François Harlay de Champvallon

François Harlay de Champvallon (or sometimes François III of Harlay ) was born in Paris the August 14th 1625 and died in Conflans the August 6th 1695. It is a prelate of the Catholic church.

He is abbot of Jumièges in 1648. Deputy of Normandy to the Parliament of the clergy. It is named Archevêque Rouen in 1651, to came-five years, following the renouncement of the seat of François II of Harlay.

In 1666, he pronounces the funeral oration of the queen-mother Anne of Austria.

In 1670, it is named archbishop of Paris and obtained the first that the title of Duc and Pair was attached to this seat; commander of the orders of the King. He chairs the Assemblée of the clergy in 1660; he celebrated the secret marriage of Louis XIV and Madam de Maintenon, whose he would have prohibited the publication, and taken share with the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

He was preferred with Bossuet for “reasons for suitability,” said the cardinal of Bausset, to replace with the Academy, in 1671, Péréfixe, his predecessor with the archbishop's palace of Paris, but lost the Feuille of the benefit to the profit of the P. of the Chair, Jesuit and confessor of the king.

He supports the royal cause in the Affaire of levels, he fights against the Jansénistes of Port-Royal and is one of the inspirer of the political anti-Protestant woman of Louis XIV.

Harlay refused the religious burial of Molière.

Testimonys of its contemporaries

Rene de Voyer d' Argenson, commentator of the Yearly of the Blessed Sacrament , known as of him: “ prelate very skilful but décrié for its manners ”.
Fénelon hated it: “ You have an archbishop corrupted, scandalous, inccorigible, false, malignant, cunning, enemy of any virtue and which makes groan all people of good… ”.
Saint-Simon on the contrary regard much.
Pierre-Joseph Thoulier d' Olivet: “ Nobody accepted nature a more marvellous talent for the eloquence. It gathered not only all that can contribute to the charm of the ears, an elocution noble and running, an animated pronunciation, I do not know what of insinuating and pleasant in the voice, but still all that can stare at agreeably, a solar aspect, great outdoors of majesty, a free and regular gesture. ”
According to Holy-Beuve, it was “ most beautiful, most pleasing and most skilful of the prelates of the kingdom. ”
Because he is epileptic, he dies abruptly without the sacraments. This is why, Madam de Coulanges writes with Madam de Sévigné: “ It now acts to find somebody who undertakes the funeral oration of death; it is claimed that there are only two small trifles which make this work difficult, it is the life and death. ”

Random links: