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 FENELON

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FENELON

Buet now wrote liis instruction on the "Etats d'orai- son", as an explanation of the thirty-four articles. F^nelon refused to sign it, on the plea that his honour forbade him to condemn a woman who had already been condemned. To explain his own views of the "Articles d'Issy", he hastened to publish the "Expli- cation des Maximes des Saints", a rather arid treatise in forty-five articles. Each article was divided into two paragraphs, one laying down the true, the other the false, teaching concerning the love of God. In this work he undertakes to distinguish clearly every step in the upward way of the spiritual life. The final end of the Christian soul is pure love of God, without any admixture of self-interest, a love in which neither fear of punishment nor desire of reward has any part. The means to this end, Fenelon points out, are those long since indicated by the Catholic mystics, i. e. holy indifference, detachment, self-abandonment, passive- ness, through all of which states the soul is led by con- templation. Fenelon's book was scarcely published when it aroused much opposition. The king, in par- ticular, was angry. He distrusted all religious novel- ties, and he reproached Bossuet with not having warned him of the ideas of his grandsons' tutor. He appointed the Bishops of Meaux, Chartres, and Paris to examine Fenelon's work and select passages for condemnation, but Fenelon himself submitted the book to the judgment of the Holy See (27 April, 1697). A vigorous conflict broke out at once, particularly be- tween Bossuet and F(5nelon. Attack and reply fol- lowed too fast for analysis here. The works of Fene- lon on the subject fill six volumes, not to speak of the 646 letters relating to Quietism, the writer proving himself a skilful polemical writer, deeply versed in spiritual things, endowed with quick intelligence and a mental suppleness not always to be clearly distin- guished from quibbling and a straining of the sense. After a long and detailed examination by the consult- ors and cardinals of the Holy Office, lasting over two years and occupying 132 sessions, " Les Maximes des Saints" was finally condemned (12 March, 1699) as containing propositions which, in the obvious mean- ing of the words, or else because of the sequence of the thoughts, were " temerarious, scandalous, ill-sound- ing, offensive to pious ears, pernicious in practice, and false in fact". Twenty-three propositions were se- lected as having incurred this censure, but the pope by no means intended to imply that he approved the rest of the book. Fenelon submitted at once. " We adhere to this brief ", he wrote in a pastoral letter in which he made known Rome's decision to his flock, " and we accept it not only for the twenty-three propositions but for the whole book, simply, abso- lutely, and without a shadow of reservation. " Most of his contemporaries found his submission adequate, edifying, and admirable. In recent times, however, scattered expressions in his letters have enabled a few critics to doubt its sincerity. In our opinion a few words written impulsively, and contradicted by the whole tenor of the writer's life, caimot justify so grave a charge. It must be remembered, too, that at the meeting of the bishops held to receive the Brief of condemnation, Fenelon declared that he laid aside his own opinion and accepted the judgment of Rome, and that if this act of submission seemed lacking in any way, he was ready to do whatever Rome would suggest. The Holy See never required anything more than the above-mentioned spontaneous act.

Louis XI V, who had done all he could to bring about the condemnation of the " Maximes des Saints ", had already punished its author by ordering him to remain within the limits of his diocese. Vexed later at the publication of "Telomaque", in which lie saw his per- son and his government subjected to criticism, the king coukl never be prevailed upon to revoke this command. Fenelon submitted without complaint or regret, and gave himself up entirely to the care of his

flock. With a revenue of two hundred thousand livres and eight hundred parishes, some of which were on Spanish territory, Cambrai, which had been re- gained by France only in 1678, was one of the most important sees in the kingdom. F6nelon gave up sev- eral months of each year to a visitation of his archdio- cese, which was not even interrupted by the War of the Spanish Succession, when opposing armies were camped in various parts of his territory. The cap- tains of these armies, full of veneration for his person, left him free to come and go as he would. The re- mainder of the year he spent in his episcopal palace at Cambrai, where with his relatives and his friends, the Abbes de Langeron, de Chanterac, and de Beaumont, he led an uneventful life, monastic in its regularity. Every year he gave a Lenten course in one or other important parish of his diocese, and on the principal feasts he preached in his own cathedral. His sermons were short and simple, composed after a brief medita- tion, and never committed to writing; with the excep- tion of some few preached on more important occa- sions, they have not been preserved. His dealings with his clergy were always marked by condescension and cordiality. "His priests", says Saint-Simon, " to whom he made himself both father and brother, bore him in their hearts." He took a deep interest in their seminary training, assisted at the examination of those who were to be ordained, and gave them con- ferences during their retreat. He presided over the concursus for benefices and made inquiries among the pastors concerning the qualifications of each candi- date.

Fenelon was always approachable, and on his walks often conversed with those he chanced to meet. He loved to visit the peasants in their houses, interested himself in their joys and sorrows, and, to avoid pain- ing them, accepted the simple gifts of their hospital- ity. During the War of the Spanish Succession the doors of his palace were open to all the poor who took refuge in Cambrai. The rooms and stairways were filled with them, and his gardens and vestibules shel- tered their live stock. He is yet remembered in the vicinity of Cambrai and the peasants still give their children the name Fenelon, as that of a saint.

Engrossed as F&elon was with the administration of his diocese, he never lost sight of the general interests of the Church. This became evident when Jansen- ism, quiescent for nearly thirty years, again raised it3 head on the occasion of the famous Cos de Conscience, by which an anonymous writer endeavoured to put new life into the old distinction between the "ques- tion of law" and "question of fact" (question de droit cl question de fait), acknowledging that the Church could legally condemn the famous five propositions attributed to Jansenius, but denying that she could oblige any one to believe that they were really to be found in the "Augustinus" of that writer. Fenelon multiplied publications of every kind against the re- viving heresy; he wrote letters, pastoral instructions, memoirs, in French and in Latin, which fill seven volumes of his works. He set himself to combat the errors of the Cos de Conscience, to refute the theory known as " respectful silence ", and to enlighten Clem- ent XI on puljlic opinion in France Pere Quesnel brought fresh fuel to the strife by his "Reflexions morales sur le Nouveau Testament", which was sol- emnly condemned by the Bull " LTnigenitus " (1713). Fenelon defended this famous pontifical constitution in a series of dialogues intended to influence men of the world. Great as was his zeal against error, he was always gentle with the erring, so that Saint- Simon could say " The Low Countries swarmed with Jansenists, and his Diocese of Cambrai, in partic- ular, was full of them. In both places they found an ever-peaceful refuge, and were glad and content to live peaceably under one who was their enemy with his pen. They had no fears of their archbishop, who, though