Fénelon

Introduction

Tutor of the duke of Burgundy, archbishop of Cambric (1695-1715), it opposed Bossuet and fell in disgrace at the time of the quarrel of the Quiétisme, and especially, after the publication of his novel, the Adventures of Télémaque (1699), regarded as a criticism of the policy of Louis XIV. The literary influence of this novel was considerable during more than two centuries.

Biography

Origin and course

Fénelon, born the Holy-Mondane on August 6th, 1651 with the Castle of Fénelon to , resulted from a noble and aristocratic family of the Périgord, old but impoverished. Several of the ancestors of Fénelon had dealt with policy, and on several generations certain had been used as bishops as Sarlat. As he was a junior, the second of the fourteen children that his/her father, Pons de Salignac, Count of Mothe-Fénelon, had had by two marriages (including three children of his marriage with Louise of Cropte), he was intended early for an ecclesiastical career.

In its childhood Fénelon accepted the teaching of a tutor to the castle of Fénelon, which gave him a solid knowledge of the old Greek and Classiques. In 1667, to the 12 years age, one sent it to the Université of Cahors where he studied the Rhétorique and the Philosophie. When the young man expressed his attraction for a career in the Church, his/her uncle, the Marquis Antoine de Fénelon (a friend of Jean-Jacques Olier and Vincent of Paul) sent it to study with the Collège of Plessis, whose students in Théologie received same teaching as those of the Sorbonne. He bound to it with Antoine de Noailles, which later became cardinal and Archevêque of Paris. Fénelon showed such a talent with the College of Plessis that it preached there successfully as of the 15 years age.

After, as from 1672, having studied with the seminar Saint-Sulpice, also near to the Jesuits and that it had as a young priest drawn the attention to him by beautiful preachings, it was named in 1678 by the Archevêque of directing Paris of the Institute of New the Catholic S, a Parisian boarding school devoted to the rehabilitation of young girls of good family whose parents, initially Protesting S, had been converted with the Catholicisme.

A remarkable rise

Its functions inspired it and as of 1681 it consigned its teaching experiment in its Traity of the education of the filles (which was published only in 1687). At the end of 1685, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes of 1598, on the recommendation of Bossuet, Louis XIV entrusted to him the direction of a mission in the Poitou: he undertook the first several voyages of mission in areas Protestante S of the France of the West, but he seems however to have had only little success. For other sources, pushing back the auxiliary of the force, it succeeds by its softness and its eloquence to operate a great number of conversions.

Little before, in 1685, it had been pointed out in its first writing Théologique, le Traité existence of God and refutation of the system of Malebranche on nature and Grâce directed against the Jansénistes; at the same time, it delivered its opinion on the Rhétorique in its Dialogists on the éloquence (1685).

During these years it belonged to the circle which surrounded Bossuet, the impetuous spokesperson of the French episcopate. In 1688 it was presented to Madam de Maintenon, wife Morganatique of Louis XIV after the death of the queen. This one sympathized at the time with Mrs Guyon, woman mystical and pious, and with its Quiétisme, in which it seems that much French saw a way of escaping from a political reality which became increasingly unbearable. She impressed it deeply when they made knowledge during the winter 1688 - 1689.

In the summer 1689, on the proposal of Madam de Maintenon of which he had become the spiritual adviser meanwhile, he was named tutor of the duke of Burgundy, seven years old, grandson of Louis XIV and his possible heir. It could teach with its pupil all the virtues of a Christian and a prince, and for its person an affection inspired to him which was never contradicted.

It thus acquired an influential position at the court which was surely decisive to make it admit with the French Academy (1693) and when this education was finished, Louis XIV made him obtain the Archevêché of Cambric (1695).

It was also named “the swan of Cambric”.

Télémaque

For its royal pupil (who however was to die in 1711 without being become king, not more than his dead father the previous year), Fénelon wrote several amusing and at the same time instructive works: initially a succession of fables, Aventures of Astinoüs and the Dialogs of modern deaths , but especially, in 1694 - 1696, an educational novel of adventures and voyages Les Adventures of Télémaque, wire of Ulysse.

In this novel at the same time pseudo-history and utopian, it leads the young person Télémaque, wire of Ulysses, flanked of his tutor Mentor (obviously the spokesperson of Fénelon) through various States of the Antiquity, which most of the time, by the fault of the bad advisers who surround the leaders, know problems similar to those of France of the years 1690, plunged in wars which impoverish it, problems which however can be solved (at least in the novel) thanks to the councils of Mentor by the means of a peaceful agreement with the neighbors, of economic reforms which would allow the growth, and especially of promotion agriculture and the stop of the production of luxury articles.

Disgrace

The largest adversary of Fénelon at the court was Bossuet, which had initially supported it. Already in 1694 it had been opposed to him in the business of the quietism, quarrels theological, and in 1697 it had tried to make it condemn by the pope for his Explication of the maxims of the saints on the interior life , where it took the defense of Mrs Guyon (this one had ended up being almost regarded as enemy public, so much so that she had been stopped in 1698).

Fénelon was subjected with humility and abjured its errors publicly. Starting from 1698 Télémaque started to circulate at the court in the form of copies, and one immediately saw there a hardly buckled criticism against the authoritative manner of the government of Louis XIV, against his aggressive and quarrelsome foreign politics and against his economic policy Mercantiliste, directed towards export. This work, that Fénelon had not wanted to make public, had been withdrawn to him by an inaccurate servant.

At the beginning of 1699, Fénelon lost its station of tutor and when, in April, its Télémaque was published (initially anonymously and without its authorization). Louis XIV there saw a satire of his reign, stopped the impression and disgraced the author: Fénelon was banished court.

The banishment

Towards 1700, it then lived some time in Belgium in a residence, called a long time “ the Beautiful House ”, being in extreme cases of the communes of Pâturages and Eugies, then it was withdrawn in its Cambric archbishop's palace where, ceasing any activity in theology and policy, it tried to act in an exemplary way, in accordance with the lesson of its character of Mentor (which, in the novel, was not other than Minerve alias Athéna, goddess of the Wisdom which had been thus disguised.) Withdrawn in its diocese, Fénelon dealt only with the happiness of its faithful; it took care itself of the religious instruction of the people and the children, and was universally made cherish by its benevolence.

During the cruel winter of 1709, it was stripped of very to nourish the French Army which camped close to him. The reputation of its virtues attracted in Cambrai many foreigners of distinction, inter alia Andrew Michael Ramsay which it converts and which did not leave it any more. He died in 1715, at 64 years, after having had the pain to see expiring his pupil.

A chapter of the memories of Saint-Simon is devoted to his death, in rather eulogistic terms.

Analyzes literary

In France of the 18th century and 19th century Télémaque was one of the books for the young people most read (Aragon and Sartre had read it in their youth). Sometimes one regards it as a precursor of the spirit of the Lumières.

One owes him a rather great number of works, of which some are lost, Louis XIV having made burn, with dead of the duke of Burgundy, several of his writings which were in papers of the prince.

Works of Fénelon

Treated education of the girls (1687);
Treated ministry for the pastors , (1688);
Refutation of the system of the Malebranche father on nature and the grace (1688);
Letter in Louis XIV ([[1694])] (on the Magister site).
Explanation of the maxims of the saints on the interior life (1697);
adventures of Télémaque (1699);
Dialogs of Died and Fables, writings made up for education of the duke of Burgundy , 1700) (1712);
Letter on the occupations of the Academy (1714);
Demonstration of the existence of God, drawn from the knowledge of the Nature and proportioned with the weak intelligence of simplest the (1712), and with a second part, 1718, often reprinted, in particular in 1810 with notes of Louis-Aime Martin;
teaching Fables and opuscules (1718).
Dialogs on the eloquence, with a Letter with the French Academy , (1718);
Examination of the conscience of a king (for the duke of Burgundy) , only printed in 1734;
of the Sermons , which for the majority were sermons of abundance
spiritual Lettres .

Old publications

Works of Fénelon were published by the abbot Querbeuf with the expenses of the clergy of France, Paris, 1787 - 1792, 9 volumes in-4; but this publication was stopped by the Revolution.

The only really complete edition is that which gave Gosselin and Charon, according to the manuscripts of the author and with his Correspondance , 1830, 36 volumes in-8.

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