Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/779

 CHOISEUL

695

CHOLONEC

consistent and productive of results. In 170S and I7ii!i when Bougainville and Surville discovered the archipelago to the south-east of New Guinea, it was very appropriate that two harbours in the Louisiade group iii islands sliuiild have been called respective!} Fort Choiseul and Port Praslin. Choiseul's great political achievement in Europe, known as the " Fam- ily Compact" or alliance of all the Bourbons, has been widely discussed and he has been censured for not having understood the Polish question. It was under Choiseul's government that the Jesuits were expelled. In the letters and memoirs that date from his embassy at Home the Jesuits are not mentioned. But, according to Besanval's " Memoires", Choiseul was thenceforth in disfavour with the Society because, at a court supper, he remarked that Fere Laugier. a Jesuit who had preached vehemently against the Jansenists, ought to be banished from Versailles. When in Rome, Choiseul excluded the Jesuits from his negotiations but always received them courteously, and there is no proof that from this period he planned the abolition of the order. However, when one day in 17'ii) the Dauphin spoke with great earnestness about the Jesuits. Choiseul, . who was present, re- plied: "Monsieur, how can a Dauphin become so en- amoured of monks!" Some days later the Dauphin, having called the king's attention to a memoir in which Choiseul was accused of pursuing, with the parliament, the destruction of the Jesuits, the duke. addressing the Dauphin said: " Perhaps some da} I shall be so unfortunate as to become your subject but I shall never be it your service."

Hence, in 17ti'-'. Choiseul was quite reatly to have parliament close the Jesuit colleges and. in 17tU, de- cree the suppression oi the Society in France. In his "Memoires" he denies having inspired the intrigues of parliament. It seems proved, however, that, far from deploring these schemes, he took advantage of his influence over Louis XV in order to further them; in the I onllict between the Duke of Aiguillon and the magistrate Fa ('halotais, the Jesuits enemy, Choi- -vmpathies wire with La ('halotais. "It is difficult", he wrote to the king, "to attack me di- rectly on religion because I never speak of it. For- mally I am a strict observer of decorum and in public affairs it is my principle to uphold religion." Ap- parently, like his friend Voltaire, whose property at Ferney he exempted from taxation, Choiseul deemed religion good for the people, but the spirit of his religious policy was what was called at that time "an enlightened despotism", evei ready to suspect and paralyze the Church; the expulsion of the Jesuits. d to by all the Bourbons, was the greatest effort ol lay absolutism against ecclesiastical autonomy and vitality. In 1770 a conspiracy formed by the Duke of Aiguillon, the Chancellor Maupeou, and Madame du Barry, caused Choiseul's downfall and a lettre de Cachet, dated 1!1 December. 1770, sentenced him to exile at Chanteloup, bis estate in Touraine. His departure Ironi Paris was a veritable triumph and the last fourteen years of his life were spent at Chanteloup, where he was surrounded by a n court and sustained by the affection of his wife and his friend the Abbe Bartheletny. a celebrated archa'- Ile died in Paris, being well nigh financially ruined owing to his extravagant manner of life. His

brother. Leopold-Charles (1724 1781), was Bishop of Fvreux and Archbishop of Albi and Cambrai.

Mhn oerely a

collection by Soulavdb of a certain Dumber ->f discoi writings thai Choiseul Ice! printed in 177s for private distri- bution among his friends; Macghas, La disgrace du ' la dudu la mnrt (Paris, 1903 Mo. .ins. /..- ,lnr d la ilu, h,

d,leur vie intime, leurs amis et leur tempt

Cauocttbs, Choiseul d I Daubiont. La

riitviur colonic Pari 1892 Bot

Rome (Paris, 1902).

BOBS GOYAD.

Choiseul du Plessis-Praslin, Gilbert, French bishop, b. 1613; d. at Paris. :;i December, 1689. He

was a descendant of the noble family ol du Plessis. He devoted himself from his earliest youth to the ecclesiastical state, while his brother Cesar entered the military career. Both attained distinction. < i il- licit received the title ot Doctor at the Sorbonne in 1640, was consecrated Bishop of Comminges in 1644, and at once set about visiting his diocese, restoring discipline among the clergy, and establishing schools and colleges. In time of famine he pawned his own property to assist the poor; and during the plague until stricken by the disease he ministered in person to the sick. In 1671 he was transferred to the Dio- cese of Tournai, where he displayed the same pas- toral zeal.

His influence on the ecclesiastical affairs of France at large was less successful. When, in 16.51, the majority of the French bishops petitioned Innocent X to decide upon the five propositions of Jansenius, Choiseul was among the eleven who requested the Holy lather by special letter to issue no decision in the case. Unable to prevent a formal condemnation of the Jansenists, he exerted himself to bring about an agreement between the contending parties. These efforts had no other result than to reveal in the zealous bishop a regrettable leniency towards a heresy which proved so disastrous to France. His standing tow- ards i hdlicanism was clearer. For his bold and con- stant advocacy of the "Gallican Liberties" he was chosen, in the Assembly of the Clergy of 16S2, mem- ber of the committee on resolutions, and was person- ally entrusted with the duty of formulating in Latin the propositions on which the Assembly was to vote. Louis XIV had in 1673 extended to his entire king- dom the royal right of rigale. Two bishops only protested against the usurpation and appealed to Rome. This was the beginning of a stubborn strug- gle between Innocent XI and Louis XIV. To obtain public approval and support from his clergy, and to have limits set to the pontifical power, the king, at the instance principally of his minister. Colbert, ''in- voked the French clergy in a genera] assembly. Choiseul had no sooner presented his draft than Bossuet rose against it. An animated discussion, related in full by F^nelon in his " De Summi Pontiticis Auctoritate", ensued. When Choiseul saw that Bos- suet's conciliatory distinction between the Holy See's infallibility in teaching the Faith and its indefecti- bility in holding it found favour with both clergy and Court, he resigned his special commission. Bossuet took his place and drew up the four articles as they (Kissed into history.

Choiseul's leaning towards Jansenism betrayed him into another false step. He approved the French translation of a little book published in Cologne under

the title "Monita salutaria Beats Maria' Virginis ad cultores suos discretos". This book was justly re- proved by so many that Choiseul thought it well t.. publish, in a pastoral letter on the Blessed Virgin, a

justification of himself. Fortunately the attitude ot this prelate towards Gallieanism and Jansenism did not affect his zeal for souls and the Church. He pub

lished (Paris, bis] 85) his "Memoires touchant la Religion.", against atheists, libertines, and Protes- tants. His "Psalms and Hymns of the Church", done into French, ran through several editions. He also arranged and gave the literary finish to the inter- esting memoirs "I his brother, the Marecha! Choiseul du Plessis.

Fknii"-.. /;. Sumrm Pontifli litctoritat Paris, 1854); Rohrbaoikr, fi ris. 1852); von \\ i iss.

IchU (Gnu and Leipzig, 1898).

Charles B. Schrantz.

Cholonec, Pierre, biographer and French mission- ary among the Canadian Indians. Ii. in the Diocese of St'-Pol-de-Leon, Finistere, 29 June, 1641; d. in Que-