François Fénelon
Encyclopedia
François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, more commonly known as François Fénelon (6 August 1651 – 7 January 1715), was a French
Roman Catholic archbishop
, theologian
, poet
and writer. He today is remembered mostly as one of the main advocates of quietism
and as the author of The adventures of Telemachus
, a thinly veiled attack on the French
monarchy
, first published in 1699.
, Périgord
, Aquitaine
, the second of the three children of Pons de Salignac, Comte de La Mothe-Fénelon by his wife Louise de La Cropte. Being born into a noble family, many of Fénelon's ancestors had been active in politics, and for several generations his relatives had served as bishop
s of Sarlat.
Fénelon's early education was provided in the Château de Fénelon by a private tutor which provided Fénelon with a thorough grounding in the Greek language
and classics
. In 1663, at age 12, he was sent to the University of Cahors, where he studied rhetoric
and philosophy
. When the young man expressed interest in a career in the church, his uncle, the Marquis Antoine de Fénelon (a friend of Jean-Jacques Olier
and Vincent de Paul) arranged for him to study at the Collège du Plessis, whose theology
students followed the same curriculum as the theology students at the Sorbonne
. While there, he became friends with Antoine de Noailles
, who later became a cardinal
and the Archbishop of Paris
. Fénelon demonstrated so much talent at the Collège du Plessis that at age 15, he was asked to give a public sermon.
About 1672 (i.e. around the time he was 21 years old), Fénelon's uncle managed to get him enrolled in the Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice, the Sulpician seminary
in Paris
.
. He initially thought of becoming a missionary to the East, but ultimately decided to join the Sulpician order.
In 1678, Hardouin de Péréfixe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris
, selected Fénelon to head the house of Nouvelles-Catholiques, a community for Protestant converts about to enter the Church of Rome.
. When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes
in 1685, the Church began a campaign to send the greatest orators in the country into the regions of France with the highest concentration of Huguenots to persuade them of the errors of Protestantism
. Upon Bossuet's suggestion, Fénelon was included in this group, alongside such oratorical greats as Louis Bourdaloue
and Esprit Fléchier
.
He consequently spent the next three years in the Saintonge
region of France preaching to Protestants. He persuaded the king to remove troops from the region and tried to avoid outright displays of religious oppression, though, in the end, he was willing to resort to force to make Protestants listen to his message. He believed that "to be obliged to do good is always an advantage and that heretics and schismatics, when forced to apply their minds to the consideration of truth, eventually lay aside their erroneous beliefs, whereas they would never have examined these matters had not authority constrained them."
at Versailles
. It was probably at Bossuet's urging that he now composed his Réfutation du système de Malebranche sur la nature et sur la grâce, a work in which he attacked Nicolas Malebranche
's views on optimism
, the creation, and the Incarnation
. This work was not published until 1820, long after Fénelon's death
Fénelon also became friendly with the Duc de Beauvilliers and the Duc de Chevreuse, who were married to the daughters of Louix XIV's minister of finance Jean-Baptiste Colbert
. The Duchesse de Beauvilliers, who was the mother of eight daughters, asked Fénelon his advice on raising children; as a result, he wrote his Traité de l'education des filles. This work is often seen as being somewhat ahead of its time, as it insists that girls should receive a thorough education, particularly in theological matters, so that they will be able to recognize and refute heresies
. He also wrote a Treatise on the Existence of God.
In 1688, Fénelon first met Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon
, usually known simply as "Mme Guyon" or simply Madame Guyon. At that time, she was being well received in the social circle of the Beauvilliers and Chevreuses. Fénelon and Guyon were cousins; Fénelon was deeply impressed by her piety and actively discipled her; he would later become a devotee and defender of her brand of Quietism
.
As tutor, Fénelon was charged with guiding the character formation of a future King of France. He wrote several important works specifically to guide his young charge. These include his Fables and his Dialogues des Morts.
But by far the most lasting of his works that he composed for the duke was his Les Aventures de Télémaque
(English The Adventures of Telemachus, Son of Ulysses), written in 1693-94. On its surface, The Adventures of Telemachus was a novel about Ulysses
' son Telemachus
, but in reality, it was a biting attack on the divine right
absolute monarchy
which was the dominant ideology of Louis XIV's France. In sharp contrast to Bossuet, who, when tutor to the Dauphin had written Politique tirée de l'Écriture sainte which affirmed the divine foundations of absolute monarchy while at the same exercising the future king to use restraint and wisdom in exercising his absolute power, in Telemachus, Fénelon went so far as to write "Good kings are rare and the generality of monarchs bad" (p. 254).
The French literary historian Jean-Claude Bonnet calls Télémaque “the true key to the museum of the eighteenth century imagination.” One of the most popular works of the century, it was an immediate best seller both in France and abroad, going through many editions and translated into every European language and even Latin verse (first in Berlin in 1743, then in Paris by Étienne Viel [1737-87]). It inspired numerous imitations, such as the Abbé Jean Terrasson
's novel Sethos
(1731). It also supplied the plot for Mozart's opera, Idomeneo (1781).
It was the general opinion that Fénelon's tutorship resulted in a dramatic improvement in the young duke's behaviour. Even the memoirist Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
, who generally disliked Fénelon, admitted that when Fénelon became tutor, the duke was a spoiled, violent child; when Fénelon left him, the duke had learned the lessons of self-control and had been thoroughly impressed with a sense of his future duties. Telemachus is therefore widely seen as the most thorough exposition of the brand of reformism in the Beauvilliers-Chevreuse circle, which hoped that following Louis XIV's death, his brand of autocracy could be replaced by a monarchy less centralized and less absolute, and with a greater role for aristocrats such as Beauvilliers and Chevreuse.
In 1693, Fénelon was elected to Seat 34 of the French Academy.
In 1694, the king named Fénelon Abbot of Saint-Valéry
, a lucrative post worth 14,000 livres
a year.
The early- to mid-1690s are significant since it was during this period that Mme de Maintenon
(quasi-morganatic
wife of Louis XIV since roughly 1684) began to regularly consult Fénelon on matters of conscience. Also, since he had a reputation as an expert on the education of girls, she sought his advice on the house of Saint-Cyr
which she was founding for girls.
In February 1696, the king nominated Fénelon to become the Archbishop of Cambrai while at the same time asking him to remain in his position as tutor to the duke of Burgundy. Fénelon accepted, and he was consecrated by his old friend Bossuet in August.
In 1697, following a visit by Mme Guyon to Mme de Maintenon's school at Saint-Cyr, Paul Godet des Marais
, Bishop of Chartres (Saint-Cyr was located within his diocese
) expressed concerns about Mme Guyon's orthodoxy
to Mme de Maintenon. He was concerned that Mme Guyon's opinions bore striking similarities to Miguel de Molinos
' Quietism
, condemned by Pope Innocent XI
in 1687. As a result, Mme de Maintenon asked for an ecclesiastical commission to exam Mme Guyon's orthodoxy: the commission consisted of two of Fénelon's old friends, Bossuet and de Noailles, as well as the head of the Sulpician order of which Fénelon was a member. The commission sat at Issy and, after six months of deliberations, delivered its opinion in the Articles d'Issy, 34 articles which briefly condemned certain of Mme Guyon's opinions and set forth a brief exposition of the Catholic view of prayer
. These articles were signed by Fénelon and the Bishop of Chartres, as well as by all three members of the commission. Mme Guyon immediately submitted to the decision of the commission.
At Issy, the commission had decided that Bossuet should follow up the Articles with an exposition of them, so Bossuet now proceeded to write that exposition in a work he entitled Instructions sur les états d'oraison. Bossuet submitted this work to the members of the commission, as well as to the Bishop of Chartres and Fénelon, to ask for their signatures prior to its publication. Fénelon refused to sign, arguing that Mme Guyon had already admitted her mistakes and there was no point in further condemning her. Furthermore, Fénelon disagreed with Bossuet's interpretation of the Articles d'Issy, so in response Fénelon wrote Explication des Maximes des Saints (a work often regarded as his masterpiece - English: Maxims of the Saints), in which he provided his own interpretation of the Articles d'Issy, interpreting them in a way much more sympathetic to the Quietist viewpoint than Bossuet's interpretation.
Louis XIV, shocked that his grandson's tutors held such views, removed Fénelon from his post as royal tutor and ordered Fénelon to remain within the boundaries of the archdiocese of Cambrai. The king chastised Bossuet for not warning him earlier of Fénelon's opinions and ordered Bossuet, de Noailles, and the Bishop of Chartres to respond to the Maximes des Saints.
This unleashed two years of pamphlet warfare as the two sides traded opinions. This continued until 12 March 1699, when the Inquisition
formally condemned the Maximes des Saints, with Pope Innocent XII listing 23 specific propositions as unorthodox.
Fénelon immediately declared that he submitted to the pope's authority in the matter and set aside his own opinion in the matter. With this, the matter dropped.
In 1699, The Adventures of Telemachus was published and Louis XIV was enraged by this work, which appeared to question the very foundations of his regime. As a result, even after Fénelon abjured his Quietist views, the king refused to revoke his order forbidding Fénelon from leaving his archdiocese.
, but also devoted several months of each year to visitation
of his archdiocese. He preached in his cathedral on festival days, and took an especial interest in seminary training and in examining candidates for the priesthood prior to their ordination.
During the War of the Spanish Succession
, Spanish troops encamped in his archdiocese (an area only recently gained by France from Spain
), but the troops never interfered with Fénelon in the exercise of his archiepiscopal duties. During the war, Fénelon opened his palace to refugees from around the archdiocese who had fled in the face of Spanish troops.
During these latter years, Fénelon wrote a series of anti-Jansenist works. The impetus for this was the publication of the Cas de Conscience, which revived the old Jansenist distinction between questions of law and questions of fact, and arguing that though the church had the right to condemn certain opinions as heretical, it did not have the right to oblige one to believe that these opinions were actually contained in Cornelius Jansen
's Augustinus. In response to this, Fénelon wrote treatises, sermons, and pastoral letters which occupy seven volumes in his collected works. Fénelon particularly condemned Pasquier Quesnel
's Réflexions morales sur le Nouveau Testament, and his writings were part of the build-up to Pope Clement XI
's 1713 bull Unigenitus
, condemning Quesnel's opinions.
Although confined to the archdiocese to Cambrai, in his later years, Fénelon continued to act as a spiritual director for Mme de Maintenon, the ducs de de Chevreuse and de Beauvilliers, the duke of Burgundy, and a number of other prominent individuals.
Fénelon's later years were saddened by the deaths of many of his close friends. Shortly before his death, he asked Louis XIV to replace him with a man opposed to Jansenism and loyal to the Sulpician order. He died on 7 January 1715.
. Thus he speaks:
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Roman Catholic archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
, theologian
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and writer. He today is remembered mostly as one of the main advocates of quietism
Quietism (Christian philosophy)
Quietism is a Christian philosophy that swept through France, Italy and Spain during the 17th century, but it had much earlier origins. The mystics known as Quietists insist, with more or less emphasis, on intellectual stillness and interior passivity as essential conditions of perfection...
and as the author of The adventures of Telemachus
Les Aventures de Télémaque
Les aventures de Télémaque was a didactic French novel by Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai and tutor to the seven-year-old Duc de Bourgogne . It was published anonymously in 1699 and reissued in 1717 by his family...
, a thinly veiled attack on the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
, first published in 1699.
Childhood and Education, 1651-75
Fénelon was born on 6 August 1651 at the Château de Fénelon, in Sainte-MondaneSainte-Mondane
Sainte-Mondane is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...
, Périgord
Périgord
The Périgord is a former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne département, now forming the northern part of the Aquitaine région. It is divided into four regions, the Périgord Noir , the Périgord Blanc , the Périgord Vert and the Périgord Pourpre...
, Aquitaine
Aquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...
, the second of the three children of Pons de Salignac, Comte de La Mothe-Fénelon by his wife Louise de La Cropte. Being born into a noble family, many of Fénelon's ancestors had been active in politics, and for several generations his relatives had served as bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s of Sarlat.
Fénelon's early education was provided in the Château de Fénelon by a private tutor which provided Fénelon with a thorough grounding in the Greek language
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
and classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
. In 1663, at age 12, he was sent to the University of Cahors, where he studied rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
. When the young man expressed interest in a career in the church, his uncle, the Marquis Antoine de Fénelon (a friend of Jean-Jacques Olier
Jean-Jacques Olier
-Early life:At Lyon, where his father had become administrator of justice, he made a thorough classical course under the Jesuits ; he was encouraged to become a priest by St. Francis de Sales, who predicted his sanctity and great services to the Ccatholic Church. He studied philosophy at the...
and Vincent de Paul) arranged for him to study at the Collège du Plessis, whose theology
Christian theology
- Divisions of Christian theology :There are many methods of categorizing different approaches to Christian theology. For a historical analysis, see the main article on the History of Christian theology.- Sub-disciplines :...
students followed the same curriculum as the theology students at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
. While there, he became friends with Antoine de Noailles
Louis-Antoine, Cardinal de Noailles
Louis-Antoine de Noailles , second son of Anne, 1st duc de Noailles, was a French bishop and cardinal.Noailles received his doctorate in theology from the Sorbonne on 14 March 1676...
, who later became a cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
and the Archbishop of Paris
Archbishop of Paris
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris is one of twenty-three archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The original diocese is traditionally thought to have been created in the 3rd century by St. Denis and corresponded with the Civitas Parisiorum; it was elevated to an archdiocese on...
. Fénelon demonstrated so much talent at the Collège du Plessis that at age 15, he was asked to give a public sermon.
About 1672 (i.e. around the time he was 21 years old), Fénelon's uncle managed to get him enrolled in the Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice, the Sulpician seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Early years as a priest, 1675-85
In about 1675, (when he would have been 24), he was ordained as a priestPriest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
. He initially thought of becoming a missionary to the East, but ultimately decided to join the Sulpician order.
In 1678, Hardouin de Péréfixe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris
Archbishop of Paris
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris is one of twenty-three archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The original diocese is traditionally thought to have been created in the 3rd century by St. Denis and corresponded with the Civitas Parisiorum; it was elevated to an archdiocese on...
, selected Fénelon to head the house of Nouvelles-Catholiques, a community for Protestant converts about to enter the Church of Rome.
Missionary to the Huguenots, 1686-87
During this period, Fénelon had become friends with his future rival Jacques-Bénigne BossuetJacques-Bénigne Bossuet
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet was a French bishop and theologian, renowned for his sermons and other addresses. He has been considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a masterly French stylist....
. When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes
Edict of Nantes
The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity...
in 1685, the Church began a campaign to send the greatest orators in the country into the regions of France with the highest concentration of Huguenots to persuade them of the errors of Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
. Upon Bossuet's suggestion, Fénelon was included in this group, alongside such oratorical greats as Louis Bourdaloue
Louis Bourdaloue
Louis Bourdaloue was a French Jesuit and preacher.He was born in Bourges. At the age of sixteen he entered the Society of Jesus, and was appointed successively professor of rhetoric, philosophy and moral theology, in various Jesuit colleges...
and Esprit Fléchier
Esprit Fléchier
Esprit Fléchier was a French preacher and author, Bishop of Nîmes from 1687 to 1710.-Life:He was born at Pernes-les-Fontaines, in the département of Vaucluse, in the Comtat Venaissin, and brought up at Tarascon by his uncle, Hercule Audiffret, superior of the Congrégation des Doctrinaires...
.
He consequently spent the next three years in the Saintonge
Saintonge
Saintonge is a small region on the Atlantic coast of France within the département Charente-Maritime, west and south of Charente in the administrative region of Poitou-Charentes....
region of France preaching to Protestants. He persuaded the king to remove troops from the region and tried to avoid outright displays of religious oppression, though, in the end, he was willing to resort to force to make Protestants listen to his message. He believed that "to be obliged to do good is always an advantage and that heretics and schismatics, when forced to apply their minds to the consideration of truth, eventually lay aside their erroneous beliefs, whereas they would never have examined these matters had not authority constrained them."
Important friends, 1687-89
During this period, Fénelon assisted Bossuet during his lectures on the BibleBible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
at Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
. It was probably at Bossuet's urging that he now composed his Réfutation du système de Malebranche sur la nature et sur la grâce, a work in which he attacked Nicolas Malebranche
Nicolas Malebranche
Nicolas Malebranche ; was a French Oratorian and rationalist philosopher. In his works, he sought to synthesize the thought of St. Augustine and Descartes, in order to demonstrate the active role of God in every aspect of the world...
's views on optimism
Optimism
The Oxford English Dictionary defines optimism as having "hopefulness and confidence about the future or successful outcome of something; a tendency to take a favourable or hopeful view." The word is originally derived from the Latin optimum, meaning "best." Being optimistic, in the typical sense...
, the creation, and the Incarnation
Incarnation (Christianity)
The Incarnation in traditional Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ the second person of the Trinity, also known as God the Son or the Logos , "became flesh" by being conceived in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos .The Incarnation is a fundamental theological...
. This work was not published until 1820, long after Fénelon's death
Fénelon also became friendly with the Duc de Beauvilliers and the Duc de Chevreuse, who were married to the daughters of Louix XIV's minister of finance Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing...
. The Duchesse de Beauvilliers, who was the mother of eight daughters, asked Fénelon his advice on raising children; as a result, he wrote his Traité de l'education des filles. This work is often seen as being somewhat ahead of its time, as it insists that girls should receive a thorough education, particularly in theological matters, so that they will be able to recognize and refute heresies
Christian heresy
Christian heresy refers to non-orthodox practices and beliefs that were deemed to be heretical by one or more of the Christian churches. In Western Christianity, the term "heresy" most commonly refers to those beliefs which were declared to be anathema by the Catholic Church prior to the schism of...
. He also wrote a Treatise on the Existence of God.
In 1688, Fénelon first met Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon
Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon
Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon was a French mystic and one of the key advocates of Quietism...
, usually known simply as "Mme Guyon" or simply Madame Guyon. At that time, she was being well received in the social circle of the Beauvilliers and Chevreuses. Fénelon and Guyon were cousins; Fénelon was deeply impressed by her piety and actively discipled her; he would later become a devotee and defender of her brand of Quietism
Quietism (Christian philosophy)
Quietism is a Christian philosophy that swept through France, Italy and Spain during the 17th century, but it had much earlier origins. The mystics known as Quietists insist, with more or less emphasis, on intellectual stillness and interior passivity as essential conditions of perfection...
.
Royal tutor, 1689-97
In 1689, Louis XIV named Fénelon's friend the Duc de Beauvilliers as governor of the royal grandchildren. Upon Beauvilliers' recommendation, Fénelon was named the tutor of the Dauphin's eldest son, the 7-year-old Duke of Burgundy, who was second in line for the throne.As tutor, Fénelon was charged with guiding the character formation of a future King of France. He wrote several important works specifically to guide his young charge. These include his Fables and his Dialogues des Morts.
But by far the most lasting of his works that he composed for the duke was his Les Aventures de Télémaque
Les Aventures de Télémaque
Les aventures de Télémaque was a didactic French novel by Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai and tutor to the seven-year-old Duc de Bourgogne . It was published anonymously in 1699 and reissued in 1717 by his family...
(English The Adventures of Telemachus, Son of Ulysses), written in 1693-94. On its surface, The Adventures of Telemachus was a novel about Ulysses
Odysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
' son Telemachus
Telemachus
Telemachus is a figure in Greek mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, and a central character in Homer's Odyssey. The first four books in particular focus on Telemachus' journeys in search of news about his father, who has been away at war...
, but in reality, it was a biting attack on the divine right
Divine Right of Kings
The divine right of kings or divine-right theory of kingship is a political and religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God...
absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government in which the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, his or her power not being limited by a constitution or by the law. An absolute monarch thus wields unrestricted political power over the...
which was the dominant ideology of Louis XIV's France. In sharp contrast to Bossuet, who, when tutor to the Dauphin had written Politique tirée de l'Écriture sainte which affirmed the divine foundations of absolute monarchy while at the same exercising the future king to use restraint and wisdom in exercising his absolute power, in Telemachus, Fénelon went so far as to write "Good kings are rare and the generality of monarchs bad" (p. 254).
The French literary historian Jean-Claude Bonnet calls Télémaque “the true key to the museum of the eighteenth century imagination.” One of the most popular works of the century, it was an immediate best seller both in France and abroad, going through many editions and translated into every European language and even Latin verse (first in Berlin in 1743, then in Paris by Étienne Viel [1737-87]). It inspired numerous imitations, such as the Abbé Jean Terrasson
Jean Terrasson
Jean Terrasson , often referred to as the Abbe Terrasson, was a French priest, author, and most notably a member of the Académie française....
's novel Sethos
Sethos
Sethos a pharaoh from Herodotus, Histories :-The Terrasson novel:Sethos became the hero of an improbably influential fantasy novel, Life of Sethos, Taken from Private Memoirs of the Ancient Egyptians, published in 1731 by the French Abbe Jean Terrasson.The book appeared in Paris in 1731 and in an...
(1731). It also supplied the plot for Mozart's opera, Idomeneo (1781).
It was the general opinion that Fénelon's tutorship resulted in a dramatic improvement in the young duke's behaviour. Even the memoirist Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
Louis de Rouvroy commonly known as Saint-Simon was a French soldier, diplomatist and writer of memoirs, was born in Paris...
, who generally disliked Fénelon, admitted that when Fénelon became tutor, the duke was a spoiled, violent child; when Fénelon left him, the duke had learned the lessons of self-control and had been thoroughly impressed with a sense of his future duties. Telemachus is therefore widely seen as the most thorough exposition of the brand of reformism in the Beauvilliers-Chevreuse circle, which hoped that following Louis XIV's death, his brand of autocracy could be replaced by a monarchy less centralized and less absolute, and with a greater role for aristocrats such as Beauvilliers and Chevreuse.
In 1693, Fénelon was elected to Seat 34 of the French Academy.
In 1694, the king named Fénelon Abbot of Saint-Valéry
Saint-Valery-en-Caux
Saint-Valery-en-Caux is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:A small fishing port and light industrial town situated in the Pays de Caux, some west of Dieppe at the junction of the D53, D20, D79 and the D925 roads...
, a lucrative post worth 14,000 livres
French livre
The livre was the currency of France until 1795. Several different livres existed, some concurrently. The livre was the name of both units of account and coins.-Etymology:...
a year.
The early- to mid-1690s are significant since it was during this period that Mme de Maintenon
Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon
Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon was the second wife of King Louis XIV of France. She was known during her first marriage as Madame Scarron, and subsequently as Madame de Maintenon...
(quasi-morganatic
Morganatic marriage
In the context of European royalty, a morganatic marriage is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which prevents the passage of the husband's titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage...
wife of Louis XIV since roughly 1684) began to regularly consult Fénelon on matters of conscience. Also, since he had a reputation as an expert on the education of girls, she sought his advice on the house of Saint-Cyr
Maison royale de Saint-Louis
The Maison Royale de Saint-Louis was a 'pensionnat' or boarding school for girls set up in 1684 at Saint-Cyr in France by king Louis XIV at the request of his second wife, Madame de Maintenon, who wanted a school for girls from impoverished noble families...
which she was founding for girls.
In February 1696, the king nominated Fénelon to become the Archbishop of Cambrai while at the same time asking him to remain in his position as tutor to the duke of Burgundy. Fénelon accepted, and he was consecrated by his old friend Bossuet in August.
The Quietist controversy, 1697-99
As already noted, Fénelon had met Mme Guyon in 1688 and had subsequently become an admirer of her work.In 1697, following a visit by Mme Guyon to Mme de Maintenon's school at Saint-Cyr, Paul Godet des Marais
Paul Godet des Marais
Paul Godet des Marais was a French Bishop of Chartres.He studied at Saint-Sulpice, took the doctorate of theology at the Sorbonne, was ordained, and became superior of the Séminaire des Trente-Trois...
, Bishop of Chartres (Saint-Cyr was located within his diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
) expressed concerns about Mme Guyon's orthodoxy
Orthodoxy
The word orthodox, from Greek orthos + doxa , is generally used to mean the adherence to accepted norms, more specifically to creeds, especially in religion...
to Mme de Maintenon. He was concerned that Mme Guyon's opinions bore striking similarities to Miguel de Molinos
Miguel de Molinos
Miguel de Molinos , Spanish divine, the chief apostle of the religious revival known as Quietism, was born about 1628 near Muniesa ....
' Quietism
Quietism (Christian philosophy)
Quietism is a Christian philosophy that swept through France, Italy and Spain during the 17th century, but it had much earlier origins. The mystics known as Quietists insist, with more or less emphasis, on intellectual stillness and interior passivity as essential conditions of perfection...
, condemned by Pope Innocent XI
Pope Innocent XI
Blessed Pope Innocent XI , born Benedetto Odescalchi, was Pope from 1676 to 1689.-Early life:Benedetto Odescalchi was born at Como in 1611 , the son of a Como nobleman, Livio Odescalchi, and Paola Castelli Giovanelli from Gandino...
in 1687. As a result, Mme de Maintenon asked for an ecclesiastical commission to exam Mme Guyon's orthodoxy: the commission consisted of two of Fénelon's old friends, Bossuet and de Noailles, as well as the head of the Sulpician order of which Fénelon was a member. The commission sat at Issy and, after six months of deliberations, delivered its opinion in the Articles d'Issy, 34 articles which briefly condemned certain of Mme Guyon's opinions and set forth a brief exposition of the Catholic view of prayer
Prayer in Christianity
Prayer has been an essential part of Christianity since its earliest days. Prayer is an integral element of the Christian faith and permeates all forms of Christian worship...
. These articles were signed by Fénelon and the Bishop of Chartres, as well as by all three members of the commission. Mme Guyon immediately submitted to the decision of the commission.
At Issy, the commission had decided that Bossuet should follow up the Articles with an exposition of them, so Bossuet now proceeded to write that exposition in a work he entitled Instructions sur les états d'oraison. Bossuet submitted this work to the members of the commission, as well as to the Bishop of Chartres and Fénelon, to ask for their signatures prior to its publication. Fénelon refused to sign, arguing that Mme Guyon had already admitted her mistakes and there was no point in further condemning her. Furthermore, Fénelon disagreed with Bossuet's interpretation of the Articles d'Issy, so in response Fénelon wrote Explication des Maximes des Saints (a work often regarded as his masterpiece - English: Maxims of the Saints), in which he provided his own interpretation of the Articles d'Issy, interpreting them in a way much more sympathetic to the Quietist viewpoint than Bossuet's interpretation.
Louis XIV, shocked that his grandson's tutors held such views, removed Fénelon from his post as royal tutor and ordered Fénelon to remain within the boundaries of the archdiocese of Cambrai. The king chastised Bossuet for not warning him earlier of Fénelon's opinions and ordered Bossuet, de Noailles, and the Bishop of Chartres to respond to the Maximes des Saints.
This unleashed two years of pamphlet warfare as the two sides traded opinions. This continued until 12 March 1699, when the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
formally condemned the Maximes des Saints, with Pope Innocent XII listing 23 specific propositions as unorthodox.
Fénelon immediately declared that he submitted to the pope's authority in the matter and set aside his own opinion in the matter. With this, the matter dropped.
In 1699, The Adventures of Telemachus was published and Louis XIV was enraged by this work, which appeared to question the very foundations of his regime. As a result, even after Fénelon abjured his Quietist views, the king refused to revoke his order forbidding Fénelon from leaving his archdiocese.
Later years
As Archbishop of Cambrai, Fénelon spent most of his time in the archiepiscopal palace in CambraiCambrai
Cambrai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included...
, but also devoted several months of each year to visitation
Canonical Visitation
A canonical visitation is the act of an ecclesiastical superior who in the discharge of his office visits persons or places with a view of maintaining faith and discipline, and of correcting abuses by the application of proper remedies.-Catholic usage:...
of his archdiocese. He preached in his cathedral on festival days, and took an especial interest in seminary training and in examining candidates for the priesthood prior to their ordination.
During the War of the Spanish Succession
War of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...
, Spanish troops encamped in his archdiocese (an area only recently gained by France from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
), but the troops never interfered with Fénelon in the exercise of his archiepiscopal duties. During the war, Fénelon opened his palace to refugees from around the archdiocese who had fled in the face of Spanish troops.
During these latter years, Fénelon wrote a series of anti-Jansenist works. The impetus for this was the publication of the Cas de Conscience, which revived the old Jansenist distinction between questions of law and questions of fact, and arguing that though the church had the right to condemn certain opinions as heretical, it did not have the right to oblige one to believe that these opinions were actually contained in Cornelius Jansen
Cornelius Jansen
Corneille Janssens, commonly known by the Latinized name Cornelius Jansen or Jansenius, was Catholic bishop of Ypres and the father of a theological movement known as Jansenism.-Biography:...
's Augustinus. In response to this, Fénelon wrote treatises, sermons, and pastoral letters which occupy seven volumes in his collected works. Fénelon particularly condemned Pasquier Quesnel
Pasquier Quesnel
Pasquier Quesnel was a French Jansenist theologian.He was born in Paris, and, after graduating from the Sorbonne with distinction in 1653, he joined the French Oratory in 1657...
's Réflexions morales sur le Nouveau Testament, and his writings were part of the build-up to Pope Clement XI
Pope Clement XI
Pope Clement XI , born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was Pope from 1700 until his death in 1721.-Early life:...
's 1713 bull Unigenitus
Unigenitus
Unigenitus , an apostolic constitution in the form of a papal bull promulgated by Pope Clement XI in 1713, opened the final phase of the Jansenist controversy in France...
, condemning Quesnel's opinions.
Although confined to the archdiocese to Cambrai, in his later years, Fénelon continued to act as a spiritual director for Mme de Maintenon, the ducs de de Chevreuse and de Beauvilliers, the duke of Burgundy, and a number of other prominent individuals.
Fénelon's later years were saddened by the deaths of many of his close friends. Shortly before his death, he asked Louis XIV to replace him with a man opposed to Jansenism and loyal to the Sulpician order. He died on 7 January 1715.
Fénelon as Reformer and Defender of Human Rights
Paul Hazard remarks on the bitterness of the questions Fénelon has his fictional hero Telemachus put to Idomeneus, King of Salente: "those same questions, in the same sorrowing tone, Fénelon puts to to his pupil, the Duc de Bourgogne, against the day, when he will have to take over the royal power: Do you understand the constitution of kingship? Have you acquainted yourself with the moral obligations of Kings? Have you sought means of bringing comfort to the people? The evils that are engendered by absolute power, by incompetent administration, by war, how will you shield your subjects from them? And when in 1711, the same Duc de Bourgogne became Dauphin of France, it was a whole string of reforms that Fénelon submitted to him in preparation for his accession". Finally, to complete the credit items of Fénelon’s account, we must put his defense of Human RightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
. Thus he speaks:
A people is no less a member of the human race, which is society as a whole, than a family is a member of a particular nation. Each individual owes incomparably more to the human race, which is the great fatherland, than to the particular country in which he was born. As a family is to the nation, so is the nation to the universal commonweal; wherefore it is infinitely more harmful for nation to wrong nation, than for family to wrong family. To abandon the sentiment of humanity is not merely to renounce civilization and to relapse into barbarism, it is to share in the blindness of the most brutish brigands and savages; it is to be a man no longer, but a cannibal.”
Works
- The Adventures of TelemachusLes Aventures de TélémaqueLes aventures de Télémaque was a didactic French novel by Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai and tutor to the seven-year-old Duc de Bourgogne . It was published anonymously in 1699 and reissued in 1717 by his family...
- Dialogues
- Christian Perfection
- Let Go
- The Royal Way of the Cross
- Maxims of the Saints
- The Inner Life
See also
- Human RightsHuman rightsHuman rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
- List of Christian mystics
- Christian mysticismChristian mysticismChristian mysticism refers to the development of mystical practices and theory within Christianity. It has often been connected to mystical theology, especially in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions...
Sources
- "François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. Gale Research, 1998.
- Avis Chretiens "Christian Counsel" (1810) English translation
- Catholic Encyclopedia article
- "Educating Telemachus: Lessons in Fénelon's Underworld" by Ippokratis Kantzios