Louis Antoine de Noailles

Louis Antoine , cardinal of Noailles , is a prelate French, born with the castle from Peynières with Cross-country race-with-Montvert (Cantal) the May 27th 1651 and died in Paris the May 4th 1729. It was archbishop of Paris of 1695 with 1729.

Biography

Wire of Anne de Noailles († 1678), 1st duke of Noailles, and his wife, born Louise Boyer, Louis Antoine de Noailles studied theology with the college of Plessis in Paris, where it had Fénelon for school-fellow and friend. He obtained his doctorate in Sorbonne on March 14th 1676.

Already provided with the abbey of the Aubrac (diocese of Rodez), it was named bishop of Cahors in March 1679, then, on the order of Innocent XI, agreed to be named bishop-count de Châlons-sur-Marne as of June 1680. It showed a concerned bishop of its duties. He entrusted his seminar of theology to the Lazariste S and founded a small seminar.

The regularity of its control, the supports of its family and the protection of Madam de Maintenon, led Louis XIV to name it archbishop of Paris on August 19th 1695. It was shown there such as in itself, pious, active and dedicated brilliance lack but. Simple in manners, it was as accessible to the poor as with the rich person. In 1709, it sold its silverware to relieve the people, overpowered by the Famine. Concerned of the majesty of the places of worship like good behavior of the clergy, it gave important sums to improve decoration of the cathedral Notre-Dame and other churches of its diocese. It rebuilds with its expenses the palate archiépiscopal. He blesses the first stone of the new large furnace bridge of Notre-Dame, and he posed, on September 7th 1702, the first stone of the church Saint-Louis-in-the Island.

Inspired more by the habits of France that by the regulations of the Council of Thirty, it made make new editions of the Bréviaire, liturgical Missel and other books of use in Paris. Decrees published at the time of its accession (June 1696), prescribed for the first time at those which aspired at the ecclesiastical state to reside several months at the Séminaire before their Ordination. It organized a synod diocesan in 1697 of the conferences ecclesiastic in all his diocese and of the weekly conferences of moral theology in Paris. The priests were held with an annual retirement, and other rules were laid down for the good behavior of the ecclesiastics, the divine service, the assistance with the patients and the elementary schools. He encouraged and helped of the seminars for poor students and founded an old people's home for the poor, old or crippled priests (1696). He devoted 48 bishops.

He was still bishop of Châlons when he took part in the conferences which were taken place with Issy to examine the writings of Mrs Guyon. He played only one secondary part but managed to make hear in his entirety the defense of the defendant. A little later it entered the controversy with Fénelon in connection with its treaty of the Maximes of the Saints , which was condemned by the bishops of Meaux, of Chartres and by Noailles.

He was commander of the Ordre of the Holy Spirit on January 1st 1698. January 22nd 1700, Innocent XII put on again the cardinal hat of to him. Several months later, Noailles chaired the General meeting of the clergy of France which had a great influence on the teaching of moral theology in France. He became prior of Navarre in 1704, vice-chancellor of the Sorbonne in 1710 and honorary senior of the Faculty of Law.

He condemned the five proposals of Jansenius, but he showed himself reconciling with the Janséniste S and was opposed highly to their adversaries, the Jésuite S. Shortly after his nomination in Paris, he had approved the Réflexions morals of the father Pasquier Quesnel (June 1695), a already known Oratorien for his attachment with the Jansénisme and which was to become one of the main leaders of this party. This approval was to be in the beginning many troubles for the cardinal of Noailles.

Believing itself protected by the new archbishop from Paris, the Jansenists enhardirent themselves to publish a posthumous work of Barcos entitled Exposition of the faith , clarifying the doctrines Jansenist of the grace, already condemned by Rome. Noailles condemned the work on August 20th 1696 in the first part of an instruction in which, in the second part, it developed a theory of the grace and predestination which resembled closely that of the condemned work. Nobody was satisfied: the instruction displeased at the same time to the Jansenists and to the Jesuits. The first pointed contradictions of a man who had approved Quesnel and condemned of Barcos. An anonymous lampoon entitled ecclesiastical Problem , put in twenty-nine glance identical proposals approved in the work of Quesnel and condemned in that of Barcos. The Parlement of Paris condemned the lampoon to roughing-hew and, six months later (June 2nd 1699), it was put at the Index and proscribed by the the Holy Office.

The controversies caused by the publication of the Case of Conscience and the Réflexions morals of Quesnel implied in-depth Noailles in the quarrels around jansénisme. In spite of injunctions repeated of the the Holy See, the cardinal refused, during several years, to accept the Bulle Unigenitus . This attitude was worth the hostility of Louis XIV to him who him interdisit to appear at the Court.

In September 1715, the Regent, Philippe of Orleans, appointed it president of the Council of conscience, giving a revenge bright to the party Jansenist. But this last was not long in being disappointed by the attitude of the cardinal. Undecided, always hesitant, it did not decide to call bubble (April 3rd 1717) only pushed by hundreds of petitions. It preserved its secret call besides, publishing it only on September 24th 1718 after having resigned of the Council of the conscience.

March 13rd 1720, it adhered to the Corps of doctrines , kind of compromise, and undertook to turn casaque. Its family, the cardinal Fleury, the principal collaborator of this one, German Louis Chauvelin, and to the pope Benoit XIII, combined their efforts to convince it. Ultimately, in a letter with the pope of July 19th 1728 and in mandement of the 11 octonre 1728, it retracted its act of call and published its inconditionnée acceptance of the bubble. It retracted then various its writings which could throw a doubt about the sincerity of its tender. It restores the Jesuits in the provisions of which it had deprived them thirteen years before. He died two months later, 78 years old.

Its weak and dubious character had led it to offend the whole ground: Jesuits and Jansenists, pope and king, partisans and adversaries of the Bubble Unigenitus . It missed understanding in the choice of its confidants. It bore a great name and played a big role at its time but missed qualities of a large bishop. It was, known as the chancellor of Aguesseau, accustomed man an “to fight while fleeing” and who, in his life, had made “more beautiful retirements than of beautiful defenses”.

Its writings - ordinances diocésaines, parochial instructions - are joined together essentially in the Synodicon ecclesiæ Parisiensis (Paris, 1777).

It is buried in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris.

References

Internal bonds

Family of Noailles

External bonds

Article of the catholic Encyclopedia (in English)
Card of the Commission diocésaine of sacred art of Paris

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