Etienne Joseph of Fare

Etienne Joseph of Fare was born in 1691 in Paris and died the April 23rd 1741 with the castle of Leschelles.

Born in a noble family since centuries, near to the Orleans, Etienne Joseph of Fare will become because of the play of the parentèles and the customers bishop-duke of Laon (1723-1741), second even ecclesiastic de France and count of Anizy-the-Castle. All its life, it will be an enemy of the Jansénistes, a constitutionnaire . It leaves us a great number of texts which reveal a great love of France, its army, and monarchy.

Its family

Etienne Joseph of Fare is the son of Charles-Auguste of Fare, captain of the guards of Mister, and Louise-Jeanne de Lux of Ventelet (1667 - 1691). He is the brother of Philippe Charles of Fare, and the cousin of the cardinals Anne Louis Henri of Fare and François-Joachim of Pierre de Bernis.

Like his brother, during all his life, Etienne Joseph of Fare will help his parents and his friends to obtain loads, advances, pensions… The mechanism of the nominations utilizes the play of the parentèles and the customers: to obtain a load of Chaplain for example of the king, nothing is worth a relative well placed at the court, relative who always has the concern of saving lapse of memory a branch of his family buried in province. That is true for the Moreton de Chabrillan, the Sabran, Choiseul, Lascaris, Durfort, Grimaldi, Talleyrand or the Fare .

The family profited from the supports of the house of Orleans. They are their servants at the court, since monarchy was done absolute and the death of Mazarin. They receive and attend at the court, in their hotels, in the cities which they control and in their living rooms all that France counts important characters on the level of the administration of the State, army, clergy, culture.

Armorial bearings of the family of Fare: Of azure with 3 torches of gold lit of mouths, posed out of stake.

Biography

Its youth

During its youth, it is shown very extravagant and sells a benefit, with which it was provided. To punish it, his/her father makes it lock up with Saint-Lazare. the archbishop of Paris, the cardinal Louis Antoine de Noailles refuses the orders to him.

It is small, ugly and twisted , but Etienne Joseph of Fare becomes doctor in Théologie, then abbot of the Prémontrés of the abbey Saint Martin's day de Laon. He is then vicar-general of Soissons. Intrigant, credit, chatterer, never doubting nothing, difficult to disconcert. it is, with the eyes of its enemies, a species of small monster by its body and more still by its heart .

However these portraits are those of partisans of the Jansénistes. They see in Fare a persecutor of the Jansenists and a guard of the Jésuites. What is partly true. Etienne Joseph of Fare represents a current of the Catholicism which is opposed to the Gallicanisme.

Charles of Saint-Albin, wire of the regent Philippe of Orleans, is another enemy of the Jansénistes. The project of the marriages of Louis XV with the Infante of Spain and that of the Prince of Asturies, Louis of Spain, with the girl of the regent needs to be concluded from the assistance the Jesuits. For these reasons, the regent, Philippe of Orleans which is however a Libertin, becomes their guard and makes so that the cardinals, the archbishops and the bishops all are favorable to the Jésuites.

A robber, according to Louis de Rouvroy, duke of Saint-Simon!

In its Mémoires , which is worst indictments, Louis de Rouvroy, duke of Saint-Simon affirms that the future successor of Charles of Saint-Albin, as bishop-duke of Laon is surprised flying and scandalizes curiously: It was the brother of Fare, which him ressembloit of nothing. The enemy is a poor wretch dishonoured by his vices and his swindle, that nobody vouloit to see nor looking at.

According to this old turned sour courtier, Philippe of Orleans (1674-1723) would have said to him that it had driven out it Palais Royal to have flown fifty spray that it envoyoit, by him, with Madam de Polignac. I name it, because its life was so public that I do not believe to miss with charity, discretion, the consideration of his name.

But, fifty spray, approximately 1.000 francs represent a really ridiculous sum compared to the fortune as of Fare. His/her brother will spend four million and his/her daughter will be still very rich. critical François Bluche the passion which one finds in the Mémoires of Saint-Simon . There, it is about jealousy caused by the success of the children of Fare. Saint-Simon will describe a scene really not very credible to us, when it is known that Etienne Joseph of Fare is an important ecclesiastic, that his/her father was friendly of the regent, that his/her brother Philippe Charles of Fare, after having been officer of the Mousquetaire S, is Marshal of France and member of the Ordre of the Holy Spirit and the Golden Fleece. Another Fare is chaplain of the king.

Sacha Guitry, in If Versailles to me were told , will show us in another scene become famous what the king Louis XIV was to think of the Mémoires of Saint-Simon . Perhaps therefore, Louis de Rouvroy, duke of Saint-Simon exaggerate while writing: This good ecclesiastic was once driven out Tuileries with kicks, since the medium of the large alley until out the door of Bridge-Royal, by the musketeers and other young people who attroupèrent themselves there, with terrible clamors, repeated by the crowd of the lackeys piled up with the door. Lastly, and it is a fact which was very-public, the two captains of the musketeers defended to them with the order to see it.

The policy and the religion

The policy and the religion are, they-also, at the origin of its heinous remarks. Saint-Simon continues his indictment: to leave state so pitiful, this reject of world made convert, struck with several doors to be ordered priest without there to be able to succeed, so that told me at the time Rochebonne, bishop-count of Boundary-line, which was one of those which refused it, in spite of an alleged retirement that it made in a benefit that it avoit in Noyon .

Enfin it found a prelate more manageable by the conformity of control. I aurois horror to name it and say with which scandal it ordered it against all the rules of the Church. Incontinent after, it was thrown to the cardinal of Bissy, and Languet, bishop of Soissons, to which all étoit good with the help of the fanaticism of the constitution, which made it worthy to be vicar-general of Soissons, where it was announced in this kind to deserve all their protection.

Bishop of Fish ponds (February 1723)

Saint-Simon adds: With this help and that of the Jesuits, it adulterated évêché of Viviers with Martin de Ratabon, which there avoit passed of the seat of Ypres, and which the episcopate ennuyoit, in spite of non-residence. It gave him two abbeys that it avoit, with a good return, and was crowned bishop of Fish ponds, with the universal scandal.

In 1723, Fare is actually named bishop of Viviers, in the Vivarais, with the help of a resignation which it gives of the Cistercian abbey of Mortemer, in Normandy, and of that of Boundary-line. It loses two important benefit, but he is bishop in an area from where its family is originating.

Etienne Joseph of Fare is thirty two years old. He saw very little time in the palate built by the former bishop Martin de Ratabon with Viviers, with the money of the sale of the castle and the baronnie of Argentière to the marquis de Brison.

Bishop-duke of Laon (August 12th, 1724)

The duke of Orleans, Philippe of Orleans (1674-1723), gives him several great benefit. It is rather astonishing that the regent makes of a prelate who stole it, of the reject of the world , a bishop and a duke, the second Pair of France, a count of Anizy, to replace Henri Henri François-Xavier de Belsunce-Castelmoron (1670-1755), become bishop of Marseilles. This one, known for its role during the plague, had been named with évêché of Laon with a great applause. But it accepted Laon only the alive one of his uncle, this last having only few weeks to live. Fare, bishop of Fish ponds which étoit not to be so delicate, was put at Laon, with its refusal, where one saw since what it savoit to make. It died there detested and bankrupt, after having liking or of force swindled all its diocese that it avoit devastated besides , spits like venom, Saint-Simon.

The reality of the facts is quite different…
Fare is devoted bishop of Laon to Paris, on July 25th, 1724. It lends oath between the hands of the king, Louis XV, the next on August 6th. It takes possession of its diocese the 12 of the same month and at a meeting to the Parlement of Paris, on January 22nd, 1725. As a holder of the one of old peerages of France, the bishop-duke of Laon carries the Sainte Bulb during the ceremony of the sacring, on May 12th, 1726 . Fare normally achieves the ordinary tasks of a bishop. For example, it confirms with Coucy-the-Castle, 25 men and boys, 22 women and girls of the parish.

A quite difficult task

Since 1724, the bishop of Fare, by taking possession of the episcopal see of Laon, finds deeply a clergy divided by passions between constitutionnaires and anticonstitutionnaires which delivers a keen fight the ones against the others.

The last bishop, Charles of Saint-Albin, the son of the Regent, who succeeded appealing, had had to take measures of rigor against some members of his chapter, even against dignitaries. The zeal with which of Fare the combat continues, making an effort by all the means of bringing back the hearts to the Roman unit, causes against him sharp enmities. And this zeal is worth several times the lightnings of the Parliament to him

Etienne-Joseph of Fare written, on January 18th, 1730, one mandement on the tender due to the apostolic constitution of the Bubble Unigenitus: Mandement of Monseigneur the Bishop Duke of Laon, Second Par of France, count d' Anizy, and On the tender which had with the Unigenitus Constitution, on the essential fidelity of the Subjects towards their Sovereign, & on the Rights Crown of the Episcopate… .

Fare is a trusty servant of the king and the pope. He writes to the Thomas-Philippe cardinal of Alsace (1716-1759), archbishop the Malignant ones, while asking him to refuse the communion with those which are manifestly rebellious with the Apostolic Constitution Unigenitus. In a letter with a canon of Arras, Etienne Joseph of Fare again specifies his ideas on the Constitution Unigenitus, on December 18th, 1738.

The count Maxime de Sars gives us a more faithful portrait of the prelate, in whom it sees a confessor of the faith. Its study insists on the fight of Fare against jansénisme of the 18th century. It is however to reduce its thought to its action in this religious quarrel.

Jacques-François-Laurent Devisme is more severe: It was not satisfied any more to punish interdict and suspension, the refusal to accept the Bubble, it made pronounce against refusing the loss of their benefit… persecution extended until on the laic ones… It was a crime to have suspect books of Jansénisme… Fare took mandement which was censured by the Parliament, then a pastoral instruction which was removed by a stop of the private council of the king… Enfin Fare made exile the professors of the Collège to make there come… the Jésuites.

Precise Devisms: the examples of proscription are so numerous that the enumeration would be tiring.

the history of Laon and Laonnois summarizes the situation thus: Etienne of Fare, helped of the only Jesuits, enters in war against chapter, middle-class of Laon, Parlement of Paris, Conseil of the King, Oratoriens, Bénédictins, Sœurs of the Congregation, regent of the Collège de France and even against sixty priests whom it returns to bring back the diocese in the obedience of the Pape.

All these quarrels had an echo with the Mauregny-in-Hague, locality located close to Laon. A obit of March 6th, 1728 institutes a safety with exposure of the Blessed Sacrament the Easter Day. With Mauregny, Joseph of Fare authorizes the priest to celebrate there every year a solemn safety in the aforementioned parish the Easter Day, to expose Blessed Sacrament to it and to give of them the blessing to the people with the ceremonies and prayers accustomed. In addition one finds among the goods belonging to the factory a Pré Passion , with the locality Crotoy. All that concerns the religious quarrels: the refusal to make its Easter, to adore the Blessed Sacrament, and to celebrate the Festival of Passion, were a form of resistance of the Jansénistes.

A great love of France and the king

Actually the bishop written of many texts and fact of many sermons on the happy succez weapons of Its Majesty on December 29th, 1733 , and the other victories of France.

All its texts reveal a great love of France, its army, and monarchy. Etienne Joseph of Fare known as of the masses and publishes a mass for the rest of the hearts of the officers and dead soldiers in Germany and Italy with the service of king de France, on November 4th, 1734. The bishop of Laon also writes mandement to restore the festival of holy Louis, on August 1st, 1736. But, he is worried especially his diocese, as show it a text of February 24th, 1731, with the seniors, priests, vicars and other priests, as well secular as regular of his diocese, and another on the mission in the town of Laon, the first day of May 1735. The bishop does not forget to write on the fate of the beggars, the Holy Hospital Hubert, the Goods of the ground … or with the Prime Minister.

Etienne Joseph of Fare lives most of the time with Lyon. He is the friend of his cousin, Cerice François of Vogüé ((1683-1739), a large baron millionaire who has twenty servants and one fits with body of six horses of princely appearance .

End of its life, its successor

Like the duke of Saint-Simon says it, the bishop-duke is a man of small size, pretentious and excessive. Moreover another duke, Charles Philippe d' Albert de Luynes, friend of his brother, written at the time of his death, on April 23rd, 1741, with the castle of Leschelles: Of the Thursday the 1st er June 1741 Corpus Christi, Versailles. - II has there already a month approximately that Mr. bishop of Laon died; it étoit brother of Mr. marquis of Fare, above ordering in Languedoc, but it him ressembloit not of the whole, because it étoit small and of an unpleasant figure. It made much speak about him by its zeal for the Constitution. This feeling, some creditable that it is and though very-worthy to be approved, étoit accompanied in Mr. de Laon by a so great promptness which one often thought that it poussoit the things of excess.

Jean François Joseph de Rochechouart-Faudoas succeeds to him like bishop-duke of Laon. The duke-bishop Etienne Joseph of Fare did not grow rich because of his functions. He lived in a state close to misery and leaves like heritage only some books and of old clothing, whereas his/her cousins the cardinals Anne Louis Henri of Fare and François-Joachim of Pierre de Bernis die millionaires.

It is buried in parish church of Leschelles. Its epitaph is: DIFFICULTY JACET/STEPHANUS JOSEPHUS OF FARE/EPISCOPUS DUX LAUDUNENSIS/PAR FRANCIAE/ROMANAE FIDEI DEFENSOR ARDENS/DEBITUM FECIT CLERO FIDELI/OBSEQUIUM ASSERVANS PAPAE/PAUPERUM LORD'S PRAYER SEDULUS/HOS SWEATED LARGITATE SUSTINUIT/EXTREMAM DIOECESIM VISITANS/PASTOR BONUS/OBIIT/IN HUJUS LOCI CASTELLO/DIE 23A APRILIS ANNO CHRISTI 1741/AETATIS IN EUNTE 49/ET HAC IN ECCLESIA/QUAMIPSE ANNO 1733 CONSECRAVERAT/SEPELIRI VOLUIT/ABI VIATOR/ET TANTI PROESULIS AEMULARE/CHARITATEM IF CHRISTIANUS/FIDEM IF CATHOLICUS . The flagstone, formerly in the heart, was raised and placed upright, against the southern wall of the southern arm of the transept.

It is important to mention the correspondence exchanged between the Cardinal Fleury and Etienne Joseph of Fare.

Notes and references of the article

Random links: