Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/57

 F^NELON

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FENELON

Briider (Awakencrl Brethren). Among these brethren, many of whom were priests, Feneberg was called Nathanael and his two assistants Markus and Silas.

Boos's preaching and conduct at 8eeg was reported to the ordinary of Augsburg, and Feneberg, with his assistants, Bayer and Siller, were also involved. In February, 1797, an episcopal commissioner arrived in Seeg, and in Feneberg's absence seized all his papers, private correspondence and manuscripts, and carried them to Augsburg. Feneberg, with his assistants, ap- peared before an ecclesiastical tribunal at Augsburg in August, 1797 ; they were required to subscrite to the condemnation of ten erroneous propositions, and then permitted to return to their parish. They all pro- tested that they had never held any of the propositions in the sense implied. It does not appear that Fene- berg was subsequently molested in this connexion, nor did he ever fail to show due respect and obedience to the ecclesiastical authorities. In 1805 he resigned the parish of Seeg and accepted that of Vohringen, which was smaller but returned slightly better rev- enues. This appointment and the assistance of gener- ous friends enabled him to pay the debts he had incurred on account of his trouble and the political disturbances of the time. For a month before his death he suffered great bodily pain, but he prayed unceasingly, and after devoutly receiving the sacra- ments expired.

He remained friendly to Boos even after the latter's condemnation, and regretted that his friend, Bishop Sailer, was not more sympathetic to mysticism. Fene- berg was a man of singular piety, candour, and zeal, but failed to see the dangers lurking in Boos's pietism. Numbers of the disciples of Boos — as many as four hundred at one time — became Protestants, although he himself remained nominally in the Church. Fene- berg is the author of a translation of the New Testa- ment, which was published by Bishop Wittmann of Ratislion.

JuritAM in Kirchenlex., s. v.; Hablitzel in Buchberger. Kirrhl. llnndleJ:ikon, s. v.; AlcHiNGER, Johajm M. Sailer (Frei- burg im Br.. 1S65); Bruck, Gesch. der hath. Kirche in Deutsch- hin'i. I (Mainz, 1902); Sailer. Aus Fenebergs Leben (Munich, 1S14); tSiLBERNAGEL, Die kirchenpotitiscken u. religidsen Zu~ staiide im 19. Jahrhundert (Landshut, 1901); Gosbner, Boos Martin (Leipzig, 1826): Bodemann. Leben J. M. Fenebergs in Smnlagsbibliolhek (Bielefeld, 1856); Braun, Gesehiehte der Bischofe von Augsburg (Augsburg, 1815). IV.

Alexius Hoffmann.

Fenelon, FRANfois de Salignac de La Mothe-, a celebrated French bishop and author, b. in the Cha- teau de Fenelon in P^rigord (Dordogne), 6 August, Itjol ; d. at Cambrai, 7 January, 1715. He came of an ancient family of noble birth but small means, the most famous of his ancestors being Bertrand de Sali- gnac (d. 1599), who fought at Metz under the Duke of Guise and became ambassador to England; also Fran- cois de Salignac I, Louis de Salignac I, Louis de Sali- gnac II, and Francois de Salignac II, bishops of vSarlat between 1567 and 168S. Fenelon was the second of the three children of Pons de Salignac, Count de La Mothe-Fdnelon, by his second wife, Louise de La Cropte. Owing to his delicate health F^nelon's child- hood was passed in his father's chateau under a tutor, who succeeded in giving him a keen taste for the classics and a considerable knowledge of Greek htera^ ture, which influenced the development of his mind in a marked degree. At the age of twelve he was sent to the neighbouring University of Cahors, where he studied rhetoric and philosophy, and obtained his first degrees. As he had already expressoil his intention of entering the ("hurch, one of his uncles, M.iniuis An- toine de Fenelon, a friend of Monsieur Oiler and St. Vincent de Paul, sent him to Paris and jilaccd hiiu in the College du Plessis, whose students followed the course of theology at the Sorbonne. There Fenelon became a friend of Antoine de Noailles, afterwards Cardinal and Archbishop of Paris, and §UQW?d such de-

cided talent that at the age of fifteen he was chosen to preach a public sermon, in which he acquitted himself admirably. To facilitate his preparation for the priest- hood, the marquis sent his nephew to the Seminaire de Saint-Sulpice (about 1672), then under the direction of Monsieur Tronson, but the young man was placed in the small community reserved for ecclesiastics whose health did not permit them to follow the excessive exercises of the seminary. In this famous school, of which he always retained affectionate memories, Fenelon was grounded not only in the practice of piety and priestly virtue, but above all in solid Catholic doctrine, which saved him later from Jansenism and Gallicanism. Thirty years later, in a letter to Clement XI, he congratulates himself on his training by M. Tronson in the knowledge of his Faith and the duties of the ecclesiastical life. About 1675 he was ordained priest and for a while thought of devoting himself to the Eastern missions. This was, however, only a passing inclination. Instead, he joined the commu- nity of Saint-Sulpice and gave himself up to the works of the priesthood, especially preaching and catechizing.

In 1678 Harlay de Champvallon, Archbishop of Paris, entru.sted Fenelon with the direction of the house of "Nouvelles-Catholiques", a community founded in 1634 by Archbishop Jean-Fran?ois de Gondi for Protestant young women about to enter the Church or converts who needed to be strengthened in the Faith. It was a new and delicate form of aposto- late which thus offered itself to F6nelon's zeal, and required all the resources of his theological knowledge, persuasive eloquence, and magnetic personality. With- in late years his conduct has been severely criticized, and he has been even called intolerant,butthesecharges are without serious foundation, and have not been accepted even by the Protestant authors of the "Ency- clopraie des Sciences Religieuses"; their verdict on Fenelon is " that in justice to him it must be said that in making converts he ever employed persuasion rather than severity".

When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, by which Henry IV had granted freedom of public wor- ship to the Protestants, missionaries were chosen from among the greatest orators of the day, e. g. Bourda- loue, Flechier, and others, and were sent to those parts of France where heretics were most numerous, to labour for their conversion. At the suggestion of his friend Bossuet, F^'uelon was sent with five companions to Saintonge, where he manifested great zeal, though his methods were always tempered by gentleness. According to Cardinal de Bausset, he induced Louis XIV to remove all troops and all evidences of com- pulsion from the places he visited, and it is certain that he proposed and insisted on many methods of which the king did not approve. " When hearts are to be moved", he wrote to Seignclay, "force avails not. Conviction is the only real conversion." In- stead of force he employed patience, established classes, and distributed New Testaments and cate- chisms in the vernacular. Above all, he laid especial emphasis on preaching, provided the sermons were " by gentle preachers who have a faculty not only for instructing, but for winning the confidence of their hearers". It is doubtless true, as recently published documents prove, that he did not altogether repudiate measures of force, but he only allowed them as a last resource. Even then his severity was confined to exiling from their villages a few recalcitrants, and to constraining others under the small penalty of five sous to attend the religious instructions in the churches. Nor did he think that preachers ought to advocate openly even these measures; similarly, he was unwill- ing to have known the Catholic authorship of pam- phlets against Protestant ministers which he proposed to have printed in Holland. This was certainly an excess of cleverness; but it proves at least that Fene- lon was aot in sympathy with that vague toleraPQQ