sur les affaires de l'Egl. de Fr." (LEuvns, torn. xiii. p., 109). See also Guette'e, Hist, de l'Egl. de Fr., torn. xi. pp. 149, 150. It must he borne in mind, however, that Fenelon was no friend to the Jan- senists; and that on certain important occasions he openly sided with their adversaries. Unbappily this wretched ecclesiastical feud bad an under-current of practical influence which it is neces- sary to take into account throughout tbis period of French history. 106 THE GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. IV. not exaggerate the amount of influence obtained by Madame Guyon over Fenelon. Their relations have been misrepresented ; as if hers had been the governing mind, while he was little more than an apt scholar ; she the heaven-sent guide, and he the sub- missive disseminator of her teaching. This is a false colouring of the case. No one who approached Madame Guyon could be insensible to the peculiar charm of her personal character ; and Fenelon appreciated it equally with others. Moreover, the natural bias of his mind, and the direction of his studies from his youth up, predisposed him to sympathize with her views of experimental religion; but these very circumstances qualified him, in an eminent degree, to judge of their soundness and truth. Though not, perhaps, a consummate master of theology in its widest range, Fenelon was deeply versed in one important branch of it, namely, the theology of the Mystics ; and he was therefore better able than most others to decide how far Madame Guyon was in accord with those whom the Church had authorized to speak on such matters in her name, and how far she was the dupe of her own overwrought feelings and exuberant imagina- tion. That his admiration of her genius, and his predilection for the characteristic features of Mysticism, did not prevent him from discriminating between the true and the false, the laudable and the questionable, both in her writings and her conduct, is a fact of which we have abundant evidence. In his ' Reponse a la Relation sur le Quietisme,' and in his correspondence with Madame de Maintenon and M. Tronson, he gives a transparently candid account of the rise and progress of his acquaintance with Madame Guyon, and explains his mature view of her case in all its bearings. At first, he says, he was prejudiced against her, from what he had heard reported about her travels. These impressions were dispelled by the perusal of a letter from the Bishop of Geneva ; that prelate declared that he esteemed and honoured Madame Guyon infinitely ; that he could not in con- science speak otherwise than in the highest terms of her piety and morals; and that he had but one fault to find with her, namely, that she sought to introduce her own system into all the" religious houses of the diocese, irrespectively of the rules and statutes of their foundation. This, observes Fenelon, was merely the indiscreet zeal of a woman who was too anxious to a.d. 1G90. FENELON'S ESTIMATE OF MADAME GUYON. 107 communicate to others things which she deemed salutary and edifying.* " I never had any natural inclination," he writes again, " either towards her person or her writings. I never remarked anything extraordinary about her, which might tend to pre- possess me iu her favour. While in the perfect enjoyment of her liberty, she explained to me her religious experience, and all her sentiments. There is no need to discuss her peculiar language, which I do not defend, and which is of no great con- sequence in a woman, provided the meaning be Catholic. She is naturally prone to exaggeration, and incautious in her mode of speaking. She is even apt to place too much confidence in those who question her. I count for nothing her pretended prophecies and revelations ; and I should have but a poor opinion of her if I thought that she esteemed them very highly. A person who is devoted to God may mention incidentally something which has passed through her mind, without forming any positive judgment upon it, or wishing that others should consider it seriously. It may be an impression from God, for His gifts are inexhaustible ; but it may also be a baseless imagination. The principle of loving God exclusively for His own sake, absolutely renouncing all self-interest, is a principle of pure faith, which has no sort of connection with miracles and visions. No man can be more circumspect or dispassionate than I am on that point." f In another letter he says, " I saw Madame Guyon often, as all the world knows ; I esteemed her, and I allowed her to enjoy the esteem of persons of high eminence, whose reputation is dear to the Church, and who had confidence in me. It was impossible that I should be ignorant of her writings. Although I did not examine them all completely, I became acquainted with them sufficiently to feel in doubt about her, and to ques- tion her with the greatest strictness. I repeatedly made her explain to me what she thought upon the fopics in agitation. I demanded of her the precise value of each of the terms of that mystical phraseology which she employed in her writings. I ascertained distinctly, on each occasion, that she understood * "Iteponso a la Relation," chap, i. § 1 ((Enures de Fe'iiiflon, torn. ii.). t To Madame de Maintenon, 7 uxarn 1(396, Corresp., No. 53. 108 THE GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. IV. them in a sense perfectly innocent and perfectly Catholic. . . . Let others, who know nothing of Madame Guyon but her writings, interpret them, if they please, with rigour ; I do not interfere ; I do not defend or excuse either her person or her writings. But, for my own part, I am bound in equity to judge of the meaning of her writings by her sentiments, with which I am intimately acquainted, rather than to pronounce upon her opinions from the literal sense of her expressions — a sense which she never meant them to convey."* These testimonies prove that Fenelon's approbation of Madame Guyon was, from the first, reserved and qualified. He regarded her as one who had made great advances in the spiritual life, and as a dutiful daughter of the Church in inten- tion and principle ; but he was fully alive to her failings in the way of unmeasured language, though he thought her entitled to considerable indulgence even on that score ; first by reason of her sterling integrity, and secondly by reason of her sex. It must be remembered, also, that Fenelon had seen only the printed works of Madame Guyon, and knew nothing whatever of her manuscript productions — the 'Torrents,' the 'Autobio- graphy,' the ' Exposition of the Apocalypse,' and others ; — the latter of which were far more objectionable than the former, both in point of rhapsodical style, and as to heterodox specu- lation in doctrine. In a word, the relations of Fenelon to Madame Guyon were those of one self-reliant and independent mind to another. He was drawn towards her by congeniality of natural taste, and by a sympathetic interest in the deepest and most inscrutable mysteries of personal religion ; but it were a mistake to suppose that he blindly surrendered his judgment to hers, or that he ever exchanged the dignity of his office as a priest for the character of a proselyte or a disciple. Nevertheless it was natural, and perhaps inevitable, that as soon as the name of Madame Guyon became notorious in society, and she was known to have been the cause of serious discord and commotion at St. Cyr, a certain amount of suspicion should fall upon Fenelon, who was supposed, and with reason, to be her most influential supporter in that institution. Symptoms of the coming storm appeared in 1693. The Bishop of Chartres, * To Madame de Maiutenon, September, 1696, Corresp, de Fenelon, No. 57. a.d. 1G93. THE BISHOP OP CHARTRES OPPOSES QUIETISM. 109 Godet-Desmarais, in whose diocese St. Cyr was at that time situated,* viewed with alarm the morbid tone of sentiment which had invaded the sisterhood, and felt it his duty, both as bishop of the diocese and as the spiritual adviser of Madame de Maintenon, to warn her against what he deemed an evil of no common magnitude. There is no need to take it for granted, with some writers, that he was actuated in this step by jealousy of Fenelon. The question of Mysticism (particularly the deve- lopment of it then prevalent) was one upon which conscientious Churchmen might take opposite sides without any infusion of unworthy feeling, simply from the incentive of zeal for truth, or cogent sense of duty. Bishop Godet held Fenelon in sincere regard. For his sake he long delayed to impart his misgivings to Madame de Maintenon ; and, when he did so, he scrupulously avoided saying anything which could implicate his friend in the errors which he denounced.! Madame de Maintenon was slow to be convinced. She was familiar with the ' Moyen court ' of Madame Guyon (which had been recommended to her by Fenelon), and had even read some part of it to the king ; but Louis, who was "not sufficiently advanced in piety to relish such a method of perfection," had dismissed it as dreamy and fantastical. J The monitions of her confessor opened her eyes to the danger ; yet, from her great esteem for Fenelon, she refrained from moving in the affair until she had taken the opinions of other divines of the highest standing. She con- sulted Bossuet, de Noailles,§ Bourdaloue, Brisacier, Joly the superior of St. Lazare, and Tronson, under whom Fenelon had studied at the Seminary of St, Sulpice. Their verdict was * The present See of Versailles was I des rnaximes, condaninees il y a pres do quatre cents ans, dans un concile ge- ne'ral tenu a Vienne, en France, et qui etoient soutenues par des gens qui vou- loieut e'tablir une nouvelle spiritualite dont les principes c'toient fort conformes a ceux que Madame Guyon enseigne dans ses ouvrages. Los ide'es de per- fection qu'elle y donuo out etc non- Beulement inconnues aux Apotres a qui not erected till the Concordat of 1802. t Bausset, Histoire de Fenelon, torn, i. chap. vi. % Madame de Maintenon to the Ctesse. de St.-Ge'ran, 12 mai 1G91 (Lettres et Me'moires de Madame de Maintenon, torn. ii. p. 109. La Beau- mclle). § The opinion of this prelate (then Bishop of Chalons) is preserved in the j toute ve'ritc' a etc' reve'le'e, inais sont formellemcnt oppose'es aux regies qu'ils nous out laissces, a cellcs des sninls Peres qui les ont suivis, eta la pratique de tous les saints.'' — The'oph. Lavallce, Correxpondance ge'ne'rale de Madame de Maintenon, torn. iii. p. -10G. correspondence of Madame do Mainte- non. "Les livres de Madame Guyon," he says, " renfermcnt, sous une appa- rcuce de piete, des propositions dangc- reuses, et qui tendent a renouvder les crreura du Quit tisme. On y trouve 110 THE GALLICAN CHURCH. Chap. IV. unanimous against Madame Guyon and her system ; and Madame de Maintenon hesitated no longer. She notified to Madame Guyon that her visits would not be acceptable fur the future at St. Cyr. The sisters were forbidden to read her books ; her manuscripts, together with certain papers written by Fenelon, were withdrawn from circulation ; and it was hoped that by these vigorous measures order and tranquillity would soon be re-established. The Bishop of Chartres seemed satisfied with this submission to his pastoral authority ; and there was no disposition to proceed further against Madame Guyon, could she have been content to take her dismissal quietly, and to remain in silence. But, unfortunately, she now appealed to the arbitration of Bossuet ; who, with his masculine straightforward- ness and logical rigidity of mind, was of all men the least likely to judge her leniently. She was determined to this step by the advice of Fenelon, who induced her to submit to the Bishop of Meaux not only her published works, but also her manuscript effusions, which she had never communicated even to himself.* Bossuet spent several months in perusing them, and was shocked to find that they abounded with preposterous absurdities, be- tokening a mind in a state of chronic disorder. Some of her pretensions were precisely those of the Spiritualists of our own times. She claimed to be " clairvoyante ; " she saw into the innermost depths of souls ; and not only so, but she possessed " a miraculous authority both over the bodies and the minds of those whom the Lord had given to her, so that their internal condition seemed to be wholly in her hands." She was a reservoir of superabundant grace, the overflowings of which she dispensed, by a somewhat materialistic process, to those who were placed in personal contact with her. It was in this way * Fenelon, MS. note to the Relation, p. 5. Among the Egcrton MSS. in the British Museum (No. 166-1) is a copy, in small 4to, of the original edition of Bossuet's Relation sur le Quietisme, profusely annotated in the margin ■with critical remarks in the hand- writing of Fe'ue'Ion himself. It is need- less to point out the interest attaching to this commentary, representing, as doubtless it does, the first vivid impres- sions wrought on Fe'nelon's mind by the redoubtable manifesto of his adver- sary. It appears that he forwarded an- other copy of the Relat ion, with a similar running refutation of its contents, to the Abbe' do Chauterac, his agent at Rome. It has never, to the best of my know- ledge, appeared in print ; the Re~ponse a la Relation being a totally distinct com- position. The reader is requested to remember that the passages quoted in foot-notes, for the purpose of substan- tiating statements advanced in the text, are literal extracts from this manu- script. a.d. 1693. MADAME GUYON APPEALS TO BOSSUET. Ill that she obtained relief when half-snffocated by the redundance of her spiritual gifts. She spoke of herself as the appointed instrument of God's most marvellous operations ; as invested with a prophetical, or rather an Apostolical, mission ; as the minister of a new dispensation. " That which I bind shall be bound, and that which I loose shall be loosed ; I am that stone fixed by the holy Cross, rejected by the master-buihlers."* In her ' Commentary on the Apocalypse ' she indulged in flights of fancy of an equally exorbitant kind. However startled and scandalized, Bossuet seems to have treated Madame Guyon on this occasion with much forbearance. He wrote letters to her replete with weighty reasoning and fatherly counsel. He held a lengthened interview with her, in which he earnestly laboured to dispel her illusions, combating more especially her strange notion that to implore anything of God (for instance, the pardon of our sins) is an act of self- interest, incompatible with " pure love " and entire conformity with the Divine will. He was unable to disabuse her of this error ; but she made repeated promises of submission to his instructions, and engaged to remain for a time in retirement, according to his advice. Bossuet next visited Fenelon, with whom he was still on terms of intimacy, and strove to open his eyes to Madame Guyon's hallucinations, by laying before him extracts from those parts of her writings which he had never before seen.t He expected that his friend's opinion of these extracts would * Bossuet, Relation sur le Quie~fisme, Sect. ii. 9, 13, 14, 15. See Madame Guyon's Autobiograjihy, Pt. ii. chap, xvii. With reference to the Auto- biography, she writes to Bossuet in an apologetic tone (February, 1GD4, Lettre x.) : — " Ce fut par execs de confianco que jo vous donnai la Vie, que jYtois prete a bruler coinmo le reste, si Voire Grandeur me l'avoit ordonnc. \Jous voyez Lien que cefte Vie no se peut montrer que par execs do confianco. Jc l'ai e'erite, ainsi que mon Dicu eat te'moin, avec une telle ab.- traction d'esprit, qu'il ne m a jamais etc permis dc faire uu retour sur nioi en l'ecri- vant. Quoique ccla soit dc la sorte, peu de persounes sont capablca dc com- prendrc jusqu'ou vont les secretes ct amoureuses communications de Dieu et de Fame. La confianee que notre Seigneur m'a donne'e en Votre Grandeur m'a fait croire que vous les sentiriez si elks e'taient incompre'hensibles, et que le cceur soit frappe des memos choscs qui n pugnoicnt ii l'esprit." After such a naive confession, it would be harsh indeed to interpret the Autobiography •' an pied de la lettre." t MSS. notes of Fenelon to the Re- lation, pp. 12-15; ibid., p. 27. Fenelon declares that he condemned these ex- tracts without hesitation : — " On pent done me croire quand je dis que jc n'ai point In des manusorits que j'ai fait lire a M. de Mcaux ; ct que je con- damne sans he'sitcr sur l'expose' qu'on rn'en fait.'' 112 THE OALLICAN CriURCH. Chap. IV. have agreed altogether with his own ; but instead of this he was met with extenuations, qualifications, and evasions ; and in the end he went his way without success, mourning over the eclipse of such a noble mind. The march of events, however, had already convinced Fenelon of the necessity of caution. After 1G93 his communications with Madame Guyon were extremely rare.* He resigned the office of confessor to Madame de la Maisonfort. He requested that the letters of spiritual counsel which he had written for the benefit of certain inmates of St. Cyr might be suppressed ; and he explained his principles at length to Madame de Maintenon, guarding himself against unwarrantable inferences, defending himself from the charge of innovation, and professing all reverent submission to the tradition of the Church.t He was evidently conscious that he had become an object of mis- trust ; and it was soon apparent that his favour and position at court were seriously in jeopardy. Still, if Madame Guyon could have acquiesced in the advice which she had voluntarily solicited, and remained in patient seclusion, these unfavourable impressions would probably have died away without leaving injurious results. But in 1694 her restlessness returned ; and she petitioned the king, through Madame de Maintenon, for a commission, half clerical and half lay, to report, not only on the soundness of her writings, but on the truth of rumours which she alleged to be current against her moral character.^ As to the lay commissioners this request was refused, since the vague calumnies referred to were credited by none ; but three ecclesiastics were named to undertake the theological enquiry — Bossuet, De Noailles, and Tronson ; and they proceeded to hold a series of conferences, extending over many months, at a country-house at Issy, belonging to Tronson as Superior of the congregation of St. Sulpice. These confer- * He writes thus to Archbishop de Noailles in June, 1697 : — " Je n'ai vu ni pu voir bieu souvent Madame Guyon. Mon principal commerce avee elle a ete par lcttres, oil je la questionnais Bur toutcs les matieres de l'oraison. Je n'ai jamais ricn vu que de bon dans ses reponses; et j'ai e'te edifie' dYlle, a cause qu'il ne m'y a paru que droi- ture et picte'. Des qu'on a parle contre elle, j'ai cesse de la voir, de lui e'erire, et do recevoir de ses lettres, pour oter tout sujet de peine aux peraonnes alar- mecs." — Corresp. de Fenelon, No. 67. t Correspondance de Fe'ne'lon, Nos. 30,31. % Madame Guyon to Madame de Maintenon, June, 1694 (Corresp. de Fe'ne'lon, torn. vii. No. 30). a .d. 1694. THE CONFERENCES OF ISSY. 113 ences were conducted in strict secresy. Even the Archbishop of Paris, to whose jurisdiction as diocesan the affair properly- belonged, was not consulted. He took offence in consequence, and showed his feelings by forestalling, in a pastoral ordonnance of October 16, 169-1, the judgment of the commissioners on the matter in hand. He condemned a treatise on Mental Prayer by Father Lacombe, and the two principal works of Madame Guyon, as containing false and pernicious doctrine, long since censured by the Councils of Vienneand Trent; and pointed out that they were essentially opposed to Christianity, by encouraging con- tempt for external duties and observances, by disparaging mor- tification and rules of asceticism, by prescribing indifference to those means which are the best calculated to promote holiness and salvation, and by fostering the mistaken persuasion that God may be possessed even in this life as He is in Himself, without any intermediate instruments.* Bossuet and his col- leagues took little notice of this manifesto of their metropolitan. They pursued their task, observing that it was not their inten- tion to act in the way of episcopal jurisdiction, but simply to lay down doctrinal conclusions for the guidance and satisfaction of those who had shown confidence in them by naming them to compose the commission.f But what was the part reserved for Fenelon in an investigation which concerned him so nearly, and which, in respect of deep knowledge of the questions in debate, he was more competent to direct than any one of the triumvirate at Issy ? His name was excluded from the Commission ; partly because there was too much reason to regard him as a partisan of Madame Guyon, and partly because his friends (among whom Bossuet must still be reckoned) wished to prevent his having the opportunity of compromising himself further at this critical moment. The authority of Bossuet was paramount in the Commission ; and indeed the spirit of ecclesiastical dictatorship, which by this time had become habitual to him, was but too manifest throughout the proceedings. Conscious, however, that he had but a slight acquaintance with mystical theology, he applied to Fenelon to furnish him with extracts from ancient and modern sources to * D'Avrigny, M