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FENELON, BERTRAND DE SALIGNAC
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See also:FENELON, See also:BERTRAND DE SALIGNAC , seigneur de la Mothe (1523-1589), See also:French diplomatist, came of an old See also:family of See also:Perigord. After serving in the See also:army he was sent See also:ambassador to
FENELON
See also:England in 1568. At the See also:request of See also: 8vo.
See " Lettres de Catherine de' Medicis," edited by See also:Hector de la Ferriere (188o seq.) in the Collection de documents inedits sur l'histoire de France.
F$NELON, See also:FRANCOIS D'E SALIGNAC DE LA MOTHE (1651-1715), French writer and archbishop of Cambrai, was See also:born at the See also:chateau of Fenelon in Perigord on the 6th of See also:August 1651. His See also:father, Pons, See also:comte de Fenelon, was a See also:country See also:gentleman of See also:ancient lineage, large family and (mall See also:estate. Owing to his delicate See also:health the boy's See also:early See also:education was carried on at See also:home; though he was able to spend some time at the neighbouring university of See also:Cahors. In 1666 he came to Paris, under See also:charge of his father's See also:brother, See also:Antoine, See also:marquis de Fenelon, a retired soldier of distinction, well known for his religious zeal. Three years later he entered the famous theological See also:college of See also:Saint Sulpice. Here, while imbibing the somewhat mystical piety of the See also:house, he had an excellent chance of carrying on his beloved classical studies; indeed, at one time he proposed to couple sacred and profane together, and go on a missionary See also:journey to the See also:Levant. " There I shall once more make the Apostle's See also:voice heard in the See also: I shall See also:mount to the See also:double See also:summit of See also:Parnassus; I shall revel in the joys of See also:Tempe." Family opposition, however, put an end to this attractive prospect. Fenelon remained at Saint Sulpice till 1679, when he was made " See also:superior " of a " New See also:Catholic " sisterhood in Paris—an institution devoted to the See also:conversion of Huguenot ladies. Of his See also:work here nothing is known for certain. Presumably it was successful; since in the See also:winter of 1685, just after the revocation of the See also:edict of See also:Nantes, Fenelon was put at the See also:head of a number of priests, and sent on a mission to the Protestants of See also:Saintonge, the See also:district immediately around the famous Huguenot citadel of La Rochelle. To Fenelon such employment was clearly uncongenial; and if he was rather too ready to employ unsavoury methods—such as See also:bribery and espionage—among his proselytes, his general conduct was kindly and statesmanlike in no slight degree. But neither in his actions nor in his writings is there the least trace of that belief in See also:liberty of See also:conscience ascribed to him by 18th-See also:century philosophers. See also:Tender-hearted he might be in practice; but See also:toleration he declares synonymous with " cowardly See also:indulgence and false compasssion." Meanwhile the marquis de Fenelon had introduced his nephew into the devout See also:section of the See also:court, dominated by Mme de See also:Maintenon. He became a favourite See also:disciple of See also:Bossuet, and at the See also:bishop's instance undertook to refute certain metaphysical errors of Father See also:Malebranche. Followed thereon.an See also:independent philsophical See also:Treatise on the Existence of God, wherein Fenelon rewrote See also:Descartes in the spirit of St See also:Augustine. More important were his Dialogues on Eloquence, wherein he entered an eloquent plea for greater simplicity and .naturalness in the See also:pulpit, and urged preachers to take the scriptural, natural See also:style of Bossuet as their See also:model, rather than the coldly See also:analytic eloquence of his See also:great See also:rival, See also:Bourdaloue. Still more important was his Treatise on the Education of Girls, being the first systematic See also:attempt ever made to See also:deal with that subject as a whole. Hence it was probably the most influential of all Fenelon's books, and guided French ideas on the question all through the 18th century. It holds a most judicious See also:balance between the two opposing parties of the time. On the one See also:side were the precieuses, enthusiasts for the " higher " education of their See also:sex; on the other were the heavy See also:Philistines, so often portrayed by See also:Moliere, who thought that the less girls knew the better they were likely to be. Fenelon sums up in favour of the cultiva ted house-wife; his first See also:object was to persuade the mothers to take charge of their girls themselves, and See also:fit them to become wives and mothers in their turn. The See also:book brought its author more than See also:literary See also:glory. In 1689 Fenelon was gazetted See also:tutor to the duke of See also:Burgundy, eldest son of the dauphin, and eventual See also:heir to the See also:crown. The See also:character of this See also:strange See also:prince has been See also:drawn once for all by Saint-See also:Simon. Shortly it may be said that he was essentially a See also:mass of contradictions—brilliant, passionate to the point of See also:mania, but utterly weak and unstable, capable of developing into a saint or a See also:monster, but quite incapable of becoming an See also:ordinary human being. Fenelon assailed him on the religious side, and managed to transform him into a devotee, exceedingly See also:affection-See also:ate, See also:earnest and religious, but woefully lacking in tact and See also:common sense. In See also:justice, however, it should be added that his health was being steadily undermined by a mysterious See also:internal complaint, and that Fenelon's tutorship came to an end on his disgrace in 1697, before the See also:pupil was fifteen. The abiding result of his tutorship is a See also:code of carefully graduated moral lessons—the Fables, the Dialogues of the Dead (a See also:series of imaginary conversations between departed heroes), and finally Telemaque, where the adventures of the son of Ulysses in See also:search of a father are made into a See also:political novel with a purpose. Not, indeed, that Fenelon meant his book to be the literal See also:paper Constitution some of his contemporaries thought it. Like other Utopias, it is an easy-going See also:compromise between dreams and possibilities. Its one object was to broaden Burgundy's mind, and ever keep before his eyes the " great and See also:holy See also:maxim that See also:kings exist for the See also:sake of their subjects, not subjects for the sake of kings." Here and there Fenelon carries his philanthropy to lengths curiously prophetic of the See also:age of Rousseau—fervid denunciation of See also:war, belief in nature and fraternity of nations. And he has a truly iSth-century belief in the all-efficiency of institutions. See also:Mentor proposes to " See also:change the tastes and habits of the whole See also:people, and build up again from the very See also:foundations." Fenelon is on firmer ground when he leads a reaction against the " See also:mercantile See also:system " of See also:Colbert, with its crushing restrictions on See also:trade; or when he sings the praises of See also:agriculture, in the See also:hope of bringing back labour to the See also:land, and thereby ensuring the See also:physical efficiency of the See also:race. Valuable and far-sighted as were these ideas, they fitted but See also:ill into the See also:scheme of a See also:romance. Seldom was See also:Voltaire wider of the See also:mark than when he called Telemaque a See also:Greek poem in French See also:prose. It is too See also:motive, too full of ingenious contrivances, to be really Greek. As, in Fenelon's own See also:opinion, the great merit of See also:Homer was his " amiable simplicity," so the great merit'of Telemaque is the See also:art that gives to each See also:adventure its hidden moral, to each See also:scene some sly reflection on See also:Versailles. Under stress of these pre-occupations, however, organic unity of structure went very much to the See also:wall, and Telemaque is a grievous offender against its author's own canons of literary See also:taste. Not that it altogether lost thereby. There is a curious richness in this prose, so full of See also:rhythm and See also:harmony, that breaks at every moment into See also:verse, as it drags itself along its slow and weary way, See also:half-fainting under an overload of epithets. And although no single feature of the See also:hook is Greek, there hangs See also:round it a moral fragrance only to be called forth by one who had fulfilled thevow of his youth, and learnt to breathe, as purely as on " the double summit of Parnassus," the very essence of the See also:antique. Telemaque was published in 1699. Four years before, Fenelon had been appointed archbishop of Cambrai, one of the richest benefices in France. Very soon afterwards, however, came the great calamity of his life. In the early days of his tutorship he had met the Quietist apostle, Mme See also:Guyon (q.v.), and had been much struck by some of her ideas. These he See also:developed along lines of his own, where See also:Christian See also:Neoplatonism curiously mingles with theories of See also:chivalry and disinterestedness, borrowed from the precieuses of his own time. His mystical principles are set out at length in his See also:Maxims of the See also:Saints, published in 1697 (see QurETrsM). Here he argues that the more love we have for ourselves, the less we can spare for our Maker. Perfection lies in getting rid of self-See also:hood altogether—in never thinking of our-selves, or even of the relation in which God stands to us. The saint does not love See also:Christ as his Redeemer, but only as the Redeemer of the human race. Bossuet (q.v.) attacked this position as inconsistent with See also:Christianity. Fenelon promptly appealed to See also:Rome, and after two years of See also:bitter controversy his book was condemned by See also:Innocent XII. in 1699. As to the merits of the controversy opinion will always be divided. On the point of See also:doctrine all See also:good See also:judges agree that Fenelon was wrong; though many still welcome the obiter dictum of See also:Pope Innocent, that Fenelon erred by loving God too much, and Bossuet by loving his See also:neighbour too little. Of See also:late years, however, Bossuet has found powerful defenders; and if they have not cleared his character from reproach, they have certainly managed to prove that Fenelon'.s methods of controversy were not much better than his. One of the results of the See also:quarrel was Fenelon's banishment from court; for See also: And of all this chastened dignity the archbishop was himself the ever-See also:present, ever-inimitable model—in all that he did the perfect churchman, in all the high-bred See also:noble, in all things, also, the author of Telemaque. The one great blot on this ideal existence was his persecution of the Jansenists (see See also:JANSENISM). His theories of life were very different from theirs; and they had taken a strong See also:line against his Maxims of the Saints, holding that visionary theories of perfection were ill-fitted for a world where even the holiest could scarce be saved. To suppress them, and to gain a better See also:market for his own ideas, he was even ready to strike up an See also:alliance with the See also:Jesuits, and force on a reluctant France the doctrine of papal See also:infallibility. His time was much better employed in fitting his old pupil, Burgundy, for a kingship that never came. Louis XIV. seldom allowed them to meet, but for years they corresponded; and nothing is more admirable than the mingled tact and firmness with which Fenelon spoke his mind about the prince's faults. This See also:exchange of letters became still more frequent in 1711, when the wretched dauphin died and See also:left Burgundy heir-apparent to the See also:throne. Fenelon now wrote a series of memorable criticisms on the government of Louis XIV., accompanied by projects of reform, not always quite so See also:wise. For his See also:practical political service was to See also:act as an.alarm-See also:bell. Much more clearly than most men, he saw that the Bourbons were tottering to their fall, but how to prevent that fall he did not know. Not that any amount of knowledge would have availed. In 1712 Burgundy died, and with him died all his tutor's hopes of reform. From this moment his health began to fail, though he mustered strength enough to write a remarkable See also:Letter to the French See also:Academy in the autumn of 1714. This is really a series of general reflections on the literary See also:movement of his time. As in his political theories, the See also:critical See also:element is much stronger than the constructive. Fenelon was feeling his way away from the rigid See also:standards of Boileau to " a See also:Sublime so See also:simple and See also:familiar that all may understand it." But some of his methods were remarkably erratic; he was anxious, for instance, to abolish verse, as unsuited to the See also:genius of the French. In other respects, however, he was far before his age. The 17th century has treated literature as it treated politics and See also:religion; each of the three was cooped up in a See also:water-tight compartment by itself. Fenelon was one of the first to break down these See also:partition-walls, and insist on viewing all three as products of a single spirit, seen at different angles. A few See also:weeks after the Letter was written, Fenelon met with a See also:carriage-See also:accident, and the See also:shock proved too much for his enfeebled See also:frame. On the 7th of See also:January 1715 he died at the age of 63. Ever since, his character has been a much-discussed See also:enigma. Bossuet can only See also:lie thought of as the high-See also:priest of authority and common-sense; but Fenelon has been made by turns into a sentimentalist, a mystical saint, an 18th-century philosophe, an ultramontane churchman and a hysterical hypocrite. And each of these views, except the last, contains an element of truth. More than most men, Fenelon " wanders between two worlds—one dead, the other powerless to be born." He came just at a time when the characteristic ideas of the 17th century—the ideas of Louis XIV., of Bossuet and Boileau—had lost their savour, and before another creed could arise to take their place. Hence, like most of those who break away from an established See also:order, he seems by turns a revolutionist and a reactionary. Such a man expresses his ideas much better by word of mouth than in the See also:cold formality of See also:print; and Fenelon's contemporaries thought far more highly of his conversation than his books. That downright, gossiping See also:German princess, the duchess of See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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