Pierre de Bérulle was a 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...

 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 statesman

Statesman

A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...

, one of the most important mystics of the 17th century in France, and founder of the French school of spirituality

French school of spirituality

The French School of Spirituality was the principal devotional influence within the Catholic Church from the mid 17th Century through the mid 20th Century not only in France but throughout the church in most of the world...

, who could count among his friends and disciples St. Vincent de Paul

Vincent de Paul

Vincent de Paul was a priest of the Catholic Church who became dedicated to serving the poor. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. He was canonized in 1737....

 and St. Francis de Sales

Francis de Sales

Francis de Sales was Bishop of Geneva and is a Roman Catholic saint. He worked to convert Protestants back to Catholicism, and was an accomplished preacher...

.

Biography

He was born in the château of Cérilly, near Troyes

Troyes

Troyes is a commune and the capital of the Aube department in north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about southeast of Paris. Many half-timbered houses survive in the old town...

 in Champagne

Champagne (province)

The Champagne wine region is a historic province within the Champagne administrative province in the northeast of France. The area is best known for the production of the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name...

, into two families of distinguished magistrates of the parlement de Paris. The château de Cérilly is situated in the modern department of Yonne

Yonne

Yonne is a French department named after the Yonne River. It is one of the four constituent departments of Burgundy in eastern France and its prefecture is Auxerre. Its official number is 89....

, while the village adjacent to it, Bérulle

Bérulle

Bérulle is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France.-Population:-References:*...

, is in Aube

Aube

Aube is a department in the northeastern part of France named after the Aube River. In 1995, its population was 293,100 inhabitants.- History :Aube is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

. He was educated by the Jesuits at Clermont and 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...

, Paris. Soon after his ordination in 1599, he assisted Cardinal Duperron

Jacques-Davy Duperron

Jacques Davy Duperron was a French cardinal.-Biography:He was born in Saint-Lô, in Normandy. His father was a physician, who on embracing the doctrines of the Reformation became a Protestant minister, and to escape persecution settled at Bern, in Switzerland...

 in his public controversy with the Protestant Philippe de Mornay

Philippe de Mornay

Philippe de Mornay , seigneur du Plessis Marly, usually known as Du-Plessis-Mornay or Mornay Du Plessis, was a French Protestant writer and member of the Monarchomaques .- Biography :...

, and made numerous converts. A mainstay of the Counter-Reformation

Counter-Reformation

The Counter-Reformation was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 as a response to the Protestant Reformation.The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements:#Ecclesiastical or...

 in France, Bérulle founded the Congregation of the French Oratory

Oratory of Jesus

The Society of the Oratory of Jesus , also known as French Oratory, is a catholic Congregation founded in 1611 in Paris by Pierre de Bérulle...

 in Paris (1611) and introduced the Carmelite nuns into France, notwithstanding the opposition of the friars of that order, who were jealous of his ascendancy. In his Discours Bérulle emphasized the incarnate Word of Jesus, and the abasement, self-surrender, servitude and humiliation—all Bérulle's words— of his Incarnation

Incarnation

Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....

Bérulle also played an important part as a statesman. He was the confessor of Henri IV

Henry IV of France

Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....

 after his conversion, but several times declined to be made a bishop. Bérulle obtained the necessary dispensations from Rome for Henrietta Maria's marriage to Charles I

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

, and acted as her chaplain during the first year of her stay in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. In 1626, as French ambassador to 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...

, he concluded the favourable treaty of Monzón, to which his enemy Richelieu found objections. After the reconciliation of Louis XIII

Louis XIII of France

Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...

 with his mother, Marie de Medici, through his agency, he was appointed a councillor of state, but had to resign this office, owing to his pro-Habsburg

Habsburg

The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...

 policy, which was opposed by Richelieu. He was made cardinal by Pope Urban VIII

Pope Urban VIII

Pope Urban VIII , born Maffeo Barberini, was pope from 1623 to 1644. He was the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions...

 on 30 August 1627, but never received the red hat.

Philosophy and spirituality

Bérulle encouraged Descartes

René Descartes

René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...

' philosophical studies, and it was through him that the Samaritan Pentateuch

Samaritan Pentateuch

The Samaritan Pentateuch, sometimes called Samaritan Torah, , is a version of the Hebrew language Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, used by the Samaritans....

, recently brought over from Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, was inserted in Lejay's Bible Polyglotte (1628–45). His treatise, Des Grandeurs de Jésus, was a favourite book with the Jansenists

Jansenism

Jansenism was a Christian theological movement, primarily in France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. The movement originated from the posthumously published work of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Otto Jansen, who died in 1638...

. His works, edited by P Bourgoing (2 vols., 1644) were reprinted, by Migne in 1857.

He was called the "apostle of the incarnate Word" and was an opponent of the abstract school of mysticism that by passed the humanity of Christ. His depiction of the mystical journey through Mary to Christ, and through Christ to the Trinity is a hallmark of the French School of spirituality.