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 RICHELIEU

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RICHELIEU

to the king as an enemy to his power; the Capuchin, Leclerc du Trembhiy, never succeeded in completely clearing him in Louis XIII's opinion. To disarm suspicion Richelieu asked the king to name a place of exile, and at his order went in 161 S io A\'ignon, where he passed nearly a year and where he composed a catechism which became famous under the name of "Instruction duchr(5tien". This book, destined to be read in every parish each Sunday at the sermon, was a real blessing at a time when ignorance of religion was the principal evil. When Maria de' Medici escaped from Blois, in 1619, Richelieu was chosen by the min- ister Lu\Ties to negotiate for peace between Louis XIII and his mother. By Brief of 3 November, 1622, he was created cardinal by Gregory XV. On 19 April, 1624. he re-entered the Council of Ministers, and on 12 August. 1624, was made its president. Richelieu's policy can be reduced to two principal ideas: the do- mestic unification of France and opposition to the Hou.se of Austria. At home he had to contend with constant conspiracies in which Maria de' Medici, Queen Anne of Austria, Gaston d 'Orleans (the king's brother), and the highest nobles of the court were in- volved. The executions of Marillac (1632), Mont- morency (1632), Cinq-Mars and of de Thou (1642) intimidated the enemies of the cardinal. He had also to contend with the Protestants who were forming a state within the state (see Huguenots). The capitu- lation of La Rochelle and the peace of Alais (28 June, 1629) annihilated Protestantism as a political party. Richelieu's foreign policy (for which see Leclerc DU Trembl.w) was characterized b^' his fearlessness in making alliances with the foreign Protestants. At various times the Protestants of the Grisons, Sweden, the Protestant Princes of Germany, and Bernard of Saxe-Weimar were his allies. The favourable treaties signed by Mazarin (q. v.) were the result of Richelieu's policy of Protestant alliances, a policy which was severely censured by a number of Catholics. At the end of 1625, when Richelieu was preparing to give back Valteline to the Protestant Grisons, the parti- sans of Spain called him "Cardinal of the Hugue- nots", and two pamphlets, attributed to the Jesuits Eudemon Joannes and Jean Keller, appeared against him; these he had burned. Hostilities, however, in- crea-sed until finally the king's confessor opposed the foreign policy of the cardinal. This was a very im- pfirf ant episode, andon it the recent researches of Father de Piochernonteix in the archives of the Society of Jesus have cast new light. P'ather Caussin, author of "I^ Cour Sainfe", the Jesuit whom Richelieu, on 25 March, 1636, had maxle the king's confessor, tried to use against the cardinal the influence of Mlle.de La Fayette, a lady for whom the king had entertained a ff-rtain regard and who had become a nun. On S DecernhfT, 1637, in a solemn interview Caus.sin re- callrfi to the king his dtities towards his wife, Anne of Austria, to whom he was too indifTerent; asked him to allow his mother, Maria de' Mr^dici, to return to France; and p<^jinted out the dangers to Catholicism which might arise through Richelieu's alliance with the Turks and the Protestant princes of Germany. After this interview Caussin gave Communion to the king and a/ldrc^ssfifl him a very beautiful sermon, en- treating him to obey his directions. Richelieu was anxious that the king's cxmfdKHor should occupy him- nelf Kf*lely with "giving absfjlutions", consequently, on 10 DecembcT, 1637, Caussin was dismissf^d and exilr-d to Rennes, and his Huccessor, Father Jacques Sinnond, e/-l<'brate<l for his hist^)rical knowl(dge, was forcf<l to promiw that, if he saw "anything censur- able in the crjndiicf of the State", he would report it to the cardinal and not attempt to influence the king's c/jnwience. However, 1 at her Caussin 'h fears concern- ing Richelieu's foreign pf)licy were not shared by all of his confr/TOH. Father I^llemand, for instance, affirmed that it was rash to blame the king's political alliance

with the Protestant princes — an alliance which had been made only after an unsuccessful attempt to form one with Bavaria and the Catholic princes of Germany. That Richelieu was possessed of religious senti- ments cannot be contested. It was he who in Febru- ary, 1638, prompted the declaration by which Louis XIII consecrated the Kingdom of France to the Virgin Marj-; in the ministry he surrounded himself with priests and religious; as general he employed Cardinal de la Valette; as admiral, Sourdis, Arch- bishop of Bordeaux; as diplomat, B^ruUe; as chief auxiliary he had Leclerc du Tremblay. He himself designated Mazarin his successor. He had a high idea of the sacerdotal dignity, was continually pro- testing against the encroachments of the parlements on the jurisdiction of the Church, and advised the king to choose as bishops only those who should "have passed after their studies a considerable time in the seminaries, the places established for the study of the ecclesiastical functions". He wished to com- pel the bishops to reside in their dioceses, to estab- lish seminaries there, and to visit their parishes. He aided the efforts of St. Vincent de Paul to induce the bishops to institute the "exercises des ordinants", retreats, during which the yoimg clerics were to pre- pare themselves for the priesthood. Richelieu fore- saw the perils to which nascent Jansenism would ex- pose the Church. Saint-Cyran's doctrines on the constitution of the Church, his views on the organi- zation of the "great Christian Republic", his liaison with Jansenius (who in 1635 had composed a violent pamphlet against France under the name of Mars gallicus), and the manner in which he opposed the an- nulment of the marriage of Gaston d'Orleans, drew upon him the cardinal's suspicion. In having him arrested 14 May, 1638, Richelieu declared that "had Luther and Calvin been confined before they had be- gun to dogmatize, the states would have been spared many troubles". Two months later Richelieu forced the solitaries of Port Royal-des-Champs to disperse; some were sent to Paris, others to Fert^-Milon. Saint-Cyran remained in the dungeon of Vincennes until the cardinal's death. With the co-operation of the Benedictine Gr^goire Tarisse, Richelieu devoted himself seriously to the reform of the Benedictines. Named coadjutor to the Abbot of Cluny in 1627, and Abbot of Cluny in 1629, he called to this monas- tery the Reformed Benedictines of Saint- Vannes. He proposed forming the congregations of Saint-Vannes and Saint-Maur into one body, of which he was to have been superior. Only half of this i)rject was accom- plished, however, when in 1636 lie succeeded in unit- ing the Order of Cluny with the Congregation of Saint-Maur. From 1622 Richelieu was ]>rovi.seur of th(! Sorbonne, and was in virtue of this office head of the Association of Doctors of the Sorbonne. He had the Sorbonne entirely rebuilt between 1626 and 1629, and between 1635 and 1642 built the church of the Sorbonne, in which he is now buried.

On the question of the relations between the tem- poral and the spiritual powers, Richelieu really pro- fes.sed the doctrine called Duvalism after the theo- logian Duvjil, who admitted at the same time the supreme power of the pope and the supreme power of the king ;ind the divine right of both. In the dis- sensions between Rome and the Gallicans he most frequently nctcd as mediator. When in 1626 a book by the Jesuit Sanct.'ircl ;tj)pe;ired in I'aris, affirming the right of the iM)pes to depose kings for wrong-doing, heresy, or incai)acity, it was burned in the Place; de Grc^ve; p'ather Coton and the lliree superiors of the Jesuit houses summoned before the Parlement, W(!re forced to nspudiate the work. The enemies of the Jesuits wished immediately to create a new disturb- ance on the occasion of the publication of the "Somme tht^ologique des v^srit^s apostoliques capitales de la re- ligion chrdticnnc", by Father Garasse, but Richelieu